Former Consultant Matt Gaetz is submitting a restraining order in opposition to the whole Home Ethics Committee to cease them from displaying the world their findings, which reportedly contains proof that he paid an underage woman for intercourse.

Gaetz accuses the committee of an “unconstitutional” try “to train jurisdiction over a personal citizen by way of the threatened launch of an investigative report containing probably defamatory allegations, in violation of the Committee’s personal guidelines.”

That is the results of a yearslong investigation into allegations that Gaetz had paid a teenage woman and a number of ladies hundreds of {dollars} for intercourse and medicines since 2017.

It is a growing story.

Former Consultant Matt Gaetz is submitting a restraining order in opposition to the whole Home Ethics Committee to cease them from displaying the world their findings, which reportedly contains proof that he paid an underaged woman for intercourse.

Gaetz accuses the committee of an “unconstitutional” try “to train jurisdiction over a personal citizen by way of the threatened launch of an investigative report containing probably defamatory allegations, in violation of the Committee’s personal guidelines.”

This all comes after CNN reported final week that the committee secretly voted to launch its report into former Consultant Matt Gaetz. The report is years lengthy, and based mostly on allegations that Gaetz had paid a teenage woman and a number of ladies hundreds of {dollars} for intercourse and medicines since 2017.

Gaetz’s restraining order request states that the report could be unjustly tarnishing his popularity, arguing that it’s “regarding issues of sexual propriety and different acts of alleged ethical turpitude constitutes irreparable hurt that can’t be adequately remedied by way of financial damages.”

The clerk’s workplace has already instructed Gaetz his lawsuit should be refiled, as Gaetz’s attorneys made paperwork errors that should be corrected earlier than it goes any additional.

Gaetz has fervently denied any and all allegations.

“In my single days, I typically despatched funds to ladies I dated—even some I by no means dated however who requested. I dated a number of of those ladies for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with somebody below 18. Any declare that I’ve could be destroyed in court docket—which is why no such declare was ever made in court docket,” Gaetz wrote final week. “It’s embarrassing, although not felony, that I in all probability partied, womanized, drank and smoked greater than I ought to have earlier in life. I stay a distinct life now.”

This story has been up to date.

Donald Trump dismissed the “President Musk” jokes Sunday, and it was lower than convincing.

Throughout his deal with at Turning Level USA’s AmericaFest convention in Phoenix, Arizona, the president-elect pushed again on claims that Musk deliberate to supplant him as president.

“No, he’s not gonna be president, that I can let you know,” Trump mentioned. “And I’m protected, you already know why? He can’t be, he wasn’t born on this nation.”

However Trump rigorously elided the precise criticism of Musk’s rising political affect. Folks aren’t frightened that Musk is plotting to steal the presidency—they’re frightened he already has.

Final week, Musk issued his personal set of marching orders to Congress, ordering Republicans to oppose a large spending invoice to avert a authorities shutdown, or face being primaried by a Musk-backed candidate. In the meantime, Trump stayed roughly silent, and Democratic leaders started to criticize the president-elect for permitting Musk to guide his get together.

When Trump finally did weigh in, additionally issuing a request to elevate the debt ceiling, his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt issued a chilly assertion to ensure everybody knew there was just one man in cost.

“As quickly as President Trump launched his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his perspective. President Trump is the chief of the Republican Occasion. Full cease,” mentioned Leavitt.

Solely when each Musk and Trump permitted of the spending invoice was it in a position to transfer ahead. Whereas the adjustments Musk sought had been made, Trump’s request acquired left on the slicing room flooring.

Musk’s current conduct signifies not solely a rising affect on Trump, however on the Republican Occasion at massive, as Republicans instantly fell in line. Already, many have begun pledging themselves to help the unelected bureaucrat with the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, a scheme to eradicate federal applications and employees and substitute them with expensive company contracts and distributors.

The Home of Representatives lastly voted to avert a authorities shutdown Friday night, simply hours earlier than authorities funding was set to run out, due to Democratic assist and Republicans’ resolution to exclude Donald Trump’s demand to increase the debt ceiling.

The invoice to proceed funding for the federal government handed with 366 votes in favor and 34 votes in opposition to, with each single “no” vote coming from a Republican.

This most up-to-date vote comes someday after a whopping 38 Republicans joined 197 Democrats in voting in opposition to an abbreviated persevering with decision, endorsed by each Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

That invoice had nixed a number of key provisions from the unique, together with ones to fund analysis into pediatric most cancers, untimely labor, and Down syndrome; to deal with sickle-cell anemia and early most cancers detection; and criminalize deepfake pornography.

The unique 1,547-page bipartisan invoice was scrapped Wednesday, after Musk railed in opposition to it on social media and Trump demanded that Republicans discover a technique to elevate the debt ceiling, sending an embattled Home Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to provide you with a brand new model of the laws.

