Navy veteran Trina McDonald, a survivor of rape during her service, is calling on Congress to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice by moving the decision to prosecute military sexual assault out of the chain of command.

In a MoveOn.org petition titled "Raped In The U.S. Navy: Protect Survivors Of Military Sexual Assault," McDonald states that rape should never be an "occupational hazard." The petition calls on the U.S. Senate to address the recent increase in military sexual assaults by making revisions to the military justice system. She will deliver more than 113,000 petition signatures to members of Congress on Wednesday.

McDonald recently recounted her nightmarish experience in the military, telling Texas-based KCEN that she'd been repeatedly assaulted by "higher-ranking officers."

While in the Navy, Trina says she was repeatedly drugged, raped and ultimately dumped into the Bering Sea by superior officers.

She says she kept silent for 20 years, because both police and her superiors were the perpetrators, and she had nowhere to turn.

The issue of sexual assault in the military gained newfound attention this month after Jeffrey Krusinski, an official in charge of a program to prevent such crimes, was himself charged with sexual assault. Later in May, the sexual assault program manager in Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested in a domestic dispute and relieved of his post. The coordinator of the sexual harassment and assault prevention division in Fort Hood, Texas, was also placed under investigation after being accused of sexual assault and maltreatment of subordinates.

According to a Pentagon report released earlier this month, military sexual assaults rose to 26,000 in 2012, averaging about 70 per day. Most military sexual assaults still go unreported.

President Barack Obama has called military sexual assault a "betrayal" and has pledged to take action to combat them.

Lois Lerner, the director of the exempt organizations unit at the Internal Revenue Service, plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment during her expected testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Lerner announced her plans to plead the Fifth during her testimony in a letter from her lawyer, William Taylor III, to the committee. "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course," the letter addressed to Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reads, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Since she will be pleading the Fifth, Taylor has asked the committee that she be excused from testifying. The letter from Taylor states that her testimony would "have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her."

The Wednesday hearing would have been Lerner's first public appearance, and first under oath, since she apologized for the IRS' inappropriate targeting of conservative groups at a May 10 American Bar Association meeting. That apology was planned ahead of time by the IRS, and came in response to a planted question.

Issa has issued a subpoena to compel Lerner to appear at the hearing.

Lerner is a key figure in the unfolding IRS scandal. As director of the IRS exempt organizations unit, she is in charge of the division overseeing nonprofit organizations, which includes the Cincinnati office that was the source of the inappropriate targeting criteria. The criteria directed the IRS to conduct a more intensive review of applications for tax-exempt status from groups with the name "tea party" or "patriot."

According to the report issued by the Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Lerner had to correct the criteria developed by the Cincinnati office twice because she and other top IRS officials found that they were using politically fraught terms as they sought to make sure groups were properly applying for tax exemption.

Lerner's decision to plead the Fifth comes as the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into whether laws were broken at the IRS, according to Taylor's letter to the committee. It also follows a request to Lerner from the committee to provide information on why she gave "false or misleading information" to the committee on four previous occasions in 2012.

"The Committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner's lawyer who stated that his client intended to invoke her 5th amendment right and refuse to answer questions," Oversight and Government Reform Committee spokesman Ali Ahmad said in a statement. "Ms. Lerner remains under subpoena from Chairman Issa to appear at tomorrow's hearing -- the Committee has a Constitutional obligation to conduct oversight. Chairman Issa remains hopeful that she will ultimately decide to testify tomorrow about her knowledge of outrageous IRS targeting of Americans for their political beliefs."

Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army major accused of killing 13 and injuring 32 more in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009, has been receiving salary payments totaling $278,000 in the three-and-a-half years since being arrested, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defense confirmed its continued payments to Hasan, according to NBC, and said the department can't suspend his salary until he has been proven guilty.

The news has added fuel to the controversy over the Defense Department's classification of the event as "workplace violence" instead of a "terrorist attack," a distinction that keeps victims of the shooting from receiving certain benefits afforded to those who suffer "combat-related" injuries.

Retired Army Spc. Logan Burnett, a reservist who was shot three times in the Fort Hood attack, expressed outrage when told by NBC that Hasan was receiving a full salary. According to Burnett, he and his wife have struggled since the shooting, in part because his benefits package has been limited.

(Click over to the NBC Dallas-Fort Worth site for its entire report.)

