National Politics

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — Laura F. Dogu, the United States’ new top envoy to Venezuela, arrived in Caracas on Saturday as the Trump administration aims to reopen an embassy there for the first time in nearly seven years. “I just arrived in Venezuela. My team and I are ready to work,” Dogu said

By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump said he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem not to intervene in protests or unrest in Democratic-led cities unless local officials formally request assistance, amid criticism over heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics. “I have instructed Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, that under no circumstances are

By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — The federal government likely won’t reopen until at least Tuesday, when the House is expected to hold critical votes on a must-pass funding package, as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warns Republicans they can’t rely on Democrats. It is unclear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson has enough GOP

By Aleena Fayaz, CNN (CNN) — New York Giants co-owner and American filmmaker Steve Tisch sought out Jeffrey Epstein’s help connecting him with women more than a decade ago, according to emails released Friday by the Justice Department. In an email from April 26, 2013, Tisch asked Epstein if he knew anything about a “very

By Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump is mentioned more than 1,000 times in the 3 million Jeffrey Epstein documents released Friday, after the president initially resisted the effort. While some of the references are benign, others include newly disclosed unverified sexual assault claims against Trump as well as fresh details

By Eric Bradner, CNN Carmel, Indiana (CNN) — Marla Ailor attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year with her family, and remembered thinking it was a long day. So she breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as she watched Melania Trump’s documentary and saw that — after a day that included three balls and

By Molly English, CNN (CNN) — Democrat Christian Menefee, a former Harris County Attorney, won the special election runoff in Texas’ 18th Congressional District, ending a long vacancy and narrowing Speaker Mike Johnson’s razor-thin majority in the US House. Menefee defeated former Houston city councilmember Amanda Edwards, also a Democrat. Texas’ 18th Congressional District has

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has taken the extraordinary step of inserting herself into a federal probe of the 2020 election as she hunts for elusive evidence of voter fraud. Gabbard was on the scene Wednesday after FBI agents executed a search warrant for the Fulton County elections

By Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — For a brief moment following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, President Donald Trump appeared to recalibrate. Faced with mounting outrage over the second killing of a US citizen in an encounter with federal agents, Trump swiftly moved the head of his Minnesota immigration crackdown out of the state.

By CNN staff (CNN) — The Justice Department on Friday released more than 3 million pages of files related to the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after Congress passed a law last year forcing the Trump administration to do so. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference the Justice Department

CNN By Brian Stelter, Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz, Nick Watt, Nicki Brown, CNN (CNN) — A defiant Don Lemon vowed to fight the charges brought against him by federal prosecutors Friday, after he and another independent journalist were arrested in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. “I have spent my

By Haley Britzky, Avery Schmitz, Brad Lendon, CNN (CNN) — As President Donald Trump considers a major strike on Iran after discussions about limiting that nation’s nuclear program and ballistic missile production haven’t progressed, the US military has accelerated a weekslong buildup of military hardware in the Middle East, open-source data shows. That includes near-constant

By Sarah Ferris, Morgan Rimmer, CNN (CNN) — The Senate has put Congress on path to stave off another prolonged government shutdown, approving a major spending deal struck with the White House that only temporarily funds the Department of Homeland Security to allow for long-term negotiations on federal immigration enforcement. With the funding deadline passed,

By Brian Stelter, Kara Scannell, Hannah Rabinowitz, Nick Watt, Nicki Brown, CNN (CNN) — A defiant Don Lemon vowed to fight the charges brought against him by federal prosecutors Friday, after he and another independent journalist were arrested in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. “I have spent my entire

By Gabe Cohen, CNN (CNN) — When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem strode into the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters last week, ahead of a monster winter storm that walloped much of the country, she caught staffers buzzing around the agency’s response center off guard. “I was shocked she showed up after all the sh*t

By Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — As President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has whisked through major US cities, trial-level judges attempting to restrain the frenzied actions of federal agents have been repeatedly slapped down by higher courts – sometimes with the help of judges the president put on the bench in his first term. A

By Betsy Klein, Riane Lumer, CNN (CNN) — First lady Melania Trump wants you to know that her new documentary is not a documentary. “Some have called this a documentary. It is not,” she told a crowd of Cabinet members, conservative influencers and minor celebrities gathered in the opera house of the newly rebranded Trump

CNN, POOL, TRUTH SOCIAL , @REALDONALDTRUMP, SENATE TV, KGBT , KNXV, Truth Social / @realdonaldtrump, KGBT / KNXV By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The federal government partially shut down early Saturday as Congress did not agree on funding for several agencies before the midnight deadline. But this shutdown is likely to be less painful

By Holmes Lybrand, Valeria Leon, CNN (CNN) — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back during a press conference Thursday on suggestions that law enforcement in the country worked closely with the FBI to apprehend former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding. Instead, Sheinbaum said Wedding had self-surrendered and was handed over to

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump did another social media posting spree on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. As with Trump’s previous posting blitzes, this one was filled with wildly inaccurate and often conspiratorial claims about elections and other subjects. Here’s a debunking of two of them. No, Walmart isn’t shutting down