Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's nomination for attorney general is being met with a variety of reactions from Republicans, including cautious reservation, praise and pointed criticism.

The Justice Department says a Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil.

Republicans in Congress are embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict.

Donald Trump’s former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called the former president a “threat to democracy” and says he won't vote for him in 2024.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official and others it says took part in wide-ranging plots to kill former national security adviser John Bolton and others around the world, including at least one additional U.S. government official.

Russia couldn’t escape its war against Ukraine during it highly contentious presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and the war will still loom over Switzerland as it takes over the monthlong presidency for the first time since becoming a full member of the United Nations in 2002.

A former U.S. national security adviser has called for deeper interaction between his country and Taiwan during a visit to the self-ruled island, which has seen increasing military threats from China.

Virtually everything was going right for President Joe Biden to open the year.

Donald Trump isn’t the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records.

The Biden administration says it has responded to Iran’s latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

The Biden administration is expected to weigh in this week on Iran’s latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

Former President Donald Trump has had a lifelong habit of collecting things.

Last week’s attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national for plotting to murder former national security adviser John Bolton have given the Biden administration new headaches as it attempts to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The Justice Department says an Iranian operative has been charged in a plot to murder former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

Former Vice President Mike Pence will publish his autobiography just after this year’s midterm elections and it will be titled “So Help Me God.”.

Russia has been threatening to expand military ties with allies Venezuela and Cuba amid rising tensions with the U.S. over Ukraine.

Donald Trump’s excommunication from the Republican Party seemed a near certainty on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a raging band of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn his election loss.

President Joe Biden’s sister, confidante and longtime political strategist, Valerie Biden Owens, has a book deal.

The author of “Fire and Fury,” the million-seller from 2018 that helped launched the wave of inside accounts of the Trump White House, will have a last look coming out next month.

The Justice Department has abandoned its lawsuit against John Bolton, who was former President Donald Trump's onetime security adviser, over his book that officials argued disclosed classified information.

This cover image released by Gallery Books shows "Beautiful Things" a memoir by Hunter Biden. Biden, son of President Joe Biden and an ongoing target for conservatives, has a memoir coming out April 6. (Gallery Books via AP)NEW YORK – Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden and an ongoing target for conservatives, has a memoir coming out April 6. The book is called “Beautiful Things” and will center on the younger Biden's well publicized struggles with substance abuse, according to Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. “Beautiful Things” was circulated among several authors and includes advance praise from Stephen King, Dave Eggers and Anne Lamott.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying speaks during the daily press briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Liu Zheng)WASHINGTON – China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former Trump administration officials moments after they left office on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Pompeo announced that he had declared China's repression of Muslim ethnic minorities a “genocide," possibly opening the door to new U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials. The Trump administration had steadily ramped up pressure on China since last year but had increasingly so over the past several months. During its last weeks in office, the administration had hit numerous officials with sanctions for their actions on Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Monday re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” hitting the country with new sanctions that could hamstring President-elect Joe Biden's promise to renew relations with the communist-governed island. Since Trump took office, after a campaign that attacked Obama's moves to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have been increasingly strained. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned the U.S. action. The latest sanctions put Cuba alongside North Korea, Syria and Iran as the only foreign nations deemed state sponsors of terrorism. Obama’s removal of Cuba from the “state sponsors of terrorism” list had been a major target of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuba hawks in the current administration.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asks questions during a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to discuss election security and the 2020 election process on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. In a statement Thursday, Simon & Schuster announced that “After witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place on Wednesday in Washington, D.C, Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book, ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech.' Simon & Schuster quickly issued another statement: “We are confident that we are acting fully within our contractual rights” to cancel the book. Simon & Schuster has had numerous clashes with Trump and his supporters over the last few years. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined comment on whether the publisher would be interested in a new Trump book.

But President Donald Trump, long wary of blaming Moscow for cyberattacks has so far been silent. But President Donald Trump, long wary of blaming Moscow for cyberattacks, has been silent. Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow did not commit to blaming the Kremlin, saying, “People are saying Russia. The Trump administration and Western allies similarly expelled diplomats over Moscow's alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain. Exposing Kremlin corruption, including how Russian President Vladimir Putin accrues and hides his wealth, may amount to even more formidable retaliation.

President Donald Trump listens during an event in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, on prescription drug prices. Experts on Michigan election law said the Board of State Canvassers' authority was limited in scope. The Michigan Legislature would be called on to select electors if Trump succeeded in persuading the board not to certify the results. In two Democratic-leaning counties in Wisconsin that are recounting votes, Trump’s campaign sought to discard tens of thousands of absentee ballots that it alleged should not have been counted. "It’s an open attempt to intimidate election officials, it’s absolutely appalling.

