Tag Archives: Just The News

Know Your News Source

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It  is amazing how differently two news sources can cover the same story. On Wednesday, Fox News and Just the News both reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was seen scouring the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Georgia. Evidently someone is finally looking into voting irregularities at the city. Despite what you may have heard, Fox News is no longer the conservative bastion of objective news it once was.

Just the News reports:

Post-2020 election investigations and reports have confirmed irregularities in the election process in Georgia’s most populous county. Just the News, for instance, found in 2021 that the tally sheets the county used for audits and recounts did not match totals from ballot images, appearing to duplicate counts.

Gob. Brian Kemp, in 2021, issued an official complaint about “sloppy” processes in the county and later referred the 2020 election results to the State Election Board after separate reviews confirmed errors in the absentee ballot counting process.

Fox News reports:

President Donald Trump lost the election in Georgia in 2020 by a wafer-thin margin and claimed various instances of fraud had tainted the results. Those claims did not survive court scrutiny. Fulton, which includes Atlanta and is the state’s most populous county, drew significant attention at the time.

A machine count and two recounts confirmed that former President Joe Biden had won the state, leading Trump to feud with Georgia’s leaders for years.

The DOJ sued Fulton County last month seeking access to ballots related to the 2020 election. The county is fighting the lawsuit, saying the DOJ has not made a valid argument for accessing them.

Fox News is ignoring the fact that Fulton County officials admitted they did not properly sign tabulator tapes after the 2020 election, a violation of state regulations. They are also ignoring the fact that the county says approximately 315,000 votes cast during early voting were certified without the required signatures on tabulator tapes from poll workers. No, the record does not confirm the fact that Biden won the state. We can’t change the past, but we need to make sure all future elections include accurate and valid vote counts. Meanwhile, could someone please be held accountable for the fraud.

Not Even Remotely Surprising

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California has increased taxes many times to try to balance its budget. If the people who live there are willing to put up with that, that’s fine. However, trying to collect taxes from people who no longer live there is questionable at best.

On Monday, Just The News reported:

According to documents posted online by a family who formerly lived in California, the Golden State is trying to collect income taxes years after the family moved to Florida.

The documents, sent on Jan. 6, 2026, asked for receipts, invoices, canceled checks and other documentation showing that the family moved from California to Florida nearly four years ago. The California Franchise Tax Board, which sent the letter, also asked the family for a “narrative of the circumstances” surrounding the family’s move out of state.

Hari Raghavan, who with his wife, Mitali Gala, was the subject of the investigation by the California Franchise Tax Board, said he and Gala moved from California to Florida in 2021. They tried to sell the home they owned in California when they moved, but weren’t able to do so immediately, Raghavan told The Center Square.

“That spilled into 2022, but it was by no definition a primary residence anymore,” Raghavan said about the California home. “We moved to Florida to establish residency in 2021.”

New Jersey actually does have an Exit Tax. For example, if you sell a house in New Jersey for $800,000 (that you bought years ago for $200,000), you could owe as much as $15,000 in Exit Tax. I think this is taxation without representation, but as far as I know, it  has not been challenged in court.

The article at Just The News notes:

In an emailed statement to The Center Square, the Franchise Tax Board said individual tax records are confidential and information about one individual or family’s tax records can’t be shared. Investigations that determine if someone owes taxes can be lengthy, officials said.

“FTB’s audit program serves as the compliance mechanism for administering California’s tax code,” Andrew LePage, an official with the Franchise Tax Board, wrote to The Center Square via email. “A residency audit determines if an individual is a resident, non-resident, or part-year resident for tax purposes. Residency audits take about 18 – 24 months to complete, depending on a wide range of variables.”

Those who live in and receive income in California for at least nine months out of the year owe personal income taxes to the state, LePage told The Center Square via email. Officials also told The Center Square that the board doesn’t share its criteria for when to conduct a residency audit.

Officials with the Franchise Tax Board would not make anyone from the agency available for an interview with The Center Square.

Moving forward, Raghavan and Gala are assembling a response with their accountant, Raghavan said.

While he believes in everyone paying their fair share of taxes, he’s found much of the experience with the agency off-putting, Raghavan told The Center Square.

“My issue is with how they go about it,” Raghavan said. “I can’t truly say they have been unreasonable with us, with one exception. I can’t believe they would ask someone for their moving inventory list. Who maintains that?”

It is easy to understand why people are leaving some of our blue states.

Do These Children Actually Exist?

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about a 725 percent increase in Medicaid bills in Illinois for children under 18 without Social Security Numbers.

The article reports:

A candidate for the Illinois Statehouse worries there could be a dark side to the 725% increase in Medicaid payments for children without Social Security numbers.

After more than a year of digging, Statehouse candidate Bailey Templeton’s most public records collection shows 1,085 Illinois children under 18 without SSNs had Medicaid bills of $66 million in 2025. That’s up 725% from $8 million for 450 children in 2021.

“It’s roughly $40 million spent on inpatient treatment, that’s a lot of time for children to be in hospitals,” Templeton told The Center Square Friday.

The data only generates more questions for Templeton.

“It raises questions about what would be called medical trafficking, where things are conducted on to children when they’re too young to be able to consent to these things,” she said.

Templeton said she has further FOIA requests pending.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services didn’t immediately respond to questions on why there was a 725% spike in such payments.

The article concludes:

Other Freedom of Information Act requests Templeton has filed include determining how many children on the radar of the Department of Children and Family Services are missing. A follow up FOIA by The Center Square found 193 youth in care missing in 2025.

