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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tried to strongarm Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence firm, to suspend its own rules about restricting military use of its technology — but it's bound to blow up in his face, wrote The Washington Post editorial board.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave the company a deadline of 5:01 p.m. on Friday to either allow the military to freely use its Claude model or lose a $200 million government contract and be blacklisted as 'a supply chain risk,' which would force defense contractors to drop the company, too," wrote the board. "More troubling, Hegseth is threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to drop its guardrails."

The Justice Department admitted Thursday that it yanked a file from the tranche of Jeffrey Epstein's emails that contains a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick alongside the convicted sex offender on the late financier's notorious Caribbean island.

The photograph was discovered by jmail, a tech-run site maintaining a searchable Epstein Gmail archive, The Daily Beast reported. The photo shows the pair on Little St. James island with the DOJ file number EFTA01230639. However, a search of that number yields no results on the official Epstein database, suggesting deliberate removal.

The far-right website The Federalist furiously reported on Thursday that the Senate had time to pass a resolution marking a dog parade, but not President Donald Trump's voter restriction bill.

"The Republican-controlled Senate passed a resolution on Feb. 12 so that Sen. Thom Tillis could have a dog parade but cannot find time to pass critical voting legislation," said the report. "Tillis’ resolution, which he submitted to the Senate earlier this month, allowed the 'use of the atrium in the Philip A. Hart Senate office building for a Bipawtisan Doggi Gras Pawrade' on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The resolution passed by unanimous consent."

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson issued a scathing critique of President Trump's inner circle, accusing the Department of Justice of corruptly concealing Epstein files. Wilson alleged that while authorities released 3 million pages, they are hiding a similar amount to protect Trump from revelations that he could be a "pedophile and a rapist." Wilson stated that Trump's base has long feared such exposure. He criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, arguing that DOJ leaders deserve imprisonment, though Trump would likely grant pre-emptive pardons. Wilson condemned the institutional contempt shown to Epstein's victims, who received promises of justice but were ignored and dismissed. He characterized Blanche as maintaining a back-channel communication line with Trump to "manage the Epstein Problem" rather than serving as deputy attorney general for Americans.

Watch the video below.

Eight officials in the Bureau of Prisons face civil contempt charges after they made a stunning threat to a trans inmate who is suing President Donald Trump's administration.

On Thursday, federal Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., ordered the government to show cause in a case where trans inmate Grace Pinson faced retaliation from prison officials after suing the Trump administration. The inmate claimed she was subjected to a body cavity search in front of several male officers, had her personal and legal paperwork tossed in a cell covered in feces, and had her stay in segregation extended even after she was approved to return to the general population.

Lawyers in President Donald Trump's Department of Justice made some "significant" admissions in court on Thursday that could doom its prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to one expert.

The Trump administration has been in an intense legal fight with Abrego Garcia's lawyers since he was deported to El Salvador last year. Courts ruled that the deportation was illegal and ordered Abrego Garcia to be returned to the U.S. Once he returned, the Trump administration charged him with human trafficking. Abrego Garcia's lawyers have argued that the charges are a "vindictive prosecution."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) dealt a blow to one of the Texas GOP's most embattled incumbent congressmen, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, by endorsing his primary challenger — and according to CNN, it's the culmination of years of escalating bad blood between the two that saw Crenshaw help sink one of Cruz's signature pieces of legislation.

Crenshaw is facing one of his hardest elections yet, against a hardliner GOP Texas state legislator, megachurch pastor Steve Toth. President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott went out of their way not to make an endorsement in the race, with Trump conspicuous as he endorsed in every single other race.

The Federal Reserve is hitting back at the Trump administration as U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wages a legal battle to force the central bank to hand over documents related to her criminal investigation into Chair Jerome Powell, according to a new report.

Pirro's dubious probe centers around whether Powell lied to Congress about renovation cost overruns at the Fed's historic buildings. It comes amid a broader retributive campaign from Trump that targets perceived foes.

The Justice Department dealt a significant blow to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' immigration detention project on Wednesday, declaring that a $608 million FEMA reimbursement cannot fund construction or renovation of the facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz." Instead, it can only finance routine operating expenses. The ruling contradicts previous claims by both Trump and DeSantis that federal funds would largely finance the state-run detention centers. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged the reimbursement may not materialize at all. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson stated there will be "no potential federal funding of the facility's design, siting, maintenance, or construction." The DOJ filing emerged from litigation by environmental and tribal groups seeking federal regulation of the facility. "Alligator Alcatraz," a walled tent complex in the Florida Everglades, reportedly houses non-criminal detainees pulled over in traffic stops despite claims it would contain only dangerous immigrants.

Watch the video below.

President Donald Trump's niece didn't hold back in an interview on Thursday when discussing the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Mary Trump, a psychologist and author, has often criticized her uncle's administration and the president himself. During an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett on Thursday, Mary Trump said her uncle's statements about the Epstein files, and the Trump Department of Justice's efforts to obfuscate the files that have been released, show that Trump "has been acting like a guilty man."

A reporter who was unceremoniously ejected from Rep. Jasmine Crockett's campaign event for Texas Senate is speaking out in a piece for The Atlantic, describing her experience and what she believes it says about the campaign.

Crockett has sometimes been described as a rising star in the Democratic Party, for her ability to tear apart Republican witnesses in House committee hearings. Her main competition in the Senate primary is James Talarico, a Presbyterian minister and state representative who has been campaigning as a progressive unifier.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sang the praises of tech billionaire Elon Musk after she claimed he helped expose spyware on her devices planted by her own staff.

Noem dropped the explosive claims during an hour-long podcast appearance with MAGA personality Patrick Bet-David released Thursday. The clip was flagged by The Daily Beast.

Aliya Rahman, a disabled woman with autism from Minneapolis who was severely injured by President Donald Trump's immigration forces in January, claimed on Thursday that she was targeted for removal from the president's State of the Union address.

Rahman attended the address as a guest of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who claimed Rahman was "aggressively handled" while she was escorted out of the House chambers. Rahman was later charged with "unlawful conduct" for allegedly standing in silent protest during the speech, a claim she denied during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.