The first hearing before US District Judge Aileen Cannon in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump will be on 18 July, according to a court order.
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
-
A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to decide later this summer whether Donald Trump and associates will face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August.
-
The federal judge overseeing the case involving former Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office has agreed to delay an upcoming hearing in the case. The hearing, originally scheduled for 14 July, will now occur on 18 July.
-
Trump asked the federal judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case to indefinitely postpone setting a trial date in court filings and suggested, at a minimum, that any scheduled trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election.
-
Joe Biden’s pick to become the country’s top military officer, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown, warned senators that an indefinite blockade of senior officer promotions could have a far-reaching impact across the US armed forces.
-
Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville has tripled down on his belief that not all white nationalists should be labelled as “racists”, just a day after he said the definition of a “white nationalist” was a matter of “opinion”. Tuberville was “wrong, wrong, wrong”, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said, while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said “white supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.”
-
Supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff pressed public institutions, including colleges and libraries, to buy copies of her books when she traveled there for speaking engagements, according to an AP report.
-
The House rules committee held a hearing on the $874bn annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). More than 1,500 amendments were filed to the bill, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will need to navigate between the demands of his most conservative members and the need for Democratic votes in order to get a bill ultimately signed into law.
-
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will host the first GOP presidential forum for the 2024 primary season this week, but notably missing from the lineup is the current GOP frontrunner, former president Donald Trump.
-
The Secret Service will provide a briefing to Congress on the discovery of cocaine at the White House on Thursday.
-
A US thinktank chief who accuses Joe Biden of China-linked corruption involving his son, Hunter Biden, and who has been presented by Republicans as a “missing” witness against the president, was charged with China-linked offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent, arms trafficking and violations of sanctions on Iran.
Joe Biden’s pick to become the country’s top military officer warned senators that an indefinite blockade of senior officer promotions could have a far-reaching impact across the US armed forces.
Testifying at his Senate armed services committee confirmation hearing to be the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown, the outgoing air force chief of staff, said “we will lose talent” as a result of the prolonged hold on general and flag officers.
Brown made the remarks shortly after being questioned by Republican senator Tommy Tuberville, who has used a Senate procedure to put a hold on hundreds of military nominations from moving forward in protest of Pentagon abortion policies. An aide to Tuberville said his block would also apply to Brown, Reuters reported.
Brown also said that the inability of senior officers to take new assignments created a “chain of events” that affects junior officers as well as military families.
Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren have slammed Tuberville for punishing uniformed military leaders who were not responsible for the policy on abortion travel that he was protesting. Warren said:
If the senator from Alabama continues his reckless action, he will soon be holding 650 leaders who have served their country honorably hostage.
The Secret Service will provide a briefing to Congress on the discovery of cocaine at the White House, Axios is reporting.
The meeting between Secret Service representatives and the Republican-controlled House oversight committee will take place at 10am EST on Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
House oversight chair James Comer sent a letter to the Secret Service director last week requesting a briefing after cocaine was found at the White House.
A grand jury selected in Georgia that is expected to decide later this summer whether Donald Trump and associates will face charges over their attempt to overturn the 2020 election has been formally sworn in after a three-hour selection process in Atlanta.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, was asked if he has concerns that Senator Tommy Tuberville has a “hard time” denouncing white nationalism, especially in the military.
McConnell replied:
White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.
Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville has tripled down on his belief that not all white nationalists should be labelled as “racists”, just a day after he said the definition of a “white nationalist” was a matter of “opinion”.
Tuberville, in an interview with ABC News’ Rachel Scott, was asked why he continued to insist that a white nationalist “to me is an American”. He replied:
Listen, I’m totally against racism. And if Democrats want to say that white nationalists are racist, I’m totally against that, too.
“But that’s not a Democratic definition,” Scott said. Tuberville responded:
Well that’s your definition. My definition is racism is bad.
Scott noted that the definition of a white nationalist is someone believing “the white race is superior to all other races” and asked, “Do you believe that white nationalists are racist?” He replied:
Yes, if that’s what a racist is, yes.
Potential grand jurors were questioned for about two hours before Fulton county judge Robert McBurney announced who were chosen, CBS News reported.
There will be two concurrent grand juries that will be made up of 16 to 23 people and up to three alternates as part of the process.
