Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) was upset after news broke that special counsel Jack Smith is officially dropping his D.C.-based case against President-elect Donald Trump following Trump's historic election victory. Smith charged Trump last year with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 'The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system.' — (@) Goldman told CNN he understands Smith is following Department of Justice procedures that ban criminal prosecution of a sitting president but still called the whole situation a "shame for justice" in the country. "It establishes that Donald Trump is above the law. The Supreme Court put him above the law," Goldman said, referring to a ruling on presidential immunity issued over the summer. "... Now he appears to escape full accountability for what were crimes charged by a grand jury. And I would just add one other thing that we ought to pay close attention to: We cannot normalize the fact that Donald Trump, as the president-elect, should not be held accountable for crimes that he committed before." "So let's make sure we don't normalize Trump's political partisan behavior that has no place under our rule of law," he added. The Trump campaign took a victory lap after Smith moved to dismiss the D.C. case, the last federal case against Trump, claiming it was another example of political lawfare that failed. “The American people re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again. Today’s decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump and is a major victory for the rule of law. The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system, and we look forward to uniting our country," Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. Vice President-elect JD Vance noted that if Trump had lost the election, he would likely have wound up in prison. Vance further promised to work after the new administration is in place to "ensure what happened to President Trump never happens in this country again."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Ukraine is the richest country in Europe when it comes to minerals and that President Donald Trump will "do a deal" to get the United States its money back.The South Carolina senator spoke to Fox News' Sean Hannity last week and publicly stated that the Russia-Ukraine war is predominantly about the control of valuable mineral deposits, claiming it is the primary reason Russia decided to invade the eastern parts of Ukraine.Hannity asked on his program why President Biden has allowed Ukraine to use ballistic missiles toward the end of the administration."Why is he giving them more money, and why is he doing all of this knowing that Donald Trump has a very different approach when he gets in office in two months?" Hannity asked.Graham prefaced his response by saying that Ukraine would be a lot better off in late 2024 if Ukraine had been authorized to use the ballistic missiles earlier in the war, which has reached approximately 1,000 days of combat.'Donald Trump's gonna do a deal to get our money back.'"This war is about money," Graham revealed. "People don't talk much about it. But you know the richest country in all of Europe for rare-earth minerals is Ukraine. $2 to $7 trillion worth of minerals that are rare-earth minerals, very relevant to the 21st century," the senator added.Graham claimed that Ukraine is ready to deal with the United States, not Russia, and therefore it is in Americans' best interest to make sure Russia "doesn't take over the place.""It's the breadbasket of, really, the developing world. 50% of all the food going to Africa comes out of Ukraine. We can make money and have [an] economic relationship with Ukraine to be very beneficial to us with peace," Graham added. "So Donald Trump's gonna do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare-earth minerals, a good deal for Ukraine and us, and he's gonna bring peace," he continued.Hannity then asked if Ukraine could pay America back the "hundreds of billions of dollars" it has already invested in the war, to which Graham clarified, "That's just a drop in the bucket," repeating that Ukraine is the most mineral-rich country in Europe."That's why Russia is there right now," Graham concluded.However, Graham's numbers were different during an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation" about 10 days prior.During that appearance, Graham said Ukraine was sitting on about $10 to 12 trillion worth of "critical minerals," nearly double his later estimation.The senator again affirmed that the Ukraine would be required to pay the United States back."[Trump] created a loan system. ... I don't wanna give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China," Graham told host Margaret Brennan.The 69-year-old described the ending of the Russia-Ukraine war as a "very big deal" and called for the U.S. to help Ukraine "win" the war and "find a solution."He reiterated that the Ukrainians are "sitting on a gold mine" that cannot be allowed to go to Russia or China.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Two hundred and thirty million years ago, in what's now Wyoming, the seasons were dramatic. Torrential rain would pelt the region for months on end, and when the mega-monsoon ended, the region became extremely dry. This weather would have been challenging for amphibians that need to keep their skin moist, but one group of salamander-like creatures found a solution, as evidenced by their bizarre fossils.

When NASA's Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it captured grainy photographs of large ice-covered moons. Now nearly 40 years later, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, this time equipped to see if those icy moons are hiding liquid water oceans.

The secret to cellular youth may depend on keeping the nucleolus—a condensed structure inside the nucleus of a cell—small, according to Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings were elucidated in yeast, a model organism famous for making bread and beer and yet surprisingly similar to humans on the cellular level.

Research by astronomers and computer scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) could revolutionize our understanding of the sun. The study, part of the "SPIn4D" project, combines cutting-edge solar astronomy with advanced computer science to analyze data from the world's largest ground-based solar telescope atop Haleakalā, Maui.