Two supervising prosecutors accused City Attorney Feldstein Soto of dropping a price gouging case against a major campaign donor due to political favoritism, while another group challenged her decision to delete 10-year-old criminal case data.
As she runs for re-election, L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto faces turmoil and claims of unethical behavior from career prosecutors in her office, who have accused her of favoring political donors in criminal cases and questioned her administrative decisions and demeanor.
The allegations have been laid out in emails and a memo obtained by LAist, as well as a sworn declaration to a court. In emails to colleagues earlier this year, two supervising prosecutors questioned the city attorney’s directive to drop a price gouging case against a major campaign donor. One claimed it’s part of a pattern by Feldstein Soto. In interviews with LAist, Feldstein Soto denied ever allowing money or personal relationships to affect her decisions.
“That’s not how I roll,” she said. Instead, Feldstein Soto said her decisions were based on a policy she put in place to follow the Constitution. Feldstein Soto said pushback from her office’s prosecutions branch is in response to her efforts to reform the City Attorney’s Office.
“I was elected to change the status quo. I’m still doing that. And people who benefited under the old status quo have a different agenda,” she said. As she runs for re-election, L.A.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto faces turmoil and claims of unethical behavior from career prosecutors in her office who have accused her of favoring political donors in criminal cases and questioned her administrative decisions and demeanor. The allegations have been laid out in emails and a memo obtained by LAist, as well as a sworn declaration to a court.earlier this year, two supervising prosecutors questioned the city attorney’s directive to drop a price gouging case against a major campaign donor.
One claimed it’s part of a pattern by Feldstein Soto.
“This latest instruction now to dismiss an active case fully supported by the evidence showing not just probable cause, but a high likelihood of conviction by a jury at trial is improper and unethical,”, who leads the unit handling price gouging prosecutions, in a Feb. 3 email to colleagues. “Especially in light of the fact that we have confirmed that the parties involved are campaign donors. " Kong did not respond to requests for comment.
Office policy prohibits him and almost all other City Attorney staff from speaking to the media. In interviews with LAist, Feldstein Soto denied ever allowing money or personal relationships to affect her decisions.
“That’s not how I roll,” she said. Instead, Feldstein Soto said her decisions were based on a policy she put in place to follow the Constitution. , sent to higher-ups in the office in December, a different group of supervising prosecutors pushed back on Feldstein Soto’s decision to delete criminal case data that’s more than 10 years old.
Feldstein Soto told LAist deleting the older data was a prudent step to make sure sensitive information from older criminal cases — which— doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Her office later said the older data will be kept on a physical backup, with prosecutors' access restricted. It’s unclear whether that’s been followed through on.
While Feldstein Soto has dealt with these criticisms from career staff, a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit from a different, former senior prosecutor — alleging misconduct by Feldstein Soto — has been working its way through the courts.the city attorney illegally ordered prosecutors to drop a case in order to help her friend and a major donor. The plaintiff, Michelle McGinnis, alleges she was fired in retaliation for opposing and disclosing unlawful actions by Feldstein Soto.
The city attorney and the city’s lawyers in the suit have denied the claims, saying Feldstein Soto disciplined her for legitimate reasons. , “a reasonable trier of fact could conclude plaintiff’s protected activity was a contributing factor in defendant’s adverse employment actions against her. ”of the main LAPD officers’ union over the handling of a massive data breach that exposed confidential files about officers.
The police union and county District Attorney Nathan Hochman are Feldstein Soto told LAist the pushback from the criminal branch of her office is in response to her efforts to reform the City Attorney’s Office.
“I came into this office under a cloud of corruption. Twenty percent of our City Council were indicted or in jail. Six lawyers in this office were under investigation,” Feldstein Soto said.
“I was elected to change the status quo. I’m still doing that. And people who benefited under the old status quo have a different agenda. ”In February, Feldstein Soto directed prosecutors to drop two of those cases.
, was concerned the defendants did not receive cease and desist letters before the charges, did not think there was enough evidence to charge people who manage the company and did not believe the cases were an appropriate use of the office’s “limited resources. ” Marcus wrote that Feldstein Soto agreed with his suggestion to dismiss the cases after they “verify that any victim of illegal price increases received restitution and was made whole.
”that the order was “improper and unethical” because the case was strong and one of the defendants had donated to Feldstein Soto’s campaign.
