The U.S. House is back in session after a multi-week hiatus.

Some of the nation’s most influential Black leaders say many of the threats to democratic institutions in the U.S. appear to be aimed squarely at their community, including efforts to make voting more difficult, censor lessons around race and weaken social safeguards such as affirmative action.

Several FBI employees have accused the bureau of politicization in congressional testimony, a day after the agency announced two of them had seen their security clearances revoked over concerns about how their views of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack affected their work.

Republicans have opened a new inquiry with a brazen attempt to portray the federal government as weaponized against Americans.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the House will also put forth supplemental spending to boost security at the Capitol. After former President Donald Trump’s acquittal at his second Senate impeachment trial, bipartisan support appeared to be growing for an independent commission to examine the deadly insurrection. AdInvestigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. An independent commission along the lines of the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks would probably require legislation to create.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., walks on Capitol Hill after the Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. Trump was accused of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the acquittal gives him a historic second victory in the court of impeachment. Investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. We needed more senators with spines.”AdMcConnell told Republican senators shortly before the vote that he would vote to acquit Trump. Beutler's statement late Friday that Trump rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters was ultimately entered into the trial record.

Ad"They did it because Donald Trump sent them on this mission,” said House prosecutor Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ad“On Jan. 6, President Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a prosecutor. At one dramatic moment, the video shows police shooting into the crowd through a broken window, killing a San Diego woman, Ashli Babbitt. “Greatly disturbing.”Trump is the first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached. Trump's second impeachment trial is expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated affair of a year ago.

(Senate Television via AP)WASHINGTON – The Latest on former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial (all times local):8:20 p.m.House Democrats have wrapped up their first full day of arguments at the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The impeachment trial is set to resume at noon Thursday. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney say they are deeply disturbed by the evidence shown by Democrats against former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial. Prosecutors at Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday played security footage from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. ___2:20 p.m.Democrats are arguing that former President Donald Trump “built” the mob that attacked the Capitol.

While the Democrats have appealed to the senators’ emotions, Trump’s lawyers have tried to tap into raw partisan anger. REPUBLICANS TO WATCHSix Republican senators voted with Democrats on Tuesday not to dismiss the trial on constitutional grounds. AdCassidy was the only one who did not side with Democrats in a similar vote two weeks ago. He said after the vote Tuesday that he thought Democrats had a better argument and that Trump’s team had done a “terrible” job. He said he will watch the additional arguments as an impartial juror and then decide whether to convict.

Plaskett couldnt cast a vote last month when the House impeached former President Donald Trump. The non-voting delegate from the Virgin Islands is among the impeachment managers selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to argue the case that Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP, File)WASHINGTON – Stacey Plaskett couldn't cast a vote last month when the House impeached former President Donald Trump. The non-voting delegate from the Virgin Islands is among the impeachment managers selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to argue the case that Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It's an extraordinary moment that places Plaskett in the center of just the fourth impeachment trial of an American president.