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The FBI raid on the place of work of a Virginia impart senator Wednesday in Portsmouth, Virginia, used to be reportedly spurred on by a used Justice Division lawyer who notion it might per chance per chance aid Republicans within the midterms.

MS NOW stories that Lindsey Halligan, who used to be compelled to proceed the U.S. attorney’s place of work for the Jap District of Virginia earlier this twelve months for being illegally appointed, had been pressuring prosecutors to price L. Louise Lucas, a flow-setter among Virginia Democrats who pushed for redistricting within the impart.

“Louise Lucas is a … moderately excellent legislator in her impart, but no longer acknowledged nationally, and the FBI and the Division of Justice were investigating her for plenty of years—three years, I’m told by a supply acquainted with the probe—and that investigation has been searching at evidence suggesting that she solicited or authorized bribes,” MS NOW senior investigative correspondent Carol Leonnig acknowledged on the network Wednesday.

Leonnig acknowledged that in line with her supply, when Halligan “had been working the U.S. attorney’s place of work within the Jap District of Virginia, she had been pressuring and pushing prosecutors to bring costs in opposition to Lucas, believing that that might per chance per chance per chance be crucial, a excessive-priority case.”

“I’m told that Halligan believed it’d be correct for the White Dwelling to be in a situation, earlier than the midterms, to accuse a excellent impart Democrat in Virginia with bribery,” Leonnig added. “Prosecutors basically based out of Norfolk had been no longer optimistic this used to be the strongest case on the earth, but Halligan felt very strongly that it have to be pressed.”

The FBI has no longer yet publicly commented on the explanations for the raid. Lucas is an ally of Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, and received notoriety on social media for posting memes in strengthen of Virginia’s redistricting effort and going toe-to-toe with Republicans treasure President Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The raid of her place of work got instantaneous coverage on Fox News, seemingly because a senior member of the DOJ, per chance performing Authorized expert Traditional Todd Blanche, tipped them off. Changed into Lucas namely fascinated about trumped-up costs?

Donald Trump is insulting his supporters—again.

Within the midst of a White Dwelling press match Wednesday promoting the govt.mansion’s upcoming UFC tournament, blended martial artist Justin Gaethje tried to praise the president for normalizing UFC tournaments and humanizing its fighters. As an exchange, he got sucker-punched by an emotional jab from the person on the aid of the Resolute Desk.

“I’m no longer optimistic many know the scheme ample of a portion you had been to the UFC changing into mainstream within the early ’90s, when no person would let us—no person would assume in us, they notion they had been absolute animals, and likewise you gave us an exchange to battle in your properties—” Gaethje acknowledged, earlier than Trump interjected.

“Properly, they had been correct about that,” Trump chirped.

Nonetheless the silly legend used to be tepidly got.

“Properly,” Gaethje acknowledged, putting his head. “Rather, a puny.”

Trump is a lifelong fan of boxing and MMA—so great so as that he’s planning to host a UFC tournament on the White Dwelling backyard on his birthday, June 14. The main card will pit Gaethje in opposition to Ilia Topuria for the gentle-weight title, and Alex Pereira in opposition to Ciryl Gane for the intervening time heavyweight title. UFC’s father or mother company, TKO Holdings, has promised that the entire match—which is anticipated to cost spherical $60 million—will be funded entirely by the sports activities organization and come in with out price to taxpayers.

This might per chance per chance be the first UFC match ever hosted on the White Dwelling, and while the battle itself will be unparalleled, Trump’s derogatory comments are the leisure but. Trump has made a occupation of grifting his supporters, pledging his like for them one second while backhanding them the next.

Over the course of the closing twelve months, Trump has derided his obnoxious as “dreary” and “weaklings” for caring about the Epstein files (and Trump’s excellent pickle in them), suggested that American workers lack capability, and told a bloc of supporters at a senior community in Florida that the team seemingly wouldn’t be in a situation to pass the cognitive assessments he had taken to bring his psychological acuity. (Trump’s recollections of the checks have known as into ask whether or no longer he basically took them in any appreciate, as a few of the checks’ creators have acknowledged their assessments are to check for dementia, no longer cognitive bustle.)

