"Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign aide who was indicted alongside the former president in the Georgia election interference case, has been subpoenaed as part of a separate probe in Arizona investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state," ABC News reports.
"The subpoena, which has not been previously reported, comes as part of an ongoing investigation by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office previously confirmed to ABC News she was investigating the so-called 'alternate elector' plot in the state."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is asking Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify details from a Senate Intel report about the connections Paul Manafort had to Russian operatives back in the 2016 election, former TPMer Matt Shuham reports.
"Few politicians have commanded the loyalty of the religious right like former President Trump, whose decision to begin selling $60 Bibles for Holy Week has outraged his critics — but drawn little reaction from evangelical leaders," Axios reports.
"Trump has developed a sense of impunity when it comes to religious messaging, forged through a grand compromise with Christian conservatives who see him as a flawed — but effective — champion of their movement."
"He's such a little baby that he's thrown 250 years of democracy out the window by not accepting the results… He's such a sociopath. He's so insane. He just couldn't admit to losing. And we know he lost. He knows he lost… He's a such a sick man."— Larry David, discussing Donald Trump on CNN.
"Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, recently elected Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, said in a new interview that the national party doesn't plan to pay his ongoing legal bills and maintained that donors could opt-out of contributing funds for that if they want to," ABC News reports.
Associated Press: "In fact, the former president's team has rolled back plans under previous leaders to add hundreds of staff and dozens of new minority-outreach centers in key states without offering a clear alternative."
Washington Post: "Richard Grenell's intervention highlights the extraordinary role he has carved out in the three years since Trump left the White House. From Central America to Eastern Europe and beyond, Grenell has been acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump's support, and at times, working against the current administration's policies."
"It's unusual for a former diplomatic official to continue meeting with foreign leaders and promoting the agenda of a presidential candidate on the world stage. Grenell's globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump's personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies."
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said the Republican party is currently threatening democracy and that the nation is undergoing a political shift, USA Today reports.
Said Cheney: "Certainly, what's happening in the Republican party is dangerous. We now have one of our two major political parties that has abandoned the Constitution."
She added: "We know Trump tried once not to leave office, and he will have no incentive to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power and to leave office should be selected again. As frustrated as I know people get sometimes with policy disagreements you might have — and I certainly have policy disagreements with the Biden administration — I know the nation can survive bad policy. We can't survive a president who is willing to torch the Constitution."
"Donald Trump on Wednesday attended a fundraiser hosted by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) at Mar-a-Lago, mending a longtime rift between the two," Axios reports.
"The outing from Trump puts Emmer back in the former president's good graces, months after Trump came out against Emmer's campaign to be House speaker."
Stephen Collinson: "Donald Trump is running one of the strangest general election campaigns America has ever seen."
"He's hawking Bibles, attacking judges, making billions in the stock market and boasting about his golf game. On Thursday, the ex-president traveled to New York to attend the wake of a fallen police officer – on a trip that allowed him to deepen his characterization of a nation adrift and plagued by crime under President Joe Biden."
"But there wasn't much in Trump's busy week that resembled a conventional general election campaign – certainly not one that might address some of his biggest liabilities as he seeks a return to the White House."
"In a case that has prompted outrage from voting-rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court reversed itself on Thursday and acquitted a woman who had been sentenced to five years in prison for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election," the New York Times reports.
"The decision came two years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, ruled that the lower appeals court, the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, had misconstrued the illegal voting statute under which Crystal Mason was found guilty in 2018."
"No Virginia governor has come into office with a deeper dealmaking background than Glenn Youngkin, who as former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group made a fortune acquiring and merging companies around the globe," the Washington Post reports.
"But as the Republican chief executive of a purple state, Youngkin has struggled to translate that business acumen into political success — or even economic development success, with the demise Wednesday of his much-touted plan to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria."
"While Youngkin and his group of financial experts had negotiated with team owner Ted Leonsis to cut what the governor called 'the single largest economic development deal in Virginia's history,' the governor was never able to work the same magic with members of the General Assembly who had to sign off on the $2 billion project."
"Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro told Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday he had no reason to have sought asylum at the Hungarian embassy, after the court summoned him to explain why he stayed at the diplomatic compound for two nights in February," Reuters reports.
Washington Post: "As hopes of a Republican alternative have crumbled, elite donors who once balked at Trump's fueling of the Capitol insurrection, worried about his legal problems and decried what they saw as his chaotic presidency are rediscovering their affinity for the former president — even as he praises and vows to free Jan. 6 defendants, promises mass deportations and faces 88 felony charges."
"The shift reflects many conservative billionaires' fears of President Biden's tax agenda, which if approved would drastically reduce their fortunes. In some cases, it also points to their discomfort with the Biden administration's foreign and domestic policy decisions. Some of these billionaires have been assiduously courted by Trump and his advisers in recent months."
"Georgia lawmakers on Thursday approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state's presidential ballot that could impact the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state," the AP reports.
"Lacking the reliable boogeyman of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fundraise against, House Republicans are choosing to focus on President Biden," Axios reports.
"'Fire Pelosi' was a central component of Republican's messaging strategy in previous cycles. But top House Republicans don't see that script playing out with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in 2024."
"An organizer of a recall effort against Wisconsin's Assembly speaker has launched a second recall effort now that the first one is on pace to fail without enough signatures and allegations of widespread fraud," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
"Wyoming is a supermajority state, with Republicans making up 86 of the state's 93 legislators," USA Today reports.
"But uniformity doesn't mean unity, as the widening chasm between the state's further-right Freedom Caucus and more moderate establishment Republicans has grown in recent years and begun to mirror GOP infighting nationwide."
"A judge ruled Wednesday that the Georgia Republican Party's first vice chairman, Brian Pritchard, violated state election laws when he voted nine times while serving probation for a felony check forgery sentence," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over his campaign finances, Punchbowl News reports. The Ethics Committee said it will have a final decision "on or before Friday, May 10."
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