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At the end of a particularly chaotic week, yet another Republican has announced he will not seek another term in the House of Representatives.

CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju reported Saturday that Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) will be leaving the House at the end of 2024 "with a heavy heart."

Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur's report summarizing the classified documents investigation into President Joe Biden is getting intense scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans.

Hur's report, which numbered nearly 400 pages, found Biden was not criminally culpable and didn't recommend the filing of any charges. However, the special counsel — who previously served as a US Attorney for the District of Maryland in former President Donald Trump's DOJ — still made sweeping statements about Biden's mental faculties that are currently being exploited by the president's Republican detractors.

Appearing with former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance and conservative lawyer George Conway, former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann claimed Judge Cannon is "playing with fire" by not adhering to the law in Donald Trump's Florida trial.

Speaking with MSNBC host Katie Phang, Weissmann noted that Cannon has previously butted heads with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in matters related to Donald Trump, and her latest failure to adhere to the law will not be looked kindly upon.

Asked by the host what comes next for special counsel Jack Smith with the prospect he may turn to the court of appeals over a demand for evidence, Weissmann replied, "I think is going to be fascinating to see what he does. We don't know the underlying facts, but we do have a sense of them from Jack Smith's submission, as you noted with respect to the concern about safety."

"If you put that together with what George [Conway] pointed out, which is to remind everyone about Judge Cannon's really truly horrific history in sort of the pre-indictment phase where she was reversed from the 11th Circuit not once but twice in fairly scathing language, what Jack Smith may very well do today is seek what is called a writ of mandate," he explained.

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"It's a form of appeal, without getting into the technicalities to say, once again, she is really not adhering to the law here," he continued. "And I do think if she is doing something that would hurt the witnesses unduly, where this is the kind of thing that I think any other judge in the case would not take that step, that is the kind of thing that, depending on who the panel is, and again, I always refer to Joyce [Vance] on all things 11th Circuit, and frankly everything else."

"I do think that is the kind of thing that can get an appellate panel really angry about the way in which this is handled, and that was very much what we saw and was evident in the 11th Circuit's reversal of her twice," he added. "[It] was a real concern about her disregard of classified information of the role of the intelligence community interfering with normal criminal investigations and explicitly saying that Donald Trump will be treated differently and more favorably than other defendants. And she was rebuked twice, saying that is not the standard, he is to be treated no better and no worse than anyone else."

"So she could really be playing with fire here in this ruling, but it remains to be seen, the underlying facts in what Jack Smith does," he remarked. "I do think if he takes it up, basically as you said, fasten your seatbelts as to what could happen."

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According to Slate legal analysts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, one of the least commented-upon aspects of Thursday's Supreme Court hearing on Donald Trump's eligibility to stay on the ballot based upon the 14th Amendment was Justice Samuel Alito's veiled threat aimed at attorney Jason Murray representing the state of Colorado.

During their "Amicus" podcast, Lithwick admitted that some of Alito's comments about a ruling against Trump would lead to "frivolous " lawsuits struck her as "mob-like" as in, "nice democracy you got, it’d be a shame if something happened to it."

According to a report from NBC News, a January 6 rioter who had climbed up on scaffolding above the mob was filmed brandishing a handgun and appearing to be firing into the air.

The report notes that the shooter, identified as John Emanuel Banuelos, had previously told investigators he was present at the Capitol and boasted that he fired a weapon, telling them, "I’m the one in the video with the gun right here," before adding, "Man, should I just tell the FBI to come get me or what?”

Early Saturday morning, Donald Trump went off on another all-caps tirade in response to an Associated Press report on special counsel Robert Hur's probe of President Joe Biden's handling of government documents.

On Truth Social, the former president cut and pasted AP reporting, "Special Counsel Robert Hut released a long-awaited and bitingly critical report that concluded criminal charges against President Joe Biden were not warranted but said there was evidence Biden WILLFULLY RETAINED & SHARED HIGHLY CLASSIFIED Information when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan. The report repeatedly pointed to Biden’s hazy memory in language that has raised new concerns about the president’s competency and age - a top concern for Voters.”

Notably, Trump all-capped his main complaint about the AP report.

ALSO READ: Alina Habba is persona non grata at her Pennsylvania law school

He then launched into a rant, writing, "SO THEN WHY ARE THEY CHARGING ME, I DID NOTHING WRONG??? PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT! A TWO TIER SYSTEM OF JUSTICE."

