The Hill’s Morning Report — Lawyers say DOJ wants to ‘censor’ Trump

Former President Trump and his lawyers on Monday accused the Justice Department of proposing to “censor” his rights to be able to publicly disclose evidence, including witness information, in the government’s case against him in its 2020 election conspiracy case. 

Trump wants modifications, but he’s also exploiting his supporters’ belief that President Biden’s Justice Department is targeting the former president for political gain.  

Bottom line: The back-and-forth that has begun with procedural legal exchanges early in the government’s case foreshadows a never-give-an-inch political throwdown ahead. The thicket of Trump’s legal woes in at least two states and the nation’s capital ensures that few Americans are likely to closely track the details of legal filings — but voters are forming opinions well ahead of a trial. 

Trump’s allies in the media immediately referred to the Justice Department’s efforts to secure a protective order as an attempt to “gag” the former president, asserting that any restrictions could violate Trump’s First Amendment rights. Some backers predicted the former president, known for speaking first and worrying about the consequences later, might ignore restrictions imposed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C. 

Special counsel Jack Smith and his team last week sought a protective order, citing in part Trump’s history of posting on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys and others” associated with cases against him, including a post last week that said, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Prosecutors said they sought the order so they could immediately turn over evidence in the case (The Washington Post). 

The New York Times: What to know about the prosecutors’ request for a protective order, which envisions that the defense, in general, uses discovery evidence only to pursue actions related to the case itself and to not release it widely. 

In a 29-page filing, Trump’s lawyers argued that the government’s proposal was “overbroad” and instead asked Chutkan to adopt a revised order “to shield only genuinely sensitive materials from public view.” 

“The government requests the Court assume the role of censor and impose content-based regulations on President Trump’s political speech that would forbid him from publicly discussing or disclosing all non-public documents produced by the government, including both purportedly sensitive material and non-sensitive potentially exculpatory documents,” they wrote (NBC News). 

Chutkan had required responses from prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers by 5 p.m. Monday. The Justice Department, reacting to Trump’s proposal to ease the government’s proposed restrictions on public disclosures of shared evidence, pushed back in its response within hours on Monday night (NPR). It shows how far apart the two sides remain and how aggressively the government wants to drive the pace of the prosecution as Trump’s legal team tries to tap the brakes. 

“[T]he defendant seeks to use the discovery material to litigate this case in the media,” prosecutors responded, according to NPR. “But that is contrary to the purpose of criminal discovery, which is to afford defendants the ability to prepare for and mount a defense in court — not to wage a media campaign.” 

▪ The Hill: Trump’s public assertions that a federal judge in Washington will be biased toward prosecutors could trigger repercussions. 

▪ Lawfare: Why Trump’s vowed change of venue motion in his Jan. 6 case is dead on arrival. 

Meanwhile, Trump is lashing out at former Vice President Mike Pence, who could become a witness for the prosecution based on conversations with Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Electoral College certification in the U.S. Capitol. Pence has contemporaneous notes, was interviewed by investigators and is harshly critical of Trump but says he does not believe the former president’s actions amounted to felonies (The Hill). 

The Atlantic: Trump is acting like he’s cornered — a man rattled in a way he seldom has been before. 

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Related Articles 

▪ The Hill: Georgia is set to take over the Trump indictment spotlight. … Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican who in July compared the idea of nominating Trump in 2024 to “peeing in your pants,” received a subpoena to testify before a Fulton County, Ga., grand jury this month tied to alleged efforts by Trump and allies to overturn 2020 election results in the state (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).  

▪ The Washington Post: In the government’s classified documents case against Trump in Florida, federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday was critical of prosecutors, asking them to explain the use of grand juries in Florida and Washington even though charges were filed in South Florida. 

▪ NBC News: A federal judge in New York on Monday dismissed Trump’s countersuit against E. Jean Carroll, a writer who won a $5 million verdict against the former president for battery and defamation earlier this year. Trump will appeal, his lawyer said. 

▪ CNN: Trump ally Bernie Kerik met for an interview on Monday with special counsel investigators focused on efforts by former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to falsely argue that the former president won the 2020 election, according to Kerik’s lawyer. 

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage, The Memo: Trump’s legal troubles put his GOP rivals in a bind. 

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LEADING THE DAY 

➤ POLITICS 

© The Associated Press / Charlie Neibergall | Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has made moves in recent days to distance himself from Trump over the 2020 election as the former president faces charges over his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection. In a Monday NBC interview, DeSantis, after years of hedging, said “of course” Trump lost in 2020 and said Biden is the legitimate president. “Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner,” DeSantis said.  

The comments come days after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges in the Jan. 6 federal investigation. As The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports, DeSantis’s comments are some of the most aggressive he’s made in regards to Trump since launching his campaign, a move that will encourage those Republicans who have urged the governor to step up his attacks on the frontrunner.  