President Donald Trump, left, gesturing while playing golf at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., as seen from the other side of the Potomac River in Darnestown, Md., Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump worked to take back an apparent acknowledgment that Joe Biden won the White House and was making clear he would keep trying to overturn the election result. Trump, without using Biden's name, said that “He won" as part of a tweet that made baseless claims about a “rigged" election. The American people did that.”A Republican governor, Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, said “it was good, actually” to see Trump's tweet that Biden won. Donald Trump lost what by any evidence we have so far was a free and fair election."

NEW YORK – One of the top chroniclers of the Trump administration, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman, has a book deal. Penguin Press announced Thursday that the Pulitzer Prize winner's book, currently untitled, would come out in 2022. “Maggie Haberman’s book will be an instant classic, a definitive and fascinating account of Donald Trump, his life and his presidency," Penguin vice president and publisher Scott Moyers said in a statement . Haberman was represented by the Javelin literary agency, whose other clients include former FBI Director James Comey and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. In 2017, Haberman and fellow Times reporter Glenn Thrush reached an agreement with Random House for a book on Trump, but the deal fell through after Thrush was accused by several women of sexual harassment.

Trump's appearance Wednesday at the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery was his first public outing for official business in more than a week. Staff working from the White House thinned out after chief of staff Mark Meadows confirmed last week that he had tested positive for the virus. Outside the White House, one prominent former ally turned Trump critic warned that the president was doing potentially irreparable damage to the Republican Party. White House spokesman Judd Deere said he was “not aware” of any communications between the White House and the GSA administrator on ascertainment. The Biden transition team has published an ethics plan and the Trump administration earlier established a White House Transition Coordinating Council as required by law.

NEW YORK – One of publishing's most thriving genres of the past four years, books about President Donald Trump, is not going to end when he leaves office. In 2021 and beyond, look for waves of releases about the Trump administration and about the president's loss to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. “But there are tens of millions of Americans who look to the Trump presidency as an important time and are fans of his administration. Center Street, a Hachette Book Group imprint, has published Donald Trump Jr., Newt Gingrich and Judge Jeanine Pirro among others. Any publisher signing with Trump or a top administration official might face the anger not just of Trump critics among the general public, but from within the industry.

Trump did not back up his claims with any details or evidence, and state and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud. Counting votes is often “long” and “frustrating,” Romney said. Most in the GOP take pains to avoid directly criticizing Trump, even when they find his conduct unhelpful or offensive to their values and goals. But one of Trump’s top congressional supporters said he supports efforts to question the vote counting process and is donating money to shore up legal challenges. Chris Christie, a Trump ally who is an analyst for ABC News, said there was no basis for Trump's argument.

WASHINGTON – A senior White House official made an unusual, secret visit to Syria for high-level talks aimed at securing the release of two Americans who have been missing for years amid the country's long civil war, Trump administration officials said Monday. The trip, the first high-level visit by an American official to Syria in years, was first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal. Direct talks had also been sought by the missing journalist's parents, Marc and Debra Tice. The paper, which usually conveys government positions, said Syrian officials have demanded a U.S. troop withdrawal from eastern Syria, where they have been deployed alongside Kurdish fighters. Trump has made negotiating the release of U.S. citizens held hostage or imprisoned in foreign countries a priority.

The Justice Department alleges that Bolton's book, “The Room Where It Happened,” contains classified information, and the government sued in June to try to prevent the release. Though the book was published, a suit accusing Bolton of breaking agreements with the government by disclosing classified information and by failing to complete a required pre-publication review can proceed, U.S District Judge Royce Lamberth said in a 27-page opinion. His decision Thursday clears the way for the Justice Department's suit to move forward, including the government's efforts to seize proceeds from the book. The judge said the government had reasonably shown that Bolton disclosed classified information without first confirming that it was unclassified. But White House officials later conducted a second review that they said identified classified information still in the book.

“People need to understand how dangerous a moment we are in.”There are plenty of others weighing the same decision. But Mattis and Coats, like former White House chief of staff John Kelly and former national security adviser H.R. The White House punched back with an aggressive attack campaign aimed at discrediting her through a barrage of statements, interviews and denunciations from the lectern in the White House briefing room. “The White House knows if they show this is a very costly thing to do they will scare people from going forward," he said. He added that while more people are still considering coming forward, the White House tactics have worked to some extent — dissuading one senior official who had been on the cusp of speaking out.

