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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday justified his controversial push to withdraw troops from parts of the Middle East by saying that the money spent there could be used to help rebuild inner cities and provide college scholarships. He said one year of military spending in the Middle East could be used to give scholarships to every student at an inner-city school, without offering details on how such a…

A federal judge on Friday rejected claims that the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump is illegitimate as she ordered the Justice Department to give a House committee secret grand jury material collected in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. That material could help the House Judiciary Committee substantiate “potentially impeachable conduct” by Trump, said Chief Judge Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in her ruling. Howell brushed…

Blazes scorched brush up and down California on Friday and its largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, said once again that precautionary power outages could impact as many as 2 million Golden State residents. “A potentially powerful and widespread dry, hot and windy weather event” would threaten electricity service through Monday afternoon, PG&E said in a statement Friday. The utility has been halting power service in rural areas, mostly in…

CLOSE GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump, is introducing a resolution condemning the Democratic-controlled House’s impeachment inquiry. Democrats compared Republican attempts to enter the depositions to “political theater.”(Oct. 24) AP Domestic WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump dismissed the need for assembling a team to help in rebuffing Democrats’ impeachment inquiry despite multiple reports that allies and some at the White House want such a team.  Speaking to…

President Trump praised the contributions of African-Americans to the United States — and managed to get in some partisan shots — at the historically black Benedict College in South Carolina Friday. The president made the comments in an address for the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum, a conference aimed at building on the gains made from the administration-backed First Step Act.  “The Democratic policies have let African-Americans down and taken…

Maria Butina claimed she was a Russian patriot who loved her country, a peacemaker who strongly believed in the right to bear arms, and was grateful for the educational opportunities provided to her by her other love, America. The U.S. Justice Department saw it differently. In April, Butina, 31, became the only Russian convicted in connection with the investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Prosecutors said…

Trump impeachment tracker: Following all the action in Congress Trump impeachment inquiry: A visual timeline Trump’s Ukraine scandal: Who’s who? The phases of Trump’s coming impeachment proceedings Trump’s Ukraine phone call, annotated Key allegations from the Ukraine whistleblower are true, despite what Trump says The Ukraine text messages, annotated

Lawyers for former national security advisor John Bolton have been in touch with officials working on House committees about possibly testifying in the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, a person close to Bolton told NBC News on Friday. The news comes more than a week after the White House’s former top Europe expert, Fiona Hill, reportedly testified to Congress that Bolton was so disturbed by efforts to get Ukraine…

Ivanka Trump, then an executive at her father’s real estate company and now a senior adviser to him in the White House, so coveted the building that she suggested at the time to GSA officials that her daughter, Arabella Rose, then not yet 5 months old, would one day oversee it.

CANYON COUNTRY, Calif. (KABC) — A 4,300-acre brush fire in Canyon Country continued raging Friday morning after it destroyed homes and prompted thousands of evacuations amid dangerous red flag conditions. The Tick Fire broke out Thursday around 1:24 p.m. in the area of the 31600 block of Tick Canyon Road just south of Summit Knoll Road. With strong Santa Ana winds and dry brush, it spread quickly as it burned…

President TrumpDonald John TrumpCharles Barkley: ‘Vice President Pence needs to shut the hell up’ Democrats say whistleblower deposition no longer central to impeachment investigation: report Trump plans to appeal House subpoena for financial records to Supreme Court MORE on Friday dismissed the need for a bolstered team to defend him against House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. “Here’s the thing. I don’t have teams. Everyone’s talking about teams. I’m the team. I…

CLOSE Public opinion polling has shown noticeable shifts in attitudes towards impeachment, though every single poll has asked about impeachment differently. USA TODAY WASHINGTON – At the time, the disclosure was offered almost as a footnote to the explosive contents of a phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden. As a summary of the call was released by the White House last month,…

CLOSE Public opinion polling has shown noticeable shifts in attitudes towards impeachment, though every single poll has asked about impeachment differently. USA TODAY WASHINGTON – At the time, the disclosure was offered almost as a footnote to the explosive contents of a phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden. As a summary of the call was released by the White House last month,…

CLOSE Public opinion polling has shown noticeable shifts in attitudes towards impeachment, though every single poll has asked about impeachment differently. USA TODAY WASHINGTON – At the time, the disclosure was offered almost as a footnote to the explosive contents of a phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden. As a summary of the call was released by the White House last month,…

Image copyright Reuters Image caption William Barr’s review of the Muller Inquiry has turned into a criminal investigation The US justice department has launched a criminal investigation into the origins of the Mueller inquiry. An administrative review into the special counsel’s investigation of 2016 election interference began in May. But the switch to a criminal probe means investigators can now issue subpoenas for testimony and documents. The investigation into Russian…

The wind-driven Tick Fire prompted officials to close the 14 Freeway to commuters headed out of or into the Antelope Valley early Friday morning. The freeway was closed northbound and southbound between Golden Valley Road in Santa Clarita and Agua Dulce Canyon Road after flames jumped the roadway about 2:30 a.m. Video from the Sand Canyon area showed embers blowing from one side of the freeway and landing in the…

Pool Dr. Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings, wife of late Rep. Elijah Cummings, spoke at his funeral this morning about how her husband fought corruption amidst growing personal attacks. “And now he had to go on to actually work to fight for the soul of our democracy against very real corruption,” she said. Cummings was at the center of multiple disputes with President Trump. Over the summer, Trump tweeted disparaging remarks toward Cummings and his…

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Federal investigators need only a “reasonable indication” that a crime has been committed to open an investigation, a much lower standard than the probable cause required to obtain search warrants. However, “there must be an objective, factual basis for initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient,” according to Justice Department guidelines. When Mr. Barr appointed Mr. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, to lead the review, he had…

“These reports, if true, raise profound new concerns that the Department of Justice under AG Barr has lost its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump’s political revenge,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement. “If the Department of Justice may be used as a tool of political retribution, or to help the President with a…