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Mr. Garland, who made the announcement at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, said David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who has handled the case for years, would become the special counsel. The move comes seven months after Mr. Garland appointed Robert K. Hur to be a special counsel investigating whether President Biden has mishandled classified documents. Mr. Garland said he made the decision to elevate Mr. Weiss after the prosecutor informed him on Tuesday the investigation had “reached the stage” where the powers of a special counsel were necessary to continue. Mr. Garland said Mr. Weiss would have the authority to investigate all related matters in his inquiry and might bring charges in any jurisdiction. The appointment on Friday all but ensures that a yearslong investigation into a wide array of conduct in Hunter Biden’s life — including his foreign business dealings, drug use and taxes — will continue.

Persons: Thrush, Luke Broadwater, General Merrick B, Garland, Biden’s, Hunter, Justice Department’s, David C, Weiss, Robert K, Hur, Biden, “, Donald J, Trump’s, Chris Cameron Organizations: Justice, Privately Locations: Washington, U.S, Delaware

☆ Why Naming Weiss Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden Case Isn’t Likely to Change Much
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That means making Mr. Weiss a special counsel may be more of a cosmetic gesture — essentially formalizing what has already been the case — than a new reality. The attorney general’s move came against the backdrop of accusations by Republicans that Mr. Weiss had offered what they portrayed as a sweetheart plea bargain to the younger Mr. Biden because of political manipulations by Mr. Garland or by the White House. Functionally, the formalization of Mr. Weiss’s independence could serve as a shield against such accusations. A special counsel is a prosecutor who wields the same powers as a U.S. attorney but is granted broader day-to-day independence from supervision. In making the announcement, Mr. Garland reminded the public that he had already said Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump, was operating outside the normal system of hierarchical oversight and control for the Hunter Biden case.

Persons: General Merrick B, David Weiss, Biden’s, Hunter, Garland, Weiss, general’s, Biden, President Trump, Hunter Biden Organizations: Trump, White House Locations: Delaware, U.S

“The appointment of Mr. Weiss reinforces for the American people the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” Mr. Garland said. Mr. Clark and the Justice Department prosecutors overseeing the case had distinctly different understandings of the immunity Hunter Biden would receive from the deal. House Republicans quickly signaled the special counsel appointment would not alleviate their criticism of the investigation into Hunter Biden. agents was that Mr. Weiss had sought to bring charges against Hunter Biden in Washington and California but was rebuffed after prosecutors in those jurisdictions declined to partner with him. House Republicans have also issued subpoenas to six banks, detailing millions that were paid to Hunter Biden and his business partners from overseas companies.

Persons: General Merrick B, Garland, Biden’s, Hunter, Justice Department’s, David C, Weiss, Hunter Biden, Biden, —, Garland scoffed, Weiss —, “, Mr, Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, Robert K, Hur, Trump’s, Hunter Biden’s, Christopher Clark, ” Mr, Clark, ”, Russell Dye, Jim Jordan, “ Weiss, Kevin McCarthy, Biden’s D.O.J, couldn’t, Devon Archer, Archer, Chris Cameron Organizations: Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Mr, Republican, Republicans, Justice Department, House Republicans, Biden, Congress, Department, Trump Locations: Washington, U.S, Delaware, Delaware , Washington, Wilmington, Del, Ohio, Washington and California

☆ Once Rare, Impeachments and Censures Have Become the Norm in Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Carl Hulse | More About Carl Hulse | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

After sidestepping Ms. Boebert, House Republicans are now conducting what they characterize as an “inquiry” into a potential impeachment, one that is likely to gain steam in the G.O.P. The censure, brought forward by Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a strong supporter of Mr. Trump, accused Mr. Schiff of lying and spreading distortions in his investigation of the president. Some Republicans were clearly uncomfortable with the idea of censuring Mr. Schiff, and the move failed on its first attempt. But after Ms. Luna dropped a proposed $16 million fine from her resolution, Republicans pushed through the censure on a party-line vote in June. Far from hanging his head in ignominy, Mr. Schiff said he welcomed the vote as a badge of honor that proved he was effective.

