"WHAT HAPPENED AT 2 AM
At 2:09 in the morning on Friday, April 17, 2026, with most of the country asleep, the United States House of Representatives voted to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The program allows intelligence agencies to compel internet service providers to hand over the communications of foreigners located abroad, without a warrant. In practice, it has been used to sweep up the emails, texts, and phone calls of millions of Americans who happen to communicate with anyone overseas.
The vote was not supposed to happen that way. House Speaker Mike Johnson had originally scheduled the vote for Wednesday afternoon. It was supposed to be a straightforward five-year reauthorization. But the plan fell apart. A bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks demanded a warrant requirement for searching Americans’ data. Other factions wanted the bill loaded with unrelated immigration provisions. Johnson pulled the vote Wednesday. He tried again Thursday. Multiple proposals failed. A five-year extension died. An 18-month compromise died. About 20 Republicans joined most Democrats in killing it.
So they waited. They waited until the cameras were off, until the reporters had gone home, until the C-SPAN audience was in bed. And at 2:09 AM, they passed a 10-day emergency extension by voice vote. No recorded roll call, no individual accountability. The Senate rubber-stamped it unanimously the next morning.
But there was a recorded vote earlier that evening: Roll Call Vote 124. That vote, on the procedural rule to advance the FISA reauthorization, passed 197-222. Those 197 Aye votes are the members who wanted this bill on the floor. They are the ones who tried to push warrantless surveillance through before the deadline, who fought against the warrant amendment, and who ultimately got their extension in the dead of night.
This investigation focuses on nine of those 197 members. Not because the other 188 are clean. But because these nine have the most documented financial conflicts, the deepest ties to the industries that profit from surveillance, and the most red flags in their personal, professional, and financial histories. They are the ones who had the most to gain from voting yes, and the most to hide.
What follows is a forensic accounting of their money, their LLCs, their donors, their scandals, and the patterns that connect them. Every fact in this report is sourced from public records: FEC filings, congressional financial disclosures, IRS Form 990s, state business registries, court records, and investigative journalism. Nothing here is hidden. It just hasn’t been assembled in one place before.
Until now.
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PROFILE 1: REP. DAVID SCHWEIKERT (R-AZ-1)
Reprimanded. Fined. Caught hiding $305,000 in loans. His chief of staff ran a shadow consulting firm billing the campaign.
The Oliver Schwab Operation
Oliver Schwab served as Schweikert’s chief of staff starting in 2011. Simultaneously, starting in 2014, Schwab ran a consulting firm called Chartwell Associates out of his condo in Alexandria, Virginia. Through Chartwell, Schwab billed Schweikert’s campaign committees $148,315 in consulting fees plus another $57,946 for ‘strategic consulting/travel,’ for a total of over $206,000. Federal law caps outside earned income for senior House staffers at $26,955. Schwab exceeded that limit by roughly seven times over.
But that’s only part of it. Between January 2011 and July 2018, Schwab made over $270,000 in what investigators called ‘impermissible outlays’ on behalf of Schweikert’s campaign. Schwab was spending his own money on campaign expenses, then getting reimbursed by the campaign. This created a system where money was flowing in circles, Schwab’s personal funds into campaign activity, campaign funds back to Schwab as ‘consulting fees’ and reimbursements, making it nearly impossible to trace the true source and purpose of the money.
Schwab also used official congressional office funds on a six-day trip to Arizona during which he attended Super Bowl XLIX. He eventually returned over $50,000 in what his lawyers characterized as ‘erroneous reimbursements.’ Schwab resigned during the ethics probe. No criminal charges were filed against either Schwab or Schweikert.
The Phantom Loans
Between July 2010 and December 2017, Schweikert’s campaign committees erroneously disclosed or failed to disclose at least $305,000 in loans or repayment of loans. The details are damning:
The Christmas Loan That Never Was: In January 2012, Schweikert’s campaign reported to the FEC that Schweikert had personally loaned his campaign $100,000 on December 25, 2011. Investigators determined this loan was never actually made. A sitting congressman filed a false report with the FEC, claiming he loaned his own campaign $100,000 on Christmas Day, and the money didn’t exist.
