Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz.

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he'll appoint John Ratcliffe to serve as CIA director in his new administration.

Donald Trump has long criticized America's spy agencies, accusing them of trying to undermine his first administration and campaign to retake the White House.

President-elect Donald Trump is moving to build out his foreign policy team, announcing he is nominating Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

A new U.S. intelligence report rejects several points raised by those who argue COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab.

The House Jan. 6 committee has interviewed former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and is in negotiations to talk to several other former members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

For this week’s episode, Patrick speaks with Tribune reporters about the latest Texas headlines on immigration, abortion and the Jan. 6 investigation.

Chief of Space Operations at U.S. Space Force Gen. John Raymond speaks at a ceremony to commemorate the first birthday of the U.S. Space Force at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – The U.S. intelligence community got larger on Friday with the addition of the U.S. Space Force. The Space Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Enterprise became the 18th member of the intelligence apparatus. For the military, Space Force answers a need to more effectively organize for the defense of U.S. interests in space — especially satellites used for navigation and communication. Space Force is not designed or intended to put combat troops in space.

Former State Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, spoke during a Texas Tribune panel in 2019. Greg Abbott has selected Jan. 23 as the date of the special election to fill the seat of state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, who recently won a promotion to the Texas Senate. At least two Republicans have already announced campaigns for the House seat. State law gives Abbott the power to order a sped-up special election when a vacancy occurs within 60 days of the session. The special election for Springer's House seat is the latest development in a game of political dominoes that began when former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Heath, was named director of national intelligence earlier this year.

WASHINGTON – The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):8:05 p.m.More than a half dozen Democratic congresswomen have sent an open letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to make Michèle Flournoy the country's first female defense secretary. Biden has been facing escalating pressure from competing factions within his own party over his defense pick. The swearing-in ceremony and a lunch for the new president and vice president are held at the Capitol. ___3:50 p.m.President-elect Joe Biden says the Trump administration’s plan for distributing an approved coronavirus vaccine to the public lacks important detail. ___3:35 p.m.President-elect Joe Biden says that the most recent jobs report is “dire” and that there is no time to lose as millions of people have lost their jobs or have seen their incomes slashed.

WASHINGTON – China poses the greatest threat to America and the rest of the free world since World War II, outgoing National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday as the Trump administration ramps up anti-Chinese rhetoric to pressure President-elect Joe Biden to be tough on Beijing. “It offered nothing new but repeated the lies and rumors aimed at smearing China and playing up the China threat by any means," Hua said at a daily briefing on Friday. Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who has been accused of politicizing the position, has been the nation's top intelligence official since May. Ratcliffe said he has shifted money within the $85 billion annual intelligence budget to address the threat from China. Biden has announced that he wants the Senate to confirm Avril Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA, to succeed Ratcliffe as the next national intelligence director.

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. officials said Thursday that Russian hackers have targeted the networks of dozens of state and local governments in the United States in recent days, stealing data from at least two servers. “However, the actor may be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence U.S. policies and actions, or to delegitimize (state and local) government entities,” the advisory said. He said the alert was issued in regard to the scanning of county networks for vulnerabilities, not specifically to the targeting of elections. As of October 1, the advisory said, the hackers have exfiltrated data from at least two servers. Hultquist said he does not think Energetic Bear has the ability to directly affect the U.S. vote but fears it could disrupt local and state government networks proximate to the systems that process votes.

Officials say Russia and Iran have obtained some voter registration data, aiming to interfere in the November election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have accused Iran of being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump. Iran sent spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters and sow unrest and also distributed a video that falsely suggested voters could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, Ratcliffe said. Though Democratic voters were targeted, Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails were intended to harm Trump, though he did not elaborate how. “These emails are meant to intimidate and undermine American voters’ confidence in our elections,” Christopher Krebs, the top election security official at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted Tuesday night after reports of the emails first surfaced.

BOSTON – U.S. officials accused Iran on Wednesday of being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump. Iran sent spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters and sow unrest and also distributed a video that falsely suggested voters could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, Ratcliffe said. Though Democratic voters were targeted, Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails were intended to harm Trump, though he did not elaborate how. The operation represented something of a departure in cyber-ops for Iran, which sought for the first time on record to undermine voter confidence. “These emails are meant to intimidate and undermine American voters’ confidence in our elections,” Christopher Krebs, the top election security official at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted Tuesday night after reports of the emails first surfaced.

Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther and state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster. Greg Abbott announced Saturday that Dec. 19 will be the date for the special election runoff to succeed state Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper. The runoff in Fallon's solidly red district pits state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, against fellow Republican Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was jailed earlier this year over her refusal to close her business due to coronavirus restrictions. Luther and Springer finished close together in the Sept. 29 special election, which included three other Republicans and a Democrat. Luther edged out Springer, 32.17% to 31.93%, ahead by 164 votes out of 68,807 total.

Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, has been working to declassify details about the Russia investigation, which culminated in the 2019 report by former special counsel Robert Mueller. (Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times via AP, Pool)WASHINGTON – The Russia probe is back in the political spotlight. Moreover, intelligence professionals blasted John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence and a Trump loyalist, for going along with the declassification, saying it was a flagrant example of using intelligence for political purposes. Trump remains irritated by the Russia probe because he thinks it de-legitimizes his presidency. Trump detractors dismissed the intelligence as Russian disinformation, although Ratcliffe insisted it was not.

The hearing was part of a review of the Russia probe by the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee. Though Comey acknowledged the FBI’s shortcomings in the surveillance of Page, he also described that aspect of the probe as a “slice” of the broader Russia investigation, which he defended as legitimate and valid. The inspector general report, and documents released in recent months, have raised questions about the reliability of that research. Comey defended the investigation, which was opened after a campaign adviser boasted that he had heard Russia had damaging information about Clinton. But Republican lawmakers have seized on the critical aspects of the watchdog report to cast broader doubt on the Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has agreed to provide in-person briefings on threats to the November election to key members of Congress, backing down from a decision last month to provide that information only in writing. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has agreed to provide briefings to the Senate and House intelligence committees, according to the heads of those panels. A person familiar with the briefing said Ratcliffe’s office had accepted an invitation to brief the panel behind closed doors. Democrats said that would prevent members from asking followup questions and allow the administration to limit what information it allows. He said in the statement that he had shared with them his proposal on how the intelligence community will share election updates in the future.

The goal, part of the Russian playbook for decades, was to sow chaos by posting content on both sides of the racial divide. Indeed, no single group of Americans was targeted by IRA information operatives more than African-Americans, concluded a report from the Senate intelligence committee. They fear the Trump administration's decision to limit what it tells Congress and by extension the American people about election threats will allow the propaganda to spread. The intelligence statement did not offer specifics about what tactics Russia is using, but the past provides important clues. What people need to be looking for is stuff that is seemingly trying to get a rise out of them, Jankowicz said.