New subpoenas issued in inquiry on response to 2016 Russian election interference, AP sources say

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By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. government response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

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An initial wave of subpoenas in November asked recipients for documents related to the preparation of a U.S. intelligence community assessment that detailed a sweeping, multi-prong effort by Moscow to help Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Though the first subpoenas requested documents from the months surrounding the January 2017 publication of the Obama administration intelligence assessment, the latest subpoenas seek any records from the years since then, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss a non-public demand from investigators.

The Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday.

The subpoenas reflect continued investigative activity in one of several criminal inquiries the Justice Department has undertaken into Trump’s political opponents. An array of former intelligence and law enforcement officials have received subpoenas in the investigation. Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan, who helped oversee the drafting of the assessment and who has been called “crooked as hell” by Trump, have said they have been informed he is a target but have not been told of any “legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation.”

The intelligence community assessment, published in the final days of the Obama administration, found that Russia had developed a “clear preference” for Trump in the 2016 election and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an influence campaign with goals of undermining confidence in American democracy and harming Clinton’s chance for victory.

That conclusion, and a related investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election, have long been among the Republican president’s chief grievances and he has vowed retribution against the government officials involved in the inquiries. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by the Trump administration Justice Department last year on false statement and obstruction charges, but the case was later dismissed.

Multiple government reports, including bipartisan congressional reviews and a criminal investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller, have found that Russia interfered in Trump’s favor through a hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails as well as a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and swaying American public opinion. Mueller’s report found that the Trump campaign actively welcomed the Russian help, but it did not establish that Russian operatives and Trump or his associates conspired to tip the election in his favor.

The Trump administration has freshly scrutinized the intelligence community assessment in part because a classified version of it incorporated in its annex a summary of the “Steele dossier,” a compilation of Democratic-funded opposition research that was assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and was later turned over to the FBI. That research into Trump’s potential links to Russia included uncorroborated rumors and salacious gossip, and Trump has long held up its weaknesses in an effort to discredit the entire Russia investigation.

A declassified CIA tradecraft review ordered by current Director John Ratcliffe and released last July faults Brennan’s oversight of the assessment.

The review does not challenge the conclusion of Russian election interference but chides Brennan for the fact that the classified version referenced the Steele dossier.

Brennan testified to Congress, and also wrote in his memoir, that he was opposed to citing the dossier in the intelligence assessment since neither its substance nor sources had been validated, and he has said the dossier did not inform the judgments of the assessment. He maintains the FBI pushed for its inclusion.

The new CIA review seeks to cast Brennan’s views in a different light, asserting that he “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness” and brushed aside concerns over the dossier because he believed it conformed “with existing theories.” It quotes him, without context, as having stated in writing that “my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”

In a letter last December addressed to the chief judge of the Southern District of Florida, where the investigation is based, Brennan’s lawyers challenged the underpinnings of the investigation, questioning what basis prosecutors had for opening the inquiry in Florida and saying they had received no clarity from prosecutors about what potential crimes were even being investigated.

“While it is mystifying how the prosecutors could possibly believe there is any legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation, they have done nothing to explain that mystery,” the lawyers said.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

Lindsey Vonn returns to U.S. to continue recovery

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Lindsey Vonn is home — or at least on home soil.

After a week in an Italian hospital and four surgeries on her fractured left leg, the American Alpine skiing star and St. Paul native posted on social media Monday night that she has made it back across the Atlantic.

“Haven’t stood on my feet in over a week…been immobile in a hospital bed since my race,” she wrote in a post on X. “And although I’m not yet able to stand, being back on home soil feels amazing. Huge thank you to everyone in Italy for taking care of me.”

The post came a little more than a day after Vonn posted a reel of her friends and family getting her cleaned up for her re-entry into civilization. They washed her hair and massaged her cheeks and her good right leg and essentially made her look like Lindsey Vonn again, or something like that.

And that came a little more than 24 hours after Vonn reported that her fourth surgery of the week went well enough to get her approved to head back home. She has said her road to recovery is long — and one she has travelled many times during her career.

Vonn, 41, fell 13 seconds into her downhill run on Feb. 8 at the Winter Olympics, a race she attempted despite rupturing her left anterior cruciate ligament nine days before. She cut a turn too tight, hooked a gate in midair, and never had a chance of landing safely after that. Vonn had come out of retirement in 2024 to attempt a comeback after having a successful partial right knee replacement surgery.

That comeback was a smashing success. Vonn once again became the world’s dominant downhill skier. But what always made Vonn great, that willingness to take risks and ski right on the edge of recklessness — and sometimes over it — also made her prone to crashing and serious injuries.

