AP US Politics News

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, declined to answer questions from House lawmakers in a deposition Monday, but indicated that if President Donald Trump ended her prison sentence, she was willing to testify that neither he nor former President Bill Clinton had done anything wrong

By The Associated Press Lawmakers tried Monday to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, but the former girlfriend and confidante of Jeffrey Epstein invoked her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions that would be incriminating. Maxwell was questioned during a video call to the federal prison camp in Texas where she’s serving a 20-year sentence for sex

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Beyond the car windows being smashed, people tackled on city streets — or even a little child with a floppy bunny ears snowcap detained — the images of masked federal officers has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Not in recent U.S.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican lawmakers are preparing to grill Charlotte-area leaders about crime-fighting tactics and spending, particularly in the wake of two stabbings — one fatal — on the light rail system in the Democratic-led city. A state House oversight committee asked Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles,

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge refused Sunday to help in attempts to open early voting sites at three public North Carolina universities, declining requests to overrule decisions by Republican-controlled elections boards leading up to the state’s upcoming primary. U.S. District Judge William Osteen rejected arguments by the College Democrats of North Carolina and

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to keep home prices high, bypassing calls to ramp up construction so people can afford what has been a ticket to the middle class. Trump has instead argued for protecting existing owners who have watched the values of their homes climb. It’s a

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press President Donald Trump’s administration can continue to detain immigrants without bond, marking a major legal victory for the federal immigration agenda and countering a slew of recent lower court decisions across the country that argued the practice is illegal. A panel of judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several dozen protesters were arrested Saturday outside a federal building in Minneapolis, breaking up a protest marking the one-month anniversary of a Minnesota woman’s death at the hands of an immigration officer. Renee Good was killed on Jan. 7 as she was driving away from immigration officers in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Her

By MATT BROWN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump received rare blowback from Republican lawmakers over a video posted to social media that included a racist image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, depicted as primates. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Republican lawmakers have treaded carefully when

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press An Ohio man has been charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance while he was visiting his home state last month. But the man’s lawyer said his health makes it unlikely he would have been able to carry out the threat. In addition to the charge for threatening

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to convene the first meeting of his Board of Peace this month in Washington to raise money for the reconstruction of Gaza. The meeting, proposed for Feb. 19, would include both world leaders who accepted Trump’s invitation in January to join the

By ALI SWENSON and JEFF AMY Associated Press COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s second term has presented an array of opportunities for political opponents, from immigration crackdowns and lingering inflation to attacks on independent institutions and friction with overseas allies. Many Democrats, however, are staying focused on health care, an issue that

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is heading into a challenging reelection bid as she continues to suffer fallout from last year’s devastating wildfire and ongoing criticism of City Hall on issues from street paving to homelessness. The deadline is Saturday for candidates to enter

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice will allow members of Congress to review unredacted files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein starting on Monday, according to a letter that was sent to lawmakers. The letter obtained by The Associated Press says that lawmakers will be able to review

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA Associated Press The Federal Emergency Management Agency will resume staff cuts that were briefly paused during January’s severe winter storm, according to two FEMA managers, stoking concern across the agency over its ability to address disasters with fewer workers. FEMA at the start of January abruptly stopped renewing employment contracts for

By MATTHEW DALY and MARC LEVY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Friday that its use of emergency orders to keep aging coal-fired plants operating helped prevent a major blackout from power shortages during the brutally frigid weather that has gripped most of America for the past two weeks. Scattered outages occurred

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Friday requested records related to firms partially owned by the husband of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, taking the extraordinary step of scrutinizing the spouse of a sitting House member. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, released a letter

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump’s social media post featuring a video about election conspiracy theories and a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle has been deleted. The Republican president’s Thursday night post was deleted Friday and blamed on a staffer after widespread

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press Jasmine Crockett’s most-watched TikTok clip is a five-second interview outside the U.S. Capitol. Someone asks the Democratic congresswoman from Texas what she would tell billionaire Elon Musk, and Crockett replies with a vulgar, two-word phrase. It’s been viewed 20.7 million times. James Talarico’s top TikTok video is 88 seconds from

CLINTON, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man accused of threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pleaded guilty Thursday, a year after President Donald Trump pardoned him for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Christopher P. Moynihan, 35, also agreed to serve three years of probation. During a hearing in the

By OLIVIA DIAZ and GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Democrats unveiled a proposed U.S. House map Thursday that aims to give their party four more seats in the latest effort to fight President Donald Trump’s redistricting push, even as an ongoing legal challenge makes use of that map for the

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau plans to use a survey form with a citizenship question as part of its practice test of the 2030 census, raising questions about whether the Trump administration might try to make a significant change to the once-a-decade headcount that failed during the

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t have the authority to call a special session to redraw Florida’s congressional map in the middle of the decade since that power belong to lawmakers, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. The Republican governor’s proclamation last month announcing a special session

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons. The responses this week from Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford mean

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Gov. Kathy Hochul for reelection on Thursday, offering the moderate governor some progressive heft as she faces a challenge from her political left in her campaign for a second full term in office. In an op-ed in The Nation,

By The Associated Press Democrats are threatening to block funding for the Homeland Security Department when it expires in two weeks unless there are “dramatic changes” and “real accountability” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies who are carrying out President Donald Trump’s campaign of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (AP) — As Jesse Jackson Jr. campaigns for his old U.S. House seat at Chicago-area churches, banquet halls and on Black radio shows, he often takes a moment to address the obvious matter hanging over his political comeback. The son of the civil rights icon tries