US News Roundup: White House to let peer review of Navy SEAL to proceed: official; Trump accuses impeachment witness of lying, defends use of Giuliani

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.

White House to let peer review of Navy SEAL to proceed: official

The White House will not stop a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes from facing a peer review that may lead to his ouster from the elite force, according to a U.S. official who said the Navy was notified of the decision on Friday. The decision defuses, at least for now, a potential clash between President Donald Trump and top U.S. Navy officials planning to convene a panel to decide if Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher should remain a SEAL, or be stripped of the trident pin denoting membership in the group.

Eighteen Democrats, three Republicans in U.S. presidential race

The historically large field of Democratic presidential candidates vying to take on Republican President Donald Trump in next November's U.S. election was back up to 18 on Sunday after former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined the race. The billionaire businessman entered into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday, saying he was running to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election and rebuild America.

Thrown from mall balcony, Minnesota boy now walks 'perfectly,' attends school

A little boy, critically injured when a stranger threw him off a balcony at a Minnesota mall last spring, is back in school and walking normally, after numerous surgeries, physical therapy and an outpouring of public support, according to a family friend. Landen Hoffman fell nearly 40 feet (12 meters) onto the concourse of the Mall of America in Bloomington last April when he was 5 years old. He was randomly picked up and thrown from the third floor by a man who police said was venting his anger.

Senior Democrat says next step underway in Trump impeachment probe

Democratic U.S. lawmakers have begun the next step in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump - writing a report on their findings - but still could take more testimony and hold additional hearings, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday. Representative Adam Schiff, whose committee is leading the inquiry that threatens Trump's presidency, said the panel has started work on the report after two weeks of public hearings with testimony from current and former U.S. officials. The panel has held five public hearings and has no more scheduled.

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.

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.

Thanksgiving travel: wicked weather, 'nothing worse than Wednesday'

A trio of wintry storms headed across the United States during the busy Thanksgiving travel period could mean jitters or joy for more than 55 million people on the roads, rails, waterways and in the air. The first of three storms predicted for the holiday week was headed for the U.S. Northeast on Sunday, with overnight accumulations of 4 to 7 inches of snow expected to make driving hazardous in northern New Hampshire and central and northern Maine, said National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Burke at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Justice Ginsburg in hospital, but expected to be released soon

Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in a Maryland hospital after suffering from chills and a fever, but is expected to be released on Sunday, the Supreme Court said on Saturday. Ginsburg has faced several health scares over the past year, including in August, when she underwent radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer.

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.

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