DeSantis’s own 2024 campaign has been flagging in recent weeks, and the governor is seeking to build momentum with visits to cities in key battleground states, most recently Iowa. Looking forward, the first Republican presidential debate is shaping up as a crucial moment for DeSantis, who badly needs momentum as he challenges Trump for the nomination. 

Complicating the matter: Trump, by far the front-runner, appears unwilling to provide him with a target, as he has said he plans to skip the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee. If that happens, DeSantis himself likely would become the focus of attacks from other candidates looking to climb past him and brand themselves as the primary GOP alternative to Trump (Reuters). 

▪ The Hill: DeSantis says he does not support punishments for women who violate abortion bans. 

▪ NBC News: Back in 2016, Trump advocated for a ban on abortions but reversed his original statement that women should be punished if the procedure were illegal. 

▪ Forbes: DeSantis: “Of course” Trump lost the 2020 election. Here’s what else the governor has said about Trump’s 2020 loss. 

▪ The Eagle-Tribune: Trump will campaign in Windham, N.H., today. 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Who would Trump pick for VP in 2024? The field remains wide open. 

▪ New York magazine’s Intelligencer: How former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) long game led to Trump’s indictment. 

Ohio’s special election on Tuesday could raise the threshold for amending the state’s constitution and have a potentially critical impact on the future of abortion rights in the Buckeye State. As The Hill’s Jared Gans reports, with few other elections happening in an off year, Ohio’s ballot measure on protecting a right to abortion in its constitution will be one of the most closely watched elections in 2023. But first, voters will decide Tuesday on whether a supermajority should be necessary for constitutional amendments, which could force the abortion measure to climb a steeper hill to get approved. 

Meanwhile, Republicans are seizing on the recent downgrade of the nation’s credit rating in their latest salvo against “Bidenomics,” The Hill’s Aris Folley reports. In the days since the Fitch Rating — one of the so-called Big Three credit rating agencies — downgraded the U.S. from the highest AAA rating to AA+, Republicans have sought to ding the White House as they look to pin blame on spending under the Biden administration.  

“The Fitch Ratings credit downgrade is a wake-up call that Bidenomics doesn’t work,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at the time. “Congress must assert its power of the purse to resolve this concern and restore faith in U.S. financial institutions.”  

▪ The Hill: Consumer debt climbs as American credit card balances surpass $1 trillion. 

▪ The Guardian: The Biden administration is being sued over an asylum appointment app that “does not work.” CBP One requirement creates an unlawful hurdle for migrants on an app riddled with glitches and indecipherable error messages, the suit says. 

▪ The Washington Post: Most disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, a new Post-UMD poll finds. 

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IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES 

➤ INTERNATIONAL 

© The Associated Press / Ukrainian Presidential Press Office | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on July 28. 

An alleged informant for Russia has been detained in connection to a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian security services said Monday. The detained woman has not been named publicly but is from the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv. Officials said she had been “gathering intelligence” about Zelensky’s planned visit to Mykolaiv at the end of July, in order to plan a Russian airstrike to kill the president. Zelensky, who travels with a security detail, notably does not regularly wear a bulletproof vest; he favors sweatshirts and polos reminiscent of military fatigues (CNN). 

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying Monday the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited. Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months (The Associated Press). 

One attendant at the talks was notable: China. In the view of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and China itself, merely having a Beijing delegation at the summit was a major cause for optimism. China had skipped the last Ukraine-related meeting in Denmark, but showed up in Saudi Arabia despite Russia, its ally, explicitly not being invited (NBC News). “We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and durable peace should be built,” Andriy Yermak, who serves as the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and who led his country’s delegation to Jeddah, wrote in a Monday post on Telegram (The Hill). 

▪ CNBC: How — and when — Ukraine’s war with Russia could end. 

▪ The New York Times: “It’s not a sprint,” Ukraine’s Marines insist. “It’s a marathon.” 

▪ The Associated Press: The Justice Department helping Ukraine in war crimes investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland says. 

▪ The Washington Post: Russians tied to Putin or the military sidestep sanctions and draw protest. 

▪ Reuters: After attacking Ukraine’s wheat exports, Russia faces its own shipping challenge. 

People in Niger awoke today to deepening uncertainty about whether regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will follow through on its threat to use military force to try to reinstall ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or if last-minute diplomacy will prevail, nearly two weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected leader. Acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the coup leaders in Niger Monday and said they refused to allow her to meet with Bazoum, who she said was under “virtual house arrest.” She said the officers were unreceptive to her appeals to start negotiations and restore constitutional rule. 

