The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump aims at foes as pressures mount

by Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver - 08/23/22 6:22 AM ET

It was a banner day for a number of former President Trump’s nemeses as he kept up his battle with the Justice Department over the documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate and Anthony Fauci announced that he will retire from his governmental post by the end of the year.

Trump on Monday turned to one of his favorite ways to go after a foe: a lawsuit. The former president filed suit in an attempt to block the FBI from examining the batch of classified documents that were seized in the search two weeks ago. In addition, he is asking the court to appoint a “special master” to look at the evidence investigators seized.

In a move similar to his fights with the Jan. 6 committee, Trump is arguing that classified documents covered by executive privilege should not be among those that were taken.

“It is unreasonable to allow the prosecutorial team to review them without meaningful safeguards,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “Short of returning the seized items to the movant, only a neutral review by a special master can protect the ‘great public interest’ in preserving ‘the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the president’s performance of his official duties’” (The Hill).

The New York Times: Trump had more than 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
READ: Trump lawsuit responding to FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid.

The move marks Trump’s first major legal maneuver since his residence in West Palm Beach, Fla., was searched on Aug. 8. It also comes as a federal magistrate judge weighs whether to release the affidavit that gave the Justice Department the green light to search Mar-a-Lago.

Judge Bruce Reinhart, who previously indicated that he wanted to release the document in some form, on Monday said that redactions made to the affidavit could render its public unveiling “meaningless.”

“I cannot say at this point that partial redactions will be so extensive that they will result in a meaningless disclosure, but I may ultimately reach that conclusion after hearing further from the government,” Reinhart wrote in an order.

The Justice Department has until Thursday to propose redactions. Prosecutors late last week strenuously defended keeping the affidavit sealed for the sake of protecting their ongoing investigation and sources (The Hill).

▪ Politico: Capitol Hill leaders want to see Trump Mar-a-Lago search documents.

▪ CNN: Justice Department issues new subpoena to the National Archives for more Jan. 6 documents.

▪ The Washington Post: Files copied from voting systems since 2020 were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers.

▪ Politico: Judge says FBI’s evidence for searching Mar-a-Lago is “reliable.”

▪ NBC News: Poll: 57 percent of voters say investigations into Trump should continue.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has advised seven presidents, announced on Monday that he will retire by the end of December (The Hill). He will be 82 on Christmas eve and spoke to The New York Times about the “next chapter” in a career rooted in his work at the National Institutes of Health beginning in 1968, indicating that he will leave government but continue to work.

“So long as I’m healthy, which I am, and I’m energetic, which I am, and I’m passionate, which I am, I want to do some things outside of the realm of the federal government,” he said in an interview with the Times, adding that he wanted to use his experience and insight into public health and public service to “hopefully inspire the younger generation.”

President Biden hailed Fauci as a “dedicated public servant, and a steady hand with wisdom and insight” in a statement released Monday.

“Because of Dr. Fauci’s many contributions to public health, lives here in the United States and around the world have been saved,” the president said.

However, a number of Republicans greeted the news by indicating plans to haul the infectious disease expert before Capitol Hill panels next spring if the GOP retakes the lower chamber in November (The Hill).

The New York Times: Sizing up four decades of Fauci.

Finally, the trifecta of Trump villains was completed on Monday as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the Republican Party has a “50-50” chance of winning back the Senate this fall.

“Flipping the Senate, what are the chances? It’s a 50-50 proposition,” McConnell said during a luncheon in Georgetown, Ky. “We’ve got a 50-50 Senate right now. We’ve got a 50-50 nation. And I think the outcome is likely to be very, very close, either way. But the stakes will be big, because if both the House and the Senate flip, I think the president will be a moderate. He won’t have any choice” (CBS News).

As The Hill’s Mychael Schnell notes, the remarks came after the ex-president reprised his attacks against the Kentucky Republican over the weekend. Specifically, Trump took aim at McConnell’s criticisms of the batch of GOP candidates. Last week, the Senate GOP leader said at a separate luncheon in his home state that the House is more likely to flip than the Senate and cited “candidate quality” as a reason.

Related Articles

▪ Axios: McConnell says there is “very little election fraud.”

▪ Jim Geraghty, National Review: Who’s not helping the 2022 GOP Senate candidates?

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

While Democrats in the nation’s capital, Georgia and New York City keep klieg lights trained on separate investigations into Trump’s actions as a New York businessman and as a former president, ambitious Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is currying favor within the GOP, hoping to be seen as a top presidential standard-bearer in 2024, especially if Trump falters or does not run again. DeSantis has to get reelected first, and Democrats are asking whether he’s beatable, reports The Hill’s Max Greenwood.

