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WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Tuesday became the first female Senate president pro tempore, the second-highest-ranking position in the chamber. The president pro tempore ranks second under the president of the Senate — the vice president — and presides over the floor in the vice president's absence. Since the mid-20th century, the president pro tempore has been the senior member of the majority party out of tradition. "Making history today: Senator Patty Murray is now the Senate President Pro Tempore, the first woman in the history of the U.S. Senate to hold this title!" Murray succeeds Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., 82, as president pro tempore, who retired from Congress at the end of the year after serving in the Senate since 1975.

The House Ways and Means Committee plans to release Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, a spokesperson for the Committee said Tuesday. The assortment of six years of the former president's personal returns and some of his business returns are expected to be placed into the Congressional record on Friday as part of the House’s pro-forma session. The clock is ticking for the committee, which will turn over control to Republicans when the new Congress is sworn in next week. The committee obtained the returns in November, following a years-long court fight for the closely-held documents that other presidents have routinely made public for the last four decades. A 39-page report from the Joint Committee on Taxation released last week showed Trump had been paying relatively little in taxes, including paying only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none in 2020.

☆ Intel community escapes major criticism by Jan. 6 committee for missing 'foreseeable' Capitol violence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Ryan J. Reilly | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dilanianmug.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The appendix also states what is widely known: A lot of information was publicly available that suggested Jan. 6 would be violent, and law enforcement wasn’t prepared for the violence it faced. “Federal and local law enforcement authorities were in possession of multiple streams of intelligence predicting violence directed at the Capitol prior to January 6th,” the appendix said. Instead, as NBC News first reported, staffers on various teams, including the "blue" team looking at law enforcement failures, were informed that chapters they prepared would be curtailed. The final report centers on former President Donald Trump and what the committee believes is his criminal culpability for the Jan. 6 attack. The report revealed that the FBI was collecting alarming reports from around the country but didn’t start looking at them closely until Jan. 5.

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee found that law enforcement agencies gathered “substantial evidence” of potential violence at the Capitol as Congress met to formalize Joe Biden's election as president, a member of the panel said at its final meeting Monday. But the executive summary of the committee's final report doesn’t address questions of why the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies didn’t do more to increase security that day. The executive summary, released Monday, avoids criticizing or reaching conclusions about law enforcement and intelligence shortfalls in the lead-up to the attack, which many law enforcement experts have called the biggest intelligence failure since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A representative for the committee didn’t respond to a request for comment about the decision not to include more information about the role law enforcement played ahead of the Capitol attack. The committee's executive summary discusses information that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies received in the days before Jan. 6, saying some of the intelligence was shared with partners like the Capitol Police.

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee met Sunday to finalize its plans to issue at least three criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump, NBC News has learned exclusively. NBC News previously reported that obstruction, conspiracy and incitement of an insurrection were among the charges the committee was considering to recommend against Trump. The criminal referrals carry no official legal weight, and it remains up to the Justice Department to decide whether or not to charge Trump and anyone else the committee might refer. The committee also plans to refer several Republican members of Congress to the House Ethics Committee for their defiance of congressional subpoenas, NBC News has learned. “None of the subpoenaed members complied,” Raskin said during Sunday’s meetings, presenting the findings of the subcommittee responsible for referrals.

“It’s an utter betrayal,” his son, Kevin Gnida, said in an interview from his home in Edmonton, Canada. “I know with 100 percent confidence that my dad would have never participated in this,” Kevin Gnida added. “I’m glad they got caught.”Evan, 64, and Josh Edwards, 30, were arrested at their home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Dec. 14. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Dec. 14, 2022. “They came to my dad because they had no money.”Joy Edwards, Evan and Mary Jane Edwards, and Josh Edwards.

☆ New York Attorney General Letitia James sues owners of Long Island nursing home
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Senior Investigative Producer | Reporter For Nbc News. She Is Based In Washington. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the owners of a Long Island nursing home who also have stakes of dozens of other facilities nationwide. It is the third suit she has filed in six weeks alleging financial fraud and abuse of nursing home residents. Among other allegations, the lawsuit states that one resident was at the facility for five months and received just three showers. One of the previous lawsuits targeted Fulton Commons Nursing Home in East Meadows, N.Y. The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center in Albion, N.Y., was sued by the attorney general at the end of November.

☆ Biden touts new law giving veterans suffering from burn-pit exposure more help: ‘The benefits are real’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

“And the benefits are real, they’re real benefits like exposure screening. Since Biden signed the law, more than 185,000 veterans have applied for benefits, the White House said. More than 730,000 veterans have also received screenings for toxic exposure, with nearly 39% reporting concern of exposure. The law gives veterans exposed to burn pits access to more medical care and disability payments. Biden said he has directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat the 23 presumptive conditions in the law immediately.

