The Hill’s Morning Report — DOJ alleges Trump criminally conspired to cling to power

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 08/02/23 6:33 AM ET

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A federal grand jury indicted former President Trump on Tuesday alleging he was a participant in criminal conspiracies to try to subvert the results of the last presidential election, which he falsely and repeatedly claimed to have won during and after the Jan. 6 attacks at the Capitol in 2021.

“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power,” the government alleges (The Hill and CNN).

Trump is charged on four counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official government proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud people of civil rights protected by federal law or the Constitution. The indictment said Trump had six co-conspirators, but it did not name them.

▪ The Hill: What to know about the six others in the indictment.

▪ The Associated Press: How the fake electors scheme became a “corrupt plan,” according to the government’s indictment of the former president.

The newest allegations add to Trump’s legal peril and scramble an extraordinary election in which the Republican Party’s frontrunner, a potential presidential nominee, has pleaded not guilty and vows to challenge witnesses and evidence in separate prosecutions brought in New York, Washington, D.C., and Florida, and possibly in a pending 2020 election probe in Georgia.

The pileup of charges has not undermined his standing with most GOP voters, according to polls. But the legal fees are ballooning and the web of trial and hearing dates will force Trump and his representatives into courtrooms this year and into the 2024 election year.

Trump lawyer John Lauro, appearing on Fox News, said the Justice Department’s indictments of the former president were weak, conflict with Trump’s First Amendment rights and are “all politics.”

▪ The New York Times analysis: Trump’s case has broad implications for American democracy.

▪ The Hill and The Associated Press: Who is the judge considering the Jan. 6 indictment? 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Trump on Thursday is scheduled to appear in federal court for arraignment in Washington, D.C.

The former president immediately dispatched fundraising emails to supporters and asserted “prosecutorial misconduct,” which he says is aimed at undercutting his White House bid to try to defeat President Biden.

It is the third time Trump has been criminally charged, following Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s separate prosecution for allegedly removing White House classified documents to his Florida estate, violating the Espionage Act and impeding federal demands to turn over the materials. Trump is also charged with falsification of business documents in a Manhattan case brought in March. Trump has pleaded not guilty to each set of charges.

“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said in remarks summarizing the indictments.

That assault, Smith continued, was “fueled by lies — lies by the defendant [Trump] — targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

▪ The Hill: READ the government’s indictment of Trump.

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage,The Memo: Five takeaways from Trump’s indictment.

▪ The Hill: Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, reacting to the indictment of Trump by a federal grand jury based in the nation’s capital, suggested the jurors were biased and political. “Washington, DC is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality,” the presidential candidate said in a social media post. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said allegations that Trump engaged in a 2020 election criminal conspiracy top a hierarchy of indictments “thus far,” suggesting more ahead.

“The third indictment of Mr. Trump illustrates in shocking detail that the violence of that day was the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people,” they wrote in a joint statement. “This indictment is the most serious and most consequential thus far and will stand as a stark reminder to generations of Americans that no one, including a president of the United States, is above the law.”

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: A Pennsylvania state judge Tuesday ruled that Trump’s false election claims while in office are covered by presidential immunity in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania voting machine supervisor.

▪ CBS News: New York Attorney General Letitia James is ready to proceed with a trial stemming from a $250 million lawsuit claiming Trump, two of his children and his company engaged in widespread fraud. 

▪ The Hill and CBS News: Michigan prosecutors charged two Trump allies Tuesday in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election. 

▪ CNN: A former Georgia state senator has been subpoenaed to testify to a Fulton County grand jury as part of a probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.

▪ Politico: Migrants who seek U.S. asylum are forced to sleep on sidewalks in New York City as Mayor Eric Adams (D) bemoans overcrowded shelter options and a surge of immigrants arriving in his city. He’s sparring with the Biden administration.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Trump’s indictment worsens a cash crunch in the former president’s political operation, even as he outraises his GOP rivals. New campaign finance filings showed Trump’s joint fundraising committee reported raising nearly $54 million during the first half of 2023, putting him well ahead of the rest of the primary field.

But filings show that Trump’s political committees spent roughly $25 million on legal fees in the same period, burning through much of what was raised. The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the spending on legal fees was closer to $40 million. Trump’s political operation, which includes his joint fundraising organization and a leadership PAC known as Save America, has roughly $32 million cash on hand heading into the second half of 2023 (The Hill).

