Republicans Have a New January 6 Conspiracy Theory: Deep State “Ghost Buses”

Representative Clay Higgins on Wednesday resurrected the conspiracy theory that the FBI was behind the January 6 attack, but he added a fun new twist: “ghost buses.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee to testify about global threats. During the hearing, Higgins brought up the conspiracy theory that the January 6 insurrection was started by FBI agents posing as Donald Trump supporters.

Although Wray said that was “emphatically not” the case, Higgins kept pushing.

“Do you know what a ‘ghost vehicle’ is, Director? You’re director of the FBI, you certainly should. You know what a ‘ghost bus’ is?” the Louisiana Republican asked.

When Wray said he didn’t, Higgins explained: “It’s a vehicle that’s used for secret purposes. It’s painted over,” he said, showing a photo of buses parked at Union Station in Washington, D.C., the night before the attack.

Higgins insisted that two of the buses had their windows completely painted over and were therefore ghost buses.

“These buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our capital on January 6,” he said. “Your day is coming, Mr. Wray.”

Republicans have repeatedly insisted that FBI agents and informants were secretly behind the insurrection, so that they don’t have to admit that Trump and his supporters were responsible. This claim has been repeatedly debunked by the FBI and by people arrested in connection with the riot.

Hundreds of people arrested for participating in the January 6 attack said they went to Washington because they felt Trump had personally told them to. Others who were smeared as FBI agents, such as Capitol rioter Ray Epps, have testified that they were not connected to any law enforcement agencies.

Slowly but surely, the calls in Congress for a cease-fire are growing, as five more representatives on Wednesday urged an end to fighting in Gaza.

Representative Don Beyer released a statement calling for a cease-fire. Shortly after, Representatives Raul Grijalva, Henry Johnson, Mark Pocan, and Mary Gay Scanlon added their names to a joint letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, also calling for peace.

“Without an immediate cessation of hostilities and the establishment of a robust bilateral ceasefire, this war will lead to a further loss of civilian life and risk dragging the United States into dangerous and unwise conflict with armed groups across the Middle East,” the letter urged.

A total of 31 lawmakers have now called for a cease-fire. Beyer, Grijalva, Johnson, Pocan, and Scanlon join 26 other representatives and just one senator, Dick Durbin.

Congress has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of public support for a cease-fire. Democrats reportedly are telling their staff to let calls from voters go to voicemail while the party forms an official opinion.

Biden has so far resisted calls for a cease-fire, though, telling reporters last week that there was “no possibility” of one. Israel has agreed to a daily four-hour “humanitarian pause,” which Tel Aviv seems to think is enough time for civilians to flee bombs on foot.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also participated in a March for Israel rally on Tuesday. One of the speakers was far-right evangelical Pastor John Hagee, a known antisemite who once claimed Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who last month suggested that civilians in Gaza are legitimate targets, also attended the rally.

More than 11,100 Palestinian civilians, more than half of them children, have been killed in Israel’s ongoing retaliation to Hamas’s October 7 attack. The fighting has also killed at least 39 journalists and other media workers and more than 100 United Nations employees.

Senator Markwayne Mullin is apparently out for blood in his ongoing feud with a union boss.

The freshman congressman has taken to conservative political talk shows, refusing to give up a fight he had sparked with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, a Senate committee witness, during a Tuesday hearing.

On one show, Mullin claimed that he “wasn’t afraid of biting” O’Brien if the moment called for it.

“I’ll bite 100 percent. In a fight, I’m gonna bite. I’ll do anything. I’m not above it. And I don’t care where I bite by the way,” Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, told podcast host Kyle Thompson on Wednesday’s episode of Undaunted.Life.

From Mullin’s perspective, these altercations are a part of representing the people of Oklahoma. In an interview with Fox’s Hannity on Tuesday evening, Mullin claimed his constituents would be “pretty upset” with him for failing to represent “Oklahoma values.”

While consensual fighting, also known as mutual combat, is a legal pathway for conflict resolution in some areas of the country like Texas and Washington state, it’s not in D.C., where Mullin and O’Brien would more likely be charged with assault and battery. It’s also a strange method of conflict resolution in the middle of a Senate hearing.