The Hidden Bank Loan: The campaign also failed to disclose a $75,000 loan from Metro Phoenix Bank. This loan existed but was simply never reported, a straightforward violation of federal disclosure law.
The remaining $130,000 in loan discrepancies involved various other unreported or falsely reported loan activity across the seven-year period. The Ethics Committee concluded that Schweikert’s operation was characterized by a pattern of concealment and false reporting.
The Fine Print Nobody Noticed
Schweikert was fined $50,000 by the House Ethics Committee in 2020, but that’s not the full financial penalty. In 2022, the Federal Election Commission imposed an additional $125,000 fine for campaign finance violations, bringing the total penalties to $175,000. The FEC found that Schweikert had failed to report loans, allowed funds to be used for noncampaign purposes, and deliberately slow-walked handing over documents to run out the statute of limitations on the worst offenses.
The statute of limitations tactic is worth emphasizing: Schweikert’s legal strategy was to delay and obstruct the investigation long enough that some violations would become unenforceable. The Ethics Committee explicitly noted his ‘evasive, misleading, and stalling tactics.’
Current Status and Connections
Despite being reprimanded by his own colleagues and fined $175,000 across two federal bodies, Schweikert has continued to win reelection in AZ-1. His 2022 race against Democrat Jevin Hodge was closer than expected, with Hodge making the ethics violations a central campaign issue. Schweikert’s top donors come from finance and real estate sectors in the Scottsdale area. His wife Joyce Schweikert’s business connections and any shared entities should be examined in his most recent financial disclosures.
PROFILE 2: REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ-5)
The most prolific stock trader in Congress. Over 3,300 trades since 2017. More defense contractor stock trades than any other member. His wife works for a lobbying firm. He sits on the Intelligence Committee. And he says he has ‘no idea’ what his traders are doing.
The Trading Empire
Gottheimer has executed 3,300+ stock transactions since entering Congress in 2017, achieving annual returns of 22.93%, more than double the S&P 500’s roughly 10% annual return. In 2024 alone, he traded at least $22 million and as much as $104 million worth of shares in companies including Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and IBM.
He traded more stocks of Pentagon contractors than any other member of Congress in 2024. Microsoft, which received $414 million from the Department of Defense in 2023 for software and cloud computing services, accounted for the vast majority of his trades. His disclosed holdings include up to $25,000,000 in Morgan Stanley portfolio management accounts focused on Microsoft Corporation.
Gottheimer has also violated the STOCK Act by submitting a disclosure long after the 45-day deadline. He and his wife moved up to $15,000 of Independent Bank Corporation stock in November 2021, but Congress didn’t receive the report until August 2022, nine months late.
The Intelligence Committee Seat
Gottheimer simultaneously serves on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the National Security subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee. The Intelligence Committee receives classified briefings on surveillance operations, foreign intelligence threats, and the programs funded by FISA Section 702. A member trading tens of millions in defense and tech stocks while sitting on the committee that oversees the classified details of those companies’ government contracts is an extraordinary conflict of interest.
His defense: ‘I literally have no idea what they do.’ He claims his trades are managed by a third-party financial firm. But his financial disclosures show specific, identifiable stock positions, not blind trust holdings. The distinction matters: a blind trust would shield him from knowledge of his holdings. What he describes is a managed account, where he may not make individual buy/sell decisions but retains full knowledge of his portfolio composition.
The Palantir Thread
$13,600 from Palantir executives, including $3,300 from CEO Alex Karp (July 2024) and multiple contributions from Mehdi Alhassani, Palantir’s head of government affairs. Palantir builds the $30 million ‘ImmigrationOS’ AI surveillance platform for ICE. Palantir also holds classified contracts with the intelligence community, contracts whose details Gottheimer would be privy to through his Intelligence Committee seat. Other NJ lawmakers, including colleagues Jason Crow and Pat Ryan, publicly rejected Palantir money. Gottheimer kept it.
