Zelensky delivers impassioned plea for more help fighting Russia on ...

CNN —

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a historic speech from the United States Capitol Wednesday night, expressing gratitude for American support in fighting Russian aggression since the war began – and asking for more.

“I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart,” Zelensky said during the joint meeting of Congress, later adding, “Against all odds, and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”

But alongside Zelensky’s gratitude was a plea, emphasizing that his armed forces are outnumbered and outgunned by the Russian military even as they fight on. At one point, Zelensky drew laughs from the chamber when he said, “We have artillery, yes. Thank you. We have it. Is it enough? Honestly, not really.”

Zelensky’s visit to Washington marks his first trip outside his homeland since it was invaded 300 days ago, arriving Wednesday afternoon to set a course for the future of the war alongside a key Western ally.

On “the frontline of tyranny,” Zelensky argued during his speech to Congress, American support “is crucial not just to stand in such (a) fight but to get to the turning point to win on the battlefield.”

“The world is too interconnected and too interdependent to allow someone to stay aside and at the same time to feel safe when such a battle continues,” he added. “Our two nations are allies in this battle and next year will be a turning point, I know it – the point where Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom, the freedom of people who stand for their values.”

“Your money is not charity,” he asserted to Congress. “It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.” Zelensky also called on lawmakers to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

Still, despite that disparity in resources, Zelensky said, “Ukraine holds its line and will never surrender.”

In his speech, Zelensky harkened back to American history, referencing the Battle of the Bulge, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Battle of Saratoga. Just like “brave American soldiers which held their lines” and fought against Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1944, Ukrainian soldiers “are doing the same to Putin’s forces this Christmas,” Zelensky said.

He also briefly discussed a 10-point peace formula and summit that he told US President Joe Biden about during an earlier meeting at the White House. Zelensky claimed Biden supported the peace initiatives.

Zelensky also recalled his recent visit to the frontlines – Bakhmut in Donbas – which has been under siege since May. There, he said, “every inch of that land is soaked in blood, roaring guns sound every hour.” In the climatic moment of the speech, he unveiled a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers fighting in Bakhmut that he gave as a gift to the Congress.

“The occupiers have a significant advantage in artillery. They have an advantage in ammunition. They have much more missiles and planes than we ever have. It’s true, but our defense forces stand,” he added.

Russia, Zelensky argued in strong terms, has “found an ally” in Iran.

“Iran’s deadly drones sent to Russia in hundreds became a threat to our critical infrastructure. That is how one terrorist has found the other,” he said. “It is just a matter of time when they will strike against your other allies if we do not stop them now.”

Zelensky’s White House visit

Earlier Wednesday the Ukrainian leader visited the White House, where he met with Biden and held a joint news conference, during which the duo displayed a united front on their approach to the war.

“I think … we share the exact same vision, and that a free, independent, prosperous and secure Ukraine is the vision – we both want this war to end,” Biden told reporters in the White House East Room.

At the start of the news conference, Biden relayed that he felt it was “particularly meaningful” to speak to Zelensky in person and “look each other in the eye.” The Ukrainian president’s leadership, Biden said, has inspired the world.

“We understand in our bones that Ukraine’s fight is part of something much bigger,” Biden continued.

Biden said Zelensky has shown his “strong stand against aggression in the face of the imperial appetites of autocrats,” and said the US was standing alongside Ukraine in maintaining “core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Both Biden and Zelensky addressed the Russians during the news conference, with the Ukranian president repeatedly calling Russian forces “terrorists” and Biden underscoring the importance of being “clear” about Russia’s actions.

“It is purposely attacking Ukraine critical infrastructure, destroying the system to provide heat and light (to) Ukrainian people during the coldest, darkest part of the year. Russia is using winter as a weapon, freezing people, starving people, cutting them off from one another,” Biden said. The war, Biden later argued, “could end today if Putin had any dignity at all and did the right thing and just … pulled out. But that’s not gonna happen.”

But the two leaders, it seems, still have different perspectives on their approach to pursuing peace with Russia.

Early in the news conference, Biden said Zelensky was open to pursuing a “just peace.” Later, when asked by a reporter to share his idea of a fair way to end the war, the Ukrainian leader responded, “For me, as a president, just peace is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of my country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression.”

“There can’t be any just peace in the war that was imposed on us by these … inhumans, I would say,” he added.

Meeting comes at a critical moment

President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses Congress as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris hold up a Ukrainian national flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, December 21. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky addresses the joint meeting of Congress. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Zelensky holds an American flag that was gifted to him by Pelosi. The flag was flown over the Capitol earlier in the day. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Zelensky addresses Congress. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky addresses the joint meeting. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Guests of the the Ukrainian delegation wave as Zelensky acknowledges them during his address. Carolyn Kaster/AP Zelensky is greeted as he arrives to address Congress. Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images Zelensky speaks during a news conference with Biden in the East Room of the White House. Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images Biden speaks during the news conference. Andrew Harnik/AP Members of the media listen during the news conference in the East Room of the White House. Andrew Harnik/AP Biden speaks during the news conference. Andrew Harnik/AP Zelensky meets with Biden in the Oval Office of the White House. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky speaks after giving Biden a gift. He presented Biden with a Cross of Combat Merit. Zelensky explained that a captain in the Ukrainian military fighting in the Donbas region asked that his award be given to Biden. Patrick Semansky/AP Biden holds the Cross of Combat Merit. "He's very brave," Zelensky said of the soldier. "And he said give it to very brave President, and I want to give you, that is a cross for military merit." Patrick Semansky/AP Zelensky sits with Biden and first lady Jill Biden inside the White House. from President Volodymyr Zelensky/Instagram Biden and Zelensky walk down the Colonnade of the White House as they make their way to the Oval Office. Alex Wong/Getty Images Biden and Zelensky walk into the White House after Zelensky's arrival. Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Zelensky at the White House on Wednesday. Andrew Harnik/AP Biden shakes hands with Zelensky as he arrives at the White House. Patrick Semansky/AP Zelensky, left, is greeted by Rufus Gifford, chief of protocol for the state department, after landing in the United States on Wednesday. NA/Ukrainian Presidency In pictures: Zelensky's wartime visit to US Prev Next

Zelensky arrived to the South Lawn just after 2 p.m. ET, eschewing a suit for his now-familiar military green shirt. A military honor guard lined the White House driveway as his black vehicle pulled toward the building.

“I understand that we have very important topics and we’ll discuss them, everything, so many challenges in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world, from energy to the situation on the battlefield,” Zelensky said in the Oval Office. “But first of all, really, all my appreciations from my heart, from the heart of Ukrainians, all Ukrainians, from our nation.”

The wartime visit was meant to demonstrate in stirring fashion the continued American commitment to Ukraine at a moment when Biden’s ability to maintain that support at home and abroad is being tested.

It has also been an opportunity for Biden and top American officials to sound out Zelensky on how he views the trajectory of the conflict, and to offer their thoughts on what it would take to bring the war to an end.

“Together with our partners, we’re also going to impose costs on the Kremlin and will support Ukraine in pursuing a just peace,” Biden said in the Oval Office, a reference to how Zelensky has said he hopes to see the war end. “President Zelensky, the United States stands with the brave people in Ukraine.”

Sitting before a roaring fireplace, Zelensky offered Biden a military cross medal from a Ukrainian soldier serving on the front lines.

“He said, ‘Give it to a very brave president,’” Zelensky said.

“Undeserved but much appreciated,” Biden replied as he accepted the medal, asking if it would be possible to contact the Ukrainian soldier.

A surprise visit

The trip, which US and Ukrainian officials arranged in secret over the past week, came with heavy risks. After arriving in Poland by train, Zelensky flew to Washington aboard an American military aircraft, US officials said. He arrived in the US shortly after midday at Joint Base Andrews, just outside the nation’s capital.

US President Joe Biden and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC on December 21, 2022. - Zelensky is in Washington to meet with US President Joe Biden and address Congress -- his first trip abroad since Russia invaded in February. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Biden first discussed the prospect of Zelensky visiting Washington during a telephone call with the Ukrainian leader on December 11, an administration official said. A formal invitation was extended a week ago that Zelensky accepted, launching joint consultations on the security parameters of the risky, highly secretive trip.