Persons: Ms, Boebert, Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, General Merrick B, Garland, “, ”, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, meting, Adam B, Schiff, Trump, Anna Paulina Luna of, Mr, Luna, Dianne Feinstein Organizations: Republicans, Democratic, Lawmakers, Capitol, Republican, censures, California Democrat, Intelligence Locations: Kentucky, California, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, ignominy

Federal prosecutors said the six officers sexually and physically assaulted two handcuffed Black men for more than two hours during a Jan. 24 raid on a Braxton, Mississippi, home for which they had no warrant. The officers carried out mock executions on one of the men and shot him in the face, critically injuring the man. The officers pleaded guilty to 16 felonies including civil rights conspiracy, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among others. As part of their federal pleas, the men are also scheduled to plea guilty to state charges on Aug. 14, federal prosecutors said. The two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, filed a $400 million federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June over the case.

Persons: General Merrick Garland, Lisa O, Kenneth, Read, Black, Tasers, General Merrick B, Garland, egregiously, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke, Joshua Hartfield, Michael Corey Jenkins, Eddie Terrell Parker, Brad Brooks, Donna Bryson, Chris Reese Organizations: Monaco, Department's, Justice Department, Thomson Locations: Mississippi, Braxton , Mississippi, Rankin County, Richland , Mississippi, Lubbock , Texas

PinnedThe massacre of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 is considered the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. “Finally, justice has been served,” said Leigh Stein, whose father, Dan Stein, was killed in the attack. Image Relatives of the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting spoke on Wednesday after jurors recommended that the gunman be sentenced to death. The defense called no witnesses in that part of the trial, as there was never any dispute that Mr. Bowers had carried out the attack. The police rushed to the synagogue and, after exchanging gunfire with Mr. Bowers, eventually cornered him in a classroom.

Persons: Robert Bowers, “, ”, Leigh Stein, Dan Stein, Biden, ” Merrick, Garland, Robert Colville, Justin Merriman, Howard Fienberg, Joyce Fienberg, we’ve, ” Weeks, Bowers, Dor Hadash —, Cecil, David Rosenthal, Fienberg, Irving Younger, Sylvan Simon, Simon’s, Bernice, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Dor Hadash, Richard Gottfried, Stein, Melvin Wax, Judy Clarke, Satan, Ms, Clarke, ” Eric Olshan, “ It’s, that’s, Doris Dyen, Jon Moss Organizations: “, Justice Department, The New York Times, Jewish Community Center of Greater, ., New, Prosecutors, Western, Western District of Locations: Pittsburgh, U.S, Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Western District, Western District of Pennsylvania

Mr. Smith is not the first special counsel to investigate Mr. Trump. Mr. Smith, by contrast, faces no such limits given that Mr. Trump is no longer in office. Mr. Mueller said little when faced with a barrage of falsehoods pushed publicly by Mr. Trump and his allies about him and his investigative team. During Mr. Trump’s arraignment in Miami in June, Mr. Smith sat in the gallery, closely watching the proceedings. Some in the courtroom suggested he stared at Mr. Trump for much of the hearing, sizing him up.

Persons: General Merrick B, Garland, Jack Smith’s, Donald J, Trump, Smith, Maddie McGarvey, The New York Times “, ”, Ryan Goodman, Trump’s, Robert S, Mueller, Smith —, —, Goodman, Smith “, Edgar Hoover, Mueller III, Anna Moneymaker, Ted Stevens, “, Robert McDonnell, Rick Renzi, James, Smith’s, Jay I, Bratt, Cooney, Robert Menendez, Greg Craig, Obama, Andrew G, McCabe, Roger J, Stone Jr, William P, Barr, Aaron Zelinsky, Thomas P, Windom, Peter Dejong Mr, John H ., Carlos F, legwork, sotto, intently, Alan Feuer Organizations: White, The New York Times, New York University School of Law, Capitol, Washington, Department, Just Security, Trump, U.S, New York Times, Justice Department, Justice, Republican, Supreme, Mr, Department of Justice, Democrats, Robert Menendez of New, Hague, Credit, House Republicans, U.S . Postal Inspection Service Locations: Washington, The Hague, Russia, Alaska, Virginia, Arizona, Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, U.S, Netherlands, John H . Durham, ’, Miami

