The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump pleads not guilty. Will trial precede election?

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 08/04/23 6:28 AM ET

Former President Donald Trump walks over to speak with reporters before he boards his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va., after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges that allege he conspired to subvert the 2020 election. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Will former President Trump stand trial before Election Day?

Current and former prosecutors think it’s possible. Those who know Trump well suggested Thursday that he needs just one “reasonable-doubt” juror in the 2020 election conspiracy case who might block a unanimous jury verdict amid a cacophony of public assertions that Trump is a victim of “persecution” and “prosecution.”

“They simply have to induce reasonable doubt in the minds of one or more jurors to get a hung jury,” former White House national security adviser John Bolton told CNN. “And if people think that he’s being railroaded, if they don’t believe the prosecution case, or they believe whatever case Trump puts on, and this results in a hung jury in either of the two federal cases, I think we’re in for real trouble.”

The gray skies and rain in Washington on Thursday appeared to match the former president’s expression as he left the federal courthouse and made his way to the airport. Trump spent less than three hours in the capital before departing on his private jet. Walt Nauta, Trump’s aide and an alleged co-conspirator in the classified documents case, held a black umbrella for his boss marked with Trump’s name.

Trump came to Washington to plead not guilty to conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. A court hearing scheduled on Aug. 28 could result in a trial date. The government wants to move quickly. Trump and his legal team do not. While juggling a separate bundle of federal criminal charges in the documents case in Florida this summer, the Trump team tried and failed to postpone that trial until after Election Day. It’s scheduled on May 20.

Trump makes few distinctions between political enemies and foes he perceives in the judicial world. His lawyers and allies have said Trump was free to lie and mislead under the shield of his First Amendment rights, that he received flawed advice from advisers and he should not be criminally vulnerable because of the powers and precedents of the presidency. Trump envisions a defense in the court of public opinion. Judges and prosecutors involved in criminal charges in three cases in four months in which he’s the defendant are feeling the sting of his public rebukes.

Trump said on Truth Social as he traveled to Washington that the venue and the judge overseeing the proceedings are “UNFAIR” (CNN).

“Biden and his family steal Millions and Millions of Dollars, including BRIBES from foreign countries, and I’m headed to D.C. to be ARRESTED for protesting a CROOKED ELECTION. UNFAIR VENUE, UNFAIR JUDGE. We are a Nation in Decline. MAGA!!!” he wrote.

The government charged Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. In the event of conviction, Trump faces a potentially lengthy prison sentence, with the most serious counts calling for up to 20 years (The Associated Press).

Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, presiding at Trump’s arraignment, warned him against bribing or trying to influence witnesses. Going forward, the 2020 election conspiracy trial will be conducted by federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Obama and has been criticized by Senate Republicans as biased in favor of the Justice Department’s election subversion case (The Hill and CNN).

Generally, criminal defendants must be present in the courtroom during their trials, The New York Times points out. “Not only will that force Mr. Trump to step away from the campaign trail, possibly for weeks at a time, but the judges overseeing his trials must also jostle for position in sequencing dates. The collision course is raising extraordinary — and unprecedented — questions about the logistical, legal and political challenges of various trials unfolding against the backdrop of a presidential campaign,” reports Charlie Savage.

▪ Time: Key timeline for Trump’s legal cases and his reelection campaign.

▪ The Hill: What it was like inside the arraignment courtroom on Thursday.

Related Articles

▪ PBS NewsHour: Former Trump Attorney General William Barr on Thursday defended the Justice Department’s prosecution of his former boss tied to the 2020 allegations of attempting to subvert the will of voters. “There was very grave wrongdoing here and I think it’s reasonable to say that it falls within the obstruction of a proceeding [charge]. That’s not weaponization. That’s enforcement of the law,” he said in an interview. “I’ve come to believe that [Trump] knew that he lost the election. … I think everyone was telling him that he lost.”

▪ Reuters: About half of Republicans could spurn Trump if he’s convicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national survey of adults that concluded on Thursday. Twenty-eight percent of Republicans who responded to the poll said they would vote for Trump if he were convicted and serving time in prison.

▪ The Washington Post: Breaking down the 78 charges Trump faces in his three indictments.

▪ CNN: Stefanie Lambert Junttila, a pro-Trump lawyer who allegedly took part in a conspiracy to seize and access Michigan voting machines after the 2020 election, faces four state-level criminal charges.

▪ Politico: If Trump gets convicted, blame Ulysses S. Grant.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Just a day after being arraigned in D.C., Trump is headlining the Alabama Republican Party’s summer dinner in Montgomery today, which will be attended by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and nearly the entire GOP congressional delegation will be there — who have accused the Justice Department of targeting Trump for political reasons (AL.com).