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country” and said Niger’s airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.” Talks are expected throughout the week; ECOWAS is scheduled to meet on Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria (The Associated Press and Al Jazeera). 

▪ The New York Times: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, set out to clean up the military a decade ago. But now his crown jewel, the missile force, is under a shadow. 

▪ Reuters: North Korean hackers breached a top Russian missile maker. 

▪ Bloomberg News: An unusual sighting of a Russian military jet in North Korea is stoking concern that Kim Jong Un is selling Putin weapons as ties strengthen between the sanctioned states. 

▪ The Washington Post: Britain begins detaining migrants on a barge that firefighters called a “deathtrap.” 

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OPINION 

■ Why does Justice Alito keep making things worse for the Supreme Court? by Jackie Calmes, columnist, Los Angeles Times. 

■ The Biden administration must establish the Grand Canyon National Monument, by Andie Madsen, opinion contributor, The Salt Lake Tribune. 

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WHERE AND WHEN 

The House will convene at 10:30 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 10 a.m. 

The president is in Arizona this morning and will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. MT. Biden at 11 a.m. MT will tout federal investments for climate action and environmental preservation while announcing a new national monument (the fifth during his presidency) to preserve land around Grand Canyon National Park and limit it from mining. He will speak at the abandoned Red Butte Airfield near the park. He will view the canyon from a lookout point at 1:35 p.m. MT. Biden will head to New Mexico at 2:20 p.m. and arrive in Albuquerque to headline a campaign fundraising event at 6 p.m. MT.  

Vice President Harris will travel to Philadelphia to the Finishing Trades Institute at 12:25 p.m. to announce a federal initiative tied to workers and infrastructure. She will receive a briefing at the construction site of the Betsy Ross off-ramp to I-95 in the city at 2:10 p.m. before returning to Washington.  

First lady Jill Biden will host a cybersecurity event (rescheduled due to Monday’s inclement weather) with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, school administrators, educators, and education technology providers from across the country at 10:30 a.m. for Back to School Safely: Cybersecurity Summit for K-12 Schools.  

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ELSEWHERE 

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING 

© The Associated Press / Paul Sancya | A security guard screened visitors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit in 2020. 

Endemic leprosy in Florida, the threat of tens of thousands of measles cases in London and syphilis increasing by 50 percent or more in Ireland and Portugal. Far from an excerpt from a Victorian novel, this is a sobering snapshot of Western countries in 2023. 

Falling childhood vaccination rates, changes in behaviors and eating habits — as well as climate change — have contributed to a perfect storm where a number of diseases, thought to be relegated to a bygone era, returned to countries that had previously practically eliminated them. Politico EU explores five Victorian-era diseases that have made a comeback. 

▪ The Hill: Only 1 in 5 people with opioid use disorder received medication in 2021. 

▪ The Washington Post: The average doctor in the U.S. makes $350,000 a year. Why? 

▪ The Atlantic: The weaponization of loneliness: To defend America against those who would exploit our social disconnection, we need to rebuild our communities, writes former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Attacks and shootings at hospitals and clinics have helped make health care one of the nation’s most violent fields. Data shows American health care workers now suffer more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, including law enforcement. Health care workers racked up 73 percent of all nonfatal workplace violence injuries in 2018, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (The Associated Press). 

“Health care workers don’t even think about that when they decide they want to be a nurse or a doctor,” Michael D’Angelo, a former police officer who focuses on health care and workplace violence as a security consultant in Florida, told the AP. “But as far as actual violence goes, statistically, health care is four or five times more dangerous than any other profession.” 

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A note: The Hill on Monday inaccurately cited Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) party affiliation. We regret the error. 

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THE CLOSER 

© The Associated Press / Kaiti Grant, Alaska SeaLife Center via AP | A rescued Pacific walrus pup cared for at Alaska SeaLife Center rests his head on the lap of a staff member on Tuesday. 

And finally … A hug a day keeps the doctor away. At least that’s what the team at the Alaska Sealife Center is counting on after rescuing a one-month-old wayward walrus calf, who is now receiving “round-the-clock cuddling” to plump back up. Carrie Goertz, director of animal health at the Sealife Center, told Alaska Public Media the walrus has learned to drink from a bottle and is taking to his new caregivers. 

“He follows people around and as soon as they sit down, he’ll be laying up against them,” she said. 

Officials said the area where the nearly 140-pound calf was found was unusual, as Pacific walruses are usually found in the ocean or along the western coastline. The center said it’s unclear how the animal made it so far inland. The veterinary team was concerned about malnutrition, dehydration and a cloudy eye, and the around-the-clock cuddling is meant to emulate the maternal closeness calves are accustomed to, the center said (CNN). 

CNN: Watch footage of the not-so-little patient and his caregivers here. 

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