The No Labels / Dark Money Pipeline
Gottheimer co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus, which was created by and operates in close coordination with No Labels, a dark money organization that does not disclose its donors. No Labels’ known donors include executives from Trian Fund Management, Oaktree Capital Management, and Apollo Global Management.
In August 2021, when Gottheimer led a revolt against Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, his fundraising exploded. The Intercept reported that ‘the mid-August uprising against President Joe Biden’s agenda was rewarded with an avalanche of campaign contributions from some of the country’s wealthiest donors, many of them with shared connections to No Labels.’ The Problem Solvers Caucus PAC funneled money from shielded donors to members who participated in the obstruction.
Common Dreams called No Labels and the Problem Solvers ‘Wolves of Wall Street in sheep’s clothing,’ noting the organization ‘quietly promoted policies wrapped in the mantle of bipartisanship and pitched as non-ideological, while being in the pay of corporate interests.’
The Family Connection
Gottheimer’s wife, Marla Tusk, is general counsel at Tusk Strategies, a political consulting and lobbying firm founded by her brother, Bradley Tusk. Tusk Strategies has listed Blackstone among its clients. Gottheimer’s most recent financial disclosures list a substantial investment in Tusk Venture Partners I GP, LLC, valued between $250,000 and $500,000, generating between $100,000 and $1 million in annual income.
Gottheimer and his wife reported $897,617 in joint income in 2023, with a net worth between $16.9 and $75.3 million. Their combined portfolio places Gottheimer among the wealthiest Democrats in the House.
PROFILE 3: REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX-17)
‘Congressman-1’ in a federal indictment. He wrote a letter to the Secretary of State calling for an ambassador’s removal after meeting with men who were later convicted of campaign finance fraud. He lost his seat, came back, and is still voting on surveillance policy.
The Parnas/Fruman Operation: Complete Timeline
May 2018: Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman meet Sessions at his Capitol Hill office. They seek his help removing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. According to the indictment, Parnas and Fruman ‘committed to raise at least $20,000 for Sessions’ at this meeting.
May 9, 2018: The same day Parnas posts a photo with Sessions on Facebook, Sessions sends a private letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging Yovanovitch’s removal, claiming he had ‘received notice of concrete evidence from close companions that Ambassador Yovanovitch has spoken privately and repeatedly about her disdain for the current Administration.’
One week later: Global Energy Producers, a company controlled by Parnas and Fruman, donates $325,000 to America First Action, a Trump-supporting super PAC. The money was obtained through a private loan and laundered through multiple bank accounts to conceal its source.
June 2018: Parnas and Fruman each write $2,700 checks to Sessions’ campaign. The indictment alleges Fruman had already made a maximum contribution, then made an additional illegal $2,700 contribution under Parnas’ name.
November 2018: Sessions loses his Dallas-area seat to Democrat Colin Allred.
October 2019: Parnas and Fruman are arrested and indicted on campaign finance charges. Sessions is identified as ‘Congressman-1’ in the indictment.
October 2021: Parnas is convicted on six counts.
June 2022: Parnas is sentenced to 20 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, and $2,322,500 in restitution.
Sessions was never criminally charged. He denied knowing about the scheme, won a new congressional seat in Waco in 2020, and continues to serve. He is now voting on FISA surveillance authorities, the very type of government power that, if misused, could be deployed in exactly the kind of shadow foreign policy operation he was entangled in.
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PROFILE 4: REP. VERN BUCHANAN (R-FL-16)
Net worth: $261 million. Offshore reinsurance companies in Turks and Caicos. A yacht loan from a foreign bank lobbying on the tax bill he was writing. Tax fraud allegations. Consumer fraud allegations. And he is retiring in 2026, casting his final votes with nothing left to lose.
