Tulsi Gabbard reportedly oversaw probe of Puerto Rico voting machines last year – as it happened

Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:

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  Tulsi Gabbard oversaw an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines last spring, Reuters reports, citing Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the events. A team working for the director of national intelligence, alongside the FBI, was tasked with investigating claims that Venezuela hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico – a claim it was not able to substantiate, Reuters’ sources said. Gabbard’s office confirmed the investigation but denied a link to Venezuela. The news comes just more than a week after Gabbard appeared at an FBI raid of an election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.

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  During a wide-ranging interview with NBC News, Donald Trump said Iran’s supreme leader should be “very worried”, defended homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and said ruling out an unconstitutional third term would “make life so much less exciting”. The president also declined to say whether he would support a presidential campaign by his vice president JD Vance or his secretary of state Marco Rubio.

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  Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks at the Washington Press Club Foundation’s 80th annual Congressional Dinner, noting that “Democracy dies in darkness”, in a dig at the Washington Post’s recent layoffs of one-third of its reporters. “Those who fear transparency and accountability fear the press,” she added, naming the arrest of Don Lemon and the raid on a home of a Washington Post journalist last month.

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  A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk must be deposed in a case over the government’s defunding of the US Agency for International Development. Under the Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, USAID went from a global workforce of more than 10,000 employees to around 600, and more 83% of the agency’s programs were abruptly terminated worldwide.

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  Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who has represented Georgia’s 11th congressional district since 2015, will not seek re-election when his term ends next year. Loudermilk serves as the chair of a House judiciary subcommittee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

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  Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will draw down 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials. Homan also noted that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement. He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.

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  Democratic lawmakers said today that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill. The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.

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  A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison. Ryan Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.

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  Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, after the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota.

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  The supreme court has ruled that California may proceed with implementing a congressional map voters approved last November. The map is likely to give Democrats five more seats in Congress, and was drawn after Texas redrew its congressional maps to create districts that will probably give Republicans five more seats.

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  Senator Ron Wyden sent a classified letter to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, according to a press release and unclassified letter shared by Wyden’s office.

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JD Vance, the vice-president Donald Trump again refused to endorse as his successor in an interview on Wednesday, used an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s podcast to praise his boss for attacking the CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins for not smiling, as she asked him about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse.

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Speaking to the former Fox News host, Vance brought up Trump’s decision to scold Collins in the Oval Office on Tuesday, calling the question of why she does not smile more in the president’s presence “so perceptive.”

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“Even if you’re asking a tough question, even if you take your job very seriously, like, why does it always have to be so antagonistic?” the vice-president asked.

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Kelly interjected to say that it was absurd that people called Trump sexist for scolding Collins, since she herself had made the same observation about the CNN host last year.

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“She never smiles! Every once it a while, you have to smile,” Kelly said. “Roger Ailes used to tell us that,” she added.

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“Have some fun” Vance chimed in.

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Kelly’s reference to Ailes, the former Fox News chairman, was odd because he was forced to resign from running the conservative network after one former female host accused him of “severe and pervasive sexual harassment” and others, including Kelly, said they were harassed by him as well.

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Vance and Kelly made no mention of the fact that Trump exploded at Collins for not smiling as she was asking about a sensitive subject: the feelings of victims of Epstein’s abuse. After Trump suggested that it was time for the country to move on from the Epstein scandal, Collins asked: “What would say to the survivors who feel that they haven’t gotten justice?”

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After Trump berated Collins for not smiling as she asked him that question, she explained: “These are survivors of a sexual abuser”.

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Tulsi Gabbard oversaw an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines last spring, Reuters reports, citing Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the events.

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A team working for the director of national intelligence, alongside the FBI, was tasked with investigating claims that Venezuela hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico – a claim it was not able to substantiate, Reuters’ sources said. Gabbard’s office confirmed the investigation but denied a link to Venezuela.

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The news comes just more than a week after Gabbard appeared at an FBI raid of an election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.

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As my colleague Hugo Lowell reported:

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Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.

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Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid.

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Donald Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, escalated his rhetoric around election security this week when he suggested on a conservative podcast that Republican state officials “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being voted out of office.

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Asked by NBC News’ Tom Llamas if there was any possibility he would still be in power after the conclusion of his second term, Trump said ruling out an unconstitutional third term would “make life so much less exciting”.

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Trump touted a strong bench of conservative candidates and promoted the idea of a Vance and Rubio presidential ticket in 2028 – though declined the parlor game question of who would top it.

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“Well, I don’t want to get into this. We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’– it wouldn’t be a fight,” Trump said. “But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic.”

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Pressed on how Vance and Rubio differ, Trump mused that it was Llamas’s most “interesting” question of the lengthy and wide-ranging interview.

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“I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other,” Trump said, though did not specify which. “I think they’re both of very high intelligence.”

