CNN – US Politics

By Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Hunter Biden’s legal team denied Tuesday night that they lied to court officials to get filings from a senior Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket, blaming the dispute on an “unintentional miscommunication” on the eve of their client’s plea hearing. Their denials came in response to US District

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed. Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday

By Steve Contorno and Devon M. Sayers, CNN (CNN) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was not injured after being involved in a car accident Tuesday morning in Tennessee, his campaign and police said. The accident involved DeSantis’ four-vehicle motorcade and took place in the Chattanooga area, the city’s police department confirmed. “The motorcade came up

By Jamiel Lynch and Shawna Mizelle, CNN (CNN) — A 44-year-old Arkansas man who beat a police officer with a flagpole during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was sentenced Monday to four years in prison. Peter Stager pleaded guilty to “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon,”

By Jedd Rosche, CNN (CNN) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested that House Republicans may be approaching the point where they’d pursue an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, the California Republican’s most explicit threat of impeaching the president to date. “We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But Hannity, this is rising to

By Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — US attorney David Weiss, who has led the Hunter Biden criminal probe, has offered to testify at a public congressional hearing this fall, according to a letter sent to lawmakers on Monday. House Republicans have demanded that Weiss – a Donald Trump appointee –

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The Justice Department announced charges Monday against a third person who allegedly participated in a firebombing attack on a California Planned Parenthood last spring. Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Florida, was arrested Friday and is being held in custody, according to prosecutors. He is charged alongside Chance Brannon, a

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Americans no longer have to fear the Internal Revenue Service showing up unannounced at their door. The IRS is ending a decades-old practice of having unarmed revenue officers visit households and businesses to help them resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. These visits

By Kevin Liptak and Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — The Israeli parliament’s vote stripping the Supreme Court of certain powers is “unfortunate,” the White House says, calling for “consensus” amid major protests. “As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major democratic changes to be enduring must

By Priscilla Alvarez and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The US Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas over its use of floating barriers in the Rio Grande, which Gov. Greg Abbott has argued is intended to deter migrants from crossing into the state from Mexico. The Justice Department is seeking an injunction

By Jack Forrest, CNN Washington (CNN) — Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Sunday challenged Americans to approach political disagreements with respect in their mission to elevate “civic dialogue across the country.” Cox and Polis, the heads of the National Governors Association, told CNN’s Dana Bash in

By Aileen Graef, CNN (CNN) — Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was “playing politics” with the idea of expunging former President Donald Trump’s two impeachments. “Kevin is, you know, playing politics. It is not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things. If he wants to put his members

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN (CNN) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said he’s “not yet convinced” that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, were criminal, as the former president faces a potential indictment over his actions that day. “I really do hope it doesn’t come to that,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash in an

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has “no reason to doubt” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia has moved a first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, senior DIA officials said on Friday. Putin said last month at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that “the first [Russian]

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday approved a new congressional map with just one majority-Black district, despite a court order calling for the redrawn lines to create two majority-Black districts or “something quite close to it.” The state’s Republican-controlled legislature gave final passage to the remedial map earlier

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden is elevating CIA Director Bill Burns to his Cabinet, a symbolic measure that nonetheless represents the major role he has played in national security amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Under his leadership, the CIA is delivering a clear-eyed, long-term approach to our nation’s top national security

By Jason Morris, CNN (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team in Georgia is continuing its efforts to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from pursuing her 2020 election interference investigation, as possible indictments in the state loom. In a new, 650-page filing in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Trump’s lawyers stepped

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — Newly declassified court documents revealed Friday that the FBI improperly searched for the name of a US senator in an intelligence database after indications of a foreign threat against the lawmaker, as the intelligence program has come under a barrage of criticism in Congress and from privacy advocates. The

By Haley Britzky and Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden has selected Admiral Lisa Franchetti to be the Navy’s top officer. If confirmed, she would be the first woman in the Navy’s history to hold the job, and the first woman in the joint chiefs of staff. Franchetti, who is currently serving as

By Rebekah Riess and Shania Shelton, CNN (CNN) — The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a voting rights group, and several Florida citizens this week filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials, alleging they created “a bureaucratic system around the implementation of Amendment 4,” preventing Florida citizens with prior felony convictions

By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Media organizations, including CNN, asked a magistrate judge Friday to unseal court filings related to seven search warrants the Justice Department sought in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. The existence of the seven warrants – which were sought in addition to the warrant

By Jasmine Wright and Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris went headfirst into flashpoint culture war issues Friday when she slammed Florida Republicans for the state Board of Education’s newly approved set of standards for teaching Black history, accusing “so-called leaders” of pushing propaganda and willfully misleading children. It’s the latest example

By Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed and Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge ordered Friday that the trial in the classified documents case that special counsel Jack Smith brought against former President Donald Trump begin in May 2024. US District Judge Aileen Cannon said that the trial could begin as early as May 20.