Progressives yearn to oust the governor at the ballot box in November, but recent polls have been mixed about the strength of potential Democratic challengers going into today’s Florida primary (The New York Times).

According to the most recent poll this month, state Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried is leading Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.). Crist, once the state’s former GOP governor who over the years unsuccessfully ran for the Senate, switched parties and became an independent, then a Democrat — won a House seat in 2016 (Newsweek).

DeSantis, a former House member, last week stumped for GOP Senate candidates in Pennsylvania and Ohio who have been endorsed by Trump, offering a window into what the governor’s potential presidential narrative might sound like. He never mentioned the 45th president. DeSantis straddles both sides of the Trump divide, preferring to engage in culture wars in Florida rather than Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election (NBC News). And he’s a monster fundraiser, pulling in more money, including from prominent billionaires, than any candidate for governor in recent decades (Tallahassee Democrat).

“We can’t just stand idly by while woke ideology ravages every institution in our society,” the Florida governor told GOP voters in Pittsburgh. “We must fight the woke in our schools. We must fight the woke in our businesses. We must fight the woke in government agencies. We can never, ever surrender to woke ideology.”

▪ The Hill: Nine races to watch in New York, Florida and Oklahoma.

▪ NBC News: Three contentious New York Democratic primaries today will end a chaotic season that has featured clashes over ideology, generational change and the quality of the party’s leadership, with the careers of prominent politicians hanging in the balance.

Today’s special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District may turn out to be the last key bellwether for swing districts ahead of November’s midterms as Democrats seek to elevate abortion rights as an election issue, reports The Hill’s Julia Manchester.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has until 9 a.m. on Wednesday to file a motion with specifics as he seeks help from a federal court to avoid testifying to a Georgia grand jury as part of a criminal investigation into alleged election interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election, according to a Monday order from a federal judge. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office would then have until 9 a.m. on Aug. 29 to respond, with Graham’s reply due at 9 a.m. on Aug. 31, the judge ordered. Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has expressed interest in questioning the senator, a Trump supporter, about conversations he had following the 2020 ballot tallies with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) (The Washington Post).

The president and first lady Jill Biden will end their summer vacation Wednesday and headline a grassroots Democratic National Committee event on Thursday at a high school outside Washington in Maryland. They want to rally Democrats and kick-start a planned itinerary into the fall of official and political events ahead of the November contests (Bethesda magazine).

On Aug. 30 in Martha’s Vineyard, former President Obama will be the VIP guest at a fundraiser to benefit the National Democratic Redistricting Committee led by his friend, former Attorney General Eric Holder, the organization’s leader, Politico Playbook reported.

A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem (R) may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, and it referred a separate complaint over her state airplane use to the state’s attorney general for investigation.

The three retired judges on the Government Accountability Board determined that unspecified “appropriate action” could be taken against Noem, who seeks reelection this year and is weighing a possible White House bid in 2024. The board’s determinations could escalate ramifications for her after Jason Ravnsborg, the state’s former Republican attorney general, filed complaints that stemmed from media reports about Noem’s actions in office. She has denied any wrongdoing (The Associated Press).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ ADMINISTRATION

📚 On the pending question of extending an Aug. 31 deadline for the moratorium on student loan debt repayments (a policy decision Biden has not announced), former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, an emeritus president of Harvard, offered some Monday morning advice: Don’t do it (The Hill).

“I hope the administration does not contribute to inflation macro-economically by offering unreasonably generous student loan relief or micro-economically by encouraging college tuition increases,” he said in a series of tweets.

“The worst idea would be a continuation of the current moratorium that benefits among others highly paid surgeons, lawyers and investment bankers,” Summers wrote. “If relief is to be given it should not set any precedent, it should only be given for the first few thousand dollars of debt, and for those with genuinely middle class income.”

⚖️ Advocacy groups will urge the Senate beginning in September to confirm judicial appointments at a rapid clip before the end of the year (Politico). Thanks in part to a 2019 rules change, Biden has seen more judges confirmed (76) than his three immediate predecessors at this point in their terms. In the wings: more than 100 other current and future vacancies Democrats would like to fill in 2022.

🏭 The Environmental Protection Agency gained a powerful change from Congress in the Inflation Adjustment Act this summer: A change in the Clean Air Act that specifically defines carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels as an “air pollutant.” The statutory language adjustment allows the agency to regulate climate change policies and thwarts the Supreme Court’s ruling in its last term in order to explicitly give EPA regulatory authority over greenhouse gas emissions and to use its power to push the adoption of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources (The New York Times).