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for former national security adviser John Bolton told a judge Thursday they want to interview White House officials following new allegations that a pre-publication review of his tell-all book was politicized in an effort to block its release. But after she advised National Security Council lawyers that she intended to clear the book for publication, she was told to take no action. Weeks later, she learned that a White House official who she says had no previous classification experience had been instructed to conduct a second review of the manuscript. The book, which details Bolton's 17 months as Trump's top national security adviser, contained description of Trump's conversations with foreign leaders that could be seen as damaging to the president. “What is unprecedented here is a national security adviser releasing his memoir (of his time as) a national security adviser within months of leaving that job,” said Justice Department lawyer Jennifer Dickey.

But in many ways, there’s a love-hate relationship between the North and the U.N. And it raises a lingering question: What, exactly, does North Korea get out of membership in the United Nations? “When North Korea becomes a non-nuclear state and opens itself up, it can better engage in multilateral diplomacy as a genuine member of the international community,” Chung said. Three years later, North Korea and South Korea became nations. Two years after that, in 1950, North Korea sneak-attacked the South to start the bloody three-year Korean War. ___Associated Press correspondents Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this story.

FILE - In this April 29, 2017, file photo journalist Bob Woodward sits at the head table during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)NEW YORK – Bob Woodward's “Rage” sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week of publication, continuing a yearlong wave of blockbuster books about President Donald Trump. Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that Woodward's book will be going into its fourth printing, with total books in print to be 1.3 million copies. Featuring 18 interviews with President Trump, including one in which he acknowledges in February the potential severity of the coronavirus, “Rage” has topped Amazon.com and other bestseller lists since coming out Sept. 15. “Rage” also hasn't matched the pace of Woodward's previous Trump book, “Fear,” which sold more than 1 million copies its first week and has sold 2 million since its 2018 release.

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan bill aimed at keeping goods out of the U.S. that are made with the forced labor of detained ethnic minorities in China passed overwhelmingly Tuesday in the House of Representatives despite concerns about the potential effects on global commerce. The House voted 406-3 to declare that any goods produced in the vast Xinjiang region of northwestern China are presumptively made with the forced labor of detained Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, and therefore banned from being imported to the U.S. Imports made with forced labor have been banned since 1930 to ensure fair trade. The bill passed Tuesday would go further, shifting the burden to any company that operates in Xinjiang or buys goods from there to prove their goods are not tainted. Republicans and Democrats have been vocal in their condemnation of China over the treatment of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.

A man walk past portraits of former United Nations Secretary-Generals, Monday, Sept. 21, 2020 at United Nations headquarters. Leaders will not be traveling to the United Nations in New York for their addresses, which will be prerecorded. No access to world leaders on the U.N. grounds will be possible, therefore, and access to most anything will be extremely curtailed. In a snub to the United Nations, the United States instead was represented by its acting deputy U.N. ambassador, Cherith Norman Chalet. “In many ways, the United Nations has proven to be a successful experiment,” Chalet said.

WASHINGTON – Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton will cooperate with any investigation related to the recent publication of his tell-all book, which the Justice Department has said contains classified information, his lawyer said Tuesday. The statement from Bolton's attorney, Charles Cooper, followed reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that a federal grand jury had subpoenaed communications records from Simon & Schuster, which published Bolton's book, “The Room Where it Happened,” in June. “We are aware of reports that grand jury subpoenas have been issued seeking information concerning the publication of Ambassador Bolton‘s recent book," Cooper said in a statement. It was only later, Bolton's lawyers say, that other White House officials told him the book still included classified government secrets. “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States.

Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing President Donald Trump's early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press that he needed time to be sure that Trump's private comments from February were accurate. Woodward, the celebrated Washington Post journalist and best-selling author, spoke with Trump more than a dozen times for his book. Trump says things that don't check out, right? Woodward told the AP during a telephone interview. But Woodward said that only in May was he satisfied that Trump's comments were based on reliable information and that by then the virus had spread nationwide. "If I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that's not telling us anything we didn't know," Woodward said.

TANZANIA The United States and most of the rest of the U.N. Security Council dug in their heels Thursday on diametrically opposed positions over the restoration of international sanctions on Iran. In increasingly intense rhetorical terms, U.S. officials insisted they had acted legitimately in triggering a so-called snapback mechanism that would re-impose all U.N. sanctions Iran next month. But Pompeo said that wouldnt matter, citing the process for sanctions re-imposition outlined in council resolution that enshrined the nuclear deal. Under the terms of that resolution, if a participant in the deal accuses Iran of significant non-performance, the council must vote affirmatively to continue sanctions relief. If any member of the UN Security Council introduces a resolution to continue sanctions relief, the U.S. will oppose it, Pompeo said.

The United States intends to restore virtually all of the previously suspended United Nations sanctions on Iran, Trump said on Wednesday. None of them believes the U.S. has the standing to do it because Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal two years ago. As with the arms embargo, Russia and China bitterly oppose reimposing other U.N. sanctions on Iran. The Europeans fear that the re-imposition of sanctions may prompt Iran to quit the nuclear deal entirely and plow ahead with efforts to develop atomic weapons. This will be a fully valid enforceable Security Council resolution and we have every expectation that it will be enforced just like every other Security Council resolution that is in place, Pompeo said Wednesday.

