Cliff Sims, the former deputy at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) who is close with several Trump family members, is seriously considering getting into the race to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Trump’s former ambassador to Slovenia, Lynda Blanchard, a top Trump donor, has already entered that primary as a “proud member of the MAGA movement.”

In Pennsylvania, where Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is retiring, Trump’s Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite and his ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, are both weighing bids.

Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is being encouraged by Trump allies to run for governor of California if Gavin Newsom is recalled. Former White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders is already running for governor of Arkansas, where term-limited Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) has emerged as an outspoken Trump critic.

The jockeying is also playing out in House races, with Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson having been approached about running to replace the late Rep. Ron Wright (R-Texas) and former White House aide Max Miller is preparing a primary challenge against Rep. Anthony Gonzales (R-Ohio), who voted to impeach Trump.

Dominion hired the process servers to hand Giuliani its mammoth 107-page lawsuit after the former mayor ignored requests to simply accept it via email, the source said. The voting machine company claims Giuliani destroyed its reputation by knowingly spreading lies that it helped steal the election for President Biden.

On Tuesday, the company filed a separate defamation suit, also seeking $1.3 billion, against MyPillow CEO Mike Lendell for making similar bogus claims Dominion played a role in election fraud.

“After not responding to requests to waive service, Mr. Giuliani evaded in-person service of process for nearly a week. It took numerous attempts, at both his home and office, before we were able to successfully serve Mr. Giuliani on February 10. Mr. Giuliani’s repeated false claims about Dominion have been immeasurably damaging; this service of process is one more step forward in our pursuit of justice,” said Tom Clare, an attorney for Dominion.

Giuliani said he welcomed the court fight after Dominion sued last month.

Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday continued his public apology tour for his heavily criticized trip to Cancún last week amid a crippling power and water crisis across his home state.

But the Texas Republican repeatedly made light of the scandal and complained about his own family’s treatment by members of the media, as well as by neighbors who leaked the contents of a compromising group text chain.

Appearing on an episode of the conservative “Ruthless” podcast, which debuted a month after the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last year, Cruz said he hadn’t experienced “this much negative press coverage since northern California in the 1960s” — a reference to the joking online insult that the senator is secretly the infamous Zodiac killer.

Cruz also referenced photos that circulated in recent days of his family’s pet dog, named Snowflake, seemingly abandoned at home while his owners absconded to Mexico.

An attorney for an Ohio militia member charged with conspiracy walked back a controversial claim that implied Jessica Watkins met with the U.S. Secret Service about working security for the Jan. 6 rally for Donald Trump before she participated in the Capitol riot.

The lawyer’s original motion, filed over the weekend, raised questions about whether the Secret Service had coordinated rally security with paramilitary groups that later stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Federal authorities allege Watkins coordinated with a group of at least eight other people who wore tactical gear and helmets and marched in military fashion into the Capitol. Hundreds of rioters stormed the building, sending lawmakers fleeing and leaving five people dead.

The Secret Service wasted no time rejecting the original claim that it had worked with Watkins or any private citizens on security for the rally. The agency said it relied only on the assistance of government partners.

Johnson & Johnson can deliver 20 million doses of its single-shot coronavirus vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of March, an executive will testify tomorrow.

“Assuming necessary regulatory approvals relating to our manufacturing processes, our plan is to begin shipping immediately upon emergency use authorization, and deliver enough single-doses by the end of March to enable the vaccination of more than 20 million Americans,” Johnson & Johnson’s Richard Nettles, vice president of medical affairs for the company's pharmaceutical unit Janssen, will tell a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee Tuesday.

The company has applied to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization. FDA is expected to grant that as early as this weekend, after an expert FDA panel convenes Friday to discuss the effectiveness and safety of J&J’s vaccine.

Why it matters: White House officials had cautioned that initial supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be limited because of production problems, although the company has said it will meet its agreement to supply the U.S. with 100 million doses by the end of June.

Donald Trump has confirmed his attendance at the Republican National Committee’s upcoming spring donor retreat, as the former president reemerges following his departure from the White House.

The private retreat is slated to take place April 9-11 in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump’s expected attendance at the event, which is expected to draw an array of major GOP givers, was confirmed by two people familiar with his plans. Republican officials declined to specify where the event is being held, but they said it would not be at Trump’s nearby Mar-a-Lago estate, where the former president has been staying.

Trump had been largely absent from the public eye since leaving Washington last month, speaking out only in TV appearances and through statements. But the former president — who lost access to his beloved Twitter account after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — is beginning to re-engage. He is set to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, his first public appearance since leaving the White House.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has stressed that the committee will be neutral toward potential 2024 candidates, a group that includes Trump, who has told aides in recent days that he’s interested in waging a comeback bid. The spring retreat is set to feature several would-be contenders, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

While millions of Texans languished in their homes last week without heat, many of them racking up astronomical electricity bills, the state official in charge of consumer protection left to take an out-of-state trip.

According to a campaign spokesman, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton left the state during the middle of the power outage crisis to meet with a fellow attorney general in Utah for a “previously planned meeting.” Hs wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, was also on the trip, reported the Dallas Morning News, which first broke the story.

The revelation marks the third instance of a Texas public official leaving the state during the disaster that affected nearly every one of the state’s 254 counties.

Last week, photos emerged showing that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Mexico on Wednesday after losing power at his Houston home — a move he’s since said was “obviously a mistake” — and state Rep. Gary Gates, R-Richmond, traveled to Florida on a private jet.