Trump has a history of having a ample mouth. Over the course of his political ascent, he has famously referred to ladies folk by their genitals, known as deceased veterans “suckers” and “losers,” claimed that he loves the “poorly expert,” and acknowledged he might per chance per chance per chance catch away with shooting any individual on Fifth Avenue and no longer lose any voters, suggesting his obnoxious is gullible and blindly proper.

Tennessee Republicans kicked Democratic lawmakers, journalists, and constituents out of a particular redistricting session Wednesday as protests over their original congressional draw engulfed the impart Dwelling.

After one spherical of protests compelled Republicans to shut down their assembly, they relocated to a brand original room, in line with The Tennessean, and averted somebody from coming into.

Democratic impart Representatives Gloria Johnson and Gabby Salinas had been each and each told to proceed the Judiciary Committee assembly as lawmakers discussed the GOP’s original congressional draw, which would keep away with Democratic Consultant Steve Cohen’s majority-Shadowy Memphis dwelling district and affords Republicans a 9–0 majority within the impart.

“Properly of us, right here we’re—this particular session the put the people are once again being skipped over,” Johnson acknowledged in a video recorded outside of the assembly room doorways, while dozens of chanting protesters raised their voices spherical her. “I notion I might per chance per chance per chance rush within the Senate Committee—they won’t even let me in. I got kicked out. I got kicked out. They don’t appear to be letting members into committee…. The people had been kicked out earlier.

“Right here’s a travesty of justice,” Johnson persisted. “If you happen to might per chance per chance catch down right here, we need you down right here combating with us. Because right here’s a optimistic energy grab weeding out the inform of the people. Right here’s the Republicans’ white energy rally.”

Fellow Democrat Justin Pearson used to be barred from coming into the assembly entirely, as an exchange standing within the doorway while Cohen spoke.

The Senate Judiciary Committee later authorized the draw by a vote of 9–2, pushing it to the broader chamber, the put it’s anticipated to pass.

The 29-twelve months-outdated girl Kristi Noem handpicked to oversee ICE’s billion-dollar budget impartial staunch lost her nomination expose in an Ohio congressional valuable.

Madison Sheahan, a former ICE deputy director, used to be in third pickle Wednesday when the Linked Press known as the impart’s Ninth district Republican valuable for used impart Consultant Derek Merrin.

Republican operatives consider Ohio’s Ninth district one amongst the party’s easiest probabilities to flip a Dwelling seat, The Washington Put up reported. The seat is on the second held by Consultant Marcy Kaptur, who has held onto it for 22 phrases.

Sheahan had left her feature at ICE to pursue her congressional marketing campaign, quickly earlier than her apparent mentor Noem used to be unceremoniously fired.

In her feature, Sheahan reportedly wasted millions of taxpayer bucks on 2,500 customized-wrapped vehicles that be taught “ICE.” The gaudy automobiles characteristic huge ICE trademarks, red stripes, and a golden decal of President Donald Trump’s name on the aid window. The vehicles first seemed in a DHS video supposed to kind ICE seek cold. Nonetheless the hasty of ostentatious automobiles proved ineffective to the masked militia, which prefers to proceed people the utilization of unmarked vehicles.

On the promoting campaign path, Sheahan touted her work with ICE, but political analysts learned that immigration did now not play as ample a feature within the primaries as financial factors equivalent to the job market and tariffs, the Put up reported.

Her candidacy used to be considered an early bellwether for the methodology voters felt about Trump’s handling of immigration coverage, and her resounding failure might per chance per chance per chance designate catastrophe for other candidates too carefully tied to the president’s unpopular coverage initiatives.