The large invoice underwent a number of phases on Friday, having been cut up up into three part components for lawmakers to vote on individually: a three-month persevering with decision, a invoice funding catastrophe aid, and a invoice to grant $10 billion in aid for farmers and lengthen the farmer’s invoice, whereas Trump’s request to boost the debt ceiling was nowhere to be discovered.

Ultimately, lawmakers voted on one single bundle, which might fund the federal government by way of March 14, present roughly $100 billion for catastrophe support, and lengthen the federal applications supporting farmers, offering $30 billion in financial aid.

Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a easy repair for the present authorities shutdown battle.

“How concerning the Home add marketing campaign finance reform to the CR so Republicans and Democrats alike can cease being so scared about what a billionaire man-child thinks earlier than they vote on something round right here,” AOC wrote on X Friday.

The “billionaire man-child” in query is Elon Musk, who has been threatening to major any representatives who don’t again his most well-liked model of the spending invoice. Musk helped tank the bipartisan spending invoice on Wednesday by way of a barrage of posts on X, and on Thursday, a Trump-backed invoice didn’t win over sufficient Republicans. On Friday afternoon, Musk once more started hinting at his opposition to the revised Republican plan.

Musk’s outdoors position in these negotiations has known as into query who’s actually calling the photographs within the Republican Occasion.

“The chief of the GOP is Elon Musk,” Consultant Brendan Boyle wrote on X. “I don’t know why Trump doesn’t simply hand him the Oval Workplace,” mentioned Consultant Greg Cesar.

Roger Stone mentioned Friday he needs to repair America’s damaged justice system, conveniently forgetting the time he acquired bailed out of felony costs by his buddy Donald Trump.

Throughout Stone’s deal with at Turning Level USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, the longtime GOP operative and self-proclaimed “agent provocateur” defined what he believed Trump’s allies hope to achieve from a second stint within the White Home.

“What we search is a rebalance of the scales of justice, so this nation can return to at least one customary of justice, not the two-tiered justice system,” Stone mentioned in a video posted on X by CBS Information’s senior White Home reporter Jennifer Jacobs.

It’s type of unclear to which two-tiered justice system Stone was referring—might it probably have been the one which secured him a presidential pardon after he was indicted for mendacity to Congress about Russian tampering within the 2016 presidential election, witness tampering, and obstruction? The exact same system that rescued him, the president-elect’s longtime buddy and ally, from a 40-month jail sentence? Certainly not that one, proper?

There are actually severe issues with the nation’s justice system worthy of the eye of the president of the US—however Stone’s not speaking about these. No, he’s most definitely speaking concerning the system that pardoned Hunter Biden for gun costs and tax evasion, or the system that pursued costs in opposition to the rioters on the January 6 riot, whose violence Stone cheered on.

In the end, MAGA shouldn’t be in search of to “rebalance the scales”; it’s in search of to throw the size out and do regardless of the hell Trump needs. But when Stone is severely serious about being prosecuted for tax evasion, the Justice Division can undoubtedly make that occur.

Elon Musk is hoping to dispel the broadly circulating notion that he, not President-elect Trump, is actually calling the photographs.

On Thursday, X person Lulu Cheng Meservey known as such speculations indicative of a wider “technique” to sow discord between Musk and Trump. “By jabbing Trump about not being the alpha, the concept is to impress him to sideline Elon and to fray the connection,” Meservey wrote.

Musk agreed, writing in a quote-tweet Friday, “The political & legacy media puppets all acquired their new directions yesterday and at the moment are parroting the identical message to drive a wedge between [Trump] and me. They’ll fail.”

The “President Musk” rhetoric started after the billionaire, whose monetary help for Trump and different Republican candidates made him 2024’s largest political donor, helped tank a bipartisan spending invoice. Musk unleashed a fusillade of criticism on his social media platform, X, in addition to a menace to fund major challenges in opposition to representatives who voted to cross the deal.

Later that day, President-elect Trump got here out in opposition to the deal, and after a failed vote on a revised invoice Thursday, Home Republicans are scrambling to place collectively an eleventh-hour plan to keep away from a authorities shutdown.

Musk has since tried to shift blame and downplay his position within the consequence. He’s additionally apparently hoping to close down Democrats’ strategies that his outsize position within the legislative course of signifies that he’s the one actually pulling the strings within the incoming Trump administration.

Many Democrats leapt on the occasions of the week to say simply that: “The chief of the GOP is Elon Musk,” tweeted Consultant Brendan Boyle. “I don’t know why Trump doesn’t simply hand him the Oval Workplace,” mentioned Consultant Greg Cesar. “It’s clear who’s in cost, and it’s not President-elect Donald Trump,” posted Pramila Jayapal, saying Trump adopted the lead of “Shadow President Elon Musk.” (Jayapal’s had been the feedback that particularly drew Meservey’s, and in flip Musk’s, ire.)

