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DOJ Issues Mysterious Grand Jury Subpoena to House of Representatives

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The U.S. Dept. of Justice has issued a subpoena requesting unknown documents from the U.S. House of Representatives for a grand jury, according to a memo the House Sergeant at Arms sent Speaker Mike Johnson, which was announced by the clerk formally on Monday.

“The House is notified that the Office of Sergeant at Arms has been served a grand jury subpoena issued by the Justice Department for documents and that the office will comply,” the clerk stated (video below). “After consulting with the Office of General Counsel, I have determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the rights and privileges of the House. Signed, Sincerely, William P. McFarland, Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives.”

That video is going viral, with more than two million views in two hours, and some legal experts are now attempting to gather information.

MSNBC host and legal contributor Katie Phang said on social media that she has not seen the document but she’s trying “to hunt down some more info before folks start speculating.”

The speculation has already begun, with many pointing fingers at House Republicans they believe were somehow involved in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. There is currently no indication what the subpoena is related to, or how serious, if at all, it is.

Meanwhile, journalist Jamie Dupree, called “the most connected man in Washington” several years ago by Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked: “Who at DOJ is running a grand jury right now?”

READ MORE: Local Reporter Hammers House Republican Taking Credit for Biden’s Bills After Voting ‘No’

“Members of Congress, committees, staffers, and offices can be served with subpoenas during investigations,” Dupree notes, as does “Rule VIII,” a House document referenced by the clerk, which Phang pointed to as well.

Dupree also added an interesting observation:

“When the Speaker is notified of a subpoena, the name of the court is always included (example on the left). This one just says ‘a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.'”

Phang followed up with this note: “There are other divisions at DOJ that aren’t criminal and they have subpoena power too, and there are other investigations going on at DOJ that aren’t 1/6-related so I think we just need to wait and see what’s being sought in this specific subpoena.”

Watch the video below, read the social media posts above, or all at this link.

UPDATE: 5:29 PM ET –
Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reports the Justice Dept. “is investigating a House Democrat for allegedly misusing government money meant for personal security,” and the subpoena is related to that (previously unknown) investigation.
 

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‘Vile Racist’: Trump Promotes Unhinged Anti-Birthright Citizenship Screed

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President Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform Wednesday to amplify a racist, anti-immigrant screed attacking birthright citizenship that calls India and China — two of America’s most critical strategic partners — “hellhole” nations, discusses defying the Supreme Court, and urges federal prosecution of the country’s leading civil liberties organization.

The attack, a transcript from a “Savage Nation” podcast, details right-wing radio host Michael Savage’s response to recent Supreme Court arguments in Trump v. Barbara — a case in which the ACLU is challenging Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.

In it, Savage says what was “quite noticeable” to him “was that the person bringing the arguments in favor of flooding America with illegal aliens to change the demographics forever was a Chinese American who looks to me like the classic ACLU attorney. Very smart, very evil, and very devious. The ACLU is the head of the snake. They have been forever, and there they were again trying to turn America into a cesspool.”

In his nearly 1,800 word invective, Savage argues that a baby born in the U.S. “becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.”

Savage claims America “is being overrun with Chinese coming here just to drop a baby on our shores to then bring in the entire family.”

“You don’t have to go too far to see that. English is not spoken here anymore,” Savage claims. “That there’s almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case. No, they’re not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors. The Irish integrated, the Italians integrated, the Polish integrated the Lithuanians, the Romanians, the Russians. They all integrated and became Americans in the melting pot. The idea of the melting pot is long over.”

READ MORE: Trump: ‘Extraordinarily Brilliant’ — Yet Stumped by Virginia’s ‘Rigged’ Referendum

“How about some common sense in a bankrupt nation. ACLU Attorney Wang is pushing to destroy our national identity, turn us into a colony of China, but it’s not limited to China, it’s also India.”

He calls the ACLU “the most dangerous criminal organization in the history of America.”

“I would say that the ACLU has done more damage to this nation than Iran has ever done directly to this nation,” Savage claims. “The ACLU has done more damage to our borders, language and culture than Iran has done. The ACLU and their cockamamie lawyers have done more damage to America than the Mullahs in Iran have done to this nation. Why can’t they be taken down under the RICO statutes?”