The Offshore Empire
Buchanan owns two offshore reinsurance companies: Jamat Reinsurance Co. and Buchanan Reinsurance Co., both registered in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He also owns part of Greater Atlantic Insurance Co. in Bermuda. All three companies offer extended warranty policies to car buyers, creating a closed loop where Buchanan’s car dealerships sell warranties underwritten by Buchanan’s own offshore insurance companies. The profits from the reinsurance companies are then invested in real estate developments in the Bahamas.
At his peak, Buchanan reported ownership interests in approximately 50 businesses, including the offshore reinsurance companies, a charter-jet business, and the car dealership empire. In his 2007 financial disclosure, he reported over $100 million in assets.
The Yacht and the Bank
On the same day he voted for the 2017 GOP tax package, Buchanan purchased a 73-foot Ocean Alexander yacht named ‘Entrepreneur.’ Despite being worth at least $80 million, he financed the purchase through one of his LLCs with a loan worth up to $5 million from BMO Harris Bank, the American subsidiary of the Bank of Montreal.
Since 2016, Buchanan’s companies had received three loans worth up to $35 million from BMO Harris. At the time of the yacht loan, BMO Harris was actively lobbying Congress on the tax policy overseen by Buchanan’s subcommittee. BMO spent $760,000 lobbying lawmakers in 2017, including paying Tony Podesta’s firm. Craig Holman of Public Citizen called the arrangement ‘particularly egregious.’
The Kazran Affair
Former business partner and CFO Sam Kazran testified that Buchanan was ‘guilty of tax fraud,’ alleging a Ponzi-like scheme transferring money between dealerships with the same capital reported three times. Kazran also alleged a ‘cash swap scheme’ where dealership employees were directed to write checks to Buchanan’s campaign fund, then reimbursed by the company.
A ‘power booking’ consumer fraud scheme was also documented: sales contracts sent to financial institutions listed vehicle amenities that didn’t exist, inflating loan values. At least 20 instances of false tax returns prepared for unqualified loan applicants were documented. Six former employees filed lawsuits alleging conspiracy, fraud, and retaliatory personnel actions.
The Justice Department investigated for 11 months and declined to file criminal charges in 2012. Buchanan called the allegations ‘false and outrageous.’ He announced his retirement in January 2026 after 20 years in office.
Known Business Entities
Buchanan Automotive Group (multiple dealership LLCs in FL and NC), Jamat Reinsurance Co. (Turks and Caicos), Buchanan Reinsurance Co. (Turks and Caicos), Greater Atlantic Insurance Co. (Bermuda), charter-jet business (entity name not public), plus approximately 45 additional entities reported on financial disclosures.
PROFILE 5: REP. MICHAEL McCAUL (R-TX-10)
Worth $294 million. Introduced the TikTok ban, then his family investment fund bought $1.15 million in Meta stock. Filed $16.1 million in trades in a single disclosure. A Change.org petition demands an insider trading investigation.
The TikTok/Meta Timeline
McCaul authored the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act in 2023, which called for an investigation into TikTok and a potential ban. After the legislation advanced, his family investment vehicle, LLM Family Investments LP, purchased $1.15 million in Meta Platforms stock, a direct competitor to TikTok.
A Change.org petition was filed calling for ‘an immediate and thorough investigation into Congressman Michael McCaul’s financial transactions related to investments in Meta Platforms, Inc. following his authorship and advancement of legislation seeking to ban TikTok, highlighting a potential violation of the STOCK Act, federal securities laws, and congressional ethics standards.’
McCaul’s spokesperson said the trades were made by a third-party firm and have ‘no bearing on the congressman’s policy priorities.’ But in a separate filing, McCaul disclosed approximately $16.1 million worth of trades in a single disclosure, including $500,000 in Intel and $750,000 in Stifel Financial, while chairing the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Homeland Security Committee, the Congressional High Tech Caucus, and the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus. Every one of these committees has jurisdiction over policies that directly affect the companies in his portfolio.