Lawmakers have repeatedly pushed the Defense Department to change the designation of the shooting. Earlier this month, a trio of congressmen applied the latest round of pressure, Stars and Stripes reported:

In a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week, the trio of House members -- Tom Rooney, R-Fla.; Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.; and Frank Wolf, R-Va. -- say the decision in the days following the attack to treat it as a workplace violence incident rather than a terrorist incident "has since resulted in an embarrassing lack of care and treatment by our military for the victims and their families."

They want the tragedy formally classified as a combat-related attack, which would make the victims and their families eligible for additional payouts and the Purple Heart. Survivors of the attack have said they could see up to $800 more a month in disability pay if the attack was considered a combat injury.

House Republicans have also asked Attorney General Eric Holder if the Justice Department pressured the military to charge Hasan as a criminal instead of a foreign terrorist. Some critics have suggested that the use of a criminal charge in military court was an effort by the administration to cover up intelligence failures leading up to the massacre.

While the military continues to pay an alleged mass murderer pending the conclusion of his case, the judge overseeing the matter has ruled that Hasan won't be allowed to plead guilty to any of the charges stemming from the incident. The Associated Press reported that Army rules prohibit a judge from accepting a guilty plea to charges that carry the death penalty.

Hasan's court-martial at Fort Hood is set to start with jury selection on May 29 and testimony on July 1, according to AP.

House Democrats on Wednesday will challenge the constitutionality of Republican legislation allowing Congress to unilaterally approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Northern Route Approval Act would eliminate the need for TransCanada Corp., the company constructing the pipeline, to get a cross-border permit from President Barack Obama. The pipeline would carry crude oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. Republicans have argued Congress has the right to regulate international commerce under the Constitution.

But Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) on Monday raised a point of order saying the bill is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers. He furthered argued that it is an earmark and as such, against the rules of the House of Representatives, since under House rules lawmakers may stop any proceedings that affect the safety or integrity of the House.

He introduced a resolution, which was referred to the Committee on Rules, stating the bill, H.R. 3, "violates Rule XXI of the House" and "affects the dignity and integrity of the proceedings of the House since it is unconstitutional."

Grayson's office did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for further comment.

House rules dictate resolutions such as Grayson's must be handled within two days of their introduction, provided the House speaker agrees the resolution may be considered. Republicans are expected to bring the Northern Route Approval Act up for debate as soon as Wednesday.

The bill's opponents will likely cite a recent court ruling that found the president had the right to issue international pipeline permits, since Congress has not interfered with this power for years. Its supporters, meanwhile, will likely lambast the president for delaying the pipeline's construction.

UPDATE: 3:00 p.m. -- The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the bill should it make it to the president's desk.

"Because H.R. 3 seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether cross-border pipelines are in the national interest by removing the Presidential Permitting requirement for the Keystone XL pipeline project," said a statement from the Office of Management and Budget. "If presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill."

With 36 failed Obamacare repeal efforts by House Republicans already in the books and a 37th likely on the way, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Tuesday turned to a higher power for help in the task.

Speaking with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson in an exchange first captured by Right Wing Watch, Bachmann expressed optimism that the House's latest repeal effort -- a bill introduced by the Minnesota Republican and passed last week by a vote of 229-195 -- would have a different outcome than the previous 36.

"That's why you saw the House of Representatives pass my bill, the full repeal of Obamacare, last week, and that's why I have renewed confidence that we can see this bill pass in the Senate and I think the president will ultimately be forced to repudiate his own signature piece of legislation, because the American people will demand it," Bachmann said.

While a repeal effort has little chance of advancing in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House has repeatedly said the president would veto any such legislation if it did pass muster, Bachmann went on to suggest that a "miracle" from God could bring Republicans success.

"And I think before his second term is over, we're going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we'll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare," she said. "I believe that's going to happen and we saw step one last week with the repeal of Obamacare in the House. We have two more steps. We serve a mighty God and I believe it can happen."

Listen to the exchange, via Right Wing Watch:

Bachmann has been a tireless crusader against President Barack Obama's health care reform law since its passage in 2010. In January, she introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress, a bill to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.

Despite the futility of the efforts, Bachmann apparently still sees her position as a champion of Obamacare repeal as a winning issue. Last week, she began running ads in her home district -- around 17 months ahead of her 2014 reelection -- touting the passage of her House bill.

Utah Republican Mia Love announced Saturday that she will run for Congress again in 2014.

Love, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, unsuccessfully ran against Democrat Jim Matheson in 2012, losing her bid to represent the state's 2nd congressional district by fewer than 800 votes. She announced her decision to run again during the Utah Republican Party's annual convention.