Zelensky, who the official said was “very keen” to visit the US, determined those parameters met his needs, and the US set to work executing them. The trip was finally confirmed on Sunday.

Tight security was enforced around Zelensky’s visit amid concerns that Russia wants to incapacitate the Ukrainian president, a source close to the Ukrainian leader told CNN on Wednesday. Because of this ongoing threat, senior top government officials – as well as embassy staff in the US – were not informed about the schedule of the visit.

According to the source, the military risk had to be calculated allowing the Ukrainian president to make the short overseas trip without jeopardizing the military situation. Scheduling also had to be worked with the White House to assess availability for this to happen.

In weighing a visit, Zelensky suggested he did not want to travel had there not been a significant development in the bilateral relationship between Ukraine and the US. Zelensky viewed the US decision to send Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine as a major shift in the relationship between the two allies.

The new, $1.8 billion package Biden unveiled includes a Patriot surface-to-air missile system, which has been a longstanding request of Ukraine’s to fend of Russian air attacks. CNN was first to report the US was expected to send the Patriot systems to Ukraine.

Unlike smaller air defense systems, Patriot missile batteries need much larger crews, requiring dozens of personnel to properly operate them. The training for Patriot missile batteries normally takes multiple months, a process the United States will now carry out under the pressure of near-daily aerial attacks from Russia.

The system is widely considered one of the most capable long-range weapons to defend airspace against incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as some aircraft. Because of its long-range and high-altitude capability, it can potentially shoot down Russian missiles and aircraft far from their intended targets inside Ukraine.

During the news conference, Biden told CNN’s Phil Mattingly that the missile system is defensive, not escalatory. Zelensky said the system is “something that will strengthen our air defense significantly.”

“Every dollar of this investment for the United States is going to be a strengthening of global security and I know that the American leadership will be strong and will play important role in global scope,” Zelensky added.

He also suggested Ukraine would want more of the systems.

Kevin Liptak Maegan Vazquez
Kevin Liptak
Maegan Vazquez

How President Biden pulled off a secret trip to Ukraine one year into ...

While most of Washington slept, President Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv around 8 a.m. local time Monday aboard a train that traveled overnight from neighboring Poland.

The dramatic display of solidarity with Ukraine was the culmination of months of planning by a small team of administration officials. A final decision came in an Oval Office meeting Friday to move forward with a secret trip to war-torn Ukraine ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion.

The historic mission posed extraordinary risks. Although presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama made surprise visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, this was the first presidential trip to a war zone in which the U.S. did not have a military presence.

"I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war," Biden said at 9 a.m. local time alongside Ukranian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who had greeted him 30 minutes earlier at Mariinksy Palace, the president's official residence.

Donning Ukraine's colors with a blue and yellow striped tie, Biden spent about five hours in Kyiv before departing for Poland, which White House officials insisted last week would be Biden's only destination during his three-day swing to Europe.

More:Joe Biden walks streets of Kyiv in surprise visit: 'Americans stand with you'

When did Biden leave for Kyiv?

The secret journey began nearly 20 hours earlier when – in a deviation from Biden's public schedule – the president arrived at Andrews Air Force base at about 4 a.m. EST Sunday. He boarded Air Force One with two reporters and a small group of White House officials including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon.

“The trip from Washington was a trip filled with real anticipation that this was an important moment, and that the president was rising to the moment and felt he had an important mission to undertake, and he was eager to do it,” Sullivan said.

Air Force One landed first at Ramstein Air Base in Germany at 5:13 p.m. local time Sunday night and stayed grounded a little over an hour before taking off to Poland. Biden arrived at the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland at 7:57 p.m. local time Sunday.

Biden's motorcade then departed for the Przemyśl Główny train station, where he boarded one of eight train cars that – painted blue with a yellow stripe down the middle – resembled the type of trains that have carried Ukrainian refugees into Poland.

Biden takes 10-hour train ride into Ukraine

Biden, a well-known lover of trains, then embarked on likely the most momentous ride of his life: a 10-hour trip in the dead of night into a country ravaged by war, arriving at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky station about 8 a.m. local time. Bridget Brink, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, was there to greet the president.

"It's good to be back in Kyiv," Biden said after exiting the train, making his first trip to Ukraine since six visits he made there as vice president, the last in 2017.

More:Biden in Ukraine: See photos of president in Kyiv nearly one year after Russia's invasion

For security reasons, the two reporters who traveled with Biden – a pool reporter from the Wall Street Journal and a reporter from The Associated Press – agreed not to provide real-time updates on Biden's movements. The White House has declined to discuss the full logistics of Biden's trip until it concludes.

Even in its official guidance, the White House maintained Biden would be leaving for Poland on Monday evening.

As Biden flew across the Atlantic Ocean, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby made the rounds on the Sunday morning TV talk shows, making no mention that Biden would be landing in Ukraine the next morning.

US alerted Russia about trip for 'deconfliction purposes'

“Thank you for coming,” Zelenskyy said, greeting Biden outside the palace. “This conversation brings us closer to the victory."

In joint remarks with Zelenskyy, Biden committed an additional $460 million in security assistance to Ukraine. It followed a meeting in which the two leaders discussed the next steps of the war, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of ending.

Biden and Zelenskky later visited St. Michael’s Gold-Domed Cathedral, spending about 10 minutes inside, as air raid sirens blasted outside. They then laid a wreath at the Wall of Remembrance to honor the country's fallen soldiers.

“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said.

More:Biden in Kyiv, Japan rolls out aid and Putin faces 'people's court': Live Ukraine updates

After visiting the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv at noon local time, Biden entered the motorcade and started rolling roughly 45 minutes later to an undisclosed location. He departed Kyiv, returning to Poland at 10:04 p.m. local time on the same train that he rode into Ukraine.

Biden then took a short flight to Warsaw, where he will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and deliver a speech Tuesday night on the one-year anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine

Biden Kyiv trip 'meticulously planned' for months

Sullivan said Russia was notified that Biden would be traveling to Kyiv “some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes.” Sullivan did not offer details on the message nor the response from Russia because of “the sensitive nature of those communications."

Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said the visit was “meticulously planned over a period of months,” with involvement from the White House, NSC, the Pentagon, the Secret Service and the intelligence community.

Finer said Biden was fully briefed on each stage of the plan and of any possible contingencies. He said the final decision to go to Kyiv was made in a huddle in the Oval Office on Friday.

“Obviously, this was all worked very closely between the White House and the highest levels of the Ukrainian government, who have become quite adept at hosting high-level visitors, although not one quite like this.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison

Biden has spent more than a fourth of his presidency working from ...

CNN —

President Joe Biden spent the weekend at his home in Delaware, where he met up with his wife, other family members and – if they followed usual practice – Willow the cat and Commander the dog.

It’s a familiar weekly ritual. As of this point in his presidency, Biden has spent more than a quarter of his time working from his home state of Delaware, either at his house in Wilmington or his Rehoboth Beach property.

Some 21 months into his term, Biden has made 55 visits to Delaware, totaling some or all of 174 days as of Sunday, according to a CNN analysis of presidential schedules and a tally kept by Mark Knoller, the longtime unofficial statistician of the White House press corps. In addition, Biden has made 19 visits, or all or part of 64 days, to the Camp David presidential retreat in rural Maryland.

He has now surpassed even the getaway time of former President Donald Trump, so often criticized by Democrats for his regular departures from the White House to stay at one of his personal homes. At this point in his tenure, Trump had spent about 135 days at either his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, or his home at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump also had spent 23 days at Camp David.

“President Biden is deeply proud of his roots and his family and it has been a staple of his time in public life to never lose touch with either,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said to CNN. “Presidents of the United States are constantly on the job, regardless of their location – whether they’re on a state visit overseas or just 100 miles from the White House for a short trip to Wilmington, DE. And as all Americans can agree, it’s important for leaders to avoid becoming ensconced in Washington, DC.”

The comforts of home can be a salve for the commander in chief while carrying out one of the world’s most demanding jobs. The American president is never truly “off,” and – in fact – Biden, like all presidents, has a whole remote White House apparatus that travels with him to facilitate that round-the-clock enterprise, with the most state-of-the-art capabilities, resources and technology traveling with him wherever he goes.