The sanctions had been eased under the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from two years ago. It allows participants to demand the restoration of all U.N. sanctions in a complicated procedure that cannot be blocked by a veto. Alone among the council's 15 members, the U.S. argues that as an original participant in the nuclear deal it retains the right to demand restoration of sanctions. But whether any other council member will respond to the U.S. move by introducing a resolution to extend sanctions relief is an open question. We dont know if any country will do that," said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director of the International Crisis Group.

WASHINGTON Veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book about President Donald Trump is titled Rage and will be released Sept. 15, less than two months before Election Day, according to a listing on Amazon.com. Publisher Simon & Schuster says the forthcoming book follows Trumps moves as he faces a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. It says Woodward conducted a series of exclusive interviews with the president. The Amazon listing also notes that Woodward obtained 25 personal letters between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including one in which Kim describes their bond as something out of a fantasy film.Woodward's first book about the Trump presidency, Fear, was published in 2018 and went to No. 1 on The New York Times' nonfiction bestseller list. Simon & Schuster was the publisher of two books this year that were harshly critical of Trump: The Room Where It Happened, by former national security adviser John Bolton, and Too Much and Never Enough, by Trump's niece Mary Trump.

NEW YORK President Donald Trump is adamant that he wants another four years in office. But he offered few clues about what he would do if he remains in the White House. He similarly stammered through an interview last month when pressed by a friendly TV host to talk about what a second term would look like. Trump is reshaping his campaign, announcing Wednesday that veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien will replace Brad Parscale as campaign manager. When asked for the presidents second-term agenda, the White House pointed to Trumps response to COVID-19 but offered little in the way of specifics.

NEW YORK Mary L. Trump's scathing memoir about her uncle, President Donald Trump, is nearly a million seller on preorders alone. Simon & Schuster announced Thursday that Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough had sold a company record 950,000 copies in combined print, digital and audio editions as of its date of sale, earlier this week. Another anti-Trump book from Simon & Schuster, former National Security Advisor John Bolton's The Room Where It Happened, sold nearly 800,000 copies in its first week when released last month. President Trump and his allies had tried to stop both books from coming out, alleging that Bolton had revealed classified information and that Mary Trump had violated a nondisclosure agreement. Judges in each case denied requests for injunctions.

Attorney General William Barr participates in a law enforcement briefing on the MS-13 gang with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON The United States has become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday. Barr's address at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is part of a full-court press by the Trump administration to denounce China. Hollywood, too, has fallen influence to Beijing, Barr said, accusing filmmakers of censoring themselves in line with Chinese propaganda. A world marching to the beat of Communist Chinas drums will not be a hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade, or the free exchange of ideas, Barr said.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Washington. The president traded the arena-style rallies he favors for the sun-drenched heat of the typically apolitical White House Rose Garden. The shift presented a challenge for a president who thrives on the validation of his supporters and uses their energy to propel his White House bid. Since the early days of his campaign, Biden has sought to portray himself as an empathetic, competent counter to the turbulence of Trump's administration. As vice president, Biden was a leading advocate of the Paris climate accord, which was unbelievably expensive to our country," Trump said.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Washington. The president traded the arena-style rallies he favors for the sun-drenched heat of the typically apolitical White House Rose Garden. The shift presented a challenge for a president who thrives on the validation of his supporters and uses their energy to propel his White House bid. Since the early days of his campaign, Biden has sought to portray himself as an empathetic, competent counter to the turbulence of Trump's administration. As vice president, Biden was a leading advocate of the Paris climate accord, which was unbelievably expensive to our country," Trump said.

Trump campaign officials believe they missed that opportunity in trying to wrest Midwest states from the Democrats in 2016. Trump said hed get tough on China, one of Biden campaign ads says. The Biden campaign says Trump has weakened relations with allies and pulled the U.S. out of international organizations, giving China more room to exert its own influence. Biden campaign officials say that if Biden is elected, he will restore relationships with U.S. allies and rally the international community to form a united front against China. That first phase is smaller than the comprehensive deal Trump had hoped for and leaves many of the thorniest issues between the two countries for future talks.

Still another said Republicans worry the GOP brand of cutting taxes could be overshadowed by Trump's drive to defend Confederate monuments. 2 Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota said last week. He said GOP candidates need to do what they need to do to win. Republican Senate candidates will have to defend things President Trump says and does between now and Election Day, said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist and longtime Trump foe. He said he believes independent swing voters abandoning Trump will be willing to back GOP Senate candidates and expressed cautious optimism.

