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In his decision Friday to pardon a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, President Trump telegraphed his open hostility to the criminal justice system and his desire to use the power of the presidency as a personal political tool. As with his controversial pardon last year of a former Arizona county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who had been held in contempt of court, Trump effectively thumbed his nose at the judiciary by pardoning I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The Justice Department was not involved in either case, officials said.

This is the special election for Trent Franks' seat, with Debbie Lesko the R. Some 6k early/absentee votes came in today, bringing the total to 128,000: R 65,520 (48.7%) D 35,392 (29.6%) I 29,772 (23.2%) Hearing that the lead is slightly widening. See https://twitter.com/Garrett_Archer/status/984842377431941120

FULL HEADLINE: "PICTURED: Instagram stars and models on their private plane to Las Vegas moments before it crashed onto golf course killing all six on board" Four of the six people who died when their private plane crashed during a flight from Arizona to Las Vegas on Monday have been identified as Instagram stars, models and nightclub promoters. Models Mariah Coogan, 23, and Helena Lagos, 22, nightlife promoter Anand 'Happy' Patel, 26, and nightclub host and aspiring pilot James Pedroza, 28, were all on board the Piper PA-24 Comanche when it crashed into a golf course moments after taking off...

A Republican congressman said Tuesday he’s rounded up enough GOP co-sponsors to force multiple immigration votes on the House floor. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) told The Hill that he has secured support from more than 40 House Republicans on a resolution that would allow debate and votes on four separate immigration proposals. Etc...

Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' 41 Mins Ago | 00:41 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donated $33 million in college scholarships for "dreamers" — childhood undocumented immigrants granted stay in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. TheDream.Us, a nonprofit working toward college access for undocumented immigrants, said the donation from Bezos and his wife MacKenzie is the largest in the organization's history and will fund 1,000 scholarships. "My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Bezos said...

AUBURN, Calif. (CBS13) -- A California dad has been called a hero after knocking out a kidnapper to rescue his 3-year-old daughter. Freddie Cantrell lives across the street from Regional Park in Auburn, California, where his two girls were playing with their mother and stepfather Sunday evening. He said park is a place they used to love, but now is part of their biggest nightmare. “I got a phone call from the mother saying, ‘Hey you got to get down here quick. Somebody tried to kidnap Aubrey,'” Cantrell told CBS Sacramento. The incident unfolded in front of their 6-year-old daughter,...

Texas and Arizona increased the number of National Guard troops they’re sending to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Associated Press reported on Monday. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) increased the number of National Guard troops Texas will send to the border as part of President Trump’s recent call to send military officials to defend the southern border against migrants and drug trafficking from 250 to at least 1,000. On the same day, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said that the Arizona National Guard would send 338 troops to the southern border. The Arizona National Guard said that 225 troops...

PHOENIX — Arizona's top elected officials, both Republicans, are not going to join the lawsuit filed by Democrat officials in some states challenging the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census even though it could mean that Arizona won't get its fair share of federal dollars and political representation. Daniel Scarpinato, press aide to Gov. Doug Ducey, said his boss is opposed to more lawsuits. "And he supports having accurate statistical information,'' Scarpinato said. Attorney General Mark Brnovich also has no interest in Arizona becoming one of the 17 states, seven cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors...

Washington (CNN) - Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday that President Donald Trump's comments that the US military would leave Syria "very soon" had emboldened Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, resulting in the reported chemical weapons attack Saturday that killed dozens of the country's civilians. "President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria," the Arizona senator said in a statement. "Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children, this time in...

It might be uncomfortable to talk about, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been fighting brain cancer since July. The 81-year-old has not returned to the US Capitol since December. So the speculation is already underway about what would happen if McCain stepped down — or, worse, could no longer serve. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a list of possible successors is circulating in the whispering Republican class, headlined by McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, and former US Sen. Jon Kyl. If McCain leaves office before May 30, the Post indicated, his Senate seat will be on the ballot in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to a posting on the Backpage website on Friday. A Phoenix FBI official said that there was “law enforcement activity” on Friday at the Sedona, Arizona home of Michael Lacey, one of the founders of Backpage.

Washington (AFP) - The US states of Texas and Arizona on Friday announced plans to send National Guard troops to the southern border with Mexico after President Donald Trump ordered a thousands-strong deployment to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration. The Texas National Guard said it would send 250 troops to the border within 72 hours and had already deployed two Lakota helicopters, while Arizona's governor said he would send 150 personnel next week. "The Texas national guard is preparing to immediately deploy with supporting aircraft, vehicles and equipment to the Texas-Mexico border," Brigadier General Tracy Norris, the commanding general...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 6, 2018 Attorney General Announces Zero-Tolerance Policy for Criminal Illegal Entry Attorney General Jeff Sessions today notified all U.S. Attorney’s Offices along the Southwest Border of a new “zero-tolerance policy” for offenses under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), which prohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien. The implementation of the Attorney General’s zero-tolerance policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security reported a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018, and a 37 percent increase from February 2018 to March 2018—the largest month-to-month...

The Justice Department announced Friday that it is implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy for prosecuting those attempting to enter the U.S. illegally -- the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration to combat illegal immigration. “The situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing the policy. “Congress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest -- that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border. " “As a result, a crisis has erupted at our Southwest Border that necessitates an escalated effort to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday ordering the end of a policy, known as “catch and release,” in which illegal immigrants are released from detention while awaiting a court hearing on their status. As part of the memo, Trump asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to produce a list of military facilities that could be used to detain illegal immigrants.

In a widely ridiculed speech in 2015 at Trump Tower, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, promised to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and told the nation: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists …” To fix that problem, the future president promised he’d build a wall on the southern border. The mainstream media lambasted Trump for being “insensitive,” said he is “racist” and accused him of “insulting” Mexico with his comments. When CNN asked Trump if he regretted saying “rapists” come across the border from Mexico, Trump doubled down: “Some are rapists and some are killers.” But was...

Oregon's governor says that if President Donald Trump asks to dispatch members of her state's National Guard to the US southern border, she'll "say no." In a set of tweets Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said she was "deeply troubled" by Trump's plan to send members of the US military to the border and implied that the President is doing so as a political distraction. "If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no. As Commander of Oregon's Guard, I'm deeply troubled by Trump's plan to militarize our border," the tweet said. Brown...

MADISON, Wisconsin, April 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Federal Elections Commission fined Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin for failing to report $116,898 in contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Democratic Senate candidate Russ Feingold. According to FEC documents, the abortion affiliate’s political arm reported $133,305.04 in expenditures on its October 2016 quarterly report, but that sum included two payments of $58,449.04 apiece, dated August 31, 2016, but not submitted in any previous reports. One was a donation to Clinton, who lost to President Donald Trump, and the other a donation to Feingold, a former Wisconsin senator who unsuccessfully...

President Trump wants to get more manpower on the border by deploying the National Guard, but there is another option: He could tell the Border Patrol to get agents out from behind their desks and into the field on patrol duty. On one Sunday last month in a key stretch of the border in Texas, just 12.5 percent of the agents on duty were patrolling along the border, according to numbers reviewed by The Washington Times. At one point during the day shift, that worked out to 16 agents patrolling more than 55 miles — and five of them were...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, urging tougher security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, claimed that women "are being raped at numbers never seen before" while an immigrant caravan is heading toward the U.S. "Yesterday, it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before," the president said at a White House tax reform event in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. "They don't want to mention that, so we have to change our laws." "Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower...Everybody said, 'Oh, he was so tough.' I used the...