Some argue that Biden can now lean into the normalcy of working from home, which millions of Americans had to rely on when Covid-19 forced isolation from offices and public spaces. “WFH” is not just a shorthand for being productive at the home office, it’s become a professional way of life for many.

“It is 2022, not 1922. If the rest of the country can work from home, so can the president of the United States,” said Michael LaRosa, a director at a DC-based public affairs firm and former press secretary to first lady Dr. Jill Biden.

“He spent (practically) every weekend in Delaware during his 36 years in the Senate, and his eight years as vice president,” LaRosa said. “This is nothing new. The Bidens have never lived in Washington, DC.” When he was a senator, Biden commuted back to Delaware almost every night by train – earning the nickname “Amtrak Joe” – and the train station in Wilmington is named for him.

The physical presence of a president is, however, meaningful for some, at least in ritual.

The statistics – 236 days away from the White House in Delaware and Maryland in less than two years on the job – are significant for the modern presidency. The job has been set in the nation’s capital near the Congress and the Supreme Court, in part for its symbolic power, for more than 220 years. Being in that power center brings a higher level of transparency thanks to the proximity to the national media, along with White House rules about press access and public records about who comes and goes.

Whenever the president is actually in the Oval Office, for example, that presence is honored by the solemn watch of a stone-faced US Marine posted outside the West Wing.

“A special challenge that Biden faces, because of his age, is that people will assume the worst if he’s not always visible. That is something that comes with being the oldest president in office,” said Tim Naftali, a CNN presidential historian, who notes presidents have had a “moveable Oval Office” for decades. “Perception is important in American politics.”

The optics of WFH or WFWH

A president of the United States who doesn’t consider the White House his primary home does not go unnoticed by the media, or critics. But the executive mansion’s primary residents have generally found it stifling.

“I always say I don’t know whether it’s the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the prison system,” former President Bill Clinton famously mused during a 1993 interview.

Knoller, who during his 32-year career with CBS News covered the personal habits of six presidents, concurs.

“It may look luxurious, but it can be suffocating to live and work there day in and out,” Knoller said.

Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster were fodder for op-eds and lent themselves to critics painting a portrait of a president unwilling to give up the trappings of a luxe off-duty lifestyle. And though many days were spent on the golf course – 125 or so at this point in Trump’s presidency, compared to Biden’s 19 on the links – Trump was still the leader of the free world. Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, traveled home much less frequently while in office but was frequently dinged – by Trump, among others – for the amount of golf he played.

“(Ronald) Reagan and (George W.) Bush both spent lots of time at their private ranch homes,” said Knoller of two other former presidents who escaped the White House with regularity.

Knoller tabulated time away for presidents, he says, because the numbers “added color to my reporting and gave insight to the president’s needs and activities.”

According to Knoller’s count, George W. Bush spent all or part of 490 days – more than a year – at his Texas ranch during his eight years in office. Reagan spent nearly a year, all or part of 349 days, at his California ranch during his two terms. If Biden were reelected and kept up his current pace of trips to Delaware until the end of a second term in office, he would far surpass both Reagan and Bush in time away from the White House.

However, post-pandemic culture has blurred the boundaries of what defines a workplace.

“Our concept of being ‘on the job’ has shifted, and that may actually change the way we think about where our president needs to be,” Naftali said.

Some of Biden’s biggest political wins came this summer, after all, when he was isolating in the residence of the White House after testing positive for Covid-19. Photos showed him tie-less, often working in the second-floor Treaty Room or reading papers with his feet up on the Truman balcony, Commander by his side.

It was a view into what Biden’s work from home life may be like when he’s in Wilmington or Rehoboth.

“It’s a bit antiquated to think that because he is not physically in the White House on the weekends, that he is not working,” LaRosa said. “He never stops being President and he never stops working. Just ask the first lady.”

A weekly ritual

Biden has the advantage of a more normalized routine in his trips away from Washington.

The White House residence staff has by now perfected the choreography of managing, packing and planning the departure of the President and first lady most Fridays, the day, statistically, the Bidens normally split town.

The ushers know which bags are to be brought downstairs – it’s a light-pack, most of the couples’ needed belongings are already in their Delaware homes, a person familiar tells CNN. While Biden occasionally plays golf at a local course when in Wilmington, his other activities – seeing his grandchildren, taking casual social visits, going to church – don’t require multiple outfit changes.

In Rehoboth, he rides his bike and he and the first lady like to set up a big, blue umbrella on the sandy beach in front of their house and sunbathe or read in reclining chairs. Outside of swimsuits, joggers and polo shirts, it’s not a multiple-suitcase situation.

“The biggest issue is usually the pets,” said the person familiar with the weekend planning for a presidential getaway to Delaware.

Commander, now one year old and no longer a small puppy, and Willow, the barn cat adopted by Jill Biden, are “almost always” on the Delaware visits. While many American families leave their pets at home with caretakers for the weekend, or book them at pet-sitting facilities, the Bidens take theirs with them.

They like to be around their pets at all times – when Joe Biden was isolating at the White House with Covid-19 this summer, he was kept company by Commander; likewise, when Jill Biden had her bout with Covid, she spent the her rebound case isolation period in Rehoboth, with Willow.

The animals frequently travel to Delaware via van, with support staff, but occasionally they are in vehicles solely dedicated to their transportation, says the person. Willow, in particular, is not a fan of noisy, whirring helicopter blades, said another person familiar with the feline’s habits. In June, there was a rare sighting by White House press members of Willow in her crate, being carried by a residence staffer to Marine One for a weekend at Rehoboth Beach.

The Biden’s Delaware visits, of course, no matter how quick, have a significant footprint beyond those of the paws of their pets.

Secret Service coordinates with law enforcement on all movements – several highway exits must close for the presidential motorcade, locals in both Wilmington and Rehoboth must at times wait on traffic patterns or be swept by agents with handheld magnetometers just to walk down the beach if one of the Bidens is there, as one neighbor of the Bidens in Rehoboth Beach told CNN.

The large presidential apparatus helps ensure that the President is able to perform his duties with the full input of his advisers, even if they’re not with him in person.

“Unless we discover his being away from Washington results in him bobbling the ball as JFK did on the eve of the Bay of Pigs operation, there shouldn’t be an issue,” says Naftali, referring to Kennedy’s canceling of an air strike on a Sunday, without full consultation and full consideration, a move the former President later regretted.

“But if Biden is in touch virtually and telephonically, in this era, leadership doesn’t have to involve always being physically present in Washington, D.C.”

The number of people with Top Secret clearance will shock you ...

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CNN —

The central question surrounding the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last week is the one that remains most unanswered: What documents did former President Donald Trump have and why is the government so intent on getting them back?

The receipt for property that was seized during the execution of a search warrant by the FBI at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., is photographed Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. Jon Elswick/AP

There are other questions, of course. Did he take the material because he thought they were “cool,” like some kind of trophy? Or did he see some advantage in having them, The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wondered during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” on Monday.

Were the documents related to Roger Stone’s pardon by Trump somehow key evidence? What is behind the appearance of material on the “President of France” in the receipt for what was taken?

The imagination runs wild in the absence of facts.

Trump has now demanded the documents be returned, even though presidential papers, under US law, are not his property.

The most tantalizing detail is that 11 sets of documents were classified.

It’s shining a light on the system of classification by which the government hides information from its people in the name of everyone’s national security.

More than a million people have Top Secret clearance

It’s actually a very large universe of people with access to Top Secret data.

The Director of National Intelligence publishes what is described as an annual report, “Security Clearance Determinations,” although the most recent one I could find was from 2017.

In it, more than 2.8 million people are described as having security clearance as of October 2017 – more than 1.6 million have access to either Confidential or Secret information and nearly 1.2 million are described as having access to Top Secret information.

There are additional people who have security clearance but don’t currently have access to information. This includes civilian employees, contractors and members of the military.

Agencies control their own classified data. They are supposed to declassify it

That doesn’t mean more than 1 million people have access to whatever Top Secret documents were lying around Mar-a-Lago. Each agency that deals in classification has its own system and is supposed to be involved in declassifying its own documents.

