Justice Department says it won't prosecute Merrick Garland after House contempt vote
CBSN
Washington — The Justice Department said Friday that it will not prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for audio recordings of President Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
Carlos Felipe Uriarte, an assistant attorney general, told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter that it is the Justice Department's longstanding policy not to bring contempt of Congress charges against an official who declined to turn over subpoenaed information subject to a president's assertion of executive privilege.
Mr. Biden invoked executive privilege over the audiotapes of his interviews with Hur, as well as an interview by his ghostwriter.
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, agreeing to review a lower court decision that upended the mechanism for funding programs that provide communications services to rural areas, low-income communities and schools, libraries and hospitals.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched six space tourists on a high-speed dash to the edge of space and back Friday, giving the passengers — including a husband and wife making their second flight — about three minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this world view before the capsule made a parachute descent to touchdown at the company's west Texas flight facility.