‘Coverup!’ MAGA lawmakers demand Kash Patel’s FBI investigate aborted fetuses found in DC
Two MAGA lawmakers are asking FBI Director Kash Patel to launch a formal investigation into an alleged "coverup" they say was orchestrated by former President Joe Biden's administration, whom conservatives have long faulted for failing to take action in a case stemming from five aborted fetuses found in Washington, D.C.
Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) called on Patel to confirm a probe would be forthcoming by April 29, and also asked that FBI officials provide a “staff level briefing” related to the agency's review and potential investigation into the case – which they refer to as the “D.C. Five.”
“As Chairs of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government and the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, we remain concerned about the Biden-Harris Administration’s refusal to investigate the circumstances of the case of five aborted children, also known as the D.C. Five, whose remains were allegedly discovered at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in March 2022 by a pro-life advocacy group,” the MAGA lawmakers told Patel on Tuesday in a joint letter.
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In addition to the Biden administration, Roy and Biggs also targeted the Metropolitan Police Department, both of which they say “chose to ignore any potential evidence of a crime for two years.” They also went after former FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom they blamed for "leadership failures."
“As we continue to conduct our investigation into the District of Columbia’s enforcement of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, serious questions remain surrounding the deaths of these children,” they added. “We write to request that the FBI review the decision not to move forward with an investigation and the Biden Harris’s apparent decision not to enforce the Partial-Birth Abortion Act and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act."
‘Irreparable harm’: Judge rebukes Trump DOJ in clash over wrongly deported dad
The Justice Department clashed with U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis in a Tuesday hearing over what the U.S. government acknowledged was an accidental deportation of a Maryland father.
Kilmar Ábrego García was shipped to a prison in El Salvador despite a judge ruling that García could not be deported there. The U.S. government has claimed that García is an MS-13 gang member, but one legal analyst wrote Tuesday there's reason to question this.
According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, Xinis said that every day Ábrego García is in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, is "a day of further irreparable harm."
"If not this court, then who, to engage in process. It’s process that is in the roots of our constitution, so we have to give process to both sides...There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding," the judge said.
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She also questioned the administration's definition of the word "facilitate," which comes from a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the high court ordered the administration to "facilitate" García's return.
The administration's definition flies in the face of the plain meaning of the word, the judge said, according to Cheney. "When a wrongfully removed individual [is outside US borders], it's not so cut-and-dried that all you have to do is remove obstacles domestically."
CNN reported that the judge appeared willing to consider an expansion of the definition of "facilitate." The Justice Department asked for an appeal to stay that decision.
The judge said, "The Supreme Court has spoken. My order is clear. It's direct. There is, in my view, nothing to appeal."
See the clip below or at the link here.
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Trump’s order blocked that punished law firm that helped Dominion sue Fox News
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked several portions of President Donald Trump's executive order punishing Susman Godfrey, the law firm that represented the elections equipment company Dominion Voting Systems in their defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Judge Loren AliKhan slammed the Trump administration's actions from the bench, per MSNBC legal commentator Adam Klasfeld, saying, "Frankly, I think the Framers of our Constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power."
She noted that a number of other law firms had struck "deals" with the Trump administration to avoid being targeted by similar executive orders, which, she said, was "coercion, plain and simple."
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AliKhan blocked all three provisions of the executive order that Susman Godfrey challenged: Section 1, which attacked the firm's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; Section 3, which ordered the termination of all federal government contracts with the firm; and Section 5, which barred Susman Godfrey personnel from accessing federal buildings.
Trump has issued a number of other executive orders with identical provisions targeting various law firms that have represented clients or cases against himself or his allies or previously employed people who have done so.
The "deals" struck with several law firms to prevent this punishment included agreeing to terminate DEI policies, commit to accepting pro-Trump clients in the future, and earmark hundreds of millions of dollars for pro bono work in specific areas the Trump administration approves of, such as fighting antisemitism and assisting veterans. It's part of a series of attacks Trump has levied at institutions to force compliance with his administration, including threats to terminate funding to progressive research universities and pushing for settlements of frivolous lawsuits against large broadcasting companies.
The law firm deals were largely brokered by Boris Epshteyn, a controversial lawyer and former right-wing analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group who is notorious for following Trump around with positive news printouts to make him feel better.
Trump folds on Blanche as GOP senators hand him devastating defeat
President Donald Trump conceded Thursday he may pull his own attorney general nominee rather than give two outgoing Republican senators what they are demanding.
Trump made the admission on Truth Social after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination Wednesday night. The vote was canceled when it became clear two Republicans would block it.
Those two senators — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — are leaving Congress at the end of the year.
"Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time."
"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote.
Trump also attacked both senators directly, calling them men "whose political careers have been ended by my action" — a reference to his decision not to endorse them. He added that "both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland," invoking former Attorney General Merrick Garland, a name Republicans cite as a symbol of Democratic overreach.
On Capitol Hill Thursday morning, Cornyn told reporters the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Asked whether Blanche could be confirmed before the August recess, he said the odds were against it.
"It's looking doubtful," Cornyn told reporters, according to NBC News congressional reporter Laura Weiss.
Cornyn said talks with Blanche had been "very constructive" and that he believed a deal was close Tuesday night. But by Thursday morning, something had shifted.
"Other people intervening," he said. He told NBC News congressional correspondent Julie Tsirkin he did not know whether the president himself was standing in the way.
At the heart of the standoff is a settlement Trump's Department of Justice reached with the Internal Revenue Service. The deal granted Trump and his family immunity from tax audits and created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they had been targeted by the government for political reasons.
The fund was later abandoned, but Cornyn wants that abandonment in writing — and wants the audit immunity narrowed so it does not cover future tax filings, according to MS NOW.
"All I want them to do is to confirm what he said in his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee, with regard not only to the weaponization fund, but also who is protected from future audits and what agencies of the federal government are bound by the release," Cornyn told reporters, according to CBS News.
The Department of Justice, Cornyn said, had not delivered. "They've simply refused to cooperate," he said, according to The Hill.
As of Thursday morning, Cornyn said he was waiting on a DOJ response to his latest offer and had no meetings or calls scheduled with the White House or the Department of Justice.
