June 13, 2022

Former Mark Meadows staffer Cassidy Hutchinson hires new attorney ahead of public Jan. 6 hearings

Cassidy Hutchinson, a member of Mark Meadows’ staff when Meadows was Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has hired Jody Hunt to represent her as the public Jan. 6 hearings begin, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

At the start of the Trump administration, Hunt served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Hunt later became the head of Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack are actively negotiating with Hutchinson for her public testimony during the upcoming committee hearings, sources with knowledge of the matter told ABC News.

If Hutchinson agrees to appear publicly, she will put a voice to many of the interactions involving Jan. 6 that have been reported publicly, and offer significant insight into Meadows’ actions and interactions with the former president on Jan. 6 and in the days before and after, the sources said.

During earlier depositions with the committee, Hutchinson confirmed to committee investigators accounts that Meadows had burned documents in his office, according to sources.

It was not immediately clear the contents of what Meadows is alleged to have burned, or whether his actions as described by witnesses constitute

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Student-Loan Borrower Chooses Between Paying Debt and Health Insurance

  • Robin O’Brien, 61, has $64,000 in student debt from her master’s degree.
  • She’s experiencing long COVID, which has caused her to work part time earning half an income.
  • Now, she’s forced to choose between affording health insurance or paying off her student debt.

Even on an income-driven repayment plan for her $64,000 student-debt load, Robin O’Brien can’t afford the payments.

After working in long-term care facilities for 25 years, O’Brien said the next step in her career was becoming an administrator — but in order to be in that field while making a sufficient income, she needed a master’s degree. When she took out federal loans to take online classes at two public universities, and after graduating in 2017, there was no way she could have foreseen the pandemic and the financial strain it would bring.

Now, she’s dealing with long-COVID symptoms that forced her to work part time, and her medical bills and student-debt bills are unmanageable.

“Right now, I’m picking five of the envelopes with medical bills, and then I’ll pay them $20 apiece,” O’Brien said, referring to the stack of bills she gets each month. “And the next month I’ll take five

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What would it mean if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

The draft is not final and could undergo significant changes before the court’s formal opinion is released. In the meantime, however, CNN readers have asked hundreds of questions about what a reversal of the Supreme Court’s abortion rights precedents would mean and how it will affect access to the procedure.

We’re reading as many as we can and answering some of the most popular questions here.

Is the Supreme Court actually overturning the law or merely saying the decision belongs with each state’s law?

The Supreme Court, if it adopts the draft opinion, will be overturning previous court precedent that preempted state laws banning abortion before the fetus is viable, a point around 23 weeks into the pregnancy. In overturning the Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood decisions, the Supreme Court would be allowing states to pursue bans and other restrictions on pre-viability abortion.

However, such a ruling will not have the effect of banning abortion nationwide. According to the logic expressed in the draft decision (and with the caveat that it can still be changed before the final opinion comes out), the question of abortion policy would then go to state and local lawmakers — and potentially
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Pro-Choice States Should Protect the Right to Travel for Abortion

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Suppose Roe v. Wade is overturned. A recent fanfare of concern worries that a state would then be able to punish its citizens for traveling to other states to seek medical assistance in ending their pregnancies. Missouri is considering a statute that would do exactly that, and Texas activists are pushing a similar proposal. Other states may follow.

Would such a law be constitutional? It’s hard to be sure.  The doctrine is a confusing mishmash, and the Supreme Court has declined to offer definitive guidance. Although legal scholars have been arguing since the 1990s in favor of a right to travel to seek an abortion, the last time the justices directly addressed the issue of a state’s power to punish crimes beyond its borders was … um … 1941.

In short, we can’t predict how a court would treat an effort by one state to bar its citizens from obtaining abortion in another. But one need not be pro-choice to see the strength of the argument against such a law.

Let’s start with a basic question: Can a state punish its citizens for breaking the state’s laws while beyond its boundaries? It would seem that

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New abortion laws could see many women, doctors face criminal charges

New abortion laws could see many women, doctors face criminal charges
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  • Period tracking apps, tele-health appointments, mail-in pharmacy requests and other data could be used as evidence in criminal cases for those involved in abortions, experts said.
  • States that have already passed laws redefining “personhood” to include an unborn child may mean people who seek out abortions or anyone helping them could face charges of feticide or aggravated assault, among other charges.
  • o date, more than 80 elected district attorneys and attorneys generals around the country, including in red states, have committed to using their discretion to not charge individuals or those who help them in ending a pregnancy should federal abortion rights be overturned.
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