Mr. Biden paid the overdue tax bill in 2021. Mr. Weiss’s office has also charged Mr. Biden in connection with the purchase of a handgun in 2018, when Mr. Biden falsely said on a government form that he was not using drugs. But as part of the deal, the Justice Department, under what is known as a pretrial diversion agreement, said it would not prosecute Mr. Biden on the charge as long as Mr. Biden no longer owns a weapon and remains drug free for two years. As president, Mr. Trump, realizing that Mr. Biden was the candidate with the best chance to beat him in 2020, tried to weaponize Hunter Biden’s business dealings against his father. At the height of the 2020 election, Mr. Giuliani and other Trump confidants believed they had an October surprise that would catapult Mr. Trump to re-election when they obtained a cache of files from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden’s, Biden, David C, Weiss, Harris, —, Justice Department meddled, General Merrick B, Garland, Maryellen Noreika, Donald J, Trump, Hunter, Trump’s, Christopher Clark, Mr, Beau, Clark, Obama, Rudolph W, Giuliani Organizations: U.S, Trump, Biden Justice Department, Court, Biden, Republicans, Justice Department, Republican, Obama Locations: Delaware, Wilmington —, Ukraine, Ukrainian

Hunter Biden, President Biden’s troubled son and the target of long-running Republican efforts to cast the first family as corrupt, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday in federal court to two misdemeanor tax charges and accept an agreement that will allow him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge. If approved by a judge, the deal, reached by lawyers for the younger Mr. Biden with the U.S. attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, a Trump appointee who was kept on by the Biden Justice Department to complete the investigation, would result in no prison time. Republicans have assailed the plea deal as far too lenient. Citing the congressional testimony of two I.R.S. agents who were involved in the federal investigation, House Republicans have suggested that the Justice Department meddled in the case by failing to give Mr. Weiss the full authority over the investigation that it had promised him — an assertion that Mr. Weiss and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland have rebutted.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden’s, Biden, David C, Weiss, Harris, —, Justice Department meddled, General Merrick B, Garland Organizations: U.S, Trump, Biden Justice Department, Court, Biden, Republicans, Justice Department Locations: Delaware, Wilmington —

Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. Mr. Wray, who is appearing for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee since Republicans won the House, is likely girding for the worst. The committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, says it “will examine the politicization” of the F.B.I. under Mr. Wray and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. That criticism was once trained on the bureau’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election.

Persons: Christopher A, Wray, Donald J, Trump, Jim Jordan, General Merrick B, Garland, Stoked, Department’s, Hunter Biden Organizations: Republicans, Committee, Republican, Trump Locations: Ohio, Russia, Lago

A deal to ensure that data from Meta, Google and scores of other companies can continue flowing between the United States and European Union was finalized on Monday, after the digital transfer of personal information between the two jurisdictions had been thrown into doubt because of privacy concerns. The decision adopted by the European Commission is the final step in a yearslong process and resolves — at least for now — a dispute about American intelligence agencies’ ability to gain access to data about European Union residents. The debate pitted U.S. national security concerns against European privacy rights. The accord, known as the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, gives Europeans the ability to object when they believe their personal information has been collected improperly by American intelligence agencies. A new independent review body made up of American judges, called the Data Protection Review Court, will be created to hear such appeals.

