Yesterday, Mother Jones reported that current FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has decided to vote against allowing the FEC to defend its positions in court.  Because the FEC currently only has four members and the affirmative votes of four members are required for the FEC to take any official action, this means that Chair Weintraub will prevent the FEC from appearing in court to defend its position.  

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made his first floor speech about the dangers of the House Democrats' flagship legislation, House Resolution 1 (HR 1).  He said it was only a "quick tour" and promised to come regularly to the floor to describe the problems in the lengthy "effort to rewrite the rules to favor Democrats and their friends" so that all Americans can know about the dangers of its provisions.

Now that Republicans have lost their longstanding majority in the New York Senate, New York rushed through several election "reforms" at the beginning of the legislative session, with no committee hearing process or input from the public.  The package of legislation* was introduced on January 10, passed the Assembly and Senate on January 14, and was signed by the Governor on January 24.  This likely foreshadows how the Democrats will rush House Resolution 1 through the House on the federal level, though fortunately, the Republican majority in the Senate under the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will block its harmful provisions from becoming law on the federal level.

You would think House Democrats' first bill would be something that polled well for their base or that the public cared about.  Or maybe it would be something crazy and liberal like unofficial House Democrat spokesperson Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's idea for “reparations...for...the New Deal.”  Nope.  In HR 1 House Democrats made their first bill since gaining control of the House about limiting speech (and therefore criticism of them) and rigging election processes in their favor.  As House Administration Committee Republicans state:

#HR1 is a “proposal to grow the federal government’s power over Americans’ political speech and elections.” #FortheDemocrats

— CHA Republicans (@HouseAdmnGOP) January 24, 2019

On Wednesday, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, was sentenced to three years in prison as part of a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Michael Cohen plead guilty to eight counts of financial crimes: tax fraud (five counts), making false statements to a financial institution, unlawful corporation contributions, and excessive campaign contributions. Although he plead guilty to counts of unlawful corporation contributions and excessive campaign contributions, it does not mean that what happened was illegal; therefore, he plead guilty to something that was not a federal crime. It is evident that the U.S. Attorney’s office is taking an overaggressive approach, especially since they might have violated their own Justice Department’s policy.

Yesterday, the Senate voted to overturn new IRS rules which are meant to protect certain tax-exempt organizations that do not have 501(c)(3) status from the requirement to report the names and addresses of their contributors who donate more than $5,000 in a given year.