National Politics

By Liz Stark and Gabe Cohen, CNN The Internal Revenue Service will stand up a second “surge team” to address its massive backlog of tax returns and correspondence, the National Taxpayer Advocate said during a congressional hearing Thursday. The IRS has already redirected roughly 1,200 employees back into entry-level clerical positions, where they are manually

By Kristin Wilson and Maegan Vazquez, CNN All members of Congress will be invited to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, according to the House sergeant-at-arms, marking a return to a full House chamber after last year’s socially distant speech. House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker wrote Thursday there will be coronavirus

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Last week, an article claiming that the Biden administration planned to give away crack pipes to drug addicts went viral, eliciting outrage on the right and prompting a series of clarifications from the administration. The February 7 article from the Washington Free Beacon pointed to a federal grant program administered by

By Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN The chief judge of Washington, DC’s federal court lambasted the Republican Party Thursday for saying that the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol was “legitimate political discourse.” “A major political party has described what happened on January 6 as legitimate political discourse,” Chief Judge Beryl Howell

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice Special counsel John Durham said Thursday he wasn’t trying to inflame partisanship and media commentary with a recent cryptic filing that prompted former President Donald Trump and others to go on the attack about Democrats and the FBI’s early Russia investigation. Durham was criticized this week by

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN The Justice Department is shifting its approach to cybercrime to focus more on preventing further harm to victims, even if in some cases it means tipping off suspects and jeopardizing arrests, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced Thursday. Monaco said the department needed to apply the “same thinking” it does to

By Manu Raju and Steve Contorno, CNN Six years ago, Sen. Marco Rubio offered a blunt warning about the “reckless and dangerous” Donald Trump: He would do “damage to America.” “We have a con artist as the frontrunner in the Republican Party,” said Rubio, a Florida Republican, as he saw Trump steamroll his way to

By Jessica Schneider and Devan Cole, CNN Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg will be questioned by lawyers from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office, which has sued the company and former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Inaugural Committee. DC Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams said Thursday she is allowing a limited deposition of

By Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler, CNN The United States on Thursday accused Russia of having expelled the second-most senior diplomat at the US embassy in Moscow without any justification, calling it an “escalatory” move at a time of heightened alert over the Ukraine crisis. US Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow Bart Gorman, who

By Eric Bradner, Stella Chan, Sara Finch and Paul LeBlanc, CNN California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday unveiled his state’s plan for the “next phase” of the Covid-19 pandemic, which puts a specific focus on learning to live with the coronavirus. “What we’re announcing here today is about turning a page,” the Democratic governor said