Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden.

In a rare move, the Pentagon is strongly pushing back against misinformation spread on social media that falsely suggests U.S. troops have been authorized to use force against American citizens during the election.

Nevadans will vote in primaries for Congress and the state legislature on Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump is urging supporters to “guard the vote” during next year's election, a phrase that set off alarm bells among pro-democracy advocates who say it signals permission to his followers to take extreme measures.

Experts in constitutional law and the military say the Insurrection Act gives presidents tremendous power with few restraints.

The Kraken has cracked.

Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against a onetime business partner of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pursued charges against roughly half of the people recommended to her by a special grand jury tasked with investigating efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.

A special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results recommended indictments against a much larger group than prosecutors ultimately charged, including one current and two former U.S. senators.

An Associated Press analysis of campaign finance data shows that supporters and opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment change in Ohio are largely funded by out-of-state donors, despite repeated messaging about the need to get such interests out of Ohio politics.

As Democratic presidential primary candidate Robert F.

Former President Donald Trump called into an event hosted by his former national security adviser Michael Flynn over the weekend, telling his ex-adviser, “We’re going to bring you back.”.

In May 2017, comedian John Oliver tauntingly coined the phrase “Stupid Watergate” to refer to then-President Donald Trump’s ever-growing list of scandals at the time, including his reported dealings with Russia, the investigation into Michael Flynn and his firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

As the U.S. barrels toward the next presidential election, the election conspiracy movement that mushroomed after the last one shows no signs of slowing down.

The Michigan Republican Party has elected Kristina Karamo to be its next chair during a convention in Lansing.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has had his Twitter account reinstated as the United States marked the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

A judge says Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer can't share lawyers with 10 other fake electors in matters related to a special grand jury probing possible illegal meddling in the 2020 election.

A Florida judge has ruled that former national security adviser Michael Flynn must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s looking into whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.

Two days after the midterm elections, misinformation about the results remains focused on Arizona and Pennsylvania.

A day after the midterm elections, misinformation about the results is zeroing in on the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has extended the deadline for former President Donald Trump to turn over documents as part of a subpoena issued last month.

A shortage of poll workers has concerned local election officials across the country as the midterm elections approach.

Republicans have political winds at their back, but the party's nominees in Pennsylvania for governor and Senate are running dramatically different campaigns and targeting two very different types of voters.

Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, is trying to avoid having to testify before a Georgia special grand jury that’s investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to influence the state’s 2020 election.

The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed former President Donald Trump.

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is influential in the far-right Christian nationalist movement that has growing stature in the Republican Party.

The Georgia prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election has filed paperwork seeking to compel testimony from a new batch of Trump allies.

An attorney for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol told a federal judge in Phoenix on Tuesday that Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward refused to answer the committee’s questions at a deposition.

In the weeks since the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and seized about 100 documents with classification markings, the former president has insisted he had declassified the information.

Four Republicans who have promoted false claims about the 2020 presidential election and are seeking to overhaul how elections are run by becoming their state’s chief election official say they are fighting against a corrupt system.

A former national security official in the Trump White House, Matt Pottinger, and a former press aide, Sarah Matthews, will be the key witnesses at a prime-time hearing of the Jan. 6 committee.

The House Jan. 6 committee's investigation of the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and the events leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection is raising questions about former President Donald Trump’s role and whether he committed crimes.

In a heated, “unhinged” dispute, Donald Trump fought objections from his White House lawyers to a plan, eventually discarded, to seize states' voting machines, the House Jan. 6 committee has revealed.

An upcoming hearing of the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection is expected to examine ties between people in former President Donald Trump's orbit and extremist groups who played a role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Seven states are set to host primary elections Tuesday as the nation comes to terms with last week’s stunning Supreme Court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.

Several prominent conservative groups are lining up behind Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Kathy Barnette as an alternative to Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s ban of former President Donald Trump, who was booted in January 2021 for inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol, should he succeed in acquiring the social platform for $44 billion.

With six days until Pennsylvania’s primary, Republicans are openly worrying that a leading candidate in the crowded GOP field running for governor is unelectable in the fall general election.

