This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Office of Special Counsel has concluded that the Internal Revenue Service improperly removed agents from the Hunter Biden case, and then issued illegal gag orders to keep them quiet.
The information comes from a letter Tristan Leavitt, chief of Empower Oversight, wrote to Sen. Chuck Grassley, chief of the Senate's committee on the judiciary.
It involves retaliation against IRS agents who had been assigned to work on the Hunter Biden case, then removed.
Hunter Biden has been involved in a long list of criminal counts in recent years. He was convicted by a jury in a case involving his illegal purchase of a gun, and he later pleaded guilty to a long list of tax charges that erupted when he refused to pay income taxes on massive amounts of revenue.
There had been evidence of political influences on the cases as they developed.
His father, Joe Biden, then issued a presidential pardon granting him a free pass on the offenses.
Now a letter to Grassley, from Empower, explains that it filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the Office of Special Counsel on behalf of IRS Agent Gary Shapley 20 months ago. IRS Agent Joseph Ziegler filed a similar complaint.
"These career law enforcement officers alleged that the IRS improperly removed them from the Hunter Biden investigation in retaliation for their protected whistleblower disclosures. The removal also extended to the entire IRS International Tax and Financial Crimes ("ITFC") group led by SSA Shapley, including case agent SA Ziegler. At long last, the career nonpartisan staff at OSC responsible for investigating whistleblower retaliation has finally reached some conclusions. OSC confirmed in a December 30, 2024 email to counsel for the whistleblowers that it found the IRS issued illegal gag orders and improperly removed them from the Hunter Biden investigation as reprisal for their protected disclosures."
A report at Just the News explained the two agents "blew the whistle on political interference in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation" and then the IRS "wrongly retaliated."
That included the agency's later communications "prohibiting them from further communicating concerns about wrongdoing and political meddling in the case."
In fact, the OSC said, "[W]e believe certain IRS communications violated 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(13). In addition, at this point, we believe IRS cannot support Mr. Shapley's removal the criminal investigation of a high-profile subject."
The OSC said it couldn't substantiate that Shapley then wrongly was passed over for a promotion, but it did find, "SSA Shapley CAUGHT his supervisor altering the dates of SSA Shapley's communications to slow-walk them and make it appear to others in the agency like SSA Shapley was only making last-minute requests," according to Leavitt.
Leavitt said some findings will be appealed to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, a personnel agency for federal employees.
The report described the result as a "major win for the whistleblowers, whose protected disclosures to the House Ways and Means Committee transformed the Biden family corruption investigation and blew up a planned plea deal that would have spared President Joe Biden's son prison time."
That deal was a plea bargain that was worked out in his gun case, a bargain that a federal judge rejected as being too lenient.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The transgender agenda failed, catastrophically, on the U.S. House floor when Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., in the chair, addressed Rep. Tim "Sarah" McBride, D-Del., as "Mister."
It's because McBride calls himself a woman. In fact, he created a scandal for a time when first elected last year with the suggestion that he be allowed to use the women's restrooms and such in the Capitol.
House Speaker Mike Johnson vetoed that immediately.
"The chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBridge," Miller said.
Miller explained, "Today on the House Floor, I refused to deny biological reality. President Trump restored biological truth in the Federal Government, and I refuse to perpetuate the lie that gender is open to our interpretation. It is not."
A commentary at Twitchy noted, "McBride made news in 2024 by becoming the first 'transgender' member of the House of Representatives, but he soon found out that the Republicans in Congress weren't about to bend the knee to his mental illness. Rep. Nancy Mace led a personal crusade to prevent McBride from using the women's bathrooms (because, you know, he is not a woman). Reality won that fight when Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that men like McBride must use either his own private bathroom or the men's room. Yesterday, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller gave reality another victory when she refused to recognize McBride as a woman on the House Floor."
College athlete Riley Gaines, who famously battled the now-defunct NCAA agenda of promoting transgenderism in college sports, said Miller's comments simply were "based in reality."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Concerns are increasing that Kari Lake's loss to Ruben Gallego in the Arizona U.S. Senate race in November was due to malfeasance. For example, many believe around 60,000 votes were transferred from Lake to the unknown Green Party candidate in the race. Now, the CONELRAD Group, a team of mostly former intelligence and military officers located primarily in southern Arizona that investigates illegal election activity, along with the Pima Integrity Project, or PIP, have issued a new report on alleged improprieties in Pima County's elections last year.
