National Politics

By Devan Cole, CNN Individuals eligible for President Joe Biden’s pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession can now begin applying for a “certificate of proof” showing that they have been officially forgiven for their crime, the Justice Department announced Friday. The online application, which is run through the Office of the

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, according to a Justice Department official, his second trip to the country after Russia invaded a little more than a year ago. The trip was not announced for security reasons, the official said. Garland was invited to Lviv by

By Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday signed a bill that will restore the voting rights of thousands of convicted felons in the state this summer once they leave prison, instead of after they complete parole. “Today, I signed a bill into law restoring voting rights for over 55,000 formerly incarcerated people

By Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Steve Contorno, CNN An appointee to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new oversight board in control of Disney’s special tax district called homosexuality “evil” last year and shared a baseless conspiracy theory that tap water could be making more people gay. On Monday, the Republican governor appointed Ron Peri, an

By Kyle Feldscher, Manu Raju and Kevin Liptak, CNN President Joe Biden‘s decision to allow Congress to potentially nix reforms to the criminal code of Washington, DC, has left him facing sharp blowback from his own party as he prepares to launch his reelection campaign. The move to promise to sign the GOP-led legislation reflects

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced new requirements for public water facilities to boost their cybersecurity while expressing concern that many facilities have failed to take basic steps to protect themselves from hackers. The new EPA memo requires state governments to audit the cybersecurity practices of public water systems

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a number of Russian individuals connected to the arbitrary detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent human rights advocate and Kremlin critic who has been jailed in Moscow for nearly a year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine in an interview with

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday signed a law that prohibits gender-affirming care for minors, the latest state to do so as part of a wider Republican-pushed effort nationwide. Senate Bill 0001 prohibits health care providers “from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the

By Alayna Treene and Steve Contorno, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a closed-door speech to donors Thursday, sought to cement himself as the governor who will go places other Republicans will not as he accused fellow GOP leaders of sitting back in the cultural fights “like potted plants,” according to audio of his remarks

By Haley Britzky, Oren Liebermann and Betsy Klein, CNN After being shot multiple times during a grueling, nearly 19-hour firefight against enemy North Vietnamese soldiers, most people would have given up. But then-Capt. Paris Davis wasn’t most people — he was willing to risk his own life to protect his fellow soldiers during an attack

By Tierney Sneed, CNN The Justice Department is tripling down on its allegations that Texas is “judge-shopping” in the lawsuits the state has brought against the Biden administration. But the department is running into headwinds as it tries to push back against the Lone Star State’s pattern of filing cases in a way that allows

By Kevin Liptak, CNN A year ago, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last visited Washington, Russian forces had yet to cross the border into Ukraine and skepticism abounded at the dire warnings from the White House that an invasion was imminent. Scholz returned Friday for meetings with President Joe Biden after a transformative 12 months

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN A New Hampshire woman pleaded guilty Thursday to sending a series of threatening texts to a Michigan election official in the wake of the 2020 election, according to the Justice Department. Katelyn Jones, 25, made multiple threats to the chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers in November 2020, according

By Annie Grayer and Alayna Treene, CNN In his quest to prove the federal government has been “weaponized” against conservatives, Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has touted the allegations of what he claims are “dozens” of whistleblowers who have come to his office with stories of discrimination and bias. While little is known about

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN Two US nationals were arrested in Kansas City on Thursday for allegedly sending US aviation technology to Russia, the Justice Department announced. Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 59, and Douglas Robertson, 55, are facing several charges, including exporting controlled goods without a license, falsifying and failing to file electronic export information, and smuggling

By Barbie Nadeau, Lindsay Isaac, Jennifer Hansler and Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN US diplomat Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, was appointed Thursday to head the United Nations’ World Food Programme. McCain, currently the US ambassador to the UN Agencies in Rome, will succeed the organization’s current executive director, David Beasley,

By Ariane de Vogue and Devan Cole, CNN The US Supreme Court on Thursday asked parties involved in a major voting rights case out of North Carolina to file additional briefs to address new developments that occurred in the state after the justices heard oral arguments in the dispute last year. The request comes as

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN US Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly revealed for the first time Thursday that the United States has put forward a “serious proposal” to secure wrongfully detained Paul Whelan’s release from Russia. US officials have long stressed their commitment to bringing home Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2018,