Democratic lawmakers aim to tax stock trades: Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is expected to introduce a bill on Wednesday that would tax the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives at a 0.1 percentage rate, notes a CNBC report.

A companion House measure is backed by Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and at least a dozen co-sponsors such as New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, CNBC also reports.

The proposal could raise nearly $800 billion for the federal government over the course of a decade, as well as reduce speculation, high frequency trading and market volatility, its proponents argue.

Financial transaction taxes “don’t raise as much as their advocates say, but they also don’t cause the distortions that are as bad as the lobbyists against them argue,” Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard public policy professor, told Vox, in discussing the proposal.

Former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb calls Mueller an American hero: Ty Cobb, one of President Donald Trump’s former White House lawyers, told ABC News that he considers special counsel Robert Mueller “an American hero,” adding that he does not share Trump’s view that the Russia probe is a politically motivated hoax.

“I don’t feel the same way about Mueller,” Cobb said. “I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt. I wish it had happened on a quicker timetable, but it didn’t.”

Cobb, a distant relative of the storied baseball player with the same name, maintains Mueller’s report will spare the president from serious political harm.

Funding moves by AOC aide draw complaint: Two political action committees founded by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aide Saikat Chakrabarti funneled over $1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, according to a Washington Examiner report citing a complaint from a conservative nonprofit, the National Legal and Policy Center, that was filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Adav Noti, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, said the financial arrangement was highly unusual and seemed intended to obscure the destination of the funds.

Chakrabarti and a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez both declined to comment, the Examiner added.

Merkley won’t run for president: Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said Tuesday that he will not run for president, tweeting that there are already “Dems now in the race who are speaking to the importance of tackling the big challenges.”

Hillary Clinton late Monday confirmed that she won’t run for president in 2020.

Read more:Here are the many Democrats running for president or in the mix