Here’s a blast from the past involving a name you might not have heard in a while. Do you remember Rod Blagojevich, the former Governor of Illinois? He’s been cooling his heels in a Colorado prison since 2012 after being convicted of trying to sell off Barack Obama’s old Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Did the USS Boxer shoot down an Iranian drone yesterday near the Strait of Hormuz? The US Navy says yes — but Iran says it hasn’t lost any of its drones. Instead, its deputy foreign minister suggested that the US Navy check its own stock: We have not lost any drone in the Strait of

President Trump says he intends to nominate Eugene Scalia, son of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, as his next Secretary of Labor. The presidential announcement by tweet came on the eve of the departure of the current Labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, who resigned last week over criticism of his handling of a plea deal as

This seemed pretty obvious from yesterday’s court filings and Judge William Pauley’s decision to release all the materials from the investigation. Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow was high-fiving last night already. According to ABC, the Department of Justice has formally decided not to bring any charges at all from their probe into payoffs made to

Looks like the page might be turning on the booming fortunes of political books in the era of Donald Trump. As you may have noticed, there’s no shortage of Washington drama. But it seems there’s a growing abundance of fatigue over books chronicling it. Makes some sense. If you’re bombarded in the morning paper with

Profiles in Courage, 2019. On one hand this is understandable, as all of the incentives in politics these days on both sides of the aisle run towards shamelessness. That strategy led Nancy Pelosi to protect Ilhan Omar in that cowardly resolution about anti-Semitism and bigotry, although fat lot of good it did the Speaker, since

One way or another, the House of Representatives will finally have to act in some manner on impeaching Donald Trump. After threatening to do so ever since Trump took office, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) filed articles of impeachment last night, citing Trump’s tweets about four frosh Democrats as a “high misdemeanor.”  This opens up the

Don’t pop the champagne corks just yet, as this may not be entirely good news for Donald Trump. A court filing on Monday from prosecutors informed the federal judge dealing with the Michael Cohen case that they had concluded their investigation into hush-money payments to Trump’s alleged mistresses and their nexus to the Trump Organization.

And … so? NBC News thinks it has uncovered video evidence that proves a relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, but it might only add to the evidence of their own desperation. They found an old clip of Trump welcoming Epstein to Mar-a-Lago in 1992 from an episode of the tabloid show A Closer Look, featuring

If perception is indeed the harbinger of reality, there might be a smidgen of good news out there for Donald Trump this week. One of the latest surveys out from Scott Rasmussen asked voters if they thought Donald Trump was poised to win a second term. You can read whatever you like into the numbers,

A month ago, the city council for St. Louis Park decided to end the practice of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at its meetings to be more “inclusive.” After getting an earful from locals as well as national figures, the council reversed itself last night. In a unanimous vote on an unscheduled motion, city councilors

Everyone is still upset over the feud between the President and the four Democratic freshmen who I believe we are now referring to as “the squad” for some reason. There seems to be an almost universal agreement among the media talking heads that the provocative tweets were deliberately racist. (In fact the phrase “racist tweets”

One of the most important rules in partisan politics is this: when your opponents are fighting amongst themselves, stay out of it. House Democrats spent the last few days in a civil war over whether Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus are racists or whether the “Freshman Squad” are idiots. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime apotheosis of

Donald Trump managed to score a big win against illegal immigration without Congress’ help. Can he win another on his own? Rather than flexing economic power with Mexico to gain tougher enforcement against illegal immigration, this time Trump will act on his own to remove the incentives for it. A new rule entered in the

William Barr took a hands-off approach when it came to the question of Robert Mueller testifying before Congress. When it comes to Mueller’s deputies, the Department of Justice takes a more hands-on attitude, the New York Times reports. The DoJ is actively discouraging two members of Mueller’s special counsel office from appearing before Congress, although

