Former President Donald Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million “from foreign states and their leaders” during his time in office, according to a new report by House Democrats.

The findings come from a years-long investigation from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in the report.

Read the full report.

Democrats used records obtained from Trump’s longtime accounting firm, worked out as part of a lengthy court battle, plus publicly available information to track payments from at least 20 countries, according to the report. And in addition to the report, Democrats released hundreds of pages of documents detailing payments they found.

A bulk of those payments came from the Chinese government and state-owned business. But they cautioned that their figures were a “conservative” estimate and likely incomplete after Republicans dropped the investigation after taking over the majority last year, ending additional document production.

The release of the report comes as Republicans are nearing a decision point in their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which has focused on the business deals of his family members. Republicans voted to formalize that inquiry last month, even as several said they hadn’t yet seen a direct link between actions taken by the president and the financial arrangements.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), in a statement responding to the report, said, “It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump.”

Democrats and some ethics officials have argued for years that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids a president from profiting from foreign governments, after he didn’t divest himself from his real estate empire and other business holdings. And while Trump faced lawsuits over the issue, the Supreme Court declared two of the lawsuits moot shortly after he left office.

Democrats are expected to release a separate report on potential domestic spending violations, noting that documents they received raised “significant potential conflicts of interest and potential violations of the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause.”

And they are vowing to propose legislation to make reforms, though those bills could be stuck in limbo given Republicans’ narrow majority in the House. That legislative package is expected to include, among provisions, a requirement that the president and other senior executive officials disclose to Congress any foreign emoluments they received and set up a procedure to seek congressional authorization for receiving and keeping them.

“We will develop a package of proposed legislative reforms to ensure that all occupants of the Oval Office abide by the Constitution’s unequivocal language commanding loyalty to the interests of the American people,” Raskin wrote.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond when asked for comment.

Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down Wednesday on Republicans’ push for stricter border policies — but stopped short of embracing his right flank’s demand to shut down the government without action.

Those critical funding deadlines are rapidly approaching, with the first set to hit on Jan. 19 and the second in early February. Senators have worked to strike a separate, bipartisan deal on border security and foreign aid for more than a month, but have so far failed to reach an agreement, even after the White House took a more aggressive role in the talks.

Asked about shutting down the government during a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border with dozens of other House Republicans, Johnson cautioned that it was “too early to pre-judge any of that,” pointing to ongoing negotiations with the White House over government funding. But as Washington draws closer to the first deadline — and still lacks an agreement even on overall spending levels — he warned that Republicans are “resolved” on their “top two priorities.”

“We want to get the border closed and secured… and we want to make sure that we reduce non-defense discretionary spending,” Johnson said.

Johnson and his colleagues used the Texas trip to hammer the Biden administration over what they characterized as a lack of action on the border, a hot-button issue they plan to use as a top cudgel against Democrats heading into November. Several conservative Republicans are urging Johnson to shut down the government unless they secure significant migration policy changes — a strategy some in that group say got support from Texas officials and others they met with during the trip.

“Multiple Texas stakeholders — from property rights advocates to sheriffs — urged us to shut down the border or shut down the government. It is refreshing that Speaker Johnson curated such an important and clear message,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the ouster of Johnson’s predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Asked during a subsequent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper how seriously he takes threats from his right flank to oppose government funding, Johnson reiterated that the border and cutting spending are Republicans’ top priorities but “I’m not going to address hypotheticals.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) preempted Johnson’s trip by urging House GOP leadership in a Tuesday letter to be ready to partially shut down the government without significant border concessions. Without the latter, he warned, he will vote against any government funding or aid package.

“We must make funding for federal government operations contingent on the President signing H.R.2, or its functional equivalent, into law,” Roy wrote in a letter to his colleagues, referring to a conservative-favored border bill that Democrats have widely rejected. He added that he skipped Wednesday’s trip because “our people … are tired of meetings, speeches, and press conferences.”

House Republicans passed the sweeping bill last year, which would raise the asylum standard and fund the continued building of the border wall, in addition to other GOP migration priorities. Senate Majority Chuck Schumer has said the legislation is a non-starter in his chamber, urging bipartisan border negotiators to come to another type of consensus.

Still, any deal reached by those senators would still need to get through the House, where Johnson and other Republicans have reiterated that H.R. 2 is their standard. Though some House Republicans have been briefed on the status of discussions, the conference has largely remained on the sidelines of those ongoing talks.

“Our position is very clear and we have made that clear for seven months: H.R. 2 is the necessary ingredient,” Johnson said on Wednesday.