That’s what unfolded in the downhill race in what was supposed to be the culmination of her comeback.

In the week since the crash, Vonn has become a symbol of bravery and an inspiration — and also a lightning rod for criticism from people who think she behaved recklessly by trying to ski through a serious injury.

She has said she does not want anyone’s empathy or pity. That is not what her story is about, she insisted.

“I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always,” she wrote last week, claiming that she was healthier in the downhill starting hut than she had been at many other moments in her career.

Her words in her first post the day after the crash will likely live in a lot of fans’ memories for a long time.

“I dreamt. I tried. I jumped,” she wrote.

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Strikes on 3 more alleged drug boats kill 11 people, US military says

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign.

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The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels since early September.

Like most of the military’s statements on the 42 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea. The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Future Gopher Payton Rolli backstops Warroad’s latest title quest

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There was no snow falling a year ago in downtown St. Paul on the afternoon of Feb. 21, yet Warroad goalie Payton Rolli found herself being pelted on the ice regardless.

Her Warriors were facing Orono in the semifinals of the Class A state tournament. The Spartans’ strategy for dethroning the three-time defending state champs from the west shore of Lake of the Woods was a simple one: Shoot the puck.

Over the course of three periods and three overtimes, Orono sent 62 pucks at Rolli, including 15 in the second overtime. She stopped 61 of them in what was, eventually, a 2-1 win. For Rolli, the workload was daunting.

“It just kept going. It was such a long game, and it didn’t seem like it was going to end soon at all,” Rolli said this week. “They scored the first goal, it took us a period to get another goal back, and then we were just back and forth throughout the whole game. It was a really good game, but I think all of us were really tired by the end.”

Rolli’s poise and reflexes in the marathon win caught the eye of more than one college scout in attendance that day. Her coach said any scout that didn’t make a few notes about Rolli after that show should maybe explore other employment.

“She was good,” said David Marvin, who has coached Warroad to five state titles, and will be seeking a fourth in the past five years this week in the program’s 11th straight trip to St. Paul. “In that game she stopped 61 out of 62, so Ray Charles would’ve noticed her. She caught everybody’s eye.”

Warroad opens the 2026 tournament with an 11 a.m. quarterfinal Wednesday versus Luverne at Grand Casino Arena.

Born in Wyoming, Rolli began playing goalie as a nine-year-old in Minot, N.D., with her father working in the oil business. The family moved to Warroad three years ago and Rolli backstopped the Warriors’ 2024 state title. She had already made recruiting visits to Maine and several schools in Boston, but opted to stay in-state and go to college in the place where her parents met after Minnesota Gophers coach Brad Frost made an offer.

“Her numbers are really, really good. We had watched her off and on, but certainly the state tournament last year was where she really kind of peaked our interest,” Frost said. “She is appropriately aggressive. She anticipates well. She’s not huge, but she’s not small, so she’s got good enough size. I think the biggest thing we’re looking forward to is to be playing at a higher level and being coached to see where she can get to.”

She will be the first Gopher from Warroad since 2005 Ms. Hockey winner Gigi Marvin.

Rolli arrives in St. Paul with a 1.26 goals against average and a .934 saves percentage after going 21-5-1 this season. She has 10 shutouts, including blanking Crookston and East Grand Forks in Warroad’s pair of Section 8A playoff wins, and is one of five finalists for the Jori Jones Award, which goes to the state’s top prep goalie.

On-ice hiccups have been rare for the Warriors this season, who last lost on Jan. 22 at Edina in a game that was scheduled for the Hockey Day Minnesota rink in Hastings, but was moved inside at the last minute due to frigid temperatures. Marvin said perhaps Rolli’s biggest asset is an ability to reset her mind and body quickly when things don’t go according to plan.

“Sometimes we score and sometimes we don’t, so it’s pretty good to get big saves until we can get something on the board,” Marvin said. “One thing I’ve always liked about Payton is that if something does beat her, she’s able to turn the page. She focuses and goes from there. So I feel pretty good about going to St. Paul this week with number one in our net.”

Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinals in St. Paul

No. 1 Warroad (21-5-1) vs. No. 8 Luverne (19-9), 11 a.m.

No. 4 Dodge County (20-6-1) vs. No. 5 Proctor/Hermantown (18-6-2), 1 p.m.

No. 2 Breck (25-1-1) vs. Saint Cloud (18-9), 6 p.m.

No. 3 Blake (21-6) vs. No. 6 Mankato East (24-2-1), 8 p.m.

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