“We have some unfinished business with Jim Matheson,” she said.

Love has emerged as a rising star in the GOP, making high profile appearances at the Republican National Convention last August and the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year. If she had been elected, Love would have been the Republican Party's first black female member of Congress.

In a Monday interview with The Hill, Love said she had learned from her 2012 loss.

“I think most important is finding the best political strategists in the state of Utah and having them work on our campaign, and really getting a road map from now until the election,” she said.

According to The Hill, Love has already secured one of those strategists -- Dave Hansen, who served as an adviser during Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) successful 2012 reelection bid.

After a week dominated by stories on Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservatives and the DOJ subpoenaing AP phone records, President Barack Obama's job rating remains largely unaffected, polling shows.

In a Washington Post/ABC poll released Tuesday, the president has a 51 percent approval rating, with 44 percent disapproving -- largely unchanged from the last two months.

Ratings for Obama's handling of the economy, meanwhile, are evenly split between positive and negative, several points higher than in the past two Post/ABC surveys.

The numbers don't necessarily translate into giving the president the benefit of the doubt on recent controversies: 56 percent say that the IRS' focus on conservative groups was a deliberate attempt at harassment, 55 percent say the Obama administration is attempting a cover up of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

But interest in those subjects is limited, with more Americans closely following economic reports than stories about either controversy. And those concerns appear to have had little effect so far on the trajectory of Obama's ratings, which peaked in January and have since returned slowly to pre-inauguration levels. Tracking polls taken last week also showed little change, while a CNN poll poll released Monday put Obama's approval at 53 percent.

As of Monday, HuffPost Pollster's estimate of Obama's job approval rating, based on the combination of all available public polls, was 47.6 percent.

The Post/ABC poll surveyed 1,001 adults by phone between May 16 and May 19.

More details emerged Monday suggesting that the Treasury Department was involved in the IRS mulling over a public admission of its activities targeting conservative groups.

The Washington Post reports that according to a Treasury Department official, there was communication between both federal government wings on three occasions to discuss how a disclosure should be handled. Deference to the IRS was chosen by the Treasury in each case, the Post noted.

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, said Friday that senior Treasury officials were first made aware in June 2012 of complaints from Tea Party groups. The results of George's investigation were known by the Treasury in March 2013, upon standard receipt of a draft of his report, the AP reported.

The Washington Post report itemizing the IRS-Treasury discussions surfaces on the same day that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged senior staffers failed to inform President Barack Obama about a forthcoming audit revealing the targeted activities. That decision was made partly because of it being inappropriate for the administration to intervene.

"The suggestion of alerting him is that he would do something," Carney said. "And if he were to do something, imagine what that story would look like ... It is absolutely the cardinal rule, as we see it, that we do not intervene in ongoing investigations."

Coupled with Carney's comments was a Monday batch of 41 questions from the Senate Finance Committee, demanding answers on issues that included whether anyone in the White house knew of the IRS scrutinizing Tea Party groups. A hearing will be held later Tuesday by the same committee on the scandal.

President Barack Obama could possibly face impeachment over his administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, anniversary attack in Benghazi, Libya, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) repeated in an interview with National Review published Monday.

"This is an administration embroiled in a scandal that they created," Chaffetz said. "It's a cover-up. I'm not saying impeachment is the end game, but it's a possibility, especially if they keep doing little to help us learn more."

His comments come after a week that included controversy over a widely distributed but misleading ABC News report about State Department edits to early versions of talking points on Benghazi.

Chaffetz first floated the idea of an impeachment attempt against Obama earlier this month, when he maintained that such a move was "within the realm of possibilities."

GOP leaders have since urged their fellow Republicans to exhibit restraint as Obama responds to a slate of scandals involving various federal agencies. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has reportedly urged Republican legislators not to overplay their hand -- a piece of advice repeated by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus last week, when he said Republicans should not "call for impeachment until you have evidence."

While Chaffetz told Politico earlier this month that he respected Boehner's "cautious tone," the Utah Republican appeared more eager in his comments to National Review.

"Now, the speaker has more patience than I do," Chaffetz said. "He has told me to be patient, that the truth will eventually surface. But I'm not a patient person, and if this administration makes us do this the hard way, that's what we'll do."

Chaffetz suggested that the administration, which last week released 100 pages of internal emails regarding Benghazi, was still withholding a trove of information on the lead-up to and handling of the attack. He also said that his fact-finding visit to the U.S. compound in Benghazi this past October, after the attack, had shown him that the facility was poorly prepared for such an attack.