Persons: Didier Reynders, Merrick B, Garland, Gina Raimondo Organizations: Meta, Google, European Union, European Commission, European, U.S Locations: United States, European Union

☆ House Republicans Summon Officials to Testify About Hunter Biden Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Mr. Shapley provided emails and messages to support crucial portions of his account, which was backed up by a second I.R.S. The New York Times has also independently confirmed a key allegation made by Mr. Shapley: that prosecutors in California denied a request from Mr. Weiss to pursue charges against Hunter Biden in that state. He also denied that the elder Mr. Biden or his staff “in any way” assisted Mr. Zlochevsky. Republicans produced no proof that the elder Mr. Biden accepted payments from foreign businesses or that he took any action as a result of Hunter Biden’s overseas work. Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pledged to add Mr. Garland to the list if Republicans determine that he lied about Mr. Weiss’s authority in the Hunter Biden investigation.

Persons: Gary Shapley, Hunter Biden, Shapley, Biden, Hunter Biden’s, Mr . Shapley, Weiss, General Merrick B, Garland, —, Hunter, Donald J, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Mykola Zlochevsky, Burisma, ”, Zlochevsky, Kevin McCarthy, ” Mr, McCarthy, Merrick Garland Organizations: Republicans, Mr, Justice Department, New York Times, House Republicans, Trump, Democrats, What’s, Biden, Twitter Locations: California

☆ Competing Accounts of Justice Dept.’s Handling of Hunter Biden Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Glenn Thrush | Michael S. Schmidt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At a Senate hearing in March, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, spent seven minutes grilling Attorney General Merrick B. Garland about the Hunter Biden investigation, reading a series of unusually specific queries from a paper in his hands. Did David C. Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware kept on under Mr. Garland to continue overseeing the inquiry, have full authority to bring charges against President Biden’s son in California and Washington if he wanted to? Had Mr. Weiss ever asked to be made a special counsel? official, Gary Shapley, oversaw the agency’s role in the investigation of Mr. Biden’s taxes and says his criticism of the Justice Department led to him being denied a promotion. He told the House Ways and Means Committee that Mr. Weiss had been rebuffed by top federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington when he had raised the prospect of pursuing charges against the president’s son in those jurisdictions.

Persons: Charles E, Grassley, Merrick B, Garland, Hunter Biden, David C, Weiss, Biden’s, Gary Shapley Organizations: Republican, Trump, Republicans, Internal Revenue, Justice Department Locations: Iowa, Delaware, California, Washington, Los Angeles

The deal would be contingent on Mr. Biden remaining drug free for 24 months and agreeing never to own a firearm again. Mr. Biden is expected to appear in federal court in Delaware in the coming days to be arraigned on the misdemeanor tax charges and plead guilty. As president, Mr. Trump had long sought to tie Hunter Biden’s business deals and personal troubles to his father. Image The Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden continued after his father became president. Allegations promoted by Republicans that the elder Mr. Biden’s Justice Department went easy on his son are unlikely to fade away.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden’s, Hunter Biden’s, Biden, Mr, Hunter, Christopher Clark, Ian Sams, Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, David C, Weiss, General Merrick B, Garland, Clark, “ Hunter, ” Mr, Burisma, Haiyun Jiang, Obama, Beau, I.R.S, Seamus Hughes Organizations: Department, The, United States Attorney’s Office, District of, Republicans, Justice Department, House Republicans, Trump, Credit, New York Times, Prosecutors, United, Mr, Yale, Obama, Biden’s Justice Department, Congressional Republicans Locations: Delaware, District of Delaware, Ukrainian, China, United States, Ukraine

The deal would be contingent on Mr. Biden remaining drug free for 24 months and agreeing never to own a firearm again. Mr. Biden is expected to appear in federal court in Delaware in the coming days to be arraigned on the misdemeanor tax charges and plead guilty. Image The Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden continued after his father became president. Allegations promoted by Republicans that the elder Mr. Biden’s Justice Department went easy on his son are unlikely to fade away. supervisor who had been overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden hired a lawyer and went to Congress, alleging political favoritism in how the investigation had been handled.

