Author: Michael Balsamo

WASHINGTON • A white powder discovered in a lobby area of the White House’s West Wing that prompted a brief evacuation Sunday evening tested positive for cocaine in a laboratory analysis, three people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Officials who found the powder in a small plastic envelope in the heavily trafficked part of…

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he plans to question the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons this week about an Associated Press investigation that found the agency has repeatedly promoted and continues to stand by a high-ranking official who beat Black inmates in the 1990s. “I am very concerned about the…

WASHINGTON • The House Jan. 6 committee is interviewing Hope Hicks, a longtime aide to former President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Tuesday’s interview comes as the investigation is winding down and as the panel has subpoenaed Trump for an interview in the coming weeks. The person requested anonymity to…

WASHINGTON • Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stood by the claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent during an interview Thursday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, the panel’s chairman said. “It’s a work in progress,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said after the more than four-hour…

WASHINGTON • MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell said Tuesday that federal agents seized his cellphone and questioned him about Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who has been charged in what prosecutors say was a “deceptive scheme” to breach voting system technology used across the country. Lindell was approached in the drive-thru of a Hardee’s fast-food…

BOSTON • Federal officials are examining whether the employee who reported an explosion at Northeastern University may have lied to investigators and staged the incident, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Investigators identified inconsistencies in the employee’s statement and became skeptical because his injuries did not match wounds typically consistent with an explosion, said one official.…

NEW YORK • Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as he testified under oath Wednesday in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings, the former president said in a statement. About an hour after arriving at Attorney General Letitia James’ Manhattan offices, Trump announced that he “declined…

WASHINGTON • Federal agents have searched the Virginia home of a Trump-era Justice Department official who championed efforts by President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election and who is expected to be prominently featured in a House hearing Thursday on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. The reason for…