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The Trump administration has filed an emergency motion to vacate an ex parte temporary restraining order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This order egregiously interferes with the executive branch’s operations by limiting access to crucial Treasury Department systems. On Saturday, Obama appointee Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued an ex parte temporary restraining order that restricted access to Treasury systems exclusively to “civil servants,” explicitly excluding “all political appointees” from accessing these systems. Ex parte means the “Trump administration lawyers weren’t given notice, weren’t allowed to argue, and weren’t even in the room....

Two factions of the House Republican conference have brokered a deal to raise the threshold to trigger a motion to vacate the chair, the procedure to force a vote to remove the Speaker of the House, from one member to nine. CNN reported that the rules package for the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress includes a change to the motion to vacate rule, which derived from an agreement between the House Freedom Caucus and the Main Street Caucus. The outlet’s Annie Grayer and Sarah Ferris wrote: The conservative House Freedom Caucus and governing-focused GOP Main Street Caucus had...

It’s been obvious for a while now that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to take down Speaker Mike Johnson via a motion to vacate the chair — the same device that ejected MTG’s close friend Kevin McCarthy last fall — isn’t going to succeed. Only two House Republicans, notorious extremists Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar, have signed on to MTG’s draft motion to get rid of Johnson in retaliation for his repeated cooperation with Democrats on spending and foreign-aid measures. And a host of other House Freedom Caucus types are on record making it clear they aren’t interested in another bloodbath...

Some Democrats are suggesting they would vote against any motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) after he supported a multibillion-dollar Ukraine aid bill on Saturday. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) expressed her support with Johnson after he sided with Democrats in passing a $60 billion Ukrainian aid package that received backlash from Republicans. All 210 Democrats voted in favor of the bill on Saturday— with none voting against it. ABC’s “This Week” host Jonathan Karl asked Khanna if Johnson deserves credit for cutting a foreign country a check despite America’s own borders being overrun and overwhelmed. “He does. Look,...

The clock might be ticking on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's (R–La.) tenure. Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) announced Tuesday that he would support Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R–Ga.) attempt to unseat Johnson, meaning that her motion to vacate the speakership could move to the House floor at any time in the coming days. In a post on X, Massie advised Johnson to announce his resignation in order to avoid a messy battle over picking a replacement—like the one that left the House in limbo for weeks last year after Kevin McCarthy was fired from the top job. In a...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who faces ramped-up threats of a motion to vacate, will not have enough Republican votes for a rule to merge separate foreign aid bills for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, meaning he will need to turn to Democrats for help. Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) both announced Tuesday morning that they are against the rule. Biggs said he supported Johnson’s initial plan “announced in conference to allow the House to vote on the various aid packages separately. But his since-announced intent to merge them together before sending them to the Senate is...

CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger said on Friday in CNN’s “Newsroom” that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filing a motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could force a deal with Democrats on foreign aid. Kinzinger said, “It’s ironic because right now they’re complaining about this bill. This year was spent on frivolous investigations that were pushed by the Freedom Caucus mainly because their whole obsession has been to take out Joe Biden. So there hasn’t been much opportunity, frankly, to negotiate any kind of a deal when you have such a close majority, the idea that the Democrats aren’t...

Vacate the chair.

In a new development on Capitol Hill, acting speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) has mandated former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her office at the Capitol by Wednesday. What Happened: According to Politico, an email was sent to Pelosi’s office ordering the former speaker to leave her office space. The email, written by a senior aide from the Republican-led House Administration Committee, explained that the room needed to be cleared for use as a speaker’s office. "Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed," wrote the aide, according to the report. Following the removal of McCarthy on...

BREAKING NEWS: al-Sadr to Disband Militia, Leave Imam Ali Mosque By Andrew L. Jaffee, August 18, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Threatened with an imminent raid of the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf by Iraqi forces, radical Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to disband his militia, vacate the mosque, and "enter into the mainstream political process." Pressure has been building against al-Sadr for quite some time now. The power-hungry cleric has been stirring up trouble in Najaf, Karbala, and Baghdad since early April. On May 21, over 2,000 Iraqis held a demonstration in the city of Karbala insisting that al-Sadr and...