Ron Desantis breaks with Trey Gowdy: 'Deploying surveillance powers' against Trump campaign not OK

A Republican member of the House Oversight Committee disagrees with Chairman Trey Gowdy's assessment that the FBI had an "obligation" to chase leads on possible foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election, even if it meant sending an informant to contact members of President Trump's 2016 campaign.

During an interview on Fox News on Thursday, Rep. Ron Desantis, R-Fla., said "deploying surveillance powers" against an "opposition party's campaign" is "not normal."

"And I think that is not what Americans want the FBI to be doing," he added.

DeSantis is aligning himself with Trump, who has dubbed the matter "spygate" while claiming the Obama administration may have scoped out his campaign for political purposes.

Several Republicans in Congress joined a push led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., demanding documents about the confidential source. Several leaders from both sides of the aisle took part in briefings last week with Justice Department and intelligence officials about the informant, who has been identified by media reports as Stefan Halper, a former University of Cambridge professor.

Gowdy, R-S.C., was among those briefed, and afterwards participated in multiple interviews over the past couple days in which he said he didn't see any evidence of the FBI doing anything wrong.

“I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy said Tuesday evening on Fox News.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ron-desantis-breaks-with-trey-gowdy-deploying-surveillance-powers-against-trump-campaign-not-ok

Daily on Healthcare: Exclusive: Here are details of new plan to revive Obamacare repeal

Exclusive: Here are details of new plan to revive Obamacare repeal. A group of more than 40 right-of-center healthcare experts led by the Heritage Foundation is expected to release recommendations to Congress next month on a new plan to overhaul Obamacare. The recommendation would convert Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies into a system of block grants to the states, according to a source familiar with the plan, with the exact growth formula to be determined by Congress. But, unlike previous Republican healthcare plans, it would not make changes to the funding or structure of traditional Medicaid. The plan would allow states that get the block grant to waive rules requiring plans to have essential health benefits and to maintain a single risk pool and it would give more leeway to insurers to charge more based on age. States that waive the requirements would have to include another program to make sure those with serious conditions could get coverage, such as invisible risk sharing or high risk pools. The group said it was open to reforms to traditional Medicaid that had been part of previous plans, such as converting traditional Medicaid funding to a per capita cap or a block grant aimed at curbing growth of the program and giving more flexibility to states. But those reforms are not in the opening proposal as the group works with allies on Capitol Hill to garner support for another healthcare reform push, with one source telling the Washington Examiner that nobody has told them “hell no” on the recommendation. Any bill could have a steep climb in the Senate, where due to the loss of the Alabama Senate seat, Republicans have at least one less vote than they did the last time a healthcare bill failed to win a majority (not including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been away as he undergoes treatment for brain cancer). That means that they are unlikely to get something done even if Republicans manage to pass a budget resolution with reconciliation language allowing them to pass a healthcare bill with 50 votes (plus Vice President Mike Pence as the tiebreaker).

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-on-healthcare-exclusive-here-are-details-of-new-plan-to-revive-obamacare-repeal

Trump considering pardon for Martha Stewart, commutation for Rod Blagojevich

President Trump is open to pardoning businesswoman Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The president made the revelation to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, hours after he announced plans to pardon Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative author and documentary filmmaker who pleaded guilty in 2014 to a federal charge of making illegal campaign donations.

Blagojevich, a Democrat, was convicted in 2011 of attempting to extort a children’s hospital for campaign donations and seeking to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after he was elected president.

His charges included wire fraud, extortion, and soliciting bribes. Blagojevich is nearly halfway through a 14-year prison sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the former governor of his convictions.

Lawyers for the former Illinois governor had been hoping Trump would intervene in his case. After the Supreme Court declined Blagojevich’s request to consider his case, his wife, Patricia Blagojevich, appeared on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to appeal to the president.

Trump and Blagojevich know each other from “The Celebrity Apprentice,” as the former governor appeared on season nine of the show in 2010.

The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that Blagojevich’s comments about Obama’s open Senate seat were a “stupid thing to say, but 18 years?”

Len Goodman, Blagojevich’s lawyer, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner the governor’s legal team is updating its request for a commutation from Trump.

“We submitted a request for commutation. President Obama did not act on it. We are now in the process of updating it," Goodman said. "Of course, President Trump is not bound by formal procedure. He can issue a pardon or a commutation. He has the power to correct an injustice.”

Stewart was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators about the sale of stock in a biotechnology company.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired last year, brought the charges against Stewart while serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-considering-pardon-for-martha-stewart-commutation-for-rod-blagojevich