Mehmet Oz’s rivals in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate are escalating their attacks on the celebrity heart surgeon’s connections to his parents’ native country of Turkey, raising it as a possible national security issue.

QAnon loyalists, neo-Nazis and a former American president: The list of people banned from Twitter is long, but their exile could soon end if Elon Musk buys the platform.

Republicans hoping to emerge from crowded primaries this year have spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring operatives with ties to former President Donald Trump.

The House has voted to hold former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress over their monthslong refusal to comply with subpoenas from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has voted unanimously to hold two men who served as advisers to then-President Donald Trump in contempt of Congress.

For all their angst about the possibility of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the state, GOP leaders haven’t coalesced behind an alternative.

President Joe Biden has denied executive privilege claims made by former Trump administration officials Peter Navarro and Michael Flynn in response to congressional subpoenas from the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Canadians who have disrupted trade with the U.S. and occupied downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks have been cheered and funded by American right-wing activists and conservative politicians who also oppose vaccine mandates and the country’s liberal leader.

North Carolina congressman G.

A committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to six more associates of former President Donald Trump who were involved in his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.

A cybersecurity firm plucked from relative obscurity to conduct an unprecedented review of ballots in Arizona’s largest country is readying to present its findings to Republican lawmakers.

Arizona Republicans’ partisan review of the 2020 election results got off to a rocky start when their contractors broke rules for counting ballots and election experts warned the work was dangerous for democracy.

Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford would seem to have all the conservative credentials he’d need to coast to reelection in deep-red Oklahoma.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams appears to have taken a fragile lead in New York City’s crowded Democratic mayoral primary.

For a few hours last weekend, thousands of Donald Trump’s loyal supporters came together under the blazing sun in a field in Western Wisconsin to live in an alternate reality where the former president was still in office — or would soon return.

Testimony to Congress from Donald Trump’s former top White House lawyer has “shed new light on several troubling events.”.

Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell says she created a legal defense fund to protect the integrity of U.S. elections.

The number of targets of secretive surveillance in national security investigations fell sharply last year in large part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A long-running federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine has moved back into public view after federal agents seized electronic devices from the former New York mayor.

Rudy Giuliani sought to discredit the federal investigation into his dealings in Ukraine a day after agents raided his home and office.

President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general Merrick Garland, addresses staff on his first day at the Department of Justice, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington. Welcome to the new Justice Department, likely a much tamer place to be after four years of blaring headlines under Donald Trump. The former president insisted that his attorney general, and entire department, be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation for political independence. “When I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland said, referring to Justice Department headquarters. AdAbout 15 minutes later, he took the oath of office, administered by Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus.

President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general will tell Congress the Justice Department must ensure laws are fairly and faithfully enforced," while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the departments political independence. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general says the Justice Department must ensure laws are “fairly and faithfully enforced” and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the department’s political independence. The Justice Department released a copy of Garland’s opening statement late Saturday. But Democrats repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like Trump's personal attorney than the attorney general. Garland also addresses domestic terrorism and rising extremist threats, pointing to his prior work in the Justice Department supervising the prosecution following the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.

The former "Apprentice" contestant is trying to get her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump moving again now that he's no longer president. Federal prosecutors in Washington, meanwhile, have charged some 200 Trump supporters with crimes related to the riot, including more serious conspiracy charges. There has been no indication that Trump would be charged in the riot though prosecutors have said they are looking at all angles. The same U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan also appears to have moved on from its investigation of Trump’s inaugural committee. Recently, her office has won a series of court rulings forcing Trump’s company and a law firm it hired to turn over troves of records.

Trump is expected to pardon Bannon, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, as part of a flurry of last-minute clemency action that appears to be still in flux in the last hours of his presidency. Trump did not pardon himself, despite speculation that he would, in the face of potential federal investigations. Another was Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce. Bannon was charged in August with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. “Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Twitter.