Democrats on the Dwelling Oversight Committee claimed Wednesday that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lied plenty of times finally of his testimony about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

At some stage in a closed-door listening to to focus on his ties to the alleged sex trafficker, Lutnick reneged on previous claims about Epstein recording his company’ sexual misconduct and the utilization of it to blackmail them, Consultant Ro Khanna told journalists after the listening to. Lutnick had previously known as Epstein “the ideal blackmailer ever.”

“So, any individual obviously got to him, from the administration. Genuinely, he acknowledged he talked to people within the administration and that’s why he’s changed his tune,” Khanna acknowledged. “And the ask is no longer impartial staunch why he’s lying, the ask is why he’s covering up. The ask is why he’s now no longer prepared to share what he knows about Epstein’s abhorrent habits.

“If Donald Trump had viewed the video transcript he would’ve fired Howard Lutnick. It used to be very embarrassing,” the California Democrat added.

Lutnick swore in an interview closing twelve months he did now not seek Epstein after 2005, but it used to be then printed he coordinated a family day out (along with his young young people) to the financier’s “pedophile island” in 2012. Lutnick then confirmed he’d saved in contact with Epstein over time, even after Epstein used to be convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

“Howard Lutnick ought to peaceable resign,” Virginia Consultant Suhas Subramanyam told journalists following the listening to. “That used to be absolutely mind-boggling, what we impartial staunch heard within the room. He used to be evasive, fearful. He used to be dishonest.”

“He wouldn’t admit to lying, which he clearly did within the podcast,” Subramanyam acknowledged, referring to Lutnick’s remarks on the Fresh York Put up’s Pod Drive One in October 2025, when the secretary claimed that after assembly Epstein, he determined he would “never be within the room with that disgusting person ever again.”

“I needed to hunt data from him whether or no longer he and I had been within the an analogous room, impartial staunch now, because I couldn’t trace his which methodology of ‘we had been within the an analogous room together,’” Subramanyam acknowledged.

Lutnick also refused to provide any explanation for why he and his family traveled to Epstein’s island.

“We requested him time and again again, ‘Why did you rush to the island?’ He says he doesn’t keep in mind, that it used to be inexplicable, and he merely didn’t know reply to the ask at that time,” Subramanyam acknowledged.

The Tennessee GOP’s original election draw would keep away with the impart’s completely Democratic representative and nick up the bulk-Shadowy Memphis-dwelling district he represents.

The draw would gerrymander away Democratic Consultant Steve Cohen’s Shelby County district and seemingly give Republicans a 9–0 majority within the impart. The Memphis metropolitan dwelling might per chance per chance per chance be divided up into three separate districts.

“Right here’s insane. The GOP’s newly proposed TN Congressional maps would have people in Shelby County the total methodology to Williamson County—200+ miles aside—being “represented” by the an analogous Congressman,” Cohen wrote on X after the draw used to be launched. “It’s a blatant, contaminated energy grab that might per chance per chance assassinate the Shadowy community’s and our entire city’s inform.”

The redrawn draw is per chance the most modern in a barrage of Republican gerrymandering efforts within the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that crippled Fragment 2 of the Voting Rights Act closing month. Fragment 2 granted protections to African Individuals and other racial minorities in opposition to redistricting.

The original draw is anticipated to pass in a Thursday vote.

The Justice Division sued the impart of Colorado Wednesday over a gun aid watch over laws that has been on the books for more than a decade.

The impart handed the laws, Dwelling Bill 13-1224, in 2013, months after a gunman opened hearth on a movie show in Aurora, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. The laws formally banned the sale, switch, and possession of magazines carrying more than 15 rounds of ammunition within impart traces.

It’s the second such assault this week by the Trump administration on Colorado’s diversified makes an try to curb gun violence. On Tuesday, the DOJ took purpose on town of Denver for a 1989 city laws that banned assault weapons.