“It is safe to say that a pattern has now emerged of the City Attorney's personal interest in protecting her donors,” Kong wrote. “We cannot have that. ”of more than tripling its normal boarding prices to evacuees of the Eaton Fire. The Paddock Riding Club apologized after online backlash and said it was working to rectify the situation.
The City Attorney’s Office confirmed that one person paid the riding club about $1,900 at the higher rate and was later refunded. The lead individual defendant’s first and last name, birthdate and address corresponds with Alex Chaves Sr., who stewards the property and lives there, according to. When reached for comment, his son — also named Alex Chaves — told LAist that the Paddock is “my dad’s place.
” Karen Richardson, a spokesperson for the city attorney, said Feldstein Soto’s office does not know if the father or son is the defendant. Around the time they filed the Paddock case in early December, prosecutors also filed price gouging charges against another horse boarding business — Gibson Ranch in Sunland — and its owner. Feldstein Soto told prosecutors to also drop that case when she ordered the Paddock case dropped.
The Gibson Ranch defendants do not show up as donating to Feldstein Soto in campaign contribution searches. That case was dismissed this month. Their defense attorney, Greg Yacoubian, said the price gouging law did not apply in the Gibson Ranch case because it compared prices charged by a new owner with those from the previous owner at that location.
The arraignment hearing for the Paddock case has been postponed twice since Feldstein Soto’s early February directive to dismiss it, and is now scheduled for June 18.
“We have not moved to dismiss because the Office is confirming the evidence in the case in accordance with appropriate practice, policies, and procedures,” said a city attorney spokesperson. Scott Marcus, chief of the city attorney’s criminal branch, at a Feb. 26 court hearing in the Paddock case, where he told the judge the arraignment was being postponed.
Feldstein Soto called claims of favoritism “nonsense,” telling LAist she knew who the Paddock defendants were but not whether they donated to her campaign. She said she wanted to dismiss the two price gouging cases because prosecutors failed to follow a policy she put in place in 2023 — to only prosecute company leaders for the actions of their business if they were actively involved in committing the act or failed to fix the problem after being put on notice they could face charges.
A spokesperson for Feldstein Soto’s administration said the City Attorney’s Office has sent warning letters to almost all of the roughly 1,100 potential price gouging defendants from the wildfires as a way to achieve “compliance and restitution without having to file criminal or even civil charges. ”forwarded to colleagues who advise on ethics compliance, Kong and another supervising prosecutor in his unit expressed alarm at Feldstein Soto’s directive. Kong called the Paddock case"righteous" and described an “ethical conundrum.
” “I do not want to place our supervisors, our line deputies, or myself in a position where they will be compromised in any shape or form or worse, an accessory to unethical conduct,” Kong wrote. He also noted the law does not require warning letters before filing price gouging charges. , McGinnis — the former criminal branch chief ousted by Feldstein Soto — alleged a range of ethics violations by the city attorney.
Among them, McGinnis wrote that Feldstein Soto told prosecutors to dismiss a building safety prosecution where the defense attorney was a friend whose wife was a maximum donor to her campaign. That case — against Zenith Insurance and its then-CEO Kari Lynn Van Gundy — alleged 14 criminal violations of building safety laws, including around fire safety and exit doors.
Court records show Feldstein Soto’s office dropped the charges against Van Gundy in January 2024, followed by dropping the case against the company in September 2024. Campaign finance records corroborate the donation described in the allegations. Defense attorney Ben Reznik’s wife gave a maximum campaign contribution to the city attorney in 2022, per campaign filings. Feldstein Soto said she knows Reznik’s wife through social circles.
The city attorney denied friendships or donations have ever had anything to do with her decisions.
“ I've prosecuted tons of cases,” Feldstein Soto said. “I've filed cross complaints against all kinds of people, including donors who have called me up spitting and yelling, OK? ” Reznik told LAist that Feldstein Soto’s recommendation was to dismiss only the charges against the then-CEO — Van Gundy — but not against the company itself. The CEO “had no clue” about the building matters that the case was about, he said.
“There was absolutely no basis to name the individual of the company” as a defendant, Reznik said. The case, he said, was about “very minor infractions” regarding building codes like fire doors, some of which he said did not apply to the building in question. After fixing the issues that were cited and getting clearance from the fire department, the charges against the company were dismissed, Reznik said.