The Clear Channel Fortune
McCaul’s wealth derives from his wife, Linda Mays McCaul, daughter of Clear Channel Communications founder Lowry Mays. Clear Channel was renamed iHeartMedia. The dramatic increase in McCaul’s reported wealth came from large transfers from his in-laws. LLM Family Investments LP is the primary vehicle for managing the Mays family fortune. McCaul has disclosed late filings on six transactions from spouse/dependent child valued at $218,006-$595,000.
PROFILE 6: REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY-1)
The man who built his career investigating Biden family shell companies owns shell companies himself. He created a new LLC while standing at a podium denouncing Biden family LLCs. His land deals mirror the exact patterns he spent two years investigating.
Farm Team Properties, LLC: The Shell Company
Comer co-owns Farm Team Properties, LLC with his wife, Tamara ‘TJ’ Comer. He describes it as a ‘land management and real estate speculation company.’ Its value on his financial disclosures has risen from $50,000-$100,000 in 2016 to $500,001-$1,000,000 in 2022, a tenfold increase. At the time of AP and Daily Beast reporting, the entity had lapsed in its filings with Kentucky and had its business license revoked. The Comers reinstated it in December. When it refiled its annual report, its stated business purpose had changed.
Gamaliel Stargazer LLC
On March 14, 2024, Comer registered a new entity called Gamaliel Stargazer LLC in Kentucky. Three days later, on March 17, he appeared on Fox News invoking Biden family ‘multiple shell companies’ as evidence of wrongdoing. When asked about the new LLC, Comer declined to reveal its purpose, saying only that it was created for ‘outside business activities.’ The timing, creating a new shell company while publicly attacking the Biden family for using shell companies, was characterized as brazen hypocrisy by multiple outlets including the New Republic, Daily Beast, and Fortune.
The Brother Chad Deals
After their father’s death in January 2019, Chad Comer bought out James’ half of inherited Kentucky property for $100,000. Five months later, James and his wife paid Chad $218,000 for the full property, netting Chad an unexplained $18,000 profit. In a separate transaction, Comer gifted his brother a share of two inherited properties worth $175,000 for a cost of $1. Chad’s property later received a special agricultural ‘Greenbelt Assessment’ tax break. The total payment to his brother: $200,000, matching the exact type of family payment structure Comer spent two years investigating in the Biden family.
A co-owned property with a longtime campaign contributor was transferred to Farm Team Properties. Fortune magazine reported that Comer’s ‘business dealings undercut his Hunter Biden probe.’
The Abuse Allegations
Ex-girlfriend Marilyn Thomas alleged Comer hit her, was ‘toxic,’ ‘abusive,’ and ‘controlling’ at Western Kentucky University in the 1990s, and alleged he took her to an abortion clinic in November 1991 when she was 19. Comer ‘flatly denies’ the allegations. When the allegations surfaced during his 2015 gubernatorial campaign, Comer suggested his opponent paid the accuser to come forward and leaked a blogger’s emails attempting to discredit Thomas, later admitting he leaked emails from a stolen server.
Former Kentucky House clerk Brad Metcalf sued claiming Comer threatened him via vulgar Twitter DM after Metcalf reported sexual harassment allegations to superiors. Metcalf was fired weeks later.
PROFILE 7: REP. DIANA HARSHBARGER (R-TN-1)
A pharmacy owner who failed to disclose 700+ stock trades worth up to $10.9 million. She traded Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. She traded COVID vaccine makers during the pandemic. The Campaign Legal Center filed a formal ethics complaint. She is still trading.
The 700+ Undisclosed Trades
Harshbarger and her husband Robert failed to properly disclose more than 700 stock trades worth at least $728,000 and as much as $10.9 million in violation of the 2012 STOCK Act. The late disclosures involved trades made between early January and June 2021. The Campaign Legal Center filed a formal ethics complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Companies traded include: Johnson & Johnson (COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment manufacturer), Raytheon Technologies Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Facebook, Walmart, Apple, Verizon Communications, Coca-Cola, and Chevron. The defense contractor trades are directly relevant to her FISA vote: she traded stock in the companies that build surveillance infrastructure, then voted to extend the surveillance program that generates their contracts.
