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The Department of Justice's, or DOJ, decision to investigate writer E. Jean Carroll, who successfully proved President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed her, has drawn criticism from DOJ insiders and legal experts.

Reporter Ken Dilanian characterized the potential perjury case as "the latest example of Donald Trump's Justice Department retribution campaign" targeting political enemies. He noted the pattern of criminal investigations against Trump's adversaries is unprecedented and deeply concerning within the DOJ.

Fox News personality Jesse Watters on Thursday treated the viewers to a lengthy rant about Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, mocking him as part of a coordinated GOP messaging strategy to make him look effeminate.

"I have questions that I'd like local reporters to ask Low-T Talafreako," said Watters, who has a long and controversial history of offensive remarks on air. "Does James Talarico even own a gun? Is James Talarico a Cowboys fan, a Houston Texans fan? Does he know the Spurs are playing tonight? Has Talarico ever been to a football game or is he more of a World Cup guy? Does Talarico own a truck? Does he believe in premarital sex? Does Talarico wear women’s underwear?"

Right-wing journalist John Solomon predicted Thursday, outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will make a dramatic exit by releasing evidence claiming to prove foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Solomon, who works closely with Gabbard on declassifications, spoke with Bannon on the "War Room" podcast.

Political analysts and observers were shocked on Thursday by new reporting on the draft peace plan that U.S. and Iranian negotiators are discussing.

The New York Times reported that part of the deal on the table includes a $300 billion investment fund to help rebuild Iran at the end of the war. The report was published at a time when the Trump administration and Iranian officials are in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global waterway for energy trade, which has prolonged the over three-month-old conflict.

Cities contracting with Flock Safety to run networks of license plate reader cameras are growing increasingly alarmed about the company's involvement with the Trump administration's mass deportation schemes, to the point that some are now covering their own cameras in trash bags, a new report revealed.

According to 404 Media, one city bagging up its cameras is Dayton, Ohio, which followed "months of resident outrage, a scandal in which the city was sharing Flock camera data for immigration enforcement, apparently by accident, and a $30,000 audit into how the cameras are being used." They had to bag the cameras rather than take them down outright because "police there are unsure whether the cameras are still active, and the city also doesn’t seem to know whether it is allowed to take the cameras down."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's defense on Thursday of slapping President Donald Trump's face on a $250 bill ahead of America's 250th birthday appalled a political analyst.

During the daily press briefing, Bessent was challenged by CNN's Kaitlan Collins about whether putting the president's face on a new currency is appropriate, given the cost-of-living challenges many Americans are facing, and Trump is seeking more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to build his ballroom. There is also a federal law that prohibits living presidents from being featured on U.S. currency.

Vice President JD Vance cancelled a scheduled speaking event in Denver Thursday afternoon.

The cancelation was abrupt and Vance provided no explanation, according to Denver's GOP announcement on social media, Axios reported.

President Donald Trump's Justice Department has opened a federal criminal investigation into the legal funding for E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued Trump for defamation after accusing him of rape, and the investigation could reportedly expand into whether Carroll committed perjury when she discussed the source of her legal fees.

But this move is going to blow up in his face, Steve Benen wrote for MS NOW's MaddowBlog in an analysis published Thursday — not only because he won't get a conviction out of it, but because it will only bring his long history of alleged sexual abuse back into the spotlight.

An expert in Middle East affairs shared a startling prediction about President Donald Trump's latest peace plan for the region during a new podcast interview on Thursday.

Trump has demanded that more Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East sign on to the Abraham Accords, a bilateral agreement the first Trump administration struck with some Middle Eastern countries in 2020, as part of the peace deal for the war in Iran. Reporting from Politico suggests that the idea has been met with "laughter, dismissal and, often, silence" from leaders in Middle Eastern countries.