Another FOIA response Templeton collected showed there are 20,000 children getting taxpayer funded Medicaid without having SSNs. She said her latest FOIA showing the costs doesn’t square with previous information she’s gathered.

“When I found out that only 1,085 of them are in Illinois DCF’s care, it raises questions about the other 19,000 children in whose care that they are in, and who is overseeing the hospital treatments,” Templeton said.

I think it’s time to suspend temporarily all state money coming from the federal government until accurate audits can be provided as to exactly how the federal money is being spent.

The Numbers Just Keep Growing

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On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about the number of people who were enrolled in ObamaCare without their knowledge.

The article reports:

In exchange for gift cards, millions of Americans were unwittingly signed up for Obamacare by brokers who scalped their vital information and enrolled them in plans where premiums were paid by the American people, a research group says.  

“The government was sending massive checks to insurance companies who were making windfall profits on behalf of people who didn’t use any health care,” Brian Blase, president of Paragon Health Institute, a healthcare policy group told Just The News.

A 2021-2022 expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, passed through budget reconciliation, made coverage fully subsidized for individuals claiming incomes in a specific range. Paragon Health Institute investigated and estimated that by 2025, at least 6.4 million more people were enrolled in these zero-premium plans than were actually eligible.

Zero premium means the enrollee did not pay for the plan — it was paid via subsidies funded by taxpayers.

The money went to the insurance companies who never had to deal with claims from people who didn’t know they were signed up!

The article notes:

Many of the enrollees never realized they had coverage because the government paid the full premium directly to insurers, which in turn paid substantial commissions to the enrolling entities. In 2024, 40% of people in fully subsidized plans used no healthcare services at all—2.5 times higher than typical rates—resulting in significant government payments to insurers for largely unused coverage.

Making matters worse, the insurance companies aren’t even providing value, says Blase. “85% of all the [insurance company] revenue now comes from the taxpayer, so they don’t have incentives to offer products that are low-priced, that appeal to patients.”

“Their primary client now is the United States Treasury, and they’re so dependent on the federal government for their revenue source, that’s why insurance companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress to continue this gravy train of these enhanced Obamacare subsidies.”

The article concludes:

One remedy for Medicaid, as well as other programs, is to shut off the federal spigot. According to Blase, “It’s the essential step. The federal government is bankrolling the fraud, waste and abuse in the states, and as long as states can draw on an open checkbook from Washington, they don’t have incentives to make sure that dollars are appropriately spent.”

Referencing the daycare fraud unfolding in Minnesota, Blase criticized the federal government’s lack of oversight. “We shouldn’t have to rely on amateur investigators going into daycare finding out that there’s no children there. The government has access to this data, they know where there are areas that have seen explosive spending.” 

Blase also sounded the alarm on states like New York and California. In New York, there has been an unprecedented spike in Medicaid-funded home health aides, who are often family members taking care of relatives, which, Blase says, also creates fertile ground for fraud. In California, fraud has found a home within the hospice care industry. 

We need a thorough audit on every dollar the federal government sends to the states and to insurance companies.

Good News For America’s Veterans

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about the changes the Trump administration is bringing to the Veterans Administration.

The article reports:

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins is touting significant reforms in serving America’s veterans, arguing the Trump administration is reversing Biden-era trends by increasing visits while reducing backlogs and wait times.

Collins spoke exclusively to Just The News, No Noise television show Friday and said, “It is simply that the veteran comes first at the VA.

“We put back the only reason for us to exist. We put back at the very focus of what we do, is a veteran walking through the door or making a phone call or making an inquiry. And so, when you take a bureaucratic organization that for the lot of its time and energy has been spent on how does it treat itself instead of how did it treat its customer, then you have a way to start making great progress,” he added.

The improvements have come quickly in many areas that were suffering prior to Collins taking over the department.

The backlog of veterans waiting for VA benefits has decreased more than 49% (and up to 57% in later reports) since January 20, 2025, following a 24% increase during the Biden Administration.

The progress, officials say, stems from enhanced processing efficiency, with the VA achieving an all-time fiscal-year high by processing three million disability compensation and pension claims by September 30, 2025 — surpassing the previous record set in FY 2024.

The article concludes:

As of last spring, many Washingtonians were still working from home, despite the Covid-19 pandemic being long over. However, under Collins’ leadership, tens of thousands of VA employees have returned to in-office work to improve teamwork and service delivery. The department has terminated union contracts for most bargaining unit employees, redirecting millions in previously wasteful union spending back to veteran services.

The VA has also ended DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives at the department, reversing Biden-era policies and halting more than $14 million in related spending. Additionally, the department is phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria, described as a commonsense reform.

Putting a businessman in the White House is good for everyone.

Moving Toward Freedom In Venezuela

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On January 9th, Just the News posted an article that illustrates the success of the Trump administration’s policy toward Venezuela.

The article reports:

President Trump on Friday said Venezuela is releasing political prisoners and that because of their cooperation he canceled the planned second wave of attacks against the country.

“Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of ‘Seeking Peace.’ This is a very important and smart gesture,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The U.S.A. and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure.

“Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed, however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes. At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT.”

We don’t need to invade Venezuela–we just need the threat. As long as the government is cooperating with the U.S., we may be able to move the country toward freedom.

Did You Notice The Professionally Made Signs?

