Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent former federal officials

and special guests for a dynamic discussion on the most important political and legal topics

of the day. I'm Harry Lentman. We begin this week with best wishes for a national holiday

that didn't even exist last week. Happy June 10th to all. It was a week with heavy action

at every level and branch of government. It kicked off with President Biden's debut on the

international stage at the Group of Seven Congress, where his path was paid by virtue of not being

Donald Trump. Biden began every appearance with the mantra, America is back. A sentiment the other

economic powers openly welcomed. But general warm feelings aside, it remained unclear whether

Biden had made significant headway in bringing them around toward the foundations of his worldview,

in particular as it concerns the threats posed by China. The Department of Justice continued

to reel from continuing reports of abuse of its law enforcement functions by the Trump administration.

More reports turned up that leak investigations may have improperly targeted Trump's political

adversaries, including Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell. Though core details of the scandal remain

mysterious and both the Department's Inspector General and the House Judiciary Committee were

expected to launch investigations. And emails disclosed by the House depicted a crass campaign

from the White House to strong armed the Department into supporting ludicrous claims of election fraud

in the wake of Trump's loss. Prospects for meaningful if limited voting rights legislation

seemed to rise from the ashes when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the living pivot point of

the Senate, released a set of provisions he said he could support. Most Democrats were quick

to latch on to them while majority leader Mitch McConnell promised to tie them up through exercise

of the subpoena. And to break down this wild and woolly week we have a terrific set of guests,

all good friends of the podcast. They are Congressman Ted Lu. He represents California's 33rd

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