Category: US

CNN
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The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s former think tank office in Washington in November after his team notified the National Archives that they found classified documents there, according to a Justice Department official and another source familiar with the matter.

The Justice official told CNN that a warrant wasn’t used to conduct the search, which was done with the consent of Biden’s legal team.

The White House and Biden’s legal team did not previously disclose the FBI’s November search, in contrast to a search conducted by the bureau earlier this month at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

This latest revelation raises additional questions about how transparent the White House and Biden’s legal team have been about the government’s investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents, which is now being overseen by special counsel Robert Hur.

The search at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement was part of an FBI “assessment” that the DOJ described in a timeline of events it released earlier this month, according to the official. In relaying that timeline earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “On November 9, the FBI commenced an assessment, consistent with standard protocols, to understand whether classified information had been mishandled in violation of federal law.”

By the time the FBI began its assessment that included visiting the Penn Biden Center in November, all the documents in the office had already been handed over to the National Archives, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The purpose of the visit was likely to ensure that nothing was left in the office and assess how the documents were stored, according to a former Justice Department official.

Biden’s team has said they initially handed classified material to the National Archives on November 3.

The Archives then informed the FBI on November 4 about the discovery of classified materials after examining the four boxes of documents, according to the source familiar with the matter.

In addition to the four boxes, the source said, the Biden team also gave the Archives possession of about three dozen boxes of unclassified materials from the Penn Biden Center office out of an abundance of caution. The additional boxes, which included every document left at the Penn Biden Center, were given to the Archives on November 8, the source said.

The FBI search of the Penn Biden Center was conducted after November 9 as part of the assessment the bureau had undertaken, according to a current Justice official.

The FBI first examined the classified documents, and the other materials from the Penn Biden Center, at the National Archives during the week of November 21, one of the sources told CNN. That was the only FBI visit to examine the documents, according to the source.

The FBI also examined binders that were held at the president’s campaign attorney’s office in Boston that were also handed over to the Archives. Those binders contained no classified materials, the source said.

CBS News first reported the news of the FBI’s search at the Penn Biden Center.

The FBI’s nearly 13-hour search of Biden’s home earlier this month was also done with the consent of the president’s attorneys, people briefed on the matter previously said. During that search, “six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials.”

Those six items are in addition to materials previously found at Biden’s Wilmington residence and the ones found in his private office.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN
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Russia is violating a key nuclear arms control agreement with the United States and continuing to refuse to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday.

“Russia is not complying with its obligation under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory. Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control,” the spokesperson said in statement.

“Russia has also failed to comply with the New START Treaty obligation to convene a session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission in accordance with the treaty-mandated timeline,” the spokesperson added.

The US announcement is likely to increase tensions with relations between the two countries in the doldrums as Moscow continues its war on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear saber rattling during the war has alarmed the US and its allies.

In December, Putin warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war, and this month, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, threatened that Russia losing the war could “provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war.”

“Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends,” Medvedev wrote in a Telegram post. “This should be obvious to anyone. Even to a Western politician who has retained at least some trace of intelligence.”

And though a US intelligence assessment in November suggested that Russian military officials discussed under what circumstances Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the US has not seen any evidence that Putin has decided to take the drastic step of using one, officials told CNN.

Under the New START treaty – the only agreement left regulating the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals – Washington and Moscow are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inspections have been halted since 2020.

A session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the treaty was slated to meet in Egypt in late November but was abruptly called off. The US has blamed Russia for this postponement, with a State Department spokesperson saying the decision was made “unilaterally” by Russia.

The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides will soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement.

John Erath, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, emphasized to CNN on Tuesday that Russia’s noncompliance “doesn’t mean that they are building vast numbers of nuclear weapons secretly.”

“That’s not the part that they’re being found not in compliance with,” he said. “It’s the verification provisions.”

But he added that Russia is likely using its noncompliance as leverage to attempt to end the war on their terms.

“They have fixed on New START as a piece of leverage they have,” Erath said. “They know that we would like to see it continue, and we would like to see it implemented because everybody feels better when there’s a functioning arms control agreement.”