WASHINGTON — A QAnon believer who chased U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman on Jan. 6, 2021, and apparently believed he was storming the White House will be sentenced Friday after he was convicted in September. He was one of the first 10 rioters to enter the Capitol during the insurrection. On Jan. 6, Jensen recorded videos from the base of the Capitol, where he proclaimed, inaccurately, that he was at the White House. “Storm the White House! If not for the "quick thinking" of Goodman, rioters would have been carried out of the building, he continued.

"There are grave medical concerns," Erin Hyde told a federal judge in Orlando on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by NBC News. Things took a stranger turn when the judge turned his attention to Josh Edwards, who did appear in the courtroom. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Wednesday. Jon Levy / AFP via Getty ImagesThe 13-minute hearing ended with Evan Edwards’ lawyer telling the judge there were grave concerns around his health. The case centers on a Paycheck Protection Program loan application Josh Edwards filed in April 2020.

☆ Trump lashes out at polls showing Ron DeSantis with a big lead in the 2024 GOP primary
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis beating him in a head-to-head matchup for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis led Trump 52 percent to 38 percent in the Wall Street Journal survey, which was released Wednesday. Fox News reported on the Wall Street Journal poll and a USA Today/Suffolk University poll that showed DeSantis up 56 percent to 33 percent over Trump in a one-on-one test. The hypothetical head-to-head matchups assume that Trump and DeSantis are the only candidates who receive support from GOP primary voters. One GOP strategist who worked on Trump's 2020 campaign likened DeSantis' early lead to the fast-disappearing edge that then-Texas Gov.

☆ Washington man charged with leaving more than 400 threatening voicemails for members of Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — A Washington state man has been charged with seven counts of making interstate threats after he allegedly left more than 400 voicemails over two years for members of Congress. In 2021, Leonetti left more than 400 voicemails at the office phone numbers for numerous senators and representatives of both political parties, according to the criminal complaint. The voicemails were "not always coherent," an FBI agent investigating the case said, but made references to murder or killing. We’re going to peel your ass inside out," Leonetti said in one of seven voicemails he left for one lawmaker in September, prosecutors said. In one of 32 voicemails Leonetti left for a senator over a three-day period in September, he allegedly said, "Well, so I’m gonna murder you.

☆ U.S. should've spied on Chinese health officials who were hiding what they knew about Covid, Congress says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dilanianmug.Jpg | Ken Dilanian | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

U.S. intelligence agencies began warning that Covid-19 could become a pandemic just weeks after the coronavirus was first reported in China, but they missed an opportunity to better understand its spread because they didn’t quickly begin spying on Chinese health officials who were hiding what they knew, says a newly declassified report by the House Intelligence Committee. The report partly vindicates the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies, noting that they raised the specter of a pandemic well before the World Health Organization declared one on March 11, 2020. And it adds to the body of evidence showing that then-President Donald Trump misled the public about what he was hearing from advisers about the seriousness of the virus. Investigators said they were “unable to corroborate” reports by NBC News and ABC News that U.S. spies collected raw intelligence in November indicating a health crisis in Wuhan, China. The report says the first intelligence report mentioning the virus that would become known as coronavirus or Covid-19 came on the day of the first media report about it.

☆ Biden touts U.S. relations with African nations, announces efforts to bolster trade
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden touted relations between the U.S. and African nations Wednesday, addressing a gathering of nearly 50 leaders from the continent and announcing new initiatives to bolster trade. Speaking at the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, Biden emphasized that Africa is critical to the success of the U.S. and global communities. "Each of these crises has only heightened the vital role African nations and people play to address the global challenges that drive our global progress," Biden said. "We can’t solve any of these challenges without African Leadership at the table." The U.S., for example, worked with African nations to distribute millions of doses of vaccines to combat Covid, Biden continued, and invested in the continent's capacity to manufacture its own vaccines, testing and treatment options.

ASLAN International was ultimately approved for an $8.4 million loan. Agents escorted Josh Edwards out of the home and into a law enforcement vehicle, his hands cuffed behind his back. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Dec. 14, 2022. The Edwards family did missionary work in Turkey for many years before moving to Florida in 2019. The Edwards family did not challenge the seizure.

☆ 10 years after Sandy Hook, Biden says Americans should have 'societal guilt' for gun violence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — Marking a decade since the Sandy Hook school shooting, President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. must do more to tackle the nation's gun violence epidemic and that people should have "societal guilt" for taking too long to address it. "I am determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used at Sandy Hook and countless other mass shootings in America." He reiterated his call on Congress to pass a ban after the mass shooting last month at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Biden was vice president when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, and then-President Barack Obama tasked Biden with leading the effort to reduce gun violence. Before this year, the closest Congress had come to passing significant legislation to address gun violence was in the months after the Sandy Hook massacre.

