Bill Pulte's FHFA has cut its inspector general's budget to $20 million — 63.6% below what Trump's own budget proposed. The watchdog, which forwarded findings about Pulte's handling of Democrats' mortgage records to prosecutors, says it will lay off 70-80% of staff and end essentially all criminal fraud investigations.
The ATF's proposed rule would let gun buyers verify their identity online and get a gun shipped to their door. The gun industry's own trade group says its members are 'overwhelmingly opposed' — and the president's son sits on the board of a company built to profit from it.
A complaint to Maine's ethics commission says Bobby Charles's campaign reported 46 contributions over the $2,075 limit, totaling more than $25,600. His campaign says some supporters gave too much and the money is being returned.
Steve Hilton's campaign paid two self-described independent journalists more than $72,000. Neither disclosed it while promoting him, and Hilton told the Fresno Bee he hadn't paid one of them for the footage he featured.
A super PAC backing Ken Paxton reported a $250,000 check from a Plano 'entrepreneur' who doesn't live there, at an address that is a rented mailbox. The money came from the son of a family friend whose tax-fraud pardon Paxton helped win.
86% of Americans want members of Congress to stop trading stocks. Republicans glued the ban to a strict voter ID law, so it died in the Senate 53–47 on September 30. Fifteen Republican senators on this site voted to advance the package, and many of them have stock trading problems of their own.
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Oregon Republican Cliff Bentz went on national TV to demand budget cuts, saying we all need to make sacrifices.
New filings show Diane Hendricks and Richard and Liz Uihlein bankrolled most of Tom Tiffany's run for Wisconsin governor by routing money through the state Republican Party — a loophole that lets them blow past the $20,000 limit on giving to a candidate.
An Associated Press review of Ken Paxton's calendars and security bills found more than 275 out-of-state trips — Napa wineries, ski towns, Europe, Mar-a-Lago — while his official calendar sat empty for about 730 workdays. Texans paid at least $1.9 million for his security on the road. A ProPublica-Texas Tribune review later found nearly 1,000 trips with his security detail since 2015, costing $3.3 million, with only 1 in 6 tied to state business.