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A former police chief in West Virginia has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for sex trafficking a teen girl and then subsequently trying to hinder investigators.

Larry Clay Jr., 58, former police chief in Fayetteville, was convicted of child sex trafficking and obstruction of justice last year. He served as the chief of police for the Gauley Bridge Police Department and was also an employee of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Clay, The Washington Post reported. Clay did not react when he received his sentence.

The Post reported that the victim, who is now 22, told Clay in court: “You were supposed to help keep people safe. You used your badge and took advantage of your power and took whatever you wanted."

“Because of you, I’m still looking over my shoulder to make sure I’m not being watched, and watching what I wear because I still feel like sweatpants and a hoodie is too revealing. I might never be the same again, but you won’t ever make anyone else a victim of your games. I’ll never forget what you did, and I’m not forgiving you for what you did. I’m forgiving you so I can heal," she said.

Clay paid $100 to co-defendant Kristen Naylor-Legg to engage in sexual misconduct with her 17-year-old relative on two occasions in June 2020, authorities said. Clay remained in his police uniform for the duration of each assault, authorities added.

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The first incident happened in his government-issued vehicle on a rural county road and the second took place inside the old Gauley Bridge High School building, in a location restricted to certain people including police. Law enforcement authorities found DNA evidence on a discarded washcloth.

“Larry Allen Clay’s crimes are particularly heinous, as he was in a position of trust and respect within his community,” said Derek W. Gordon, special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations. "Clay violated that trust and victimized a minor. HSI will work tirelessly to ensure that there is no refuge for child sexual predators who believe they can pursue their perverse behavior with impunity; they cannot escape justice and there will be serious consequences for their heinous actions.”

In September 2020, Clay tried to persuade his co-defendant to lie to investigators about the incidents and asked a law enforcement officer if his crimes could be concealed, officials said.

Naylor-Legg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking in 2021.

An Arkansas Republican poured cold water on any notions of a possible House Speaker Elon Musk.

With chaos erupting in the House this week over a spending agreement that had to be renegotiated after interference by tech billionaire and Trump confidante Musk, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces real jeopardy. Some Republicans, like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have even suggested making Musk himself speaker in his place.

Such a move is possible as the Constitution doesn't require the speaker to be an elected House member.

But Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), the former chair of the powerful House Budget Committee, told CNN's Brianna Keilar that was not going to happen — not least because Musk himself wouldn't even want the job.

"I want to ask you about Elon Musk because he's the one who raised this demand publicly," said Keilar. "He's wielding a lot of power right now. And what do you think about some of your colleagues being open to him being speaker? Would you support that?"

"Well, I don't — I don't think that's a realistic idea," said Womack. "First of all, Elon's got to want to do it. And I think when he looks at what Mike Johnson has been through, what Kevin McCarthy had been through, what all speakers have to go through, he'll probably find that launching and recovering rockets, building EVs, revitalizing social media platforms is a heck of a lot easier and much more profitable than becoming Speaker of the House."

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Womack also aimed some of his fellow Republicans, including Greene and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who are calling for the government to shut down until President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in — calling it a disastrous idea, as Keilar noted his state was full of military bases that depend on that funding.

"Shutting the government down is counterintuitive to anything that I believe," said Womack. "I'm a former mayor. So, you know, government is made to work. And like I said earlier, when people say or advocate for a government shutdown, they are ignoring the absolute results of that ... the problem with shutting the government down is eventually it has to be reopened. And under what conditions would it be reopened? If you are able to extract concessions from the other side, then that's one thing. But if they're dug in and they're not going to give, then before long you're going to see the real impact on everyday Americans that a government shutdown actually proposes."

"The results of that, I think, would be disastrous to both the new majorities in the House and the Senate, and the incoming president," he added.

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Rep. James Comer (R-KY) downplayed using a witness who pleaded guilty to lying about a fake bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

While speaking to CNN on Wednesday, host Pamela Brown asked Comer about using Alexander Smirnov in his impeachment investigation. The former FBI informant recently admitted he falsely claimed the Bidens took millions in bribes from Ukraine energy company Burisma. Smirnov was expected to be sentenced in January.

"This was Chuck Grassley's witness," Comer said, shifting the blame to the Republican senator from Iowa. "He wanted us to question. We questioned a lot of people."

"I understand you're now trying to distance yourself, saying he wasn't a big part of the investigation, but I do want to play what was said at the time," Brown said before presenting a clip of Comer on Fox News.

"This is a very crucial piece of our investigation," Comer told Fox News at the time.

"Do you regret playing this FBI informant up at the time at all, even if you say you didn't ultimately rely on him?" Brown asked.

"I didn't play it up," Comer insisted.

"But you said it was a crucial part of the investigation," the CNN host noted.

"Well, it was, everything was a crucial part of the investigation," the lawmaker admitted. "We would interview anyone that claimed they had information... Chuck Grassley wanted us to interview the guy."

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Brown wondered why Comer's effort to impeach Biden "failed" if Republicans had enough evidence to prove corruption.

"It wasn't a failed effort," Comer asserted. "That's what CNN's trying to say. It was a very successful effort."

"I'm not trying to say that," Brown replied. "It's just a fact. You didn't have enough Republicans on board because they didn't feel, to see the proof that was necessary."

Changing the subject, Comer claimed Democrats "devalued" the impeachment process by successfully impeaching President-elect Donald Trump twice.

"And I think when Joe Biden issued the pardon to his son, a blanket pardon, I think that validated what we did," the Kentucky Republican added.

Watch the video below from CNN or click here.

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission cast the lone no vote Tuesday against a newly finalized rule banning deceptive junk fees in live-event ticketing and short-term lodging.