“President Trump,” Savage concludes, “one last appeal to you today. Please bust the ACLU under RICO statutes before there’s nothing left of this nation to save.”

Despite the post’s incendiary nature, criticism from American political figures and critics was sparse. The majority of responses on social media appeared to come from Indian users and news outlets, who widely condemned the post — underscoring the diplomatic stakes of a sitting American president amplifying language that attacks two of Washington’s critical strategic partners.

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson responded by declaring, “Donald Trump is insane,” and Republican former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote simply, “Vile racist.”

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols wrote that Trump is “Moving on from the Pope to *another* group of 1+ billion people.”

“We are sorry. He is a global disgrace,” wrote columnist Sophia A. Nelson.

READ MORE: ‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

 

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Why Trump’s Blockade Is ‘Unlikely to Work’: Military Expert

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A New York Times op-ed by a military expert argues that blockades don’t work the way President Trump thinks — and that his blockade of Iran is “unlikely” to succeed.

Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank, explains that Trump’s blockade should not have come as a surprise — he’s used them already against Venezuela and Cuba.

While the Strait of Hormuz was open before Trump started his war against Iran, Iran chose to close it. Trump’s response was to launch a blockade of Iranian ports, to force a deal.

“But Tehran’s effective closure of the strait since the United States and Israel attacked two months ago has emerged as the war’s most bedeviling problem and one Mr. Trump is desperate to fix,” Kavanagh writes. Trump’s goal is to “choke Iran’s economy and force the country’s leaders to reopen the strait and accept Washington’s terms of surrender.”

READ MORE: Trump: ‘Extraordinarily Brilliant’ — Yet Stumped by Virginia’s ‘Rigged’ Referendum

That tactic is “unlikely to work for the same reasons the United States finds itself facing strategic defeat by a weaker adversary: a mismatch of stakes and time horizons.”

Kavanagh explains that the way blockades work is an equation of time and will. And Iran has both. Trump, she suggests, does not.

“While Iran has gained the upper hand in this conflict by extending and surviving what it considers an existential war,” Kavanagh writes, “Mr. Trump wants a fast and decisive victory, something a blockade cannot deliver.”

She points to President Abraham Lincoln’s blockade against the Confederacy during the Civil War. The war lasted four more years. And she points to the British naval blockade of Germany in World War I. That war also lasted another four years. Today, “Iran can likely endure the U.S. blockade for months without facing economic collapse.”

For Trump, “this timeline is likely to be unacceptable. His impatience with the war is evident in his increasingly erratic Truth Social posts and near-constant assertions that the war is already over,” Kavanagh says. “In a test of wills, Tehran has the advantage and a higher pain tolerance. With their survival on the line, Iran’s leaders can afford to be patient.”

READ MORE: ‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

 

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Trump: ‘Extraordinarily Brilliant’ — Yet Stumped by Virginia’s ‘Rigged’ Referendum

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President Donald Trump is being criticized for his latest Truth Social post in which he describes himself as an “extraordinarily brilliant person” yet admits he cannot understand the language in Virginia’s redistricting referendum — which more than 1.5 million voters passed Tuesday night.

The president also claimed the election was “rigged,” while offering no evidence, and was frustrated because ballot counting went more heavily in Democrats’ favor (the “Yes” vote) as results were counted.

“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!” Trump declared.

“All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!”

READ MORE: ‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

“In addition to everything else,” he continued, “the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.”

“As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.'”

Critics blasted Trump’s remarks.

“I am begging for someone to explain to the President how election returns work,” wrote Sarah Longwell, the founder and editor of The Bulwark.

“You weren’t ‘winning all day,’ you were ahead before counting finished,” wrote progressive commentator Alex Cole. “Those are not the same thing. The real conspiracy is how MAGA convinces itself losing = cheating instead of… losing.”

READ MORE: Republicans Have to Make a Choice Between ‘Reality-Based Data’ and Trump: Benen

 

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