The groups found 10 areas of concern, including some where laws or rules were allegedly violated involving "possible malfeasance," and called on the Arizona Legislature and the Trump administration to investigate.
The 54-page report, compiled by CONELRAD founder Jack Dona and a couple of team members including Tim Laux of PIP, found what they are calling multiple violations of the chain of custody (COC) of ballots, which is a class 2 misdemeanor, noncompliance with the state's Election Procedures Manual (EPM), also a class 2 misdemeanor, refusing to allow political party observers at early voting locations, providing mostly left-leaning ballot couriers, courier time records that were impossible, unsecured ballot boxes, and ineligible voters on the voter rolls.
Dona suggested to this writer how the wrongdoing could have happened. "All of the information lawfully obtained in this report begs the question: Is this nothing more than a series of possible mistakes, errors, incompetence, malfeasance … or is it something else entirely?" he asked. "One could imagine if the fictional character Sgt. Joe Friday of the TV Show 'Dragnet' were assigned to this case, his discussion with his partner, Detective Bill Gannon, might go something like this: 'Bill, let's see if we can piece this all together. First they make a copy of the voter database. They use that copy of the database to adjust addresses. Then let's say they send a dump for printing. The database copy then gets tossed and disappeared.'"
He went on, "'Then when the election happens, those adjusted addresses go to different places, ballots filled out and dropped somewhere? Isn't it a fact that between the November election and the January data dump, thousands of records are removed? They don't go inactive first as ARS (Arizona Revised Statutes) states, do they?… Don't they just go away? Has anyone ever seen those ballots' histories because as I understand it the voter record is gone? Doesn't this answer the question as to why a voter swears they didn't vote in spite of the records showing they actually did?'"
For their investigation, the teams reviewed chain of custody documents from Pima County's 2024 primary and general elections, and digital data provided to the Republican Party by the Pima County Recorder. They included screenshots of the problematic findings in their report.
The teams found that ineligible voters cast ballots, since they had registered to vote after the cutoff date. Their research went back to the 2016 election and found over 500 of these voters.
The group also found that the chain of custody forms used by Pima County did not follow the template recommended by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). "It appears that every ballot transfer sheet that we reviewed had only one courier, a severe violation of the Arizona Revised Statutes and the EPM. This constitutes a break in the chain of custody," the report said.
Some of the chain of custody forms contained blank lines to fill in important information, but nothing was marked down. The forms lacked blank lines for filling in the "pickup date and time, were seals intact? what are the vote counts? and when did the couriers with their ballot boxes arrive at the BPC (Ballot Processing Center)."
After the groups had previously expressed their concerns to Pima County about its chain of custody form not requiring adequate information, the county changed some of the forms. However, "the new chain of custody form did not bring about any better or more trustworthy results. In fact, the recorder and staff made things worse by leaving off a space for ballot box and seal numbers. Instead of 2-party printed names below the line of legible signatures, the form now has tiny spaces for initials only."
Some of the chain of custody forms lacked information such as the name of the person who signed to receive the ballot boxes and the time the box was opened. Instead of names, only initials were jotted down. The report added up instances of each involving the mail-in ballot drop-offs during the primary election. There were seven boxes of ballots lacking seals, 35 missing a delivery date or time, 39 missing a pickup date, 52 instances that took over four hours to deliver the ballot boxes, 35 missing the couriers' initials, and six instances of blanks not filled in.
The couriers were frequently registered as independents, also known as Party Not Designated, or PND, and some had changed their party from Democrat shortly before the election. "Did whomever put this into practice believe or think that no inquiring citizen would notice how they seem to be circumventing the law so they can work solely together?" the report asked. "Basically, two Democrats oversee adjudication, duplication and often pick up ballot boxes, and handle voted ballots." The groups asked, "Why are there no spaces or lines to write in a second bi-partisan courier?" Both Arizona statutes and the EPM require two couriers from two different parties to move a ballot box from one location to another.