, Feldstein Soto pressed hard — “without evidence” — to McGinnis and LAPD leaders for charges to be filed against an activist she thought had protested outside the home of another major donor. In that case, McGinnis wrote that LAPD commanders demanded a meeting with city attorney managers to object to Feldstein Soto’s pressure. The city attorney says she later declined to file charges. Feldstein Soto’s office says that allegation has “no truth.
” As for the alleged meeting with LAPD leadership, her spokesperson said: “We have no knowledge of how the meeting came about and what happened at the meeting. ” “In no uncertain terms, the City Attorney did not and would not pressure a client on any issue,” added the spokesperson.
Following the judge’s ruling that the city’s evidence “falls far short” of proving Feldstein Soto disciplined McGinnis for legitimate reasons, the lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in early 2027.objecting to what they described as a plan to “purge all data” older than 10 years from the office’s text-only database of criminal case details, known as the Criminal Case Management System, or CCMS, as it migrates to a new system.
City attorney policy has been to destroy physical paper records of criminal cases, while the database of case information has been kept for decades, except for specific types of cases where deletion is required by law.was from three supervising prosecutors: Stacey Anthony, who directly supervises about three dozen criminal prosecutors, and two of her deputies. They warned that deleting the data would harm victims and defendants because it’s often the only remaining source of crucial information.
They wrote that the older data is used daily for a variety of crucial tasks — including strengthening rape and murder cases, evaluating the history of criminal defendants, generating letters for employment and immigration purposes that no charges were filed against an arrested person, and vetting criminal histories for police officers and others seeking licenses, credentials and firearm permits. The supervising prosecutors wrote that it’s crucial that the older information be made readily accessible to prosecutors on a daily basis.
The info is used for up to 50 requests per day to their part of the criminal branch alone, according to Feldstein Soto and her office spokesperson initially confirmed the plan to delete the data altogether.
“I wanted to purge everything older than three years…but 10 years seems to be the consensus for how long we need to keep anything,” Feldstein Soto told LAist in December. Feldstein Soto said deleting the data was a prudent step to make sure information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Her office said it does not have any evidence the database has been misused.
She said she’s looked in the database just once, looking up herself and seeing information about an old DUI case against her,was posted on social media by an advocacy group. The post shows a public printout from the court summarizing the charges, without the kinds of detailed info that would be in the office database.
In January, a spokesperson for Feldstein Soto’s office said the plan is to keep the older case data on an encrypted hard drive that will be more restrictive for prosecutors to access. She and her spokespeople have not answered questions in recent weeks about whether case data has already been deleted, nor whether they’ve developed the specific policies for prosecutors’ access.
Feldstein Soto told LAist she had to learn quickly about criminal law after being elected in late 2022 as the top elected boss above the city’s prosecutors.
“You realize, I had no criminal background. So this was all learning on the job,” she said. Her experience before being elected was in bankruptcy and corporate law. A direct bus service connecting Palmdale and Lancaster with Santa Monica Beach is returning for the summer season, L.A.
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced Friday. Barger said the bus helps the desert communities affordably access cooler coasts, which she described as one of Southern California’s greatest treasures.
“Every family in the Antelope Valley deserves a day at the beach, and the Beach Bus makes that possible,” she said in a statement. The buses will start running on Monday, Memorial Day. After kickoff, the service will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Last day of service is Labor Day, Sept. 7, according to Barger’s office.at 9 a.m. and arrive at Santa Monica Beach a little before 11 a.m. The return trip will leave Santa Monica Beach at 3 p.m., arriving in Palmdale around 5:30 p.m. Riders can board at theat 8:30 a.m. and arrive at Santa Monica Beach a little before 11 a.m. The return trip will leave Santa Monica Beach at 3 p.m. and arrive back in Lancaster around 5:45 p.m. Riders can board atFor questions about the service, call 458-3909 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. People who are hard of hearing can dial 711 to connect to the California Relay Service.
You can alsoNorman Jr., an 8-foot prop werewolf, was erected by Pastor Tim Hartley on the scorched lot of a sobering living house in West Altadena operated by the Episcopalian Diocese of Los Angeles. A prop werewolf put up for Halloween by Altadena residents became a symbol of pride after the Eaton Fire. It's also divided the community.