☆ Garland’s Distance From Hunter Biden Inquiry Fails to Quell Critics
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was 4,000 miles away from Delaware on Tuesday when federal prosecutors announced a deal for Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges that would most likely ensure he does not serve a prison sentence. It reflected the distance Mr. Garland has sought from the investigation into his boss’s son. Mr. Garland’s aides say his trip to Europe had been weeks in the making, and his absence from the country was happenstance, not calculation. The investigation into Hunter Biden predates Mr. Garland’s appointment. Mr. Garland did not dismiss Mr. Weiss, a Republican, to ensure the appearance of impartiality — a strategy aimed at protecting the department, and to some degree himself, from accusations of political favoritism.

Persons: Merrick B, Garland, Hunter Biden, Mr, Garland’s, Donald J, Trump, President Biden, Biden’s, David C, Weiss, Biden Organizations: Justice Department, Mr, Trump, Republican Locations: Delaware, Europe, Stockholm, The

The Justice Department accused the Minneapolis police on Friday of discriminating against Black and Native American people, using deadly force illegally and trampling the First Amendment rights of protesters and journalists — damning claims that grew out of a multiyear investigation and may lead to a court-enforced overhaul of the police force. The federal review was touched off by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis officer in 2020, a crime that led to protests and unrest across the country. But the Justice Department’s scathing 89-page report looked well beyond that killing, describing a police force impervious to accountability whose officers beat, shot and detained people without justification and patrolled without the trust of residents. But to many people in the city, where protesters had complained for years about police excesses, Mr. Floyd’s death, as horrifying as it was, was not entirely surprising. The Justice Department investigators described “numerous incidents in which officers responded to a person’s statement that they could not breathe with a version of, ‘You can breathe; you’re talking right now.’”

Persons: George Floyd, Department’s, General Merrick B, Garland, Floyd’s, Floyd, Derek Chauvin, ’ Organizations: Department, Minneapolis police, Minneapolis Police Department, Justice Department Locations: Minneapolis

☆ Who Is Jack Smith, the Special Counsel Who Indicted Trump?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jack Smith, appointed in November to investigate former President Donald J. Trump, is a hard-driving, flinty former prosecutor chosen for his experience in bringing high-stakes cases against politicians in the United States and abroad. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland tasked him with overseeing two investigations into Mr. Trump: one into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and the other into Mr. Trump’s retention of classified materials at his residence in Florida. “The right choice to complete these matters in an evenhanded and urgent manner,” Mr. Garland said in announcing the appointment of Mr. Smith, who had been serving as the top prosecutor investigating war crimes in Kosovo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have accused the Justice Department of pursuing a politically motivated investigation intended to destroy Mr. Trump’s chances of retaking the White House, including by leaking details of the case. But department officials have said Mr. Smith, 54, is intent on conducting a fair investigation in secrecy — and Mr. Smith has refused to even acknowledge the questions of reporters who have approached him outside his office in northeast Washington.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, General Merrick B, Garland, Trump’s, “, Mr, Smith Organizations: Capitol, Criminal, Mr, Justice Department Locations: United States, Florida, Kosovo, The Hague, Washington

John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of a “lack of analytical rigor” in a final report made public on Monday that examined the bureau’s investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign was conspiring with Moscow. Mr. Durham’s 306-page report appeared to show little substantial new information about the F.B.I.’s handling of the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations impugning the bureau that former President Donald J. Trump and his allies had once suggested that Mr. Durham would find. Instead, the report — released without substantive comment or redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland — repeated previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, including from a 2019 inspector general report, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from a confirmation bias as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia.

☆ After Jan. 6 Sedition Convictions, Far-Right Threats Remain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The guilty verdicts on Thursday against four leaders of the Proud Boys on charges of seditious conspiracy were arguably the most significant victory the Justice Department has won so far in its vast investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors took a victory lap, with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland noting that along with the similar convictions of six members of another extremist group — the Oath Keepers militia — a major blow had been struck against two of the country’s most prominent far-right organizations. And yet on April 23 — one day before closing arguments took place at the Proud Boys trial — fliers blaming Jews for “the rise in transgenderism” were found in the driveways of several homes in suburban Atlanta. One week later, as the Proud Boys case went to the jury, a neo-Nazi group flying a swastika flag protested a drag show in Columbus, Ohio. The incidents were just two of the many such episodes in recent weeks.

