Friday, May 17, 2024

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1/ Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents. Republicans had sought the audio recording of Hur’s interview with Biden as part of their stalled impeachment probe. Hur’s report recommended “no criminal charges,” but described Biden as someone who is “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” Attorney General Merrick Garland advised Biden to assert executive privilege, arguing that releasing the audio would “damage future law enforcement efforts” and that House Republicans haven’t provided a compelling reason to override those concerns. In a letter to Republican House leaders, White House Counsel Ed Siskel added that “demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.” Hours later, the House Judiciary Committee voted 18-15 to move forward with its effort Garland in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena to turn over the recordings. (ABC News / Associated Press / Axios / Politico / NPR / NBC News / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / CNN)

2/ The Justice Department formally moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. While the rescheduling of marijuana would neither make it legal nor decriminalized, it would change the classification from a Schedule I status, alongside heroin and LSD, to Schedule III would bring the drug into regulatory parity with other substances, like ketamine and anabolic steroids. (ABC News / CBS News / Associated Press / CNN)

3/ Despite facing powerful hurricanes, extreme heat, worsening toxic algae blooms, and rising sea levels, Florida eliminated climate change as a state priority. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that removes most references to climate change in state law, repeals state grant programs that support energy conservation and renewable energy, bans offshore wind turbines, and reduces regulation on gas pipelines. The failed one-time presidential candidate called the bill a common sense policy that’s “restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.” (

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