Raw Story

The Department of Justice removed a key claim from its legal filings regarding the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, contradicting its initial probable cause affidavit.

The original weekend affidavit stated Secret Service Officer V.G. was shot in the chest and protected by a ballistic vest when Cole Allen allegedly fired at security checkpoint. However, Wednesday's memorandum supporting pretrial detention omitted any mention of the officer being shot, instead describing only that Allen fired a shotgun in the direction of the ballroom stairs and that an officer responded with five shots.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to confirm whether Allen shot the officer during a press conference, claiming ballistics analysis was ongoing.

Initial media reports indicated the officer was hit in the chest, with the vest preventing serious injury. The discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of early accounts and the government's evolving narrative of the incident.

Watch the video below.

CNN's Abby Phillip brutally fact-checked a MAGA pundit during Monday's broadcast of her show "NewsNight" over the White House's claim that left-wing rhetoric inspired the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday.

Ben Ferguson, who co-hosts the "Verdict" podcast with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined the panel to discuss the shooting, and defended the White House's claim that Democrats inspired the shooter to attack the event. He pointed to recent statements from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and language the shooter included in his alleged manifesto as evidence that the rhetoric inspired the attack.

Phillip fact-checked Ferguson's claims with a couple of clips putting the Democrats' statements into their full context, and highlighting how Trump has spoken of Democrats the same way he has accused them of speaking about him.

"The point is that it's not that Donald Trump is responsible for violence against those people. The point is that it's not enough to explain that the moment we are in is just, 'Did he call her a fascist? Did she call him a fascist?'" Phillip said. "Because that is happening on both sides of the debate. There is more that is contributing to where we are as a country, and it is bad. It is unquestionably bad. And if we fail to actually address the root causes, we are going nowhere."

The United States Supreme Court reversed a block on Texas redistricting efforts, ending litigation against new maps that could give Republicans additional House seats.

The high court cited Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens in its order, but did not elaborate on its thinking. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson offered a dissent from the decision.

President Donald Trump is preparing to throw a scripted tantrum at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year, reported The Daily Beast on Wednesday.

"Donald Trump will launch a 'revenge' attack on the White House media when he confronts them in person at a Washington dinner on Saturday night — then flee before there can be revenge," said the report. "He is expected to target publications that he has accused of writing negatively about his administration and his war with Iran, in particular, according to sources."

This would track with his recent rants on Truth Social, where he has accused of the media of rigging reports about the Iran war to make it look like it's going worse than it actually is.

After he is done with his speech, said the report, he is skipping on the rest of the ceremony — in large part because he doesn't want to stick around for an award being given to a story that revealed his closeness to deceased financier and accused child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

"Trump will leave the White House Correspondents’ Association event after making his speech, so he will miss the presentation of press awards — one of which would be certain to embarrass him," said the report. "He has told aides he has no intention of still being in the International Ballroom at the Washington Hilton when the Wall Street Journal is honored with the Katherine Graham award for its scoop about a bawdy letter Trump allegedly wrote for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50^th birthday card."

The president sued WSJ over that reporting, alleging that the birthday letter was not authentic. This month, a federal judge tossed out that suit.

Ghislaine Maxwell's condition to testify under oath — but only under the condition of clemency — has split House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members over whether President Donald Trump should grant her that pardon, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told Politico on Wednesday.

Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, was deposed by the committee and invoked her Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer the group's questions. Trump is the only one with the power to pardon her, something he has not yet ruled out.

Comer told Politico that he did not favor a pardon for Maxwell, a former confidant to the late financier and convicted child sex offender. When asked whether striking a deal with Maxwell could provide useful testimony, Comer did not share who on the panel supported granting her clemency.

"A lot of people do," Comer said.

"My committee’s split on that," Comer said. "I don’t speak for my committee."

"I think it looks bad," he added. "Honestly, other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell."

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said that Democrats on the committee collectively oppose a pardon for Maxwell.

"That would be a huge step backwards, and, quite frankly, so disrespectful to the survivors," he said in an interview. "She is a known abuser. She is a known liar."

"If the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some sort of pardon that is... not only a huge slap in the face to this investigation, to anyone, to the American public," Garcia said. "It’s a part of a massive cover up."

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, had strong words for Republicans complaining about the gerrymandering in Virginia that voters approved on Tuesday, with strong support from her party.

"Wah, wah, wah," Ocasio-Cortez told Raw Story on Wednesday, mimicking a whining baby and laughing in response to a question from reporter Matt Laslo. "Democrats have attempted and asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering, and for 10 years, Republicans have said, 'no.'"

Laslo was asking Ocasio-Cortez to respond to complaints from the GOP that it would be unconstitutional for Democrats to have a 10-1 congressional majority in Virginia, which the gerrymandering ballot measure would make possible. A Virginia circuit court judge blocked the vote-approved redistricting on Wednesday, however.

Still, Ocasio-Cortez saw no problem with Democrats supporting gerrymandering after years of opposing it when done on the Republican side. For AOC, the GOP "wanted to start this," and the Democrats are just fighting back.

"What they're mad at is they're accustomed to a Democrat Party that rolls over, doesn't fight and takes everything sitting down," Ocasio-Cortez said. "What they're mad at right now is that we are here in a new day."

She mentioned Republican gerrymandering in North Carolina and Texas, where Democrats lost seats. Trump's call for Texas Republicans to gerrymander arguably kicked off what's now seen as a redistricting arms race.

"We have been asking the Democratic Party to stand up and fight, and now they did," AOC continued. "Now the Republican Party doesn't like the fact that they are fighting against someone who actually will stand up for the American people."

Ocasio-Cortez said she would "welcome" working with the Republicans to pass a ban on partisan gerrymandering.

"We have the bill right here to end this all today," she said, smiling. "But they don't want to because they like pursuing and continuing to enact an unfair electoral landscape."