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This is a picture taken yesterday of a New York City protest against the arrest of Nicolás Maduro this weekend. Notice the professionally made signs. (source here)

On Monday (updated Tuesday), Just the News reported:

Chinese state-run propaganda outlets are promoting U.S. protests against the Trump Administration’s arrest of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. The protests appear to be organized by a Chinese Communist Party-linked financial network in the United States.

After this weekend’s U.S. military-led operation capturing Venezuela’s leader and sending him to the U.S. to be prosecuted by the Justice Department, street protests opposing Maduro’s arrest were quickly organized in New York City and elsewhere by the Marxist revolutionary group known as The People’s Forum, the far-left anti-war group Code Pink, the leftist Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). 

Just the News previously reported on how these and other radical activist groups have leadership links or financial ties to a funding network backed by wealthy Marxist businessman Neville Roy Singham, who himself has connections to the CCP.

This is another domino that may fall now that Maduro is gone. (source here)

1. The End of the “Free Oil” Lifeline

For over two decades, the single most important pillar of the Cuban economy has been the “Barrio Adentro” agreement, which saw Venezuela ship roughly 50,000 barrels of oil per day to Havana essentially for free. With the US military now securing Venezuelan ports and oil fields following yesterday’s operation, these shipments have hit zero overnight. Cuba, which is already cash-strapped, simply does not have the foreign currency reserves to buy this amount of oil on the open market at global prices, meaning the island’s energy supply has effectively been cut in half instantly.

2. The Loss of the “Resale” Revenue Stream

Few people realise that the Castro regime didn’t just use Venezuelan oil to keep the lights on; they used it as a major source of income by selling the surplus. Venezuela often sent more refined fuel than the island needed, allowing Havana to sell the excess on the international market to generate hard currency. The fall of Maduro wipes out this “middleman” profit entirely, removing one of the few remaining sources of US dollars the government used to import food and medicine, which will accelerate the humanitarian crisis to breaking point.

President Trump significantly wounded a communist stronghold in South America. There will be repercussions. However, if the people of Venezuela can successfully win their freedom, the western hemisphere and the world will be safer.

Where Our Tax Money Has Gone

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At one point there was a meme going around suggesting that Congressmen wear logos on their suits like the ones race drivers wear so that we would know who sponsors them. In looking at some of the expenditures by Congress in recent years, I think that would be a really good idea. Particularly in the area of renewable energy. How much of our tax money used to subsidize green energy wound up in China?

On Monday (updated Tuesday) Just the News posted an article about the distribution of the energy subsidies provided by our federal government.

The article reports:

A new report from the National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) finds that 90% of subsidies for the energy sector in 2025 went to renewable energy. The analysis also shows that oil, gas and coal industries’ subsidies come mainly in the form of tax expenditures as opposed to direct subsidies.

Using data from the Department of the Treasury, Paul Tice, senior fellow with the NCEA, calculates that in fiscal year 2025, explicit government subsidies in the form of tax expenditures for the entire energy sector totaled $64.1 billion. This was more than all other domestic industries. The NCEA was created by The Texas Public Policy Foundation as a national energy think tank.

The total fossil fuel-related tax expenditures came to $2.6 billion in revenue losses for the federal government in fiscal year 2025. 

By comparison, the total amount of federal tax money subsidizing renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy-efficient equipment in fiscal year 2025 was $57.9 billion, which exceeds the total for fossil fuels over the entire fiscal year 1994-2025 period, according to the report. 

The article notes that “Big Oil” is not gobbling up all of the energy subsidies:

The analysis disputes claims from other sources that “Big Oil” is gobbling up trillions of dollars in subsidies every year. The International Monetary Fund pegs the global figure at $7 trillion. A report in September from the climate advocacy nonprofit Oil Change International estimated that oil, gas and coal in the U.S. receive approximately $34.8 billion per year. 

The article concludes:

Tice concluded that repealing all subsidies for fossil fuels would have no meaningful impact on the profitability of the industry or the demand for its products. The main driver of energy-sector subsidies are tax credits for renewable energy. 

“Income tax expenditures for renewable energy producers and clean energy users will continue to dwarf those for the traditional energy sector for the foreseeable future,” Tice wrote. 

While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed in July will phase them out, it will be another decade before that happens. And there’s no certainty they will. The tax credits were originally established in 1992 as a means to boost a fledgling industry. They’ve been renewed 11 times since. 

This is another place where Congress needs to act to save the taxpayers’ money.

Moving Toward Election Integrity

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First of all, until everyone who is guilty of election fraud is put in jail, election fraud will continue. We hear a lot of things about votes that were certified that should not have been certified and other fraud, but when will those responsible for the fraud pay a price?

On Monday, Just the News reported:

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, says the lawsuits she is bringing against both red and blue states over voter list maintenance will help clean voter rolls for the 2026 midterm elections.

With the congressional elections coming up next year, the DOJ said it is trying to ensure that only eligible voters are on states’ voter rolls. While some states have voluntarily complied with the DOJ’s requests for voter registration data or are cleaning the voter rolls themselves, others are refusing to hand over the information, citing privacy concerns.

In a Just the News and Real America’s Voice special report Wednesday with the Association for Mature American Citizens titled “Top Priorities for 2026,” Dhillon said this Trump administration marks the first time that states have been sued to ensure their voter rolls are maintained.

“There had been no prior lawsuits to enforce states’ requirement to keep their voter rolls clean for all federal election rolls, which is basically they keep the same rolls for state and federal elections for the most part,” Dhillon said.

