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Boebert Makes Announcement Over Colorado Special Election

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Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Popular pro-Trump Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has decided she will not run in the special election for Colorado GOP Rep. Ken Buck’s seat.

On Tuesday, Buck shocked Republicans by announcing he will leave Congress on March 22, a move that triggers a special election on June 25 to temporarily fill the vacancy in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. (RELATED: Rep. Ken Buck To Retire Sooner Than Expected)

Boebert, who currently represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, initially announced she would run to succeed Buck in the 3rd District. However, on Wednesday, the congresswoman clarified she will not run in the special election to fill Buck’s vacancy.

“Forcing an unnecessary Special Election on the same day as the Primary Election will confuse voters, result in a lameduck Congressman on day one, and leave the 4th District with no representation for more than three months. The 4th District deserves better,” Boebert said.

“I will not further imperil the already very slim House Republican majority by resigning my current seat and will continue to deliver on my constituents’ priorities while also working hard to earn the votes of the people of Colorado’s 4th District who have made clear they are hungry for a real conservative,” she continued.

“I am the only Trump-endorsed, America First candidate in this race and will win the 4th District’s Primary Election on June 25th and General Election on November 5th.” 

After Buck’s resignation, the breakdown of Congress will be 431 members with 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats. The GOP will only be able to lose two votes of their own on any given issue. 

Trump Says He’s Ruled Out Some Potential VP Candidates

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

The list is getting even shorter…

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump said that he’s eliminated some potential picks for vice president from his list.

During an interview with Trump on his show Greg Kelly Reports, Newsmax host Greg Kelly questioned, “Vice president. Are you any closer? Have you ruled anybody out?”

Trump replied:

Yeah, I probably have a couple of people that you may know very well. Some people that I didn’t think behaved properly. Yeah, I think I’ve ruled some people out, but I’ve ruled a lot of people in. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party, and they’ll do a terrific job, I think, but certainly I have people that I wouldn’t want as a vice president.

While Trump did not elaborate on who exactly had been ruled out.

Last month, Trump confirmed a short list of names he is considering asking to become his running mate in the coming months.

The list included three former GOP candidates, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). He also confirmed that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who served in Congress as a Democrat but has since shifted to more conservative views.

After Kelly asked Trump whether a “formal process” was currently underway, Trump said, “No, it’s a formal process that’s in my brain. It’s like I look at the same people that everybody else is looking at.”

He continued:

We’ve had some really great people. I think we have really great people that want it. People have expressed, I mean not their interest, they’ve expressed like, “I would love to be vice president.” Who wouldn’t? If you’re a politician, who wouldn’t want it? But you know, I get a kick out of watching the fake news media say, “Nobody wants to work with him. Nobody wants to be vice president. Nobody wants to be secretary of state.” Everybody wants to be in these positions.

“There’s not a person in politics that doesn’t want it, and that includes Democrats. If I wanted, I’d have a Democrat, I’d have a liberal, I’d have anybody I want.”

Trump concluded, “Really, if you want to stay within a certain boundary, the press covers the people that are being thought about. It’s unusual that you’d pick somebody totally out of that, and there are 15 people they talk about, and that list grows every day. But we’re gonna pick somebody that’s really good, really conservative, loves law and order, low taxes, low interest rates, borders.”

Six Counts Against Trump and Several Codefendants Tossed In Georgia

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

On Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee tossed out six counts against former President Donald Trump and several of his codefendants in DA Fani Willis’s election interference indictment

Politico’s Kyle Cheney flagged the ruling and noted that McAfee “says the allegations that the defendants tried to get GA officials to violate their oaths were not detailed enough.”

The Hill has more:

Each of the tossed charges related to alleged efforts by Trump and some of his co-defendants, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office. 

The judge ruled that while the charges do contain the “essential” elements of each crime, they fail to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses. Under the current charges, McAfee said, the defendants could have violated the law in “dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.” 

“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance,” McAfee wrote. “However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal.” 

McAfee made clear that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” and said the Fulton County district attorney’s office could seek reindictment after supplementing the charges he deemed insufficient. 

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Judge Approves $92M Bond In NY Defamation Trial as E. Jean Carroll Team Hints At New Lawsuit

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Image via Pixabay free images

A federal judge has accepted former President Donald Trump’s bond money which totals just under $100 million ahead of his appeal.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan approved the bond on Tuesday, which will now serve as a guarantee that the former president will pay out if his appeal does not overturn the verdict.