President Trump is seen on a network monitor after his pre-recorded farewell speech was released, inside the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington. “This week we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous,” Trump said in the video “farewell address,” released by the White House less than 24 hours before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump is set to leave Washington early Wednesday morning after a grand farewell event at nearby Joint Base Andrews. He is boycotting not just the ceremony at the Capitol, but also passed on inviting the Bidens to the White House for a get-to-know-you meeting. That threw an already paralyzed White House into even further chaos.

A U.S. Secret Service guard stands post at the North Portico of the White House, after the U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. Trump did not make a concession phone call or invite Biden to the White House after his victory. But last week the White House invited Biden to spend the night of Jan. 19 at Blair House. Officials do not expect Trump to invite Biden to the White House for the traditional pre-inauguration tea on Wednesday, but they said it is still a remote possibility. With Trump skipping the event, White House officials say Trump has not decided yet how and when he will leave the White House for his residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. Minutes later, Pence was taken from the Senate chamber to a secret location and police announced the lockdown of the Capitol. Even before the mob reached sealed doors of the House chamber, Capitol Police pulled Pelosi away from the podium, she told “60 Minutes.”“I said, ‘No, I want to be here,’”she said. Back in the House chamber, a woman in the balcony was seen and heard screaming. When they breached the abandoned Senate chamber, they milled around, rummaged through papers, sat at desks and took videos and pictures.

Minutes later, Pence was taken from the Senate chamber to a secret location and police announced the lockdown of the Capitol. Even before the mob reached sealed doors of the House chamber, Capitol Police pulled Pelosi away from the podium, she told “60 Minutes.”“I said, ‘No, I want to be here,’”she said. Back in the House chamber, a woman in the balcony was seen and heard screaming. When they breached the abandoned Senate chamber, they milled around, rummaged through papers, sat at desks and took videos and pictures. These domestic terrorists were in the People’s House, desecrating the People’s House, destroying the People’s House.”___Associated Press writers Dustin Weaver in Washington and Michael Casey in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Though stripped of his Twitter account for inciting rebellion, President Donald Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)BOSTON – President Donald Trump has been kicked off of most mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ siege on the U.S. Capitol. Still, Parler might be attractive to Trump since it's where his sons Eric and Don Jr. are already active. Losing Amazon Web Services will mean Parler needs to scramble to find another web host, in addition to the re-engineering. First, there may be an accelerated splintering of the social media world along ideological lines.

Though stripped of his Twitter account for inciting rebellion, President Donald Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach. Though deprived of his big online megaphones, Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach. Twitch and Snapchat also have disabled Trump’s accounts, while Shopify took down online stores affiliated with the president and Reddit removed a Trump subgroup. Twitter also banned Trump loyalists including former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a sweeping purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory and the Capitol insurrection. And not just individual citizens have free speech rights.

This Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 image shows the suspended Twitter account of President Donald Trump. On Friday, the social media company permanently suspended Trump from its platform, citing "risk of further incitement of violence." (AP Photo/Tali Arbel)Twitter banned President Donald Trump's account Friday, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence" following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. On Thursday, Facebook suspended Trump's account through Jan. 20 and possibly indefinitely. Twitter merely suspended Trump's account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol.

On Wednesday, hallowed spaces of American democracy, one after another, yielded to the occupation of Congress. Trump told his morning crowd at the Ellipse that he would go with them to the Capitol, but he didn’t. Yet Trump, in a video posted 90 minutes after lawmakers were evacuated, told the insurrectionists “We love you. He said security officers urged lawmakers to put gas masks on and herded them into a corner of the massive room. Shortly after being told to put on gas masks, most members were quickly escorted out of the chamber.

At least two local Black churches had Black Lives Matter banners torn down and set ablaze. Tarrio was accused of burning one of the Black Lives Matter banners in December and was found with two high-capacity firearm magazines, police said. A number of prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, the recipient of a pardon by the president. During previous pro-Trump protests, police sealed off Black Lives Matter Plaza itself, but the confrontations spilled out to the surrounding streets. Black Lives Matter Plaza was sealed off Tuesday.

