Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will testify before a House Appropriations Committee panel on Tuesday afternoon on oversight of the Justice Department. The hearing comes as the Trump administration has faced heavy scrutiny over its $1.776 billion compensation fund, which would help settle claims between those who say the government wrongfully prosecuted them. The “anti-weaponization”…
The Justice Department signals a retreat from defending the blatantly corrupt scheme, which provoked vigorous objections from Republican lawmakers.
Yet another member of Congress was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee amid allegations of inappropriate advances on a staffer, CNN reported on Tuesday.Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) was at the center of the investigation, an issue that has become a priority on Capitol Hill and among lawmakers.According to three anonymous sources, "the panel had made early reach outs in its attempt to follow up on a New York Post story, which alleged Gomez (D-CA) had been spotted kissing an aide, who worked for a different member of Congress, outside a backyard party in 2023," according to the report. Gomez, who is married, has denied these claims. Now, the panel is also investigating other incidents that it learned about in the course of investigating the kissing allegation.In a statement to CNN, Gomez said, “Years ago, I made personal mistakes outside my marriage that have caused real pain to my wife and family. Although my actions were consensual in nature and haven’t violated the law or House ethics rules, that doesn’t diminish the impact that these mistakes have made on those I care about the most.”"I take full responsibility and have committed myself to working through the pain privately with my wife and family," and that "I am deeply sorry for the pain and embarrassment that I brought into our lives," he added.Gomez is the latest in a long line of lawmakers in both parties who have faced allegations of misconduct with staffers.Earlier this year, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) was forced to resign after being found to have pressured sexual favors and an extramarital affair from a regional staffer who later died in a gruesome suicide. At the same time, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was forced to quit Congress and end his campaign for governor amid damning new evidence that he sexually assaulted an intoxicated congressional aide and allegedly had inappropriate contact with at least three other women.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin is testifying in front of a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday about his department’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $118.4 billion in overall funding for fiscal 2027, starting Oct. 1, as proposed by the White House. Nearly $23 billion of […]
Former Trump adviser David Urban on Monday called the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund a “loser of an idea.” The administration recently scrapped the fund, which was designed to compensate those who claim they were wrongfully investigated or prosecuted by the federal government, after it received mounting pushback from Republican lawmakers. It…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday afternoon on President Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget request, as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz appear at a standstill. The White House is seeking $35.6 billion in discretionary budget authority for…
'I know your staff wrote up this cute statement for your TikTok video, but it's not true'
This June, Netflix's programming is heating up with top TV shows from around the world that are worth watching all month long.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that Bill Pulte, a “home-building heir” who currently oversees the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would step in as acting Director of National Intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard. The decision has drawn swift bipartisan criticism over Pulte’s total lack of experience and what is viewed as an effort to “weaponize” the U.S. intelligence apparatus. "We don't need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there," declared Senator Majority Leader John Thune (R-SC). “If he's somebody we want in that position permanently, he's got a lengthy road ahead of him.”Fears over weaponization stem from Pulte’s previous efforts to target Trump’s enemies. As the head of the FHFA, he used his position to suggest criminal charges for mortgage fraud against the likes of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook — all of whom drew the president’s ire over various incidents.With all this in mind, Senator Mark Warner, a top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, shared Thune’s sentiments, blasting at length: “This appointment speaks volumes about what this president expects from the nation's top intelligence official. Rather than selecting a respected national security professional capable of delivering independent judgments, the president has chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution.”“Americans have already seen Mr. Pulte use the powers of his office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to pursue the president's grievances and lend credibility to dubious prosecutions of President Trump's perceived political opponents,” Warner continued. “Elevating him to oversee the Intelligence Community makes clear that this president is not looking for an intelligence leader who will follow the facts or speak truth to power, but rather someone who will be willing to shape intelligence around the president's wishes, regardless of the cost to the American people.”What’s more, Warner took issue with Pulte’s bona fides, or lack thereof, arguing, "The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience' required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9/11. It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need. Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president's political agenda rather than his experience. That is how intelligence becomes politicized, how inconvenient facts disappear, how agencies charged with protecting our democracy instead become tools to manipulate it, and how Americans are left more vulnerable to a terrorist attack."Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) put it more simply: “I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job.” And Senator Angus King (Independent-ME), who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, rounded things out, “By any objective assessment — in terms of experience, expertise, background — this appointment makes no sense.”Journalist Chris Hayes summed up the collective assessment well, posting, “This is so utterly insane I’m at a loss. But it makes sense if you want to turn the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus into a tool for domestic persecution and domination.”