Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. Republican senators ask Treasury for any reports on Hunter Biden

The Republican chairmen of two U.S. Senate committees have asked the Treasury Department, in a letter, for possible reports of money laundering or fraud on the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden's son with a Ukraine energy firm. The letter, seen by Reuters on Friday, seeks "suspicious activity reports," or documents that financial institutions file with the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network when a case of money laundering or fraud is suspected. U.S. Army cadets told not to use TikTok in uniform

U.S. Army cadets were this week instructed not to use China-owned social media app TikTok while representing the military, an Army spokeswoman said on Friday, amid concerns over the app's handling of user data. The directive comes after Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, urged the Army to review potential risks in its use of the popular video app for recruiting American teenagers. U.S. Navy Secretary says he did not threaten to resign in dispute with Trump

The U.S. Navy Secretary said on Saturday he did not threaten to resign amid a disagreement with President Donald Trump over whether a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers who may oust him from the elite force. "There seem to be rumors out there that I threatened to resign. I have not threatened to resign," Spencer told reporters at a security conference in Halifax. The New York Times reported earlier on Saturday that Spencer had threatened to quit if Trump subverted the process. Exclusive: U.S. Navy secretary backs SEAL's expulsion review, despite Trump objection

U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said on Friday a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers weighing whether to oust him from the elite force, despite President Donald Trump's assertion that he not be expelled. "I believe the process matters for good order and discipline," Spencer told Reuters, weighing in on a confrontation between Trump and senior Navy officials over the outcome of a high-profile war-crimes case. Trump accuses impeachment witness of lying, defends use of Giuliani

President Donald Trump on Friday accused a witness in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry of lying and offered an explanation for his controversial use of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine policy, saying Giuliani's crime-fighting abilities were needed to deal with a corrupt country. Trump made his remarks the day after the fifth and final scheduled day of public hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives inquiry, which threatens his presidency even as he seeks re-election in November 2020. Texas teacher faces backlash for telling student to 'speak English'

A Latino civil rights group on Friday called for a Texas teacher to be banned from instructing students after she was shown on video appearing to tell a Latino high school pupil to "speak English; we're in America." The video, which was posted online by local television, shows a white, female substitute teacher at the predominantly Latino Socorro High School near El Paso, Texas, making the comment on Tuesday as she asks the male student to hand over his mobile phone in a classroom. https://rb.gy/qkpato Justice Department backs Trump in Supreme Court fight over his tax returns

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday backed President Donald Trump in his fight at the Supreme Court to prevent his tax returns from being disclosed to a New York prosecutor. The court filing by Solicitor General Noel Francisco comes a week after Trump filed an appeal in his individual capacity seeking to reverse a lower court ruling that directed his longtime accounting firm, Mazars LLP, to hand over eight years of his tax returns to Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance. Ex-CIA officer sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiring to spy for China

A former CIA case officer was sentenced by a federal judge in Virginia on Friday to serve 19 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to become a spy for China, federal prosecutors announced. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, left the CIA in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong. A few years later, in 2010, he was approached by two Chinese intelligence officers who offered to pay him $100,000 and to take care of him “for life” for information he had acquired as a CIA officer. Amazon files lawsuit contesting Pentagon's $10 billion cloud contract to Microsoft

Amazon.com Inc filed a lawsuit in a federal U.S. court on Friday contesting the U.S. Defense Department's decision last month to award a Pentagon cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion to rival bidder Microsoft Corp. The complaint and supplemental motion for discovery were filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims under seal, according to a spokesman for Amazon Web Services, a division of the online retail giant founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Trump says ban of some flavored e-cigarette products could lead to illegal sales

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday expressed concerns that enacting his administration's proposed ban on many flavored e-cigarette and vaping products would lead to people obtaining them illegally. Trump also raised worries during a raucous meeting with public health and industry representatives that illegal e-cigarette and vaping products could be substandard.