US Domestic News Roundup: Trump's longtime accounting firm cuts ties, cannot stand behind statements - filing; Pentagon seeks to boost competition in shrinking defense contractor base and more

Mazars USA, in a Feb. 9 letter made public on Monday, told the Trump Organization, the former president's New York-based real estate business, that its financial statements for 2011 through 2020 should no longer be relied on. Pentagon seeks to boost competition in shrinking defense contractor base The Biden administration released a report on Tuesday detailing recommendations to boost competition in its defense industrial base because rapid consolidation has created a national security risk.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump's longtime accounting firm cuts ties, cannot stand behind statements - filing

The accounting firm that handled Donald Trump's company's financial statements dropped it as a client and said it could no longer stand behind a decade of statements, a court filing showed on Monday. Mazars USA, in a Feb. 9 letter made public on Monday, told the Trump Organization, the former president's New York-based real estate business, that its financial statements for 2011 through 2020 should no longer be relied on.

Pentagon seeks to boost competition in shrinking defense contractor base

The Biden administration released a report on Tuesday detailing recommendations to boost competition in its defense industrial base because rapid consolidation has created a national security risk. The number of aerospace and defense prime contractors to the Defense Department - a group known as the defense industrial base - has shrunk from 51 to just 5 since the 1990s, the report said. It added that 90% of missiles come from 3 sources.

Ahmaud Arbery's murderers used litany of racist slurs, hate-crimes trial hears

A federal prosecutor in Georgia said on Monday that three white men on trial for hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, had a long history of using racial epithets and undoubtedly killed him because of his race. Arbery did nothing to deserve his fate, Barbara Bernstein, deputy chief of the Department of Justice's civil rights division, told the U.S. District Court in the coastal town of Brunswick in her opening statement.

Moderate Democrats fear party infighting could hand U.S. Congress to Republicans

If Democrats are to keep control of the U.S. Congress in this year's midterm elections, moderates in highly competitive districts, such as Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, must hold on to their seats. Yet Slotkin and two fellow Democratic lawmakers who were part of the 2018 Democratic "blue wave" that helped the party retake the U.S. House of Representatives say continuing fights within their own party over President Joe Biden's agenda risk dooming them to devastating losses this year.

One in four U.S. Democrats say their own party failed to make use of its power

One in four U.S. Democrats say their party did not take full advantage of its grip on the White House and Congress last year, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found, in a troubling sign for their voters' enthusiasm in this year's congressional elections. The finding echoes concerns raised by moderate Democratic members of Congress whose seats the party will have to defend in the Nov. 8 election if it wants to keep its majorities. They said the party has paid too much attention to its failures and not enough to successes like the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in November.

Biden to launch 'Buy Clean' U.S. government task force

The White House will announce on Tuesday a new task force to promote use of construction materials with lower lifecycle emissions as it works to speed U.S. government purchases of greener products. The move comes after President Joe Biden said in December that the government, which buys goods and services worth more than $650 billion each year, planned to cut its emissions by 65% by 2030, on the path to net zero emissions by 2050.

Analysis-Trump's targeting of Chinese academics likely will not last after DOJ review

The U.S. Justice Department is completing a review of an enforcement initiative aimed at combating Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft, an examination that former officials and critics expect will result in a shift away from its controversial targeting of academic researchers. The so-called "China Initiative" was launched in 2018 during the Trump administration and spearheaded by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Its stated goal has been to broadly counter what the department said were "Chinese national security threats."

Analysis-Palin's legal fight with the New York Times is far from over

A surprising and unusual ruling against Sarah Palin in her defamation case has narrowed the former Alaska governor's route to victory but the high-profile suit is far from over, legal experts said. In an abrupt twist in a trial seen as a test of longstanding protections for American media, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on Monday announced plans to throw out the lawsuit - even as jurors were still deliberating.

Two ex-police officers to testify in own defense about George Floyd arrest

Two former Minneapolis police officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, told a U.S. judge on Monday they planned to testify in their own defense against federal charges that they violated George Floyd's civil rights during a deadly 2020 arrest. A lawyer for Thomas Lane, the third police officer on trial at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, had previously said Lane would also testify in his own defense, but told Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday that Lane was still considering his decision.

Senate panel to vote on advancing Biden's Fed picks; Raskin under microscope

A key U.S. Senate panel is set on Tuesday to vote on President Joe Biden's slate of nominees to lead the Federal Reserve, including the renomination of Jerome Powell as chair and Sarah Bloom Raskin as the central bank's Wall Street regulator. Raskin, a former member of the Fed's Board of Governors and a one-time U.S. Treasury official, has emerged as the most contentious candidate of the group, with some analysts expecting the 24-member panel to be evenly divided along party lines.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)