The article notes:

Dhillon also laid out states’ arguments over privacy, noting that “they’re saying, ‘our state law doesn’t allow this.’ But federal law regarding elections and this data trumps state law, and we’re talking about federal elections and people who vote for president, Senate, Congress. We have a right at the federal government level to ensure that only American citizens are voting at only one time in one state when they vote. And so this is a no-brainer.”

She also said that when states tried to clean their voter rolls before, they would get sued, which happened under the Biden administration.

“You’re going to see hundreds of thousands of people in some states being removed from the voter rolls correctly,” Dhillon said. “And by the way, why did they hesitate to do that in the past? Because the DOJ and some left-wing organizations would sue them when they did their jobs. So it’s like, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

This is one of the first steps toward voter integrity. Hopefully, there will be more.

Using Healthcare To Infringe Upon The First Amendment

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On Monday, Just the News reported that a judge, who was formerly a CNN reporter, is attempting to end the Little Sisters of the Poor’s religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.

The article reports:

Religious liberty law firm Becket filed its opening brief on behalf of Little Sisters of the Poor with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the summer ruling by U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone, nominated by Obamacare’s namesake. 

Paul Clement, who has argued 100-plus cases before SCOTUS, is the star lawyer on the brief.

“The fourteen-year legal crusade” against the order, with Pennsylvania and New Jersey taking the baton from the Obama administration after its successor finalized a religious exemption, “has been needless, grotesque, and un-American,” said Becket President Mark Rienzi. Mother Loraine Marie Maguire prays that the states “end this needless harassment.”

The article concludes:

Congress never imposed a mandate by statute, the original regulatory mandate has four explicit exemptions for both religious and secular activity, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey’s own actions belie their arguments, the brief says: The Keystone State still lacks a comparable state mandate and the Garden State’s religious exemption is even broader. 

“Indeed, the States’ entire case is premised on the availability of a range of state programs that do provide contraceptives,” which contradicts any argument that forcing nuns to do it is the least restrictive means, the nuns told the appeals court. 

People and organizations should be able to decide for themselves what their health insurance will cover and what it will not cover. There should be a variety of plans available with different coverage. The demand being made of the nuns makes as much sense as forcing retired people to pay for juvenile dental care. A policy providing that coverage should be available, but not required.

The Corruption Was Known, Visible, And Ignored

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It is interesting to me that the Charity Navigator, supposedly a guide to the administrative costs of charities and the amount of good that they do, rates the Clinton Foundation at the Navigator’s highest rating. The rating includes accountability, tax filings, revenue and expenses, etc. The Charity Navigator gives them a 100% rating. Operation Blessing has a 99% rating, and Samaritan’s Purse has a 100% rating. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) might not totally agree with the rating of the Clinton Foundation. It is possible that the Clinton Foundation has cleaned up its act, but the Foundation has had some questionable activities in the past.

On Sunday (updated Monday), Just the News posted an article about the Clinton Foundation.

The article reports:

A top Republican senator has provided Just the News a timeline written by FBI investigators laying out the repeated political obstruction those agents faced from their own bosses and the Justice Department during the 2016 election and beyond as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation.

“Field agents were frustrated. But HQ would not let it go forward,” the newly-released and lengthy investigative timeline reveals. “We were trying to explore the [Clinton] Foundation, and we were told ‘NO’ by FBI HQ.”

…This follows Patel (FBI Director Kash Patel) unearthing a shorter timeline, written in 2017, which also chronicled the extensive stonewalling that bureau investigators in three cities faced from the Obama-era DOJ and FBI during the 2016 election.

FBI agents tried to get the help of federal prosecutors to determine whether or what crimes occurred while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, most notably, because at that time, her family foundation solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and U.S. interests with business before her department.

“Shut it down!” then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the shorter timeline of the politicized barriers that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. 

The shorter timeline — written by a DOJ lawyer assigned to the FBI under former bureau Director James Comey — was secured by top aides to Patel and was obtained by Just the News earlier this year. The newly-released and longer timeline was handed over to Grassley’s office by the FBI along with a host of corroborating internal emails and was recently provided to Just the News.

The article concludes:

But John Durham’s 2023 special counsel report said that his appointment order by then-Attorney General Barr did not include the Uranium One saga within its scope, with the Durham report stating that “we have not interpreted the Order as directing us to consider matters addressed by the former United States Attorney for the District of Utah.”

The differences in how the Justice Department and FBI handled cases related to Clinton and Trump were stark — publicly exonerating Clinton for her mishandling of classified information when using a private email server as Secretary of State and not even allowing the Clinton Foundation investigation to get off the ground, while at the same time launching a sprawling inquiry into the Trump campaign and the candidate (and then the president) himself on the now-proven-false pretext of Russian collusion.

Special Counsel Durham later pointed out that “the immediate opening of Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation contrasts with the care taken in connection with the investigation of the Clinton Foundation and other matters.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is long, but worth it. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for the orange jump suits. Will anyone ever be held accountable for government corruption?

A Step In The Right Direction

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about a recent ruling in Florida.

The article reports:

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that his state has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations, following a similar move by Texas. 

Texas became the first state to label the groups as foreign terrorist organizations last month, which forbids both organizations and their affiliates from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas and allows increased enforcement against the groups.

DeSantis said the new designation is in effect “immediately.” 

“Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations,” he wrote on X. “Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support.”

If you are not aware of the reasons behind this designation, please go to this link and read the attached document. This designation should have happened right after the Holy Land Foundation Trial. America had all the evidence it needed.

