Former White House Aide to Testify About 2021 US Capitol Riot

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The congressional panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year is set to hear testimony Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was privy to key White House conversations as Trump sought to upend his 2020 election loss. Watch the hearing live: Hutchinson’s testimony is shrouded in secrecy and was hastily scheduled Monday, with the House of Representatives panel declining to identify her publicly and saying only that a surprise hearing would be held “to present recently obtained evidence.” Multiple U.S. news outlets identified her asmore

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Native News Roundup, June 19-25

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Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week: Mohegan chief announced as new US treasurer For the first time in U.S. history, a Native American’s signature will appear on all U.S. currency: U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the new U.S. treasurer: Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, the lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut. As treasurer, Malerba will oversee the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the storage of about $270 billion worth of gold at Fort Knox. “With this announcement, we are making an even deeper commitment to Indian Country,”more

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US Senate Approves Bipartisan Gun Violence Bill

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The Senate easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill Thursday that seemed unthinkable a month ago, setting up final approval of what will be Congress’ most far-reaching response in decades to the nation’s run of brutal mass shootings. After years of futile Democratic efforts to curb firearms, 15 Republicans joined with them as both sides decided inaction was untenable after last month’s rampages in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but senators emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock — yet no longermore

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Jan. 6 Investigators: Trump Pressured Department of Justice to Overturn 2020 Election

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In the fifth public hearing this month examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, congressional investigators detailed how former President Donald Trump pressured the nation’s highest law enforcement officials to declare the 2020 election results invalid. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, those fraudulent election claims were also pushed by Republican members of Congress who later sought pardons. Producer: Katherine Gypson …

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US Health Officials Ban Juul E-Cigarettes Tied to Teen Vaping Surge

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Federal health officials on Thursday ordered Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, the latest blow to the embattled company widely blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.  The action is part of a sweeping effort by the Food and Drug Administration to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays.  The FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco- and menthol-flavored cartridges. Those already on the market must be removed. Consumers aren’t restricted from having or using Juul’s products, the agency said.  To stay onmore

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US to Cancel $6 Billion in Student Loans for 200,000 Defrauded Borrowers

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The United States will cancel $6 billion in student loans for 200,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by their colleges, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said. A settlement agreement between the borrowers and the U.S. Department of Education was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday and must be approved by a federal judge. Student debt cancellation has become a priority for many liberals and one that could shore up popularity with younger and more highly educated voters, who lean Democratic, before November’s midterm congressional elections. About 43 million Americansmore

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Witnesses Detail Trump Bid to Pressure Justice Department 

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The congressional panel investigating the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol heard testimony Thursday that former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate voter fraud allegations even though he had been assured there were no widespread irregularities that would upend his reelection defeat. The panel focused its questions on the efforts of Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general specializing in environmental law, to be named attorney general in the last month of Trump’s presidency so he could pursue claims that Trump had been cheated out of a second four-year term. Such claims have been found to havemore

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New Witnesses to Detail How Trump Pushed Justice Department to Probe 2020 Election Fraud Claims

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The congressional panel investigating the causes of last year’s Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is hearing testimony Thursday about how former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election that he hoped would upend his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would examine Trump’s “attempt to corrupt the country’s top law enforcement body,” much as state officials in Arizona and Georgia testified Tuesday that Trump unsuccessfully sought to get them to appoint bogus electors to help him stay in office for anothermore

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Biden Seeks Gas Tax Relief Amid War-Amplified Price Hikes

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The war in Ukraine is causing disruptions around the world, from what President Joe Biden terms a “Putin price hike” for American petroleum consumers to an impending global food crisis. On Wednesday, Biden said he was taking steps to try to offset the effects, something he said he’ll be focusing on ahead of two key summits and a Mideast trip. Anita Powell reports from the White House. …

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House January 6th Committee to Hold Next Public Hearing

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The House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 , 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its next hearing Tuesday. The committee has sought to make its case against former President Donald Trump, saying his baseless and repeated claims of a stolen election incited his followers to violence. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, …

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Trump Calls Hearings into January 6 Attack a ‘Theatrical Production’