Shortly after learning of his third indictment, Trump had a private dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., with top executives at Fox News, The New York Times reports, where they lobbied him to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate this month, which Fox News is hosting with the Republican National Committee on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Trump has been vocal about possibly skipping the first debate and has also indicated he may skip the second, scheduled for September at the Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Trump said last week that it would be “sort of foolish” to attend the debates, according to a Wednesday interview with Breitbart News. The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Trump to participate in the debate, sources told the Times, and they added the former president hasn’t completely ruled out his participation, despite lambasting the network on his social media site, Truth Social, in recent weeks.

“Why would we debate? That would be stupid to go out there with that kind of lead,” one Trump adviser previously told CNN. Trump currently dominates the GOP primary field, polling well above his opponents. However, some allies worry that an absent Trump would give an opportunity for a lower-tier candidate to have a breakout moment.

▪ The Washington Post analysis: Trump’s relationship with Fox News grows more complex.

▪ MSNBC: The unfortunate timing of Trump’s newest offensive against former Vice President Mike Pence.

▪ Politico: Trump’s indictment turns Pence into a litmus test.

▪ The Hill: Biden and Trump are tied in the battleground state of Michigan, according to a new Emerson College poll.

On the surface, the two governors — California’s Gavin Newsom (D) and Florida’s Ron DeSantis (R) — don’t have a lot in common. The two states they lead are polar opposites: In California, Newsom is leading a textbook progressive state government, while DeSantis pulls Florida further to the right and into the culture wars. But both politicians seek out attention: from the media, from their respective parties — and from each other. The Florida Republican and California Democrat have repeatedly sparred publicly over policies in their states, each representing one side of the ideological spectrum. Still, a showdown between the two seemed unlikely as DeSantis ramped up his presidential campaign. But Newsom has spent months trying to get his counterpart to join him on a stage, and his efforts seemed to pay off Wednesday (The Hill and Politico).

“Absolutely. I’m game, let’s get it done. Just tell me when and where,” DeSantis told Fox News host Sean Hannity, who would serve as moderator for the potential debate.

During the debate, Newsom will most likely cast himself as a surrogate for Biden, while DeSantis will have the chance to remind the GOP he is around to take on the present and future leadership of the “radical left” (New York magazine’s Intelligencer).

2024 roundup: Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is leading Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) in a new poll gauging support for a three-way Senate race in 2024 (The Hill). … DeSantis’s campaign announced Wednesday that he received 35 new endorsements from South Carolina state legislators and local leaders. Two of his fellow 2024 GOP candidates, Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, are from the Palmetto State (Fox Business). … Haley said Thursday she is “tired of commenting on every Trump drama” after the former president was indicted for a third time (National Review) … Across the board, Republican presidential candidates are zeroing in on a common foe: China (Reuters). … Biden’s reelection campaign is beefing up its fundraising team, with three new hires announced Thursday (The Hill).

▪ The New York Times: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the 69-year-old chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is under investigation by the Justice Department for the second time in less than a decade. And this time, his wife joins him in prosecutors’ crosshairs.

▪ The Guardian: Biden administration rule restricting asylum can remain in place, court rules.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Niger’s ruling military junta said it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the democratically elected government’s key ambassadors and warning citizens to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation’s efforts at negotiation in the West African nation quickly deadlocked. The junta’s announcement on state television late Thursday raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence. With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Bazoum said in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece, “I write this as a hostage” and urged the U.S. and partners to help (The Associated Press).

The Biden administration, though, is holding back from labeling the military takeover of Niger as a coup, writes The Hill’s Laura Kelly. The careful word choice keeps in play an estimated $200 million of humanitarian and economic support to the country. The aid is largely food assistance for a country of 25 million people where at least 40 percent are estimated to be living on less than $2 per day. Biden on Thursday called for the immediate release of Bazoum, publishing a statement on the 63rd anniversary of Niger’s independence from France that warned the West African nation is now “facing a grave challenge to its democracy” (ABC News).

“In this critical moment, the United States stands with the people of Niger to honor our decades-long partnership rooted in shared democratic values and support for civilian-led governance,” Biden said. “The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections — and that must be respected.”

▪ The New York Times: “Not another coup as usual”: What to know about Niger’s crisis.

▪ The Washington Post: If coup holds, the “whole world will be destabilized,” Niger envoy says.

▪ The Associated Press: In Niger, the U.S. seeks to hang on to its last, best counterterrorist outpost in West Africa.

▪ France 24: The coup in Niger brings France’s complicated relationship with its former colonies into the spotlight, marking the latest in a series of military takeovers in West Africa that have toppled governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

Ukrainian pilots are set to begin training to fly F-16 fighter jets this month, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech to heads of Ukrainian diplomatic missions. Ukraine plans to work with nations supplying F-16s to transfer the advanced jets after training, Zelensky said Wednesday, acknowledging the task is challenging (The Washington Post). Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat accused Russia of seeking to increase its global influence by offering cheap grain to developing countries after Moscow unilaterally terminated the Black Sea grain deal (The New York Times).