It will be interesting to see if there are court challenges to this.

What An Incredible Coincidence

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There are still many questions as to the legality of some of the actions taken by Jack Smith. There don’t seem to be a lot of questions about what he was trying to do, but some of his actions definitely walked the line between legal and illegal.

On Monday, Just the News posted an article about the timing of his seizing the telephone records of some Congressmen.

The article reports:

House and Senate Republicans targeted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoenas were gearing up for significant oversight of both the Justice Department and the FBI when their phone records were seized.  

This raises questions about whether the subpoenas served a dual purpose—to investigate Jan. 6, as Smith was appointed to do, and to keep tabs on the oversight probes into agency conduct, one former representative whose phone records were seized by Smith suggested.

“They were trying to spy on us to see what we were doing,” former Rep. Louie Gohmert told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “And also, I think they were looking for anything that they could use to come after us, or hold over our heads, because, you know, you can intimidate the people that are coming after you.” 

The article concludes:

Even putting aside the government’s potentially meritorious argument that the calls over the relevant period — especially unsolicited incoming calls — would not constitute protected legislative acts, given my understanding of the low likelihood that any of the Members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here,” Keller wrote.

The Justice Department’s reasoning shows a blatant disregard for constitutional practice and balance of powers, Mike Howell, head of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“Speaking in terms of, what’s the litigation risk? What could they even do, even if we violate this constitutional practice here, what’s the penalty? They’ll never be able to do anything to us. It speaks to a blatant disrespect for an independent branch of government, one that they probably rightfully recognize as atrophied over time, and being able to assert itself and hold the executive accountable,” Howell said. 

“It was not a problem whatsoever, because in the mindset of the FBI, [the members of Congress] defined Maga, and you know, Republicans as a domestic terrorist problem and threat, and treated them under the powers that we give the federal government to deal with things such as Islamic terrorism, and that’s the world in which they were operating,” Howell continued.

I just have one question–when will anyone be held accountable for the law breaking that has gone on since the Obama administration? I want to see some orange suits, and I believe I am not the only one!

Supporting Bad Habits With Your Tax Dollars

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about how Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are using them.

The article reports:

Food stamps were first issued in 1939 as an assistance program to prevent starvation during the Great Depression.  But 86 years later, thousands of liquor stores and smoke shops have become approved retailers, increasing the possibility of fraud, new research shows. 

The longest ever government shutdown, which ended after 43 days of deadlock, thrust the federal food stamp program into the national spotlight as millions of recipients went without benefits. But, it also laid bare many abuses in the system.   

Even before the shutdown, the Trump administration planned to crack down on fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program and ensure any government assistance is used for healthy and nutritional foods, not junk. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made specific changes to qualifying for the program, as well as a redefined list of products for which SNAP cannot be used.

The article notes how some of the assistance is being currently used:

An analysis of SNAP retailer data by the Foundation for Government Accountability published on Monday found that more than 5,000 liquor and smoke shops were approved retailers under the program, meaning they can accept food stamps, according to research findings shared exclusively with Just the News.  

Breaking down the data, more than 4,000 stores promoted alcohol in their title and another 1,000 did so for tobacco. The foundation told Just the News the real numbers could be even higher, considering researchers only counted stores that referenced those products in their titles.

Food stamps cannot be used for purchases of either alcohol or tobacco. However, the FGA says the prevalence of stores that sell these products raises concerns about the potential for different kinds of SNAP fraud. These stores “become hotbeds of fraud” where benefit cards are bought and sold in exchange for alcohol or tobacco products, Senior Data Analyst at FGA Kristi Stahr told Just the News. 

The article notes:

Just a handful of examples illustrate the problem. In 2018, one North Carolina grocery store was caught accepting SNAP benefits for non-food products in a $200,000 fraud scheme. The following year, a Virginia grocery store owner was sentenced to 20 years for trafficking more than $1.5 million in SNAP benefits. In 2020 in California, a man was convicted for selling SNAP benefits in exchange for cash, which resulted in a hefty fine and prison time.

According to the report from FGA, more than 70% of all food stamp traffickers are convenience stores like the liquor and smoke shops found in the database and about half of all liquor and smoke shops identified by the group were approved as retailers during the Biden administration. 

I am beginning to think that the task assigned to Hercules of cleaning the Augean stables, which had not been cleaned in over thirty years and housed over 3,000 immortal cattle, was nothing compared to the task of cleaning out the corruption in the federal government and its programs.

Losing Respect For The Law And Those Who Enforce It

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America’s large cities have been sliding into lawlessness for quite a while. It is amazing that so few people actually spent time in jail after the riots of 2020. It is also amazing that many Americans no longer respect the fact that America has borders and that people who cross those borders illegally are criminals. The lack of respect for the law has led to a lack of respect for those who are paid to enforce the law.

On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the alarming increase in assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) agents who are simply doing their job of enforcing the law.

The article reports:

Assaults against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are up 1,153% in 11 months, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

As ICE officers continue to arrest illegal migrants and some of the most violent criminals nationwide, citizens and others have increasingly obstructed their efforts, including physically attacking them and threatening to kill them, according to multiple reports nationwide.

Among those most recently arrested for alleged death threats are a Virginia high school assistant principal and his brother.

Earlier this month, DHS and the Virginia Beach Police Department launched an investigation into brothers John Wilson Bennett and Mark Booth Bennett, after an off-duty Norfolk Virginia Police Department officer overheard them discussing plans to “kill police officers and ICE agents,” DHS said.