SEOUL North Korea on Saturday reiterated it has no immediate plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States unless Washington discards what it describes as hostile polices toward Pyongyang. The statement by North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui came days after President Donald Trumps former national security adviser, John Bolton, told reporters that Trump might seek another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as an October surprise ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Is it possible to hold dialogue or have any dealings with the U.S. which persists in the hostile policy toward the DPRK in disregard of the agreements already made at the past summit? Choe said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Some analysts believe North Korea would avoid serious negotiations with the United States at least until the November presidential election as theres a chance U.S. leadership could change. The North in recent months have also been ramping up pressure against South Korea, blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory and threatening to abandon a bilateral military agreement aimed at reduce tensions.

But former intelligence officials say presidents are routinely informed about intelligence even when its not definitively confirmed. Some questions and answers about how presidents are briefed on intelligence, what sort of information they receive and how this applies to the situation with Russia:HOW DO PRESIDENTS RECEIVE NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION? The PDB, as it is known, is a compilation of intelligence and national security assessments from government analysts. Theres no mathematical formula for deciding what gets briefed to the president, said David Priess, a former CIA intelligence briefer and author of The Presidents Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to Americas Presidents." After news broke about the intelligence, Trump was briefed, the White House said.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Pool)WASHINGTON Criticized for inaction, President Donald Trump and top officials stepped up their defense of the administration's response to intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The president has repeatedly said he wasnt briefed on the assessments that Russia offered bounties because there wasnt corroborating evidence. Those assessments were first reported by The New York Times, then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter. Senate Republicans who received their own briefing largely agreed with the White House that the intelligence was unverified. Intelligence officials told the AP that the White House first became aware of alleged Russian bounties in early 2019 a year earlier than had been previously reported.

But former intelligence officials say presidents are routinely informed about intelligence even when its not definitively confirmed. Some questions and answers about how presidents are briefed on intelligence, what sort of information they receive and how this applies to the situation with Russia:HOW DO PRESIDENTS RECEIVE NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION? The PDB, as it is known, is a compilation of intelligence and national security assessments from government analysts. Theres no mathematical formula for deciding what gets briefed to the president, said David Priess, a former CIA intelligence briefer and author of The Presidents Book." After news broke about the intelligence, Trump was briefed, the White House said.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and a small group of other House Democrats met with White House officials as Trump downplayed the allegations. One official said the administration discussed several potential responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any. Intelligence officials told the AP that the White House first became aware of alleged Russian bounties in early 2019 a year earlier than had been previously reported. Bolton declined to comment on that matter, and the White House did not respond to questions. The intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter insisted on anonymity to discuss the highly sensitive matter.

FILE - In this July 19, 2019, file photo, then-National security adviser John Bolton speaks at the request of President Donald Trump during a photo opportunity in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported. That's according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence. Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this July 19, 2019, file photo, then-National security adviser John Bolton speaks at the request of President Donald Trump during a photo opportunity in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. That's according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence. Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:1. AP SOURCES: WHITE HOUSE KNEW OF BOUNTIES IN 2019 Top Trump administration officials were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans.

However, the classified assessment of Russian bounties was the sole purpose of the meeting. The intelligence in 2019 and 2020 surrounding Russian bounties was derived in part from debriefings of captured Taliban militants. The U.S. is investigating whether any Americans died as a result of the Russian bounties. Hendriks' father told the AP that even a rumor of Russian bounties should have been immediately addressed. As of April 2019, the attack was under a separate investigation, unrelated to the Russian bounties, to determine how it unfolded.

The revelations cast new doubt on the White Houses efforts to distance Trump from the Russian intelligence assessments. However, the classified assessment of Russian bounties was the sole purpose of the meeting. The intelligence in 2019 and 2020 surrounding Russian bounties was derived in part from debriefings of captured Talbian militants. The U.S. is investigating whether any Americans died as a result of the Russian bounties. As of April 2019, the attack was under a separate investigation, unrelated to the Russian bounties, to determine how it unfolded.

WASHINGTON Eight Republican lawmakers attended a White House briefing about explosive allegations that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan intelligence the White House insisted the president himself had not been fully read in on. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted Trump had not been briefed on the findings because they hadn't been verified. One official said the administration discussed several potential responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step. Bolton declined to comment, and the White House did not respond to questions on the matter. The intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter insisted on anonymity to discuss the highly sensitive matter.

The AP found that the population control measures are backed by mass detention both as a threat and as a punishment for failure to comply. However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the reports of forced birth control for minorities were shocking and disturbing in a statement Monday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian fired back on Tuesday by calling Pompeo a brazen liar, saying the Uighur population had more than doubled since 1978 in response to criticism of Xinjiangs birth control policies. For decades, Xinjiangs population grew quickly, as minorities enjoyed laxer birth control restrictions than Han Chinese. on them. University of Colorado researcher Darren Byler said the Chinese state-orchestrated assault on Xinjiang's minorities does echo past birth control programs.