Trump’s defenders have argued he had put in place an order to declassify any documents he took from the Oval Office to the residence during his time in the White House, although professionals have said this claim can’t be true.

“The idea that the president can declassify documents simply by moving them from one physical location to another is nonsense on so many levels,” said Shawn Turner, a CNN analyst and former director of communication for US National Intelligence, during a Monday appearance on “Inside Politics.”

There’s an official process

Turner said the process for declassification must include signoff from the agency that classified the information in the first place in order to protect the intelligence-gathering process, its sources and methods.

Presidents have periodically used executive orders to update the official system by which classified information is declassified.

Most recently, then-President Barack Obama put in place Executive Order 13526 in 2009. That’s still the official policy since neither Trump nor President Joe Biden updated it.

The government might soon change the process

Biden started a review of how classified data is handled earlier this summer. Here’s an exhaustive Congressional Research Service report on the declassification process.

Biden’s review will reexamine the three general levels of classification.

Levels of classification

CNN’s Katie Lobosco wrote a very good primer on classified data last week. Here’s her description of the three levels of classification:

Top Secret – This is the highest level of classification. Information is classified as Top Secret if it “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security,” according to a 2009 executive order that describes the classification system.

A subset of Top Secret documents known as SCI, or sensitive compartmented information, is reserved for certain information derived from intelligence sources. Access to an SCI document can be even further restricted to a smaller group of people with specific security clearances.

Some of the materials recovered from Trump’s Florida home were marked as Top Secret SCI.

Secret – Information is classified as Secret if the information is deemed to be able to cause “serious damage” to national security if revealed.

Confidential – Confidential is the least sensitive level of classification, applied to information that is reasonably expected to cause “damage” to national security if disclosed.

What kinds of things are Top Secret?

The former CIA officer David Priess, who is now publisher of the website Lawfare, said on “New Day” that no matter the specific classification, it’s information the government has an interest in not being made public.

It could be intelligence gathered on the North Korean nuclear program or Russian military operations, for example.

Leaks can be disastrous or deadly

The government often gets this type of information by asking people to risk their lives or using technology it doesn’t want adversaries to know about.

Talking about it on Monday morning, Priess became emotional.

“Exposing this information put people’s lives at risk,” he said. “That’s not a joke. We know people who have died serving their country this way.”

What took so long?

The larger question than what’s classified, Priess argued, is why, if the government knew the documents were at Mar-a-Lago, it took investigators so long to go get them.

In order for a president to declassify anything, he argued, there still needs to be a paper trail so everyone knows something is declassified.

“If they’re not marked declassified and other documents with the same information aren’t also declassified, did it really happen? If there’s no record of it, how do you even know?”

We may not know more for a very long time

The problem now may be that imaginations will run wild about what is in the documents.

It could be a very long time before American voters have any idea what this was all really about.

“Technically we won’t see any further action on this case on the legal docket unless and until DOJ brings criminal charges against any person,” said CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, also on “New Day.”

RELATED: DOJ opposes making public details in Mar-a-Lago search warrant’s probable cause affidavit

Already there is some speculation that rather than pursue charges, the government was simply trying to secure the data.

Classified information can stay that way for years and years – between 10 and 25, according to the declassification guidelines signed by Obama.

The standard is that if something no longer needs to be classified, it should be declassified. And if it needs to be classified past that 25-year period, it can be.

Look at the Top Secret documents of yore

The FBI, CIA and State Department all have online reading rooms of previously classified data released through the Freedom of Information Act. None of it is very recent stuff.

The case of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents seems special, however, and there are already bipartisan calls from Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio – the top elected officials on the Senate Intelligence Committee – to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for more information about what was taken by the FBI.

Examples of prosecutions

Prosecutions for mishandling of classified data can involve high-profile figures.

For example, retired general and former CIA Director David Petraeus gave classified information to his mistress, who was writing a book about him. He ultimately pleaded guilty, paid a $100,000 fine and got two years of probation.

What data did he mishandle? From CNN’s report at the time: During his time as commander in Afghanistan, Petraeus kept personal notes including classified information in eight 5-by-8 inch black notebooks. The classified information (included) identity of covert officers, war strategy, notes from diplomatic and national security meetings and security code words.

Other figures are not as familiar – like Asia Janay Lavarello, a civilian Defense Department employee working in the US Embassy in Manila, who took classified documents to her hotel room and her house while she was working on a thesis project. She got three months in prison.

Volodymyr Zelensky: 5 takeaways from Ukrainian President's ...

CNN —

Three-hundred days after his country was invaded by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky jetted to Washington, DC, for talks on what the next 300 days might bring.

Shrouded in secrecy until the last minute, the historic visit was heavy with symbolism, from Zelensky’s drab green sweatshirt to President Joe Biden’s blue-and-yellow striped tie to the Ukrainian battle flag unfurled on the House floor.

But the trip was about far more than symbols. Biden wouldn’t invite Zelensky to Washington – and endure a risky trip outside Ukraine for the first time since the war began – if he did not believe something real could be accomplished meeting face-to-face instead of over the phone.

Emerging from their talks, both men made clear they see the war entering a new phase. As Russia sends more troops to the frontlines and wages a brutal air campaign against civilian targets, fears of a stalemate are growing.

Yet as Zelensky departed Washington for a lengthy and similarly risky return trip to Ukraine, it wasn’t clear that a pathway to ending the conflict was any clearer.

President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses Congress as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris hold up a Ukrainian national flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, December 21. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky addresses the joint meeting of Congress. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Zelensky holds an American flag that was gifted to him by Pelosi. The flag was flown over the Capitol earlier in the day. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Zelensky addresses Congress. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky addresses the joint meeting. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Guests of the the Ukrainian delegation wave as Zelensky acknowledges them during his address. Carolyn Kaster/AP Zelensky is greeted as he arrives to address Congress. Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images Zelensky speaks during a news conference with Biden in the East Room of the White House. Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images Biden speaks during the news conference. Andrew Harnik/AP Members of the media listen during the news conference in the East Room of the White House. Andrew Harnik/AP Biden speaks during the news conference. Andrew Harnik/AP Zelensky meets with Biden in the Oval Office of the White House. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Zelensky speaks after giving Biden a gift. He presented Biden with a Cross of Combat Merit. Zelensky explained that a captain in the Ukrainian military fighting in the Donbas region asked that his award be given to Biden. Patrick Semansky/AP Biden holds the Cross of Combat Merit. "He's very brave," Zelensky said of the soldier. "And he said give it to very brave President, and I want to give you, that is a cross for military merit." Patrick Semansky/AP Zelensky sits with Biden and first lady Jill Biden inside the White House. from President Volodymyr Zelensky/Instagram Biden and Zelensky walk down the Colonnade of the White House as they make their way to the Oval Office. Alex Wong/Getty Images Biden and Zelensky walk into the White House after Zelensky's arrival. Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Zelensky at the White House on Wednesday. Andrew Harnik/AP Biden shakes hands with Zelensky as he arrives at the White House. Patrick Semansky/AP Zelensky, left, is greeted by Rufus Gifford, chief of protocol for the state department, after landing in the United States on Wednesday. NA/Ukrainian Presidency In pictures: Zelensky's wartime visit to US Prev Next

Biden and Zelensky try to figure out how the war ends

Gaining clarity on where Zelensky stands when it comes to ending the war was among the prerogatives in bringing him to the White House. The Ukrainian leader had previously expressed a desire for a “just peace” that would end the conflict – a point that US officials said would be at the center of their talks Wednesday.

But on Wednesday, Zelensky used bellicose rhetoric that suggested such a peace was not close, saying the road to ending the war would not involve making concessions to Russia.

“For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,” he said, indicating he doesn’t see any road to peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory or sovereignty.

Later, in his address to Congress, Zelensky said he’d presented a 10-point peace formula to Biden – though US officials said afterward it was the same plan he offered to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit last month.

