Emboldened congressional Democrats are expanding their battleground map for next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the House. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) on Wednesday added five more offensive opportunities in California, Texas, Florida and North Carolina to their list of what they consider are vulnerable Republican-held House districts. The DCCC’s move comes in the wake of Democrats’ decisive ballot box...

A federal judge has cleared the Justice Department to release secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the transcripts under wraps, citing Congress’ recent action on the Epstein files. Berman had previously warned that the contents of the roughly 70 pages of grand jury materials contain little new information. The move...

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and ordered them returned to the control of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.  The order, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, is a blow to the Trump administration, and comes six months after the president in June deployed thousands of federalized National Guard troops to the city in response...