OPINION

■ Singapore moves on from gay sex ban, just not very far, by Daniel Moss, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3pAgzos

■ Sincerity in policy debates? Of course. Seriousness? That’s another matter,by former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), contributing columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3AFu38H

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session. It will reconvene on Sept. 13.

The Senate convenes at 10:30 a.m. for a pro forma session during its summer recess, which ends Sept. 6.

The president is in Rehoboth Beach, Del., until Wednesday and has no public events.

Vice President Harris has no public events scheduled.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is in Sacramento, Calif., where he will hold two events with Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.). The first is about reproductive health and includes Planned Parenthood, and the second is focused on how the Inflation Reduction Act will impact the state, held at UC Davis Health Patient Contact Center at 11 a.m. PST.

🖥 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-staging.thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said it will be “impossible” to negotiate an end to fighting with Moscow if individuals who helped defend Mariupol are put on trial for perceived crimes. Ukraine’s military intelligence arm warned days earlier that Russia has been remodeling the Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic and installing iron cages to hold a trial on Wednesday — the six-month anniversary of the start of the war and Ukraine’s independence day.

“If this despicable show trial takes place, if our people are brought into this scenery in violation of all agreements, all international rules, if there is abuse … this will be the line beyond which any negotiations are impossible,” Zelensky said (The Hill).

As The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports from the region, refugees from the fallen Ukrainian city who have landed in Odesa have a common thread with the staff at the “Me Mariupol” refugee center — being forced to leave the port city in southeast Ukraine.

Zelensky today convenes the second Crimea Platform summit in Kyiv. The aim is marshaling international responses to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 in order to return the peninsula to Ukraine’s governance. Among those participating: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (remotely) and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić. Ukraine’s Independence Day is marked on Wednesday.

Russian leaders blamed Ukrainian intelligence for a Saturday car bombing near Moscow that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a leading right-wing Russian political thinker. Her father was believed to be the target of the attack.

Ukraine has denied involvement. Russia’s Federal Security Service — the modern day KGB — said a Ukrainian citizen carried out the attack before fleeing to Estonia (The Associated Press).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Crimea, once a bastion of Russian power, now reveals its weakness.

▪ The Hill: U.S., South Korea launch largest military drills in years amid tensions with North Korea.

➤ PANDEMIC, POX & HEALTH

Pfizer on Monday asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its COVID-19 booster shots tailored to the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of omicron for people 12 and older. Public health officials expect another wave of infection this fall as immunity from the currently authorized shots wanes and people head indoors to escape the colder weather (CNBC).

The FDA last week approved the drug Auvelity from Axsome Therapeutics, the first fast-acting oral drug for clinical depression. Patients reported progress beginning at week one during clinical trials and sustained benefits throughout the study window (The Hill). The company said more than 20 million U.S. adults prior to the pandemic experienced major depressive disorder a. With COVID-19’s arrival, approximately 30 percent of U.S. adults or more than 80 million people have said they have experienced elevated symptoms of depression.

Monkeypox infections have been confirmed in all 50 states (The Hill).

Many psychologists and mental health experts say that diagnoses of mental health disorders are not a good predictor of potential mass killers, which is why some experts concentrate more on warning signs, including marked changes in behavior, demeanor or appearance; uncharacteristic fights or arguments; and telling others of plans for violence, a phenomenon known as “leakage.” This focus, reports The New York Times, is imperfect but has benefits: It can work toward intervention even when the mental health system does not, and it sidesteps the complaint that blaming mass shootings on mental illness increases negative attitudes and stigma toward those who suffer from it.

The Hill: Marijuana and hallucinogenic use reached all-time high among young adults in 2021.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,040,898. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 390, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

➤ TECH

Elon Musk’s legal team issued a subpoena for former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to submit evidence as part of the push by the Tesla CEO to end his previously attempted $44 billion takeover of the social media giant. Dorsey stepped down from his position in November and has pushed Musk toward acquiring the company. According to the filing, Musk is asking for all documents and communications related to the deal, along with those “reflecting, referring to, or relating to the impact or effect of false or spam accounts on Twitter’s business and operations.” That issue is holding up a deal from taking place. The trial between Twitter and Musk is set for October (CNN).

THE CLOSER

And finally … Jupiter as it hasn’t been seen before.

New photos taken by the James Webb Space Telescope and released by NASA on Monday show unprecedented shots of Jupiter, the largest of the eight planets in the solar system, that include its auroras and all of the grand bells and whistles that are pleasing to the eye.

Among the features: the massive planet’s Great Red Spot, which is large enough to gobble up Earth, and multiple tiny moons.

“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all quite incredible,” said Imke de Pater, a planetary astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped lead the observations. “We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest” (The Associated Press).

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