The top House leaders from both parties are setting up a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and the stunning security failures that allowed it to happen. 

July 19 (Reuters) - Over its past two terms, the U.S. Supreme Court has put an end to five high-profile and politically sensitive cases emerging from one particular federal appeals court on the same basis, declaring that the litigation should not have been allowed in the first place.

In all five cases - involving abortion rights, online free speech, federal student loans, immigration and Native American child welfare - the justices overturned rulings by the staunchly conservative New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or judges within that circuit.

The Justice Department dropped a felony obstruction charge against five Proud Boys, who are facing a criminal trial in September over their actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Biden administration’s decision to drop the charge comes after the Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors can’t use an obstruction statute originally aimed at the destruction of evidence to nab Jan. 6 rioters who disrupted Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results.

Sen. Bob Menendez put his “power up for sale” and in return raked in high-dollar bribes from New Jersey businessmen in the form of cash, gold and a vehicle, the prosecution argued Monday during the first day of closing arguments in the federal corruption case against the New Jersey Democrat.

Federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni began walking jurors through the specifics of the multifaceted federal indictment Monday, saying that testimony from government witnesses, heard across seven weeks, showed “a clear pattern of corruption.”

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes, the Justice Department said in a court filing Sunday evening.

It represents yet another black eye for the company after a series of embarrassing safety blunders, but the agreement avoids what could have been more serious consequences.

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the US found the company violated a deal meant to reform it after two fatal crashes by its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) said the plane-maker had also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m).

However, the families of the people who died on the flights five years ago have criticised it as a "sweetheart deal" that would allow Boeing to avoid full responsibility for the deaths. One called it an "atrocious abomination".

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge to avoid a criminal trial in connection with a Justice Department investigation into two deadly crashes involving 737 MAX jetliners, FOX Business can confirm.

The criminal case relates to two 737 MAX jetliner crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people were killed, leading to demands from the victims' families for Boeing to face prosecution.

Is the president a king? The US supreme court thinks so. On Monday, in its very last ruling of the term, the chief justice, John Roberts, writing for the court’s six conservatives, held in Trump v United States that Donald Trump has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all acts that can be interpreted as part of the official course of his “core” duties, and “presumptive” immunity for all other official acts.