Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday defended the Justice Department's handling of the high-profile federal investigations into President Biden and former president Trump's handling of classified documents, rejecting Republican critiques that the department has treated the cases differently.
Why it matters: It's another attempt by Garland to insulate his department from accusations of political bias, after appointing two separate special counsels to take over the sensitive cases.
Saturday's horrific mass shooting in Monterey Park, California will likely be left out of the FBI's nationwide crime statistics, as neither city nor county officials there are using the Justice Department's new crime reporting system.
Why it matters: The country's 18,600 law enforcement agencies have been slow to adopt the Justice Department's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) — which means that all manner of crimes are being undercounted.
The backstory is now emerging over how Speaker Kevin McCarthy secured the loyalty of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of the most contentious speaker election in a century.
Why it matters: In less than two years, Greene evolved from calling conversations with McCarthy a "trip to the principal's office" to becoming his most vocal far-right defender, the New York Times' Jonathan Swan and Catie Edmondson report.
A Washington, D.C., jury found four members of the far-right militia group Oath Keepers guilty of seditious conspiracy on Monday over a plot to stop the transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021, AP reports.
Why it matters: It's the second set of seditious conspiracy convictions against the anti-government group's members after its founder, Stewart Rhodes, and one other member were found guilty of the seldom-used Civil War-era law last year.
House Democrats are forcing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to make good on his vow to remove several high-profile members from their committees – including one that would require a risky floor vote.
Why it matters: It’s the latest battle in an increasingly heated partisan conflict over committee assignments that began when Democrats and a handful of Republicans voted to remove Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from their panels in 2021.
Richard Barnett, the man who was photographed with his feet propped on a desk inside the office of Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, was found guilty of eight charges by a federal jury on Monday, AP reports.
Details: The eight charges Barnett faced included theft of government property, civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding — Congress' meeting to certify the Electoral College count for the 2020 presidential election.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) nominated Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to the Intelligence Committee in a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Saturday first obtained by Punchbowl News.
Why it matters: McCarthy has said he will deny Schiff's and Swalwell's nominations to the committee, though Jeffries told McCarthy in the letter that doing so would run "counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee" and would lay bare Republican's "apparent double standard" in designating committee assignments.
Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego announced his 2024 bid for U.S. Senate on Monday, launching a long-expected challenge to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for her seat.
Why it matters: The liberal Marine veteran’s face-off against the newly-Independent senator has the potential to split the vote in a general election and dilute a Democratic candidate’s strength in a cycle with few Senate bright spots for the party.
Two more Cherokee tribes say they are entitled to a non-voting member of Congress, countering claims by the Cherokee Nation they are the only ones who were promised a seat.
Why it matters: The dispute over a congressional delegate, outlined in a treaty that forcibly removed Cherokees from ancestral homelands, shows how complicated matters evolve when promises aren't kept to Indigenous people for nearly two centuries.
The City of Monterey Park set up a memorial for the victims of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio mass shooting that left 10 people dead and 10 others injured, as community members gathered for a vigil on Sunday.
The big picture: Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo said in a statement the council "joins the community in expressing our shock and sadness" at Saturday night's shooting in the Los Angeles-area majority Asian American city on the eve of Lunar New Year. "We stand united together as we mourn," he added.
Los Angeles County authorities praised two civilians Sunday for disarming a gunman at an Alhambra, California, dance studio whom they believe was the same man they suspect was responsible for the Monterey Park mass shooting.
Driving the news: Police believe the suspect went to the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the nearby city of Alhambra after the shooting in Monterey Park on the eve of Lunar New Year Saturday night, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Sunday evening news conference that "some individuals wrestled the firearm away from him."
