Monday, June 8

· Top House Democrats unveiled a police reform bill in response to public pressure as protests surged nationwide demanding justice for the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other unarmed Black people. The bill calls for an overhaul of current laws, including a ban on chokeholds and easier means to sue police officers who injure or kill citizens, though it doesn’t answer Black Lives Matter’s demand to defund or abolish the police.

· Joe Biden, former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, said via a spokesperson that he does not believe the police should be defunded but “supports the urgent need for reform, including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing, so that officers can focus on the job of policing.” Many top Democrats in Congress mirrored these sentiments.

· The Justice Department announced its criminal division head Brian Benczkowski will step down in July after a nearly two years in the position. Highlights from Benczkowski’s tenure include its focus on the opioid crisis and his handling of the whistleblower complaint concerning President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that prompted last fall’s impeachment hearings.

Tuesday, June 9

· Trump touted the conspiracy theory that Buffalo protester Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old man shoved to the ground by the police and left with a bleeding head wound on Thursday, was “an ANTIFA provocateur.” The comment received bipartisan criticism, for example from Senate Majority Whip John Thune who said, “It’s a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I haven’t seen any.” Antifa is also neither an organization nor an acronym but merely shorthand to describe anti-fascist activists.

· The Senate unanimously confirmed General Charles Brown, Jr., as chief of staff to the Air Force, making him the first Black service chief for a branch of the United States military.

· U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order preventing the federal government from expelling an undocumented teenager to Honduras under a pandemic-instigated policy that does not give the teen the chance to stay in the U.S. under federal law. Al Jazeera called the case “the first known challenge of the Trump administration's expulsion of hundreds of immigrant children at the border under an emergency declaration citing the coronavirus.”

· Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tapped Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, to lead a group developing a police reform proposal.

· House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of about a dozen statues in Washington, D.C., depicting Confederate leaders. “As I have said before, the halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy,” Pelosi wrote. “The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation.”

Wednesday, June 10

· Trump announced his first 2020 campaign rally would take place on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a move to rebound from the drop in opinion polls he suffered following his response to the coronavirus pandemic and the recent police brutality protests. Journalist Dan Rather summed up opposition to the news when he said, “President Trump has chosen as the venue for his first rally in months, Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of a horrific [1921] massacre of African Americans. And he has set the date for June 19th, Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States.” Trump postponed the rally to June 20 following pushback later in the week.

· In a 73-page brief, retired federal judge John Gleeson accused the Justice Department of a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power” in its attempt to drop criminal charges against Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Gleeson was appointed to argue against the Justice Department’s effort to drop the Flynn case.

· Trump publicly denounced the Pentagon for considering renaming Army bases named after Confederate officers who fought against the Union during the Civil War, with White House spokespeople saying the president would even refuse to sign the annual defense authorization bill if Congress tried to push such renaming through.

· Despite Trump, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to require the Pentagon to strip military bases and equipment of Confederate names, monuments or symbols within three years.

· Solicitor General Noel Francisco announced to the Justice Department his decision to leave his post.

Thursday, June 11

· Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a straight, party-line vote, authorized Chairman Lindsey Graham to issue subpoenas to former President Barack Obama administration officials like former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who were involved in the investigation into possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

· Trump authorized economic and travel sanctions on workers within the International Criminal Court who are directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials, as well as allied nations, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

· Trump said he would issue an executive order directing police departments to adopt national standards for use of force. He also said he would seek to invest more into police training.

Friday, June 12

· The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention restarted its regular briefings on the coronavirus pandemic after abruptly stopping them over a month ago and released a new guidance document called “Considerations for Events and Gatherings” that offers best practice suggestions for staying safe in large groups.

· The White House finalized a regulation erasing protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies. The announcement, part of a sweeping effort to narrow the legal definition of sex discrimination to exclude protections for transgender people, came on the anniversary of the Pulse massacre in Orlando, Florida.

Saturday, June 13

· The U.S. Secret Service admitted it used pepper spray to clear protesters out of Lafayette Park prior to Trump’s photo op in front of a nearby church after it had earlier denied using the chemical agent on demonstrators.

Sunday, June 14

· No news to report.