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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security said Friday they have observed “an increasing but modest level of activity online” by people who are calling for violence in response to baseless claims of 2020 election fraud and related to the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated.

“Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized,” according to a DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis bulletin obtained by ABC News.

There is no evidence that shows there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“Over the last few days what has occurred is there’s been much more public visibility, meaning the discussions and these theories have migrated away from being contained within the conspiracy and extremist online communities, to where they’re being the topic of discussion on web forums, or more public web forums, and even within the sort of media ecosystem,” a senior DHS official explained.

DHS says in the bulletin they do not have specific evidence there is a plot imminent.

“As public visibility of the narratives increases, we are concerned about more calls to violence. Reporting indicates that the timing for these activities may occur during August 2021, although we lack information on specific plots or planned actions,” the bulletin sent to state and local partners reads.

The department “does not have the luxury of waiting till we uncover information with the level of specificity, regarding a potential location and the time of an attack” to act on potential threats due to the threat environment, the senior DHS official explained.

“Past circumstances have illustrated that calls for violence could expand rapidly in the public domain and may be occurring outside of publicly available channels. As such, lone offenders and small groups of individuals could mobilize to violence with little-to-no warning,” the bulletin says.

The senior official said that one of the lessons learned from the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol is “that information that may reflect a growing threat may be communicated on public forums.”

“The current threat environment is one which is fueled in large part by conspiracy theories and other false narratives that are spread online by foreign governments, not by foreign terrorist groups [but] by domestic extremist thought leaders, and are consumed by individuals who are predisposed to engage in violence,” the official said.

The official pointed to the events of Jan. 6 and the attacks on the synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, California, as examples.

The senior DHS official also pointed to the balance DHS has to walk when putting out products.

“We don’t want to overreact, but we want to make sure that we are at the earliest stage possible providing awareness to law enforcement and other personnel who are responsible for security and are critical to mitigating risk,” the senior official said, adding the bulletin was done with civil rights and civil liberties in mind.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack will hire former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., as an adviser to the panel, according to a source with direct knowledge of the forthcoming announcement.

The former congressman, who lost his primary last summer, has become one of the few voices inside the Republican Party criticizing the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories, including the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, which led to the Capitol riot.

Riggleman, who also served as an Air Force intelligence officer, is expected to help the committee catalog and track the mistruths that circulated online and on social media before thousands of former President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in Washington and descended on the Capitol hoping to overturn the election results.

A spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ABC News reported earlier this month that according to sources briefed on the discussions, Riggleman could join the committee staff in an advisory capacity.

The committee held its first hearing last week with several police officers who had faced off against pro-Trump rioters at the Capitol in January. With the House now on recess through August, the panel is focused on mapping out the contours of its investigation and building up its staff.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel would issue “quite a few” subpoenas and could potentially seek to question and obtain documents from former Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers who communicated with Trump before and on Jan. 6.

Asked if the committee would want to interview former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, following the release of handwritten notes from former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue that appear to show Trump trying to pressure the Department of Justice to declare there was significant fraud tainting the 2020 presidential election, Thompson said the committee hasn’t determined who it wants to hear from yet.

“The president wanted to mobilize the apparatus of the entire U.S. government to reinstall him as president, essentially,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another panel member, told reporters. “As one member, I am very interested in retracing the steps of what the president did to guarantee what he called his ‘continuation in power.'”

Riggleman would be the third Republican linked to the panel, along with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who both called to impeach Trump and accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to join the investigation over GOP leaders’ efforts to boycott it after Pelosi refused to seat two leading conservative lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

In recent days, other conservative lawmakers have sought to push Cheney and Kinzinger out of the House GOP Conference and strip them of other committee assignments over their work on the committee.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration has announced it is extending pandemic relief for student loan repayments, interest and collections through January 31, 2022, referring to it as the “final” extension.

The pause has been in effect since former President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act in March 2020 and was extended by both him and President Joe Biden. It was most recently set to expire on Sept. 30.

“As our nation’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this final extension will give students and borrowers the time they need to plan for restart and ensure a smooth pathway back to repayment,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “It is the Department’s priority to support students and borrowers during this transition and ensure they have the resources they need to access affordable, high quality higher education.”

The Department of Education says the extension will give borrowers time to plan to resume payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and default.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley applauded the move in a joint statement Friday afternoon.

“We’re pleased the Biden administration has heeded our call to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments, providing an enormous relief to millions of borrowers facing a disastrous financial cliff,” they said. “The payment pause has saved the average borrower hundreds of dollars per month, allowing them to invest in their futures and support their families’ needs.”

