ABC News reports: A federal judge has rejected an effort by former President Donald Trump to pause several civil lawsuits filed against him seeking to hold him accountable for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, according to a newly posted ruling. Trump had asked D.C. District Judge Amit Mehta to stay proceedings in the lawsuits — brought …

The Daily Beast reports: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was spotted engaging with the MAGA faithful outside of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Downtown Manhattan this week. Triumph starts trying to engaging with “diverse” Trump fans, “a virtual rainbow, representing every kind of mental disorder”—or, “a real who’s who of who’s off their meds”—but can barely get his jokes in …

“It was and it is painful to be able to watch. It got stirred up in all the presidential politics and several of my colleagues started looking for ways after President Trump said, ‘Don’t fix anything during the presidential election. It’s the single biggest issue during the election, don’t resolve this, we’ll resolve it next year.’ “Quite a few of …

“I guess their reasoning is they want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the Speaker over it. I mean that’s a strange position to take. I think they want to be in the minority too. I think that’s an obvious reality. I’m still trying to process all the bullshit. “To be clear, he’s being threatened for …

Raw Story reports: “I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire,” Trump said to reporters after emerging from the courthouse. “I’ve been here all day.” The former president reiterated that he believes the trial against him, for business record fraud to allegedly cover up an affair with an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election, is “very unfair.” He waved …

“Here’s my recommendation. You need a replacement. I think you guys should have a temporary Newt Gingrich as speaker. I’m not kidding. I think that Newt Gingrich should be a temporary speaker until the end of the year. You need an alternative. Are you guys talking about alternatives here? “And, look, I know that it could be chaos. Potentially, Hakeem …

The Kansas City Star reports: U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican who represents Kansas’ 2nd District, announced Thursday he won’t seek reelection, creating another open race in a furious partisan fight for control of the House. LaTurner, 36, was first elected to the House in 2020. In a statement, LaTurner said it was time to “pursue other opportunities and have …

CNN reports: Judge Juan Merchan said a jury has been seated in the Trump trial. The court is now selecting alternates. Both sides in the courtroom used all their peremptory strikes on potential jurors. The jurors for the Trump hush money criminal trial are coming into the courtroom. Twelve jurors and one alternate have been seated. A potential juror who …

Bloomberg News reports: Seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster is mulling a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as it looks to restructure its debt, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Red Lobster has been getting advice from law firm King & Spalding, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. The dining chain is considering …

Politico reports: Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are signing up to take shifts to monitor the chamber floor in order to prevent their own party leaders from making unilateral moves that could curb their power. The Freedom Caucus’ Floor Action Response Team, shorthanded as “FART,” aims to guard against an unannounced request to pass resolutions that would stealthily limit …

The right wing Washington Free Beacon reports: The right-wing group that leads a recruitment effort for Capitol Hill offices and allied nonprofits, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), has for months left exposed the sensitive personal information of applicants to its online “jobs bank,” the Washington Free Beacon found, including members of the U.S. intelligence community, congressional aides, former Trump administration …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Lawmakers on a Louisiana House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring employers to give child workers lunch breaks and to slash unemployment benefits — part of a Republican-backed push to roll back regulations on companies and reduce aid for injured and unemployed workers. The House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations advanced the …

Wired reports: Election deniers are now advocating for a far-right sheriff’s group called the Constitutional Sheriffs to recruit an army of like-minded citizens to patrol polling stations and stop the “expected flood” of “illegal” immigrant voters. Constitutional Sheriffs are a group of elected sheriffs around the country who believe that they hold the ultimate power in their county, and are …

The Daily Beast reports: The second juror, Watters described, is “a nurse from the Upper East Side with a Masters degree.” “She’s not married, has no kids and lives with her fiancé who works in finance,” Watters said, chuckling for some reason. “She gets her news from The New York Times, Google and CNN.” Two items in this juror’s questionnaire …

Axios reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gained ballot access in Michigan for the 2024 presidential election, his campaign announced Thursday. Michigan is a key battleground state in 2024, where polls show President Biden and former President Trump appear to be neck and neck — leaving room for Kennedy and running mate Nicole Shanahan to throw a curveball into the …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Satanic Temple members are planning on taking advantage of a bill Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thursday that allows volunteer chaplains to provide support services for public K-12 students. But DeSantis says that’s not going to happen. “Some have said that if you do a school chaplain program, that somehow you’re going to have Satanists running around …

Brasil Wire reports: On April 3, Michael Shellenberger tweeted a series of excerpts from emails by X executives dubbed, “Twitter Files Brazil”, which alleged to expose crimes by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes, he claimed, had pressed criminal charges against Twitter Brasil’s lawyer for its refusal to turn over personal information on political enemies. Elon Musk quickly …

Phoenix’s KJZZ reports: A complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday accuses Rep. Austin Smith (R-Wittman) of forging signatures he needed to gather to qualify for the ballot and run for reelection. The complaint alleges that nine pages of signatures Smith gathered appear to be written by the same person and look like Smith’s own handwriting. And two …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Video of middle schoolers walking out of a Nebo School District school in Payson on Wednesday quickly spread in conservative social media circles, with posts claiming the students were protesting because the district was allowing student “furries” to “terrorize” other students. “Students claim that the furries bite them, bark at them, and pounce on them …

The Daily Dot reports: Isabella Moody and Josiah Moody, far-right YouTubers and content creators, posted a video of their child babbling on X, claiming she was saying the N-word. The two received such fervent backlash they appear to have deleted their accounts on the app. “My daughter literally said the n-word,” Moody captioned a video she posted on X on …