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US Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department on Thursday against what he called unfounded attacks and said prosecutions under his leadership were driven by "justice, not politics."

Garland, in an emotional farewell speech to Justice Department employees, also stressed the importance of maintaining the independence of the department from the White House and Congress.

Inmate Jacob Castro cuts firebreaks in the hills around Los Angeles. It's hard work, but having been in prison for 29 years, it is a chance for redemption.

"It's the first thing I've done in my life that I'm proud of," Castro told AFP during a short break from work.

A new Supreme Court case attacking the Affordable Care Act may not put the core provisions of the law in danger — but if the litigants get their way, it would give President-elect Donald Trump a new mechanism to cripple HIV care in the United States, wrote Charlotte Kilpatrick for The New Republic.

The case challenges the recommendations of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, which added coverage for a number of preventative procedures to insurance coverage requirements, including the HIV prevention medication PrEP — which right-wing Christian business owners in Texas don't want to cover. They argue the task force's recommendations are unconstitutional because its members weren't confirmed by the Senate.

He may be a hard-liner on immigration, but Donald Trump Jr. appeared ecstatic about the possibility of aliens — from outer space, at least.

The president-elect's namesake has been fascinated with extraterrestrials for some time, and he welcomed some of the UFO/UAP experts onto his "Triggered" podcast this week.

The civil judgment in President-elect Donald Trump’s New York fraud case quietly hit a new staggering milestone: half a billion dollars.

The eye-popping figure – which a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed Thursday reached $502 million – means Trump will likely enter the White House with the massive debt still hanging over his head as he pursues an appeal, CBS News reported.

Americans were bracing Thursday for frigid temperatures that forecasters said could produce life-threatening conditions, with Donald Trump's inauguration expected to be the coldest in 40 years.

The bitter weather -- tied to an Arctic "polar vortex" blast -- is expected to bring nighttime lows as cold as minus 23 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 degrees Celsius) over the weekend for some of the northernmost parts of the United States.

Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are being targeted in a $400 million defamation suit by Justin Baldoni, Lively's co-star on bleak romance "It Ends With Us" -- the latest caustic twist in the legal battle engulfing the film.

The suit from Baldoni, who also directed the film, comes weeks after Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, protesting her treatment on set, and then a lawsuit accusing him of launching a retaliatory media campaign against her.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is in hot water with a significant portion of the House Republican Conference over his decision to remove the chairman of a high-profile committee.

On Thursday, Johnson announced that Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) would not be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in the 119th Congress, instead choosing Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) as his replacement. Now, some Republican lawmakers are telling Fox News that Turner is rebelling against the speaker, and that Johnson may not be able to count on his vote for future legislation — which could be a significant complication given Republicans' razor-thin House majority.

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) is undeterred by the fact that President Joe Biden pardoned his son to try to prevent President-elect Donald Trump's Justice Department from further digging into his life — and has some ideas about how to get around it.

Speaking on Thursday's right-wing Benny Johnson Show, Comer said House and Justice Department investigators could simply start with a fishing expedition into financial documents that predate the pardon term.

Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore (R) held what he said was an "urgent" fundraiser after being arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing law enforcement.

Moore was detained Thursday while trying to attend the annual State of the State Address at the Georgia Capitol. House Speaker Jon Burns (R) previously banned Moore from attending for "vile, disparaging and false comments" about the late House Speaker David Ralston.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.

The official who oversaw Apache County’s November election during widespread technical problems at polling places is no longer in her position, Votebeat has learned.

Outgoing Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg sat for a lengthy interview with Politico's Adam Wren about the legacy of the Biden administration — and why he believes the president never got a public boost from the policies he got signed into law.

Biden's four years in office saw a wave of ambitious legislation, with one of his signature accomplishments being a bipartisan infrastructure bill that has committed money to thousands of upgrades to roads, bridges, and transit — one of the largest such investments since the original creation of the Interstate Highway System.