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| Good afternoon, OnPolitics readers! |
| Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the former president, voluntarily testified before a special House Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack, the latest family member to appear before the panel, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. |
| The person, who asked not be identified, said Trump spoke virtually with the committee for a few hours Tuesday and described the interaction as "cordial." Donald Trump Jr.'s appearance follows the voluntary meetings involving sister Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, both of whom served as top advisers to the former president. |
| The latest meeting comes as the committee begins closing the loop on its far-reaching investigation and prepares for public hearings next month. |
| It's Amy with today's top stories out of Washington. |
Who leaked the Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade to Politico? |
| A leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Court's blockbuster abortion case set off a flurry of speculation about the identity and motivation of whoever exposed the document as the court launched its probe into the unprecedented breach. |
| Could it have been a clerk, one of the 20-something law school graduates that put in punishing hours helping to research and craft opinions? Maybe it was a justice, a member of the court's liberal wing trying to scuttle the outcome or a conservative hoping to galvanize support for Associate Justice Samuel Alito's position. What if the leak didn't come from any of them? What if it was the result of a computer hack? |
| "Look, there are lots of theories," said Sean Marotta, a veteran appellate attorney who follows the Supreme Court closely. "Anybody can construct a theory, but at this point, nobody has any evidence to back any of them up." |
| In a statement Tuesday, the Supreme Court said Gail Curley, the high court's marshal, would handle the investigation. Curley's office supervises about 260 employees with a wide range of responsibilities, including building security, maintaining order in the courtroom, overseeing contracts and even some human resources functions. |
| It's not likely that such a leak is illegal, experts said, but it would probably be a career-ending move for a clerk, making it impossible to pursue opportunities in the top tiers of the legal profession. If the document was stolen or obtained through a hack, that would be different, experts said. |
| Democrats attempt to fight back: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the Senate would vote on a pro-abortion bill Wednesday, but Democrats lack the votes necessary to pass the measure. |
Real quick: stories you'll want to read |
| • | Psaki leaving White House: Karine Jean-Pierre was named new White House press secretary Thursday, replacing Jen Psaki, who will leave the role later this month, the White House announced. | | • | Cuba Visa processing resumes: The U.S. Embassy in Havana has resumed processing visas for Cubans, though on a limited basis, more than four years after stopping consular services on the island amid a hardening of relations. | | • | No, Agriculture Sec. Vilsack was not arrested: Rumors that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was arrested by the military have swept across social media in recent days. USA TODAY's Fact Check rates those claims as false. | | • | Patriotism or profit? All Russian ammo was banned for import to the U.S. as of Sept. 7, 2021, but the cheap 7.62 x 39 mm bullets – favored by many Americans for target practice with semiautomatic rifles – kept flowing because of a State Department loophole allowing existing and pending import permits to stand. | |
| Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for OnPolitics newsletter here. |
Troubling Secret Service case reveals agency struggles with hiring, training |
| Last month's arrests of two men, accused of masquerading as federal agents while duping Secret Service members into accepting free housing and thousands of dollars in prohibited gifts, have raised fresh questions about public confidence in a law enforcement institution that has been haunted by episodes of misconduct, security lapses and staffing strains for the past decade. |
| Most every major breakdown has been followed by calls for increased training, and a report earlier this year by Congress' watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, found the agency had been unable to meet enhanced training levels recommended by a special committee following the 2014 White House breach. |
| Whatever unfolds with the criminal case against the two men charged, the alleged duping of Secret Service personnel highlights the need for better training at the agency, experts say, a longstanding shortfall that has plagued successive directors and presidential administrations for at least a decade. |
| "The heart of the problem is training. There obviously was a degree of stupidity and naivete, but there are supposed to be checks and balances to weed out those vulnerabilities," said Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican congressman from Utah who led inquiries into the Secret Service for several years before he left office in 2017. |
| In 2014, after a man armed with a knife jumped the fence and made it into the White House before the Secret Service apprehended him, an outside panel found "a catastrophic failure in training" led to the critical security breach. The panel convened after the fence-jumping breach and recommended beefed up security around the White House and a series of improvements to Secret Service management, recruitment and training. |
| In the more than seven years since, the agency has yet to implement a half dozen of the recommendations, including key enhancements to training, the GAO found in a report issued in January. |
| Partying, drinking and more scandals: The U.S. Secret Service is a storied agency responsible for protecting the president and vice president as well as their families and other dignitaries, but a series of scandals and shortfalls dating back more than a decade have scarred the agency's reputation and laid bare vulnerabilities that have threatened to undercut its mission. Read more about those incidents here. |
| USA TODAY Network reports in nearly a dozen states worked for more than a year to examine the factors that contribute to the crisis around missing and murdered Indigenous women. Check out their investigation here. -- Amy |
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