Asked whether independents constitute a "political party" that could be one of the bipartisan couriers, an election attorney responded, "The law requires one person from the two major political parties, but it's widely interpreted by all county recorders to be of differing parties, including PNDs. But the couriers should be one PND and a person of another party. But, if the PND routinely votes the same primary ballot as the other courier, that would be a huge problem. Two PNDs cannot be couriers together, period."
Laux responded and said, "My belief is that the County Recorder goes beyond the spirit and intent of the law by not using couriers from differing political parties."
Next, the report went over the issues with ballots that were dropped off where voters showed ID. It stated, "Mail-In Early Ballot Boxes were often not picked up on a daily basis. At times they were left unattended for days and even over weekends." The report found that seven boxes of ballots had no names or signatures, 172 boxes had no box number or seal, 17 had broken seals, 32 had no couriers, and 172 lacked two bipartisan couriers.
A federal judge has further narrowed the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Treasury Department records, Fox News reported. This comes after the Justice Department limited access down to a pair of "special government employees" from the Elon Musk-led organization.
A number of government employee unions filed a lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They objected to what they claimed was the department sharing private financial and other personal information with DOGE representatives.
On Thursday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the temporary restraining order should be issued. In her opinion, she stated that officials at the Treasury Department "will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service."
The handpicked DOGE representatives were already limited to read-only access to Treasury payment records after another legal decision on Wednesday. The exposure is significant as the Treasury's Fiscal Service processes 90% of federal payments.
President Donald Trump promised to unleash Musk to cut government waste during the 2024 campaign and likely received some votes because of it. Now that he's been sworn in, Trump is making good on that promise.
This has predictably upset the Democrats, who rely on bloated government budgets to buy votes. They claim that Musk's team's to the system amounts to "threats to the economy and national security, and the potential violation of laws protecting Americans’ privacy and tax data," the Associated Press reported.
On Friday, a group of Democratic lawmakers sent letters to Bessent, the deputy inspector general, and the acting inspector general for tax administration for the Treasury. They were led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) but had many signors.
Warren claimed in her letter to Bessent that he has "deflected and avoided key questions" and has "provided information that appears to be flatly contradicted by new public reports," she claimed. "The American people — including millions of families who are worried that you have jeopardized their Social Security payments, their Medicare payments, their local programs, and their economic security deserve straight answers," Warren wrote in her letter.
Despite her hysteria, the Treasury Department said that the review is a high-level audit and will not directly make any changes. However, the AP claimed that "two people familiar with the process" said that Musk's team attempted to block payments to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Democrats are desperate to cut DOGE off at the knees because they can see the writing on the wall. The organization has already uncovered shocking waste while Democrats caterwauler about the process, the Washington Examiner reported.
"I would just say a strong message to Democrats who are out there pretending to be outraged about the long list of crap that this administration is cutting. Democrats are outraged that the American people … want their taxpayers going to good uses, not stuff like this," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said to reporters Wednesday.
She listed some of the most infamous sources of waste at the USAID, including "$2 million for sex changes and 'LGBT activism' in Guatemala" and "$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt." Another $20 million went to a Sesame Street program in Iraq called Ahlan Simsim.
The BBC received $2.1 million from American taxpayers to shore up its presence in Libya "to value the diversity of Libyan society." Another $2.3 million was doled out to the Amazon for "artisanal and small-scale gold mining." Several more millions went to various countries and causes for the LGBT agenda and other ridiculous endeavors.
Americans are tired of government waste, but Democrats are viscerally opposed to any measures to stop it. They will continue with their legal action, but Trump and his team seem determined to do the will of the American people in cutting out this insanity.
Four people are dead after a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in the Philippines Thursday, ABC News reported. U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay said President Donald Trump's Pentagon had hired the aircraft which went down in Maguindanao del Sur province.
The crash killed everyone on board and a water buffalo on the ground. According to Fox News, it happened during a "routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities," a statement from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Friday.
"The aircraft was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies," the statement added. They have not released the names of the people killed.