Among the Western nations that have rallied in support behind Zelensky, there have been lingering concerns about what Zelensky’s long-term plan might be.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Video Ad Feedback Watch Zelensky's historic speech to Congress 26:43 - Source: CNN

Zelensky shows he knows his audience – and displays his showmanship

Zelensky peppered his address to lawmakers with references to American history, from the critical Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War to the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He delivered his address in English, a purposeful choice he telegraphed ahead of the speech. Even his attire – the now-familiar Army green shirt, cargo pants and boots – seemed designed to remind his audience they were in the presence of a wartime leader.

Over the course of the conflict, Zelensky has demonstrated an acute ability to appeal to his audience, be they national legislatures or the audience of the Grammys.

On Wednesday, he sought to harness Americans’ emotional response to his country’s suffering, evoking dark winter nights as Russia seeks to interrupt Ukraine’s power supply.

“In two days we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe candlelit. Not because it’s more romantic, no, but because there will not be – there will be no electricity,” he said.

But he also seemed aware that many Americans – including some Republicans in Congress – have wondered aloud why billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away. He sought to make the cause about more than his own homeland.

“The battle is not only for life, freedom, and security of Ukrainians or any other nation which Russia attempts to conquer,” he said. “The struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live in.”

He added, “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

Video Ad Feedback Watch Zelensky unveil flag during historic speech to Congress 01:59 - Source: CNN

Zelensky finally accepts the ride he was offered – and gets the ammo too

At the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Zelensky turned down an American offer to evacuate him from Kyiv.

“I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky told the US.

Ten months later, he got both. When Zelensky touched down outside Washington in a US military plane Wednesday, his arrival capped a 10-day sprint by American and Ukrainian officials to arrange a risky wartime visit meant to rally support for Ukraine’s ongoing resistance to Russia’s invasion.

Just ahead of Zelensky’s arrival, the Biden administration announced it is sending nearly $2 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine – including a sophisticated new Patriot air defense system that Zelensky has been requesting for months.

In weighing a visit, Zelensky suggested to advisers he did not want to travel to Washington had there not been a significant development in the bilateral relationship with the United States, according to a source familiar with the matter. Zelensky viewed the US decision to send a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine as a major shift in the relationship between the two allies.

Yet standing alongside Biden, he was frank that he did not view the single Patriot system as enough.

“We would like to get more Patriots,” he said as Biden laughed. “I’m sorry but we are in war.”

Video Ad Feedback 'This is Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare': Tapper reacts to Zelensky's speech 01:19 - Source: CNN

A united front in one of the world’s most complicated relationships

Speaking later to Congress, Zelensky was again up front that he did not believe the American support was sufficient.

“Is it enough? Honestly, not really,” he said of the artillery that the US has so far provided.

Zelensky’s candid request for more Patriots – and Biden’s lighthearted response – amounted to a window into one of the world’s most complicated relationships.

On the surface, Biden and Zelensky have maintained a stalwart partnership. And Zelensky was effusive in his praise of Biden as he went from the Oval Office to the East Room to Capitol Hill.

Yet it doesn’t take much to see tensions just beneath the surface. Zelensky has consistently agitated for additional US support, despite the tens of billions of dollars in military assistance that Biden has directed to his country.

That hasn’t always sat well with Biden or his team. But as he has with a host of other foreign leaders, Biden appeared intent Wednesday on translating physical proximity into a better understanding of his counterpart.

“It is all about looking someone in the eye. I mean it sincerely. I don’t think there is any substitute for sitting down face to face with a friend or a foe and looking them in the eye,” he said.

Video Ad Feedback Listen to Zelensky's message to Americans from Oval Office 06:00 - Source: CNN

A visit that symbolizes a ‘new phase’ in the war

Biden invited Zelensky to Washington this week because he believes the war in Ukraine is entering a “new phase,” officials said ahead of the visit. As winter sets in and Russia continues targeting civilian infrastructure, the moment seemed ripe for Zelensky to make a dramatic public appeal for continued international support.

Yet the new phase isn’t only on the battlefield. Around the world, leaders are confronting the bitter fallout of Russia’s invasion. Higher energy and food prices, in part generated by tough sanctions on Moscow, have caused trouble for politicians in Europe and the United States.

In Washington, Republicans poised to take control of Congress have made clear they won’t rubber stamp each of Biden’s requests for Ukraine assistance – though fears funding will dry up completely appear unfounded. Congress is on the verge of approving almost $50 billion in additional security and economic assistance.

Speaking to lawmakers, Zelensky repeatedly referred to members of “both parties,” seeking to frame his cause as a bipartisan one.

Still, some Republicans refused to attend Zelensky’s address to Congress, a protest of what they claim are unrestrained dollars heading out of the US.

It was against that backdrop Biden insisted US support would continue for months.

He said it was “important for the American people, and for the world, to hear directly from you, Mr. President, about Ukraine’s fight, and the need to continue to stand together through 2023.”

Donald Trump: Key takeaways from six years of former president's ...

CNN —

Six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns released on Friday show the former president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last year of his presidency, claiming huge losses that helped limit his tax bill, among other revelations.

The returns, long shrouded in secrecy, were released to the public on Friday by the House Ways and Means Committee, the culmination of a battle over their disclosure that went to the Supreme Court. They confirm a report issued from the Joint Committee on Taxation that Trump claimed large losses before and throughout his presidency that he carried forward to reduce or practically eliminate his tax burden. For example, his returns show that he carried forward a $105 million loss in 2015 and $73 million in 2016.

The thousands of pages of documents from the former president’s personal and business federal tax returns – which spanned the years 2015 through 2020 – provide a complex web of raw data about Trump’s finances, offering up many questions about his wealth and income that could be pursued both by auditors and Trump’s political opponents.

Here are key takeaways from the documents reviewed by CNN:

Returns shed light on questionable tax claims

Trump’s returns also show the former president made several claims that auditors may question.

The Joint Committee on Taxation, which reviewed the returns, flagged that Trump claimed a large number of questionable items on his tax returns, including eyebrow-raising amounts of interest he claims to have received from loans to his children that the bipartisan committee said could indicate Trump was disguising gifts.

The JCT argued that an auditor should investigate the loan agreements Trump made with his children, including the interest rates. If the interest Trump claims to have charged his children was not at market rate, for example, it could be considered a gift for tax purposes, requiring him to pay a higher tax rate on the money.

In each year of his presidency, for example, Trump claimed he received exactly $18,000 in interest on a loan he said he gave his daughter Ivanka Trump and $8,715 in interest from his son Donald Trump, Jr.. In 2017 to 2019, Trump said he received exactly $24,000 from his son Eric Trump, and Eric paid him $19,605 in interest in 2020.

That raises the question of whether “the loans were bona fide arm’s length transactions, or whether the transfers were disguised gifts that could trigger gift tax and a disallowance of interest deductions by the related borrowers,” the JCT said in its report.

“It’s unusual to have interest in round numbers – very rare,” said Martin Sheil, former supervisory special agent for IRS’ Criminal Investigation unit. “An auditor would want to see payments, loan agreements and interest rates.”

There are also questions about Trump’s returns listing an identical amount of company expenses and income.

For example, in 2017, Trump claimed his business DJT Aerospace LLC, which operates Trump’s personal helicopter, claimed $42,965 in income. It also claimed the exact same amount – $42,965 – in expenses. In other words, every single dollar – to the dollar – that the company earned was negated by the company’s expenses, such as payroll, fuel and other items. That left the company with zero income – and nothing to tax.

“Total expenses equaling total income is a statistical impossibility,” said Shiel, who added that the figures are not evidence something illegal was done. “It just doesn’t happen.”

The JCT in its report raised several similar questions. For example, it noted IRS auditors were investigating multiple so-called large unusual questionable items on Trump’s tax returns for which the regulator wanted Trump to provide supporting evidence to back up his claims.

Release comes after years-long fight

The returns were obtained by the Democratic-run Ways and Means Committee only a few weeks ago after a protracted legal battle that lasted nearly four years. The committee voted last week to release the tax returns, but their release was delayed to redact sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers.

The release of the tax returns follows a pursuit for the documents that had typically been made public voluntarily by past US presidents. Trump and his legal team continuously sought to keep his returns secret, arguing that Congress had never wielded its legislative powers to demand a president’s tax returns, which Trump said could have far-reaching implications.

“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” Trump said in a statement following the release.

