The government is about to just barely avoid a shutdown (again), and the House Freedom Caucus is livid about it.

Congress has until midnight Friday to approve funding for multiple key government agencies. Leaders from both parties presented a $1.2 trillion spending package early Thursday morning that is expected to pass, just managing to keep the government funded for the rest of the year.

The Freedom Caucus, which comprises the farthest-right lawmakers in the House, are furious over the bill and particularly with House Speaker Mike Johnson. The caucus views both failing to slash government spending and collaborating with Democrats as a cardinal sin.

Freedom Caucus members took to social media to blast the spending bill, which they dubbed the “Swamp Omnibus.” Their gripes included the fact that the bill would fund the World Health Organization, fund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the Department of Defense, and provide military aid for Ukraine.

The caucus then announced it will hold a press conference Friday morning to discuss the bill and the fact that they were not given sufficient time to read the full text. In a statement, the caucus lambasted the fact that the bill “spends $5.5 Million per word, fully funds and continues the Biden border crisis, and it is loaded with radioactive ‘woke’ earmarks.”

House Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the chamber, meaning that Democrats and less extreme Republicans would have to unite behind the spending bill. Otherwise, just a few votes of opposition from the Freedom Caucus could tank the measure.

The House also still has the motion to vacate, the rule that allows just one member of the body to force a vote on whether to remove the speaker. It was this rule that resulted in former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ignominious ouster in October, thanks to several Freedom Caucus members. The caucus could invoke the rule again against Johnson. Far-right Republicans have been mulling the idea since January, accusing Johnson of making too many compromises with Democrats.

Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert unsuccessfully tried to challenge the 2020 election results in court. Now she’s appearing before a judge in another capacity.

Lambert turned herself in at a Michigan courthouse on Thursday, following another arrest earlier in the week, over a plot to seize several voting machines in the state in 2020.

Lambert was arrested on Monday in Washington, D.C., where she was representing election denier Patrick Byrne in a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Federal marshals arrested her in the courtroom for her failure to show up for a hearing in her home state. She’s accused of four felonies related to alleged tampering with voting machines in search of evidence of nonexistent vote manipulation during the 2020 election.

The goose chase began on March 7, when a warrant was issued for Lambert’s arrest for her role in what Michigan state Attorney General Dana Nessel called “a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators.” Lambert, accused of breaking into voting machines to run “tests,” never showed. Then, on March 18, Lambert was arrested after representing Byrne in the Dominion defamation suit, where she is also accused of leaking confidential internal emails belonging to Dominion. Lambert, who was given access to the emails as Byrne’s counsel, accused Dominion of “[instituting] fraud with this defamation suit” and leaked the emails to a third election-denying nesting doll: Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who posted thousands of leaked emails on his Twitter account on Monday.

Three days after a D.C. judge instructed her to return to Michigan, the Coen brothers–esque saga has reached its conclusion, at least for now, with Lambert turning herself in to face conspiracy charges for her involvement in the machine-tampering scheme. Notably, Oakland County Judge Jeffery Matis mandated that Lambert’s fingerprints be taken, which, despite court orders, Lambert has resisted, and that she submit a DNA sample, both of which may be used to confirm whether Lambert physically tampered with a voting machine.

A key foot soldier in Trump’s failed postelection lawfare campaign, Lambert worked on some of the highest-profile lawsuits alleging fraud, including Sydney Powell’s boondoggle “kraken” case. She now joins the ranks of former Trump legal team members facing criminal charges for their involvement in efforts to block certification of the 2020 election.

Lambert took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to allege her own conspiracy before turning herself in. “I just know too much.… And I have too much evidence,” she said.

Donald Trump has just days left to post the nearly half-billion-dollar bond in his New York civil fraud case before the state attorney general can start seizing his assets, and Letitia James seems to know exactly where she wants to start: Westchester.

Trump was fined $354 million in mid-February for committing real estate–related fraud in New York. With interest adding $112,000 per day, and adding the fines his adult sons also face, the total sum has already exceeded $464 million. James formally registered the judgment in Westchester County on March 6, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

James’s filing did not give a reason for the registration, nor did it specify which of Trump’s Westchester assets she intends to seize, but the registration will make it easier for James to secure liens. Westchester is home to two of Trump’s most valuable properties, the Trump National Golf Club Westchester and Seven Springs, a mostly undeveloped 212-acre estate.

Seven Springs featured prominently in the civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump had fraudulently inflated the estate’s value for years—sometimes by as much as five times the appraised value—in an effort to get more favorable terms on bank loans.

Trump was given 30 days from the day the judgment was entered to post bond. That window expires Monday. Unless an appeals court steps in, James will be allowed to start seizing Trump’s assets next........

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