Closing summary
The Biden administration will fight to preserve access to abortion medication mifepristone, with attorney general Merrick Garland saying the justice department would appeal to the supreme court to ensure its availability and vice-president Kamala Harris calling the effort to get it off shelves “the next step to a nationwide abortion ban.” Meanwhile, in Tennessee, ousted Democratic lawmaker Justin Pearson was sworn back in to the state House of Representatives, where he vowed to protect the rights of minorities.
Here’s what else happened today:
Tim Scott, the Republican senator who seems close to announcing a presidential run, said he would support a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks.
Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas agreed to sell three properties to Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, but did not report the sale on disclosure forms he is required to file, according to a new ProPublica story.
Donald Trump went back to New York City to appear for a deposition as part of state attorney general Letitia James’s fraud lawsuit against him and his children.
US investigators arrested a 21-year-old air national guardsman suspected of leaking secret Pentagon documents on social media.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell will be back in the Capitol next week.
Rightwing House Republican Andy Biggs has introduced two pieces of legislation intended to frustrate Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump.
The first, called the Accountability for Lawless Violence In Our Neighborhoods (ALVIN) Act, “prohibits federal funds from being awarded to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and requires the Office to repay federal funds granted after January 1, 2022,” according to a press release from the Arizona lawmaker’s office.
The second stops state and local law enforcement from using money obtained through asset forfeitures for criminals prosecutions of presidents, vice-presidents and presidential candidates.
“This weaponized prosecutor’s office has spent thousands of federal taxpayer dollars to subsidize this political indictment and is demanding millions more in federal grants,” Biggs said in a statement.
“It’s disturbing to see District Attorney Bragg waste federal resources for political purposes rather than addressing the serious crime in his city. As a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight & Accountability Committees, and with an almost insurmountable national debt that exceeds $31 trillion, the nation simply cannot afford to support Mr. Bragg’s politicization of the criminal justice system.”
House Republicans have rushed to Trump’s defense since his indictment late last month, demanding documents and testimony from Bragg and sending a subpoena demanding testimony from Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in Bragg’s office who wrote a book detailing why believes there’s a criminal case against Trump. Earlier this week, Bragg sued the chair of the House judiciary committee Jim Jordan to quash the subpoena against Pomerantz.