President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he walks on the South Lawn after arriving on Marine One at the White House, Thursday, June 25, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has denied that he was made aware of U.S. intelligence officials conclusions that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan. The assessment was first reported by The New York Times and then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and two others with knowledge of the matter. The intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the highly sensitive matter. One official said the administration discussed several potential responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step.

Robert O'Brien, assistant to the president for national security affairs, removes a face covering prior to speaking during a news conference regarding China Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Phoenix. The days of American passivity and naivety regarding the Peoples Republic of China are over, OBrien told a group business leaders in Phoenix. It follows on the heels of former national security John Bolton's book that alleges Trump was soft on Chinese President Xi Jinping and other authoritarian leaders to advance his own political agenda. As China grew richer and stronger, we believed that the Chinese Communist Party would liberalize to meet the rising democratic aspirations of its people, OBrien said. He said he was not attacking the Chinese people, but the Chinese Communist Party.

And he had refused to even alert Washington to cases his high-profile department was working on. He was never formally nominated to the post by Trump, despite having been personally interviewed for the job by the president. He eventually consented to leave after Barr said Trump had officially fired him and the second in command of the office would take over. The message to the public from New York Citys government appears to favor certain secular gatherings and disfavor religious gatherings, wrote Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. Justice Department officials insisted the de Blasio letter played no role and Barr didn't know about Berman's refusal to sign it when he sent out the statement.

President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally at BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Saturday, June 20, 2020. Collectively, the three networks had nearly 12 million viewers for its Trump coverage, Nielsen said. NBC had 3.1 million, ABC had 2.7 million, Univision had 1.38 million, Fox had 1.35 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 760,000. Tucker Carlson Tonight (Monday), 4.21 million. Tucker Carlson Tonight (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.051 million.

President Donald Trump points during his campaign rally at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa, Okla., Saturday, June 20, 2020. The political world was genuinely surprised to see thousands of empty seats at Trump's comeback rally in Oklahoma over the weekend. And perhaps more importantly, the finger-pointing inside Trump's campaign will intensify ahead of a possible staff shakeup. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election. ___Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

The purpose: to lure Exxon back to Venezuela after a decade's absence and inject much-needed dynamism into the OPEC nation's collapsing oil industry. But Sessions did engage in other mediation efforts in Venezuela over the next 15 months. The earlier email regarding Exxon and his connection to Rivera was not known at the time. The five-sentence message sent to Sessions' personal email address, which starts with the word eagle," is short on specifics. The U.S. Department of State would be your best resource for any information regarding contacts made with Venezuela, a spokesman said.

NEW YORK John Bolton's memoir officially comes out Tuesday after surviving a security review and a legal challenge from the Justice Department. We are working assiduously to take down these clearly illegal instances of copyright infringement, Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg said Sunday. The Associated Press was among several news outlets that obtained early copies of the book and reported on its contents. On Saturday, a federal judge ruled that Simon & Schuster could publish the book despite the Trump administration's contention that it compromised national security. The Room Where It Happened was originally scheduled for March, but was delayed twice as the White House reviewed the manuscript.

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2019, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speakings at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Saturday that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed. The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security concerns. The ruling means a broader election-year readership and distribution of a memoir that paints an unflattering portrait of President Donald Trump's foreign policy decision-making during the turbulent year-and-a-half that Bolton spent in the White House.

The Justice Department moved abruptly Friday, June 19, 2020, to oust Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trumps allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. His statement came hours after Attorney General William Barr said Berman was stepping down from his position. The standoff set off an extraordinary clash between the Justice Department and one of the nations top districts, which has tried major mob and terror cases over the years. Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump's Justice Department of political interference, and those concerns have also been pervasive among some rank and file officials in the agency. But as U.S. attorney, he won over some skeptics after he went after Trump allies, and had a direct hand in other investigations that have angered the president.

Trump on Thursday called the book a compilation of lies and made up stories intended to make him look bad. But he never got a formal clearance letter, and the Trump administration contends that the book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," still contains sensitive material. Ellis began his review of the Bolton book on May 2 at the behest of national security adviser Robert OBrien. It was initially cleared for publication by Army reviewers, but when spy agency reviewers took a look, they claimed it included classified information that could damage national security. Aftergood, the classifications expert, said the Bolton case has turned the governments little-known prepublication review process into national news.