“Tellers” from the House and Senate will record each states’ electoral votes. “He can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification," Trump said. People close to the vice president stressed his respect for institutions and said they expect him to act in accordance with the law and hew to the Constitution. In 2017, it fell to Biden to intone, “It is over” after votes were tallied for Trump and Pence. The scene appeared animated as the president, Pence and their chiefs of staff met with lawyer John Eastman and others.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – The video message that plunged Washington into chaos was filmed in secret. On Wednesday, few Republicans or even White House staffers knew what Trump plans next, in a return to the around-the-clock chaos of his first months in office. “There are mixed signals from the White House leaving more confusion than calm,” Biden noted on Wednesday. Trump personally played little role in the negotiations, though the White House had initially sent signals that he would sign the bill.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

He and his allies have discussed a range of other possibilities, including members of Trump's family and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Trump also commuted the sentences of five other people, including former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas. Trump also announced pardons for two people entangled in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has granted about 2% of requested pardons in his single term in office — just 27 before Tuesday's announcement. Bush, another one-term president, granted 10% of requests.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump floated naming lawyer Sidney Powell, who was booted from his campaign's legal team after pushing unfounded conspiracy theories, as a special counsel investigating allegations of voter fraud as he grasps for straws to stay in power. It is unclear whether Trump intends to try to move forward with the effort to install Powell. Trump’s campaign and his allies have now filed roughly 50 lawsuits alleging widespread voting fraud and almost all have been dismissed or dropped. That includes Giuliani, who during the Friday meeting pushed Trump to seize voting machines in his hunt for evidence of fraud. "She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. Trump announced that Barr would be stepping down from his position on Dec. 23, amid lingering tension between the president and the attorney general over the Hunter Biden investigation. Appointing a special counsel could prove to be complicated, requiring consolidating different investigatory angles and bringing in someone new to run the probe and get up to speed. Either way, the probe is complicating Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general, upon whose shoulders this probe would land. Any nominee for attorney general is likely to face a mountain of questions at a confirmation hearing about how they would oversee the probe.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. Trump announced that Barr would be stepping down from his position on Dec. 23, amid lingering tension between the president and the attorney general over the Hunter Biden investigation. Trump was angry for days after learning that Barr knew of the Hunter Biden tax investigation before the election but did not disclose it. Appointing a special counsel for the Hunter Biden probe would also signal a more prolonged and complicated investigation than the current inquiry, so far largely centered on his taxes. Either way, the probe is complicating Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general, upon whose shoulders this probe would land.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on Operation Legend in St. Louis. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power. Trump was also said to blame Barr for comments from FBI Director Chris Wray on election fraud and mail-in voting that didn’t jibe with the president’s alarmist rhetoric.

(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)WASHINGTON – Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. “This weekend, we saw forces of hate seeking to use destruction and intimidation to tear us apart,” District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization decried the attacks on the churches, partly faulting police for allowing white supremacists to “run rampant." A pro-Trump demonstration last month, which drew 10,000 to 15,000 people to the capital, also ended late on a Saturday evening with scattered clashes between Trump's allies and local activists near Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House. On Saturday, police took more steps to keep the two sides apart, closing a wide swath of downtown to traffic and sealing off Black Lives Matter Plaza.

ATLANTA – Conservative attorney Sidney Powell has been unrelenting in her battle on behalf of President Donald Trump and the Americans who have pledged their faith in him, regardless of the facts of the 2020 election – namely, that Joe Biden won. “I’m going to release the Kraken,” Powell said in a Fox Business interview in mid-November, an apparent reference to the film “Clash of the Titans” in which Zeus gives the order to release the mythical sea monster. Powell did not immediately respond to a voicemail left Thursday at her Dallas law firm. Despite being tossed off the president’s legal team, Powell has continued to push his claim that the election was stolen. As they were filed, lawyers across the country reacted on social media, some puzzling about her strategy and others outright mocking her in paragraph-by-paragraph analysis.

