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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking over an investigation into corruption allegations against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), a state prosecutor handling a separate case case against Paxton told The Hill.Kent Schaffer, the state prosecutor, confirmed the DOJ was taking over the case from federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas.It’s unclear why federal prosecutors in Texas were removed from the case, which was opened after several of Paxton’s senior officials accused him of bribery and abuse of office in 2020, but The Associated Press reported Paxton’s attorney’s sought the change, claiming there was an “obvious...

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he is embarrassed by the lingering scandals surrounding Attorney General Ken Paxton when asked by reporters Thursday for his thoughts about the runoff primary election early next week. Paxton is seeking a third term as the state’s top lawyer and is facing Land Commissioner George P. Bush in a runoff for the Republican nomination. But the incumbent has faced a slew of controversies in the past few years, including an FBI investigation into allegations he abused his office to help a wealthy donor, a 7-year-old felony securities fraud indictment, a lawsuit from the state...

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mr. President, this council was convened today to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, a goal that we all share, despite Russia’s persistent violations. These agreements, which were negotiated in 2014 and 2015 and signed by Russia, remain the basis for the peace process to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called out his former boss by name on Friday, saying that "President (Donald) Trump is wrong" in claiming that Pence had the right to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021. Speaking at the Federalist Society Florida Chapters conference near Orlando, Pence delivered his strongest response yet to Trump's ongoing efforts to relitigate the 2020 presidential election, calling it "un-American" to suggest one person could have decided the outcome. Pence warned against conservatives who continue to insist the vice president can alter an election, and said it could be a problematic position for Republicans...

Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., are blasting the Republican National Committee for moving forward with a resolution to formally censure them for their work on the House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and former President Donald Trump’s role in the insurrection. “The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said in a statement. “I’m a constitutional...

The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, warned Friday that the SCOTUS risks losing its own authority if it allows the existence of a law like Texas’ near-total abortion ban, which attempts to circumvent the courts. In a strongly worded opinion joined by the high court’s three liberal justices, Roberts wrote that the "clear purpose and actual effect" of the Texas law was "to nullify this Court’s rulings." That, he said, undermines the Constitution and the fundamental role of the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole. The opinion was a remarkable plea by the chief...

Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s office responded to Tucker Carlson by posting the email exchange they had with Fox News. Carlson is dropping a documentary on Fox Nation next week called “Patriot Purge,” and the absolutely insane trailer released this week features someone describing January 6 as a “false flag.”..... Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler shared the exchange on Twitter and said, “He completely omitted the rational reason why Liz Cheney won’t participate in his dangerous efforts. Isn’t the liar and the coward the person who is unwilling to tell his viewers the truth about both the 2020 election and January 6th?”

A prominent Washington lobbyist close to Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, is warning Republican political consultants that they must choose between working for Representative Liz Cheney or Mr. McCarthy, an ultimatum that marks the full rupture between the two House Republicans. Jeff Miller, the lobbyist and a confidant of Mr. McCarthy’s dating to their youthful days in California politics, has conveyed this us-or-her message to Republican strategists in recent weeks, prompting one fund-raising firm to disassociate itself from Ms. Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming. In response, The Morning Group, a fund-raising firm she hired to help prepare for a...

Then-Attorney General William Barr reportedly told then-President Trump that suburban voters “think you are a f---ing asshole” and urged the president to change his image in order to win reelection, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward said in an interview on Wednesday, detailing an episode from his new book, “Peril.” “He wanted Trump to win in 2020, last year, but he gave him some very candid advice. And Barr said in an extraordinary meeting with Trump last year — President Trump — Barr said, ‘I travel around the country as much as any Cabinet officer, and you have support there. I...

Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist of President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection bid, is running as a Democrat for Texas lieutenant governor, kicking off a difficult fight to oust incumbent Dan Patrick. In a video announcing his campaign, Dowd railed against Patrick as a representative of only a small minority of Texans. He blamed Patrick for hampering local governments’ ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and failing to take charge after the state’s electric grid crashed earlier this year. “The GOP politicians have failed us, especially the cruel and craven lieutenant governor,” Dowd said.

Seventy percent of Wyoming Republican primary voters have a negative view of controversial Never Trump Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), according to a poll exclusively obtained by Breitbart News on Monday. Club for Growth Action released a poll, which found that 70 percent of Wyoming GOP primary voters view her negatively, only 26 percent viewing her in a positive light. This marks a five percent increase in Wyoming primary voters’ negative view of the Never Trump Republican. Cheney has a 44 percent net negative favorability among Wyoming Republicans. David McIntosh, the president of Club for Growth Action, said Cheney’s constituents...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and seven Democrats to a new select committee to investigate the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. -snip- Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement that she is “honored” to serve on the committee and that “Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814.”

Former Attorney General William Barr bluntly dismissed some of former President Donald Trump's election fraud allegations as "bulls***" in new interviews published Sunday in the Atlantic. “My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr recalled at one point. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bulls***.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence was heckled with calls of “traitor” at a conservative conference Friday as he continues to draw criticism from members of the Republican base for his role in Congress’s certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory. “It is great to be back with so many patriots dedicated to faith and freedom and the road to the majority,” Pence said to applause at the Faith & Freedom Coalition summit before the heckling began. “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” Pence continued, as the hecklers in the audience began to grow louder, yelling...

The Texas bar association is investigating whether state Attorney General Ken Paxton's failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud amounted to professional misconduct. The State Bar of Texas initially declined to take up a Democratic Party activist's complaint that Paxton's petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court to block Joe Biden’s victory was frivolous and unethical. But a tribunal that oversees grievances against lawyers overturned that decision late last month and ordered the bar to look into the accusations against the Republican official. It makes Paxton one of the highest profile lawyers to face...

When former President Donald Trump was asked to list those he considers the future leaders of the Republican Party, he quickly rattled off a list of names, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Conspicuously absent from the list: Mike Pence. The former vice president is steadily reentering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024. He’s joining conservative organizations, writing op-eds, delivering speeches and launching an advocacy group that will focus on promoting the Trump administration’s accomplishments.

Television pundit Ana Navarro is being accused of racism after she posted a tweet on Friday that included a joke considered derogatory toward Asians. ‘Me so vaccinated!’ Navarro wrote in a tweet that was deleted soon afterwards. Last week, Navarro expressed glee that Piers Morgan left his morning show Good Morning Britain after he was accused of racism for his views on Meghan Markle. -snip- The comment was apparently an attempt at humor by using a play on words of the phrase ‘Me so horny.’ The phrase was uttered in a famous scene from the 1987 war film Full Metal...

House conservatives are renewing their calls for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to step down from her leadership post after she split with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over whether former President Trump should speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). House Freedom Caucus members are going after Cheney, chair of the House Republican Conference, following an awkward moment during a press conference Wednesday with the House GOP leader. Just moments after McCarthy said he thought Trump should speak at the CPAC gathering this weekend in Florida, Cheney reiterated her position that she does not think the former president...

Rep. Liz Cheney said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump should have no role in the future of the Republican Party or the country. The No. 3 House Republican denounced Trump after she was asked at a press conference if she thought it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking Sunday at the annual CPAC event. “That’s up to CPAC. I’ve been clear on my views about President Trump and the extent to which following Jan. 6, I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country,” she said.