“The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”

Other Republicans also criticized Democrats’ efforts in pursuit of the tax returns as political, with Texas Rep. Kevin Brady – the committee’s top conservative – saying the release would amount to “a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president and overturns decades of privacy protections for average Americans that have existed since the Watergate reform.”

During the committee’s closed-door meeting last week, Republicans warned that the release of Trump’s tax returns by Democrats could prompt retribution once Republicans control the House next year – like going after the taxes of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“I had countless people tell me of things that they were concerned with President Biden’s family dealings and how they believed that him and his family is enriched because of his political power. And they are begging for oversight and accountability on that,” said Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, according to excerpts the GOP released from the meeting. “Do we need to go down all that? Is that what you all are wishing to do?”

Returns show he held foreign bank accounts while in office

Trump reported having foreign bank accounts between 2015 and 2020, including a bank account in China between 2015 and 2017, his tax returns show.

Trump was required to report the accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The filings show that the former president maintained foreign bank accounts in countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and China.

The China bank account, which was reported by The New York Times in 2020, was tied to Trump International Hotels Management’s business push in the country, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said at the time.

The 2020 disclosure of business dealings in China came as the Trump campaign sought to portray Biden as a “puppet” of China. Biden’s income tax returns and financial disclosures showed no business dealings or income from China.

The returns also show that Trump paid more in foreign taxes than in US federal income taxes in 2017, the first year of his presidency.

In 2017, Trump paid just $750 in US federal income taxes because of large carry-forward losses that he claimed in prior years, negating virtually all of his American tax liability. Yet Trump paid nearly $1 million in taxes to foreign countries that year.

The fact that Trump paid foreign taxes isn’t in itself surprising, but it shows how Trump’s companies and businesses interests span the globe, and how those businesses are subject to local tax laws and regulations.

On his tax return, Trump listed business income, taxes, expenses or other notable financial items in Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada, India, Qatar, South Korea, the United Kingdom, China, the Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Grenada, US territory Puerto Rico, Georgia, Israel, Brazil, St. Maarten, Mexico, Indonesia, Ireland, Turkey, and St. Vincent.

Trump claimed no charitable deductions in 2020

During his presidency, Trump pledged he would donate the entirety of his $400,000 salary to charity each year. He frequently boasted about donating parts of his quarterly paycheck to various government agencies.

“While the press doesn’t like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000.00 to different agencies throughout the year,” Trump tweeted in March 2019.

If he donated his 2020 salary, he didn’t claim it on his taxes. Among the six years of tax returns the House Ways and Means Committee released, 2020 was the sole year in which Trump listed no donations to charity.

Trump’s finances took a sizable hit in 2020, probably as a result of the pandemic and the lack of demand for vacations and lodging in his hotels. Trump reported large donations to charity in 2018 and 2019, helping reduce the amount he owed on millions of dollars in income he reported in those years.

But Trump posted a massive $4.8 million adjusted loss in 2020, a year, which alone wiped out his federal income tax obligation. Trump paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2020.

The Joint Committee on Taxation raised questions about the accuracy of some enormous charitable deductions Trump claimed in previous years’ tax returns, including large and unsubstantiated cash gifts. Trump also claimed a $21.1 million deduction in 2015 for donating 158 acres of his 212-acre property called Seven Springs in North Castle, New York. That donation, which was made to a land trust, is a focus of the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization’s finances.

Trump’s own 2017 tax law appears to have reduced the amount he was able to deduct from tax bill

Trump claimed that the 2017 Republican tax plan he championed and signed would cost him and his family “a fortune.” It’s not clear that it did, but it does appear to have limited the amount that he could claim in one part of his complex tax return.

The 2017 tax law capped the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, at $10,000 a year. In previous years, tax filers were allowed to deduct more of their SALT payments. Although the law was passed in 2017, it didn’t apply until the 2018 tax year.

In 2018, Trump listed $10.5 million in state and local taxes, but could deduct just $10,000 of that from his taxes. In 2019, Trump paid $8.4 million in SALT but was capped at $10,000. And in 2020, Trump said he paid $8.5 million in SALT but claimed the maximum allowable $10,000.

By comparison, in 2016 and 2017, Trump was able to deduct significantly more from state and local taxes. For example, in 2016 and 2017, he deducted $5.2 million each year in SALT payments.

Some Democrats criticized the 2017 tax law’s SALT cap for taking aim at residents in the Northeast and the West who have some of the highest property taxes in the country. The Tax Foundation found that property tax deductions capped in 2017 had previously accounted for about a third of all state and local tax deductions. But Trump defended the provision, saying the cap was necessary even if it would hurt his own finances.

It’s not clear how much the SALT cap hurt Trump, however. Although that particular deduction was capped, Trump claimed many other deductions that limited the amount of federal income taxes he had to pay.

Presidential audits

The Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the IRS and writing tax policy, requested the returns under the authority of section 6103 of the US tax code. Their report focused primarily on whether Trump’s tax returns during his time in office were properly audited under the IRS’ mandatory audit program for US presidents.

The committee found that the IRS opened only one “mandatory” audit during Trump’s term – for his 2016 tax return. And that didn’t take place until the fall of 2019, after Chairman Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, first sent a letter asking the IRS for Trump’s returns and tax information. The report characterizes the presidential audit program as “dormant.”

“The research that was done as it relates to the mandatory audit program was nonexistent,” Neal said last week following the committee vote.

Republicans on the committee argued that Democrats acknowledged it was “not necessary to publicly release the private tax information to change requirements on the presidential audit program.”

A Republican dissent issued Friday warned that, “Democrats’ dangerous precedent will lead the American public to demand other people’s tax returns to be released.”

Last week, the House passed a bill that would reform the presidential audit process in a largely symbolic vote before Republicans take the majority in the new Congress. The legislation is not expected to be taken up by the Senate before the new Congress is sworn in.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

David Goldman Jeremy Herb Jeanne Sahadi Maegan Vazquez

Recap: Beyond Biden, Trump and Pence, how others took ...

Federal court records portray a sloppy system for tracking the country's most important secrets, amid a controversy over classified documents involving President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Stashes of secret documents have been scattered through homes, sheds and cars of intelligence agency staffers and contractors. Yet, penalties for mishandling documents vary greatly.

Here's what else is happening in politics:

The blame game: The White House is blaming the Trump administration and the GOP for undoing Obama-era rail safety measures designed to avert disasters like the toxic East Palestine, Ohio train derailment.

The White House is blaming the Trump administration and the GOP for undoing Obama-era rail safety measures designed to avert disasters like the toxic East Palestine, Ohio train derailment. Debt limit standoff: Former Vice President Mike Pence said cuts to Social Security and Medicare may need to be considered at some point amid debt ceiling talks.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said cuts to Social Security and Medicare may need to be considered at some point amid debt ceiling talks. Ideological tilt at stake: Wisconsin voters decided on two candidates to advance to a general election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a key race that could decide the future of policies in the battleground state.

Wisconsin voters decided on two candidates to advance to a general election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a key race that could decide the future of policies in the battleground state. "The revolution had failed": Prosecutors allege that the Proud Boys, fueled by desperation to keep Donald Trump in the White House, conspired to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

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Biden administration seeks semiconductor ‘clusters’ with $52M chips program

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Thursday the Biden administration wants to create at least two major semiconductor “clusters” in the U.S. with federal funding approved last year in the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act.

Raimondo outlined a vision for a “generation of innovators” in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington before semiconductor companies next Tuesday can start applying for $39 billion in incentives and other government backing.

Raimondo said the hope is for each cluster – which would employ about 10,000 workers – to consist of a leading-edge microchip fabrication plant, research and development facilities, a robust suppler ecosystem and specialized infrastructure. She did not say where the clusters would be located, but the push comes amid significant microchip investments from companies in Ohio, Texas and Arizona.

– Joey Garrison

White House decries ‘bad faith attacks’ against Buttigieg

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back Thursday at “bad faith attacks” targeting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been roundly criticized by Republicans for his handling of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

“It is pure politics. It is pure political stunts,” Jean-Pierre said, arguing there weren’t the same outcries during chemical spills while Elaine Chao, transportation secretary under former President Donald Trump, held the post. “Nobody was calling for her to be fired.”