Russia, he continued, is “using their noncompliance as a way to gain a little bit more leverage so that we will say, ‘Oh, this war is threatening arms control, that’s important to us. Hey Ukrainian friends, don’t you think you’ve done enough? How about stopping?’”

Lawmakers responded by warning that any future arms control arms control agreement with Russia could be in jeopardy if the situation is not salvaged.

“We have long supported strategic arms control with Russia, voting for New START in 2010 and advocating for the Treaty’s extension during both the Trump and Biden administrations. But to be very clear, compliance with New START treaty obligations will be critical to Senate consideration of any future strategic arms control treaty with Moscow,” wrote Democratic senators Bob Menendez, Jack Reed, Mark Warner in a joint statement.

The State Department says Russia can return to full compliance, if they “allow inspection activities on its territory, just as it did for years under the New START Treaty” and also scheduling a session of the commission.

“Russia has a clear path for returning to full compliance. All Russia needs to do is allow inspection activities on its territory, just as it did for years under the New START Treaty, and meet in a session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission,” the spokesperson said. “There is nothing preventing Russian inspectors from traveling to the United States and conducting inspections.”

According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Russia has roughly 5,977 nuclear warheads, 1,588 of which are deployed. The US has 5,550 nuclear warheads, according to the Center, including 3,800 active warheads.

Administration officials have said that the willingness to discuss the arms control agreement, even as Russia carries out its war in Ukraine, demonstrates the US commitment to diplomacy and mitigating the risk of nuclear catastrophe.

But Russia has indicated in recent days that the US support for Ukraine is preventing the treaty from being renewed.

On Monday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the last remaining element of the bilateral nuclear arms control treaty with the United States could expire in three years without a replacement.

Asked if Moscow could envisage there being no nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations when the extension of the 2011 New START Treaty comes to an end after 2026, Ryabkov told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday: “This is a very possible scenario.”

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump’s political operation brought in $9.5 million in the roughly six weeks after he announced his latest White House bid, according to a source familiar with the fundraising numbers.

The haul is smaller than the nearly $11.8 million raised by Trump entities in the six weeks before the Republican’s November 15 campaign announcement, underscoring the challenges Trump faces as he attempts a political comeback.

In an effort to boost donations, Trump’s team has hired marketing agency Campaign Inbox to bolster its digital fundraising operation, the source confirmed to CNN.

Trump’s team said the former president would have the funds to compete in 2024.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said on Tuesday that, in all, the political operation raised a total of $21.3 million in the final quarter of last year. He said that proves the former president is “an unstoppable force that continues to dominate politics.”

Cheung said Trump would carry out “an aggressive and fully-funded campaign.”

NBC first reported Trump’s year-end campaign figures.

New reports filed Tuesday night with the Federal Election Commission show that Trump’s main campaign committee started the year with a little more than $3 million in available cash.

But his political operation has many arms and a mountain of cash.

In all, five Trump-aligned committees reported having a total cash stockpile of more than $81 million.

Two-thirds of that sum – or more than $54 million – sits in the coffers of MAGA Inc., a super PAC established last year and run by former Trump campaign aide Taylor Budowich that must operate independently of the campaign. It can spend heavily, however, to boost the former president and strike out at his rivals.

A potential 2024 candidate who has faced early attacks from Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has also built a substantial war chest.

DeSantis’ political operation – split between two Florida-based committees – had more than $75 million remaining in its coffers after the 2022 midterm elections, according to the most recent filings with the state. The Florida Republican shattered fundraising records on his way to winning a second term last year, raising more than $163 million for his state political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, and another $50 million through his campaign.

DeSantis has yet to announce a White House bid, but CNN has previously reported that DeSantis’ political operation was exploring how to shift money from a state political committee into a federal committee that could potentially support a presidential campaign.

In Trump’s first major campaign swing – weekend visits to the early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina – he took aim at DeSantis, describing him as “disloyal” for weighing a presidential run and criticizing the governor’s pandemic response.

