Politics

By Holmes Lybrand Two friends who entered the US Capitol together on January 6, one of whom boasted about breaking in and smoking a joint, were sentenced to 30 days in jail each for unlawfully parading in the building. “This wasn’t Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said before handing down the sentence

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed Wednesday that Russia must de-escalate tensions on the border with Ukraine in order for upcoming diplomatic meetings to succeed, saying “it’s very hard to make actual progress in any of these areas in an atmosphere of escalation and threat, with a gun pointed at

By Tierney Sneed, CNN In a sweeping speech marking the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back on criticism that the Justice Department’s January 6 probe has not been aggressive enough, while signaling that no one would be off limits as prosecutors “followed the facts.” “The actions we have taken

By Kara Scannell A federal judge set the foreign lobbying trial for Tom Barrack, a former adviser to then-President Donald Trump, for September. During a remote hearing Wednesday, Judge Brian Cogan said jury selection would begin on September 7 with the trial to start soon after. Prosecutors estimated the trial could take three weeks. Barrack

By Whitney Wild, CNN The US Capitol Police board is detailing a list of changes — from trainings to new recruitment efforts, hoping to convince members of Congress the department has significantly improved since the January 6 attack exposed problems, while acknowledging the agency is significantly understaffed. In a 10-page report obtained by CNN, Senate

By Tami Luhby, CNN West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has lots of issues with the Democrats’ expanded child tax credit, which is a main reason why his party’s plan to extend it for another year is on ice. One of his beefs is that higher-income families qualify for the credit — the final monthly payment

By Betsy Klein, Kate Sullivan and Nikki Carvajal, CNN The Biden administration is opening additional federally run free Covid-19 testing sites this week in six states across the country — Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas and Washington — as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to surge in the US. “We have the tools

By Barbara Starr and Devan Cole, CNN Military bases in Iraq and Syria that hold American troops were attacked Wednesday, though no US forces were killed in the strikes, according to Iraqi officials and the US-led coalition. There have been multiple attacks this week coinciding with Monday’s second anniversary of the US assassination of a

By Kate Bennett and Ryan Nobles, CNN Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham met Wednesday on Capitol Hill with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting. “I cooperated fully with the committee,” Grisham told reporters as she left the panel’s office Wednesday evening. The

By Gabby Orr, CNN Former President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a news conference late Tuesday that he was scheduled to host at Mar-a-Lago on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, but which his allies had warned would cause unnecessary problems for Republicans and himself. In a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, the former President

By John Harwood and Betsy Klein, CNN A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers discussed the possibility of another economic stimulus package last year amid the Omicron wave of coronavirus, but talks failed to move forward. Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi held preliminary conversations with stakeholders on additional

By Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju, CNN Republicans on Capitol Hill are under pressure to reflect on the deadly events of January 6 but are also trying to avoid talking about former President Donald Trump’s culpability — underscoring how the attack remains an unwelcome distraction for a party eager to gain voters’ trust in this

By Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz, CNN A year after the January 6 insurrection, the Justice Department continues to press forward on the biggest investigation in FBI history, with 700 people already arrested and hundreds more offenders still at large and several more years of prosecutions ahead. But the expansive investigation has yet to shed

By Jeremy Herb, CNN The day after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, three local Republican officials in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County announced they were leaving the GOP.  Among them was Ethan Demme, a lifelong conservative who had previously served as the youngest Republican Party chairman in this deeply red corner of southeast Pennsylvania. Disgusted