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More than two dozen former prosecutors, judges and active trial lawyers filed a brief backing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to dismiss the case against President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The bipartisan group of former government attorneys are asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan for them to formally file an amicus brief on the case. The group includes former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). “The issue presented in this case is whether the court has discretion to deny a motion to dismiss to which the defendant consents, as...

A bill to reauthorize three expired surveillance programs is in jeopardy, with President Trump urging Republicans to oppose it and growing concerns from progressives on a key amendment. House Democratic leaders say they still intend to vote on the measure this week, but it’s suddenly unclear if it can muster the 218 votes needed to clear the chamber — despite an earlier version of the bill winning 278 votes in March. Despite the limbo status, Democratic leadership is signaling they will move forward, setting up a showdown on the House floor over the fate of the bill. An update from...

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it opposes House-proposed changes to surveillance reform legislation and will urge President Trump to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. The statement, from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, is the latest setback for the legislation, which is currently scheduled to get a vote on the House floor on Wednesday, after Trump on Tuesday night urged GOP opposition to vote against it. The veto threat from the Justice Department is a marked shift from March, when Attorney General William Barr helped negotiate the initial version of the bill with House leadership. The...

Dozens of House Democrats are planning to vote remotely this week for the first time in the chamber's history amid concerns about the health risks involved with traveling to Washington. At least 50 lawmakers are planning to vote by proxy, or designate a colleague physically present in the Capitol to cast votes on their behalf, according to a list published by the House clerk's office on Tuesday. Last week, just 18 were on the list. Democrats representing districts in the Washington, D.C. suburbs are the most popular proxies, given their proximity to the Capitol. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Jamie...

A Republican candidate seeking to challenge Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dropped out of the congressional GOP primary race late Monday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will travel to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a meeting with President Trump to discuss economic revival efforts. The governor said during a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped to discuss how infrastructure projects could be leveraged to kickstart the economy, which has cratered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "You want to restart the economy, you want to reopen the economy, let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work, and let’s make America better," Cuomo said. "It is common sense." "You have an infrastructure that’s crumbling, you...

Tensions are flaring in the Senate as Republicans prepare to ramp up their investigations into Obama-era officials. Amid public and private pressure from President Trump, GOP senators are increasingly embracing calls to use their congressional power to investigate some of Trump’s biggest grievances stemming from the Obama administration, including the origins of the Russia investigation, the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Hunter Biden. Democrats argue Republicans are using their committee gavels to probe Trump’s political enemies, an effort they say is designed to hunt for political fodder against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that he wants to release the findings of his investigation into the federal Russia probe before the November election. Graham, speaking to a small group of reporters, said that he planned to wrap up the Judiciary Committee investigation by September or October. "I want to do it before the election, I want to get all the information out there," Graham said when asked if the plan was to release the report before the election. Graham's timeline, which was first reported by The Hill last week, would have him releasing a report on the committee's...

A leaked Pentagon memo on Tuesday revealed that top Defense Department officials have been planning for the possibility that the military could be dealing with a “globally-persistent” coronavirus pandemic well into 2021. The memo, obtained by Task and Purpose, also warns of the “real possibility” that a vaccine for COVID-19 won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.” “We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19. Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19...

Republicans and right-wing media are in a conspiracy theory-spewing meltdown. In the wake of selective, politically motivated “leaks” of sensitive documents, conservative pundits are launching an avalanche of baseless attacks against President Trump’s political opponents. But the reality is brutally obvious: Trump is weaponizing the American government to distract from his catastrophically incompetent pandemic response and the crushing economic fallout. While right-wing media continue to whip their audiences into hysteria over a nefarious Obama-led plot to undermine Trump, the documents — strategically released by Trump’s political lackeys atop the intelligence and law enforcement communities — do absolutely nothing to further...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said on Tuesday that she has had an “opening conversation” with Joe Biden’s campaign about her potential as a running mate pick for the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. In an interview on NBC’s “The Third Hour of Today,” Whitmer revealed that she has had a “conversation with some folks” about the running mate slot, but said that she did not see the discussion as particularly formal and is solely committed for the time being to her official duties as governor. “It was just an opening conversation and it’s not something that...

President Donald Trump retweeted a post by News 12 reporter Kevin Vesey on his experience at a rally by a Setauket conservative group. Kevin Vessey: The level of anger directed at the media from these protestors was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today. Video Link

The declassification of material from the Michael Flynn case has exposed more chilling details of a concerted effort by prosecutors to come up with any crime to use against the former national security adviser. This week, however, a letter revealed a new unsettling detail. Among more than three dozen Obama administration officials asking to “unmask” Flynn from the investigation was former Vice President Joe Biden. This revelation came less than 24 hours after Biden denied any involvement in the investigation of Flynn. It also follows a disclosure that President Obama was following that investigation. For three years, many in the...

Amid the great political divide that seems to have gotten drawn during the coronavirus pandemic and the response to it, there’s an awakening of sorts. In some cases, it separates right from left. But sometimes, it’s where left meets right. It has to do with liberty and double standards. Not since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has our society been so severely tested in terms of how far we believe our government must go, can go, should go, or dares to go when it comes to controlling us for “our own good.” A persistent problem is the public’s recognition...

Almost 20 years ago, after my first book, “Bias,” came out, I made a lot of speeches, some of them to conservative organizations. The book was about liberal bias in the mainstream media. I had been a journalist at CBS News for 28 years and, so, it was a behind-the-scenes exposé about how the sausage was made, about how bias made its way into the news. I said that despite what many conservatives think, there was no conspiracy to slant the news in a liberal direction. I said that there were no secret meetings, no secret handshakes and salutes, that...

Feinstein questioned why Reade waited so long to bring forward her allegations. “And I don’t know this person at all who has made the allegations. She came out of nowhere. Where has she been all these years? He was Vice President,” Feinstein said. To “attack him in this way to me is absolutely ridiculous.” “No, I do not,” she said when asked if she believes Reade, according to the Hill.

In a Letter to the Editor to the New York Times, Politico founder Martin Tolchin argued against investigating Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations of Joe Biden, citing fear of losing the 2020 election. Tolchin said he wants “a coronation of Joe Biden,” not an investigation into the former Senate aide’s rape allegations. “I don’t want an investigation. I want a coronation of Joe Biden. Would he make a great president? Unlikely. Would he make a good president? Good enough. Would he make a better president than the present occupant? Absolutely,” Tolchin wrote. Tolchin continued to say he was not interested...

Who might be in consideration to become the new nominee — and who would be selected as the vice presidential running mate? Several likely combinations come to mind, starting in many minds with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but one particular, truly out-of-the-box combination stops the discussion in its tracks: Hillary Clinton as the nominee and Barack Obama as her running mate.Now, before everyone rolls their eyes, let that sink in for a moment and do some fairly simple calculations about voters and swing states in your heads. No matter how you add it, subtract it or divide it, that math would spell trouble for...

snip "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once," the 22nd Amendment says. "The operative word here might be 'elected,'" MacKinnon wrote. "If Obama were selected as Clinton’s running mate, and she had to leave office for any reason, then Obama would succeed her. At least one constitutional expert is on record saying...

Desperate times do indeed call for desperate measures. For the Democrats, a truly desperate time could come if Joe Biden is forced to withdraw from the presidential race. While the former vice president is the presumptive Democratic nominee to face off against President Trump in November, his nomination is still far from official.Some Democrats tell me they fear that Biden’s political survival is getting more problematic with each passing day. They cite three main issues. The first is their concern that an allegation of sexual assault leveled against Biden by former staffer Tara Reade won’t go away anytime soon. If anything,...