Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro faces narcotics charges after U.S. military operation, while Sen. Chuck Schumer and Democrats criticize Trump administration for not notifying Congress.

WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against U.S. President Donald Trump, said that the Republican had acknowledged to others that he lost the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden, according to a transcript of a testimony by Smith.

President Trump is still sowing doubt about the integrity of America’s elections. The claims could affect this year’s midterms.

The president amplifies debunked conspiracy theories while his allies think Maduro’s capture will expose the plot to ‘steal’ the election, Alex Woodward writes

Chuck Schumer blasted Trump's "lawlessness" in arresting Nicolás Maduro on Sunday — but he ripped the president in 2020 for not bringing democracy to Venezuela

Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his decision to bring charges twice against President Donald Trump -- telling lawmakers in a closed-door deposition earlier this month that his team "had proof beyond reasonable doubt in both cases" that Trump was guilty of the charges in the 2020 election interference and classified documents cases.

On the fifth year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala, claimed that the incident was actually a coup to oust President Donald Trump lead by Democrats and the “deep state.”

During his first term, he publicly suggested delaying the 2020 election, despite lacking the authority to do so. More recently, in a meeting in August with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump appeared to voice approval of Ukraine’s ban on elections under martial law, prompting laughter in the room but alarm among his critics.

President Donald Trump abandoned his teleprompter in favor of impromptu musings in a speech at a retreat for House Republicans on Tuesday. And those ad-libbed Trump comments were filled with false claims.

In case you forgot: In 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order looking to ban TikTok in the United States; and now in 2025, it is being left up to him to “save” the platform. RELATED: President Joe Biden Decides Not To Enforce ...

In September, Trump designated Venezuela and all of these nations, among others, as “major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries” under U.S. law. That could make them targets under the drug-war rationale he outlined in the interview and the briefing.

In 2020, for example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, chastised Trump for not ending the Maduro regime: "The president brags about his Venezuela policy? Give us a break. He hasn't brought an end to the Maduro regime."