The nation’s premier laws place of work has argued that every and each laws violate the 2d Modification correct to score palms. In its criticism, the DOJ claimed that the impart’s utilize of the phrase “ample capability” amounted to “politically charged rhetoric.” The company additional claimed that the phrase “ample capability” used to be flawed on account of the reputation of semiautomatic weapons equivalent to the AR-15, which DOJ attorneys acknowledged would kind 15 spherical ammunition “current capability.”

Mass shootings are a world scourge that completely the U.S. has did now not adequately contend with. Gun violence in The US has turned into so ubiquitous that it’s virtually soundless: Within the first 5 months of the twelve months, 145 mass shootings across the nation claimed the lives of 185 victims and injured one other 561 people, in line with records soundless by the Gun Violence Archive.

AR-15s are nothing making an try civilian-killing machines. As The Fresh Republic’s Colin Dickey famous in his review of American Gun: The Just staunch Legend of the AR-15, Eugene Stoner’s 1954 invention “exists to extinguish human lives.”

The gun’s reputation within the contemporary American canon comes from an early failure to land its pickle within the militia arsenal that it used to be designed for, kneecapped by Military kinds that frowned upon a weapon developed out of dwelling.

The gun’s subsequent infiltration of the final public sphere has made the AR-15 one of the effective-promoting rifle in The US. It’s estimated that roughly a third of Individuals have a gun, in line with a 2022 Ipsos poll, while one in 20 U.S. adults are anticipated to have an AR-15, in line with a Washington Put up/Ipsos stumble on that identical twelve months.

Further peaceable, the modular rifle has turned into ingrained within the American consciousness by methodology of mass-casualty occasions, and is preferred by killers who have to make as great rupture to the human body as you might per chance have faith. In any case 10 of the 17 deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history fervent a gunman wielding an AR-15 model rifle.

Despite Republican makes an try to picture Democratic efforts to curtail the weapon’s availability as an infringement on the existence of blue-collar countrymen, invoking photos of farmers and backwoods hunters, the ample majority of AR-15 owners are basically non-rural, with forty eight percent residing in suburban sprawl and 24 percent residing in cities. Furthermore, AR-15 owners are inclined to be a few of the wealthier among us, 56 percent having annual incomes in scheme over $100,000, in line with the Put up/Ipsos stumble on.

Over the closing decade, gun rights groups have spent more than $141 million on political lobbying, with GOP legislators reaping the bulk of it, in line with records from OpenSecrets. Meanwhile, the cash on the aid of “gun rights” lobbying groups has dwarfed gun aid watch over efforts yearly relationship aid to 1998.

By 2024, six of the head 10 congressional recipients who profited one of the from gun rights groups had been MAGA. Among them used to be now–Secretary of Converse Marco Rubio, who got more than $376,000 from gun rights groups finally of his time in place of work. The foyer’s unbroken impact over the political correct has swept votes on factors ranging from bans on assault weapons to excessive-capability magazines.

This legend has been updated.

Fox News used to be on the scene without prolong when the FBI raided Virginia impart Senator L. Louise Lucas’s legislative place of work in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Wednesday, and that might per chance per chance merely no longer were by accident.

Portsmouth is within the southeastern corner of the impart, removed from Washington, D.C., or Fox’s headquarters in Fresh York, and by some ability, the network’s London correspondent, Alex Hogan, used to be in a situation to capture federal agents coming into Lucas’s place of work.

In step with Division of Justice guidelines, come seek to the media requires approval on the ideal ranges.

“In relate to advertise the goals of laws enforcement, including the deterrence of criminal habits and the enhancement of public self assurance, DOJ personnel, with the prior approval of the correct United States Authorized expert or Assistant Authorized expert Traditional, might per chance per chance merely aid the news media in recording or reporting on a laws enforcement activity,” the DOJ’s Justice Handbook states.

In one other portion, the manual states that “in cases the put a search warrant or arrest warrant is to be accomplished, no come knowledge will be supplied to the news media with out the explicit approval of the correct United States Authorized expert or Assistant Authorized expert Traditional. This requirement also applies to operations in preparation for the execution of a warrant.”