House Republicans have taken their share of criticism for repeatedly voting to reduce State Department funds allocated for embassy security since winning control of the chamber in 2010. In an interview last October, Chaffetz spoke about his caucus's moves.

"Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country," he said. "We have ... 15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we're talking about, can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things."

Crossroads GPS, the conservative nonprofit that directly spent more than $70 million on federal political campaigns in the 2012 election, believes that it is one of the organizations targeted for further review by the Internal Revenue Service, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

The organization, co-founded by Karl Rove after the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the door to new political spending, has been held up by campaign finance watchdogs as the primary example of a political group using the tax code to evade disclosure of its donors. Nonprofits organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, as Crossroads GPS is, are not required to name their donors, while political organizations like 527s and super PACs must disclose who funds them.

Crossroads GPS formally filed for tax-exempt status in 2010, a process that is not required. It has still not been approved, and its application was inadvertently leaked to the investigative news site ProPublica in 2012.

"From everything we know -- the criteria used by the IRS to target conservative groups, the timing, the still outstanding application after nearly three years, the leaking of the application from the Cincinnati office, and other factors -- Crossroads was one of the targeted groups," Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio told the Los Angeles Times in an email.

Collegio declined, however, to provide the Times with any evidence that Crossroads did or did not receive requests for information of the kind that were deemed inappropriate by the Department of the Treasury's inspector general (IG) in his report on the IRS' targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Those inappropriate requests included donor lists and expansive questionnaires seeking details about a group's relationship with elected officials past, present and future.

The targeting of conservative groups was inappropriate, according to the IG report, because of the biased criteria used to choose which groups would receive greater scrutiny. The improper "be on the lookout" criteria included words like "tea party" and "patriot" and, later, broader but still biased advocacy areas like "limiting/expanding government" and "educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights."

The IG report stated, "Criteria for selecting applications for the team of specialists should focus on the activities of the organizations and whether they fulfill the requirements of the law. Using the names or policy positions of organizations is not an appropriate basis for identifying applications for review."

Crossroads GPS spent $16 million on political campaign ads in 2010, its first year of existence, and another $70 million during the 2012 electoral cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The group also spent tens of millions on issue ads aimed at specific candidates up for election. Moreover, Crossroads GPS is staffed largely by former Republican Party functionaries, something that has raised IRS eyebrows when it looked at other groups.

Without any inappropriate targeting, all these factors, reported both in the media and to the Federal Election Commission, could have led to a further review of Crossroads GPS' tax-exempt application.

A former Democratic governor of New Jersey said that Republican Gov. Chris Christie's Democratic challenger should rethink her struggling candidacy.

Former Gov. Brendan Byrne told the Star-Ledger in a column that ran Sunday that he believes state Sen. Barbara Buono, the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee, should consider dropping her challenge to Christie. The move comes as Buono battles low fundraising, Democratic infighting and polls that show her trailing the Republican incumbent by over 30 points. Byrne cited his own 1977 reelection battle, where he was initially considered a long shot and faced 11 primary opponents.

"Buono is way behind. I was way behind in 1977 and I was thinking, if it gets worse, I’m going to withdraw. It didn’t get worse. As a matter fact, it got better," Byrne said in a weekly Star-Ledger column that consists of a conversation between him and former Gov. Tom Kean (R). "But at one point I thought of dropping out in favor of a better-positioned candidate. I don’t know whether that consideration would appeal to Buono, but I would advise she make that evaluation."

Byrne doubled down on the advice in another Star-Ledger column on Sunday. He said that while a Buono replacement would likely lose to Christie, they would be able to lose by a smaller margin than Buono and prevent Christie from being able to usher in a Republican-controlled legislature on his coattails.

Buono, a former state Senate majority leader, told the Star-Ledger that she is not accepting Byrne's advice. She said that she's been getting a good reaction as she campaigns.

“I’ve always been underestimated,” Buono told the Star-Ledger. “They said I’d never win my first Assembly seat when I ran against the bosses in Middlesex County, and I did. They said I’d never get the (Senate) budget chairmanship, and I got it. And it was the same when I became majority leader. I’ve been doubted throughout my career."

Byrne's comments come as Christie has confirmed another $950,000 television advertising buy in his campaign. Buono has not released any television ads, but has made a series of Internet ads, including one announced Monday explaining how to pronounce her name. Buono is also facing criticism from top Democrats over her pick of Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell (D-Bayonne) as the next state Democratic Party chairman. Tradition dictates that Democratic gubernatorial nominees in New Jersey pick the head of the state party.

