The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump’s battle with DOJ intensifies; Palin loses
Former President Trump on Wednesday issued a last minute plea to a federal judge for an independent review of documents seized by the FBI more than three weeks ago as the fight between the former president and investigators continues to rage on.
Trump’s lawyers said in a Wednesday night filing that a special master is needed to determine if any of the materials seized are subject to executive privilege in the name of fairness. If “left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation,” according to the former president’s legal team.
Trump maintains he did nothing wrong in possessing cartons of White House documents at his residence, even classified or top secret materials, for more than a year. The Justice Department, in court filings, has described possible criminal obstruction without identifying Trump or anyone else as a target.
Lawyers for Trump assert that the Justice Department’s view that it screened documents found at Mar-a-Lago for attorney-client privilege now requires independent court corroboration, along with backup review by the former president’s representatives.
“There is no guarantee that the ‘limited set’ of potentially privileged materials identified by the Privilege Review Team constitutes all privileged materials among the Seized Materials,” Trump’s attorneys Lindsey Halligan, James Trusty and Evan Corcoran to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon (Politico).
Trump’s lawyers also assert the government’s search by the FBI was unnecessary and occurred in “the midst of the standard give-and-take” between Trump and the National Archives and Records Administration. The Justice Department “gratuitously” released information publicly, including a photograph of classified documents seized from the home, the former president’s lawyers assert (The Associated Press).
The former president’s team notably did not claim in its push for a special master that while in office, Trump declassified the documents in question. Chris Kise, the former Florida solicitor general recently hired by Trump to join his legal team, did not sign the filing submitted to the court.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump seemingly admitted that he knew sensitive documents were contained in cartons at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 at the time of the FBI’s search. A Trump lawyer told the government in June in writing that no such documents remained on the property.
“They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet,” Trump wrote on social media, referring to a Justice Department photograph taken during the search and submitted to the court.
A hearing on the question of an independent special master is scheduled today in Florida. On Saturday, a federal judge said it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint an independent reviewer, but allowed the Justice Department an opportunity to respond. The Justice Department on Tuesday said it had evidence of efforts at Trump’s residence to conceal classified documents despite a grand jury subpoena in May to produce records removed from the White House and in the former president’s possession.
▪ The Hill: Trump team says sensitive info “should have never been cause for alarm” in latest filing.
▪ The Associated Press: Republicans notably silent, split as Trump probe deepens.
▪ Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill: Justice Department details path of obstruction culminating in search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
▪ CBS News: Timeline: The government’s efforts to get sensitive documents back from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
▪ The Washington Post analysis: The telling gap between what Trump says and what his lawyers argue.
▪ The New York Times: Here’s how the Justice Department’s photograph of sensitive documents found at Mar-a-Lago, released to a court late on Tuesday, came about.
On the political scene, Trump’s impact on a number of midterm races is not what he had hoped and as a result, some GOP candidates have created a bit of distance with the former president.
As The Hill’s Max Greenwood and Caroline Vakil detail, certain Trump-endorsed candidates, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Abe Hamadeh, the GOP nominee to become Arizona attorney general, have scrubbed Trump’s presence from their social media accounts following their primary victories. But the list of conservative candidates appearing with the former president during a Saturday rally in Wilkes Barre, Pa., includes Oz (Pocono Record).
Democrats have more confidence about sharing a campaign stage with President Biden, including Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). All have appeared with or plan to join the president at events.
Struggles on the Senate map for Republicans have also forced party leaders to hit the reset button on midterm playbook as momentum grows across the aisle. According to The Hill’s Mychael Schnell, a cadre of Senate GOP candidates have struggled to gain traction in the general election cycle, having emerged from primaries in a weaker position than had been initially hoped.
Rhetorically, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) recent comment lamenting “candidate quality” on the right has shone a light on the uphill climb for the party to retake the upper chamber after two years in the minority.
▪ The Washington Post: Billionaire investor Peter Thiel rebuffs McConnell over Senate rescue in Arizona.
▪ University of Virginia’s Center for Politics: Senate races in Pennsylvania and Arizona moved to “lean Democratic.”
▪ The New Republic: Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) shadow presidential campaign is frustrating his fellow Republicans.
On the House side, Rep. Charlie Crist (Fla.), the Democratic nominee for the Florida governorship, resigned his seat in Congress on Wednesday as his campaign hits the homestretch in his bid to unseat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) (The Hill).
Hours after Crist’s resignation, House Democrats regained their three-seat margin when Democrat Mary Peltola was projected to defeat Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich to win the Alaska special election to serve out the remainder of the term of the late Rep. Don Young (R).
