The Sharia Panic

Today’s notice: The Senate seems ready to give DHS a new boss, but not a new funding bill. House Oversight Democrats walk out on Pam Bondi. The fight over U.S. attorneys escalates. Eric Swalwell’s AI startup. And: “People are concerned about the growth, the Islamization, the number of mosques in my district, absolutely.”

THE LATEST

Everything’s changing at DHS, except for it being partially shut down. The White House wants critics of the Department of Homeland Security to view Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the agency as a sign that they’ve been heard and it’s time to move on.

A senior administration official told Jasmine that some shifts in immigration enforcement policy promised by Mullin at his confirmation hearing yesterday were blessed by the White House, and indicate that the executive branch is ready to go in a different direction from Kristi Noem’s bombastic tenure. The administration laid out its promises to Senate Democrats in a letter this week, vowing, among other things, to enforce the use of body cameras by immigration officers and ensure that those officers are wearing visible identification.

Senate Democrats don’t seem to be buying in. What they’ve wanted is enforcement reforms codified into law as part of the appropriations bill they are still filibustering, and per reporting from NOTUS’ Avani Kalra, they still want that — even after the Mullin hearing.

The standstill is still the status quo. Urgency is not. That letter we mentioned was the first sign of active conversations in 18 days.

Will shifting the focus away from immigration to unpaid TSA agents move things along? Republicans think so, and media reports of lines at airports are certainly picking up.

The travel and tourism industry doesn’t think so. “They’re really trying to get people motivated. Unfortunately, people are going back to their corners,” an experienced lobbyist told us of trade-group efforts to flap their arms and get noticed by lawmakers.

Industry had hoped the imminent arrival of spring break travel would lead to some movement, but that has not happened. “You don’t see anyone canceling recesses over it,” the lobbyist shrugged. Lawmakers are scheduled to leave town on their own two-week break in about 10 days.

Why is this the forgotten shutdown? “It just hasn’t gotten painful enough yet,” the lobbyist said, speculating that it could be weeks before it does.

Open tabs: Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war (WaPo); FBI investigates intelligence aide who resigned over war (Semafor); Judge skeptical over Trump ballroom project amid new bid to halt it (The Hill); A Peek Into Trump’s Planning of America’s 250th Suggests a Religious Focus (NYT)

From the War

Trump reprimanded Israel for bombing a natural gas field in Iran. After the Israeli attack, Iran targeted a large liquified natural gas complex in Qatar, which European natural gas prices spiking. “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” Trump wrote.

Trump added that the U.S. will “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before” if Iran attacks Qatar again, the global economic consequences of which could be massive.

Natural gas, oil and mortgage prices have all risen as a result of the conflict, and The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Pentagon asked the White House to approve a $200 billion request to congress to fund the war.

From the Hill

Democrats walk out on DOJ leaders: A visit from Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, to the House Oversight Committee ended — depending on whom you ask — in an act of principle or political theater, NOTUS’ Amelia Benavides-Colón reports. The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, led his party’s members out of a meeting about the release of the Epstein files because, he said, Bondi refused to testify under oath and showed “complete disrespect” for the panel.

From the DOJ

The U.S. attorney wars rage on: “It’s crazy. It doesn’t make any sense,” Robert Kugler, a retired federal judge, told NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery as the Justice Department began another attempt to appoint a federal prosecutor without Senate confirmation.

At least a half-dozen times, judges have disqualified and replaced interim U.S. attorneys after the time limits on their nominations expire. But the DOJ just changes the interim appointee’s title, fires the person approved by the judges for the top job and tries to leave the appointee in charge.

The latest flare-up was in Wisconsin yesterday. After the clock on the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Brad Schimel, ran out this week, Bondi used the same bureaucratic jiu-jitsu to keep him in the job. Another tussle with federal judges could come next and, eventually, the entire issue is going to be the Supreme Court’s problem.

THE BIG ONE

Who’s afraid of Sharia law (again)? America’s come a long way since conservative media promulgated conspiracy theories nearly two decades ago about Barack Obama secretly practicing Islam. In the early 2010s, more than two-dozen states considered legislation to ban the use of “Sharia” in courts.

Or has it? Another “Sharia law” scare is sweeping Republicans in Congress. The House’s Sharia Free America Caucus, which launched in December, reached a total membership of 55 this week, with more expected to follow, Emily and NOTUS’ Violet Jira report.

On the roster: Reps. Andy Ogles and Randy Fine, who have come under some (limited) fire from their colleagues for their incendiary rhetoric about Muslims in America. But more mainstream GOP representatives have joined the caucus, too.

“When we poll, it’s our only 80/20 issue … That’s huge,” Rep. Keith Self of Texas, who co-founded the caucus with Rep. Chip Roy, said. “People are concerned about the growth, the Islamization, the number of mosques in my district, absolutely.”

How far does the scare reach? Apparently, not far outside the halls of Congress and X.com algorithms. A White House official told Jasmine that they’ve “never used that language” and listed off priorities of greater concern for the president’s team, like national security and the economy. Other Republican lawmakers told NOTUS they haven’t heard many, if any, related concerns from their constituents.

NEW ON NOTUS

Swalwell’s side hustle: Democrats are paying Rep. Eric Swalwell to use an AI fundraising tool he made with his former chief of staff, Yardena Wolf, NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal writes. Findraiser, which the pair founded in 2024, has collected $60,000 in user fees from over a dozen Democratic campaigns. Swalwell’s own California gubernatorial campaign has spent $7,500 on the software, according to public disclosures.

“Our campaign contracted with Findraiser in order to use the new technology, and see if it would help our campaign better utilize our databases and time better,” a spox for Sen. Adam Schiff’s campaign team told Sam. “It helped us engage with several people.”

More: Palantir Hires Two New Lobbyists With Democratic Party Ties, by Samuel Larreal

NOT US

• Inside JB Pritzker’s power play in Illinois’ Senate primary – and what it means for a 2028 run, by Edward-Isaac Dovere and Steve Contorno for CNN
  
• ‘I’m Far Angrier’: Can Cory Booker, once the candidate of love, run for president and stay true to who he is? By Russell Berman for The Atlantic
  
• Thirty-Eight Days of ICE, by Daniel Brook for Harper’s

BE SOCIAL

Looks like meat’s back on the menu.

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