Buttigieg, who Republicans have accused of being too slow to respond to the derailment and toxic spill, made his first visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday. Trump visited Wednesday. There are no current plans for Biden to do the same.

– Joey Garrison

Ohio rail disaster:Just how dangerous is the Ohio derailment disaster? Why it's confusing.

Biden nominates Ajay Banga, former Mastercard CEO, to lead World Bank

President Joe Biden has tapped Ajay Banga, former president and CEO of Mastercard and current vice chairman of the private equity firm General Atlantic, as president of the World Bank.

The nomination of Banga – a native of India and former chairman of the International Chamber of commerce – comes after the bank’s current leader, David Malpass, announced his resignation last week amid a backlash over statements he made skeptical of climate change.

Biden called Banga “uniquely equipped” to lead the World Bank, a global development institution that provides grants and loans to low-income countries. Biden pointed to Banga’s work to bring investment to developing economies and record of enlisting the public and private sectors to "tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.”.

Banga still needs confirmation by the bank’s board before he becomes president. It’s unclear whether there will be additional nominees from other nations.

– Joey Garrison

‘The revolution had failed,’ ex-Proud Boy and DOJ star witness testifies

As efforts to prove the 2020 election was stolen repeatedly failed and it became more and more apparent that Donald Trump would not remain president, the Proud Boys were overcome with a sense of desperation.

Prosecutors allege that the members of the right-wing extremist group on trial, fueled by that desperation to keep Trump in office, conspired to stop the certification of the 2020 election by weaponizing an already-inflamed pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021 against the Capitol.

When rioters began to clear out of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and House members planned to reconvene, the Proud Boys expressed disappointment in private chats. In testimony Thursday, ex-Proud Boy Jeremy Bertino – the only member of the group to plead guilty to sedition – expanded on those messages: "The revolution had failed," Bertino testified.

– Ella Lee

Tim Scott inches toward 2024 run

As Sen. Tim Scott inches closer to an expected 2024 presidential run, he called for a revival of American hope through conservative ideals in a pair of Iowa speeches Wednesday.

Scott called for “trusting each other, overcoming our differences and then creating converts to conservatism” – a subtle nod to the fact that Republican presidential candidates have not won the popular vote since 2004, even as Donald Trump carried the Electoral College in 2016.

It comes on the heels of a midterm election that left Republicans across the country disappointed in their performance, with many blaming the former president for elevating fringe candidates who alienated some Republican and independent voters.

– Brianne Pfannenstiel, Francesca Block; Des Moines Register

Ex-Arizona AG withheld reports that debunked 2020 election fraud claims

The Arizona Attorney General's Office concluded months ago there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election results in Maricopa County ― but the state's top prosecutor sat on the information and suppressed mitigating details, newly released records show.

An investigative report and two internal memos from 2022 indicate then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich was aware his investigators "did not uncover any criminality or fraud" in the 2020 election weeks before Brnovich reported the county's election system was vulnerable and the process for verification and handling of early ballots was broken.

The three documents were made public Wednesday by newly elected Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, who described them as "deeply unsettling and unacceptable." Brnovich, a Republican, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

– Robert Anglen, Arizona Republic

How federal workers got away with taking classified documents home

A software developer for the National Security Agency took home secret documents in a misguided effort to work more for a promotion. A civilian Defense Department worker who was studying at National Intelligence University copied and removed classified records for her thesis. A military contractor mailed home to Texas from Afghanistan entire laptops and hard drives filled with secrets.

These were federal criminal cases of federal workers or contractors convicted of mishandling classified documents before caches were found at the homes of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. In some cases, workers just hoarded documents.

Sloppy handling in some cases went on for decades, despite the secrets at stake being among the country’s most important. The names of undercover intelligence agents and descriptions of how the country gathers its information were included. Adm. Mike Rogers, then head of the National Security Agency, cited “very significant and long-lasting harm” because of uncertainty over whether secrets had been revealed to adversaries.

– Bart Jansen

Georgia Trump investigation: Foreperson media comments highly unusual

Public remarks by Georgia grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs pierced a veil of secrecy into the investigation of 2020 election interference by Donald Trump.

Kohrs, in a series of media interviews, offered up provocative details about key witnesses and charging recommendations potentially involving a dozen or so people.

Legal analysts said Kohrs’ public comments were at a minimum highly unusual for any grand jury inquiry and, at most, not particularly helpful to any potential case the district attorney may bring.

“I’m not aware of any other case in Georgia in which a grand juror has spoken with the media about witnesses appearing before the grand jury,” said Clark Cunningham, a Georgia State University law professor who has closely followed the investigation.

– Kevin Johnson

More:Georgia grand jury foreperson's public comments add unusual wrinkle

Biden calls Putin’s suspension of nuclear arms treaty a 'big mistake’

Russia’s suspension of a nuclear arms treaty is a “big mistake,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday, as the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches.

Biden made the brief comment to reporters as he entered the presidential palace in Warsaw where he is meeting with leaders from nations on the eastern edge of the NATO alliance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday he is suspending Moscow’s participation in New START, a strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms reduction deal between the U.S. and Russia. It limits each side to 1,550 long-range nuclear warheads.

– Maureen Groppe

More:What is the nuclear arms treaty?

A new record of women will serve in Congress

A historic number of women will serve in the 118th Congress once congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., is sworn in to office.

A total of 150 women will serve in Congress, surpassing the previous record set at the swearing-in of the 118th Congress last month, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. Additionally, 125 women, 92 Democratic women and 28 Black women will serve in the House – new records for each category.

McClellan’s special election victory Tuesday also made her Virginia’s first Black female member of Congress.

– Mabinty Quarshie

More:McClellan just won election to Congress. Black women say it's not enough

How the Biden administration is aggressively releasing intelligence ...

What to know about government-classified documents and secrets ...

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on August 12, 2022.

Washington CNN —

US classified documents have been turning up in places they shouldn’t be in recent months.

The Justice Department removed some classified documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on August 8, 2022, while executing a search warrant for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other crimes.

Since then, classified documents have also been discovered at President Joe Biden’s private office and home, first by personal attorneys and later during a voluntary search by the FBI. The materials were from his time in the Senate and as vice president.

Classified material was also found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home by his lawyer.

Here are key things to know about how the classification system works.

What are classified documents?

The US government has a formal system of protecting information that, if disclosed, could hurt national security.

The system can apply to documents regarding intelligence activities, foreign relations, military plans and programs for safeguarding nuclear materials, for example. By classifying information, the government restricts who can see the documents and where he or she can see them.

What are the levels of classification?

There are three basic levels of classification, based on the damage that could be done to national security if the information was leaked.

Top Secret

This is the highest level of classification. Information is classified as Top Secret if it “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security,” according to a 2009 executive order that describes the classification system.

A subset of Top Secret documents known as SCI, or sensitive compartmented information, is reserved for certain information derived from intelligence sources. Access to an SCI document can be even further restricted to a smaller group of people with specific security clearances.

Secret

Information is classified as Secret if the information is deemed to be able to cause “serious damage” to national security if revealed.

Confidential

Confidential is the least sensitive level of classification, applied to information that is reasonably expected to cause “damage” to national security if disclosed.

What might be classified as a Top Secret document?

“The difference between Secret and Top Secret is quite significant,” said Philip Mudd, a CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA analyst.

Nuclear codes could be classified as Top Secret, for example, as well as information from an especially sensitive human source.

But there are even more narrow classifications within the Top Secret designation. For example, intercepted communications may be classified as Top Secret SCI.

Another category of sensitive information within either Top Secret or Secret documents is known as an SAP, or special access program. Not everyone with a Top Secret security clearance may be privy to the information in an SAP.

These higher level designations further restrict who can see the information and where it can be viewed.

How is information classified?

Certain people within the government have classification authority. For less sensitive classified material, he or she may make a judgment call about the impact the information could have on national security if disclosed.

But a classification of Top Secret SCI would be automatic, said Mudd.

That may be because the information would reveal a source the United States uses or a certain method of obtaining intelligence information.

Who can see a Top Secret document and where?

