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Two FBI agents assigned to the investigation into alleged collusion between President Donald  Trump's campaign and Russia exchanged text messages referring to the future president as an "idiot,"  according to copies of messages turned over to Congress Tuesday night by the Justice Department. Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the Russia probe "immediately" after learning of the texts in late July, the department said in a letter to lawmakers. The messages, which were turned up during a Justice Department inspector general investigation into potential political influence on investigative decisions during the campaign, are fueling Republican calls for a second special counsel to investigate Mueller's operation. About 375 texts were handed over by the Justice Department, arriving on Capitol Hill the night before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to face a prolonged grilling in fron...

Doug Jones, a Democratic former prosecutor who mounted a seemingly quixotic Senate campaign in the face of Republican dominance here, defeated his scandal-scarred opponent, Roy S. Moore, after a brutal campaign marked by accusations of sexual abuse and child molestation against the Republican, according to The Associated Press. The upset delivered an unimagined victory for Democrats and shaved Republicans’ unstable Senate majority to a single seat. Mr. Jones’s victory could have significant consequences on the national level, snarling Republicans’ legislative agenda in Washington and opening, for the first time, a realistic but still difficult path for  Democrats to capture the Senate next year. It amounted to a stinging snub of President Trump, who broke with much of his party and fully embraced Mr. Moore’s candidacy, seeking to rally support for him in the closing days of the campaign. Amid thunderous applause from his supporters at a downtown hotel, ...

The Government Accountability Office will investigate President Donald Trump's voting commission after a request by Democratic senators. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet published the letter he received from GAO confirming the investigation, which the Democrat asked for with colleagues Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. The three lawmakers wrote to the government watchdog last week asking them to look into federal funds used to support the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, the body's work on voter participation, what information and methodology the commission is using for its conclusions, how it is protecting any voter information collected and how it is following regulations. In its response this week, GAO said the work was "within the scope of its authority" and would begin in about five months, based on agency staffing. Trump ordered the creation of the commission after pledging to work to preserve...

Democrat Doug Jones has opened up an eight-point lead in the US Alabama Senate race amid multiple sexual abuse allegations against Republican Roy Moore, according to a poll released Thursday. Jones leads Moore by 50 to 42% among likely voters in the special election to fill the seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he became US attorney general, now less than a month away. Most Republican voters, 78%, still say they plan to cast their ballots for Moore, but a substantial minority 13% say they are voting for Jones. A broad 91% of Democrats say they're voting for Jones versus only 3% voting for Moore. Similarly, Moore wins only 81% of Trump voters versus 91% of Clinton voters who say they are voting for Jones. Jones has opened up a wide 58% to 32% lead among female likely voters. Meanwhile, 54% of women who are registered to vote had an unfavorable view of Moore, up from 39% in October.  Moore, however, maintains majority support among white evangelicals (73%), ...

The Trump administration has signaled a desire to wind down the protections of Temporary Protected Status, which is an immigration status allowed by law for certain countries experiencing dire conditions, such as a natural disaster, epidemic or war. TPS protects individuals from deportation and authorizes them to work in the US. Without TPS, those individuals revert to whatever status they had previously -- which could leave large numbers as undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration will end the protected immigration status of thousands of Central Americans who have been living in the US nearly two decades, urging Congress to act if it wants to spare those individuals from being uprooted. Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Elaine Duke has decided to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Nicaragua with a 12-month delay, the department announced Monday night. DHS also said Duke has not been able to reach a decision on Honduras despite different agen...

A second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia and has directed senior federal prosecutors to explore at least some of the matters and report back to him and his top deputy Various dealings of the Clinton Foundation and several matters connected to the purchase of the Canadian mining company Uranium One by Russia's nuclear energy agency. Particular aim at former FBI Director James Comey, asking for a second special counsel to evaluate the leaks he directed about his conversations with President Donald Trump, among other things.