CNN Politics

Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal is retiring, following months of pressure from some lawmakers seeking his ouster over management issues at the agency.

Two staffers announced Wednesday that they are leaving Vice President Kamala Harris' office.

As the first anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol approaches, the House committee investigating January 6 faces its biggest challenge yet: proving allegations that there was a coordinated effort behind the insurrection and convincing the American people that former President Donald Trump was complicit.

Democratic senators are beginning 2022 where they left 2021: With no clear path to pass their agenda and ample frustration in the ranks.

At the end of 2021, Gallup released a poll that asked people their opinions of 11 leaders in American society.

In the days ahead of the anniversary of the January 6 US Capitol attack, federal officials have seen an increase in unspecified calls for violence, the targeting of politicians and calls for rebellion on domestic violent extremist forums, according to a federal law enforcement official. However, there is still nothing to suggest a coordinated plan or specific threat, the official and other law enforcement sources said.

President Joe Biden is planning to deliver a speech on voting rights during a visit to Atlanta next week, officials say, traveling to the cradle of the civil rights movement to shine a brighter light on election reform in advance of the national holiday celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

The battle over whether schools should be closed to in-person learning because of the coronavirus has ramped up with the Omicron surge. Schools in a number of districts in the country have either gone fully to remote learning or have delayed returning after the holidays. It has also pitted teachers' unions against some Democrats, who have often been allies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland will say in a speech Wednesday that the Justice Department "remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law -- whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy," according to an excerpt from the Justice Department.

Two friends who entered the US Capitol together on January 6, one of whom boasted about breaking in and smoking a joint, were sentenced to 30 days in jail each for unlawfully parading in the building.

US-led coalition forces fired back after they were attacked Wednesday morning by suspected Iranian-backed militias who fired eight rounds of indirect fire at their base in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, though there were no coalition casualties, according to a statement from the coalition.

Senate climate hawks got a new shot of optimism this week as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin gave perhaps his most full-throated endorsement yet of the climate change and clean energy portions of the Build Back Better package, Biden's economic and social safety net bill.

Former President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a news conference late Tuesday that he was scheduled to host at Mar-a-Lago on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, but which his allies had warned would cause unnecessary problems for Republicans and himself.

The day after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, three local Republican officials in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County announced they were leaving the GOP.  Among them was Ethan Demme, a lifelong conservative who had previously served as the youngest Republican Party chairman in this deeply red corner of southeast Pennsylvania. 

A federal judge set the foreign lobbying trial for Tom Barrack, a former adviser to then-President Donald Trump, for September.

The US Capitol Police board is detailing a list of changes -- from trainings to new recruitment efforts, hoping to convince members of Congress the department has significantly improved since the January 6 attack exposed problems, while acknowledging the agency is significantly understaffed.

The Biden administration is opening additional federally run free Covid-19 testing sites in six states across the country -- Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas and Washington -- as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to surge in the US.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has lots of issues with the Democrats' expanded child tax credit, which is a main reason why his party's plan to extend it for another year is on ice.

A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers discussed the possibility of another economic stimulus package last year amid the Omicron wave of coronavirus, but talks failed to move forward.