Through a wave of new subpoenas and grand jury testimony, the Justice Department is moving aggressively to develop a fuller picture of how the documents Mr. Trump took with him from the White House were stored, who had access to them, how the security camera system at Mar-a-Lago works and what Mr. Trump told aides and his lawyers about what material he had and where it was, the people said. At the heart of the inquiry is whether Mr. Trump sought to hide some documents after the Justice Department issued a subpoena last May demanding their return. The existence of an insider witness, whose identity has not been disclosed, could be a significant step in the investigation, which is being overseen by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. The witness is said to have provided investigators with a picture of the storage room where the material had been held. Little else is known about what prosecutors might have learned from the witness or when the witness first began to provide information to the prosecutors.

As they investigate former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, federal prosecutors have also been drilling down on whether Mr. Trump and a range of political aides knew that he had lost the race but still raised money off claims that they were fighting widespread fraud in the vote results, according to three people familiar with the matter. Led by the special counsel Jack Smith, prosecutors are trying to determine whether Mr. Trump and his aides violated federal wire fraud statutes as they raised as much as $250 million through a political action committee by saying they needed the money to fight to reverse election fraud even though they had been told repeatedly that there was no evidence to back up those fraud claims. The prosecutors are looking at the inner workings of the committee, Save America PAC, and at the Trump campaign’s efforts to prove its baseless case that Mr. Trump had been cheated out of victory. In the past several months, prosecutors have issued multiple batches of subpoenas in a wide-ranging effort to understand Save America, which was set up shortly after the election as Mr. Trump’s main fund-raising entity. An initial round of subpoenas, which started going out before Mr. Trump declared his candidacy in the 2024 race and Mr. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in November, focused on various Republican officials and vendors that had received payments from Save America.

☆ Ukraine-Russia War: Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Helene Cooper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

As she told her story with the help of an interpreter, some members of the House committee grew visibly emotional. At one point, the turret of an armored vehicle was pointed at them, Ms. Bobrovska said. Ms. Bobrovska said he and other Ukrainian children were visited by Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who informed them that they would be adopted. Roman eventually managed to return to Ukraine with the help of volunteers, Ms. Bobrovska said, but she did not detail how, citing safety concerns. The prosecutor general of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, addressed the Republican-led House committee after the survivors’ testimony to urge increased international pressure on Russia to return the children.

☆ I.R.S. Official Is Said to Assert Political Meddling in Hunter Biden Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Michael S. Schmidt | Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Justice Department officials weigh whether to indict Hunter Biden, the investigator overseeing the Internal Revenue Service’s portion of the case has come forward with allegations of political favoritism in the inquiry that stand to add to the already fraught circumstances facing the department. Congressional leaders learned of the investigator’s allegations on Wednesday when a lawyer sent them a letter asking for whistle-blower protections for his client. The letter stated that the unnamed client, identified as an “I.R.S. While the letter from the lawyer, Mark D. Lytle, did not name Hunter Biden, Senate and House Republicans put out statements specifying that it was referring to him. The disclosure fed claims by congressional Republicans that a Justice Department run by the president’s political appointees could not be trusted to make a decision about his son based on the facts and law.

☆ Witness Testimony Helps Prosecutors Advance Trump Election Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Alan Feuer | Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Among those who have worked with him, Mr. Smith is seen as a diligent manager bent on collecting the information needed to make a decision while remaining cognizant of the time pressures and the highly partisan atmosphere in which he is operating. How Times reporters cover politics. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. They have been receiving regular briefings from aides who are getting updates from members of Mr. Smith’s team, according to two people familiar with the situation. The legal battles over privilege began well before Mr. Smith was appointed to the special counsel post and have pitted two powerful forces against each other.

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