Jack Smith

U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and department prosecutors are heavily interested in a 2020 Oval Office meeting involving former President Donald Trump and GOP officials as the DOJ continues to investigate Jan. 6, CNN exclusively reports.

DOJ prosecutors, according to the report, "have specifically inquired about three outside Trump advisers who participated in the meeting: former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, sources said."

Donald Trump’s reckless use of social media has gone “off the rails” in recent days, The Washington Post reports in an analysis of the former president’s virtual communications that have prompted concerns about the potential for real violence.

The report cites last week’s arrest of a heavily armed man found a few blocks from former President Barack Obama’s home soon after Trump posted an address he claimed to be Obama’s on his Truth Social account.

According to conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, if the Republican Party harbors any hope of winning the Oval Office in 2024, it will require getting rid of both Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and drafting a lawmaker who can reach independents.

In her column for the Washington Post, Rubin made the case that DeSantis -- who appears to be trying to out-Trump Trump -- is fast becoming damaged goods and the GOP would be wise to look at Governors Brian Kemp of Georgia and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia for a reset before it is too late.

Former Watergate attorney Nick Akerman said on Thursday that it's looking increasingly likely that former President Donald Trump got ratted out by his own lawyer in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Appearing on CNN, Akerman broke down the new information revealed in the less-redacted version of the search warrant that was unsealed this week and he said that there was no way that the FBI could have gotten all this information to justify the search without an inside source.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) triggered mockery earlier this week with a Fourth of July Christian Nationalist post that falsely attributed a quote from an anti-Semitic, white nationalist magazine to founding father Patrick Henry.

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” said the fake quote posted to Twitter by Hawley. “For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has left two major public health offices vacant, reported NBC News, potentially jeopardizing the ability to track infectious disease as cases of malaria have begun to spread in the state.

"Two of the top public health officials in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration — responsible for tracking and preventing the spread of communicable diseases — have left their positions in recent months," reported Matt Dixon. "The departures come as public health is increasingly being politicized, and some experts say it leaves the state facing a 'serious health risk.'"

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that there are real signs that special counsel Jack Smith's probe of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election are ramping up.

In particular, Honig pointed to former Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers' revelation that he had been interviewed by the FBI about Trump's actions in the aftermath of his defeat at the hands of President Joe Biden.