• Fight brewing over oversight: President Donald Trump said Democrats are “illegally threatening Republicans,” as his administration escalates its warnings against Democrats who have vowed to investigate the president and his administration when they take over Congress. Rep. Robert Garcia, who will chair the House Oversight Committee, told CNN the White House is trying to intimidate Democrats , but it’s “not going to work.”
• Change in Mississippi: Scott Colom is projected to win a Senate seat, becoming the first Democrat that voters in deep-red Mississippi have elected to the chamber in more than four decades. He is the first Black person elected to statewide office since the Reconstruction era. “I kept the faith,” Colom said of his win .
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The US attorney for the Southern District of Texas sent a document preservation letter to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, accusing him of attempting to “intimidate citizens” for associating with President Donald Trump — days after the Connecticut lawmaker sent letters to a slew of companies and Trump administration officials asking them to cooperate with investigations.
The move is an escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to push back against Democratic oversight.
“Congress is not a weapon to be wielded against the American people,” US Attorney Aaron Reitz said in a post on X that included a screenshot of his letter to Blumenthal. “I’m taking the first step to stop this abuse of power.”
Some background: Blumenthal will chair a key Senate investigative panel when Democrats take control of Congress in January. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will soon have the power to issue subpoenas as part of their probes into the Trump administration.
The letters from Blumenthal were sent to crypto companies, White House ballroom donors, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr — offering some insight into what he hopes the panel will focus on.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this post.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Democrats are “illegally threatening Republicans,” as his administration escalates its threats against Democrats who have vowed to investigate the president and his administration when they take over Congress.
“In order to deflect from MASSIVE BLUE STATE CORRUPTION & CRIME, they are at it again, illegally threatening Republicans with knowingly false accusations and charges. Other than cheating, this is how they won the Midterms - But we won’t let our Country go to hell!” Trump said on Truth Social .
It comes after the White House counsel yesterday sent the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, a letter warning that the administration would not be “extorted” and that potential congressional probes could “cross the line” into “criminality.”
Garcia told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last night that Trump’s lawyers “don’t understand the Constitution,” stressing the importance of providing checks and balances on the executive branch.
“The idea that the president, the attorney general, the White House legal team is trying to intimidate us is not going to work,” he said.
Trump also compared Democratic efforts to investigate the administration to a “relentless effort” to obtain his personal tax returns.
“After one year of intense work, these brilliant Democrat inspired accountants FOUND NOTHING except that I paid my taxes and did everything right,” Trump said.
After six years of Trump’s tax returns were made public in 2022, CNN reported that the president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last year of his first term, claiming huge losses that limited his tax bill.
A judge ruled Wednesday that a request for voter data in Alaska’s tight Senate race from the campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola was “not reasonable,” given the timing of the request for the state’s stretched elections division.
With the race against her opponent, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, remaining too early to call, Peltola’s campaign filed a lawsuit last week seeking a list of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, and the reasons for that rejection, to determine that qualified voters had been accepted.
But Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Matthews said in a ruling yesterday that the timing of the request from the Peltola campaign “could simply not be worse.”
Lists of voters who cast absentee ballots are readily available, but procuring the data requested by the Peltola campaign, while redacting private voter information like addresses, would require the division to build or procure a new software system, Matthews said, adding that the request could not take resources away from the division’s primary responsibilities.
Alaska gives mail-in ballots between 10 to 15 days — 10 days if sent from the US, 15 from overseas — to be returned to the elections office.
“(The Alaska Division of Elections) is actively in the middle of counting ballots. It has active deadlines it must meet,” the judge said.
“The Division asserts its staff is actively working long hours to accomplish its fundamental responsibility — administering elections.”
The newest cohort of lawmakers are bringing their millennial energy to Washington during the post-election orientation this week. CNN’s Aleena Fayaz explains why their excitement is making waves online.
The newest cohort of lawmakers are bringing their millennial energy to Washington during the post-election orientation this week.
CNN’s Aleena Fayaz explains why their excitement is making waves online.
Democratic Sen.-elect Scott Colom addressed a crowd of supporters after his historic projected win in Mississippi’s Senate race Wednesday evening.
Democrat Scott Colom addressed a crowd of supporters after his historic projected win in Mississippi’s Senate race.
