House Ethics Committee urges victims of sexual misconduct to contact them after lawmaker resignations
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 20, 2026. House Republicans will send their first funding bills for the next fiscal year to the floor this week, while the Senate GOP plots a blueprint for patching up missing money for the current one. (Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The bipartisan House Ethics Committee on Monday released a rare statement encouraging anyone who may have experienced sexual misconduct by a House member or staffer to contact them, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights or the Office of Employee Advocacy.
“There should be zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, harassment, or discrimination in the halls of Congress, or in any employment setting,” the committee said in a lengthy statement.
“The greatest hurdle the Committee faces in evaluating allegations of sexual misconduct is in convincing the most vulnerable witnesses to share their stories,” the statement read. “Accordingly, the Committee’s practice has been to release only the information that is necessary to hold Members accountable for misconduct and address public reporting that impacts the integrity of the House.”
The statement comes after allegations of sexual misconduct led to the resignations of California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales last week.
Gonzales and Swalwell were about to face efforts by their colleagues to have them expelled from the House. The House Ethics Committee had announced investigations into both men, which ended when they resigned.
Gonzales dropped his reelection bid earlier this year after admitting to a relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales said he “made a mistake” and “had a lapse in judgement.”
Swalwell suspended his campaign for governor of California amid the accusations against him, including allegations of sexual assault, which he’s denied. Swalwell’s attorney, Sara Azari, last week said the allegations are “false.”
The committee said that since 2017, it has initiated investigations in 20 matters involving sexual misconduct by a lawmaker.
“The Committee has also investigated several Members for their handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by their senior staff,” the statement read.
In its history, the committee has conducted 28 sexual misconduct investigations. Several members who were being investigated resigned and even some were cleared.
The panel noted that it does not handle sexual harassment lawsuits or have “any involvement in settlements of such claims.”
“The Committee has taken the position that conduct that falls short of legal definitions of sexual harassment or assault under federal or state statutes can still be a violation of the Code of Official Conduct, which imposes a higher standard on Members of the House,” the statement read. “The Committee has also consistently publicly announced its investigations into publicly reported allegations of sexual misconduct and has announced any findings in those matters.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson walks to the front of the “Invading our community with peace” weekly Friday peace walk led by St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Chicago on June 25, 2021. (Vashon Jordan Jr./Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, Baptist minister and pioneering politician who launched two bids for the U.S. presidency, died on Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family said in a statement.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family statement said.
“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by,” it added.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, whom he married in 1962, and six children.
Jackson had weathered a myriad of health issues in recent years. In November 2025, Jackson was hospitalized in Chicago for treatment of complications from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a neurodegenerative condition that he had been managing for a decade, according to a statement from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the civil rights organization Jackson founded.
“Reverend Jackson is in stable condition and is breathing without the assistance of machines,” the Jackson family said in a statement a few days after Jackson’s hospitalization, in response to speculation about his condition. “Contrary to specific reports, he is not on life support.”
“The Jackson family extends heartfelt appreciation for the many prayers and kind messages offered during this time,” the statement also said. Jackson was released from the hospital the following week.
A further family update on Jackson’s health came in mid-December 2025, when it released a statement saying that Jackson had been released from an acute-care facility where he had “received additional care” following his hospital release. The statement also said Jackson “has battled several infections consistent with the progression of his PSP diagnosis” for “the last several months.”
In 2017, Jackson announced that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. However, the November 2025 announcement said that the PSP diagnosis had been confirmed the previous April.
Jackson also underwent gall bladder surgery in 2021 and was hospitalized later that year after falling while protesting with students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also was hospitalized for COVID-19 that August.
Beginning his career as a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson quickly rose to become one of the nation’s most prominent and influential civil rights leaders. In 1971, he formed the nonprofit Operation PUSH – People United to Save/Serve Humanity – to advocate for social and economic parity for Black Americans.
Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a Democrat, placing third for the party’s nomination in 1984 and second in 1988, marking the most successful presidential runs of any Black candidate prior to Barack Obama’s two decades later.
Following his first campaign, Jackson formed the nonprofit National Rainbow Coalition with the stated purpose of affording minority Americans a greater political voice. In 1996, Jackson merged the groups into Rainbow/PUSH, and served as the head of both until 2023.
Jackson was also elected in 1990 as the shadow delegate for the District of Columbia, serving a single term. In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Jesse Louis Jackson was born Oct. 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, in the segregated South, and grew up poor in a sharecropping family. He was a gifted student and athlete, graduating from high school with offers for a minor league baseball contract and a Big 10 football scholarship.