Premier Pharmacy
Harshbarger and her husband Robert operate Premier Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Kingsport, Tennessee. She serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over pharmaceutical policy, drug pricing, and FDA regulation. She represents Tennessee’s 1st District, one of the regions hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. The intersection of her pharmacy business, her committee assignment, and her pharmaceutical stock trading creates a web of potential conflicts.
PROFILE 8: REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL-19)
Sealed felony. 100+ undisclosed stock trades worth $1.62 million. His wife’s companies pulled $10 million from charter schools she founded. He’s running for governor of Florida.
The Criminal Record
1997: Donalds was charged with marijuana possession. The charge was dropped as part of a pre-trial diversion program; he was fined $150. 2000: Donalds pled no contest to a felony theft charge for writing a bad check to defraud a bank. The record was later sealed and expunged. When Donalds applied for the Florida SouthWestern State College board in 2014, the application allegedly falsely omitted the arrests. An ethics panel dismissed the complaint for lack of ‘legal sufficiency.’
The Undisclosed Trades
Donalds failed to promptly report 100+ stock trades valued up to $1.62 million in 2023-2024. He only disclosed them when filing annual financial disclosures, over a year late. The Campaign Legal Center flagged the violations. The traded companies include JP Morgan Chase and Elevance Health, both of which contributed to his campaign and lobbied on legislation he co-sponsored, creating a triangulated conflict: company donates to campaign, company lobbies on legislation, congressman trades company’s stock.
The Erika Donalds Charter School Empire
Donalds’ wife Erika Donalds launched the Optima Foundation (renamed Education Freedom Foundation in March 2025) in 2017, creating a chain of ‘Classical Academies’ charter schools in Florida. The foundation and its schools paid more than $10 million to two for-profit companies owned by Erika Donalds: Optima Management Services and OptimaEd. In one year alone, the two companies pulled in $5,843,969 for services ranging from management to payroll to IT.
Florida Bulldog’s investigation found that ‘the foundation lost multiple contracts with its signature Classical Academies over what the schools allege were faulty accounting practices, and still more contracts that switched over to for-profit companies Donalds owns herself.’ After the Florida Bulldog story, Byron Donalds updated his personal financial disclosures, revealing that Erika Donalds ‘grew far wealthier from her businesses’ than he had initially disclosed.
A January 2026 lawsuit alleged that Erika Donalds’ charter business ‘cut side deals with a construction firm.’ The complete picture: taxpayer money flows to charter schools, charter schools pay Erika Donalds’ for-profit companies, and Byron Donalds advocates for the school choice policies that keep the pipeline flowing, all while running for governor of Florida on an education platform that would expand the very system enriching his family.
Known Business Entities
OptimaEd (Erika Donalds, CEO), Optima Management Solutions (Erika Donalds), Optima Foundation / Education Freedom Foundation (nonprofit, Erika Donalds), Onesto LLC (consulting, $500K-$1M value), additional undisclosed entities revealed in amended financial filings.
PROFILE 9: REP. CLAY HIGGINS (R-LA-3)
A former cop who resigned twice from law enforcement under investigation. Accused of beating a handcuffed suspect. Used his department badge to sell merchandise. Posted racist content targeting Haitian immigrants. Cast the sole vote against releasing the Epstein client list. And he voted to extend warrantless surveillance.
Law Enforcement Career: Two Resignations Under Pressure
Higgins worked in law enforcement in Louisiana for roughly a decade before entering politics. His departure from two separate agencies tells a story of escalating misconduct.