Still, the group of lawmakers wants the president to go further and use executive action to cancel $50,000 of student debt.

“Student debt cancellation is one of the most significant actions that President Biden can take right now to build a more just economy and address racial inequity,” the statement said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, last month said the president does not have the power to cancel student debt and that only Congress has that authority.

“He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power,” she said at a press conference.

Borrowers will be notified about the new extension “in the coming days” and the Education Department is expected to provide information about how to plan for restarting payments.

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(WASHINGTON) — A New Jersey man on Friday pleaded guilty to two federal counts of assaulting law enforcement and obstruction of an official proceeding during the January 6 Capitol assault.

Scott Fairlamb is the first accused rioter charged with assaulting law enforcement to plead guilty.

Prosecutors say he was seen in videos stalking a line of officers outside the Capitol before punching one in the head.

Obstruction of an official proceeding carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and the assaulting law enforcement court carries a maximum sentence of 8 years.

Prosecutors said they are seeking a sentence ranging from 41 to 51 months in prison and have said Fairlamb should pay $2,000 restitution.

Fairlamb will likely argue for less time behind bars.

Sentencing memos from both parties are due on September 20 and Fairlamb is scheduled to appear back in court on September 27.

“Are you an American? Act like one!” Fairlamb, a gym owner and former MMA fighter, is heard yelling in a body cam video, which was released to ABC and 13 other media outlets as part of the ongoing legal effort. “You guys have no idea what the f*** you’re doing.”

Prosecutors also flagged videos Fairlamb posted to his Facebook during the riot where they say he’s seen holding a collapsible baton and saying to the camera, “What do Patriots do? We f***in’ disarm them and then we storm the f***in’ Capitol!”

Fairlamb had previously hosted a pandemic protest at his Pompton Lakes gym in response to COVID restrictions and last summer posted a threatening message on Instagram targeting Representative Cori Bush.

While Fairlamb’s attorney has said the government is seeking a 51-month sentence for his client, it’s unclear what D.C. District Judge Royce Lamberth will decide is an appropriate punishment — though it could serve as a benchmark for the more than 150 rioters so far charged with attacking police.

Of the more than 30 rioters who have pleaded guilty so far in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack, only six have been sentenced and none of them to significant time in prison.

A Florida man, Paul Hodgkins, was recently sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of obstructing a congressional proceeding, and two others who had already been in government custody pending trial were sentenced to time served.

There are more than 500 people charged by the Justice Department for their actions on January 6.

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(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A former New York State employee has filed a criminal complaint against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, a spokeswoman told ABC News.

This is believed to be the first complaint filed against the embattled governor in wake of Tuesday’s Attorney General report which concluded he violated state and federal law in sexually harassing at least 11 women.

The woman who filed the complaint is a former assistant to the governor who is identified as “Executive Assistant #1” in Attorney General Letitia James’ report released Tuesday.

“Since approximately late 2019 the Governor engaged in a pattern of inappropriate conduct with Executive Assistant #1,” the report said.

The conduct included close and intimate hugs, kisses, touching and grabbing of her backside and suggestive remarks, according to the investigators. The report listed that Executive Assistant #1 had what appeared to be the most serious allegation against Cuomo, accusing him of reaching under her shirt and fondling her breast in the Executive Mansion in Albany in November 2020.

Cuomo has denied all allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.

Cuomo’s lawyer Rita Glavin said in a response to the report Tuesday that the governor “never groped Ms. X,” adding, “This claim is false, as the Governor has stated repeatedly and unequivocally.”

Earlier this week the lawyer of another accuser, Lindsey Boylan, said she intends to sue Cuomo for allegedly retaliating against her after she came forward.

“Our plan is to sue the governor and his and his co-conspirators,” Boylan’s attorney, Jill Basinger, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” citing the retaliatory actions outlined in the AG report.

The New York State Assembly’s impeachment investigation into Cuomo “is nearing completion,” officials said Thursday, and the Judiciary Committee will meet Monday morning to discuss the probe.

So far at least five district attorney offices — Manhattan, Albany, Westchester County, Nassau County and Oswego County — have launched investigations into Cuomo for alleged incidents outlined in the report that took place in their jurisdictions.

“The governor certainly seems to form a pattern of behavior that shows a sense, at a minimum, of an entitlement and a disregard of the well-being of others and the self-respect of many women,” Oswego District Attorney Gregory Oakes said to local ABC affiliate in Rochester WHAM.

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