Note that they were going to kill police officers as well as ICE agents.

A quick google search tells you the following:

Some of the instruments of a color revolution are non-violent protests, civil disobedience, and political demonstrations aimed at challenging authoritarian regimes, often triggered by perceived electoral fraud or corruption. They typically involve mass mobilization, the use of social media for organization, and support from external influences or NGOs. Color revolutions are very often instruments for the destruction of democratic governments in transition. In revolutions, government is the goal and political change is the goal.

I believe that someone (or some group) is attempting to start a color revolution in America. It is up to Americans to refuse to be divided and to refuse to take part in any protest that involves or might involve violence. We need to make sure we understand who is funding any political movement we choose to support or any protest we choose to join.

The article at Just the News concludes:

Examples of assaults include hitting, spitting, kicking, biting, attempted strangulation, drive-by shootings and cartel bounties, The Center Square reported.

Despite these threats, ICE officers are prioritizing arresting violent criminals, including those with removal orders from federal immigration judges. The overwhelming majority being arrested, 70%, have criminal convictions or pending charges, ICE says. The 70% figure excludes those wanted for violent crimes in other countries, including those with INTERPOL notices and human rights violators, among others, ICE says.

ICE is encouraging Americans to report suspicious criminal activity, threats against ICE officers and their family members, as well as doxxing, by calling 866-DHS-2-ICE or submitting a tip online.

Sad News From Washington, D.C.

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On Thursday, Just the News reported that President Trump announced that Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, a National Guardsman who was shot Wednesday in Washington, D.C., has died. She and Guardsman Andrew Wolfe were ambushed by an Afghani national.

The article reports:

The suspected shooter has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. 

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported:

In November 2021, just as former President Joe Biden’s administration was importing thousands of Afghan nationals to the United States every week, then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that “not all” Afghans were being vetted with “in-person, refugee interviews,” an admission that shocked members of Congress.

On Wednesday, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal of Afghanistan left two National Guardsmen in critical condition after he allegedly opened fire on them while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” law enforcement officials say.

Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. in 2021 as part of Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome, carried out by Mayorkas at the time, which ultimately resettled tens of thousands of Afghans in American communities.

In November 2021, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mayorkas admitted to members of Congress that not every Afghan national brought to the U.S. following the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan had been vetted in-person.

“We are not conducting in-person, refugee interviews of 100 percent individuals,” Mayorkas said.

The article at Breitbart concludes:

In September 2021, before a Senate hearing, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken also admitted that vetting was unlikely to have occurred for thousands of Afghan nationals before they boarded planes to the U.S.

“What percentage of [Afghans] were vetted before they actually got on those planes?” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) asked Blinken.

“Before they got on their airplanes to leave Kabul? Certainly not, most of them were not,” Blinken admitted.

We need to examine very carefully the people from Muslim countries that are coming into America. I am sure many of them are peaceful people only looking for a quiet place to raise their families, but we need to find a way to sort the peaceful people who want to assimilate into America from the Islamists. The fact that the murderer yelled, “Allahu Akbar” while firing on his victims might be a clue that he has not assimilated.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before

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We have seen this movie before; we can only hope it will end differently this time. Does anyone remember Bill Ayers saying, “Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country”? Bill Ayers (a good friend of Barack Obama) was a member of the Weatherman, a domestic terrorist group that took credit for 12 bombings between 1970 and 1974 (including a bombing of the United States Capitol). Bill Ayers was not charged with a crime because the FBI’s investigation methods were deemed unconstitutional, which compromised the ability to prosecute him and other members of the Weather Underground.

On Monday, Just The News posted an article about the dismissal of the criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) after finding that the prosecutor who brought the cases was not lawfully appointed. As much as I don’t like the dismissal, I agree with the judge. This was an instance where the Trump administration cut some corners it should not have cut.

I believe James Comey and Letitia James belong in jail. Comey for illegal surveillance of Americans and using the Justice Department for political purposes (although that was not what he was charged with) and James for a mortgage fraud crime that she as an Attorney General sent people to jail for. However, that is not the issue. This case was simply not handled properly. The whole thing was an unnecessary rookie mistake.

The article at Just the News reports:

Comey was charged in September with obstruction of justice and making a false statement to Congress in 2020. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and challenged the legitimacy of the case brought by Halligan.

James was indicted for one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to the indictment, James purchased a house in Norfolk, Va., with a loan that prohibited her from using the home as a rental investment property, which prosecutors allege saved her “approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.”

The statute of limitations has run out on the Comey charges, so they might not be brought up again, but the statute of limitations on the charges against Letitia James has not run out, so she will probably be charged again. Comey will likely get caught up in the Russiagate investigation and may face justice on the charges that result from that investigation.

This Could Get Very Interesting

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On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article stating that the Clintons might have to pay a price for defying a Congressional subpoena.

The article reports:

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Tuesday said he would give former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the same treatment Democrats gave Steve Bannon if they do not comply with congressional subpoenas to testify on their alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein. 

House Democrats referred Bannon for prosecution after he failed to comply with a House January 6 subcommittee subpoena. He was later convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress and sentenced to four months in prison in 2022.

Comer said the Clintons are two Democrats that his committee has not heard back from regarding subpoenas for their testimony on their ties to Epstein, and that continued silence will be met with criminal referrals. 

The law is supposed to be enforced equally. The Democrats should have considered that in dealing with Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. Evidently, the Democrats planned on being perpetually in power (until their candidate ran out of steam).

