The man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents' Association dinner and kill President Donald Trump took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes earlier, outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife. The details are in a new court filing Wednesday. Authorities say Cole Allen, of Torrance, California, was captured Saturday when he tried to race past security barricades, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents. The government says Allen repeatedly made online checks to keep track of the Republican president's status that night and "intended to kill." Prosecutors want Allen to remain in custody. Allen's defender says he's presumed innocent.

The Justice Department is pressing for the dismissal of preservationists' lawsuit over the planned $400 million White House ballroom after the shooting at Saturday's media gala. But its latest court filing reads more like a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump than a document crafted by government lawyers. The filing submitted Monday by the Justice Department is chock-full of the kind of Trumpian touches the president uses in written communication, such as erratic capitalization, exclamation points, non sequiturs, praise for the president and accusations his opponents are insane. The 16-page filing is a sign of the extraordinary degree to which the president has demolished the traditional wall of independence between the Justice Department and White House.

First lady Melania Trump has delivered a statement at White House denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes. In an extraordinary statement on Thursday, the first lady denied any association with Epstein and called the online accusations that she was involved in Epstein's crimes "baseless lies." The extraordinary and seemingly out-of-the-blue message came as her husband, President Donald Trump, and his administration had finally seemed to move past more than a year of controversy surrounding Epstein, especially as the Iran war had become all-consuming in Washington. The first lady asserted that she was not friends with Epstein or his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, but that they were in overlapping social circles.

President Donald Trump says Pam Bondi is out as his attorney general. Bondi's departure ends the contentious tenure of a Trump loyalist who upended the Justice Department's culture of independence from the White House, oversaw firings of career employees and investigated the Republican president's perceived enemies. Thursday's news follows months of scrutiny over the Justice Department's handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking investigation, which made Bondi the target of angry conservatives. Trump has named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting attorney general, though three people familiar with the matter say he has privately discussed Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin as a permanent pick.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has been subpoenaed to answer questions from Congress about the Justice Department's sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and the agency's handling of millions of files related to the disgraced financier. Bondi was ordered Tuesday to appear for a deposition on April 14 by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after a vote earlier this month that was supported by five Republicans. The Justice Department's failure to fend off the subpoena from the Republican-led committee underscores widespread discontent among President Donald Trump's own base over Bondi's management of the review and release of a trove of documents from the criminal investigation into Epstein.

In a rare bipartisan effort for a deeply divided Congress, the Senate has passed a broad bill to make U.S. housing more accessible and affordable. The bill passed on Thursday would reduce regulations, regulate corporate investors and expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals. It now heads back to the House, which passed a separate version earlier this year. It is unclear whether President Donald Trump would sign it after declaring last weekend that he won't sign any new measures unless Congress passes legislation that would require voters to show proof of citizenship.

Democratic lawmakers say former President Bill Clinton has tried to answer every question during a deposition over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Democrats said during a break after two hours of questioning Clinton had not invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Clinton tells members of Congress he "did nothing wrong" and saw no signs of Epstein's sexual abuse. Clinton says by the time the abuse came to light with a 2008 guilty plea, he had long stopped associating with Epstein. Friday's closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. Republicans relish the opportunity to scrutinize Clinton under oath.