"We can confirm no survivors of the crash. There were four personnel on board, including one U.S. military service member and three defense contractors," the statement added.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the crash. Windy Beaty, the area's provincial disaster mitigation officer, said that people on the ground observed that the plane was smoking and then exploded before crashing to the ground in a rice field.
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the aircraft was a U.S. Marine Corps Beechcraft King Air 350. There isn't word on the mission for the service member and three defense contractors aboard the ill-fated plane.
However, American service members have been routinely deployed to the Philippines for decades. They have been instrumental in helping train the Philippine military as it fights back Muslim extremists.
Although the nation is a majority Roman Catholic, the region where the crash happened is part of the Muslim stronghold. The nation also serves as a strategic location for the Pentagon to stave off Chinese communist encroachment into surrounding nations.
In fact, recent naval drills involving American and Philippine military in the area have elicited ire from China because they were near the South China Sea, which Bejing insists is its own, the Associated Press reported. The communist nation is adding to the mounting tension with its objections.
On Wednesday, the U.S. 7th Fleet engaged in a "multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity" with its counterparts from Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. It was conducted in the Exclusive Economic Zone that the Philippines declares as its own.
The fleet acknowledged that these exercises were taking place in the area but did not give any specifics. However, it noted in a statement that they are meant to "strengthen the interoperability of our defense/armed forces doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures."
Additional drills were planned for Japan, France, and the U.S. in the Philippines Sea. The fleet said that the drill is "designed to advance coordination and cooperation between French, Japanese, and U.S. maritime forces while simultaneously demonstrating capabilities in multi-domain operations."
On Thursday, a spokesperson for China's Southern Theater Command accused the Philippines of "colluding with outside countries to organize ‘so-called joint patrols'" to "destabilize the region." Tian Junli called the drills "an attempt to endorse its ‘illegal claims’ in the South China Sea and 'undermine China’s maritime rights and interests.'"
Though there is no official connection between the plane crash and the military exercise, it's clear that the region is on edge and remaining vigilant against the threats they face. Regardless of the stated mission of the aircraft that crased, it's a tragedy that four people lost their lives.
Former Secretary of State and failed Democrat 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton couldn't resist a dig at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over the involvement of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s takeover of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car,” she wrote on X in response to Duffy's announcement of the plan. “And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?”
Her comment turned into a Twitter war between Clinton and Duffy.
Duffy responded by saying, “Madam Secretary, with all due respect, ‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out."
But Clinton did anything but.
In fact, she went on to blame President Donald Trump's administration for the recent aviation crashes even though there's no evidence any of his policies were responsible.
"US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes," she wrote. "Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs. Now there have been two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast."
Duffy then set the record straight, refusing to let Clinton blame the administration for an American Airlines crash with a military helicopter that killed all 67 people on both aircraft or a Medevac crash in Philadelphia that killed nine people when it crashed into a neighborhood.
“I know you’re lashing out because DOGE is uncovering your family’s obscene grifting via USAID, but I won’t let you lie and distort facts,” Duffy countered. “The FAA administrator announced he resigned over a month before Trump took office, and the air traffic controllers were always exempt from Trump’s civil service buyouts. “
Clinton's spokesperson then jumped in to claim that Duffy's comment about Chelsea Clinton getting millions from USAID was not true.
"Musk deleted the tweet that spread this lie," Nick Merill posted.
Bottom line, whether that's true or not, Democrats are going stark raving mad over Trump's mission to actually make cuts in government wasteful spending--cuts that are sorely needed given the crushing load of debt the government is currently functioning under.
Duffy ended by saying, “I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure. Your team had its chance and failed.”
Trump knows he has a huge task ahead of him, and he's not wasting even a minute.
Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), will take on Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to represent San Francisco, Fox News reported. Chakrabarti chastised the Democratic Party for being "paralyzed and unprepared."
Chakrabarti made a name for himself managing Ocasio-Cortez's successful 2018 campaign. He was her chief of staff until resigning in 2019 after he excoriated members of the Democratic Party for not being radically progressive enough.
Now Chakrabarti is continuing his crusade against establishment Democrats by going after Pelosi, who was the former House Speaker. The 84-year-old is running for her 21st term, and Chakrabarti explained his reasons for challenging her in a lengthy post to X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday.