President Donald Trump has pardoned Michael Flynn, taking direct aim in the final days of his administration at a Russia investigation that he has long insisted was motivated by political bias. Trump announced the pardon on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020 calling it his Great Honor. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn but pointedly noted that a pardon Flynn received from the president last month does not mean that he is innocent. The order from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan was expected in light of the pardon from President Donald Trump that wiped away Flynn's conviction for lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation. "Because the law recognizes the President’s political power to pardon, the appropriate course is to dismiss this case as moot."

WASHINGTON – Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority,” Schumer said. Trump then featured Johnson's story in a Super Bowl ad and pardoned her during this year's Republican National Convention. He has participated in several meetings at the White House during Trump's term as officials brainstormed potential changes to the formal clemency process. “For those people that should be free," he said, Trump's friends-and-family approach to pardons is "a deep and real tragedy."

Most of the information in the 18-page court order is redacted, including the identity of the people whom prosecutors are investigating and whom the proposed pardon might be intended for. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night: “Pardon investigation is Fake News!”The existence of the investigation, first reported by CNN, was revealed in a court order from U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of Washington's federal court. The investigative team will be able to use that material to confront any subject or target of the investigation, the judge wrote. As part of the investigation, more than 50 devices, including laptops and iPads, have been seized, according to the document. Pardons are common at the end of a president's tenure and are occasionally politically fraught affairs as some convicted felons look to leverage connections inside the White House to secure clemency.

“We have to turn the election over,” Trump said from the Oval Office, where he joined the meeting by speakerphone. “We won it by a lot.” In fact, the election gave Biden a clear mandate, and no systemic fraud has been uncovered. Judge after judge has dismissed the Trump campaign’s accusations as baseless, and the transition to Biden’s presidency is fully underway. Biden is expected to stay through the weekend in Rehoboth before returning to Wilmington for further work on the transition. Trump will forgo his usual plans to celebrate Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and will instead remain at the White House.

President Donald Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, taking direct aim in the final days of his administration at a Russia investigation that he has long insisted was motivated by political bias. “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted. Trump himself has repeatedly spoken warmly about Flynn, even though special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors once praised him as a model cooperator in their probe into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. The conversation alarmed the FBI, which at the time was investigating whether the Trump campaign and Russia had coordinated to sway the election’s outcome. It cited internal FBI notes showing that agents had planned to close out their investigation into Flynn weeks earlier.

“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon," Trump tweeted. A Justice Department official said the department was not consulted on the pardon and learned Wednesday of the plan. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, noted that the president has the legal power to pardon Flynn. “Americans soundly rejected this nonsense when they voted out President Trump. But last May, after years of defending the prosecution, the Justice Department abruptly reversed its position.

President-elect Joe Bidens first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for his White House staff have prized staying power over star power, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy. President-elect Joe Biden has prized staying power over star power when making his first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for White House staff, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy. “Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory — made possible through decades of experience working with our partners,” Biden said Tuesday as he unveiled his national security team. His choice for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under President Barack Obama. ___EDITOR'S NOTE — Jonathan Lemire has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2013.

She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity," Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement. There was no immediate clarification from the campaign and Powell did not immediately return an email seeking comment. The statement hints at further tumult for a legal team that has lost case after case in contested states as it works to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election. Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his show last week that his team had asked Powell for evidence to support her claims, but that Powell had provided none.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. President Trump and his allies are harking back to his own transition four years ago to make a false argument that his own presidency was denied a fair chance for a clean launch. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany laid out the case from the White House podium last week. That's a far cry from the description issued by McEnany as pressure mounts for Trump to concede and for his administration to begin cooperating with Biden's transition team. But Trump's team largely ignored advice from Obama staffers, leaving briefing books unopened and ignoring special iPads loaded with materials.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., questions former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, on a probe of the FBI's Russia investigation. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump may have lost his bid for reelection, but that hasn’t stopped Senate Republicans from pressing forward with their politically charged probe of the FBI’s Russia investigation. “This is a last ditch, desperate undertaking to deal with President Trump’s grievances about that election,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said of the hearing. Most of the criticism of the Russia investigation has centered on flaws in applications to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Even so, a Justice Department inspector general report from last year concluded that the Russia investigation was opened for a valid and legitimate purpose.

