GOP Witnesses LOSE CONTROL under CROSS EXAM at HEARING

President Donald Trump sought to target Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) after the lawmaker served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 probe and worked on both impeachment cases. That effort has reportedly hit a brick wall, however.

Last week, MSNBC revealed that the Maryland prosecutor who went after former National Security Advisor John Bolton was stuck on the Schiff case, so she pivoted to focus more on Bolton. Now it appears the Schiff case has stalled entirely.

Writing Thursday, Ryan J. Reilly, Kristen Welker, Michael Kosnar and Carol E. Lee wrote for NBC News that the investigation “came to a standstill," according to a federal law enforcement official.

U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes reportedly met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier this week to ask how to move forward without the goods on Schiff.

"The decision out of that meeting was for Hayes to pursue more evidence, and the case remains ongoing," reported NBC, citing one of the sources.

Schiff has retained former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as his counsel.

In a statement to NBC News, Bharara said: “It seems pretty clear that a team of career prosecutors have thoroughly reviewed the politically-motivated allegations against Senator Schiff and found they are unsupported by any evidence and are baseless.”

“The transparently vindictive effort to pursue the Senator has no merit, and if there is any justice left in the Justice Department, this should be the end of the matter,” he added.

Read the full report here.

The junior U.S. senator representing a state with one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the country has been slapped with an $8 million IRS tax lien, Politico reported Monday.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), the former governor who assumed former Sen. Joe Manchin's seat, is tardy on making good on assessments dating back to 2009 -- debt that has followed him long before he was elected as governor in 2016.

Justice’s fortune comes from farming, resorts and ownership of coal mines that he sold to Russian interests for $568 million in cash and stock, also in 2009. He later repurchased them at a discount.

According to Politico, information about the lien came out over the weekend when the press was consumed with the nationwide “No Kings” rally against Donald Trump.

The report noted, “It wasn’t immediately clear why the IRS decided to move forward with the lien at this time. The IRS filed two documents. Both indicate they were prepared and signed Sept. 30, and stamped Oct. 2 by a clerk for Greenbrier County,” adding, “One of the assessments from the IRS is dated Nov. 25, 2015, appearing to put the agency near the end of its 10-year window for taking action.”

While running for the Senate seat he now inhabits, the 74-year old Justice pushed back at reports of his tax woes, telling reporters, “I’ve told everyone that if you’ll tend to the business of the state of West Virginia as I’m tending to the business of the state and you’ll just stay out of my family’s personal stuff, you’ll find the final outcomes will be exactly what I’ve told you they’ll be. They’ll be worked out.”