Lesley Abravanel, Alternet

Two months after the assassination of MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk, over 600 people have been targeted by the government with firings, suspensions, investigations and other actions, Reuters reports.

Educators, they note, are the main target, noting that "more than 350 education workers were fired, suspended or investigated in the days following the assassination, including 50 academics and senior university administrators, three high school principals, two cheerleading coaches and a theology instructor."

Reuters reports that "Republican officials publicly threatened to deprive universities and schools of taxpayer funds unless specific critics of Kirk were fired."...

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has referred former Jack Smith prosecutor Thomas Windom to Attorney General Pam Bondi for criminal investigation, reports MSNOW.

The House Judiciary Committee has formally accused Windom, a former senior assistant special counsel to Smith, of obstructing a congressional investigation by declining to answer questions, and has referred him to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1505.

Jordan has been actively scrutinizing Smith and his team's handling of the prosecutions against President Donald Trump, demanding testimony and documents, and referring a former aide for criminal prosecution for allegedly obstructing a congressional investigation....

The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are struggling to quash conspiracies that their current leaders used to espouse, according to a Tuesday report in CNN.

The first of these involves the ongoing saga surrounding deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose recently published emails link President Donald Trump directly to him.

When FBI Director Kash Patel attempted to tout what he thought was a major win for the administration on drug crackdowns last week, he was overshadowed by Epstein....

Although President Donald Trump has previously floated Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his heirs apparent in 2028, that plan is under threat as new Republicans mull a 2028 run, Newsweek reports.

Recent cracks in the MAGA base over the release of the files pertaining to late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and support of far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, among other things, may make it "difficult for Trump to rally his supporters around whoever he favors," Newsweek explains.

And while Trump has previously floated the unconstitutional idea of running for a third term, that notion has been dismissed, and instead, he is "likely to attempt to cement his influence on U.S. politics by choosing a successor, and whoever follows him will be responsible for guiding the Republican Party through future elections and continuing MAGA policies and the president's legacy," Newsweek says....

A casualty of the MAGA civil war that has erupted over neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and former Fox News fixture Tucker Carlson is an unlikely victim—Vice President JD Vance—who has been 'shivved' by President Donald Trump, according to Greg Sargent on The New Republic's Daily Blast podcast.

Sargent says that as Vance has his eyes on taking the reins of MAGA in a post-Trump world and poll numbers point to the veep as the likely heir, it's not a lock, and the president may not be helping him secure that lock either.

"It occurs to me that Trump really, whether intentionally or not, shivved Vance in the back in a way here," Sargent says. "So Vance has an Indian American wife. He’s gonna want a free hand to do his anti-immigrant appeals while also presenting himself as non-bigoted."...