Norman Jr., as the werewolf is affectionately known, appeared on this burned-out corner lot in West Altadena just days after the fire, replacing a previous werewolf that popped up on the property a few years earlier. Both belong to Jubilee House, a large sober living home for men operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
One of the residents bought the original werewolf just in time for Halloween a few years ago and named him Norman — a nod to the home’s eerie resemblance to Norman Bates’ house in the 1960 classic slasher film Psycho. Photos of the wolfman wearing the outfits the caretaker created started blowing up on social media, and life started returning to the neighborhood, with the pace of rebuilding picking up speed.
That’s when the little green taco truck from the San Fernando Valley appeared.burned across Altadena a year and half ago, an unusual sight reappeared up amid the ashes and debris: a giant werewolf wearing a large T-shirt, with a big rainbow-colored heart that said, “I love Altadena. ” “Where he sits on that hill, the sun behind him when we were there in the evening, the sun was setting and the clouds were perfect.
It was just such a weirdly hopeful thing,” said Taylor Jennings, who was visiting from Fresno last summer when he saw Norman standing over the fire-torn intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Mariposa Street.
“All around there’s devastation, and there’s an 8-foot werewolf. At that point, I realized how Altadena is feral, and he just seemed like the perfect mascot,” Jennings said. Norman Jr., as the werewolf is affectionately known, appeared on this burned-out corner lot in West Altadena just days after the fire, replacing a previous werewolf that popped up on the property a few years earlier.
Both belong to Jubilee House, a large sober living home for men operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. One of the residents bought the original werewolf just in time for Halloween a few years ago and named him Norman — a nod to the home’s eerie resemblance to Norman Bates’ house in the 1960 classic slasher film Psycho.
“Every year I bought candy, every year,” Woodruff said, laughing, as he stood on the cleared lot near Norman Jr. “And I always ended up being the one eating all the candy! ” That changed after Norman appeared on the front lawn. The trick-or-treaters came in droves, lured by the werewolf’s grinning fangs and gnarled outstretched arms. They’d stop and take pictures with Norman and leave gifts and thank you notes.
So, the guys at the house decided to keep him up year-round and started creating new outfits for Norman to mark the changing of the seasons.
“Summer was coming up, we can get the Big-and-Tall catalog, we can order him a tank top,” Woodruff recalled. “And then I went online, and I found some oversized sunglasses,” he said, chuckling at the memory.
Then came the fire. All ten residents of Jubilee House got out safely, but the place burned to the ground. Among the debris lay the mangled pieces of Norman’s metal limbs.
“The first time I came up, I didn’t expect to be so disoriented, you probably experienced this, too,” said Pastor Tim Hartley, the director of the Jubilee House program. “I didn’t know where I was.
” A few weeks later, hoping to boost morale, Hartley started shopping for and found a replacement: Norman Jr. “Once we put up that werewolf, it became this landmark that people could use for where they were in Altadena, as well as this source of hope for people,” Hartley said.
“He’s kind of a symbol for people in town who for their whole life have struggled to ever feel like they fit in because they’re eccentric or different or stand out,” Escamilla said. After the fire, he became an advocate and community booster, helping to organize rallies and fundraisers. Escamilla’s hard to miss, usually pulling up to community events on his motorcycle, sporting a red durag, with a raccoon tail dangling from the back of his waistband.
“You feel like you’re now in a community that embraces the weird, the unusual, and so for me, Norman represents the message that we embrace and appreciate the strange and unusual in this town,” Escamilla said. “They’re often unfairly targeted, and I always felt like I related to that on some subconscious level and have always loved monsters for the fact that they can be loved,” Escamilla said.
“Symbols of things that were previously seen as repugnant are now seen as something that represents love and acceptance, and I find that rather special. ” Norman Jr.’s main character was another Altadena resident who lost her home. She stepped up to the task, creating new seasonal outfits and making sure he stayed upright when it was stormy.
On a spring day, she draped the werewolf’s plastic and metal body and articulated limbs in a form-fitting fake fur suit with a big red heart on its chest, hand-stitched for his frame.
“She honored this space in a way that I just appreciated,” Hartley said. “And then she’d say, he’s a little rickety, so I’m going to put out the word to have people come help me secure him, and these strangers would all gather to help, which I just loved. ” Norman Jr.’s caretaker declined to be interviewed and asked that we not use her name.
