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DOJ agency claims it has no records of Trump's shady IRS settlement

(Raw Story) A Department of Justice division claimed it had no records related to President Donald Trump's IRS settlement, a watchdog reported. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the DOJ's Civil Division came up empty-handed when responding to a request for records related to the settlement that led to Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.

Democrats to call on Vance to testify to House committee over Epstein files

(The Guardian) Democrats on the House oversight committee, led by Representative Robert Garcia, plan to call on JD Vance to testify on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files following a major report on Wednesday from the New York Times, which described how the Epstein files became the source of an internal crisis within Trump’s administration. Garcia will call on the committee chair, James Comer, to summon the vice-president to speak, according to a post from Max Cohen, a reporter with Punchbowl News. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Vance would agree to appear.

Group of Epstein survivors announce opposition to Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination

(CNN) A group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors came out in opposition to Todd Blanche’s nomination as President Donald Trump’s permanent attorney general, citing his participation in secret White House meetings on how to contain the political fallout from the Epstein files. In a new statement obtained by CNN, 19 women responded to The New York Times’s reporting that Blanche and other senior officials participated in Situation Room meetings to discuss how to respond to growing pressure for more transparency as the issue became a public relations crisis for the administration.

Emerson Poll: Democrats lead Republicans by 10 points

(The Hill) A new poll shows Democrats have maintained a 10-point advantage over GOP congressional candidates. Emerson College released survey results on Thursday that found Democrats have 50.3 percent support from likely voters while Republicans have 39.5 percent support. A total of 10.2 percent of survey participants were undecided about which party they’d support. An April poll found near the same breakdown.

Friday's Condensed News Cartoons

After Senate Loss, Cornyn Predicts 'Miserable' Final Two Years for Trump

(NY Times) Mr. Cornyn stood by his attacks on Mr. Paxton and said that while he supported the party ticket, he would not campaign or raise money for his primary opponent — a loss for Mr. Paxton since Mr. Cornyn was a prolific fund-raiser. “It’s going to make things harder, certainly more expensive in Texas, and make it harder around the country,” Mr. Cornyn said, predicting that Mr. Trump would come to regret his actions. “I don’t say that with any sort of desire for vengeance; I just think that’s the way it’s going to be. He’s going to have the most miserable two years of his life in the last two years of his term, I think, because I think November is going to be a disaster.”

AI data centers are taking over. These Americans are fighting back

(Salon) In a rare moment of bipartisanship, there’s a force uniting Americans across the country: opposition to data centers. In nearly every state, hyperscale data centers powering artificial intelligence are being proposed and built. These facilities need much more computing power compared to other data centers and that comes with a much larger footprint, in the literal and carbon sense. A typical hyperscale data center needs 10 acres, or 435,000 square feet of land. However, many of these proposed sites plan to use over 1 million square feet, which could fit a few Eiffel towers or roughly 50 Boeing 737 jets.

Trump Pushes to 'Expunge' His Impeachments From First Term: Report

(Mediaite) President Donald Trump is trying to have his two impeachments from his first term “expunged,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The idea would be for Congress to nullify those impeachments – which, constitutionally, is not a thing – in what would be a symbolic rebuke. “President Trump and his allies have discussed pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution aimed at voiding his first-term impeachments, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Journal reported. “It would have little legal significance, however, because the Constitution provides no procedure for undoing an impeachment, according to experts.”

Here's Why Trump's Name Is Still on the Kennedy Center

(Washingtonian) Yesterday afternoon, preparations seemed to be underway to scrub Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center’s facade: Fencing had appeared around the lettering, and rumors were flying of a dark-of-night removal, one that would comply with the recent court ruling that declared the renaming illegal. But as media and onlookers gathered around the building’s steps, hoping to witness the sign removal, the saga of the Trump-addled Kennedy Center took another odd turn; at a 4 PM meeting, members of the Kennedy Center’s board voted to appeal the court order.

Judge rules Ken Paxton cannot move forward with ActBlue lawsuit

(The Hill) A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Thursday that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) cannot move forward with a donation-vetting lawsuit against progressive fundraising platform ActBlue. District Judge Richard G. Stearns blocked Paxton from “continuing to litigate” the case, finding that ActBlue was likely to succeed in its claims that the action infringed on its First Amendment’s free-speech protections.