DeSantis responded by touting the margin of his reelection victory last year. He won by 1.5 million votes, the largest margin in state history.

Trump is the first major declared candidate of the 2024 presidential race.

(CNN) — More than 1,800 flights were canceled and many more delayed on Tuesday as a brutal ice storm continued to hit parts of the South and central United States, bringing a second day of transport problems.

As wintry conditions affected an area from Texas to West Virginia, airplane tracking website FlightAware reported that more than 1,800 flights had been canceled within the US and 3,900 delayed by about 6 p.m. ET.

More than 900 flights on Wednesday had already been canceled by early Tuesday evening.

Texas has been particularly hard hit.

Three of the state’s airports — Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW), Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Austin Bergstrom International (AUS) — are experiencing significant disruption, according to FlightAware, with Dallas Fort-Worth seeing the bulk of cancellations. As of 5 p.m. ET, nearly 1,000 flights to or from DFW were canceled.

Nashville International Airport in Tennessee was also seeing significant cancellations, with about 140 flights canceled by 6 p.m. ET.

Southwest, American and regional carriers Envoy Air and SkyWest have been the most affected airlines.

Texas-based Southwest and American airlines had both canceled close to 600 flights by Tuesday evening, representing 15% and 19% of their schedules, respectively.

On Monday, Southwest, which experienced an operational meltdown over the holidays, canceled about 12% of its schedule. American canceled 6% of its flights. Across all carriers, more than 1,100 flights were canceled on Monday, with more than 6,000 delays.

DFW airport tweeted Tuesday that it is well prepared for the winter weather: “Airport runways, roadways, bridges, and pedestrian walkways have been and will continue to be treated for any potential ice to ensure safety.”

The heaviest ice accumulation is forecast across large portions of Texas, which could see one- to three-quarters of an inch through Thursday morning. One-quarter inch of ice is possible across a wider swath of the region, including southern Oklahoma, Arkansas, northwestern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.

“I encourage Arkansans who are experiencing winter weather to avoid travel if possible and heed the warnings of local officials,” Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted on Monday.

Top: Canceled flight information displayed on screens at Dallas Love Field Airport on January 30. Photo via AP.

CNN’s Marnie Hunter, Robert Shackelford,Aya Elamroussi and Dakin Andone contributed reporting.

New York
CNN
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Snapchat’s parent company reported stalled revenue growth and a large net loss for the final three months of 2022, as it confronts tighter advertiser budgets amid broader economic uncertainty.

Snap’s quarterly revenue was just shy of $1.3 billion, essentially flat from the year prior. For the full year, Snap’s revenue grew 12%, a slower rate that the company attributed to “rapid deceleration in digital advertising growth.”

The situation appears to be even worse in the current quarter. Snap said it has already seen a roughly 7% revenue decline so far in the first quarter compared to the year prior. It estimates revenue for the first three months of the year will be down between 2% and 10% compared to the previous year. (Those figures were included in an investor letter, despite Snap saying it would not provide specific guidance for the quarter.)

Meanwhile, Snap posted a net loss of more than $288 million in the quarter, compared to the $22.5 million in net income it earned in the same period a year ago.

Snap

(SNAP) shares fell as much as 15% in after-hours trading following the report.

The report marked the fourth straight quarter of net losses for Snap, which has suffered from increased competition in the social media market, disruptions to its ad business from Apple’s app privacy changes and weaker advertiser demand amid fears of a looming recession. High interest rates and inflation have also impacted many large tech firms.

Snap’s earnings could be a concerning bellwether for the other tech giants that rely on the health of the digital ad market, including Facebook-parent Meta and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which are set to report results this week.

Shares of Meta and Alphabet dipped slightly in after-hours trading Tuesday following Snap’s results.

In addition to challenges in the digital advertising market, Snap pointed to a change to its ad platform that it expects “will drive improvement for our partners and our business over time, but that may be disruptive… in the near term.”

Perhaps the lone bright spot for Snap in the results is its audience. The company reported having 375 million daily active users in the quarter, an increase of 17%.