Both of these guidelines counsel that performing Authorized expert Traditional Todd Blanche or one amongst his inform subordinates gave seek to Fox News earlier than the FBI accomplished its search warrants Wednesday, and that he wished the case to catch attention for partisan causes. Lucas is no longer completely a main Democrat in Virginia, but she used to be instrumental in pushing for congressional redistricting within the impart to prefer Democrats.

President Trump used to be angered after Virginia handed a constitutional modification to rapid enable its congressional maps to be redrawn closing month, and Blanche has demonstrated his willingness to make utilize of the corpulent energy of the DOJ to head after Trump’s enemies. Getting the actual-flee media to veil an FBI raid on a Democratic flesh presser is the correct methodology to kind Trump jubilant.

The Division of Justice has dropped thousands of criminal cases in relate to aid and abet Donald Trump’s agenda—and now it looks to be on the verge of aiding a few of the president’s allies.

The DOJ looks to be on the brink of discontinue a virtually about two-twelve months probe into Tennessee Consultant Andy Ogles, WTVF reported Tuesday. The company has to this point returned his cellular phone and destroyed the evidence they soundless from it, in line with the Tennessee Lookout.

The update came by methodology of a factual motion from Ogles’s crew, nixing a protracted-pending emergency motion that had averted federal authorities from reviewing evidence on his cellular phone and email.

“In discussions with the Situation of job of the Assistant Authorized expert Traditional for the Criminal Division of america Division of Justice, the Authorities has informed defense counsel that this can promptly return or assassinate the property received pursuant to the respective search warrants at topic,” the motion be taught. “The emergency motions filed by Congressman Ogles in these matters are therefore moot.”

Ogles’s cellular phone used to be seized by the FBI quickly after his 2024 valuable fetch, but the investigation used to be associated to discrepancies that seemed in his 2022 election, when he filed a marketing campaign finance document claiming that he loaned his marketing campaign $320,000. The detail raised dismay bells in 2024, when Ogles filed one other marketing campaign finance document to acknowledge that he had completely loaned the promoting campaign $20,000.

The following twelve months, a U.S Dwelling Congressional Ethics panel learned “monumental motive to imagine” that Ogles had violated federal marketing campaign finance laws by inflating his workplaces’ fundraising by technique of a non-public mortgage.

The lawmaker’s factual defense claimed that the FBI—as a part of the govt.branch—had no correct to hunt on the personal communications of a sitting member of the legislative branch.

“From the day the FBI confirmed up, I acknowledged this investigation ought to peaceable never have took pickle and that the Biden DOJ had no correct to rummage by a sitting congressman’s legislative communications,” Ogles acknowledged in an announcement. “I’m grateful to the Trump Justice Division for righting this scandalous.”

Nonetheless a wrapped DOJ investigation isn’t the head of Ogles’s factual woes: The Dwelling Ethics panel is peaceable investigating him.

President Trump has enlisted the Justice Division to aid him allure the $83.3 million defamation judgment he owes used Elle journal advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. 

The DOJ plans to hunt data from the Supreme Court for the energy to without prolong picture Trump in his allure, arguing that he acted as a executive employee when he first defamed Carroll in 2019. As an exchange of Trump v. Carroll, the case would turned into U.S. v. Carroll.

The DOJ notion used to be printed in a filing from Trump’s personal lawyer within the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit, the put Trump currently lost an allure effort to manual optimistic of paying Carroll.  Trump’s attorneys also posited that Trump’s presidential immunity and the obvious damage Carroll would pickle off with the cash as causes for the court docket to prolong the associated price. Carroll has acknowledged she’d donate the millions upon series.

Right here’s the federal executive spending its time and your cash to aid the president with a non-public lawsuit from the girl he used to be learned liable of sexually abusing in 2023. This huge lack of independence and transparency might per chance per chance per chance be an global-breaking scandal for every other president. For Trump, it’s impartial staunch Tuesday. 

The $83.3 million judgment stays.