The tariff wars have been a hot topic all through Donald Trump’s presidency, as he fights to try to leverage his way into some better trade deals from Europe to China and new negotiations over NAFTA as well. Thus far, like many of you, I’m sure, I haven’t noticed any significant impact on prices we

Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta has resigned his position in a move announced by Donald Trump and Acosta on the White House lawn. A few moments ago, Trump told the press that it was Acosta’s decision. It seems his attempts to defend his handling of the 2007 plea deal involving wealthy sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein

You’ve probably heard a lot overnight about President Trump backing down on trying to get a citizenship question on the census questionnaire next year. Perhaps you too were surprised that this president who takes on even meaningless slights or disagreements on Twitter would give up so easily. He didn’t. The rest of the day’s story

Can Donald Trump hack through the Gordian knot of two lawsuits over his attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census? It sure looks like Trump will give it a try. Earlier this morning, Trump announced a press conference on the subject as multiple news outlets reported that an executive order would be

The corruption doesn’t directly involve Hurricane Maria relief funds, but the FBI’s arrests will certainly raise suspicions anyway. The Department of Justice charged six people, including two former Puerto Rican government officials, for financial and political corruption. The probe started with an inspector general’s suspicions about how education funding was being spent: The FBI on

Hint: It might not be the person you think, nor even the person Vanity Fair thinks. Allahpundit linked this story earlier today in his excellent run-down of the mysteries surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, but it might be worth a second look for its insight into another mystery. VF’s Emily Jane Fox notes that Donald Trump kept

Well, here’s a clever whodunit from the Paper of Record. Whatever might be the cause of a sudden drop in border crossings?  What could it possibly be? Here’s the NYT headline: A Drastic Drop in Migrant Arrivals on the Border: What’s Happening? And here’s the lead: In the sleeping quarters, green cots that were once

To report merely that the Fourth Circuit dismissed this lawsuit is to be far too kind to the court it overruled and the plaintiffs in the case. In two separate decisions, the appellate court unanimously spiked claims of standing by Maryland and DC to sue Donald Trump over the Emoluments Clause, ridiculed their claims of

In the end, Donald Trump won — although what he won over Kim Darroch remains a mystery. The British ambassador resigned his post yesterday after the leak of his confidential briefing memos touched off a nasty personal feud with the president. An unhappy Theresa May offered her praise for Darroch and warned the House of Commons

Earlier today Ed wrote about the 2nd Circuit decision that President Trump may not block people on Twitter on the grounds that it constitutes viewpoint discrimination for what are defacto government communications. Now Fox News reports Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being sued for blocking Republicans from her Twitter feed. Former Democratic New York Assemblyman Dov

When Donald Trump first created the @realDonaldTrump account in 2009, he could feel free to block anyone he wanted for any reason. After he leaves office, the 2nd Circuit ruled today, he can go back to arbitrarily granting access to his stream of consciousness feed. However, the court unanimously upheld a ruling that declared the

This bizarre, personal spat with our closest ally began yesterday when Donald Trump declared a de facto persona non grata status for Kim Darroch on Twitter. The British ambassador to the US had offered his professional observations of Trump and the administration in confidential memos to Theresa May, which then got leaked to the media. The

Thus far, President Trump has managed to stonewall efforts by Democrats to obtain his federal tax returns, with those efforts likely to be held up for some time, possibly needing to go all the way to the Supreme Court. But perhaps not so with his state taxes. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a new

Carl Bernstein made his name on the Watergate story. Last year he said the Trump presidency was worse than Watergate. In Bernstein’s view that was true because “the system worked in Watergate,” meaning that Nixon was held accountable for his behavior. But Bernstein says that isn’t happening with Trump and now he’s blaming that failure

Has anyone noticed that Democrats have become a lot quieter on the subject of impeachment lately? Robert Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in ten days, but the fevered demands for Donald Trump’s removal have receded. One key result from the latest Washington Post/ABC poll shows why: 37% support for Congress initiating impeachment