The New York Times: Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’s (R) super PAC burned through $34 million as he slid in the polls. The group behind DeSantis had more money than those backing his rivals, including Trump, but big spending has not helped his standing so far.

▪ The New York Times: Friendly on the Senate floor, combatants on the campaign trail. Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.), the Republican campaign chief, is taking aim at his home-state colleague, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), in one of 2024’s biggest races. It’s a bit awkward.

▪ CNN: New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver (D), a trailblazing political leader, died at 71 following an undisclosed medical issue.

© The Associated Press / J. Scott Applewhite | Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) at the Capitol in May.

🚀 An increasingly bitter feud between Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and the Biden administration deepened this week after the White House nixed Trump’s decision to move Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Al Weaver. The decision enraged the Alabama delegation, including Tuberville, who had already earned the scorn of the White House and Pentagon with an abortion rights-related hold on more than 300 military appointees. The White House said the most significant factor the president considered was how a move to Alabama would impact “operational readiness to confront space-enabled threats” and had nothing to do with Tuberville.   

As Politico reports, Biden ended up deciding the fate of the Space Command location after two senior Defense Department leaders were at odds over where to locate the permanent headquarters. Gen. James Dickinson, the four-star chief of Space Command, recommended keeping the headquarters at its temporary location in Colorado, while Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wanted to move the facility to Alabama. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ultimately brought the decision to Biden’s desk, who settled on Colorado. 

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL 

Following a military takeover and toppling of Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, France, Italy and Spain on Tuesday announced evacuations from the West African country for their citizens and other European nationals, concerned that they risked becoming trapped by a military coup that won backing from three other Sahel nations also ruled by mutinous soldiers.

Bazoum’s apparent overthrow is a blow for Western nations that were working with Niger against West African extremists. The West African regional group ECOWAS announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger on Sunday and said it could use force if the coup leaders don’t reinstate Bazoum within a week, but the new junta has received backing from the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso. 

The two countries denounced ECOWAS’s economic sanctions as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” and refused to apply them. Since the 1990s, the 15-nation ECOWAS has tried to protect democracies against the threat of coups, with mixed success. Niger relies heavily on foreign aid, and sanctions could further send its more than 25 million people into poverty (The Associated Press, The New York Times and Reuters).

The United States still sees a “narrow” window of opportunity to reverse a military takeover in Niger, a senior U.S. official told NBC News on Monday. Although France, Germany and the European Union have called the takeover by the military officers a coup, the Biden administration so far has refrained from using the word; if American officials formally declare the events in Niger a coup, U.S. law requires the suspension of all economic and military assistance to the country. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that continued American assistance — which totals roughly $400 million — would depend on the release of Bazoum and the restoration of democratic rule, but the White House has not set a deadline.

Still, the U.S. has suspended its counterterrorism training with soldiers in Niger, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Tuesday. Ryder added that even with the suspension, there are no immediate plans to pull the roughly 1,100 U.S. troops stationed in Niger (The Hill).  

▪ BBC: Why some in Niger want Russia in and France out.

▪ The Washington Post: The military mutiny in Niger comes after a string of coups across the region.

▪ France 24: Burkina Faso, Mali say military intervention in Niger would be a “declaration of war.”

Russia attacked Ukraine’s grain ports in the early hours of Wednesday, including an inland port across the Danube River from Romania, sending global food prices soaring as Moscow ramps up its use of force to reimpose a blockade of Ukrainian exports (Reuters). Meanwhile, a high-rise building in Moscow’s business district that houses three Russian government ministries was struck by a drone for the second time in three days on Tuesday. Russia called the strike an attempted Ukrainian “terrorist attack,” while a Ukrainian presidential adviser said Moscow should expect more drone attacks and “more war” (The Associated Press).

Moscow has come under repeated drone attacks since early May, when two drones were fired at the roof of a building in the Kremlin complex. The world is now looking ahead to a meeting in Saudi Arabia set to take place next week, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Washington and Europe are reportedly hoping the talks, which exclude Russia, will lead to international backing for peace in Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesperson said Russia will keep an eye on the discussions to evaluate the possibility of a “peaceful settlement,” but confirmed that Moscow currently sees no grounds for peace negotiations with Kyiv (CNBC).

▪ Politico: Here’s Ukraine’s plan if Russia assassinates President Volodymyr Zelensky.

▪ The New York Times: President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown leaves transgender Russians bracing for worse.

▪ The Associated Press: The Crimean Peninsula is both a playground and a battleground, coveted by Ukraine and Russia.