But she did explain how Norman’s corner became a refuge for her after losing her home in the fire. Photos of the wolfman wearing the outfits she created started blowing up on social media, and life started returning to the neighborhood, with the pace of rebuilding picking up speed. Behind the wheel was Rigoberto Gonzales.
Also, a plumber who moonlights doing work on home rebuilds around town, Gonzales saw a need for food options that could appeal to the growing army of construction workers. Knowing nothing about Norman’s story, he parked his lime green truck beneath the giant oak tree that shares the same corner. Norman’s caretaker was not happy. She asked Gonzales to move, even though his vehicle didn’t disturb or block access to the werewolf.
“Every time I see her, she was so mad, for no reason,” Gonzales said, as he took a break from the truck on a recent afternoon. The conflict simmered for weeks. Gonzales said he felt unfairly targeted. He said he asked her why he needed to move.
The caretaker quit caring for Norman, claiming she felt unsafe. Gonzales insisted that not he, nor any of his staff or customers, ever harassed the caretaker in any way.
Then, a group of fire survivors, who never bothered talking to Gonzales or the property managers, rallied behind the caretaker. They accused Gonzales of exploiting a vulnerable, traumatized community and ruining the sacredness of Norman Jr.’s corner. Others threatened to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or LA County Public Health. In a community forum on Facebook, one person “joked” about putting nails under his tires.
Another person suggested setting off “stink bombs. ” Local therapist and activist Melissa Lopez said a few people tied to that same Facebook group later showed up to hassle Gonzales in person. After that confrontation, they appeared to have backed off.
“That hurts, to see some of these violent reactions, to say they were going to bring a truck and wall off the area to him,” Lopez said. “People are gathering up pitchforks, and scary. ” Things eventually cooled down, but not without some sore feelings. Norman’s caretaker still hasn’t returned.
But Norman Jr. continues to be looked after by his community of admirers — including Lopez, who just got a colorful Norman Jr. tattoo on her calf. Lopez said she found some similarity between the friction over Norman Jr. and a recent monster movie, director Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Frankenstein film. In the adaptation, she said, the scientist gives Frankenstein’s creature a voice, and the creature tells his story.
“It’s so beautiful because of that, because you get to see that he’s been dehumanized, that we created a monster,” Lopez said. ” And I think that’s so true of society. We create the monsters, and how quickly we go to ostracize, to condemn people. ”If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report.
Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. Crews are actively cleaning the scene along Cesar E. Chavez and Eastern avenues, where gallons of crude oil spilled onto the street. An underground oil pipe ruptured overnight Friday in East Los Angeles, spilling crude oil onto nearby streets, into storm drains and the Los Angeles River, authorities said.
Firefighters responded to a hazmat incident at about 3:19 a.m. Friday at E. Cesar E. Chavez and N. Eastern avenues, according to L.A. County Fire Department Public Information Officer Pauline Ncgee. Officials said early reports indicated a boring crew conducting directional drilling for a fiber optic line struck a 16-inch petroleum pipeline. Fire officials estimate between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons were spilled.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office said the spill later reached the Los Angeles River and was moving downstream toward Long Beach and the ocean. Cleanup crews from various agencies were at the scene, including the U.S. Coast Guard and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. L.A. County Fire said the surface-level cleanup was expected to be completed by the end of the day, but added that long-term cleanup and damage assessment will likely take days.
An underground oil pipe ruptured overnight Friday in East Los Angeles, spilling crude oil onto nearby streets, into storm drains and the Los Angeles River, authorities said. Firefighters responded to a hazmat incident at about 3:19 a.m. Friday at E. Cesar E. Chavez and N. Eastern avenues, according to L.A. County Fire Department Public Information Officer Pauline Ncgee. Officials said early reports indicated a boring crew conducting directional drilling for a fiber optic line struck a 16-inch petroleum pipeline.
The pipeline was spilling at about 5 gallons per second before it was shut off, Ncgee said. Los Angeles County Fire Department public information officer Jonathan Torres said they estimate between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons were spilled. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office said the spill later reached the Los Angeles River and was moving downstream toward Long Beach and the ocean.