Trump posted the $92 million bond last week following a ruling that found him liable in his New York defamation case against E. Jean Carroll in January of this year.

Trump is appealing the January decision to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

The bond value is higher than the total damages due to a requirement for 110% of the judgment value to be posted during the appeal process.

Federal Insurance Company — based in Chesapeake, Virginia — provided the bond money, according to documents signed by the former president.

Trump’s lawyers said he made statements about Carroll in an effort to “defend his reputation, protect his family, and defend his Presidency.”

A jury found him liable for $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her through previous statements attacking her credibility — $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages.

Carroll’s legal team has not ruled out a potential third lawsuit against the former President.

Monday morning, Trump again attacked Carroll on CNBC’s Squawk Box, trashing her as “Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, a person I’d never met” who was making a “false accusation” against him — similar wording to his insults that sparked her lawsuits in the first place.

Carroll’s attorney Kaplan reacted to Trump’s comments about her client, issuing a statement that made it clear the legal team was considering going a third round with the ex-president.

“The statute of limitations for defamation in most jurisdictions is between one and three years,” said Kaplan. “As we said after the last jury verdict, we continue to monitor every statement that Donald Trump makes about our client, E. Jean Carroll.”

Trump Officially Locks Up GOP Nomination

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

It’s finally official…

On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump secured the GOP nomination after winning the GOP primary in Washington state.

“It’s your favorite president speaking to you on a really great day of victory,” Trump said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, by his campaign. “One week ago, we had something called Super Tuesday and it was indeed super, because we won at numbers at nobody has ever seen before, records in virtually every state.”

“And tonight, likewise, but this one got us over the top,” he continued. “The Republican National Committee has just declared us the official nominee.”

After the race was called, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “It is my great honor to be representing the Republican Party” on the top of the ticket in November.

“Our Party is UNITED and STRONG, and fully understands that we are running against the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States,” the former president wrote.

“But fear not, we will not fail, we will take back our once great Country, put AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE,” he added. “November 5th will go down as the most important day in the history of our Country! GOD BLESS AMERICA.”

President Joe Biden also secured the Democrat nomination the same day, officially teeing up a rematch of the 2020 election.

“Voters now have a choice to make about the future of this country,” Biden said.

Rep. Ken Buck To Retire Sooner Than Expected

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Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has decided to fast-track his retirement to next week, further whittling down the GOP majority in the House of Representatives. Buck had previously announced that he would retire in January upon the completion of his current term.

A conservative congressman, Buck grew increasingly disillusioned with the Republican Party’s election denialism following former President Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

“It has been an honor to serve the people of Colorado‘s 4th District in Congress for the past 9 years. I want to thank them for their support and encouragement throughout the years. Today, I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week. I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado with my family,” Buck wrote in a statement.

Prior to running for the U.S. House, Buck was the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. In 2010, he ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)

This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Report: Former Special Counsel To Testify As Private Citizen

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

This is bad for Biden…

Special Counsel Robert Hur will testify as a private citizen before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday after leaving the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Hill has more:

The source added that Hur will still be bound by DOJ policies and protocols because he is testifying about his work for the agency. When DOJ employees, former or current, are set to testify, they receive a letter explaining the bounds of DOJ policy, the source said.

Hur resigned from the DOJ last week following the conclusion of the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Hur released his report to the public in February and did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents and stated that he wouldn’t bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. However, the report did highlight multiple occurrences involving Biden’s memory- or lack thereof.

The special counsel described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”  

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote in the report. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” 

The special counsel reportedly plans to double down on his comments regarding the President’s memory during his testimony.

Fox News has obtained a copy of Hur’s opening remarks:

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur wrote in a copy of the remarks obtained by Fox News. “Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly. I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.”

“I analyzed the evidence as prosecutors routinely do: by assessing its strengths and weaknesses, including by anticipating the ways in which the President’s defense lawyers might poke holes in the government’s case if there were a trial and seek to persuade jurors that the government could not prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hur added.

Hur also will say: “There has been a lot of attention paid to language in the report about the President’s memory, so let me say a few words about that. My task was to determine whether the President retained or disclosed national defense information “willfully”—meaning, knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids. I could not make that determination without assessing the President’s state of mind.”

Report: New Details Emerge In Death Of Mitch McConnell’s Sister-In-Law

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Police image via Pixabay free images

A tragedy…

Angela Chao, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, reportedly made a phone call to friends in her last moments after accidentally driving her vehicle into a pond.

