Friday, May 17th
Last update07:12:50 AM GMT
Congressional Glance
A court ruled Wednesday that President Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission must hand over documents demanded by a Democratic member of the panel.
Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D) filed suit against the commission in November, claiming that he was blocked from receiving necessary documents.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity must hand over the relevant documents by July 18.
US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this year, in a big blow to Republicans with mid-term elections looming.
Congress' most powerful lawmaker said he would not stand for another term in his Wisconsin district this November. Republicans already face a tough challenge from Democrats to keep control of the lower chamber.
Mr Ryan joins nearly 30 House Republicans who have announced this year they are retiring outright. Democrats need 23 seats to take over the House.
- Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started testifying before Congress on Tuesday as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
The 33-year-old internet mogul faces tough questioning from a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary committees.
John Thune, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, struck an adversarial tone in his opening remarks here.
“In the past, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been willing to defer to tech companies’ efforts to regulate themselves. But this may be changing,” he said.
The Justice Department will not retry Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on corruption-related charges, federal prosecutors indicated Wednesday in a court filing.
Menendez’s trial last year resulted in a hung jury, and a federal judge acquitted the New Jersey Democrat and his friend Salomon Melgen on several charges last week.
“Given the impact of the Court’s Jan. 24 Order on the charges and the evidence admissible in a retrial, the United States has determined that it will not retry the defendants on the remaining charges,” a Justice Department spokeswoman said in a statement.
The Justice Department warned Wednesday that it "would be extraordinarily reckless" for the House intelligence Committee to release a classified memo publicly "without giving the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum," and to "advise" on possible harm to national security and ongoing investigations from its public release.
House Democrats have tapped New York Rep. Jerry Nadler as their next leader on the Judiciary Committee, the panel that would potentially initiate impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if Democrats win back the House.
Nadler won a decisive victory over Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in a caucus-wide election Wednesday morning. Lofgren, a former immigration lawyer, is the second-most senior member on the panel behind Nadler.
The Senate Banking Committee rejected former Rep. Scott Garrett's nomination to chair the U.S. Export-Import Bank by a 10-13 vote Tuesday morning after two Republicans voted against him, dooming his nomination.
In a blow to President Trump, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., both voted against Garrett, a former congressman from New Jersey who has a history of opposing the government-backed bank, which provides financing to foreign entities so they can buy U.S. goods and services. They joined the committee's 11 Democrats in opposing the nomination.
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