“I am calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into this incident to determine how this occurred and to ensure all responsible parties are held accountable. The environmental consequences of this spill are deeply concerning, and every agency involved must respond with the urgency this situation demands,” said Solis in a statement. Cleanup crews from various agencies were at the scene, including the U.S. Coast Guard and California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
LA County Fire said the surface-level cleanup was expected to be completed by the end of the day, but added that long-term cleanup and damage assessment will likely take days.for multiple streets surrounding the spill. Solis’ office said only one business was affected at the intersection and will remain closed until further notice. The pipeline flows about 2,000 barrels of crude oil per hour and runs from Kern County to the Port of Los Angeles, Ncgee said.
Authorities initially said the pipeline carried 4,600 barrels per hour but later corrected the number. As of 8:40 a.m., a strong smell of gas lingered near the scene, which was about a block away from Esteban E. Torres High School. Boyle Heights resident Cruz Flores said he was late dropping off his brother at Esteban E. Torres High School because of the street closures.
“A lot of students were late,” Flores said. “I’m just concerned about the students because you could smell it over there by the school. ”A person at the front desk at Torres High, who did not want to provide their name, said the school remained open and the students and staff were provided with masks.
Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June. The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump's military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it.
It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval. The White House argues that the requirements of the War Powers Resolution no longer apply because of the ceasefire with Iran.
At the same time, Trump has said he was just an hour away from ordering another strike on Iran earlier this week, but held off because Gulf allies said they were engaged in negotiations to end the war. Still, Trump said on social media that military leaders should"be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.
" Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off. WASHINGTON — Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June. The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump's military campaign.
But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.
"We had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they're playing a political game," said Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, who sponsored the bill. Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote.
The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Trump's handling of the war. Rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly willing to defy the president over the conflict. House Republican Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that the vote was delayed to give lawmakers who were absent a chance to vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not answer questions from reporters as he exited the House chamber.
On Capitol Hill, patience with the war has worn thin as the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz disrupts global shipping and elevates gas prices in the U.S. Another House war powers resolution nearly passed last week, falling on a tie vote as three Republicans voted in favor. Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had the votes"locked in" this time around.
"People are beginning to finally listen to the American people who don't support the war in Iran, and I think there's a growing number of Republicans who see how devastating the war has been for our country," said Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state. The lone Democrat who voted against the war powers resolution last week, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, has said he will vote in favor of the legislation next time.
In a joint statement, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and other caucus leaders said Republicans were"cowardly" to pull the vote.
"Even as we prepare to recognize our nation's fallen heroes on Memorial Day, House Republicans refuse to show up and be accountable to the brave service members that have been recklessly put in harm's way," they added. Republicans have been broadly supportive of Trump's efforts to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities, but some are now saying the president's legal timeline to wage a war without congressional approval has expired.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, presidents have 60 days to engage in a military conflict before Congress must either declare war or authorize the use of military force.
"We're past 60 days so it's got to be brought to us to vote on. We're following the law," said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, adding that he plans to vote for the war powers resolution. The White House argues that the requirements of the War Powers Resolution no longer apply because of the ceasefire with Iran.
At the same time, Trump has said he was just an hour away from ordering another strike on Iran earlier this week, but held off because Gulf allies said they were engaged in negotiations to end the war. Still, Trump said on social media that military leaders should"be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.
" Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who has so far voted against the war powers resolutions, expressed frustration with the Trump administration's stance, especially from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"The current status quo, Pete Hegseth demonstrates how incompetent he is," Tillis told reporters, adding that he would be willing to vote for an authorization for use of military force. Earlier this week, Democratic senators rallied outside the Capitol Wednesday alongside VoteVets, a left-leaning veterans' advocacy group. They placed signs on the Capitol lawn noting that the nationwide average price of gasoline had risen to $4.53. Sen.
Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who served in the Iraq War with the Air National Guard, argued that the Iran war has amounted to a strategic blunder for Trump.
"Trump started a war, and he's made things worse than before," Duckworth said, pointing to Iran's new leadership and the country's willingness to put a chokehold on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Republican leaders praised Trump for taking what they said was bold action to directly confront Iran, a nation that has been a U.S. adversary for decades.
"I'm an American. I don't believe in getting hit and walking away and pretending as though it didn't happen," said Rep. Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. For Congress, the growing momentum to pass a war powers resolution could eventually lead to a legal showdown over who has the final authority over military conflicts.
The legislation before the House is a concurrent resolution that lawmakers said would take effect without Trump's signature if it passed both chambers of Congress. But Trump has also argued that the 1973 law — passed by Congress during the Vietnam War era in an attempt to take back its power over foreign conflicts — is unconstitutional.
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