In the second round of the ranked-choice contest, Peltola won with 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent against Palin, the state’s former governor who Trump endorsed. The win also means that Peltola is the first native Alaskan elected to Congress (The Hill).
Related Articles
▪ Hanna Trudo, The Hill: Progressives aim to prove they can win in Congress — and at the ballot box.
▪ NBC News: Lawmakers warn of potential political violence in campaign’s homestretch.
▪ The Hill: The White House calls out DeSantis, Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for political comments referencing physical violence.
▪ The Associated Press: Michigan election board rejects abortion rights initiative.
LEADING THE DAY
➤ ADMINISTRATION
🍎 With schools across America welcoming students back to classrooms in August and this month, the administration on Wednesday focused on the nation’s shortage of teachers, which challenges local school districts and millions of parents who recoil at the thought of another school year in which their children are instructed by parades of substitutes and recruits with scant educational experience.
First lady Jill Biden and members of the president’s Cabinet joined leaders of the nation’s teachers’ unions at an event in the Roosevelt Room to talk about the federal government’s ideas to encourage fixes, including higher pay supported with federal dollars dispersed to states as part of the American Rescue Plan. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh recently wrote to state and local officials encouraging them to pay competitive wages for education positions and to establish teacher training programs to recruit and retain educators (The Hill).
The first lady, a community college teacher by profession, announced the administration’s partnership with private-sector recruiting companies, such as ZipRecruiter, to help schools advertise their available K-12 positions. Indeed.com will set up virtual hiring fairs and Handshake will help recruit college undergraduates who are studying education to enter the field after graduation (USA Today).
The president photo bombed the meeting, offering a walk-in quip for his wife: “Whatever she says, I agree with.”
ABC News: In the Charlotte, N.C., school district, the school year began with 400 teacher vacancies.
A recent USA Today analysis of existing research suggests many of the U.S. teacher vacancies are related to shortages that predated the pandemic and concentrated in schools serving large percentages of nonwhite students or children living in poverty. Meanwhile, another study found persistent and widespread shortages of non-teaching personnel, such as bus drivers and custodians.
Meanwhile, the administration is expected to unveil applications in October for eligible student loan borrowers to register for income-specific debt forgiveness, which was announced by the president in August. Borrowers will have a limited time to apply if they want to see the relief take effect before the end of the year, and even then, experts believe the federal process could be challenging and time-consuming for applicants (The Hill).
One big consideration for some borrowers eager to see their student loan debts erased is whether their windfall will be subject to taxation in their states, a potential unwelcome surprise that won’t occur at the federal level (Forbes and CBS News).
The president’s plan, which did not go through Congress, could add tax bills as high as $1,100 for student loan borrowers in some states, according to a recent Tax Foundation analysis.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
➤ INTERNATIONAL
A United Nations inspection team this morning was making its way to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant under heavy guard and wearing bulletproof vests when news reports described shelling by Russian forces along the agreed-upon route.
“Having come so far, we are not stopping,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said, according to the Kyiv Independent. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry said Russia was in “violation of its commitments.”
The largest nuclear facility in Europe is occupied by Russian forces and still operated under duress by Ukrainian staff. The IAEA team is attempting to safeguard the site and prevent a radiation catastrophe amid a war. Kyiv and Moscow, which each agreed to emergency inspections, traded accusations on Wednesday about shelling near the complex (The Associated Press).
Russia continued Wednesday to use energy as a stealth weapon against its adversaries, which are also its customers, halting natural gas supplies via Europe’s key supply route and intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels. The move raises the prospects of recession and energy rationing ahead in some of the region’s richest countries (Reuters).
The European Union on Wednesday made it harder for Russian citizens to gain entry into the 27-nation bloc. After failing to put in place a full tourist ban on Russians entering the EU, the nations instead decided to make it more arduous for them to secure short-term visas to enter Europe’s passport-free travel zone. The EU made it tougher for Russian officials and businesspeople to enter the bloc in May (The Associated Press).
The funeral for former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will take place on Saturday, Reuters reports. The Associated Press noted that the Nobel Peace Prize winner who died Tuesday is to lie in state Saturday in Moscow’s House of Unions. That building, located between the Bolshoi Theater and the Duma, for decades held the bodies of deceased Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Gorbachev is to be buried next to the grave of his wife Raisa in the cemetery of Novodevichy Convent in southwest Moscow, the resting place of the ousted Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and former President Boris Yeltsin.