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“They’re both very capable,” he added. “I do think this: The combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right?”

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Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who has represented Georgia’s 11th congressional district since 2015, will not seek re-election when his term ends next year. Loudermilk serves as the chair of a House judiciary subcommittee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

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“I believe it is time to contribute to my community, state and nation in other ways,” Loudermilk said in a statement. “I have learned throughout my life that doing what is right is not always easy, convenient or popular. My wife and I have prayed diligently and discussed this extensively; and, while this is not an easy decision, we believe it is the right one. While serving my constituents in Congress ranks among my greatest honors, being a husband, a father and a grandfather holds even greater importance to me; and at this time, I wish to spend more dedicated time with my family.”

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  Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will drawdown 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials. “This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens, more officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said.

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  Homan noted that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement. He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.

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  Democratic lawmakers said today that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill. The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.

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  A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison. US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts. Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.

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  Donald Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, after the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota. “You still have to be tough,” Trump said in a forthcoming interview with NBC News. “These are criminals we’re dealing with, really hard criminals.”

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Donald Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, following the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota. “You still have to be tough,” Trump said. “These are criminals we’re dealing with, really hard criminals.”

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In an forthcoming interview with NBC News, Trump said that the decision to draw down 700 officers in the North Star state came from him, but the administration is “waiting for [Minnesota] to release prisoners”.

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The president added: “Give us the murderers that they’re holding and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people we allowed in our country.”

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As we reported earlier, Minnesota’s department of corrections (DOC) already coordinates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented immigrant, convicted of a felony, is scheduled for release. Both the DOC and the “border czar”, Tom Homan, have confirmed this cooperation, guaranteed under state law, is taking place.

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County jails, however, are a separate matter. They do not fall under the purview of the DOC. In Minnesota, it’s a patchwork, as individual sheriffs choose whether to work with federal immigration enforcement.

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A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison.

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US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.

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“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.

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Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.

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Shackled at the hands and wearing beige prison garb, Routh gave a rambling address in court focused on foreign wars and his desire to be exchanged with political prisoners abroad. “I have given every drop of who I am every day for the betterment of my community and this nation,” Routh said.

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courtroom sketch shows Ryan Routh, left, throwing his arms up directed at US district judge Aileen Cannon in frustration as jury selection begins in the trial of Routh on 8 September 2025, in Fort Pierce, Florida.”,”caption”:”This courtroom sketch shows Ryan Routh, left, throwing his arms up directed at US district judge Aileen Cannon in frustration as jury selection begins in the trial of Routh on 8 September 2025, in Fort Pierce, Florida.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Lothar Speer/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the then Republican presidential candidate played golf on 15 September 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

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At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.

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Here’s the full report:

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The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has said that January’s employment report will be released next Wednesday after being delayed by the three-day government shutdown, Reuters reports.

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The BLS said the consumer price index report for January will now be published next Friday instead of on Wednesday; while the job openings and labor turnover survey report for December, which was due on Tuesday, will be released on Thursday this week.

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Speaking at the US Capitol today, Senate and House Democrats said that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill

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A reminder that Trump signed a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday that funds the DHS until 13 February while lawmakers hammer out guardrails.

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The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.

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Democrats have pushed for the need of judicial warrants to conduct raids, a reduction in aggressive tactics, and for agents to not wear masks.

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“You can’t just stop anybody on the street … and not even tell them why they’re picked up,” Schumer said today. He added that Democrats hope to get a legislative proposal together to submit “within the next 24 hours”.

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Schumer said that he hopes Republicans in both chambers will negotiate in good faith, but they also need to get the White House “on board”.

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Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Democratic leadership, 3 February 2026.”,”caption”:”The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Democratic leadership, 3 February 2026. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Nathan Posner/Shutterstock”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1770225624000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”12.20 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1770226945000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”12.42 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1770226556000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”12.35 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”12.35″,”title”:”Democratic lawmakers say ‘dramatic changes’ needed from DHS as negotiations continue”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 4 Feb 2026 22.03 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 4 Feb 2026 06.23 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Donald Trump touted his “extremely good” relationship with Xi Jinping of China, after an “excellent” phone call today.

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“It was a long and thorough call, where many important subjects were discussed,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, before rattling off several topics from trade to the his upcoming trip to China in April.

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Trump also noted that the pair discussed “lifting the Soybean count to 20 Million Tons for the current season”, after China significantly reduced their purchases of the crop last year.

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“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way. I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency,” Trump added.

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Tom Homan said that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement.

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He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.

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Speaking to reporters today, Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will draw down 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials.

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“This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens, more officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said.

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Notably, Homan has not confirmed which sheriffs have agreed to this increased coordination with federal immigration enforcement.

