Day 248: "Delays and excuses."
1/ The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed four of Trump’s closest advisers, including Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon. The panel also issued subpoenas to Dan Scavino and Kash Patel. The subpoenas compel the four to produce documents relevant to the deadly attack by Oct. 7, and then sit for a deposition the following week. The committee said it was seeking information about Trump’s actions leading up to and during the riot. In a statement, Trump called the panel the “Unselect Committee” and promised to “fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country.” (NPR / New York Times / Politico)
2/ Biden will not invoke executive privilege to shield Trump White House records from the House’s Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The decision would likely set up a legal fight with Trump citing “executive privilege” in an effort to block the information requests. White House spokesman Michael Gwin said Biden is “deeply committed to ensuring that something like [Jan. 6] can never happen again and he supports a thorough investigation into what occurred,” adding that “the events of Jan. 6th were a dark stain on our country’s history, and they represented an attack on the foundations of our constitution and democracy in a way that few other events have.” The National Archives has identified hundreds of pages of relevant documents, which will be sent to Biden and Trump lawyers. (Associated Press / Washington Post / CNN / Politico)
3/ The hand recount of Maricopa County’s 2020 vote – ordered and financed by Republicans – confirmed that Biden won and the election was not “stolen” from Trump. The draft report from Cyber Ninjas found that Trump received 261 fewer votes than the county’s official election results, and that there was less than a 1,000-vote difference between the county’s count and the recount. Biden won Arizona by roughly 10,500 votes. The recount took nearly six months and cost almost $6 million. Trump, meanwhile, issued a statement claiming the report “uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD!” (AZ Central / NPR / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / The Hill / Washington Post)
4/ A New York judge ordered the Trump Organization to submit a report by Sept. 30 on its efforts to preserve, collect, and produce documents in response to subpoenas issued by the New York Attorney General. “For more than a year now, the Trump Organization has failed to adequately respond to our subpoenas, hiding behind procedural delays and excuses,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. Judge Arthur Engoron stipulated that if James isn’t satisfied with the Trump Organization’s efforts to comply with the subpoenas, a third party will be hired to conduct a review of the company’s records and respond to the subpoena. Engoron’s order was dated Sept. 2 and unsealed Friday. (CNN / Bloomberg)
5/ The FDA authorized coronavirus booster shots of Pfizer’s vaccine for people over 65, as well as those at risk of serious illness due to frequent exposure to the coronavirus at their jobs. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, meanwhile, overruled her agency’s advisory panel, adding a recommendation for boosters for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses, teachers, and grocery store employees. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had largely mirrored the FDA authorization in recommending boosters for people 65 and older, nursing home residents, and those with an underlying medical conditions six months after completing their second shot. The CDC panel, however, declined to recommend a booster for people at risk of illness because of their job. With Walensky’s sign-off, the White House could begin promoting and rolling out a plan that would make booster shots available for millions of Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News / New York Times)
6/ The House passed legislation that would create a statutory right for health care professionals to provide abortions amid threats to Roe v. Wade from a Texas law banning most abortions. The Women’s Health Protection Act would essentially codify Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing the right to abortion before viability. The legislation, however, now faces an evenly split Senate, where Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to support the bill for it to advance to a final vote. (NBC News / Washington Post / CNBC / USA Today)
7/ The U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest of what he called an “inhumane, counterproductive” decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees. Daniel Foote accused the Biden administration of conducting a “deeply flawed” policy of returning migrants to Haiti – the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country – despite the deteriorating political and humanitarian conditions there. White House press secretary Jen Psaki, meanwhile, said Foote “had ample opportunity to raise concerns about migration during his tenure. He never once did so.” (Washington Post / CNN)