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, in his first appearance since the committee began its public hearings. Speaking to a gathering of religious conservatives in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump said, “Let’s be clear, this is not a congressional investigation — this horrible situation that’s wasting everyone’s time.” “This is a theatrical production of partisan political fiction that’s getting these terrible, terrible ratings and they’re going crazy,” he added. The hearings have laid out how the attack on the Capitol occurred and Trump’s role in it bymore

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US County That Alleged Vote Machine Fraud Certifies Election Results

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A Republican-controlled county commission in New Mexico that refused to recognize election returns this month after citing unfounded conspiracy theories about voting machines bowed to legal pressure on Friday and certified the results.  Otero County commissioners voted 2-1 to certify the county’s June 7 primary election results, but only after the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered them to do so and after threats of legal action by the state’s Democratic attorney general.  The commissioner who still voted against certifying the results, Couy Griffin, did so hours after being sentenced for breaching the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot. more

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Trump Directed $250 Million in Donations to Leadership PAC 

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump raised $250 million in donations in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election for an organization ostensibly intended to fund court challenges in support of his false claims that the election was fraudulent. Instead, he directed that money to an unrelated political action committee, or PAC, according to congressional investigators. In its second hearing about its findings, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol made the case that the former president knew that he had lost the election but continued raising money from his supporters bymore

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False Theory Fueled Trump Pressure Campaign on Pence

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In the third day of congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. lawmakers alleged former President Donald Trump waged a multiweek pressure campaign on his vice president, Mike Pence, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. …

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Lawmakers Ask Ginni Thomas, Wife of Supreme Court Justice, to Testify

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The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview, the panel’s chairman said Thursday afternoon.  Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Donald Trump’s orbit ahead of the attack and on the day of the insurrection, when hundreds of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.  “We have sent Ms. Thomas a letter, asking her to come and talk to the committee,” Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel,more

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January 6 Committee Postpones Wednesday Hearing

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The House of Representatives panel investigating last year’s January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol says it has postponed Wednesday’s planned hearing. No reason was given and the panel will still hold Thursday’s planned hearing. Monday’s hearing featured videotaped testimony by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and numerous other White House and political aides to then-President Donald Trump who said they had repeatedly told him that his allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were baseless and that he had lost reelection. Barr said that many of Trump’s claims of election irregularities were “completely bogus and silly.” “I toldmore

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Trump Election Claims in Focus as Committee Holds January 6 Riot Hearing

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The panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year holds its second public hearing Monday, with former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager among those testifying in a session focusing on Trump’s unfounded allegations of election fraud.  Committee members said Sunday much more evidence will emerge in upcoming hearings that Trump knew he had lost his bid for reelection and yet fomented the mayhem by telling supporters he had been cheated out of another four-year term.  Trump “absolutely knew he had lost,” U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “Anymore

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House Passes Gun Control Bill After NY, Texas Deaths 

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The House passed a wide-ranging gun control bill Wednesday in response to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semiautomatic rifle and prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds. The legislation passed by a mostly party-line vote of 223-204. It has almost no chance of becoming law as the Senate pursues negotiations focused on improving mental health programs, bolstering school security and enhancing background checks. But the House bill does allow Democratic lawmakers a opportunity to frame for voters in Novembermore

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Sources say Biden to Use Executive Action to Spur Solar Projects Hit by Probe

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President Joe Biden will use executive action on Monday to help bridge a solar panel supply gap and kickstart stalled U.S. projects after an investigation froze imports from key foreign suppliers, sources familiar with the matter said. The moves come amid concern about the impact of the Commerce Department’s months-long investigation into whether imports of solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations are circumventing tariffs on goods made in China. Biden also will invoke the Defense Production Act to drive U.S. manufacturing of solar panels and other clean technologies in the future, with the support of loans and grants, themore

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Senator, 2 Governors on Wisconsin Gunman’s List, Sources Say

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A gunman suspected of fatally shooting a retired county judge at a Wisconsin home had a list that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Whitmer’s office and a law enforcement source said Saturday. Douglas K. Uhde, 56, who has not been charged, is suspected of killing retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer at Roemer’s house in New Lisbon on Friday, the Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a news release Saturday. Uhde was found in the basement of the home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, following attempts by police to negotiatemore

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