House Republicans wrestle with key decisions as they plot next steps on impeachment inquiry
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally gave his conference the green light to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Now the harder work begins.
2023-09-14 17:15
Pentagon watchdog establishes new team in Ukraine to monitor US aid
The Pentagon's watchdog is establishing a new team in Ukraine to monitor ongoing US security assistance to Kyiv as a growing number of Republicans call for more oversight into how the money is being used.
2023-09-14 11:47
White House says impeachment inquiry 'based on lies'
A top Biden aide asked the press to apply “appropriate scrutiny” to Republican allegations of wrongdoing.
2023-09-14 09:28
Hunter Biden sues former Trump White House aide over alleged efforts to hack devices
Attorneys for Hunter Biden have filed a civil lawsuit against former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, alleging illegal hacking in violation of federal computer privacy laws.
2023-09-14 08:49
Exclusive: Pelosi defends Trump impeachment approach in face of GOP inquiry into Biden
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday defended her approach to the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump in 2019, in her first public comments on the Republican effort to launch an inquiry into President Joe Biden.
2023-09-14 08:20
Why we're still learning new things about the JFK assassination
It's hard to believe there's a new eyewitness account from a Secret Service agent who was right there at the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
2023-09-14 07:56
Federal judge again declares Obama-era DACA program unlawful
A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that a regulation intended to preserve the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful, delivering a major blow to the Biden administration.
2023-09-14 06:58
Daca: US programme for child migrants ruled unlawful
About 580,000 "dreamers" are currently enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme.
2023-09-14 06:52
Milley disputes claim he recommended Trump attack Iran
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview Wednesday that he never recommended a US military attack on Iran during the Trump administration, pushing back on claims made by former President Donald Trump and his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
2023-09-14 05:51
Mitt Romney announces he won't seek reelection as he calls for 'new generation of leaders'
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney announced Wednesday that he will not run for reelection to the Senate and called for a "new generation of leaders" as he criticized both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
2023-09-14 04:28
FBI agent contests whistleblower claims in Hunter Biden case, transcript shows
The FBI agent managing the team on the Hunter Biden criminal case testified to the House Judiciary Committee that US Attorney David Weiss had ultimate authority over the case, contesting testimony brought forward by whistleblowers.
2023-09-14 04:18
How two US senators ended up in the crosshairs of a Georgia grand jury
Several current and former elected officials – including Georgia’s two former Republican senators – are on a list of prominent Donald Trump allies who narrowly avoided criminal charges in the state’s sweeping racketeering case against him. The unsealed report from a special purpose grand jury tasked with investigating Trumpworld attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results revealed a much wider picture of the subsequent criminal case against the former president and his 18 co-defendants. That report – the product of an eight-month investigation separate from an Atlanta grand jury’s indictment – revealed that grand jurors recommend criminal charges against 39 people for nearly 160 counts of violations against more than a dozen state laws. The list includes Georgia’s two former Republican US senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, but neither of them were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a sweeping racketeering indictment. How did Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler – who were sitting members of Congress during the time of the alleged crimes – end up in the crosshairs of the sprawling investigation? Mr Perdue was first elected to office in 2014 and lost his bid for re-election in a closely watched runoff against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in the smoldering aftermath of the 2020 election. Ms Loeffler – who was appointed to the seat in 2019 following the retirement of her predecessor – lost a runoff election to Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock. Following Mr Trump’s election loss, all eyes were on Georgia for two races that would determine the balance of party power in Congress – high-stakes elections in which the GOP campaigns were intertwined with Mr Trump’s spurious attempts to claim victory in a state he decisively lost. On the campaign trail leading up to the runoff election day on 5 January, 2021, both candidates promoted their Trump links, refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, and called for the resignation of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was baselessly accused of election “failures” following Mr Trump’s loss in the state. One week after the 2020 election, Governor Brian Kemp issued a joint statement with Lt Governor Geoff Duncan and the state’s House Speaker David Ralston – all Republicans – declaring that any effort to reverse the results through the legislature would lead to “endless litigation.” At a fundraiser on 3 December 2020, Mr Perdue urged the governor to summon lawmakers back to the state Capitol for a special session to overturn Mr Trump’s loss. Two days later, then-President Trump called on Mr Kemp to order a special legislative session among state lawmakers to invalidate the election’s outcome. Mr Kemp refused. At a Georgia rally for the senate candidates that night, Mr Trump baselessly alleged the outcome was manipulated and stolen from him. The governor said that Mr Trump asked him to order an audit of signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes; audits and full hand recounts of the state’s election results repeatedly confirmed Mr Biden’s victory, which also was affirmed and defended by the state’s Republican election officials. “Your people are refusing to do what you ask,” Mr Trump said on Twitter at the time, addressing Mr Kemp. “What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a Special Session of the Legislature. That you can easily, and immediately, do.” Mr Perdue allegedly spoke daily with Mr Trump before the special election, listening to him unload his gripes, frustrations and bogus allegations surrounding Georgia’s election results and Mr Raffensperger’s refusals to engage Mr Trump. On 2 January, 2021, Mr Trump spoke with Mr Raffensperger on an hour-long conference call in which then-President Trump urged Georgia’s top elections official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss. That call is central to the indictment facing Mr Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia, as well as a separate indictment from the US Department of Justice surrounding the former president’s attempts to subvert the election’s outcome. Mr Perdue’s term in Congress ended the next day, leaving his seat vacant three days before Congress convened to certify the presidential election results. “Senator Perdue still owes my wife an apology for all the death threats she got after he asked for my resignation,” Mr Raffensperger told Fox News at the time. “I have not heard one peep from that man since. If he wants to call me, face-to-face, man-to-man, I’ll talk to him, off the record, but he hasn’t done that.” Ms Loeffler initially supported efforts among GOP lawmakers to reject the election’s outcome during the joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021, but she reversed her decision after a mob of then-President Trump’s supporters broke into the US Capitol and stormed the halls in an effort to stop the certification of Mr Biden’s victory. The special grand jury report indicates that then-Senator Perdue was involved with the “persistent, repeated communications directed to multiple Georgia officials and employees” between November 2020 and January 2021. Sixteen jurors voted to indict him on a charge of filing false documents, with one juror voting against and one abstaining. The special grand jury also implicated Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the national scheme to overturn 2020 election results, “focused on efforts in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania” and Washington DC, according to the report. Seventeen jurors voted to support a RICO indictment against Mr Perdue, with four jurors voting against charges. In the case of Ms Loeffler, 14 jurors supported the charge, while six voted against and one abstained. A footnote in the report notes that one of the dissenting jurors voting against recommending indictments against the senators on the RICO charge “believes that their statements following the November 2020 election, while pandering to their political base, do not give rise to their being guilty of a criminal conspiracy.” In a statement following the release of the special grand jury report, Ms Loeffler said she was “giving voice to millions of Americans who felt disenfranchised in 2020” and that she would not be “intimidated by a two-tiered system of justice that seeks to systematically destroy conservatives across this country.” In 2022, Mr Perdue was enlisted and endorsed by Mr Trump to run for governor of the state against incumbent Mr Kemp. Mr Perdue lost that race as well. Read More Trump’s access to classified documents restricted by Mar-a-Lago case judge in lead up to trial – live Trump waives right to speedy trial as Georgia prosecutor seeks to try him with 18 others next month How did Lindsey Graham, Michael Flynn and others dodge charges in Fulton County indictment? Trump could face an extensive list of trials next year. Here are all the court dates
2023-09-14 03:50