Underscoring the gulf between the two chambers, Schumer warned reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday that “when the House clings to H.R. 2 as the only solution … we’re not going to get a deal.”

“I think if the Senate gets something done in a bipartisan way, it will put enormous pressure on the House to get something done as well,” Schumer added.

The White House and the administration also also went on defense ahead of Johnson’s border presser, accusing Republicans of paying lip service.

“Actions speak louder than words,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement first obtained by POLITICO. “House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request.”

A senior administration official added that Johnson and House Republicans “should stop playing politics and work with the administration and the Senate to pass meaningful reforms.”

Meanwhile, Republicans are also ramping up a revived effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border, which would make him the first Cabinet official to be impeached since 1876.

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) will hold hearings this month related to that effort, and has pledged that his committee will vote on an impeachment resolution. The first hearing will be on Jan. 10.

“The cause of the problem is Alejandro Mayorkas. … Accountability is coming, I promise,” he said on Wednesday.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement ahead of Republicans’ border trip that there is “no valid basis to impeach Secretary Mayorkas, as senior members of the House majority have attested, and this extreme impeachment push is a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities.”

Support within the conference for impeaching Mayorkas has quietly been gaining steam behind the scenes. But Republicans still have a rough path given their thinning majority, a handful of openly skeptical members and Democrats’ likely unanimous opposition. Rep. Bill Johnson’s (R-Ohio) departure on Jan. 21 will bring them down to a two-vote margin. Plus, Democrats are feeling optimistic about their chances to flip former GOP Rep. George Santos’ seat during a Feb. 13 special election.

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

House Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx said Wednesday that Harvard University President Claudine Gay’s resignation was the right step — but it won’t stop her and her committee’s antisemitism probe.

“It was the right thing to do, but it’s not going to end our investigation,” Foxx (R-N.C.) told a small group of reporters at the Capitol.

The committee will be “investigating many schools in terms of how they are handling antisemitism, DEI and where is their focus these days,” Foxx added, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion policies that conservative Republicans have increasingly decried.

Gay’s resignation at the Ivy League institution, where she will remain on faculty, comes after scrutiny over her response to antisemitism on campus and allegations of plagiarism.

Gay, in a letter announcing that she would step down as president, said that “it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign.” Gay, the first Black woman to lead the institution, added that she had been “subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”

Top House Republicans quickly claimed victory after pushing for Gay’s resignation since her appearance before Foxx’s committee during a Dec. 5 hearing on campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The hearing prompted fierce backlash from House Republicans, who focused much of their rhetorical firepower on Gay. Foxx, during the hearing, called Harvard a “ground zero for antisemitism,” while Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a Harvard alum, reiterated her call for Gay’s resignation.

She is the second college president to step down since that hearing, following University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.

In the wake of the hearing, Foxx opened up an investigation into the “learning environments” at Harvard, Penn and MIT, whose president, Sally Kornbluth, also testified at the hearing. The House passed a resolution condemning their remarks last month.

Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday there’s still no border deal — but reiterated that there’s been “progress” and that negotiations are “closer than we have been” in past weeks.

“We need to fix the border,” the Senate majority leader said. “There’s virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that. We just have to figure out how to do it in a way that can get 60 votes here in the Senate and the majority of us there in the House.”

Schumer said the Biden administration has been “very closely involved” with talks over winter break. But after more than a month of negotiations, hopes that a deal would come together by this week seem increasingly unlikely. And when Congress returns next week, they’ll be bogged down by other lingering to-dos, including dual government funding deadlines in January and February.

The New York Democrat did not identify a deadline for negotiators, who are trying to find a path forward on a supplemental spending package that would tie together border security policy and foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. He also did not make any commitments on whether he would move government funding legislation or the supplemental spending package first.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lead Democrat in the border talks, said negotiators are hoping to have a deal to present to members when they return for session next week.

“I think if the Senate gets something done in a bipartisan way, it will put enormous pressure on the House to get something done as well and not just [going to let] these hard-right people get up and say they’re going to let the 30 of them to dictate how the whole country should work,” Schumer said.

And on government funding: Schumer said budget negotiators, who are trying to reach a bipartisan agreement on overall funding levels, have also made progress and are “quite close.” The first government shutdown deadline is Jan. 19.

“I’m hopeful that we can get a budget agreement soon and I’m hopeful that we could avoid a shutdown, given the good progress we’ve made. That is certainly not out of the question, as some people have said it would be,” Schumer noted.

GOP Rep. Alex Mooney said “there is not” a chance he would abandon his West Virginia Senate primary bid against Gov. Jim Justice in favor of seeking reelection to his House seat.

