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GOP Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who chairs the Rules Committee, said further particulars cannot be made public, in order to respect the confidentiality afforded to victims. “While the Rules Committee has been eager to provide this information in a transparent manner, it has been our priority to protect the victims involved in these settlements from further harm,” the senator said in a statement attending the report.

CLEVELAND -- Republicans responsible for setting the party's presidential nomination rules on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected attempts to formally unbind delegates to next week's convention, effectively ending any serious attempt to rob Donald Trump of the GOP presidential nomination. A vote came quickly Thursday night as part of a day-long marathon session of the Republican National Convention's rules committee, which sets the rules of the meetings and how the party will pick its nominee in 2020. The rejection of the "unbinding" proposal was so overwhelming that committee leaders opted not to record the tally. Trump supporters on the committee quickly exercised...

Was on Facebook today and stumbled onto the website of one of the groups attempting to unbind delegates on first vote at the convention...Seems they are making an effort to sway the delegates with petitions and emails... Website had all kinds of helpful information to contact rules committee members. Of course, they were intending to try to get the delegates to ignore the will of the voters...I figured some here at FR might want to use the list for other than the intended purpose ;) On some of the FR threads posted this week regarding unbinding the delegates, people asked...

The presumptive nominee’s foes appear to be outnumbered on the panel they’d hoped would pave the way to a new nominee. [ Caption under photo: "The Trump campaign has enjoyed the full backing of the RNC since Ted Cruz left the race. It’s had access for weeks to lists of convention delegates and has begun building a team of more than 150 staff members and volunteers intended to work the convention floor, as well as the rules committee." ] Republicans looking to dump Donald Trump at next month’s convention have passion, energy and a fierce sense that their party will...

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus tapped former congressman Enid Mickelsen to chair the all-important rules committee during the convention. Just two weeks ago, Enid had this to say about the presidential race: Ryan Struyk @ryanstruyk Enid Mickelsen just named chair of GOP convention rules panel. Here's what she told Salt Lake Tribune two weeks ago. She has also spoken approvingly of the idea that the rules could be changed to allow delegates to vote for someone other than a candidate they are bound to by result of primary or caucus. It's unkown if Trump was consulted about the choice.

For all the carping about the glaring flaws in the Republican primary process, it’s still nothing compared to the circus that the Democrats have going. With Bernie Sanders all but swept off the stage at this point, resentment over their method of assigning delegates remains and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard seems to have had enough of the Superdelegates who keep their thumbs on the scale throughout the process. With that in mind, she’s kicked off a petition to get rid of them. (Politico) The Democratic presidential primary process may be ending next Tuesday, but the fight among Bernie Sanders supporters...

<p>The top ranks of the Republican Party may be coalescing around Donald Trump, but grass-roots conservative activists are still trying to find a way to stop him at the party's convention in July.</p> <p>Angered by Trump's shifting views on taxes, the minimum wage, national security and how little he discusses social issues, conservatives across the country are studying the party rule book for last-ditch moves they could make when the convention begins in Cleveland.</p>

A member of the Republican National Committee rules panel accused his own party leadership of “institutional tyranny” on Monday, another escalation in the growing internal battle over the party’s arcane parliamentary procedures. Solomon Yue, the Oregon committeeman and member of the RNC’s Rules Committee, sent a more than 1,300-word email, obtained by POLITICO, to members of the rules panel on Monday morning, charging that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies had improperly tried to scuttle Yue’s proposal to change the underlying rulebook for what could be the party’s first contested convention in 40 years this summer. Yue is the...

The Republican National Convention Rules Committee is the most powerful group you've never heard of -- it will set the rules of the convention and could potentially keep John Kasich off the ballot, open the battle to House Speaker Paul Ryan or create a dozen other different scenarios that decide the result. Its power is only limited by the political constraints of Republican Party leaders worried about the long-term effects of Donald Trump winning or losing the nomination. "He who writes the rules, rules -- as the old saying goes," said Gary Emineth, former chairman of the North Dakota Republican...

Zeke Miller is reporting that a set of changes to the convention rules pushed through by Mitt Romney’s team is raising a few hackles among the delegates and could potentially lead to a squabble on the convention floor. The modifications in question deal – among other things – with the method used to select and approve the individual delegates from each state. Frustration over changes to the Republican Party’s rules pushed through by the Romney Campaign on Friday may lead to a fight on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Monday. The Convention Committee on Rules took a...

Don and Carole Fowler are married but are on different sides of this debate. One supports Clinton, the other Obama You might call them a political power couple. Don Fowler is a former Democratic National Committee chair; his wife, Carol Khare Fowler, is chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party. They are both superdelegates. And both sit on the DNC's now famous Rules and Bylaws Committee, which will meet this Saturday in Washington to decide the fate of the delegates from the punished line-cutting primary states, Florida and Michigan. While they and the 28 other members of the committee...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is reserving the remaining slot on the exclusive Rules Committee for Doris Matsui, the widow of her close friend, the late Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Calif.). Doris Matsui is expected to win his seat in a March 8 Democratic primary. Though the plum position is highly coveted by lawmakers who seek the floor time given Rules Committee members, Pelosi has had some difficulty filling it and it remains open after the rosters of nearly all the other committees have been determined. Pelosi’s first pick for the panel was Rep. Dennis Cardoza (Calif.), a member of...

<p>SACRAMENTO - A key Assembly committee is investigating complaints by at least five legislative staffers to Assembly member Rebecca Cohn, including two sparked by a photo shoot for San Jose Magazine in which Cohn allegedly asked aides to handle her bras and underwear.</p>

Trent Lott last Thursday informed current, now former Senate Rules Committee chairman Rick Santorum that he indeed wanted this colleague's committee. This after turning down the Rules Committee prior to the New Year. Santorum, who was one of the most loyal lieutenants Lott had in the leadership, offered his old boss his committee around the time that Lott stepped down as Republican leader. At that point, Lott turned him down. But over the holidays Lott apparently had a change of heart, and informed Santorum he would take the chairmanship. Lott's decision should be alarming to conservatives everywhere. Not only does...