They seized on accusations from Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, that the president continually kowtowed to Xi and ignored human rights abuses while trying to get his foreign counterparts assistance with domestic politics. Trumps initial reluctance to challenge Xi has echoes in a moment recounted in Boltons book, which the White House has tried to block from being published. They want to look tough on China without actually being tough on China." But after the pandemic tore across America, Trumps rhetoric shifted dramatically, blaming China for not containing the coronavirus and underselling its severity. And as support for the president began to slide, the campaign looked to link Biden to China, suggesting that as Obamas pointperson to Asia, he helped enable Beijings rise.

Addressing newly minted officers graduating from West Point last Saturday, Trump said, We are ending the era of endless wars. In targeting Germany, Trump cast his troop cut not as an improvement for U.S. national security but as economic punishment for Germany. This is the kind of antagonism toward allies that bothered Trump's first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, so much that he quit. At the time of his resignation in December 2018, Mattis was upset by Trump's sudden decision later amended to remove all American troops from Syria, abandoning their Kurdish partners. In Congress, Republicans as well as Democrats have answered Trump's Germany announcement with strong caution.

Pompeo who earlier this week met with a senior Chinese official in Hawaii where he held closed-door talks as relations between the two nations have plummeted over numerous disputes, said Europe faces a China challenge as does the rest of the world. Washington and Beijing are at odds over trade, Chinas handling of the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, the status of Hong Kong and increasing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. Donald Trump is right to raise that issue (with Beijing). And he said if you buy more goods that is the end of the trade issue. No, it is not the end of the trade issue.

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2019, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speakings at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth did not immediately rule, saying he wants to review additional information in a case that raises core First Amendment and national security concerns. Boltons lawyers argued that he had labored painstakingly for months with the White House to address concerns over classified information. Boltons lawyers have argued that the White House assertions of classified material are a pretext to censor him over a book the administration simply finds unflattering. Trump on Thursday called the book a compilation of lies and made up stories intended to make him look bad.

I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasnt driven by re-election calculations, Bolton wrote. Bolton wrote that he was asked to add phrases like, in my view, to make it clear he was expressing his opinion instead of relying on sensitive information. Trump continually pandered to Xi, Bolton wrote. At a White House Christmas dinner in 2018, Bolton said Trump asked why the U.S. was sanctioning China over its treatment of Uighurs. In the book, Bolton describes every Trump decision as being guided by concerns for his own reelection, a claim that evokes the scandal that sparked Trumps impeachment last year.

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2019, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton gestures while speakings at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)WASHINGTON Congress seems largely done with John Bolton. President Trump is clearly ethically unfit and intellectually unprepared to be the president of the United States. I dont have anything to say about it," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Idaho Sen. James Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that Im not doing any interviews on John Bolton."

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell said the Chinese were not really forthcoming during Pompeo's closed-door talks on Wednesday with Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party's top foreign affairs official. The meeting was held at Honolulu's Hickam Air Force Base and coverage of it other than from official statements was not possible. China could not be described as really forthcoming in all this," Stilwell said. Pompeo also reiterated to the Chinese that Trump is prepared to let a key nuclear arms control agreement with Russia expire unless it can be renegotiated to include China. We are looking for positive engagement in high-level arms talks, Stilwell said.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. Former Secretary of State John Kerry says the stories told in John Boltons bombshell new book about President Donald Trump are extremely disturbing even if they arent shocking. I think that the John Bolton book displays even further it just confirms things that we already know. But it does so with color and with new facts that are extremely disturbing, Kerry said in an interview with Local 10 on Thursday. It tells me that he does exactly what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wanted, Kerry said. Watch more of Michael Putneys interview with John Kerry on Local 10s This Week in South Florida Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

WASHINGTON The Trump administration has sued former national security adviser John Bolton to delay the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information and that is expected to paint an unfavorable portrait of the president's foreign policy decision-making. The complaint is the latest salvo in a contentious relationship between Trump and the hawkish Bolton, who was abruptly forced from the White House last September after repeated disagreements on national security matters. He has accused the White House of using national security information as a pretext to censor Bolton. Boltons book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was supposed to be released in March. As usual, the governments threats have nothing to do with safeguarding national security, and everything to do with avoiding scandal and embarrassment," Wizner said.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump asked Chinas Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit meeting to help his reelection prospects by purchasing more American farm products, according to a new book by former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that is highly critical of the president. The Trump administration has sued to try to delay publication, saying it contains classified information. In the book, Bolton describes every Trump decision as being guided by concerns for his own reelection, a claim that evokes the scandal that sparked Trumps impeachment last year. The GOP-controlled Senate ultimately acquitted the president on that count and a count of obstructing Congress investigation of the incident. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Bolton's book.

