Ginsburg buried at Arlington Cemetery
ARLINGTON, Va. — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was buried Tuesday in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, laid to rest beside her husband and near some of her former colleagues on the court.
Washington last week honored the 87-year-old Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18, with two days where the public could view her casket at the top of the Supreme Court’s steps and pay their respects. On Friday, the women’s rights trailblazer and second woman to join the high court lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, the first woman to do so.
Already the capital is looking ahead to confirmation hearings expected to begin Oct. 12 for Amy Coney Barrett, whom President Donald Trump announced Saturday as his nominee for Ginsburg’s seat. Barrett was meeting with senators Tuesday.
Arlington, just over the Potomac River from Washington, is best known as the resting place of approximately 400,000 service members, veterans and family members. But Ginsburg is the 14th justice to be buried at the cemetery.
Ginsburg ’s husband, Martin Ginsburg, was buried at the cemetery in 2010 following his death from cancer. He had served in the Army as an artillery school instructor at Fort Sill in Oklahoma when the couple were newlyweds. The couple were married for 56 years and had two children.
While the cemetery is known for its rows of white headstones, the section where the Ginsburgs are buried, called Section 5, is an older section of the cemetery where markers chosen by families are allowed, and their headstone is black, with a Star of David at the top.
Nine other justices are buried in that section, including three that Ginsburg served with.
Mueller responds: Former special counsel Robert Mueller pushed back Tuesday against criticism from one of the top prosecutors on the Russia investigation team that the team was not as aggressive as it should have been in probing connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
The rare public statement from Mueller, his first since his July 2019 congressional testimony, follows reports on a book by Andrew Weissmann, due out Tuesday, that suggests the team did not aggressively pursue line of inquiries out of concern that President Donald Trump could fire them and close down the operation. He did not specifically mention the book in his statement.
“It is not surprising that members of the Special Counsel’s Office did not always agree, but it is disappointing to hear criticism of our team based on incomplete information,” Mueller said in the statement.
“The office’s mission was to follow the facts and to act with integrity. That is what we did, knowing that our work would be scrutinized from all sides,” he added in the statement. “When important decisions had to be made, I made them. I did so as I have always done, without any interest in currying favor or fear of the consequences. I stand by those decisions and by the conclusions of our investigation.”
The book by Weissmann, “Where Law Ends,” is the first insider account of the Mueller team’s investigation published by a former prosecutor who was part of it.
Flynn case: A lawyer for former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn told a judge Tuesday that she recently updated President Donald Trump on the case and asked him not to issue a pardon for her client.
The attorney, Sidney Powell, was initially reluctant to discuss her conversations with the president or the White House, saying she believed they were protected by executive privilege. But under persistent questioning from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, she acknowledged having spoken to the president within the last few weeks to brief him and to request that he not pardon Flynn.
She did not elaborate on the request, but it presumably reflected a defense team desire to have Flynn’s case dropped through the court system and have a judge concur with the Justice Department’s assertion that the prosecution may be abandoned. Attorney General William Barr, who appointed a U.S. attorney from Missouri to investigate the handling of the case, moved in May to dismiss the case despite Flynn’s own guilty plea.
The revelation that Powell had recently spoken with the president about the case that arose from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation underscored the politically charged nature of the prosecution. Flynn has emerged as something of a cause celebre for Trump supporters, while critics of Barr’s action — including former FBI and Justice Department officials — decry what they see as the politicization of law enforcement in the move to drop the case.
Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict:
Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia brushed off the suggestion of peace talks Tuesday, accusing each other of obstructing negotiations over the separatist territory of NagornoKarabakh, with dozens killed and injured in three days of heavy fighting.
In the latest incident, Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in what would be a major escalation of the violence. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it.
The international community is calling for talks to end the decades-old conflict between the two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus Mountains region following a flareup of violence this week.
Sanctions leaders:
on Belarus Britain and Canada imposed sanctions Tuesday on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son and other senior government officials following the country’s disputed presidential election and a violent crackdown on protesters in Belarus.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the sanctions were part of a coordinated approach with Canada “in a bid to uphold democratic values and put pressure on those responsible for repression.”
Raab called Lukashenko’s rule “violent and fraudulent” and said the sanctions are meant to send a clear message that “we don’t accept the results of this rigged election.”
Ban on animals: France’s environment minister has announced a gradual ban on using wild animals in traveling circuses, on keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity in marine parks, and on raising mink on fur farms.
“It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals,” Barbara Pompili, France’s minister of ecological transition, said in a news conference Tuesday, arguing that animal welfare is a priority.
The ban does not apply to wild animals in other permanent shows and in zoos.
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