JIII

...one tweet at a time - political junkie, rascal, all around what-cha-ma-call-it, lucked out with his dreamgirl, kinda everyday guy, kinda...mostly.

[Aaron Blake @AaronBlake]

This is a great example of how this stuff gets spun out of control.

1) The CIA note I've found on this (see image) doesn't actually claim journalists were paid. It merely says China "sought to" identify and pay journalists to write negatively about Trump. It doesn't say it succeeded. It doesn't say what journalists or if they came from mainstream outlets.

2) Even Trump didn't actually say journalists were paid. He said China "sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay them large sums of money." I.e. it "sought to ... pay them," not that it actually paid them)

3) If there was evidence of actual payments, you can bet we'd know about it.

(Also worth noting that that the author of this tweet was paid by an alleged Russian influence operation, per a 2024 indictment. He and others involved have said they were duped.)

[Sean Lyngaas @snlyngaas]

DHS Sec. Mullin just said that intel agencies "withheld" info from Trump about Iran accessing voter data in 2020. That is categorically false. There's video to debunk it: Then-DNI Ratcliffe held a press conference in Oct. 2020 discussing the exact activity Mullin referenced 1/2

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

🚨BREAKING: This is the unearthed video Senator Adam Schiff repeatedly demanded Todd Blanche to answer for during today’s hearing.

Blanche literally ADMITS he fired DOJ attorneys who prosecuted Trump, his own client - a staggering and obvious breach of ethics.

[Will Sommer @willsommer]

Trump's big document release tonight, supposedly meant to prove China stole the 2020 election, includes this classified intel graphic making clear that Russia was the only country trying to meddle in American voting systems.

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

"The intelligence community has ZERO evidence that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, 2022, and 2024."

John Solomon, hired by trump to probe the 2020 election. So far, the only person busted ON TAPE trying to commit election fraud was trump

Oops.

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

Wow! During Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, Jeffrey Epstein survivor Dani Bensky just seemingly accused Todd Blanche and the Trump administration of intentionally releasing her personal information!

"I'm a teacher. In my school, if a student released a nude photo depicting a peer's sexual assault and abuse, they would almost certainly face expulsion. And yet, this is what our Department of Justice did to crime victims.

"Today, Todd Blanche has been at the helm of the release of nude images of survivors, the outing of Jane Does, and the exposure of more than 100 victims' identifying information and documents describing horrific acts of abuse, including my own.

"Instead of treating this release as its own violation and holding the man who led it accountable, you have a decision on whether you place him in the highest law enforcement position in this country.

"In December, before the document release, our attorneys submitted 350 victims' names to the Department of Justice as victims' names to be redacted prior to the release. In that first release, I found my name in two places.

"In that next release in January, my name appeared again. But this time, the redactions were so far worse. The files displayed not only my name, but my phone number, my former addresses, where I worked, and other identifying information.

"When my name appeared in the third file release, it became difficult to believe that this was not intentional."

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Trump is counting DEAD PEOPLE in his number of "non-citizens" who are registered to vote. They found very few *actual* non-citizens registered to vote. This is from their own report. Pathetic!

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

🚨BREAKING: Trump's declassified documents released tonight include a NIC report that Putin oversaw efforts to influence the 2020 election to HELP TRUMP by spreading misinformation against then-VP Biden.

Trump pushes conspiracies while ignoring HIS intel.

Here's what it says:

"President Putin and senior Russian officials are overseeing efforts by proxies to spread claims about former Vice President Biden as well as Ukrainian politicians and alleged Ukrainian influence in the 2016 US election.”

This release BACKFIRED spectacularly.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

this clip that CNN obtained of Georgia Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins' son in law, who has participated in Collins' campaign and reportedly lives on Collins' property, using Nazi talking points to suggest the Holocaust actually wasn't that bad is just bonkers

[Vaughn Hillyard @VaughnHillyard]

NEW: John Solomon acknowledges no votes were changed in the 2020, 2022 or 2024 elections. He also, when asked if the 2020 results showing Biden won the presidential election are accurate, said, “I'm researching.” And says no intell that Venezuela tempered with US voting machines.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

HOLY CRAP!

