| The Russian invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing and still a very important story. Everything you need to know is here. But several other big things happened in U.S. politics this week. Like: 1. Biden picked a Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks after President Biden nominated her to the Supreme Court on Friday. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) | He chose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. She's a federal judge who just last year was elevated to the second-highest court in the land. She's a favorite of liberals, who like her background as public defender working with some of the most disadvantaged people in the justice system. "For too long, our government and our courts haven't looked like America," President Biden said Friday as he announced Jackson as his nominee. She'd be the first Black woman on the court ever, and one of just a handful of non-White men to ever be a Supreme Court justice. The court would still lean conservative with her on it. Republicans hesitantly described her as "experienced," while some started framing her as a pick of the "far left." It's up to the Senate to confirm her to replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer; if no Republicans vote for her, she could still get approved if all Senate Democrats do (plus Vice President Harris breaking the 50-50 tie). As for why this pick came this week, with so much going on, Senate Democrats are anxious to get her confirmed by the time Breyer steps down, likely later this summer. So they needed Biden to nominate her now. 2. Two prosecutors quit a Trump investigation in New York In Manhattan, prosecutors have a criminal investigation going into whether the Trump Organization defrauded lenders and insurance companies and committed tax fraud. But a new politician took over the investigation recently, and this week, two veteran attorneys on the team abruptly resigned. Their objections are specifically related to the former president: They feel like the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg (D), isn't interested in pursuing a case against Donald Trump himself, reports The Post's Shayna Jacobs. It's not clear what this means for the investigation — Bragg just appointed another attorney to take over. This is the main criminal investigation into Trump's business and it already led to an indictment of the Trump Organization's chief financial officer. It isn't the only investigation zeroing in on Trump. The New York attorney general is investigating his business too, but that's a civil probe (which could result in fines rather than jail time). There is another criminal probe in Georgia directed squarely at Trump, about whether he broke election laws in trying to overturn his loss there in 2020. 3. It's possible the Justice Department is investigating Trump Specifically for taking classified documents with him from the White House after he left office. It is a crime to intentionally mishandle classified information, and the National Archives found 15 boxes worth of White House documents with Trump in Mar-a-Lago — instead of with them as the Presidential Records Act requires. Some of that material was classified as "top secret," The Post reported. We don't know if the Justice Department is or will investigate. Attorney General Merrick Garland only said this week that the department is aware of the boxes and will "look at the facts and the law." But some former Justice Department officials said that was code for "they're investigating," reports The Post's Matt Zapotosky. (The government investigated Hillary Clinton for sharing classified information on private email.) 4. The three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia just got convicted of hate crimes A majority-White jury in Georgia handed down the federal hate-crime convictions this week, which go on top of the three men's' murder convictions after they chased and killed Arbery in 2020 while his family said he was jogging. It's the first conviction solely about race applied in recent high-profile killings of Black people, report The Post's David Nakamura and Margaret Coker. It could mean the three men will spend the rest of their lives in jail. And activists told Nakamura and Cooker that at a time when hate crimes are on the rise (historically Black colleges have received dozens of bomb threats since January), this conviction sent an important message. Arbery's family initially had trouble getting any kind of prosecution for his killing. In Minnesota yesterday, a jury convicted three of the officers who were at the scene of George Floyd's killing for not stepping in to stop it, another legal victory that civil rights activists praised as a way to hem in police brutality. 5. Biden's State of the Union is next week He'll address the nation — and members of Congress — Tuesday night. He'll likely talk about war in Europe, the pandemic and the inflation both these huge global events are causing. It will be interesting to hear how much he urges Democrats to try to pass some of his government-safety-net legislation, Build Back Better. (The entire package, which tried to do everything from creating universal pre-K to dealing with climate change, won't pass, but maybe some pieces could.) |
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