Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) was officially sworn into Congress on Wednesday afternoon, putting an end to weeks of delay that caused intense controversy and pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

After her swearing-in ceremony, the House chamber erupted in applause, with Democratic lawmakers chanting "Adelita! Adelita!" She opened with a fiery speech condemning President Donald Trump and the GOP in Congress for enabling the chaos, vowing that the time had come to "hold Donald Trump accountable as the co-equal branch of government that we are."

Grijalva, the daughter of the late progressive Rep. Raul Grijalva, is the first Latina to represent Arizona in the House of Representatives.

She was elected to replace her father in a special election nearly two months ago; however, her swearing-in has been on hold for weeks, with Johnson claiming it could not take place until the federal government shutdown concluded.

Some observers, however, suspected that the real ulterior motive for Johnson was to prevent Grijalva from being the final vote to approve a discharge petition to compel the Trump administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files, hoping to persuade Republicans who had signed the petition to take their names off.

In her first speech as a member of Congress, she also vowed to sign the petition instantly, because "justice cannot wait another day."

A Texas woman supporting President Donald Trump was sentenced to 27 months in prison after threatening a federal judge and others.

According to the Department of Justice, Abigail Shry called the chambers of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in 2023, "and made derogatory statements and threats to anyone that went after then former President Donald Trump."

Shry also threatened "a then sitting congresswoman, all Democrats in Washington D.C. and all people in the LGBTQ community," the DOJ said.

"You are in our sights, we want to kill you. If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you," Shry said in the call.

She later claimed she had the right to make the threats under freedom of speech.

On Wednesday, Shry was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

"Shry appeared to be in disbelief at being sentenced to prison in the case," CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane reported following the hearing. "When speaking to the judge and asking for leniency, Shry said she had 'a fear of her 17 year old son being drafted into a war for her actions.'"

North Carolina Sen. Tillis blocking Trump’s Mississippi nominees

by Taylor Vance and Christa Dutton, NOTUS, Mississippi Today
November 12, 2025

A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi's nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized.

“Roger's one of my favorite people here, and, you know, it's just a matter of using the leverage people use every day here,” Tillis said.

Wicker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed the effort.

Tillis has been a vocal supporter of federal recognition for the Lumbee. He is not running for reelection in 2026, so next year will be his final opportunity to secure a bipartisan bill for the indigenous people.

President Donald Trump has also supported federal recognition for the Lumbee.

Most of North Carolina’s congressional delegation supports federal recognition of the Lumbee. Language granting them federal recognition was added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending blueprint.

But language about the Lumbee was not included in the Senate’s version of the blueprint.

Tillis also said he is negotiating with Wicker over other issues, but he declined to say what the issues were.

In August, Trump nominated Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court, to vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. Trump in July nominated Scott Leary and Baxter Kruger, his choices for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi, respectively.

None of the four nominees responded to requests for comment. Both Wicker and Mississippi’s other U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, support the nominees, though neither is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.