Republicans

Politico reports: Washington, D.C., bar investigators have filed disciplinary charges against three lawyers who aided Donald Trump ally Sidney Powell’s campaign to mount discredited legal challenges to the 2020 election results. Filings made public Friday accused attorneys Juli Haller, Lawrence Joseph and Brandon Johnson of making knowingly false representations to courts about a slew of lawsuits they filed. Joseph was …

The Insider reports: Former car dealership owner turned GOP candidate Bernie Moreno, whose Ohio Senate race could determine whether Republicans regain control of the chamber, settled over a dozen wage theft lawsuits in the months before launching his campaign last year, according to court documents reviewed by Business Insider. Those settlements came after a jury ordered Moreno to pay over …

Florida Politics reports: Sarasota Police have forwarded their investigation of Christian Ziegler to prosecutors. Investigators delivered a probable cause affidavit to charge Ziegler with video voyeurism, but not rape. Police in October launched an investigation of the now-former Republican Party of Florida Chair after a woman accused him of rape in a Sarasota apartment. Over the course of a two-month …

Politico reports: Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature wanted to keep obscene books out of the hands of kids. But some are now acknowledging they created a “logistical nightmare” that lawmakers are trying to rein in. Legislators this month introduced a new idea to curb frivolous challenges to books — one of the first admissions the law, which tightened scrutiny around books with …

Mediaite has the transcript: ERIC BOLLING: Chairman. I love you, brother. You and I are friends a long time. He already did enough to earn his contempt of Congress the first time. I think, call me crazy, but seeing Hunter Biden in handcuffs escorted out of the chamber the next time would go a long way for credibility for you …

The Montana Free Press reports: Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has blocked a ballot proposal seeking to create a constitutional right to abortion, labeling the initiative “legally insufficient” after a required review by his office. In a memorandum dated Jan. 16, Knudsen said the proposed ballot initiative spearheaded by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, Ballot Measure #14, improperly “logrolls multiple …

The Associated Press reports: A North Dakota lawmaker who insulted police with vulgar, homophobic and anti-migrant comments during an arrest last month for drunken driving was sentenced to serve nearly a year of unsupervised probation and to pay $1,000. Republican state Rep. Nico Rios, of Williston, received the sentence on Jan. 8, when he pleaded guilty to drunken driving, court …

The New York Times reports: Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina will endorse Donald J. Trump on Friday evening at a rally in New Hampshire, according to two people briefed on the matter. Mr. Scott was traveling to Florida on Friday so that he could fly with Mr. Trump to New Hampshire for the rally, the two people said. His …

“There are multiple instances that we need to start asking Donald Trump the questions and stop taking what he’s saying to be golden, because I’ve never once said I was going to cut Social Security. But he said he was going to raise the retirement age of Social Security to 70. “He proposed a 25-cent gas tax increase on all …

Media Matters has the transcript: BECK: I don’t know what happens to our country if they do that [imprison Trump]. I mean, you — at least half of the country will feel this is a total set up. This is a banana republic. That this is not what we do in America. And they will feel as though they have …

NBC News reports: An Oklahoma bill has stirred controversy in the state Legislature for seeking to label Hispanic people who are gang members as terrorists. No other racial or ethnic group is singled out in the legislation. The bill, written by Republican state Rep. Justin Humphrey, proposes that any person who “is of Hispanic descent living within the state of Oklahoma,” …

“We’re gonna vote to continue to fund the radical progressive policies. Continue to fund the bureaucracy that’s at war with the American people. Continue to fund open borders. “Continue to fund Alejandro Mayorkas, even as we attempt to impeach him in the Homeland Security Committee. We’re going to fund him. We’re going to fund those open borders. “We’re going to …

The Texas Tribune reports: Attorney General Ken Paxton tapped his campaign funds to pay $2.3 million on legal fees related to his impeachment trial over the last six months, according to a new campaign finance report. The report, which was published Thursday, is the first time Paxton has had to disclose his campaign spending since July. The House impeached him …

Fox News reports: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that pardoning former President Trump would be “healing for the country” as she took tough questions from voters days ahead of the New Hampshire primary election. During Haley’s town hall on CNN, the former United Nations ambassador said she would pardon Trump if elected, but only if the GOP frontrunner were …

Axios reports: The House Freedom Caucus may begin to routinely hijack Republican messaging bills as an act of retaliation against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), according to multiple members of the right-wing group. It would mark a significant escalation in hardliners’ rebellion against Johnson after he pursued bipartisan deals to pass critical government funding bills. “If they don’t want or …

CNN reports: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has been discharged from the hospital after being treated for an infection, his office announced Thursday. He is expected to be back at work next week, according to the short statement from the office. At 90 years old, Grassley is the oldest member of the US Senate. He was elected to the …

Florida Politics reports: Members of the House Civil Justice Subcommittee voted 12-4 for a measure (HB 757) that would lower the legal bar in defamation lawsuits by shifting the burden of proof from the plaintiff to the defendant. That’s appropriate given how little faith there is today in media to get the story right, argued Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade, …

“Whether it’s George Washington, whether it was Madison, whether it was Abraham Lincoln, whether it was Ronald Reagan—who was the first president I got to vote for—you go back through history and you look at the men and the struggles that they faced and the faith that they had. “Those are the type of people that you want in government …

Axios reports: Mike Pence’s former chief of staff Nick Ayers is endorsing former President Trump, Axios has learned. It’s a sign that after this week’s swift and decisive Iowa caucuses results, Trump is starting to pick up endorsements from Republicans who have previously stayed neutral. “What happened in Iowa was an overwhelming mandate that every dollar should be spent on …

Politico reports: “If Gov. Haley does not succeed in obtaining the Republican nomination for president and she declares any interest in being part of our bipartisan unity ticket, I’m sure the people at No Labels would give that the most serious consideration, but obviously she’s not done that because she’s an active Republican candidate for president,” said Joe Lieberman, a …