As Donald Trump insists ever more stridently that Mike Pence in fact had the authority to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, a bipartisan group of Senators are working to reform the Electoral Count Act to make clear that the vice president has no such power. With lawmakers from both parties on board, the legislation is expected to pass before this year’s midterms, which could give pro-Trump Republicans the majority they’d need to block it.

The New York Times has this write-up of why the move matters:

In a statement last night, Donald Trump took the side of embattled podcaster Joe Rogan as he faces opprobrium for spreading Covid-19 disinformation, as well as his long history of hosting right-wing conspiracy theories and sharing racist, misogynistic, transphobic and homophobic remarks.

As Mr Trump sees it, Mr Rogan (an “interesting and popular guy”) should “stop apologising to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics”.

The delay to the launch of Truth Social, Donald Trump’s supposedly “censorship-free” social media site, has tanked the stock price of the network’s key finance partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp.

The app was meant to launch by 21 February, but Trump Media and Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes has since announced it will arrive “by 31 March”.

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Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who has long been a specific target of right-wing disgust and conspiracy theories, has told a DNC-hosted podcast just how serious the death threats he is confronted with really are.

As Gino Spocchia reports:

Read the full story below.

CNN analyst and former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa asks the most important question about the White House materials retrieved from Mar-a-Lago...

Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump attorney whose notorious post-election “kraken” lawsuits failed to overturn Joe Biden’s victory while spreading false conspiracy theories about non-existent election fraud, is facing disbarment for what a federal judge called “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process”.

She and eight other lawyers facing sanction have now filed an appeal motion objecting to their portrayal as “overwrought, dangerous lunatics,” quoting Voltaire and Shakespeare as they insist that “Millions of Americans believe the central contentions of the complaint to be true, and perhaps they are.”

Law and Crime has the story:

As Trump administration alumni go, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley has played a particularly delicate game since leaving the former president’s team, sometimes appearing to break with her old boss but overall remaining on side as she remains the subject of perpetual speculation about a future campaign of her own.

Now, she appears to have taken exception to the RNC’s censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – but as Republican Accountability Project founder Sarah Longwell points out, Ms Haley is hardly arguing based on her own principles.

Experts say that Donald’s Trump’s new social media venture — Truth Social — that is scheduled to be launched within a few weeks is trying to navigate the thin line between Trump’s base and Big Tech [Apple and Google’s app] policies.

Reuters reported that “the risk of .. de-platforming is a top priority” for the Trump Media and Technology Group.

According to two people with knowledge of the matter, TMTG Chief Executive Devin Nunes has pledged to deliver an “engaging and censorship-free experience” on its Truth Social app.

A source was quoted as saying that Mr Nunes believes that Truth Social will be a major target for hackers, so he wants to have “cyber talent at the nation-state level.”

Last month, Donald Trump handed over 15 boxes of documents, letters, gifts and momentos to the National Archives that he had unlawfully taken with him when leaving the White House.

New York Times reported that “the items... included a map Mr Trump famously drew on with a black Sharpie marker to demonstrate the track of Hurricane Dorian heading toward Alabama in 2019 to back up a declaration he had made on Twitter that contradicted weather forecasts.”

Other items in the boxes were “reams of news clips printed out for Mr Trump, as well as at least one item of clothing,” the report said.

Dr Eric Lander, a former member of Joe Biden’s cabinet, has resigned after it was revealed that he had spoken disrespectfully to colleagues in front of others.

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