National Politics

By Maegan Vazquez and Kevin Liptak, CNN The world’s most powerful Catholics — President Joe Biden and Pope Francis — held 90 minutes of talks Friday in a session that blended the official and personal sides of the most devout US leader in decades. After, Biden said Francis had told him he was pleased he

By Liz Stark, CNN The US Department of Education filed a complaint Thursday against Florida’s Education Department for its decision to reduce funding for certain school districts amid an ongoing battle over school mask mandate policies. The federal department alleged in the complaint filed with its Office of Administrative Law Judges that Florida’s Education Department

By Gregory Lemos and Maegan Vazquez, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced the state has officially filed a new lawsuit in Tampa against the Biden administration over the President’s order imposing a vaccine mandate on federal contractors, set to take effect December 8. DeSantis said his administration is seeking a preliminary injunction to

By Kate Sullivan, CNN President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the appointment of Sara Minkara as the US special adviser on international disability rights, filling a role that was created by former President Barack Obama and left vacant during the Trump administration. “One-seventh of our world’s population — 1 billion people — are people with

By Ryan Nobles, CNN Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark will not testify Friday before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to a committee aide and a source with knowledge of the matter. Clark, a Justice Department official who was integral to helping then-President Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn

By Tierney Sneed A US Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading investigation into stock trades made by Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law at the outset of the pandemic remains open, the SEC said in court filings made public this week. Burr, a North Carolina Republican, sold $1.65 million in stock on February 13, 2020,

By Tami Luhby, CNN Already massively wealthy, America’s billionaires saw their collective fortunes soar more than 70% to more than $5 trillion during the pandemic. That’s one reason why congressional Democrats were zeroing in earlier this week on this elite group of roughly 700 people to help pay for their massive social spending package. They

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN A Russian man accused of being part of cybercrime ring that infected millions of computers worldwide was arraigned in federal court in Ohio on Thursday after being extradited from South Korea, the Justice Department announced. US prosecutors allege that 38-year-old Vladimir Dunaev was part of a transnational criminal group that since

By Sonia Moghe, Gregory Krieg and Brian Vitagliano, CNN A criminal complaint alleging forcible touching, a sex crime, has been filed against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Albany, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by CNN. Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned from his post in August after multiple women accused him

By Marshall Cohen The chief judge in Washington, DC’s federal court laid into the Justice Department on Thursday for its “schizophrenic” and “puzzling” approach to January 6 cases, saying judges’ hands are tied from giving hefty punishments because prosecutors keep offering misdemeanor deals to rioters. Calling the insurrection the “crime of the century,” Chief Judge