He opted instead to attend the University of Illinois before transferring to and graduating from North Carolina A&T, a historically Black university. He then began theological studies before going to work full-time with Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was ordained a Baptist a minister in 1968.
In 1966, 24-year-old Jackson became head of the Chicago Chapter of the nascent Operation Breadbasket, the economic activism arm of the SCLC, and was appointed its national director the following year. He also helped establish the Chicago Freedom Movement to work for open housing and school desegregation.
Jackson participated in many of the civil rights movement’s landmark moments, including the March on Washington in 1963, where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama in 1965. He was also with Dr. King when the civil rights leader was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
Reflecting on Dr. King’s memory almost 50 years later, Jackson said he was inspired by his ability to remain undaunted even in the face of overwhelming challenges.
“He is a frame of reference. His resurrection is powerful,” Jackson said in a 2018 interview with ABC Chicago station WLS.
Speaking of King’s assassination, Jackson added, “All I can remember is some voice saying, ‘One bullet cannot kill a movement.’ We must keep going … If your key player is hurt on the field you cannot forfeit the game, you have to internalize your pain and keep marching and keep moving, and we have to be faithful to his charge 50 years later.”
Three years after King’s murder, Jackson left the SCLC and founded Operation PUSH, a social justice organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of Black communities across the U.S.
The organization fought for greater educational and employment opportunities for Black Americans and was successful in compelling major corporations to adopt affirmative action policies benefiting Black workers.
Jackson’s social activism evolved into political ambition in in the 1980s, when he launched two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988. He placed third in primary voting in 1984 and came in second to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988, winning 12 primaries and caucuses and receiving some 6.9 million total votes.
As only the second Black American to mount a nationwide presidential campaign, after New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Jackson’s historic runs were the most successful by a Black candidate until President Barack Obama won in 2008.
Jackson ultimately did win political office, when he was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate as a shadow delegate for the District of Columbia, from 1991 to 1997.
Jackson also used his skills as a negotiator to facilitate the freedom of people held abroad, leading to the release of Navy pilot Robert Goodman in 1984 from captivity in Lebanon after his plane was shot down, as well as three American prisoners of war held by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson a frequent critic of Clinton and his policies – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of Jackson’s decades of social activism.
“It’s hard to imagine how we could have come as far as we have without the creative power, the keen intellect, the loving heart, and the relentless passion of Jesse Louis Jackson,” Clinton said at the ceremony. “And God isn’t done with him yet.”
Jackson was the recipient of numerous other awards throughout his lifetime, including the NAACP President’s Award and the American Institute for Public Service’s Jefferson Award. In 2021, Jackson received France’s highest order of merit, the Commander of the Legion of Honor.
In later years, Jackson was a vocal proponent for the reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was also involved in the United Kingdom’s Operation Black Vote to promote minority participation in British elections.
In July 2023, Jackson stepped down as head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition after more than 50 years as its head. “We’re resigning, we’re not retiring,” Jackson said at the time, vowing to continue fighting for social justice causes.
U.S. President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One as he arrives at Zurich Airport before attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, on January 21, 2026 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(DAVOS, Switzerland) — President Donald Trump arrived on Wednesday in Zurich, Switzerland, ahead of his scheduled address in Davos.
Air Force One had earlier turned around mid-flight, after the crew identified “a minor electrical issue,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday night.
The aircraft turned back and landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where the president and those traveling with him were set to board a different aircraft and then resume travel to Switzerland for the global economic conference.
The flight issue came as Trump is making his first international trip of 2026.
In Davos, Trump is expected to deliver remarks focused on his vision of American dominance, including his desire to take over Greenland.
Trump’s increasingly antagonistic language over acquiring the Danish territory puts him at odds with fellow NATO countries and other allies.
Trump will lead the largest U.S. delegation to the World Economic Forum, according to event organizers, where he plans to meet with top business CEOs and international leaders, deliver a speech to conference attendees, and participate in the formal signing ceremony to solidify his Board of Peace that was proposed to oversee the recovery of Gaza but has since raised questions that it could expand to rival the United Nations.
This week, Trump will once again face some world leaders he has spent months criticizing as he continues to test the limits of his presidential power and his standing in the world following weeks of reignited controversy over the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and seizing the country’s oil and his public threats of acquiring Greenland by force, if necessary.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has slowly been building the case for why the U.S. should take control of Greenland, arguing it is vital for U.S. national security needs. In recent weeks his rhetoric on a takeover has escalated as he has refused to rule out military action.