Opelousas City Marshal’s Office (2004-2007): Higgins served as a deputy marshal. In 2007, a man named Ronald Greene (not the Ronald Greene killed by Louisiana State Police in 2019) filed a formal complaint alleging Higgins beat him while he was handcuffed. An internal investigation was opened, and Higgins was called before a disciplinary board. Before the board could render a verdict, Higgins resigned. The complaint was never formally adjudicated because his resignation ended the agency’s jurisdiction over him.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office (2007-2016): Higgins joined the sheriff’s office and eventually became a patrol captain. He gained local fame producing ‘Crime Stoppers’ videos for the department’s social media pages, speaking directly to camera in a dramatic, made-for-TV drawl that went viral. The videos turned him into a regional celebrity. The problem: Higgins began using his official position, including his badge, uniform, and the department’s name, for personal profit. He launched Captain Higgins Gear LLC, selling branded merchandise (t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers) using imagery directly tied to his law enforcement role.
Sheriff Bobby Guidroz ordered Higgins to stop using the department’s name and badge for personal business. Higgins refused. In February 2016, Guidroz issued a formal letter of insubordination. Rather than face the consequences, Higgins resigned a second time. Within months, he announced his run for Congress.
The Racism on the Record
In September 2024, Higgins posted a statement on social media referring to Haitian immigrants as ‘thugs’ and calling them ‘the nastiest country in the western hemisphere.’ The full text of the post was widely reported. The ACLU formally urged the House to censure him. Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly called Higgins and asked him to take the post down. Higgins deleted it, then reposted a slightly modified version, then deleted it again. He later told reporters he was ‘not going to apologize.’
This was not an isolated incident. Higgins has a documented pattern of inflammatory racial commentary. In a 2016 Crime Stoppers video, he referred to suspects in a gang investigation as ‘animals’ and ‘heathens,’ language that drew formal complaints from civil rights organizations at the time. The NAACP called for his removal from the Crime Stoppers program. His viral fame, and his path to Congress, was built on content that civil rights groups characterized as dehumanizing toward Black communities in St. Landry Parish.
The Epstein Files Vote
In July 2025, the House voted on a resolution to release a broader set of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein client list and flight logs. The vote passed overwhelmingly. Clay Higgins was the sole member of Congress to vote against it. He offered no public explanation. His office did not respond to media inquiries. No other member of either party voted no.
The lone dissent is, by itself, extraordinary. Every other member who had reservations about the release simply abstained or voted present. Higgins actively voted to keep the documents sealed. The question of why a backbench Louisiana congressman would be the single person in a 435-member body to oppose transparency on one of the most high-profile trafficking cases in American history has not been answered.
Physical Confrontation With a Protester
In November 2023, video captured Higgins physically shoving a protester outside a congressional hearing. The protester was part of a group demonstrating against immigration policy. Higgins approached the individual, exchanged words, and then pushed the person with both hands. Capitol Police were present but no charges were filed against either party. The video circulated widely. Higgins’ office characterized the encounter as ‘a brief interaction’ and said the congressman ‘felt threatened.’
Business Entities and Financial Profile
Higgins’ financial disclosures paint a picture of a man with almost no personal wealth, which is unusual for a multi-term congressman.
C. Higgins Unscripted LLC: Registered in Louisiana. This appears to be the entity through which Higgins manages speaking fees, media appearances, and other personal brand revenue outside his congressional salary.
Captain Higgins Gear LLC: The merchandise company that triggered his second resignation from law enforcement. The company sold branded products using imagery from his time as a sheriff’s deputy. Whether it continues to operate or has been dissolved is not clear from public records.
His most recent financial disclosure reports no significant assets, no investment income, and a single liability: a mortgage valued between $250,000 and $500,000. For a congressman earning $174,000 per year since 2017, the absence of any accumulated savings, investments, or retirement accounts is notable. Either Higgins is spending everything he earns, or there are financial arrangements not captured by the disclosure process.
The FISA Vote in Context
Higgins positions himself as a populist, anti-establishment conservative. He has publicly expressed skepticism of federal law enforcement and the intelligence community. He voted against certifying the 2020 election. He has called the FBI ‘weaponized.’ And yet, when the vote came to extend one of the most powerful warrantless surveillance tools available to those same agencies, he voted yes. The disconnect between his public persona as a government skeptic and his vote to extend government surveillance authority without warrant protections is a contradiction that his public statements have not reconciled.