Mullin hasn’t given up hope that there might still be precedent on Capitol Hill, however.

“We looked into the rules. You used to be able to cane. You gotta remember, President Andrew Jackson challenged nine guys to a duel and won nine times,” Mullin told Newsmax’s Carl Higbie.

“And so at the end of the day, there is presence [sic] for it, if that’s what someone wants to do,” Mullin added.

The fight began Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing, when Mullin read aloud social media posts that O’Brien had made about the Oklahoma Republican online, including snubbing him as a “clown” and a “fraud,” though the initial confrontation ended abruptly after Senator Bernie Sanders scolded the pair.

The Texas House of Representatives approved a set of the most extreme anti-immigration bills in the nation on Tuesday, so extreme in fact that they could potentially lead to an international dispute with Mexico.

The first bill, Senate Bill 3, appropriates $1.5 billion in border funding and would effectively make crossing the Texas-Mexico border a state crime.

The second bill, Senate Bill 4, creates a new state misdemeanor for immigrants who enter or reenter the state illegally, with violations of the new crimes punishable by up to two years.

But that’s not the only controversial part of the bill, which, if signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, will give local and state police the authority to arrest immigrants who they suspect of having unlawfully crossed into the state, rather than federal agencies. Officers would also be allowed to transport immigrants to U.S. ports of entry for compliance. Should immigrants fail to comply, they could be slapped with a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, according to the bill.

S.B. 4 will also allow judges the ability to order undocumented immigrants to return to Mexico in lieu of prosecution, regardless of the country they are actually from.

The bill additionally includes financial provisions to send state troopers to patrol a housing development near Houston that far-right media has lambasted as a haven for undocumented immigrants, reported The Texas Tribune.

In an effort to dampen the blow of the extreme legislation, Democrats proposed dozens of amendments to the bill, including language that would exclude immigrant children, human trafficking victims, and sexual assault victims, reported the outlet. None of those amendments were adopted.

Opponents to the bill, which emerged as part of a fourth round of a special immigration-focused legislative session ordered by the governor, have criticized S.B. 4 and its proponents as racist.

“There is no U.S. federal analog to a lone officer in their own discretion escorting someone to the border and saying get out,” David Donatti, a senior staff attorney with the Texas ACLU, told ABC News. “That is a very scary prospect that is categorically different from what the federal government does. In addition to that, in the federal system people would be able to present their claims to an immigration officer and an immigration judge.”

The bill is now on its way to Abbott’s desk, where it will almost undoubtedly be signed into law.

Donald Trump’s New York business fraud case is going so badly for him that the former president is now throwing any strategy at the wall to see what sticks.

Trump’s lawyers requested a mistrial on Wednesday, accusing presiding Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk of behavior that undermines the trial’s fairness.

“This appearance of bias threatens both Defendants’ rights and the integrity of the judiciary as an institution,” the filing said. “Only the grant of a mistrial can salvage what is left of the rule of law.”

Trump’s attorneys took particular issue with Allison Greenfield, the law clerk who has repeatedly blocked Trump’s attempt to slow the trial. They said she had been given an inappropriately prominent role in the trial, despite the fact that Greenfield is a trained lawyer. Law clerks also usually do most of the research for a trial and draft court orders, which the judge then signs.

Trump’s lawyers also accused Engoron of sharing newspaper stories about the case in a newsletter linked to the high school where he graduated.

It will be up to Engoron to decide whether to grant a mistrial, which seems highly unlikely. The judge has made clear he intends to suffer no fools during this trial. He has already slapped Trump and Trump’s lawyers with multiple gag orders, after they repeatedly attacked Engoron and Greenfield both in court and on social media.

The ongoing trial is really just to set damages. The New York attorney general accused Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and other company executives of fraudulently inflating the value of various real estate assets to get more favorable terms on bank loans. Engoron determined in September that Trump committed fraud.

Engoron ordered that all Trump’s New York business certificates be canceled, making it nearly impossible to do business in the state and effectively killing the Trump Organization.

This article has been updated.