Despite global pushback on his Greenland ambitions, Trump has refused to back down on his threats, saying “You’ll find out” when asked during a White House press briefing on Tuesday on how far he was willing to go to secure Greenland while dismissing the lack of support for a U.S. takeover.
When pressed by ABC News’ Mary Bruce about the many Greenlanders who have loudly voiced disagreement with the idea of U.S. control, Trump said that once he talks to them, they’ll be “thrilled.”
Asked about the possibility of the NATO alliance breaking up if the U.S. seizes Greenland, Trump said: “I think that we will work something out where NATO’s going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security and even world security. It’s very important.”
“We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland. I’m leaving tonight, as you know, Davos, and we have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland, and I think things are going to work out pretty well, actually,” Trump said later.
“So I think something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good for everybody,” he said.
However, the president’s optimistic outlook on a resolution to both sides’ satisfaction comes as he increases attacks on NATO countries who are seeking to protect Greenland. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to impose a 10% tariff on eight NATO countries starting Feb. 1 if no deal is reached. The move, stemmed in part from the countries’ decision to send a small contingent of troops to Greenland in the wake of Trump’s threats.
When Trump travels to Switzerland, the economic forum will be focused on “a spirit of dialogue” about how to better the world; however, ahead of his departure, the president touted his administration’s success during his second term while critiquing the leadership of his European counterparts in a show of force likely to be displayed during his visit.
“I think more than anything else, what I’m going to be speaking about is the tremendous success that we’ve had in one year. I didn’t think we could do it this fast … We have the most successful country in the world. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world by far,” Trump said.
“A lot of them could use some of the advice as to what we did,” he said of European allies, going on to lash out about energy and immigration.
Meanwhile, questions are swirling about the Board of Peace, which was originally billed as a committee that would oversee the reconstruction of Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war.
Critics and government leaders are now decrying the board, saying it undermines the United Nations.
A draft of the charter now says the Board of Peace would “secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” not just Gaza. It also called for “a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.”
On his domestic agenda, Trump has for weeks now teased unveiling “some of the most aggressive housing reforms in American history” in Davos, including a ban on large institutional investors from buying single-family homes and calling for the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds.
Trump’s speech will follow months of the White House recasting the nation’s economic story as one of growth and falling prices due to Trump’s economic policies as the midterm election season looms. The president has spent time traveling the country to deliver this message to Americans, but now he will do so on a global stage.
Despite Trump’s rosy imagery of the state of the American economy, voters are still experiencing rising costs and Republicans have been expressing concerns with messaging on the economy. Pressed about this dichotomy on Tuesday, Trump dismissed assertions that he was failing to address the needs of Americans, once again pointing blame to the Biden administration, calling the job he has done as president “a miracle.”
Construction cranes are seen the White House on April 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Amid intensifying scrutiny of the Senate Republican proposal to spend up to $1 billion on security for the new White House ballroom, top Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Secret Service officials say the money would also be spent on “other critical missions.”
Those missions, they said, would include securing “frequently visited venues” outside of the White House.
In a letter to congressional leaders obtained by ABC News, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran described the proposed billion-dollar package as “critical funding to address urgent needs in response to the unprecedented increase in threats against the President and other public officials.”
The letter said the security upgrades to the “East Wing Modernization Project” will “afford needed protection for the President, his family, and visitors, along with the below-ground security functions.”
The officials noted that, per the text of the Senate reconciliation bill, “none of these funds will be used to support non-security improvements at the White House.”
The Senate proposal, released earlier this week, would provide $1 billion for the Secret Service “for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project.”
Without spelling out how much of the billion dollars would be spent on the ballroom construction project specifically, the officials said the funding would also be directed toward other locations, including “frequently visited venues facing heightened risk due to their public visibility and static nature.”
The text of the Senate’s bill makes no reference to “frequently visited venues” outside of the White House that Mullin and Curran mentioned in their letter.
Also, Mullin and Curran said the additional money would also go toward training USSS agents, USSS training facilities, the Secret Service’s Special Operations Division’s work on drones and biological and “other emerging threats,” as well as securing “high profile national events that require significant planning.”
Overall, the $1 billion package is described in the letter as a “critical infusion to ensure the safety of the current President and future Presidents.”
By comparison, to fund all of its operations, USSS receives more than $3 billion a year from Congress via the regular appropriations process.