People within the government must receive security clearance to have access to certain classified documents. To receive Top Secret clearance, one must generally pass an extensive background check that digs into financial history and may include interviews of friends and family.

Then, there may be extra security protocols involved in viewing Top Secret information. Some documents must be viewed in what’s known as a SCIF, or a sensitive compartmented information facility.

There are technical standards that need to be met before a room or building can be designated as a SCIF, said Mudd. Multiple locks may be required, for example, and access to the room is restricted to people with specific security clearances.

Roe v. Wade: Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn ...

CNN —

In a stunning breach of Supreme Court confidentiality and secrecy, Politico has obtained what it calls a draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that would strike down Roe v. Wade.

The draft was circulated in early February, according to Politico. The final opinion has not been released and votes and language can change before opinions are formally released. The opinion in this case is not expected to be published until late June.

The court confirmed the authenticity of the document Tuesday. It also stressed it was not the final decision.

RELATED: Breaking down Samuel Alito’s draft opinion

According to the draft, the court would overturn Roe v. Wade’s holding of a federal constitutional right to an abortion. The opinion would be the most consequential abortion decision in decades and transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.

It appears that five justices would be voting to overturn Roe. Chief Justice John Roberts did not want to completely overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning he would have dissented from part of Alito’s draft opinion, sources tell CNN, likely with the court’s three liberals.

That would mean that the five conservative justices that would make up the majority overturning Roe are Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Roberts is willing, however, to uphold the Mississippi law that would ban abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, CNN has learned. Under current law, government cannot interfere with a women’s choice to terminate a pregnancy before about 23 weeks, when a fetus could live outside the womb.

In a statement on Tuesday, Roberts said he has ordered an investigation.

“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here,” Roberts said. I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.”

“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way. We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce – permanent employees and law clerks alike – intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court.”

After the draft was published, a crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court building Monday evening, as people came together to console one another and question what to do next.

At one point, the crowd began to chant, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Samuel Alito’s gotta go.” “We will not go back.” “Abortion rights are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back.” “Pack the courts.”

Politico’s publishing of the draft is unprecedented by the high court’s standards of secrecy. The inner deliberations among the justices while opinions are being drafted and votes are being settled are among the most closely held details in Washington.

“This news is simply stunning for the Supreme Court as an institution,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “Not only is the result it portends – the overruling of Roe and Casey – a shockwave to our constitutional politics, but we have never seen a leak remotely like this from inside the Court, where we’re not just hearing what the result is going to be, but we’re seeing the draft majority opinion in advance. It’s hard to believe that the former doesn’t help to explain the latter, but it’s an earthquake in both respects.”

The case in question is Dobbs v. Jackson. It concerns a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion and oral arguments were heard on December 1. The release of a final opinion in the case is expected later this Spring or early summer.

In the draft opinion, Alito writes that Roe “must be overruled.”

“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito wrote. He said that Roe was “egregiously wrong from the start” and that its reasoning was “exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.”

He added, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s representatives.”

“That is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand,” he said, according to the draft.

Already nearly half of the states have or will pass laws that ban abortion, while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.

Process of voting

Oral arguments in the case were held on December 1.

Under normal procedure, by the end of that week the justices would have met in their private conference to take a preliminary vote on the issue. They would have gone around the table in order of seniority discussing their take on the case. Roberts would have gone first, with Barrett last.

After that initial tally, if Roberts was in the majority he would assign the majority opinion. Otherwise the most senior justice would have taken that responsibility. After that, draft opinions would go between chambers. In the past, justices have changed their votes and sometimes a majority opinion ultimately becomes a dissent.

A reversal of Roe would leave abortion policy up to individual states and would likely produce a patchwork system where the procedure would remain largely available in Democratic-led states, while Republican-led states would pass extreme limits or outright bans on it.

The Dobbs case was perhaps the most anticipated case of the court’s term, and most court observers expected that the conservative majority was likely to scale back or outright overturn Roe’s holding. At oral arguments, Roberts was the only one of the six Republican appointees who signaled interest in exploring a narrower opinion that would have upheld Mississippi’s law but preserved some protections for abortion rights.

Because it is one of the court’s most high-stakes and contentious decisions, the anticipation was that the opinion would be among the final ones the court released at the end of its term in late June.

Roe is the law of the land until the court formally issues its opinion.

“Let’s be clear: This is a draft opinion. It’s outrageous, it’s unprecedented, but it’s not final. Abortion is your right – and it is STILL LEGAL,” Planned Parenthood said in a tweet following Politico’s reporting.

Decades-long project of conservative legal moment

Overturning Roe would be the culmination of a decades-long project of the conservative legal moment.

Former President Donald Trump, when running for the White House in 2016, promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe “automatically.” His nominee Kavanaugh replaced Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sided with the liberal justices in past abortion rights cases. Barrett replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Democratic appointee and abortion rights champion who died weeks before the 2020 election.

Celebrated by supporters of abortion right and long reviled by critics, Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 establishing a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability, which most experts say occurs now at around 23-24 weeks of pregnancy. The decision was reaffirmed in 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. A majority of the court in that case replaced Roe’s framework with a new standard to determine the validity of laws restricting abortions. The court said that a regulation cannot place an “undue burden” on the right to abortion, which is defined as a “substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

According to a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS in January, most Americans oppose overturning Roe, with a majority saying that if the decision was vacated, they’d want to see their own state move toward more permissive abortion laws.

Just 30% of Americans say they’d like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn its Roe vs. Wade decision, with 69% opposed – a finding that’s largely consistent both with other recent polling and with historical trends.

Stare decisis and overturning precedent

In the opinion, Alito also addresses the fact that Roe has been on the books for some 50 years. Although the court is loath to overturn precedent, Alito says it must do so. He said that the notion of “stare decisis” does not “compel unending adherence to Roe’s abuse of judicial authority.”

He said that instead of “bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue” Roe and a follow-on decision “have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

“The inescapable conclusion,” Alito wrote, according to the draft, “is that a right to an abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.”

He also said the decision was on a “collision course” with the Constitution “from the day it was decided.”

Alito also pushed back on the notion that if the court were to overturn Roe it could lead the court to overturn other cases like Obergefell v. Hodges, that upheld the right to same-sex marriage. He said that what “sharply distinguishes” Roe from other cases is that “abortion destroys” potential life.

The court, Alito added, was not able to end the debate on abortion nearly a half century ago when Roe came down, so it should leave the issue to states.

“This court cannot bring about the permanent resolution of a rancorous national controversy simply by dictating a settlement and telling the people to move on,” he wrote.

If Roe were overturned or fundamentally weakened, 21 states have laws or constitutional amendments already in place that would make them certain to attempt to ban abortion as quickly as possible, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which favors abortion rights.

An additional five states are likely to ban abortion as soon as possible without federal protections. As of April 2022, 536 abortion restrictions have been introduced in 42 states.

Democrats outraged, call to end filibuster

President Joe Biden said a woman’s right to have an abortion is “fundamental” in his first statement on the issue Tuesday morning.

“Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned,” Biden said in a statement.

Several Senate Democratic candidates immediately called for the elimination of the filibuster and passing legislation to protect abortion rights.

“Democrats need to act NOW—end the filibuster, codify Roe, and defend reproductive freedom,” tweeted Wisconsin state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, who’s running for her party’s nomination for Senate.”This fight is too urgent.”

“Control of the Senate has never been more important: it’s time to end the filibuster, pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, and fight like hell to make sure all Ohio families are free to make these critical decisions without interference from politicians in Columbus or Washington,” added Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who’s favored to win his Democratic primary on Tuesday.

The push from the Democratic candidates and others is likely to fail, unless some incumbent senators change their minds. In the 50-50 Senate, Democrats need every vote to eliminate the chamber’s rules requiring 60 votes to advance most legislation. And Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have repeatedly committed to protecting the filibuster, which sets up a 60-vote threshold that requires bipartisan cooperation to pass most legislation.

In February, Manchin also joined Senate Republicans in blocking the House-passed Women’s Health Protection Act that aimed to preserve access to abortion.

In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said overturning Roe would be “the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years – not just on women but on all Americans.”

“Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation,” the leaders said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Tierney Sneed Ariane De Vogue Joan Biskupic