"THIS IS AN ATTACK ON SLEEPY JOE’S POLITICAL OPPONENT, ME. IT IS LARGE SCALE ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" he added.

After watching a clip of Donald Trump telling a crowd on Friday night that Pennsylvania as we now know it will cease to exist if he loses the election, two MSNBC hosts were left speechless while a third could be heard laughing in the background.

During his speech Friday night in Harrisburg, the former president told the crowd that a President Joe Biden win in November would be bad news for the state.

"We’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name,” Trump stated. “They’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”

On Saturday morning, MSNBC "The Weekend" co-host Alicia Menendez shared the clip and, as it concluded, tilted her head in confusion, Symone Sanders-Townsend looked down and was unable to speak, and former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele, who was off camera, started laughing.

Sanders-Townsend finally stated, "Michael, you said something the other day, I was like, 'Yes!' Donald Trump, obviously, he has trouble stringing a sentence together. The American people, the voters at least, do not think of him as senile or crazy, his inability to put a sentence together. They are not registering concern about his age. I think that is because there has not been a sustained campaign from the time Donald Trump came onto the stage down a little elevator to brand him as such."

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"I agree," Steele replied. "The reason why it's hard to do it is because Donald Trump is so dammed entertaining, because he is entertaining us."

He added, "You don't look at him through the same critical lens you look at the guy who is obviously much more serious, the president of the United States. You then pick apart those flaws: the guy who you find entertaining has them, as well. He [Trump] can't put a sentence together correctly, wants to rename Pennsylvania. That says a lot about how Donald Trump stepped into the space."

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With Donald Trump's lawyers expected to file an appeal to the Supreme Court by Tuesday asking for a stay of a lower court's ruling that he should not be afforded presidential immunity for crimes committed while in office, former DOJ official Mary McCord predicted doom for his bid.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend," McCord told the hosts that she could see the court denying Trump's appeal outright, setting the stage for Judge Tanya Chutkan to proceed with her Jan. 6 trial as soon as possible.

Speaking with the MSNBC hosts, McCord explained that the lower court's ruling is ironclad and that may prompt the court to skip reviewing it and deal with more important matters.

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Asked about Trump filing an appeal, McCord first joked, "His lawyers have been pretty busy this past weekend and probably haven't gotten it written yet."

"The Supreme Court could grant cert just based on the motion — they did that in Bush v. Gore. Or they could grant the stay and give him a deadline to file his petition, two weeks or something like that, something shorter than normal. Or they could deny the stay," she explained.

"I do think it's entirely possible they will deny this stay and deny cert even when a petition comes because it was unanimous, ruling, it covered all the bases," she elaborated. "They don't have to agree with every point made by the [Appeals Court] judges to affirm. If they think that there is not -- they think that the ultimate conclusion was correct, even if there are bits and pieces that are not weight-bearing in that opinion that they don't agree with — they don't have to take it just to correct those."

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If President Joe Biden wins a second term in November, he's not likely to keep Attorney General Merrick Garland in his current role, according to a new report.

Politico reported Friday evening that sources close to Biden who spoke anonymously to protect their positions say the president is privately "grumbling" about Garland's leadership of the Department of Justice. He's reportedly particularly upset about Garland's oversight of special counsel Robert Hur's and his hands-off approach to Hur's report summarizing the classified documents probe. Even though Hur ultimately ruled that no criminal charges were warranted, the special counsel — who was initially appointed as US Attorney for the District of Maryland by then-President Donald Trump in 2018 — made several unflattering observations about Biden's mental faculties that Republicans have seized on.

According to former high-ranking DOJ official Mary McCord, there is definite evidence of bias in Judge Aileen Cannon's handling of the Donald Trump obstruction of justice proceedings as well as general incompetence that is also slowing down the trial.

Appearing on MSNBC's "The Weekend," McCord discussed the back and forth between the Trump-appointed Cannon and special counsel Jack Smith over sealed evidence on Friday and was asked by the hosts if she is over her head.

"Do you think it is bias or do you think it is incompetence?" she was asked by co-host Alicia Menendez.

"I think there's a little bit of both," McCord quickly replied. "I think there is some incompetence here. She applied the wrong legal standard and it's not difficult to discern what the right legal standard is."

"But clearly she has revealed since the very beginning of this case a bias," she continued. "And I don't know whether she thinks she wants to make sure she is putting the government to its burden and not showing any favoritism for the government —."

"Feels like she's showing a lot of favoritism towards Donald Trump," co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend interrupted.

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"That's right, that's right," McCord agreed.

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