CROSS-CONNECTIONS AND PATTERNS
Shared Financial Patterns
Five of the nine Tier 1 members have documented STOCK Act violations: Gottheimer, Schweikert, Harshbarger, Donalds, and McCaul (via late disclosures). The pattern suggests a systemic contempt for financial transparency among members voting to extend surveillance powers that operate without transparency.
Three members (Buchanan, McCaul, Donalds) use complex entity structures (offshore reinsurance companies, family LPs, spousal LLCs) that mirror the exact opacity they apply to government surveillance programs. Comer literally creates shell companies while investigating others for creating shell companies. Higgins used his law enforcement position to build a personal brand and merchandise empire, then parlayed that into a congressional seat.
The Surveillance Money Pipeline
Gottheimer trades more Pentagon contractor stock than any other member of Congress. Harshbarger trades Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. McCaul’s family LP trades defense and tech stocks worth millions. All three voted to extend the surveillance program that generates contracts for the companies in their portfolios.
The Law Enforcement Contradiction
Higgins spent a decade in law enforcement, resigned twice under pressure, and built a political brand on being a tough-on-crime populist who distrusts federal agencies. Yet he voted to extend the very warrantless surveillance powers wielded by those agencies. Sessions was entangled in a foreign influence operation that exploited gaps in oversight, the kind of gaps FISA 702 is supposed to fill, yet voted to keep the system intact. The pattern across the nine profiles is consistent: members with the most to hide from transparency mechanisms are the most eager to preserve opaque government surveillance powers.
The Accountability Gap
Schweikert was reprimanded and fined $175,000 across two federal bodies, and continues to serve. Sessions was identified as ‘Congressman-1’ in a criminal indictment and continues to serve. Buchanan survived tax fraud allegations, campaign finance investigations, and consumer fraud documentation, and served for 20 years before choosing to retire. Donalds has a sealed felony and over 100 undisclosed trades. Higgins resigned from two law enforcement agencies under investigation, cast the only vote in Congress against releasing the Epstein files, and faces zero accountability. None of these members have faced meaningful consequences sufficient to remove them from voting on legislation that affects the civil liberties of 330 million Americans.
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SOURCES
Schweikert: House Report 116-465; Office of Congressional Ethics referrals; PolitiFact; Cronkite News; Phoenix New Times; Copper Courier; Roll Call; Washington Examiner; GovInfo.gov
Gottheimer: Responsible Statecraft; Common Dreams; The Intercept; Jacobin; NJ Today; Capitol Trades; Quiver Quantitative; Unusual Whales; Campaign Legal Center; NJTODAY.NET; Jersey Vindicator; NJ Urban News
Sessions: PBS News; CNN Politics; Texas Observer; Dallas Observer; Campaign Legal Center; federal indictment documents
Buchanan: Type Investigations; Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR); House Report 114-643; Tampa Bay Times; Roll Call; Capital and Main; Reason; DCCC; Sarasota Magazine
McCaul: Newsweek; The Dispatch; NBC News; Change.org petition; Nasdaq; Capitol Trades; Moomoo Community; LinkedIn
Comer: Daily Beast; Associated Press; Fortune; The Hill; New Republic; Raw Story; Washington Post; Jezebel; Salon; Democrats.org; MSNBC/Maddow Blog
Harshbarger: Campaign Legal Center; Daily Populous; Capitol Trades; MarketBeat; Unusual Whales; Quiver Quantitative; Premier Pharmacy (rxpremier.com)
Donalds: Florida Bulldog (multiple investigations); Campaign Legal Center; Paul Howard Substack; Diane Ravitch blog; Business Observer; KDH News
Higgins: Louisiana Illuminator; ACLU; Opelousas Daily World; The Advocate (Baton Rouge); NBC News; Business Insider; Newsweek; Huffington Post; NAACP Louisiana State Conference; House financial disclosures; Louisiana Secretary of State business filings; C-SPAN"
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