Yet in the 2020 campaign, Democrats are largely ignoring the Russia probe. While some of the revelations from the steady drip of newly declassified documents are serious, they do not undercut the reasons the Russia probe was launched or its principal findings. Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr has appointed a prosecutor to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Meanwhile, attacking the Russia probe is a core part of Trump's campaign. Those attacks on the Russia probe may not win over many undecided voters.

WASHINGTON – A lawyer for former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn told a judge Tuesday that she recently updated President Donald Trump on the case and asked him not to issue a pardon for her client. Attorney General William Barr, who appointed a U.S. attorney from Missouri to investigate the handling of the case, moved in May to dismiss the case despite Flynn's own guilty plea in the Russia investigation. At the time, the FBI was investigating whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia to tip the election in Trump's favor. Lawyers for the federal government revived their efforts to persuade Sullivan that dismissing the Flynn case was in the interests of justice. In recent weeks, as part of the review of the Flynn case being conducted by U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen of St. Louis, the Justice Department has identified correspondence that it regards as possibly favorable to Flynn and supportive of the decision to drop the case.

WASHINGTON – A federal prosecutor who was helping lead the investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe has resigned from the Justice Department, a spokesman said. It leaves the investigative team without one of its veteran prosecutors as key decisions presumably await before the probe wraps up. In the year and a half since, he has questioned former law enforcement and intelligence officials — former CIA Director John Brennan among them — about decisions made during the course of the Russia probe. It's also not clear that Durham's work would be permitted to continue if Trump loses in November and Democratic leadership assumes control at the Justice Department. The court ruled that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan did not have to dismiss the case just because the Justice Department wanted him to.

Strzok, a former FBI agent who was fired because of derogatory text messages about Donald Trump, writes in a new book that he believes the president has been compromised by Russia. Strzok, for his part, expresses measured regret for the texts in Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, due out Tuesday. Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation revealed significant contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia but found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy. By his own count, Strzok says, Trump has attacked him since then more than 100 times in tweets. After Trump accused Strzok of treason, he appealed to the FBI for a statement condemning the remarks, but got none.

WASHINGTON A former FBI lawyer will plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the probe of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. The investigation has proceeded alongside a parallel effort by Senate Republicans to discredit the Russia probe and as Attorney General William Barr has escalated his own criticism of the FBI's probe. Clinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the department's inspector general's office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation. Former Attorney General Eric Holder selected him during the Obama administration to investigate the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects and the destruction of videotapes documenting that interrogation. Barr signaled his skepticism with the Russia investigation right away, concluding that Trump had not obstructed justice even though Mueller had pointedly left that question unresolved.

WASHINGTON A federal appeals court in Washington appeared inclined Tuesday to let a judge decide on his own whether to grant the Justice Department's request to dismiss the criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn. A ruling against Flynn would not undo his guilty plea or end the case but simply return it to Sullivan for a hearing on the government's request to dismiss. The entire court took up the matter after a three-judge panel, in a 2-1 ruling, ordered Sullivan to dismiss the case. Those concerns prompted alarm within the FBI because White House officials had stating publicly that Flynn and the ambassador had not discussed sanctions. Flynn was awaiting sentencing when the Justice Department announced in May that it was abandoning the case following an internal review.

WASHINGTON The entire Washington-based federal appeals court is stepping into the legal dispute over former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn as it weighs whether a judge can be forced to dismiss a case that the Justice Department no longer wants to pursue. The action Thursday by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacates a decision from a three-judge panel last month that ordered the case dropped. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. That prosecutor, Jeff Jensen of Missouri, recommended that the department dismiss the case. Flynns lawyers asked the appeals court to step in and order Sullivan to grant the departments request.

Barr is scheduled to appear for the first time before the House Judiciary Committeeon Tuesday, July 28. Massive but peaceful demonstrations had followed Floyd's death in May. But he will also condemn Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death through what he said was rioting and anarchy. Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial team's departure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC that Democrats want to question Barr about how Trump is undermining the Constitution of the United States. Barr previously rebuffed the House committee and Pelosi said that we hope that he will show up."