Buono entered the race in December and has faced an uphill struggle since, including several weeks of Democratic leaders engaging in a frantic search for an alternative. The latest poll from NBC-Marist has Christie leading Buono 62 percent to 28 percent. A compilation of polls from HuffPost Pollster shows Christie leading Buono by 32 points.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is essentially tied with her likely 2014 Democratic challenger, businessman Jim Graves, according to a new poll released by his campaign Monday.

In the survey conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), Graves, who nearly defeated Bachmann last year, has a slight edge of 47 percent to 45 percent, well within the margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

The survey was an internal poll for the Graves campaign. Historically, internal polls tend to favor the candidate who released them.

Bachmann's congressional district is overwhelmingly Republican. FairVote calculated the district in 2012 as having a 59-41 edge for Republicans. And the PPP poll respondents identified themselves as 39 percent Republicans, 29 percent Democrats and 32 percent independents or other.

The strength of the GOP in Bachmann's district would suggest her reelection should be easy. But she managed only a one-point victory in 2012 -- about 4,200 votes -- despite outspending Graves by a 12-to-1 margin.

Bachmann started running campaign ads this past Thursday, an unusually early start considering the election is almost a year and a half away.

Read the full poll results here.

The FBI has jumped into a multi-pronged investigation of alleged misconduct by the failed presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported on Sunday.

While the FBI wouldn't confirm or deny any involvement in the probe, sources with knowledge of the campaign and the investigation told the Star Tribune that the FBI had made inquiries about former Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish, as well as other former staffers.

News that Bachmann's campaign had drawn an ethics investigation first broke in March, and the extent of alleged violations has only expanded since then. Newer claims include allegations of secret payments to campaign aide and Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), as well as improper use of Bachmann's leadership PAC funds to pay a political director for the campaign.

Parrish said in a sworn affidavit in April that Bachmann "knew and approved" of payments to Sorenson. Peter Waldron, Bachmann's former national field coordinator, has also filed a complaint alleging that Bachmann's campaign funneled leadership PAC money through a fundraising group to pay Sorenson, a claim that has also reportedly drawn the attention of the FBI, according to the Star Tribune. Sorenson has denied these allegations.

As the Iowa Republican website points out, the FBI becomes the latest in a long line of agencies now involved in the probe of Bachmann's campaign. The Federal Election Commission, the Office of Congressional Ethics, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee and the Urbandale Police Department have all mounted their own investigations into various aspects of the numerous claims.

Bachmann has meanwhile maintained her innocence and expressed optimism that she'll be cleared of any wrongdoing. Others are more skeptical, however, considering the expansive nature of the charges against her campaign.

Craig Holman, a government ethics lobbyist at liberal-leaning watchdog group Public Citizen, told Salon in May that Bachmann could face serious repercussions.

"It's not Watergate, or at least not yet, but these are a series of allegations that are each serious on their own, and when you put them all together, this could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann," he said.

While the focus remains largely on the alleged misconduct of her presidential campaign, Bachmann must also contend with a re-energized challenge from Democrat Jim Graves, a wealthy businessman who nearly toppled the congresswoman in 2012. Graves began his latest campaign just months after his November defeat, and national Democrats who in 2012 appeared unconvinced of his chances against Bachmann -- a formidable fundraiser with national name recognition -- have already signalled that they'll be willing to support his campaign this time around.

Clarification: The name and location of the Star Tribune newspaper has been updated.

The chief campaign arm of congressional Democrats continued last month to beat its Republican counterpart in fundraising.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pulled in $5.4 million in April, compared to the $5.1 million raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee. The DCCC has raised $28 million over the first four months of 2013 while the NRCC has raised $22.5 million.

According to a DCCC aide, the committee's fundraising from small online donors continues to bear fruit. It raised $1.4 million from online donors in April.

At the same time, the DCCC relied heavily on big-money donors brought out to a series of fundraising events in the San Francisco Bay area featuring President Barack Obama. Those events raised $3.25 million for the committee.

Speaking at an event held at the home of investor and environmental activist Tom Steyer, Obama called on guests to donate to help make House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) the speaker of the House again. "To do that, I’m going to need you and Nancy is going to need you," he said.

The DCCC has been quickly retiring its debt from the 2012 election. It has already paid off $8 million and only has $4.1 million remaining, half of its total debt load at the same point in 2011. The NRCC currently holds $6.3 million in debt.