The documents Trump just released following his speech show that Russians worked with American officials to advance stories about Burisma and Joe Biden being corrupt.

Someone is going to get fired tonight for accidentally allowing this one to be declassified.

[Emoluments Clause @Emolclause]

#BREAKING: Psaki: “Multiple outlets are reporting tonight that Donald Trump has essentially wiped out what is left of the US Election Assistance Commission that is a bipartisan commission that helps states and local officials run elections. They certify election equipment, they distribute federal election funds, they maintain the national mail voter registration form, they basically do a whole bunch of things that help elections across the country run smoothly. But as we have seen through his actions over and over and over again, Donald Trump does not want elections in this country to run smoothly, quite the opposite.”🤦‍♀️

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

This is code red. Trump is not screwing around. We will lose this country unless we are vigilant with what’s going on in terms of election security.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! Trump is coming after democracy as we know it.

[Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin]

1. Speaker Johnson, you’re obsessing about losing the House but don’t seem to realize it’s because you have no program for the country other than illegal disastrous tariffs, illegal disastrous war and humiliating invertebrate submission to your unraveling cult master.

2. You’re projecting onto us your own comically failed and obsessive investigations into President Biden, the Southern Poverty Law Center, James Comey, George Soros, etc.

3. We obviously must confront the debilitating corruption and authoritarianism you have enabled, but at the same time we’re going to move America forward on all the public goods you have thwarted, like the health care of the people, increasing the minimum wage and protecting our environment.

4. I agree that you “run the protection program” and “take care” of all MAGA violators!

[Acyn @Acyn]

AOC: Mike Johnson paints this as though it’s some partisan witch hunt. But if you don’t want to be prosecuted for crimes, don’t do crimes.

And he’s talking about running a protection racket. And we are already seeing that this Trump administration has run what some have called one of the largest pedophile protection programs in American history.

And so when Mike Johnson tells a group of wealthy donors, I'm the only thing standing between you, and a consequence that should rattle at the conscience of every American.

What he wants to do is create—or rather, not even create, because it’s already been created—but protect a class of impunity in America that says, “You can commit whatever crime, and so long as you pay a check to us, we will protect you.”

And that is a model of extortion in American politics. And you know what? That’s their pitch.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

More than 40 years ago, I arrived in Chicago in search of an idea. I was a young man looking for purpose, who believed deeply in America, was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, and wanted to be a part of something larger. The America I believed in was one where everyone has opportunity, everyone is seen, everyone belongs—because that was an America that had a place for me, too.

[House Judiciary Dems @HouseJudiciary]

Judiciary Democrats have uncovered that FBI Director Kash Patel directed over $1 MILLION in unlawful taxpayer-funded bonuses to a small group of MAGA agents and members of Patel’s personal security detail.

[Epstein File Search @epsteinsearchin]

Todd Blanche was CC'd on Epstein case correspondence (EFTA00092801) when he was a defense attorney.

He is now the Deputy Attorney General overseeing the release of those same files.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

There is no world in which this is okay.  

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not recuse himself from cases involving Trump’s Treasury Department while his own son was secretly working there as a political appointee and attorney. 

His son's employment was hidden so thoroughly that his name appears nowhere on the Treasury Department website, he has no public resume, and his bar listings are outdated. 

If Alito had recused himself, the secret would have come out. He didn’t recuse himself. 

This is a clear conflict of interest, and the American people deserved to know about it. 

The federal recusal standard is clear: a justice must step aside in any case where there is a reasonable basis to question whether he or she can be impartial. A justice ruling on cases involving the department where his son works fails that test. The Treasury Department sits at the center of some of the biggest legal fights of this administration, and challenges to Trump’s $1.776 billion January 6 slush fund could be headed to the Court next. 

The Supreme Court is the only court in America with no binding code of conduct. That is completely unacceptable, and it has to change NOW. 

Congress controls the Power of the Purse, and therefore the Court’s funding. If the Court will not adopt a binding code of conduct with real recusal review on their own, I support withholding their funding until they do. 
 https://t.co/FV2Tkpz7Dk

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Thank you, Rep Joyce Beatty! Nobody else tried to do it. I appreciate it very much!👏👏👏