House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), holds her weekly press conference in the United States Capitol in Washington, May 13, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The Trump Justice Department’s reported decision to subpoena tech companies for account data of U.S. lawmakers was a step that “goes even beyond Richard Nixon,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“Richard Nixon had an enemies list,” Pelosi said. “This is about undermining the rule of law.”
The New York Times reported Thursday that the Justice Department under the former president in 2017 and 2018 subpoenaed Apple for information from the accounts of at least a dozen people tied to the House Intelligence Committee, including two Democratic lawmakers: Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Microsoft acknowledged Friday it had received a similar request.
The investigation reportedly sought the source of leaks about contact between Trump associates and Russia. A gag order prevented Apple and Microsoft from initially notifying the owners of the affected accounts of the subpoenas, the companies said. Apple said it didn’t know the probe involved the metadata of lawmakers when it complied.
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog said it would investigate the probe. While that step is important, Pelosi said, “it is not a substitute for what we must do in the Congress,” adding that she would ensure a review of the situation in the House.
Pelosi expressed disbelief in the claims by former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions that they were unaware of the probes into lawmakers. She said they must testify under oath, though she did not say whether she would subpoena their testimony should they not voluntarily comply.
“How could it be that there could be an investigation of members in the other branch of government and the press and the rest too and the attorneys general did not know?” she said. “So who are these people and are they still in the Justice Department?”
Signage outside the Micron offices in San Jose, California, on Dec. 17, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Micron shares popped 6% in extended trading Thursday after the company reported second-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates and offered better-than-expected guidance.
Here’s how the company did:
Earnings per share: $1.56, adjusted vs. $1.42 expected by LSEG
Revenue: $8.05 billion vs. $7.89 billion expected by LSEG
Revenue increased 38% from $5.82 billion during the same period in 2024, Micron said in a press release. The memory and storage solutions company reported net income of $1.58 billion, or $1.41 per share, up from $793 million, or 71 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Data center revenue tripled, the company said.
Revenue for the fiscal third quarter will be about $8.8 billion, Micron said, topping the $8.5 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings will be roughly $1.57 a share, the company said, beating the $1.47 average estimate.
Prior to Thursday’s close, Micron shares were up 22% for the year, while the Nasdaq is down more than 8%.
Micron will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Appetite for ether ETFs has been tepid since their launch last July, but that could change if some of the regulatory wrinkles holding them back get “resolved,” according to Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock.
There’s a widely held view that the success of ether ETFs has been “meh” compared to the explosive growth in funds tracking bitcoin, Mitchnick said at the Digital Asset Summit in New York City Thursday. Though he sees that as a “misconception,” he acknowledged that the inability to earn a staking yield on the funds is likely one thing holding them back.
“There’s obviously a next phase in the potential evolution of [ether ETFs],” he said. “An ETF, it’s turned out, has been a really, really compelling vehicle through which to hold bitcoin for lots of different investor types. There’s no question it’s less perfect for ETH today without staking. A staking yield is a meaningful part of how you can generate investment return in this space, and all the [ether] ETFs at launch did not have staking.”
Staking is a way for investors to earn passive yield on their cryptocurrency holdings by locking tokens up on the network for a period of time. It allows investors to put their crypto to work if they’re not planning to sell it anytime soon.
But Mitchnick doesn’t expect a simple fix.
“It’s not a particularly easy problem,” he explained. “It’s not as simple as … a new administration just green-lighting something and then boom, we’re all good, off to the races. There are a lot of fairly complex challenges that have to be figured out, but if that can get figured out, then it’s going to be sort of a step change upward in terms of what we see the activity around those products is.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission has historically viewed some staking services as potential unregistered securities offerings under the Howey Test – which is used to determine whether an asset is an investment contract and therefore, a security. But a more crypto friendly SEC is moving swiftly to reverse the damage done to the industry under the previous regime. Its newly formed crypto task force is scheduled to kick off a roundtable series Friday focused on defining the security status of digital assets.
Ether has been one of the most beaten up cryptocurrencies in recent months. It’s down more than 40% year to date as it has struggled with conflicting and difficult-to-comprehend narratives, weaker revenue since its last big technical upgrade and increasing competition from Solana. Standard Chartered this week slashed its price target on the coin by more than half.
Mitchnick said the negativity is “overdone.”
“ETH … at the second grade level is easier to define … but at the 10th grade level is a lot harder,” he said. “Second grade level: it’s a technology innovation story. … Beyond that, it does get a little more vast, a little more complicated. It’s about being a bet on blockchain adoption and innovation. That’s part of the thesis as we communicate it to clients.”
“There are three [use cases] that we focus on that have a lot of resonance with our client base: it’s a bet to some extent on tokenization, on stablecoin adoption, and on decentralized financing,” he added. “It does take a fair bit of education, and we’ve been on that journey, but it’s going to take more time.”
BlackRock is the issuer of the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF. It also has a tokenized money market fund, known as BUIDL, which it initially launched a year ago on Ethereum and has since expanded to several other networks including Aptos and Polygon.
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A Tesla Cybertruck is parked in front of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Tesla is recalling more than 46,000 of its Cybertrucks due to a cosmetic exterior trim panel that it said can “delaminate and detach from the vehicle,” potentially becoming a road hazard and “increasing the risk of a crash.”
The recall covers an exterior part of the vehicle, known as a cant rail, and it will affect all Cybertruck vehicles manufactured from November 2023 to February 2025, Tesla wrote in a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Cybertrucks’ recall comes at an already-challenging time for the embattled EV maker, whose value has dropped by more than 40% as CEO Elon Musk continues his role as a top advisor in the Trump administration.
Owners of affected vehicles can take their Cybertrucks to Tesla’s service department for free replacement of the cant rail, the company wrote in its filing.
Both Tesla and The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following the recall filing, The Information reported that the company plans to introduce a new innovation to the Cybertruck’s battery this year that would “sharply decrease battery manufacturing costs,” citing a senior executive.