The rule, according to an FTC release, "targets specific and widespread unfair and deceptive pricing practices in the sale of live-event tickets and short-term lodging, while preserving flexibility for businesses."

"It does not prohibit any type or amount of fee, nor does it prohibit any specific pricing strategies," the agency said. "Rather, it simply requires that businesses that advertise their pricing tell consumers the whole truth up-front about prices and fees."

FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, Trump's choice to head the bipartisan agency, was the only member to vote against the junk fees rule. In his dissenting statement, Ferguson wrote that his opposition had "nothing to do with the merits" of the finalized rule but was rather a vote against any additional rulemaking by the Biden administration.

"It is particularly inappropriate for the Biden-Harris FTC to adopt a major new rule that it will never enforce, as the final rule will not take effect until many months after President Trump takes his oath of office," Ferguson wrote.

Ferguson has been a consistent opponent of causes championed by FTC Chair Lina Khan, including the agency's rules banning anti-worker noncompete agreements and making it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions.

Nidhi Hegde, interim executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, said in response to the newly finalized rule that "banning junk fees is broadly popular across the country because Americans are tired of being tricked by hidden costs that inflate prices and distort competition."

"Finalizing this rule with bipartisan support demonstrates Chair Khan and the commission's commitment to delivering real results for consumers, saving Americans both time and money," said Hegde. "We're pleased to see the FTC work to get this done, and encourage federal and state policymakers to build on this effort to put an end to junk fees once and for all."

With his dissent on Tuesday, Ferguson offered a glimpse of "how he plans to lead the FTC—and how the Trump administration plans to run the independent agencies put in the crosshairs by the Project 2025 plan," political reporter Matt Sledge wrote for The Intercept on Wednesday.

"While calling on the FTC to stop issuing rules until Trump takes office might win favor with the incoming president, it is sharply at odds with positions on the agency's independence that Republicans were putting out just weeks ago," Sledge noted. "As recently as October, the House Oversight Committee released a report dinging Khan for a supposed lack of independence from the Biden administration."

"Since Trump's election, however, Republicans have shown newfound enthusiasm for the idea of bringing independent agencies under executive control," he added. "That vision was laid out in Project 2025."

Since he's already a commissioner at the agency, Ferguson will not require Senate confirmation to become FTC chair once Trump takes office next month.

In his job pitch to Trump's team, Ferguson pledged to use his tenure as FTC chair to "reverse Lina Khan's anti-business agenda" and halt her "war on mergers."

Appearing on CNN just moments after it was reported that the House Ethics Committee took a secret vote and agreed to release what is expecting a damaging report on ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) a former colleague fumed and claimed he would push for any and all reports the committee has to be released.

Speaking with host Jim Acosta, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) was asked about the report and immediately labeled the bi-partisan committee a "clown show."

"Do you support that?" host Acosta pressed his guest.

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"No, I don't," the Tennessee Republican replied. "I think Matt's out of Congress, and I'm going to push for the Ethics Committee to release all the findings they have on every congressmen, because if it's good for one, it's good for all of them."

"And, you know, congressional ethics to me, is kind of like a military intelligence –– it really just doesn't exist, you know," he continued before accusing, "This thing was leaked out by the Democrat chairman. They they're talking about bringing charges against her (sic) and this is it's a clown show. It's Congress 101, they're releasing it right now right before the big budget thing."

Pressed further, he replied, "This is just an investigation, it's not a court of law. It's in the past. It's you get one side of this thing and if they want to release it, release all of them. I think if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander."

"Why are they hiding all the others? Why are they protecting powerful members, former powerful that are still powerful on this Capitol Hill?" he added. "And let's be honest to every one of these folks on the Republican side was was appointed by the former speaker [Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)], which Matt and I both deposed –– or disposed of."

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As President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches, his plan to issue pardons to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as one of his first official presidential acts is an alarming prospect that could pave the way for dangerous consequences, according to a former federal prosecutor.

The “unprecedented nature” of the prospective presidential pardons is compounded by the fact that they would be issued to “people who were essentially his co-conspirators in crime,” law professor Frank Bowman told HuffPost.

“That’s never happened,” he added in an article published Monday.

Among the chief concerns alarming to Bowman, a former state and federal prosecutor and author of “High Crimes & Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump,” include Trump’s free reign from a Republican Party that "is far too cowardly to stand up to him.”

“The American public gave Trump the figurative permission to do what he’s about to do,” Bowman told HuffPost “He didn’t hide the fact that he was very likely to issue pardons to these people; he said it repeatedly during the course of his election campaign. I think it’s unspeakably scandalous and a terrible commentary on the state of our politics. I think it’s a bad harbinger of things likely to come.”

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Congress is extremely unlikely to impeach Trump for “anything” – including misusing pardons, he said.

"We have a Republican-majority Congress that can’t even bestir itself to reject lunatics from high offices," he said. "Are they going to impeach Trump for something the population has given him permission to do? Of course not."

And the idea of blanket pardons being handed out to Jan. 6 rioters would create a devastating effect, Bowman said.

“Bottom line: Do I think this is really bad? Yeah, it’s essentially saying, henceforth, presidents who commit the gravest crimes against the Constitution, as long as they can stay in office, can use the power of the pardon to create a zone of impunity for all of their co-conspirators,” Bowman said in the HuffPost interview. “I think that’s terrible. I think that’s deeply dangerous.”

He concluded that the public response to “a president issuing lots and lots of pardons to people who assaulted the Capitol, hurt officers” would be “quite negative” but added: “There’s not a darn thing anybody can do.”