Both Oz and McCormick have enlisted alumni from former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign to gird themselves for a potential recount. Mike Roman, the director of Trump’s Election Day operations, is helping the McCormick team, according to a source familiar with his efforts. The Oz campaign has brought onboard James Fitzpatrick, who led Pennsylvania’s Election Day operations for Trump.

Wally Zimolong, a Pennsylvania-based attorney, is also working for McCormick. He tweeted Wednesday that he was headed on behalf of the McCormick campaign to Lancaster County, where a number of ballots couldn’t be scanned because of a printing error, “to ensure the integrity of the counting of the mail-in ballots.”

James Schultz, a former Trump White House lawyer, and David Urban, former top Trump campaign adviser, have also been dispatched to McCormick’s headquarters in western Pennsylvania to help with the effort, according to a source close to the McCormick campaign.

In addition, the McCormick campaign has hired veteran Republican lawyer Chuck Cooper to be the lead of their legal efforts, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cooper won Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) 2018 recount effort and also recently won the Supreme Court campaign finance case brought by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

And lawyer Shohin Vance, who works with the firm Kleinbard LLC, is aiding Oz.

Texas’ child welfare agency has resumed at least some of its investigations into parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children. Last week, the state Supreme Court overturned an injunction blocking the state from investigating these parents for child abuse.

On Thursday, nearly a week after the ruling, investigators with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began contacting lawyers representing some of these families to tell them they will be continuing the investigations.

“They reached back out and said they need to finish their investigations,” said Tracy Harting, an Austin-based attorney who is representing a family in the Central Texas area. “I’ve talked to my clients, and now they have to decide how they want to proceed.”....

In a statement responding to the order in February, DFPS said it would “follow Texas law” as laid out in Paxton’s opinion, “n accordance with Governor Abbott’s directive.” The agency proceeded to open at least nine investigations into parents of transgender children.

Texas’ child welfare agency has resumed at least some of its investigations into parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children. Last week, the state Supreme Court overturned an injunction blocking the state from investigating these parents for child abuse.

On Thursday, nearly a week after the ruling, investigators with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began contacting lawyers representing some of these families to tell them they will be continuing the investigations.

“They reached back out and said they need to finish their investigations,” said Tracy Harting, an Austin-based attorney who is representing a family in the Central Texas area. “I’ve talked to my clients, and now they have to decide how they want to proceed.”....

In a statement responding to the order in February, DFPS said it would “follow Texas law” as laid out in Paxton’s opinion, “n accordance with Governor Abbott’s directive.” The agency proceeded to open at least nine investigations into parents of transgender children.

Texas’ child welfare agency has resumed at least some of its investigations into parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children. Last week, the state Supreme Court overturned an injunction blocking the state from investigating these parents for child abuse.

On Thursday, nearly a week after the ruling, investigators with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began contacting lawyers representing some of these families to tell them they will be continuing the investigations.

“They reached back out and said they need to finish their investigations,” said Tracy Harting, an Austin-based attorney who is representing a family in the Central Texas area. “I’ve talked to my clients, and now they have to decide how they want to proceed.”....

In a statement responding to the order in February, DFPS said it would “follow Texas law” as laid out in Paxton’s opinion, “n accordance with Governor Abbott’s directive.” The agency proceeded to open at least nine investigations into parents of transgender children.

The Army is circulating a draft policy tweak that would specify that soldiers can request to move if they feel state or local laws discriminate against them based on gender, sex, religion, race or pregnancy, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the plans.

The guidance, which would update a vague service policy to add specific language on discrimination, is far from final and would need approval from Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. But if enacted, it could be one of the most progressive policies for the force amid a growing wave of local anti-LGBTQ and restrictive contraception laws in conservative-leaning states, where the Army does most of its business.

The policy would ostensibly sanction soldiers to declare that certain states are too racist, too homophobic, too sexist or otherwise discriminatory to be able to live there safely and comfortably.

"Some states are becoming untenable to live in; there's a rise in hate crimes and rise in LGBT discrmination," Lindsay Church, executive director of Minority Veterans of America, an advocacy group, told Military.com. "In order to serve this country, people need to be able to do their job and know their families are safe. All of these states get billions for bases but barely tolerate a lot of the service members."

Donald Trump has paid the $110,000 fine levied after he was held in contempt by a New York judge, according to a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James. He has not yet filed more than a dozen affidavits due today to purge the contempt finding, but a source with his legal team confirmed to CBS News that they intend to.

Trump was held in contempt April 25 after failing to comply with a subpoena requiring he turn over documents to investigators conducting a sprawling civil financial fraud probe for New York Attorney General Letitia James. The subpoena sought documents related to Trump's personal finances, as well as information related to the financing of several properties. Trump was fined $10,000 per day through May 6, the date of his most recent attempt to satisfy Judge Arthur Engoron's demands.

In response to the May 6 filing, Engoron halted the fine and suspended the contempt finding, but said he was still unsatisfied with Trump's explanation of how he and his attorneys managed to find zero documents that complied with the subpoena.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has formally requested information from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from Georgia, about a US Capitol tour he gave to visitors the day before rioters stormed the building.

In a letter to Loudermilk, the committee said they are looking for more information about the purpose of the tour and its participants.

"Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee's possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021," Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, wrote in the letter.

"The foregoing information raises questions to which the Select Committee must seek answers. Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings, in advance of January 6, 2021," they added.

A group of lawyers want the State Bar of Texas to investigate Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his “leading” role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Lawyers with the 65 Project, an organization aiming to hold attorneys accountable for trying to keep former President Donald Trump in power despite his reelection loss, filed an ethics complaint with the association Wednesday. It cites Cruz’s role in a lawsuit seeking to void absentee ballots, numerous claims he made about voter fraud, plus an attempt to stop four states from using 2020 election results to appoint electors — all of which failed.

“Mr. Cruz knew that the allegations he was echoing had already been reviewed and rejected by courts. And he knew that claims of voter fraud or the election being stolen were false,” the complaint says.....

Cruz represented Pennsylvania Republicans in their efforts to cast out nearly all 2020 absentee ballots in their state, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected. Cruz accused the state court of being “a partisan, Democratic court that has issued multiple decisions that were just on their face contrary to law.”

The complaint wants to see Cruz disciplined. It does not say how, though it mentions a New York appellate court’s suspension of Rudy Giuliani’s law license. Guiliani was one of Trump’s lawyers who also repeated false voter fraud claims.