Regardless of the state of Musk and Trump’s relationship after the world’s wealthiest man flexed his political muscle tissue this week, the notion that Musk is delivering marching orders appears to have struck a nerve with staff Trump. On Thursday, a Trump spokesperson insisted that the president-elect, and nobody else, was in cost, saying, “President Trump is the chief of the Republican Occasion. Full cease.”

Home Republicans appear poised to provide Donald Trump the finger for the second time in lower than 24 hours.

Speaker Mike Johnson introduced a brand new persevering with decision plan on Friday that doesn’t embody what the president-elect has been pining for for days: an extension to the debt ceiling.

“Now we have a unified Republican convention. There’s a unanimous settlement within the room that we have to transfer ahead,” Johnson instructed a room filled with reporters. “I cannot telegraph to you the precise particulars of that but.… I anticipate that we are going to be continuing ahead. We is not going to have a authorities shutdown.”

Johnson’s new plan, which he has not but mentioned with Trump, will as a substitute be one vote that features a spending bundle, catastrophe support, farm support, and the farm invoice extension—no debt ceiling adjustments included. The plan C comes after 38 Home Republicans on Thursday night voted in opposition to a Trump-backed plan that might lengthen the debt ceiling by two years.

Johnson’s transfer is certain to attract the ire of each Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who has been threatening to major any Republican who doesn’t conform to a unbroken decision on Trump’s phrases (or his).

Elon Musk is now threatening to eliminate Democratic lawmakers, however he has no concept who he’s coping with … no, severely he has no concept who he’s complaining about.

Musk responded Friday to a video of Consultant Richie Neal, the rating member of the Home Methods and Means Committee, the place the Massachusetts Democrat slammed the unelected bureaucrat for making an attempt to kill the bipartisan spending invoice wanted to maintain the federal government working.

“A tweet modified all of it?” Neal scoffed, referring to Musk’s deluge of posts on X Wednesday and Thursday instructing Republicans to oppose the invoice, threatening to oust those who didn’t, and cheering on the more and more inevitable authorities shutdown.

“Are you able to think about what the following two years can be like if each time that Congress works its will, after which there’s a tweet, or from a person who has no official portfolio, who threatens members on the Republican facet with a major, and so they succumb?” Neal requested.

“This establishment has a separate duty based mostly on the separation of powers,” he warned.

Musk didn’t like this in any respect, apparently, and replied in his new favourite manner: a menace to purchase Neal out of his seat.

“Oh … forgot to say that I’m additionally going to be funding reasonable candidates in closely Democrat districts, in order that the nation can eliminate those that don’t characterize them, like this jackass,” Musk wrote.

However Neal is a reasonably reasonable Democrat, who has been a consultant in Massachusetts—a reasonably Democratic state—for greater than three many years. In November, he was reelected to his position main the state’s first district by 62 p.c of the vote, handily beating an unbiased challenger.

That’s to not say Musk couldn’t one way or the other discover a challenger to oppose Neal, however the billionaire technocrat clearly thinks he can throw cash at any downside and transfer the dial. Whereas cash and a right-wing propaganda machine could have an outsized affect in Congress, Musk could also be beginning to notice that he’s simply not lower out for this entire politics factor.

The listing of people that hate Nancy Mace is rising longer with every passing day.

On Friday, the cantankerous Republican consultant’s former guide took to X to air her out. 

“You’ll be able to cease texting me. I fired Nancy Mace as [a] consumer just a few months again as a result of I’m a political guide and never a babysitter, a intercourse therapist or a physician who can prescribe fixes for chemical imbalances,” wrote Wesley Donehue, CEO of the political consulting agency Push Digital. “I don’t have time for her fixed egotistical bullshit and drama in my life.”

In a follow-up tweet, Donehue clarified that he was reacting to Mace’s personal assault on fellow Republicans. His remark appears to align with the jabs Mace and fellow Republican Consultant Trey Gowdy have been exchanging. 

“Nancy Mace wouldn’t be within the Home if it weren’t for Donald Trump, and she will be able to’t vote the best way that he asks her to right now?” Gowdy instructed Fox Information on Thursday. “I hope he’s acquired as lengthy a reminiscence for Home members as he does senators that even threaten to not help one among his nominees.”  

“I’ve a message for Trey Gowdy: You let Hillary Clinton off the hook for Benghazi. Sit your ass again down,” Mace posted on X later that evening. 

“Which toilet do we expect Trey Gowdy makes use of? #HoldTheLine,” she mentioned in one other, attaching an image of Gowdy and bizarrely implying he’s transgender.
 
Donehue responded to this straight on X. “Think about desirous to run statewide and considering it is a good concept. The upstate loves Trey Gowdy. That is what occurs when an individual can’t management their feelings sufficient to suppose strategically.”

Mace has made a idiot of herself a number of instances for the reason that election: occurring a public transphobic tirade to focus on Sarah McBride, the primary and solely trans member of Congress, claiming that she was assaulted by a trans activist who says he merely shook her hand, and now the intraparty bullying. Can’t wait to see the following determined media ploy for consideration.