The wrong plane out of Afghanistan (The Washington Post).
OPINION
■ In politics, sometimes it’s riskier to keep a promise than break one, by Charles Lane, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3Rcn0dK
■ Be skeptical of the Democratic comeback in the 2022 midterms, by Karl Rove, columnist, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3Q704uK
WHERE AND WHEN
The House will meet on Friday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session and return to work in the Capitol on Sept. 13.
The Senate convenes on Friday at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session during its summer recess, which ends Sept. 6.
The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden will travel to Philadelphia to deliver an 8 p.m. ET speech to the nation about protecting democracy, including voting and other rights.
Vice President Harris will fly to Durham, N.C., for a 2 p.m. tour of the Durham Center for Senior Life, where she will speak an hour later about the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions to lower prescription drug costs for seniors. In the evening in Durham, Harris will speak at a fundraising event at a private residence and then depart the city at 7:20 p.m. to return to Washington.
The first lady has a busy itinerary, ending in Philadelphia to watch the president’s speech tonight. But first, she will speak at the launch of a college Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative at the White House at 2 p.m. She will deliver pre-recorded remarks at 6:30 p.m. for teachers and school staff at a back-to-school town hall hosted by the White House and the two major teachers’ unions.
Economic indicators: The Labor Department will report at 8:30 a.m. on filings for unemployment benefits in the week ending Aug. 27. (Analysts on Friday will pore over the government’s jobs report for all of August). According to payroll company ADP, the private sector added 132,000 jobs in August, down from almost 270,000 in July (The Hill).
The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 2 p.m.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler speaks to reporters at 9 a.m. at a roundtable event hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in Washington.
🖥 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
➤ STATE WATCH
Texas has a water problem. As The Hill’s Saul Elbein writes, the Lone Star State is finally paying attention to the threats that extreme drought and flooding pose to the state’s long-term water supply. It is one aspect of the danger that weather — strengthened by a warming climate — poses to Texas and to native Texans. “We are already the most vulnerable state in the country to these extreme weather disasters,” climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe told The Hill. “And then we have climate change loading the dice against us.”
▪ The Hill: Five reasons extreme weather is bigger in Texas.
▪ Los Angeles Times: Extreme heat wave pushing California power grid to limit, with rolling blackouts possible.
➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved customized booster shots developed by Pfizer and Moderna to combat the most prevalent sub variants of omicron, known as BA.4 and BA.5, as well as the original COVID-19 virus (The Hill).
In an era of extraordinary advances in tackling infectious diseases, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, surgery, disease prevention and expertise offered in private and public hospitals, the United States fell behind in 2021. U.S. life expectancy dropped by nearly a year from 2020, primarily the result of COVID-19, but also because of drug overdoses, suicides and heart and liver diseases (USA Today).
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,046,244. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 383, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
➤ SPORTS
The U.S. Open crowd on Wednesday night was enthusiastically behind Serena Williams, who needed three sets to topple Anett Kontaveit, the No. 2 seed, in the second round of what could be Williams’ final magical run through a major championship.
In front of another capacity crowd on a hot New York night inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, Williams, 40, upset the younger Kontaveit 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2. The six-time Open champion dug deep, relying on the power and precision that has helped to define her game for years (ESPN). Celebrity fans including Tiger Woods, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Spike Lee and Dionne Warwick looked on. And in the stands was Williams’ daughter Olympia, who celebrates her 5th birthday today.
THE CLOSER
Take Our Morning Report Quiz
And finally … 👃 It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by recent headlines featuring odiferous events, we’re looking for smart guesses on the nose, or, news.
Email your responses to asimendinger@digital-staging.thehill.com and/or aweaver@digital-staging.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.
In the United Kingdom, who launched a line of perfume in August that boasts “top notes of geranium, lavender and hyacinth”?
- Boris Johnson
- Prince Charles
- Elton John
- David Beckham
In Sweden, which delicacy, described by some as smelling like “bad eggs” and a “decomposed body,” left fans lined up outside supermarkets last week to score some of the nation’s scarce supply?
- Köttbullar
- Illaluktande sko
- Surströmming
- Västerbotten
In Italy, Mayor Roberto Gualtieri this week landed on the front page of The New York Times because what is fouling Rome’s air?
- Homeless encampments
- Garbage
- Industrial smokestacks
- Tiber river
In the U.S., residents in South Florida and near San Francisco Bay in the past two weeks have been upset about surpluses of which stinky culprit(s), according to various news accounts?
- Sargassum seaweed
- Algae
- Red tide
- All of the above
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