▪ The Hill: U.S. invites new Chinese foreign minister for visit after predecessor ousted.

© The Associated Press / AP Photo | “Moscow City” business district building damaged by a reported drone attack on Tuesday.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the Fitch rating agency’s downgrade of U.S. credit from AAA (outstanding) to AA+ (excellent) on Tuesday as “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

💡Incandescent light bulbs are many consumers’ guilty little secret. The bulbs may be energy hogs, but many U.S. consumers and businesses appreciate the warm quality of light and the cheaper price tags and have delayed switching to LED alternatives. The federal ban on most incandescent light bulbs (a rule finalized last year) is about to be enforced by the government when it fines industry violations. Here are four things to know about the federal rule (The Hill).

📡 Hello again! NASA regained contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft billions of miles away in interstellar space after a mistaken command nearly two weeks ago tilted an antenna away from Earth, in effect a hang-up. Flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will now try to turn Voyager 2’s antenna back toward Earth after the world’s giant network of radio antennas detected a “heartbeat signal” that has eased anxieties among NASA flight controllers (The Associated Press). 

© The Associated Press / JPL, NASA via AP | Voyager 2 in California in an undated NASA image.

OPINION

■ Tuberville leaves Alabama lost in space, by Kyle Whitmire, columnist, AL.com.

■ Erratic, irrational and unconstrained: What a second Trump term would mean for America’s foreign policy, by John Bolton, opinion contributor, The Hill. 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will convene at 11 a.m. on Friday for a pro forma session. Lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 11. 

The Senate is out until Sept. 5 and will hold a pro forma session at 12 noon on Friday.

The president has no public schedule and is spending the week enjoying R&R at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Vice President Harris will participate in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene of Mongolia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at 2 p.m. will address the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit for Young African Leaders in Washington, D.C.

Secretary Yellen, along with IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, at 1:30 p.m. will use a Virginia event to discuss IRS modernization to go paperless as an option for the public by 2025.

ELSEWHERE

➤ BY THE NUMBERS

1.6: Ratio of U.S. job openings per each job seeker, according to the Labor Department on Tuesday. It remains a strong labor market.

22.39: Percent interest charged on the average credit card, the highest since the Federal Reserve started tracking adjusted percentage rates (APR, the cost of borrowing money) in 1994, according to a new WalletHub study.

$10,000: Current average debt held by U.S. households because of their credit cards (The Hill). Uh-oh. That average total is nearing twice what it was in 2019. 

1 in 10: Number of Americans who say they’ve seen a UFO (The Hill). 

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

Total COVID-19 hospital admissions jumped by 12.1 percent in the past week, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), marking the highest jump in admissions since last winter, The Hill’s Joseph Choi reports. This week’s hospital admission rate follows last week’s rise of more than 10 percent. While this data suggests more infections, a metric the CDC does not track anymore, it remains unclear how concerned people should be.

It has been almost three months since the public health emergency for COVID-19 expired, and life has largely returned to pre-pandemic rhythms for the majority of people. After three years of living with COVID-19, a small surge in cases during the summer may be a new norm to get used to.

“We have had a summer wave of COVID for the last few summers and so it’s not surprising to see an increase in COVID right now,” Jill Rosenthal, director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, told The Hill.

▪ CBS News: U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have climbed for the second straight week. Is it a summer surge?

▪ NBC News: Updated COVID-19 booster shots could be authorized by the end of the month, Pfizer says.

▪ ProPublica: Doctors emerge as a political force in the battle over abortion laws in Ohio and elsewhere.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Rogelio V. Solis | Sunflowers at a Mississippi farm in 2018.

And finally … 🌻 Flowers spell love. Especially if you contemplate acres of showy yellow cheer after 50 years of marriage.

Farmer Lee Wilson of Kansas decided to surprise his wife Renee Wilson for their anniversary with 1.2 million sunflowers, reports ABC’s Good Morning America and its local affiliate KAKE-TV.

“We’re celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 10 and you know, what’s a guy get his gal on their 50th? And I put a lot of thought into it and she always liked sunflowers and I thought this is the year to plant sunflowers. So we planted her 80 acres of sunflowers,” Wilson explained.

He enlisted his son’s help to secretly plant the field in May, hoping his wife would not catch on as massive carpets of the state flower filled the landscape, eventually attracting onlookers from around the state.

“It made me feel very special. It couldn’t have been a more perfect anniversary gift than a field of sunflowers,” said Renee, who began dating her husband when she was 16.

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