The article concludes:

“So we expect the Clintons to come in, or I expect the Clintons to be met with the same fate that Bannon and [Peter] Navarro were met with when the Democrats were in control,” he concluded.

Comer also noted that other Democrats have not helped bring the Clintons in to testify because they are too focused on trying to criminally connect Trump to Epstein. Neither Trump nor the Clintons have been accused of any wrongdoing.

“The Democrats have Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Comer said. “They’re just hoping and praying that there’s something in these documents, somewhere they don’t know where, but somewhere that would implicate Trump.”

Stay tuned.

Taking Care Of National Security

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that America has begun replenishing the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The article reports:

The oil will be delivered to the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve site near Freeport, Texas, in December and January, the Energy Department said in a statement. The U.S. petroleum reserve contains about 410 million barrels of crude oil and at full capacity can hold approximately 714 million barrels.

The strategic reserve, the Energy Department said in a release, was weakened by the previous administration’s “reckless” 180-million-barrel drawdown in 2022.

The drawdown caused delays to critical infrastructure maintenance and put unprecedented wear and tear on storage and injection facilities, the department said.

“President Trump promised to protect America’s energy security by refilling and managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve more responsibly,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “Awarding these contracts marks another step in the important process of refilling this national security asset.
While this process won’t be complete overnight, these actions are an important step in strengthening our energy security and reversing the costly and irresponsible energy policies of the last administration.”

The article concludes:

The 410 barrels of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in October was equivalent to approximately 125 days of U.S. net oil imports. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve distribution system consists of four salt dome storage sites; commercial pipelines owned by the Energy Department and commercial firms that connect to major refineries along the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest; and marine terminals operated by the department and private companies which facilitate the loading and off-loading of crude oil onto oil tankers and barges.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a necessary part of national security. It is supposed to be used for strictly military purposes. Unfortunately, the Biden administration used part of the reserve in an attempt to lower the gasoline prices at the pump in order to gain political points. We are much more energy independent than we were then, but it’s always a good idea to have a readily available backup supply of oil.

Good News From Florida

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article that highlighted some of the great work American law enforcement is currently doing.

The article reports:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers arrested 230 foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally, many with extensive criminal histories. More than half, 150, are criminal sex offenders, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The statewide initiative, Operation Criminal Return, targets convicted sexual predators and offenders who pose significant threats to public safety.

“Through Operation Criminal Return, hundreds of the most dangerous illegal criminal aliens with horrific criminal histories, including sexual crimes against children, are off our streets and will be out of our country soon,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “Florida has been the most aggressive state in America on combating illegal immigration, and our state and local law enforcement agencies are doing more every day to be the federal government’s greatest tool in the fight to enforce immigration law.”

The article concludes:

FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) participated through an ICE 287(g) program. It’s named after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996, 8 USC 1357, Section 287(g)(1), which authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration functions only under ICE’s direction and supervision. Local law enforcement officers can apply to participate in the Jail Enforcement Model (JEM), Task Force Model (TFM) and Warrant Service Officer (WSO) model, The Center Square reported.

Florida leads the U.S. with having the most 287 (g) agreements – more than 270 – as of November 13. All of Florida’s sheriff’s offices are participating, as well as dozens of colleges, police departments, state agencies, airports, county boards of commissioners and university board of trustees. More than one third of Florida sheriffs are participating in more than one program.

…In Florida, strong partnerships are vital to public safety, and our collaboration with ICE provides a model for the rest of the country as we continue to carry out the mission of President Trump and Governor DeSantis in removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our communities,” FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said.

In just 10 months this year, ICE has signed 1,154 Memorandums of Agreement for 287(g) programs in 40 states. They include 139 JEM agreements with law enforcement agencies in 31 states, 419 WSO agreements with law enforcement agencies in 36 states, and 596 TFM agreements with agencies in 34 states, according to data as of Nov. 13.

If the states are the individual laboratories to discover government programs that actually work, every state should be copying Florida!

Where The Money Went

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On  Saturday (updated Sunday), Just the News posted an article about where the  government’s money for healthcare has been spent.

The article reports:

More evidence has emerged showing that — despite the claims of Democrats — illegal immigrants have benefited from millions of federal tax dollars. The government watchdog group Open the Books released a new analysis that found almost $197 million in federal healthcare-related grants have benefited illegal immigrants since fiscal year 2021.

That is NOT pocket change and needs to be ended.

The article continues:

According to the report, the grants include both direct services and academic research aimed at expanding access to healthcare for immigrant populations. Open the Books’ researchers said they searched federal databases for grant descriptions that explicitly mentioned terms such as “undocumented” or “unauthorized,” suggesting that the actual total amount of taxpayer funding could be higher.

The article concludes:

Open the Books said the $197 million total does not include “indirect spending on illegal immigrants through Medicaid, which was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be around $27 billion from FY 2017-2023, nor does it account for education spending that benefits illegal immigrants and their children, which amounts to an estimated $70 billion annually.”

Open the Books identified about $13 million in new awards since February 2025 after the start of Trump’s second term. Under Trump, border encounters have dropped significantly amid increased federal enforcement. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, “26,197 total encounters nationwide” occurred under Trump — a 93% below the peak of the Biden administration’s 370,883. 

The spending on illegal immigrants through Medicaid is what the Democrats want to continue. The fact that the Republicans will not agree to that is one of many reasons the government remains shut down.

