Panel subpoenas ex-Trump advisers
WASHINGTON -- The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday subpoenaed former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and a former White House aide as part of its investigation into President Donald Trump's conduct in office.
Committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. said his committee wants to hear publicly from Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn on Sept. 17 "as part of its efforts to hold the president accountable."
Lewandowski and Dearborn both featured prominently in former special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Trump's possible obstruction of justice. The report says Lewandowski and Dearborn were aware of Trump's efforts to have Mueller fired.
The Trump administration has blocked former aides from testifying before Congress, setting off a legal battle that is expected to deepen in the fall.
In a tweet, Lewandowski said it was "sad and pathetic that Congressman Nadler is harassing private citizens" and referred to the Russia investigation as old news.
Bill Coffield, a lawyer for Dearborn, said that he had not yet seen the subpoena but would review it with his client.
The judiciary panel is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction and indicated that it was up to Congress to decide what to do with his findings.
Neckbone breaks found in Epstein
NEW YORK -- An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained several breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death.
Among the bones broken in Epstein's neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam's apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.
The details are the first findings to emerge from the autopsy of Epstein, a convicted sex offender and multimillionaire in federal custody on sex trafficking charges. He died early Saturday after guards found him hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
The information on Epstein's neck injuries follows reports that officers at the jail broke protocol and failed to properly monitor him.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has described his death as an "apparent suicide." Justice Department officials declined to comment on the new autopsy information.
The office of New York City's chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, completed an autopsy of Epstein's body Sunday. Sampson's office did not comment on the injuries found in the autopsy.
Inmate executed by electric chair
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee executed its third inmate in the electric chair since November, killing a man Thursday who maintained that he didn't stab a mother and her 15-year-old daughter to death in 1986.
State officials pronounced 56-year-old Stephen West dead at 7:27 p.m. at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
This week, West decided he preferred to die in the electric chair after previously voicing no preference, which would have defaulted him to lethal injection.
In Tennessee, condemned inmates whose crimes occurred before 1999 can opt for the electric chair.
West was one of four death row inmates who sued last year, asking a federal court's permission to use a firing squad as an execution method. Currently, three states -- Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah -- continue to allow the use of firing squads. However, the last time that method was used was in 2010.
West was found guilty of the kidnapping and stabbing deaths of 51-year-old Wanda Romines and her daughter, Sheila. He also was convicted of the teenager's rape.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/16/2019