Department of Justice investigation begins: Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would be forming a task force to determine whether former President Barack Obama and senior officials instigated an investigation into President Donald Trump's connections to Russia back in 2016, when he was first running for president.
This announcement follows Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's public accusations that there is "irrefutable evidence" that Obama manufactured a "false" intelligence analysis claiming that Russia helped Trump win in 2016. She characterized Obama administration officials as orchestrating a "yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy," and is declassifying an old House Intelligence Committee report about the election that conflicts with a Senate report from around the same time that endorsed the intelligence community's belief that Russian actors undermined Hillary Clinton's candidacy. It's unclear how much the House report changes—or whether this will all be a suitable distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein news that keeps pouring out, pointing to closer ties between Trump and the pervert financier.
Politics of vengeance: The White House press secretary confirmed this week that Trump doesn't want Elon Musk's company, xAI, to receive any government contracts, per Axios. (Musk's SpaceX contracts with the government have not yet been canceled.)