I’ve got some news: I’ve decided to run against Nancy Pelosi to represent San Francisco in Congress. I know some of you might be surprised that Speaker Emeritus Pelosi is running again, but she is — for her 21st term!
Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal…
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 5, 2025
The election of young politicians like Ocasio-Cortez seemingly represented a renewal of the Democratic Party. However, Chakrabarti blames old holdovers like Pelosi for President Donald Trump's election, which also brought Tesla billionaire Elon Musk into the mix.
"Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government, it’s become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership. I don’t understand how DC’s Democratic leaders are so paralyzed and unprepared for this moment after living through President Trump’s first term — and after Trump and Elon warned us exactly what they planned to do," Chakrabarti wrote.
Chakrabarti pointed out that the world is much different than when Pelosi first took office implying that she is out of touch with the needs of today's citizens. "When Nancy Pelosi was first elected to Congress, you could buy a home on a single income," he pointed out.
"A summer job could pay for college. Republicans believed in climate change and respected election results. Now, the things that defined the American Dream — being able to afford health care, education, a home, and raise a family — are impossible for most people," Chakrabarti lamented.
"And the Republican Party is overtly conspiratorial and anti-democracy. The Democratic Party needs to stop acting like it's competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules, and it needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life and security for all Americans. America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face," he urged.
The last presidential election was arguably a smackdown of the far left's ideas about the future of this nation. Instead of learning that lesson, Chakrabarti is running on his progressive bona fides.
"After a career in tech, I joined the Bernie campaign in 2016 because I wanted to be a part of solving those problems. I launched a project to elect a new generation of leaders, and one of them was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," Chakrabarti explained.
As if that weren't enough, Chakrabarti has a history of going after Democrats who aren't leftist enough, such as accusing Rep. Sharice Davids of propping up the system he insists is built on racism because she voted for a Senate border security bill. It didn't matter that the Kansas Democrat broke the glass ceiling to become one of the first women who was Native American to serve in Congress.
Chakrabarti also went after moderates in his party as the "new Souther Democrats" because they didn't sign onto the liberal border bill. He charged that they "certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s" in a since-deleted social media post.
Although Chakrabarti has a point about the glut of octogenarians in Congress, his read on the situation is all wrong. The good thing is that if Democrats continue to make the same mistakes, Republicans will remain in power.
First lady Melania Trump frequently emulates the royal style of Princess Kate in her fashion and how she fulfills her role, the UK Express reported. Trump has directed those who dress her to keep with the British monarchy's classy high fashion sense.
Britain's Hello! magazine, which focuses on news about the royals, recently promoted a piece about the first lady's high fashion down-to-earth demeanor. In a post to X, formerly Twitter, the magazine used a black and white photo of Trump sporting one of her edgier looks.
Trump wore a black sheath dress with a structured jacket thrown over her shoulders. Even though it was a statement outfit, the silhouette resembled one of Kate's favorite coats in year another nod to the royal.
EXCLUSIVE: in our latest digital cover, we have new photos and interviews all about the FLOTUS ➡️ https://t.co/jnymrj2qDC pic.twitter.com/FK6wgDPzXI
— HELLO! (@hellomag) February 3, 2025
Before she was Mrs. Donald Trump, Melania Trump was a supermodel in her own right. Melania Trump credits her work in the fashion industry for preparing her for the role of first lady.
"I think nothing prepared me more to be first lady in front of the world than the fashion industry… It's glamorous, but it's at the same time very tough," Melania Trump said in September on FOX & Friends.
"Everybody judges you, [looks] at you a certain way. So it can be a mean world as well," she added.
"So nothing prepared me more for this world than fashion. It gives you a thick skin," Melania Trump said.
It also prepared her to become a fashion icon just like Kate. For this year's inauguration, Melania Trump chose a tailored suit by American designer Adam Lippes paired with a statement hat that was very much reminiscent of the royals.
The similarities between Melania Trump and Kate go deeper than wardrobe. Both women are incredibly supportive of their powerful husbands and flourish in their unique roles.