Other States React To The Election of Zohran Mandani

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There have been a number of states that have reacted to the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City and the election in Virginia. Florida is expecting real estate prices to rise. A number of other states are offering refuge for fleeing New York City residents and fleeing Virginia residents. One state has made it clear that they do not want fleeing New York City residents.

WVVA posted:

Using Their Time Wisely

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On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article about how Republicans are using the time they have during the government shutdown.

The article reports:

Republicans have begun to articulate the beginnings of a healthcare reform plan as Democrats keep the government shut down with the nominal aim of addressing rising costs. 

The shutdown itself is nearing a record and shows no signs of ending in the near future. Republicans have accused Democrats of seeking to reinstate funding for illegal immigrant healthcare while Democrats have insisted they want to lower costs for all Americans.

While the Democrats’ gambit does not appear poised to pay off in the form of tangible concessions, it does seem to have pressured the GOP into at least developing the beginnings of a reform plan.

“This is a funding fight, not a healthcare fight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted this month on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “But there’s the Obamacare COVID-era subsidies that expire December 31 and there’s a lot of heated debate that we’ve got to have in the House and Senate to figure out what to do about that.”

The article concludes:

“So they are, you know, indicative of the super-sized business model and pushing small businesses […] out of business,” he said. “Getting small business back into the marketplace is both smaller insurance companies and making sure that your hometown physician and your hometown pharmacist are able to service their citizens, is one of the best things to do.”

So far, however, talk of reform appears contingent on an end to the government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for his part, stated this month that he was willing to discuss healthcare reform with Democrats, but would not do so under budget duress.

“I’m not sure how much clearer I can be, but let me give it a try: I am willing to sit down with Democrats to discuss the growing unaffordability and unsustainability of Obamacare,” he posted on X. “It’s a system they created, but I’m happy to hear them out. Heck, I’m even willing to give them a vote. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. You name it. But there’s one condition: End the Schumer Shutdown. I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom. Period.

Frankly, Obamacare needs to go away, and the government needs to get out of healthcare. Obamacare was designed to fail and lead us to a single-payer healthcare system similar to Britain and Canada. There is a reason many Canadians come to America for their healthcare needs.

Yes, Virginia, Non-citizens Do Vote

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On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about the number of non-citizens voting in American elections.

The article reports:

The dual revelations that an illegal alien school administrator from Iowa made it onto the voter rolls in Maryland and that over 2,700 noncitizens escaped strict voter ID checks to qualify to vote in Texas are creating new momentum for creating a nationwide citizenship check system for elections.

“Many folks that come into my office will tell me, and anyone who will listen, this is the biggest issue in the country. Democrats don’t want tightly run elections,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., told Just the News on Thursday night. “We all know that they want as much room for, you know, fraud, as humanly possible.”

“So right now, in many states, you can just check a box and say you’re a citizen, and that’s it. What we’re fighting for is we’re actually fighting that you as a citizen have to prove that you’re a citizen of this country if you’re going to vote in our election,” he said during an interview on the Just the News No Noise television show.

Crane and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are spearheading a campaign to mandate proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in upcoming federal elections.

The article concludes:

The notion and popularity of only lawful citizens voting in elections is not new.

In the late 1990s, Democrats, led by President Bill Clinton, firmly opposed non-citizen voting, which led to the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). This law, passed with strong Democratic support (72-27 in the Senate, 370-37 in the House), criminalized non-citizen voting in federal elections, imposing fines, up to one year in prison, and deportation. Clinton framed it as a defense of legal residents and electoral integrity, reflecting the party’s unified stance that only citizens should vote in federal races.

Republicans have expressed identical sentiment in their fight to keep noncitizens off of voter rolls.

Using a Real ID would be a step in fighting this problem, although you can get a Real ID if you have a Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) if you are a non-U.S. citizen. I suspect that very few of the people who are illegally voting in our elections have green cards. Using Real ID as voter identification might be a step in the right direction.

This Could Be Very Interesting

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On Friday, Just the News reported that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer wants to declassify all of the evidence related to President Trump’s first impeachment trial.

The article reports:

Two powerful committee chairmen in Congress tell Just the News it is time to declassify evidence submitted by an alleged intelligence community whistleblower that prompted the first impeachment trial against President Donald Trump for his efforts to investigate the Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine. 

Six years after Democrats pursued the impeachment case over a call that Trump made to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, many of the allegations have crumbled in the face of two convictions and pardons of Hunter Biden and new evidence uncovered by Congress from the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA.

The latest evidence was released this week by CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealing that Joe Biden‘s vice presidential staff suppressed an intelligence community report from being published that revealed that Ukrainian officials believed Hunter Biden‘s work for the corrupt Burisma Holdings energy company undercut U.S. efforts to fight corruption in that former Soviet republic. 

“Declassify everything. Let’s be transparent. Let’s release all the documents,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told the Just the News, No Noise television show. “That’s what needs to happen. The American people need to see the true reality of what was going on.

“The Democrats colluded with the liberal media, who were in cahoots with the deep state government agencies to try to create false narratives that Trump did something wrong, that he was trying to dig up something untrue about the Biden family, when it was very true and it was very serious,” he said.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., chairman of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, said he too believes the complaint that prompted the 2019 impeachment probe and eventual acquittal of Trump should be made public, including confirming the alleged whistleblower’s identity and his possible connections to Biden.

The first impeachment of President Trump was an effort to undermine his presidency. It was essentially a soft coup. All of the people who pushed the soft coup forward need to be charged with undermining the government.