“As the world deals with disrupted supplies and higher prices, Russia is now approaching vulnerable countries with bilateral offers of grain shipments at discounted prices, pretending to solve a problem it created itself,” Josep Borrell Fontelles wrote in a letter to leaders of developing countries and the Group of 20 nations. “This is a cynical policy of deliberately using food as a weapon to create new dependencies.”

▪ Reuters: On Ukraine’s landmine-strewn front, even the corpses can kill.

▪ The Associated Press: The U.S. military may put armed troops on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iranian seizures.

▪ ABC News: Two U.S. Navy sailors arrested for allegedly spying for China.

▪ The Washington Post: Myanmar’s military said it bombed “terrorists.” It killed children.

➤ WORK

💼 Workers in the Midwest are coming into offices more often than the rest of the country, according to new data from Basking.io, a workplace-occupancy analytics company. The region’s offices posted a 60 percent weekly average peak occupancy rate in the first half of the year, the highest in the nation by far. By comparison, the Northeast averaged just 24 percent peak occupancy over the same period. Midwestern offices also enjoyed more frequent visits compared with the rest of the U.S., with a greater share of people coming in four or five days a week (Bloomberg News).

▪ NPR: When remote work works and when it doesn’t.

▪ Fortune: We’re now finding out the results of the mandated return to the office — and it’s worse than we thought.

▪ The Hill: New polling finds that one-fifth of Americans think they’ll never retire. Blame the weird markets: Last year, stocks and bonds fell in tandem. That isn’t supposed to happen.

OPINION

■ The turmoil in Northern Africa, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Pence, the indictment, and the chaos of Trump, by Katherine Miller, columnist, The New York Times.

WHERE AND WHEN

🎂 Former President Obama is 62 today. Happy birthday!

The House will convene at 11 a.m. 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 noon.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will travel at 8:45 a.m. from their home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., to Wilmington, Del., where they will remain over the weekend.

The vice president will visit Southeast Washington, D.C., to announce 43 winners of the $125 million American Rescue Plan-funded Capital Readiness Program awards competition, designed to help underserved entrepreneurs launch and scale small businesses. Harris will visit a few business locations in the nation’s capital.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates at 10:30 a.m. at the State Department in a signing ceremony with the prime minister of Mongolia, Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh and Mongolian Road and Transport Development Minister Byambatsogt Sandag. Blinken will hold a bilateral meeting with the prime minister at 10:40 a.m. The secretary will meet at 3:30 p.m. at the department with Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs for Indonesia.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Pandjaitan of Indonesia.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will be in Tigard, Ore., for a 9 a.m. PT event at Tigard High School about health workforce development and retention with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Democratic Reps. Andrea Salinas and Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon. Becerra will assemble the same group for a separate event at 11 a.m. PT at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Tigard to talk about lowering drug prices and other changes in the Inflation Reduction Act. The group will reassemble at 1:30 p.m. PT to discuss youth substance use disorders and prevention with local stakeholders at Tumwater Middle School in Portland, Ore.

Economic indicator: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will report on employment in July (The Associated Press).

ELSEWHERE

➤ ICYMI: WORTHY READS, INTRIGUING VOICES

■ Favorite drinks of all the top stars? He has them memorized: “Joe” Petrsoric, longtime bartender at Broadway’s go-to saloon, is retiring (The New York Times).

■ How an amateur underwater diver became a true-crime sensation (The New Yorker).

■ Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company: “I may glance at the headlines, but I can’t handle the stress put on me when I go to the front page” (The Washington Post).

■ They know what they did. They’d like you to know who they’ve become: Imprisoned for life at rural Louisiana’s Angola prison (The New York Times opinion video, 10:30 minutes).

■ In Southeast Oklahoma, a small-town paper lands a very big story (The New Yorker).

➤ HEADLINES & HISTORY

In 1964 on Aug. 4, young civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were found shot and buried using a bulldozer in an earthen dam outside Philadelphia, Miss. (PBS, “Murder in Mississippi”). The young men had traveled to the state to participate in Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) civil rights efforts as part of the Mississippi Summer Project to increase Black voter registration. Although KKK members were convicted in the murders, it was not until 2005 that the accused instigator, part-time Baptist minister Edgar Ray Killen, was found guilty of manslaughter and handed a 60-year prison sentence. He died behind bars in 2018 at age 92.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! We needed some smart guesses about the youthful employment adventures of some former U.S. presidents, and readers seized the challenge.

Here’s who went 4/4 with some presidential trivia: Kathleen Kovalik, Lori Benso, Jerry LaCamera, Harry Strulovici, Pam Manges, Bill Grieshober, Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Harris, Steve James and Jaina Mehta.

They knew that Barack Obama as a youngster had a summer job as an ice cream scooper.

Former President George W. Bush became an ace ping-pong ball salesman as a young summer employee in the sporting goods section of Sears.

In 1925 as a high schooler, Ronald Reagan earned 25 cents per hour as a roustabout with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

After earning his high school diploma, Lyndon B. Johnson spent some time hitchhiking in California and worked as a busboy and waiter before returning to Texas.

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