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A reminder, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) already facilitate transfers of people who have completed felony sentences in state prisons, when federal agents are present to take custody. But DOC does not operate county jails – where most immigration encounters occur – and many sheriffs across the state choose not to work with ICE.

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In Minneapolis, for example, Hennepin County does not notify federal immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are booked or arrested, and is barred under state law from honoring requests to hold someone past their release time so immigration officers can take custody – known as ICE detainers.

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Homan, however, said that he was “not requiring jails to hold people past their normal release time for immigration purposes” while addressing reporters today.

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Tom Homan, the president’s so-called “border czar” is set to speak to reporters in Minneapolis shortly.

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A reminder that Homan took over the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota from senior border official Gregory Bovino, just days after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and the mounting backlash in the Twin Cities.

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Last week, at his first press conference in Minneapolis, Homan appeared conciliatory when addressing the unspecified “improvements” he would be making to the crackdown in Minnesota.

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He also acknowledged the operation had not been “perfect”, but didn’t actually mention Pretti or Renee Good – the 37-year-old mother also killed in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer two weeks prior.

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Homan also said that if local officials allowed federal officers into jails (to take custody of undocumented detainees) this could lead to a drawdown of immigration enforcement in Minnesota. On Tuesday, governor Tim Walz said that he remained firm with the “border czar” in their recent conversations.

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“It’s my expectation that we will see a dramatic shift in where this is at, for the better,” Walz told reporters.

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A new tranche of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed several communications with William J Burns, a career diplomat who would go on to become the central intelligence director under Joe Biden.

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The documents describe the planning for meetings between Burns and Epstein, two of which occurred, and show Epstein texting with Burns and recommending that other people in his orbit meet with him. The meetings and correspondence occurred after Epstein had pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges in Florida in 2008, including solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.

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A spokesperson for Burns told the Guardian that the two men had “no relationship”, and that Burns “did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector”. The spokesperson said Burns “deeply regrets ever meeting with him”. Burns has never been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes.

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Burns has decades of diplomatic experience under both Republican and Democratic administrations. During his confirmation hearing to become CIA director in 2021, even Trump-partisan senator Lindsey Graham called him an “outstanding choice”.

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A federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday after an appeals court directed him to take a fresh look at president Donald Trump’s bid to erase his hush money conviction.

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The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in November ordered US district judge Alvin K Hellerstein to reconsider his decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court, where Trump can seek to have it thrown out on presidential immunity grounds, AP reported.

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A three-judge panel ruled that Hellerstein erred by failing to consider “important issues relevant” to Trump’s request to move the New York case to federal court. They said they “express no view” on how he should rule.

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Trump, a Republican, is not expected to attend Wednesday’s arguments in federal court in New York City, which were preceded by lengthy written submissions from Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case and wants it to remain in state court.

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Hellerstein, who was nominated by Democratic president Bill Clinton, has twice denied Trump’s requests to move the case.

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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

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President Donald Trump has made a fresh plea for Americans to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, even as it left a prominent British politician facing a criminal probe.

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Former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson has resigned from the upper house of UK parliament amid allegations he passed market sensitive information to the late sex offender Epstein while in government.

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The fallout from the latest release of millions of documents linked to Epstein continued in the US too, where former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary will testify in Congress later this month.

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Trump insisted once again that he had been cleared by the latest trove of files as he faced renewed questions at the White House over the disgraced financier, AFP reported.

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“Nothing came out about me other than it was a conspiracy against me, literally, by Epstein and other people. But I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get on to something else like health care or something that people care about,” Trump said.

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Trump added that it was “not a Republican, it’s a Democrat problem,” in a bid to turn the issue back to the Clintons, and away from the mention in the files of allies including his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and billionaire Elon Musk.

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In other developments:

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  Donald Trump suggested on a conservative podcast released on Monday that Republican state officials “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being voted out of office. Trump framed the issue as a means to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting. Claims that noncitizens are voting in numbers that can affect an election are a lie. But it raises concerns about potential efforts by the president to rig the November midterm elections.

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  A message from Donald Trump celebrating the 19th-century US invasion of its southern neighbour – and the subsequent loss of more than half its territory – has touched a historical nerve in Mexico, with some seeing it as a veiled threat of future incursions. Reacting to the US president’s statement, which described the invasion as “a legendary victory”, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said during her morning news conference on Tuesday: “We must always defend our sovereignty.”

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  Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.

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  The US military says it shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier “with unclear intent” when an F-35 fighter jet shot it down, US Central Command said on Tuesday.

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  Donald Trump has announced that his administration is seeking $1bn in damages from Harvard University, the latest step in a long-running battle with the university over allegations of antisemitism. In a Truth Social post late on Monday, Trump accused the Ivy League school of being “strongly antisemitic”, adding that Harvard president Alan Garber “has done a terrible job of rectifying a very bad situation for his institution and, more importantly, America itself”.

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