By Steve Contorno and Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN (CNN) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging the state’s pension fund manager to consider legal action against Bud Light’s parent company amid conservative backlash to the beermaker’s recent marketing efforts, the latest attempt by the Republican presidential candidate to inject himself and the state he runs into

By Annie Grayer, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb, CNN (CNN) — GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday released an internal FBI document containing unverified allegations President Joe Biden was involved in an illegal foreign bribery scheme. The FBI had previously allowed members of the House Oversight Committee to privately view – but not

By Alex Marquardt, Sebastian Shukla and Daria Martina Tarasova, CNN Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine (CNN) — Tucked into a narrow tree line on Ukraine’s southern front, a young Ukrainian soldier wearing an American flag patch talks about how frightening it was the first time his team assaulted the densely mined Russian positions in the offensive launched

By Devan Cole, CNN Washington (CNN) — Arkansas is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last month striking down the state’s ban on gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, one of the defendants in the case, on Thursday notified a federal district court in the state that he and his co-defendants are

By Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — Criminals, volunteer fighters and arms traffickers in Ukraine stole some Western-provided weapons and equipment intended for Ukrainian troops last year before it was recovered, according to a Defense Department inspector general report obtained by CNN. The plots to steal the weaponry and equipment were disrupted by

By Paula Reid, Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz and Jeremy Herb, CNN (CNN) — As anticipation builds for former President Donald Trump to be indicted for the third time this year, investigators in the special counsel’s election interference probe are expected to speak with additional witnesses over the next several weeks, including at least

By Sean Lyngaas and Kylie Atwood, CNN (CNN) — China-based hackers breached the email account of US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns as part of a recent targeted intelligence-gathering campaign, three US officials familiar with the matter told CNN. The hackers also accessed the email account of Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of State for

By Natasha Bertrand, Oren Liebermann and Alex Marquardt, CNN (CNN) — Ukrainian troops have started firing the cluster munitions provided by the US as part of their counteroffensive against Russia, according to two US officials and another person briefed on the matter. The US is still waiting for updates from Ukrainian forces about how effective

By Clare Foran and Haley Talbot, CNN (CNN) — The House on Thursday passed a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill to renew funding for the agency for the next five years. The bipartisan bill aims to make improvements to efficacy and operations at the agency, expand the workforce for the aviation industry, invest in airport

By Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — The US military killed five al-Shabaab militants in a “collective self-defense airstrike” in Somalia, US Africa Command announced Thursday. The strike was taken at the request of the Federal Government of Somalia, the US Africa Command statement says, in “a remote area near Hareeri Kalle, approximately 15 kilometers south

By Kristen Holmes, Lauren Fox, Alayna Treene and Haley Talbot, CNN (CNN) — In a private call with former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he personally backed the idea of expunging Trump’s two impeachments and would bring it up to the conference to gauge support, a source said. He did not promise

By Betsy Klein and Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden met briefly with a top auto union chief Wednesday, a White House official tells CNN, as talks between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three US automakers continue ahead of a potentially damaging strike. UAW leadership was at the White House for

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump has quietly added a new criminal defense attorney to his legal team as he faces a potential indictment in the federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Attorney John Lauro, who has also represented Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Alina Habba, is

By Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood and Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — Just one day before crossing into North Korea, Private Travis King texted his US military handlers to let them know he had arrived at his gate at Incheon, the major airport serving Seoul, and was preparing to board a plane back to the US.

By Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — A US soldier in Hawaii is receiving the military’s highest award for valor not in combat on Wednesday for saving a woman’s life and repeatedly fighting off a man who was attacking her. Spc. Rene Rodriguez, who is stationed in Hawaii with the 25th Infantry Division, told CNN that

By Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump’s effort to move the New York indictment charging him with falsifying business records into federal court, finding that Trump failed to show that any of the allegedly illegal conduct related to his role as president. Judge Alvin Hellerstein previewed at a

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — On Tuesday morning, former President Donald Trump announced he had received a target letter, an indication he could soon be indicted, in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation into Trump’s lie-filled effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. On Tuesday night, Trump went out of his

By Fredreka Schouten and Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN (CNN) — Each time Donald Trump gets charged with a crime, the contributions pour in, a CNN analysis of newly released campaign reports shows – underscoring how much the criminal cases confronting the former president have benefited the Republican’s campaign bottom line. The analysis of itemized donations