National Politics

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — A high-ranking member of a Mexican drug cartel who allegedly faked his own death and has been living in California under a fake name is now facing federal charges, the US Justice Department announced Thursday. Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, a member of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación and the

CNN By Eric Bradner, CNN (CNN) — Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Thursday that he is withdrawing as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, writing on social media that his nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction.” Gaetz’s withdrawal comes after meetings with Republican senators this week, as Trump’s transition team sought to gauge

CNN By Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and Sara Murray, CNN (CNN) — A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows. The

CNN By Paula Reid and Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN. The woman, who was 17

By Paula Reid and Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN. The woman, who was 17 years

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s team is gaming out an aggressive strategy toward Latin America that will be a crucial element to plans to deport migrants at large scale, according to two sources involved in transition policy discussions. During his first term, Trump took a hardline – and at times,

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — Donald Trump’s return to power is creating a reality television-like competition for attention among a group of black-robed candidates – some of whom may hope to one day wind up on the Supreme Court. Several possible contenders for one of the coveted nine seats on the high court have

By Katie Bo Lillis, Jeremy Herb and Daniel Strauss, CNN (CNN) — In 2020, the woman who has become Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top spymaster met with one of the most infamous leakers of all time. Tulsi Gabbard, then in the midst of a failed bid for the Democratic nomination for president,

By Eric Bradner, CNN (CNN) — Nick Begich’s flip of Alaska’s lone House seat will pad Republicans’ slim House majority — but with several members departing to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and just three races left to be decided, the party could enter the new year with very little room for error. That narrow

By Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and Sara Murray, CNN (CNN) — A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows. The 22-page

By Alayna Treene and Steve Contorno, CNN (CNN) — After rarely being seen in public in the two weeks since he delivered a brief, 46-second victory speech on election night, JD Vance reemerged this week to play one of the most important roles he will be expected to fill as Donald Trump’s No. 2: His

By Clare Foran, CNN (CNN) — The Senate on Wednesday voted down an effort led by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to block a series of planned US weapons sales to Israel. The failure of the long-shot effort highlights that despite criticism from the left that the Biden administration and Israel are not doing enough

By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Senate Democrats have confirmed some of President Joe Biden’s picks for the federal bench this week in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for a total GOP blockade of judicial nominations – in part because several Republicans involved with the Trump transition process have been missing votes. Conservative

By Kristen Holmes, Holmes Lybrand and Jamie Gangel, CNN (CNN) — Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality, people who have served on his US Secret Service detail, as well as others to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN (CNN) — Two Georgia election workers who won a massive verdict against Rudy Giuliani because he defamed them after the 2020 election are asking a federal judge to hold him in contempt of court. Their request on Wednesday morning opens up a new avenue of difficulty in court that the former

By Sara Murray and Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — A Democratic election official in Pennsylvania offered an impassioned apology Wednesday for claiming “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country” to justify counting about 600 faulty ballots in defiance of state Supreme Court rulings. “The passion in my heart got the best of