Sam Randazzo, chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), announced his resignation Friday. The resignation comes days after the FBI searched Randazzo's home as part of an investigation that's led to the arrest of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and two plea agreements from his associates in relation to an alleged scheme to funnel funds to state lawmakers to ensure the passage of House Bill 6. On Thursday, FirstEnergy disclosed a $4 million payment in 2019 to terminate a consulting agreement with "an entity associated with an individual who subsequently was appointed to a full-time role as an Ohio government official directly involved in regulating" FirstEnergy's Ohio distribution utilities.
Trump finally speaks.
CNN reports that Trump has been asking aides since 2017 if he can self-pardon, which is just an amazing thing to behold given that he had just been inaugurated and apparently his first order of business as president was to be like, "Soooo ... I was talking with some people and they were asking me, 'Hey, Don, you're president. You know these things, these pardons, are you allowed to do them on yourself?' And I thought, That's a great question. I had never thought of that but it's a beautiful question." read more
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is calling on the nation to let Trump accept a potential defeat when he's ready, urging Americans to "give people time." read more
One month before a leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China. The document was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents. The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. read more
The military isn't enlisting our best people.
- paraphrasing a twice impeached, soon to be convicted draft dodger.