ROMNEY says Ron Johnson's Biden investigation is a "political exercise."
Romney's comments followed Johnson decision to withdraw a proposed subpoena vote for Ambassador Bridget Brink in connection with his Burisma investigation.
Romney would have opposed that vote, dooming it to a 7-7tie.
ROMNEY cited "recent comments in the media," a clear reference to Johnson's public statements about his report damaging Joe Biden's election chances.
NEW: A batch of newly revealed text messages and emails from fired DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni show in real time how DOJ officials handled court orders related to the Alien Enemies Act, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and more.
They lend contemporaneous support to Reuveni's claim that Emil Bove suggested telling a court "fuck you." politico.com/news/2025/07/1…
There's a lot to unpack in the texts and emails between Reuveni and his colleagues. They joke morbidly about beign fired, and are grateful Boasberg was on vacation when the AEA crisis erupted. politico.com/news/2025/07/1…
Reuveni repeatedly told people inside the administration that Boasberg had ordered DHS not to deplane people after they landed in El Salvador. There seemed to be no ambiguity until ... politico.com/news/2025/07/1…
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Xinis is pressing DOJ on why they claimed on May 27 they had no power to bring Abrego Garcia back to the US evne though they had secretly secured a grand jury indictment against him 6 days earlier.
DOJ attorney now contradicts the government's sworn testimony from Tennessee criminal case, saying Abrego Garcia criminal probe began before April 28. Xinis presses her on this and she says she can't explain the contradiction.
XINIS is incredulous at how little information DOJ has about what played out when they're trying to get her to dismiss the case. So far DOJ is basically shrugging and it's just agitating the judge further.
BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.
YOUNG: "I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out."
MORE YOUNG: "It is palpably clear that these directives and the set of terminated grants here also are designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health – we’re talking about health here, the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That’s appalling."
BREAKING: Judge Breyer orders Trump to return control of the National Guard back to California, saying the call-up was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Breyer stays his order until noon tomorrow, which should be enough time for Trump to seek emergency appeal at 9th Circuit and perhaps Supreme Court. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEW: Judge Breyer said the violence in Los Angeles falls "far short" of the "rebellion" Trump described to justify calling in the troops. And he said Trump's use of the military over the actions of "stray bad actors" was "untenable and dangerous."
HAPPENING NOW: Emergency hearing in Newsom v. Trump, re dpeloyment of the Guard and Marines.
Judge Breyer making some "preliminary" remarks.
BREYER says he's 'appreciative' of both parties for filing a detailed record with the court on a short timeframe and says these are very serious/weighty matters and he intends to act as quickly as the urgency of the matter requires.
Breyer asks a hypothetical: If Trump didn't follow the letter of the statute in calling up the guard, would his order be invalid?
DOJ says no, and court has no role in policing it either.
NEW: The Trump administration has conceded that it improperly deported another Salvadoran man in violation of a court order — blaming a "confluence of administrative errors."
Jordin Melgar-Salmeron had a criminal record — he pleaded guilty in 2021 to possessing an unregistered gun — but his deportation had been on hold since 2024 amid broader Biden-era litigation.
DOJ had assured a federal appeals court court that Melgar-Salmeron wouldn't be deported before May 8-9. But after the court issued a May 7 order blocking his deportation, ICE put him on a plane just minutes later and told the court he was gone. politico.com/news/2025/05/3…