Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan is claiming vindication after the release of a report on a sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State University that showed there is no evidence he or other assistant coaches at the school knew about the allegations.“They talked to hundreds … of people. And the university, for people who were harmed, is going to pay for their counseling,” Jordan told reporters Friday on Capitol Hill. “But it confirms everything I said. If we’d have known about it, we’d have reported it. It confirms everything I’ve said before. I didn’t know about anything. If I would’ve, I’d have done something.”The report — produced for the school by the law firm Perkins Coie — found that Richard Strauss, a longtime doctor for Ohio State athletic teams, sexually abused at least 177 male athletes from 1979 to 1996. Strauss — who killed himself in 2005 — worked with more

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House Democrats are backing away from plans to hold a blockbuster hearing this month with Robert Mueller after talks stalled out with the special counsel and his representatives.Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and a senior Democratic committee aide told POLITICO on Friday that there’s no Mueller hearing planned for next week, though that could also change at a moment’s notice if the special counsel said he’s ready to testify.“I would assume not,” Nadler replied when asked whether Mueller would be appearing before the upcoming Memorial Day recess, which starts next Friday.A Judiciary staffer later added, “Mueller could always call us and say, ‘The heck with it, I want to come in Wednesday,’ and we would make time. But at the moment, no Mueller planned for next week.”Nadler had set a tentative May 23 deadline for Mueller to publicly testify in a letter last month after the release of a redacted

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Michigan Rep. Justin Amash became the first Republican lawmaker to declare that President Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses and that Attorney General William Barr “deliberately misrepresented” special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.Amash, whose libertarian views often put him at odds with Trump and his fellow Republicans, posted a series of tweets Saturday afternoon outlining positions that even some Democrats have been unwilling to embrace — an extraordinary development that comes as Democratic leaders face increasing pressure from progressives to launch impeachment proceedings.“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash wrote, arguing that lawmakers have become too afraid of using impeachment to deter presidential misconduct.“Impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that

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Attorney General William Barr is making clear he’s not losing sleep over Democrats’ strident opposition to his job performance.In an interview with Fox News that aired Friday, Barr said he wasn’t worried about the near certainty that the House will vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, nor was he concerned about accusations he lied to lawmakers, chalking the matter up to partisan politics.“I think it’s a laughable charge, and I think it’s largely being made to try to discredit me partly because they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election,” he told the network’s Bill Hemmer. Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Barr of being dishonest in congressional testimony when he said he was unaware of any issues Robert Mueller had with his handling of the report, despite having received a letter from and spoken with Mueller about the

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have agreed to begin negotiations on a two-year deal to lift stiff budget caps, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. The “Big 4” congressional leaders will meet with top White House officials next week to formally kick off the discussions, which have the support of President Donald Trump, said the sources. The GOP leaders are also pushing for an increase in the debt limit but do not want to formally link it to a budget caps deal. The issue is sure to be part of next week’s session. Democrats have wanted to link the debt ceiling increase with the budget caps, believing that would increase their leverage in the negotiations. But McConnell, McCarthy and the White House do not want to handle them together. The federal government will hit

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