Reuters US Domestic News Summary

"Mr. Wolf's refusal to testify – thereby evading congressional oversight at this critical time – is especially troubling given the serious matters facing the department and the nation." Trump challenges Manhattan prosecutor's 'dragnet' subpoena for tax returns U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged a federal appeals court to block what he called a bad faith effort by Manhattan's top prosecutor to enforce a "dragnet" subpoena for his tax returns to advance a criminal probe into his businesses.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Trump, Biden take break from campaign to commemorate 9/11 anniversary

President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden separately commemorated the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday, taking a pause from campaigning to honor the almost 3,000 victims killed in the single-most deadliest assault on U.S. soil. Biden participated in a solemn morning memorial ceremony in New York, where al Qaeda operatives destroyed the World Trade Center with two hijacked jets. Trump began the day in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers crashed a hijacked plane believed to have been headed to the U.S. Capitol or White House. Georgia Democrat opposing QAnon backer drops out of race for U.S. Congress

The Georgia Democrat running for the U.S. Congress against a Republican businesswoman who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory on Friday said he was dropping out of the race and leaving the state for personal reasons. Kevin Van Ausdal wrote on Twitter he was quitting the contest for a seat in the House of Representatives against Marjorie Taylor Greene. She won her party's nomination last month in a conservative district of northwest Georgia, making her the likely winner in the general election on Nov. 3. Key aide to prosecutor reviewing origins of Trump-Russia probe resigns

A senior aide to the Connecticut federal prosecutor in charge of investigating the origins of the FBI's probe into contacts between Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia has resigned from the Justice Department, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said. Nora Dannehy, who had been working with Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham on the investigation, has left the department, according to spokesman Tom Carson, who did not elaborate on the reason for her departure. Fauci disagrees with Trump on coronavirus, cites disturbing U.S. statistics

Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday he disagreed with President Donald Trump's assessment the United States has "rounded the corner" on the coronavirus pandemic, saying the statistics are disturbing. Fauci, the outspoken director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the United States was starting the flu season with a high baseline of around 40,000 new COVID-19 cases a day and deaths are averaging around 1,000 daily. Judge bars 'sloppy' prosecutors from case of ex-cops charged in George Floyd's death

The judge in the criminal case against four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's death disqualified four local prosecutors on Friday because of "sloppy" work, while a special prosecutor said the defendants had "acted together" and should face trial together. The hearing before Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill focused on various motions in the criminal case arising from Floyd's death, which led to protests in the United States and other countries against racism and police brutality. Exclusive: U.S. hospitals turn down remdesivir, limit use to sickest COVID-19 patients

U.S. hospitals have turned down about a third of their allocated supplies of the COVID-19 drug remdesivir since July as need for the costly antiviral wanes, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed on Friday. Some hospitals said they are still buying the Gilead Sciences medicine to build inventory in case the pandemic accelerates over the winter. But they said current supplies are adequate, in part because they are limiting use to severely ill patients. Appeals court finds Florida can require felons to pay fines before right to vote is restored

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that Florida can require felons to pay all fines, restitution and legal fees they face before they can regain their right to vote, reversing a lower court ruling that held the measure unconstitutional. The ruling, by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, could influence the election outcome in November. U.S. West wildfires kill 16; in Oregon 500,000 flee

Around half a million people in Oregon evacuated as dozens of extreme, wind-driven wildfires scorched U.S. West Coast states on Friday, destroying hundreds of homes and killing at least 16 people, state and local authorities said. Since Monday 11 people have died from fires in California, while four were killed in Oregon and a 1-year-old boy died in Washington state, police reported. U.S. House panel subpoenas acting Homeland Security chief Wolf for next week

A congressional committee on Friday issued a subpoena compelling Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to testify on Sept. 17, after Wolf canceled a planned appearance, saying he should not testify while lawmakers consider his nomination for a permanent posting. "From the coronavirus pandemic to the rise of right-wing extremism to ongoing election interference, there are urgent threats requiring our attention," said the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, in a statement. "Mr. Wolf's refusal to testify – thereby evading congressional oversight at this critical time – is especially troubling given the serious matters facing the department and the nation." Trump challenges Manhattan prosecutor's 'dragnet' subpoena for tax returns

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged a federal appeals court to block what he called a bad faith effort by Manhattan's top prosecutor to enforce a "dragnet" subpoena for his tax returns to advance a criminal probe into his businesses. In a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in in New York, Trump's lawyers said a lower court judge erred in giving Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance a green light to obtain eight years of business and personal tax returns from the president's longtime accounting firm Mazars USA.