Chao accidentally put her vehicle into reverse instead of drive while attempting a three-point turn, causing it to go backward and sink into the remote body of water at a Texas ranch on Feb. 10, a new report claims, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The billionaire and former Foremost Group CEO hosted a gathering of several friends from Harvard Business School at her secondary private residence including a 10-bedroom guesthouse in Texas’ Hill Country, according to the outlet. Chao decided to drive her Tesla four minutes to return to her primary residence instead of walking at 11:30 p.m. due to the cold weather.

The Tesla Model X SUV sunk fast after McConnell’s sister-in-law backed into the pond after failing to make a K-turn, the outlet reported.

Blanco County emergency units arrived at 12:28 a.m., one hour after Chao’s Teslas entered the water and 24 minutes after the incident was reported, according to the outlet. Multiple emergency personnel exited their vehicles due to the rough terrain before unsuccessfully attempting to break the car’s windows, the outlet reported. One sheriff’s deputy stood on top of the Tesla. 

The Tesla was finally removed from the pond by a two-man rescue crew at 12:56 a.m., the outlet reported. However, Chao was unresponsive and EMS responders could not revive her after 43 minutes of resuscitation attempts.

While addressing the tragic incident on the Senate floor, McConnell said that the incident caused a “particularly difficult time” for his family, adding that “there’s a certain introspection that accompanies the grieving process.”

Former Trump Adviser, Peter Navarro, To Report To Prison Next Week

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Image via Pixabay

The walls are closing in…

Former Trump Administration adviser Peter Navarro is scheduled to report to a Miami prison on March 19 to begin serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Navarro, 74, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt of Congress.

The Hill has more:

His lawyers wrote in a Sunday court filing that a federal appeals court should temporarily put his sentence on hold while he appeals his conviction. If that effort fails, he could become the first key Trump adviser to serve jail time over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw Navarro’s trial, declined to allow the Trump ally to stay out of prison while the appellate process plays out.

Navarro’s counsel had argued that the question of executive privilege, which Navarro claimed Trump invoked over any testimony to the House Jan. 6 panel, rises to that threshold.

Navarro told the judge during his sentencing he had an “honest belief” that executive privilege had been invoked by Trump. His lawyers wrote court filings that the judge’s decision “hamstrung” Navarro’s defense by leaving open the question of whether a president can direct his subordinates not to testify before Congress. 

After his conviction, Navarro asserted his case could reach the Supreme Court due to the questions it raises about executive privilege for high-ranking White House staff. 

Ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon was also convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year and sentenced to four months in prison, but a different judge said he could remain free pending appeal.

Montana Republican Ends Re-Election Bid

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Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

On Friday, Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale (R) announced he is ending his re-election campaign and will retire at the end of his term.

The unexpected news comes after a chaotic few weeks for the Montana Republican. In February, he launched a Senate campaign, which he suspended days later after former President Trump endorsed his primary opponent. Instead, Rosendale pivoted to running for another term in Congress. (RELATED: Congressman Drops Out Of Senate Race Days After Launching Bid)

In a statement posted on X, Rosendale referenced a death threat against him and “defamatory rumors” targeting him and his family that surfaced after suspending his Senate bid.

“Since that announcement, I have been forced to have law enforcement visit my children because of a death threat against me and false and defamatory rumors against me and my family. This has taken a serious toll on me, and my family. Additionally, it has caused a serious disruption to the election of the next representative for MT-02,” Rosendale wrote.

“To me, public service has truly always been about serving, not titles or positions of power. The current attacks have made it impossible for me to focus on my work to serve you. So, in the best interest of my family and the community, I am withdrawing from the House race and will not be seeking office,” he added.

In February, Rosendale released a similar statement explaining the quick decision to end his campaign.

“Instead of one of those phony statements from politicians, here’s my statement on why I’m withdrawing my candidacy for the U.S. Senate,” Rosendale said in a statement. “As everyone knows, I have planned to run for the U.S. Senate and to win both the primary and the general election. However, the day I announced, President Trump then announced that he was endorsing a different candidate.”

“I have long been a supporter of the president, and remain so,” he continued. “But I have been forced to calculate what my chances of success would be with Trump supporting my opponent. This race was already going to be tough, as I was fighting against Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican establishment in Washington. But I felt like I could beat them, as the voters do not agree with them choosing who would be the next U.S. Senator from Montana.”