National Politics

A federal judge this week rejected the Justice Department’s attempts to keep secret a departmental opinion to not charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction at the end of the Mueller investigation, calling the administration’s lawyers “disingenuous.” The department had argued in court that the largely redacted March 2019 memo was legal reasoning that helped

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have asked a judge to appoint a “special master” — or independent review — for materials seized when the FBI executed search warrants on Rudy Giuliani’s home and office last week. Calling it a step that would be appropriate to ensure attorney-client privilege is protected, prosecutors filed the request under seal

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced that a special election to replace Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died last month, will take place next January. The primary for Florida’s 20th Congressional District will be on November 2 with the general election on January 11, DeSantis said, announcing an upcoming executive order that will set

A Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require the government to release its decades-old records from an FBI-run covert surveillance program that monitored the Black Panthers, as well as civil rights and anti-war activists, among others. In addition to requiring the release of files from COINTELPRO, or the Counter-Intelligence Program, within six

The Department of Defense’s watchdog is set to examine how the Pentagon has handled reports of UFOs, which the department refers to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. The investigation from the department’s inspector general was announced in a letter Monday to Pentagon leadership and signed by Randolph R. Stone, assistant inspector general for evaluations. “The objective

Business groups and voting rights organizations are attempting to apply public pressure on Texas Republicans as lawmakers gear up to finalize bills that would make it harder to vote in parts of the Lone Star State and criminalize some of the actions of election workers. A group of some 50 trade associations and companies, including

President Joe Biden said Tuesday it is his “hope and expectation” to meet with his Russian counterpart during a planned visit to Europe in June, a high-stakes diplomatic encounter he hopes can restore a degree of predictability to an increasingly fraught relationship. “We’re working on it,” Biden said at the White House, suggesting his proposed

The Biden administration will release its highly anticipated national strategy for fighting domestic terrorists in the coming weeks, the White House announced Tuesday, signaling a major break from President Donald Trump’s administration in addressing more directly the threats posed by White supremacists and right-wing militia groups. The expected release of the strategy comes after the

The Justice Department is preparing to offer guilty plea deals to four Capitol rioters who are accused of trapping police in a tunnel and attacking them with chemical sprays and firecrackers. Federal prosecutors said at a court hearing Tuesday that their supervisors recently approved plea offers in the case, which revolves around one of the

Liz Cheney is striking a nerve. Over and over again. Purposefully and with force. Donald Trump sends an email saying the election was stolen, and Cheney — the No. 3 House Republican — tweets right back at him, minutes later, that “the 2020 presidential election was not stolen.” Whenever asked, she says that those who

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisers told governors during a call Tuesday that they plan to redistribute vaccine doses should states not order all the vaccines allocated to them each week, the White House confirmed. States will still get allocations based on their population, but the change means if a certain state does not order all

Elected officials and advocacy groups from cities across the country are calling for the pace of police investigation announcements by the Justice Department to increase. Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced pattern or practice investigations against the Louisville Metro and Minneapolis police departments following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in March

Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist is launching a campaign to get his old job as Florida governor back. Crist announced Tuesday that he will be entering the Florida 2022 race for governor, joining a potentially tough and crowded Democratic primary in a pivotal swing state. Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis has not yet formally announced whether he’ll

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of the US adult population and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4, according to senior administration officials. To meet this goal, Biden will direct tens of thousands of pharmacies participating in

The suspect who was shot and wounded by law enforcement in a standoff just outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, on Monday has died, the FBI said. The suspect, whose name has not been released, died after being transported to a hospital, the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. Additional details were not provided. The

Merrick Garland stepped into his first congressional hot seat as attorney general Tuesday morning, testifying before the House Appropriations Committee to propose a multibillion-dollar budget increase for the Justice Department. Part of the funding boost is needed to combat domestic terrorism, which Garland said keeps him up at night. “We have a growing fear of

Merrick Garland stepped into his first congressional hot seat as attorney general Tuesday morning, testifying before the House Appropriations Committee to propose a multibillion-dollar budget increase for the Justice Department. On paper, the hearing will consider the Justice Department’s budget request of $35.2 billion for the next fiscal year. But Garland will likely spend more

A briefing on suspected energy attacks on US intelligence officers turned contentious last week, two sources told CNN, as senators demanded more information about the mysterious incidents from the CIA and accountability for how the agency has handled them. Senators on the Intelligence Committee were baffled that they were just learning about significant developments for

A judge will decide if the Justice Department must provide media access to all videos presented as evidence in US Capitol riot criminal cases. CNN and 13 other major news outlets went to the chief judge of the DC District Court on Monday requesting access to videos that have become evidence in many of those

The Biden administration will raise the refugee ceiling to 62,500 people this fiscal year, the White House confirmed, after receiving swift criticism last month when President Joe Biden kept the lower Trump-era cap in place. “I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” Biden said in a

Samantha Power was sworn in as the new head of the US Agency for International Development on Monday, taking the helm as the Biden administration is faced with humanitarian crises around the globe and the ongoing threat from the coronavirus pandemic. Power, who becomes the latest member of the Obama administration to join President Joe

A legal adviser to Rudy Giuliani said he hopes former President Donald Trump will join in a court fight to attempt to block federal prosecutors from accessing seized material Giuliani believes is protected by attorney-client privilege. Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who is not formally representing Giuliani but acting in an advisory capacity, said the former New

A suspect was shot and wounded by law enforcement just outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in McLean, Virginia, Monday evening, according to the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting that occurred at approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, May 3, 2021. An individual involved in a security incident outside Central

A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to casting a vote in the name of his deceased mother in an effort to reelect then-President Donald Trump, according to court records and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer’s office. Bruce Bartman, 70, received the sentence Friday after entering a

The Department of Education announced Monday that Richard Cordray will be the chief operating officer of federal student aid, a high-profile position within the office responsible for managing the government’s student financial assistance and loan programs. The appointment puts Cordray, a progressive ally and former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at the center