"There is something in her – the strong woman – but at the same time, there is the soft power; she’s really good at balancing her husband. Sometimes I wonder how she could have the courage to keep on going; they’ve gone through so much," photographer Régine Mahaux noted of Melania Trump after spending time with the couple.
"She’s committed. She loves him, and he loves her," he added. Kate is similarly known to be the rock for her husband, Prince William, as he navigates his duties as a royal, as noted in US Weekly.
"I don’t know where William would be without Kate — she hasn’t had everything done for her throughout her life, so she calms him down when he gets a bit fractious. She said he sometimes has to be treated as her fourth child," an unnamed source told author and royals expert.
Both of these remarkable women serve their families and their respective countries with love and sincerity. Moreover, both Melania Trump and Princess Kate look amazingly stylish while doing it.
A federal judge has blocked President Trump from transferring male prisoners out of women's prisons - in a setback for Trump's efforts to protect women's spaces from men who identify as "transgender."
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, an 81-year-old appointee of Ronald Reagan, issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump's move.
An executive order signed by Trump on January 20 instructs the attorney general to "ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers" and to stop any federal funding by the Bureau of Prisons on transgender medical interventions.
"Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system," Trump's order states.
The order was challenged by three male inmates, who claim that being housed with other men would exacerbate their psychological distress and expose them to harassment and sexual violence from male prisoners.
In his 11-page order, Lamberth found the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their Eighth Amendment claims against cruel and unusual punishment.
The judge pointed to "government reports" that transgenders are prone to sexual violence "when housed in a facility corresponding to their biological sex — which the defendants do not dispute."
Lamberth also said male inmates with gender dysphoria could experience "uncomfortable dissonance" from having to share intimate spaces, such as showers, with other men.
"The plaintiffs further claim that placement in a male penitentiary by itself will exacerbate the symptoms of their gender dysphoria, even if they are not subject to physical or sexual violence in their new facility—whether because they will be subject to searches by male correctional officers, made to shower in the company of men, referred to as men, forced to dress as men, or simply because the mere homogenous presence of men will cause uncomfortable
dissonance," the judge wrote.
Lamberth did not appear to acknowledge the discomfort experienced by female inmates housed with men. The judge conceded that housing male inmates in a women's prison could have "some deleterious effect on privacy and security," but he said those risks are "abstract" compared to the "substantial harms" of housing male prisoners with gender dysphoria in men's prisons.
"The defendants have not so much as alleged that the plaintiffs in this particular suit present any threat to the female staff housed with them," he added.
Michelle Obama has made her first public statement since facing whispers of divorce.
The former First Lady got tongues wagging with her recent absences from official events, but she ignored the rumors in a new Instagram video about education.
The speculation began last month when Obama failed to appear at President Jimmy Carter's funeral. It was a conspicuous break from protocol, as former presidents and first ladies usually attend such events.
Obama also was a no-show at President Trump's January 20th inauguration. While it was an obvious snub of the president, it also fed the perception that all is not well in the Obama household.
In her first Instagram video since vanishing from the public eye, Michelle Obama discussed a new partnership between her education initiative Reach Higher and The American School Counselor Association.
"This critical work often gets unnoticed and that's why for so many years I have been working to make sure that they get the shine they deserve" Michelle said in the video.
Obama is also promoting a new self-help book, Overcoming, which she has described as "timely" as many of her own followers cope with Kamala Harris' brutal election loss to President Trump.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama appeared to dismiss the speculation of a rift with a gushing birthday tribute to his wife in January. The post showed the two awkwardly posed on either side of a wide dining table.
"I’m so lucky to be able to take on life's adventures with you. Love you!" President Obama wrote.
The former president also sought to allay suspicions in his response to last week's plane crash in Washington D.C.
"Our hearts break for the families who lost loved ones in the tragic plane and helicopter crash at DCA. Michelle and I send our prayers and condolences to everyone who is mourning today, and we’re grateful to the first responders who are doing everything they can to help under extremely difficult circumstances," he wrote.
Meanwhile, donors for the Obama Presidential Center are reportedly cutting support for the library, which has been tied up in lawsuits.
With the Obama brand having lost its shine, some may be wondering if the changing political winds are having an effect on the marriage.
As of now, the Obamas are not making any public moves to either confirm or deny.