“That’s wishful thinking on their part,” he told West Virginia Metro News’ “Talkline” radio show. “I think they’re afraid of me.”

A September poll found Justice ahead of Mooney by more than 30 percentage points in the GOP primary. But Mooney argues the contours of the race have changed since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced he would not seek reelection to his seat.

“Jim Justice is Joe Manchin 2.0. They’re basically the same,” Mooney said in the interview. “Why accept a liberal Republican when you can have a true conservative, especially with Joe Manchin now retiring?”

Mooney offered his roadmap for winning: “I’m unknown in the southern part of the state right now. … But as the election gets closer — and I’m able to define that I’m a conservative and that he is not — I believe the voters will turn to me and elect me in the primary, just as they did in the race against [former Rep.] David McKinley two years ago.”

Justice campaign manager Roman Stauffer, in response to Mooney’s remarks, called the governor’s opponent “a desperate, losing candidate being propped up by one of the largest Never Trump Super PACs in the country” while highlighting Justice’s conservative bonafides.

The primaries will take place on May 14.

All top five House GOP leaders are now backing Donald Trump after Majority Whip Tom Emmer endorsed the ex-president who helped tank his speakership bid last year.

The Minnesota Republican, who has also served as the House GOP campaign chief, said in a statement Wednesday morning that he backed Trump — a day after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) publicly endorsed the Republican presidential frontrunner. Speaker Mike Johnson announced he supported the former president shortly after the Louisianan was elected to lead the conference.

“Democrats have made clear they will use every tool in their arsenal to try to keep Joe Biden and his failed policies in power. We cannot let them,” Emmer said in a statement. “It’s time for Republicans to unite behind our party’s clear frontrunner, which is why I’m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President.”

Emmer’s endorsement is particularly notable compared to the rest of GOP leadership, however. Some of his Republican colleagues believe he’s been reluctant to embrace Trump, even before the ex-president personally worked to derail Emmer’s speakership bid after Kevin McCarthy was ousted in October. Trump dismissed Emmer’s bid on Truth Social, arguing the gavel-hopeful was “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and a “Globalist RINO.” The former president also individually called House GOP members to express his disapprobation with Emmer.

Hours after the conference nominated him, Emmer dropped out of the race without taking his bid to a House floor vote.

The united backing of top House GOP leaders comes less than two weeks before the first real test of the Republican presidential primary, when Iowa caucuses gather on Jan. 15. Meanwhile, Trump’s support in the Senate stands in stark contrast to the other chamber, as the former president still has a frosty relationship with GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson will resign from Congress on Jan. 21 to become the new head of Youngstown State University, a move that will further shrink the tight House GOP majority.

Johnson’s departure, coming on the heels of the resignation of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), means Republicans will control just 219 seats. Once he leaves, the GOP can only lose two members of their conference for a vote to pass.

“Bill submitted his official resignation from Congress today, effective at the end of day on January 21, 2024, paving the way for him to begin his presidency this month,” Michael Peterson, chair of the school’s board of trustees, wrote in a message to the university community.

Peterson said the decision means having Johnson on campus “earlier than anticipated” and that the outgoing congressman will “continue to visit campus as often as his schedule allows to continue meeting with students, faculty and staff.”

Johnson announced his decision to accept the university post in late November, but had yet to announce a departure date from Congress.

Several members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are headed to the Middle East this week, including a planned meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told reporters on Tuesday.

The New York Democrat said she has two goals for the trip: Find out how much of a threat Hamas still is and what it will take to eventually end the war started by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. She said “at least four colleagues” will be joining her and it will be a bipartisan group, with plans to leave on Tuesday evening and return on Monday as Senate session resumes.

“The reason why several codels (congressional delegations) are going to the Middle East right now is because we are talking to our allies and partners about what that path to peace would look like, and what the next few months holds. It’s essential that we defeat terrorism in the region. But it’s very, very helpful if we have allies helping us defeat terrorism,” Gillibrand said.

She suggested that building on the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements struck in 2020 to allow diplomatic relations between Israel and certain Arab countries, would create more partners to defeat Iran and its allies in the Middle East. And then “you’d have the outlines of a path to peace and an ability to rebuild a second state a Palestinian state.”

Also hanging over it all: The Senate’s work on a supplemental bill that would send billions more in aid to Israel. Theoretically, lawmakers want it to hitch a ride along with Ukraine, Taiwan and border security provisions. Gillibrand said she has “faith in our negotiators. So I’m not losing hope that we could have a four-corner deal.”