AP US Politics News

NEW YORK (AP) — Justice Department asks court to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts amid firestorm over disgraced financier’s case.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has opened up a new front in his attack on the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell: He says the alledged mismanagement of a building renovation project could be grounds for firing Powell. Such an unprecedented step could send the financial markets

By ANNIE MA AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department will release $1.3 billion in previously withheld grant money for after-school programs, days after 10 Republican senators sent a letter imploring the Trump administration to allow frozen education money to be sent to states. President Donald Trump’s administration on July 1 withheld more

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Under intense pressure from President Donald Trump’s own supporters, his administration on Friday asked a federal court to unseal secret documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s case in an effort to put to rest for good a political crisis largely of its own making. But even if

By LEA SKENE and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press A federal judge has restored a Democrat to the Federal Trade Commission, ruling that President Donald Trump illegally fired her earlier this year in his efforts to exert control over independent agencies across the government. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled late Thursday that federal law protects

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally will remain blocked as an order from one judge went into effect Friday and another seemed inclined to follow suit. U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante in New Hampshire

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has looked to the marble finishes and hefty price tag of the Federal Reserve headquarters to claim grounds to fire Chair Jerome Powell, with whom he has tussled for years over interest rates. But the extensive use of marble in the

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump’s appointees requested more marble for the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation now attacked by White House as excessive.

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Friday against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal over the newspaper’s reporting on ties between Trump and disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami. It seeks at least $10 billion in damages. On Thursday, the Wall

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — If one theme has emerged in President Donald Trump’s second term, it’s this: He’s leveraged the power of his office for personal gain unlike anyone before in history. From crypto coins to bibles, overseas development deals to an upcoming line of cellphones, Trump family

By LEAH ASKARINAM and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican elected officials are promoting their recently passed tax and spending bill as a win for working Americans, but a new survey shows that Americans broadly see it as a win for the wealthy. About two-thirds of U.S. adults expect the new tax law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most US adults think the new tax law will help the wealthy but few see benefits for the middle class, AP-NORC poll finds.

By MELISSA GOLDIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Missouri congressman Billy Long was ceremonially sworn in as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Friday in the Oval Office, taking over a beleaguered agency that he once sought to abolish and that has since been beset with steep staffing cuts and leadership turnover. Lee

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration insists it hasn’t wavered in its duty to protect the civil rights of America’s children even as it dismantles the Education Department. Yet its own data shows the agency has resolved far fewer civil rights cases than in past years despite families filing

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans were grasping late Thursday to formulate a response to the Trump administration’s handling of records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, ultimately putting forward a resolution that carries no legal weight but nodded to the growing demand for greater transparency. The House resolution, which

By SARA CLINE and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The wife of a Louisiana police chief, who earlier this week was charged for his alleged role in a mass immigration visa fraud scheme, has also been arrested, state police said Thursday. Alison Doyle, a former employee of the small city of

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A Republican candidate for Georgia governor asked a state ethics body Thursday to determine whether his GOP rival illegally lent $10 million to a campaign committee to evade restrictions under state campaign finance law. Attorney General Chris Carr’s campaign lawyer asked the Georgia Ethics Commission for a

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump recently had a medical checkup after noticing “mild swelling” in his lower legs and was found to have a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins, the White House said Thursday. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The controversy over President Donald Trump ’s handling of records from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation entered a new dimension Thursday as his administration struggles to make good on its promises to release details on the sex trafficking case involving a one-time friend of

By KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration left many local officials in the dark about the immigration detention center that rose from an isolated airstrip in the Everglades, emails obtained by The Associated Press show, while relying on an executive order to seize the land, hire

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina election officials on Thursday launched an online database of voter registration records for 103,000 people being asked to add their driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers to the state’s records, a move critics worry could disenfranchise some voters. The State Board

By DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is recommending an ex-Kentucky police officer convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid should serve no prison time, an abrupt about-face after spending years prosecuting the former detective. Brett Hankison is the only officer who fired his weapon

By DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents’ faces, covered by

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — DeSantis administration blindsided officials in county where ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ was built, emails obtained by AP show.

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Democrats ousted their embattled chairman six months into a tumultuous tenure that prompted top elected officials and national fundraising committees to sideline the state party ahead of the midterms. Robert Branscomb’s removal late Wednesday was supported by two-thirds of the Democratic activists who make up

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Florida’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state’s current congressional redistricting map, rejecting a challenge over the elimination of a majority-Black district in north Florida that was pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The court, dominated by DeSantis appointees, said in its ruling that restoration of the district that previously

By KIMBERLY KINDY and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained

By MANUEL BALCE CENETA and MARK SCHIEFELBEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Carrying boxes past signs of thanks for their service, fired State Department workers were hugged and applauded as they left their headquarters for the last time. More than 1,300 State Department employees fired in July, some focusing on intelligence activities, U.S. energy interests

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey who as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan worked on cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, said in a note to colleagues that “fear is the tool of a tyrant” and that