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Attorney General Merrick Garland says "no one" has told him to indict Trump
CBSN
Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress Wednesday that "no one" has told him to indict former President Donald Trump, after Trump claimed in an interview that President Biden told Garland to indict him.
Garland, testifying before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee for the first time since special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump in two cases this summer, emphasized the independence of both Smith and the Justice Department. Trump, in a "Meet the Press" interview that aired Sunday, claimed that Mr. Biden told Garland to indict Trump.
"Biden indictments. Excuse me, Biden political indictments. He said to the attorney general —" Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker, who interrupted him. "—he said to the attorney general, 'Indict him.'"
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.