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with a top Chinese official in Hawaii on Wednesday as new revelations about President Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. No reporters were allowed to travel with Pompeo and Biegun, and coverage of the event is expected to be extremely limited. The legislation, which Congress passed with little opposition, includes sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass surveillance and detention. In his book, Bolton writes that Trump appealed for Xi's help in getting a second term at a G-20 leaders dinner in Osaka, Japan, according to the excerpt published by the Journal. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome," Bolton wrote.

WASHINGTON The Trump administration sued former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday to block the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information. The suit in Washington's federal court follows warnings from President Donald Trump that Bolton could face a criminal problem" if he doesn't halt plans to publish the book. The administration has also said the former adviser did not complete a pre-publication review to ensure that the manuscript did not contain classified material. Boltons attorney, Chuck Cooper, has said Bolton worked for months with classification specialists to avoid releasing classified material. He has accused the White House of using national security information as a pretext to censor Bolton.

Trump said it would be up to Attorney General William Barr to issue any charges, but hinted that the matter would end up in court. They're in court or they'll soon be in court," Trump said about the book, set to be released early next week. The president accused Bolton of not completing a pre-publication review to make sure the book does not contain classified material. Bolton's book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was supposed to be released in March. In a March 27 letter, Knight thanked Bolton for his efforts to address the classification issues, but said additional edits were required to ensure national security information was protected.

Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and two arms control treaties with Russia. The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide in areas where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice. Unlike those treaties and agreements, though, the United States has never been a member of the International Criminal Court. Administrations of both parties have been concerned about the potential for political prosecutions of American troops and officials for alleged war crimes and other atrocities. Bensouda had asked ICC judges to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that could have involved Americans.

WASHINGTON The White House has told former national security adviser John Bolton that the manuscript of his forthcoming memoir still contains classified material and could present a national security threat. But Boltons lawyer said Wednesday that publication will go ahead as planned on June 23 and he accused the White House of unfairly trying to keep it on ice. What followed was perhaps the most extensive and intensive prepublication review in NSC history, Cooper wrote. Then Bolton received the letter on Monday that White House concerns about classified material in the book remain. The White House declined comment Wednesday.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded late Tuesday, a potentially major hurdle for Trump's hopes to end the trial with a quick acquittal. McConnell told colleagues in a private meeting that he did not yet have the votes to block Democrats from summoning witnesses. Rand Paul of Kentucky called Bolton “disgruntled”’ and seeking to make money off his time at the White house. But John Kelly, Trump's former White House chief of staff, told an audience in Sarasota, Florida, that he believes Bolton. The White House has had Bolton's manuscript for about a month, according to a letter from Bolton's attorney.

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former national security adviser John Bolton took center stage at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial even though he was nowhere near the Capitol. Trump's legal team has repeatedly insisted there was no linkage, and Trump tweeted on Monday that he never told Bolton such a thing. Bolton writes that Trump told him he wanted to withhold security aid from Ukraine until it helped him with investigations into Biden. “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump wrote. The Harvard Law professor acknowledged his own changed views of impeachment law, and that he voted for Hillary Clinton.

That assertion could undercut a key defense argument — that Trump never tied the suspension of security aid to political investigations. Bolton writes that Trump told him he wanted to withhold security aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations. Trump's legal team has insisted otherwise, and Trump tweeted Monday that he never told Bolton such a thing. “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump said. They are being told that if there is agreement to summon Bolton, the White House will resist, claiming executive privilege.

What to watch as presidential impeachment arguments get underway in the Senate for only the third time in American history. That maroons 100 chatty senators — including four Democrats in the heat of a nomination fight — for the serious constitutional business of the impeachment trial, for hours at a time. Senate rules say the trial must proceed six days a week — all but Sunday — until it is resolved. ___THE PROSECUTORSThey could be heard practicing speeches in the shuttered Senate chamber late into Monday night. 51: The number of senators who must agree on almost anything to make it happen during an impeachment trial.

PALM BEACH, Fla. – (AP) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he was not ruling out calling witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial — but indicated he was in no hurry to seek new testimony either — as lawmakers remain at an impasse over the form of the trial by the GOP-controlled Senate. McConnell, who has all-but-promised a swift acquittal of the president, has resisted making any guarantees and has cautioned Trump against seeking the testimony of witnesses he desires for fear of elongating the trial. Instead, he appears to have secured Republican support for his plans to impose a framework drawn from the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. “We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell said Monday in an interview with “Fox and Friends.” “We’ve said let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton. The Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict in an impeachment trial — and Republicans have expressed confidence that they have more than enough votes to keep Trump in office.

It's no secret that newly-fired national security advisor John Bolton was a hawk when it came to U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela. Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

President Donald Trump abruptly announced in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked national security adviser John Bolton to resign, noting that he "strongly disagreed with many" of Bolton's suggestions... Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.