By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions Wednesday on alleged affiliates of the Tren de Aragua gang and increased the reward to as much as $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of one of the leaders of the criminal group that the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The actions come as President Donald Trump’s administration has blamed the gang, which originated in a prison in Venezuela, for being at the root of violence and the illegal drug trade in many U.S. cities. Tren de Aragua also has become a key reference point in military attacks against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as well as Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

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Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control levied sanctions Wednesday on Venezuelan entertainer Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, who is known as “Rosita,” on accusations of providing material support to Tren de Aragua by helping the head of the gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, escape from Tocorón prison in Venezuela in 2012.

Navarro, known as Rosita for her character on a Venezuelan comedy show, has been linked to Guerrero for years. Local media previously reported that Araya, also a showgirl, frequently performed in a prison where Guerrero was once held and Tren de Aragua was established.

Tren de Aragua controlled the prison for several years during which a nightclub, swimming pools, a lavish suite and more amenities were added to the facility.

The State Department also increased the reward for Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, who is the first Tren de Aragua member to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, after he was charged in January with international cocaine trafficking conspiracy. The previous award was up to $3 million.

After the U.S. designated the gang as a foreign terrorist organization in February, Mosquera Serrano was indicted in April on charges of providing material support, according to the State Department.

Trump has repeated his claim — contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment — that Tren de Aragua is operating under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control.

“Under President Trump, barbaric terrorist cartels can no longer operate with impunity across our borders,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a news release. “At the direction of President Trump, we will continue to use every tool to cut off these terrorists from the U.S. and global financial system and keep American citizens safe.

Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report.

By DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN, Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The United States will restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members responsible for mass killings and violence against Christians, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

“The United States is taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement posted on social platform X.

The secretary added that the policy would apply to other governments or individuals engaged in violations of religious freedom.

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The restrictions are in line with a new policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, he said.

Attacks in Nigeria have varying motives. There are religiously motivated ones targeting both Christians and Muslims, clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, secessionist groups, and ethnic clashes.

Nigeria’s population of about 220 million people is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims.

The West African country has long faced insecurity from various fronts including the Boko Haram extremist group, which seeks to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems not Muslim enough.

Also, there has been an uptick in the activities of armed gangs in the central part of the country who kidnap locals for ransom.

Last month, President Donald Trump said he has ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution there.

By LISA MASCARO and BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon’s watchdog found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen, two people familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

Hegseth, however, has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly, according to one of the people familiar with the report’s findings who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the information. CNN first reported the initial findings.

The review by the Pentagon inspector general’s office was delivered to lawmakers, who were able to review the report in a classified facility at the Capitol. A partially redacted version of the report was expected to be released publicly later this week.

The findings ramp up the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host after lawmakers had called for the independent inquiry into his use of the commercially available app. Lawmakers also just opened investigations into a news report that a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Ocean in September killed survivors after Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody.”

Hegseth defended the strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission and that the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second strike. He also did not admit fault following the revelations that he discussed sensitive military plans on Signal, asserting that the information was unclassified.

Journalist was added to a chat where sensitive plans were shared

In at least two separate Signal chats, Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.

Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. It included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Hegseth had created another Signal chat with 13 people that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of the same strike, The Associated Press reported.

Signal is encrypted but is not authorized for carrying classified information and is not part of the Defense Department’s secure communications network.

Hegseth has said none of the information shared in the chats was classified. Multiple current and former military officials told the AP there was no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device.

Lawmakers had called for inspector general to investigate

The revelations sparked intense scrutiny, with Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans saying Hegseth posting the information to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets potentially put those pilots’ lives at risk. They said lower-ranking members of the military would have been fired for such a lapse.

The inspector general opened its investigation into Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Some veterans and military families also raised concerns, citing the strict security protocols they must follow to protect sensitive information.

It all ties back to the campaign against Yemen’s Houthis

The Houthi rebels had started launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in late 2023 in what their leadership had described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Their campaign greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthis in 2024 turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II.

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A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war had begun in January before falling apart in March. The U.S. then launched a broad assault against the Houthis that ended weeks later when Trump said they pledged to stop attacking ships. The latest Gaza ceasefire began in October.

Following the disclosure of Hegseth’s Signal chat that included the Atlantic’s editor, the magazine released the entire thread in late March. Hegseth had posted multiple details about an impending strike, using military language and laying out when a “strike window” starts, where a “target terrorist” was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike. He mentioned that the U.S. was “currently clean” on operational security.

Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April that what he shared over Signal was “informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things.”

During a congressional hearing in June, Hegseth was pressed multiple times by lawmakers over whether he shared classified information and if he should face accountability if he did.

Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Marine veteran, asked Hegseth whether he would hold himself accountable if the inspector general found that he placed classified information on Signal.

Hegseth would not directly say, only noting that he serves “at the pleasure of the president.”

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith for a closed-door interview later this month even though he had earlier volunteered to appear for an open hearing about his prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s Republican chairman, directed Smith in a letter dated Wednesday to appear for a private deposition on Dec. 17 as part of the panel’s investigations into the prosecutor’s work.

“Due to your service as Special Counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” Jordan wrote. He also asked Smith to produce records to the committee in addition to his testimony.

A lawyer for Smith, Peter Koski, said in a statement that Smith had offered nearly six weeks ago to appear before the committee in an open hearing but would nonetheless appear as requested for the deposition.

“We are disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics,” Koski said. “Jack looks forward to meeting with the committee later this month to discuss his work and clarify the various misconceptions about his investigation.”

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations.

Smith abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House again last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that prohibit the indictment of a sitting president.

Republicans who control Congress have sought interviews with members of Smith’s team and in recent weeks have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to halt the certification of the Republican president’s election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

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Smith’s legal team has noted that the records that investigators obtained did not include the contents of the conversations but instead merely captured incoming and outgoing call numbers, the times the calls were placed and how long they lasted.

“Mr. Smith’s actions as Special Counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences,” Smith’s lawyers wrote to lawmakers in October.

“His investigative decisions were similarly motivated, and the subpoena for toll records was entirely proper, lawful, and consistent with established Department of Justice policy. While Mr. Smith’s prosecutions of President Trump have predictably been politicized by others, politics never influenced his decision making,” they added.

Follow the AP’s coverage of former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith at https://apnews.com/hub/jack-smith.