☆ House GOP’s inclusion of 'salacious' Commanders cheerleaders photos in official memo draws blowback
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Lawyers for more than 40 former Washington Commanders employees are demanding that House Republicans remove "sexualized and salacious photographs" of the NFL team's cheerleaders featured in a GOP-written memo about the football team. (The GOP report put black boxes over the women's faces and some body parts.) In a statement, a Republican Oversight Committee aide criticized the Democrats' report and defended the GOP memo. "Prior to circulating the internal memo, Committee staff took steps to ensure all sensitive images involving cheerleaders were redacted and their identities kept confidential. As we have said from the beginning, the Oversight Committee is not the proper venue for this investigation.

The bill would "protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern," the lawmakers said in a news release. The lawmakers said the bill aims to protect Americans from foreign adversaries who might use certain social media to surveil Americans, learn sensitive data about them, and spread influence campaigns or propaganda. In June, BuzzFeed News reported that China-based employees of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, had accessed nonpublic data about U.S. users. TikTok denied turning over any U.S. data to Chinese officials and said it never would, though it acknowledged that Chinese employees have some access to it. In a statement responding to Maryland's ban, a TikTok spokesperson said, “We believe the concerns driving these bans are largely fueled by misinformation about our company.

☆ House Oversight Committee to host Club Q shooting survivors in hearing on anti-LGBTQ threats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Ali-Vitali-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Ali Vitali | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Less than a month after a deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, the House Oversight Committee will host survivors for a hearing on violence and threats against LGBTQ people, NBC News has learned. The Dec. 14 hearing will include testimony from bartender Michael Anderson and from James Slaugh, both of whom survived the Club Q shooting, as well as the club’s founding partner and co-owner Matthew Haynes, the committee told NBC News. The panel will also hear from Brandon Wolf, who survived the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, where a gunman killed 49 people. In November, a gunman opened fire at Club Q with a semiautomatic rifle, killing five people and injuring 17 others. “These attacks, like the one at Club Q, are designed to scare us from living authentically and honestly," he said.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed the DOJ's request, which was first reported by The Washington Post. The request comes after Trump's lawyers recently discovered at least two documents with such markings in a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida. That search turned up over 100 documents with such markings, including some marked top secret, in a storage room in Mar-a-Lago and in Trump's office there. Judge Beryl Howell's hearing on the DOJ’s request, and the legal arguments underpinning it, are being kept under wraps because they involve grand jury proceedings. Corcoran drafted the June letter certifying all documents with classification markings had been returned, NBC News has previously reported.

☆ Ronna McDaniel locked down votes for RNC chair despite the midterm debacle. Here's how she did it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

An ally, Richard Porter, an RNC member from Illinois, met with her in Washington to make sure she wanted to run for another two-year term. And the most ardent Trump critics among RNC members say McDaniel, Trump's pick for the post six years ago, is too close to him. Bill Palatucci, an RNC member from New Jersey, said he opposes McDaniel's re-election for that reason. For McDaniel to lose, an opponent would have to win the remaining undecided RNC members and swipe nearly two dozen avowed McDaniel backers. Lori Klein Corbin, an RNC member from Arizona who hasn’t committed to any candidate, said McDaniel hasn’t asked for her vote yet.

The appeals court had given Trump until Thursday to appeal to the full 11th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court and try to get a stay before the order took effect. After the FBI executed its Mar-a-Lago search warrant, a top Trump adviser familiar with his legal strategy told NBC News that the former president would probably “appeal everything to the Supreme Court. It also barred the special master from reviewing those documents, a decision that Trump appealed to the Supreme Court in October and lost. Under federal law, official White House papers are federal property and must be handed over to the National Archives when a president leaves office. The most recent defeat came last month, when the court allowed Trump's tax returns to be disclosed to a Democratic-led House committee.

In the 2005 Nicolas Cage movie “Lord of War,” the character loosely based on Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout evades his American law enforcement pursuers, apparently saved by the CIA. Now he is on his way back to Russia after a high-profile prisoner exchange that saw WNBA star Brittney Griner free early Thursday. Under federal sentencing rules, Bout could have been released from prison in five years. Bout, a former Soviet military officer who became rich as an arms dealer, has always maintained his innocence. His U.S. lawyer, Steve Zissou, says the whole operation was unfair, because Bout had been retired and living in Moscow.

That search came after the feds issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of any documents marked classified that left the White House with Trump. Trump’s lawyers hired an outside firm to conduct searches last month at the storage facility and other locations. One of the sources said Trump has never been inside the storage facility. The pallets were delivered in August of 2021, with four going to the storage facility and two going to Mar-a-Lago, the emails show. The discovery of the new documents is further evidence that Trump and his team did not fully comply with a grand jury subpoena issued in May seeking all documents marked classified still in their possession.

The inspector general found that prison officers spoke openly about Bulger’s anticipated arrival around inmates, in violation of policy. Elderly, ailing inmates are often transferred to a prison medical center. Bulger had a heart condition and should have been sent to a prison with special medical facilities, the inspector general found. The FBI is conducting a separate criminal probe into the murder, but it’s not clear whether the bureau is investigating any prison employees. The inspector general's report cites six prison employees as having committed potential misconduct.

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