One group will meet on Mondays and Tuesdays. The other will meet Thursdays and Fridays. Of the 23 Fulton County residents chosen for the grand jury, a majority, 12, would need to vote in favor of an indictment.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is expected to present her case before one of the two new grand juries being seated today.
Ed Garland, a local attorney, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the jurors selected would face an “awesome responsibility” that “no other group of Georgia citizens has ever dealt with – the potential indictment of a former president”.
Garland added:
This is a case that has been saturated in the media with political overtones, so it is imperative for them to be fair and impartial and for our judicial system to live up to its ideals.
At the courthouse, McBurney reminded reporters of the sensitivity of proceedings. “It would not go well if any of [the jurors’] pictures appear in any of your outlets,” he said.
A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to decide later this summer whether Donald Trump and associates will face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August. Trump also faces possible federal charges over his election subversion, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.
Trump faces trials on 71 criminal charges: 34 in New York over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and 37 in Florida, from federal prosecutors and regarding his retention of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump’s legal jeopardy does not stop there. In a civil case in New York, he was fined about $5m after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll. Another civil case, concerning Trump’s business practices, continues in New York.
The grand jury selection for the Fulton county case comes at a febrile moment in US society. Denying all wrongdoing and claiming political persecution, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face Biden again at the polls next year.
Supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff pressed public institutions, including colleges and libraries, to buy copies of her books when she traveled there for speaking engagements, according to an AP report.
Documents obtained by the AP show Sotomayor’s taxpayer-funded staff suggesting a library in Oregon in 2019 that it did not order enough copies of her book for attendees at an event that would feature the justice. According to AP, the staffer wrote:
For an event with 1,000 people and they have to have a copy of Just Ask to get into the line, 250 books is definitely not enough. Families purchase multiples and people will be upset if they are unable to get in line because the book required is sold out.
AP also identified similar instances at other institutions, including Clemson University, Michigan State University, and. University of California, Davis
For members of Congress or members of the executive branch, this sort of arrangement is illegal. But because the supreme court has no formal code of ethics, such practices are legal.
In a statement to AP, the court said staffers “assist the Justices in complying with judicial ethics guidance” for visits, including surrounding their books.
Sotomayor has disclosed earnings of at least $3.7m from book sales since she joined the court in 2009, AP noted.
Every member of the Michigan Republican congressional delegation is backing Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, his presidential campaign said.
Representatives Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg will also serve on Trump’s “2024 Michigan federal leadership team”, according to the campaign.
A US thinktank chief who accuses Joe Biden of China-linked corruption involving his son, Hunter Biden, and who has been presented by Republicans as a “missing” witness against the president, was charged with China-linked offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent, arms trafficking and violations of sanctions on Iran.
Gal Luft, 57 and a dual US-Israeli citizen, is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), based in Maryland, near Washington.
He was charged on Monday in absentia, having skipped bail in Cyprus in April while awaiting extradition.
Announcing the charges, Damian Williams, US attorney for the southern district of New York, said Luft “engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes.
He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking US government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement.
The charges seemed guaranteed to infuriate Republicans in Congress seeking to use Hunter Biden’s troubled personal life and business dealings in attacks on his father, potentially including attempts by rightwingers in the House to bring about impeachment proceedings.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer slammed Senator Tommy Tuberville for “fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance” after Tuberville said the definition of a “white nationalist” was a matter of “opinion” during a television interview last night.
During the interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Tuberville was asked to clarify his prior comments on whether white nationalists should be barred from serving in the US military. “If people think that a white nationalist is a racist, I agree with that,” he said.
Collins noted that, by definition, a white nationalist is “someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races”. Tuberville replied: “Well, that’s some people’s opinion.”
My opinion of a white nationalist, if someone wants to call them white nationalist, to me, is an American. It’s an American.
Now if that white nationalist is a racist, I’m totally against anything that they want to do because I am 110% against racism.
Tuberville was “wrong, wrong, wrong”, Schumer said today, adding that “the definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion”. Schumer added:
For the Senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of white nationalism is indeed very, very dangerous.
Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Vermont, where torrential rainfall has triggered life-threatening flash floods.
The declaration allows for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to provide aid to the state amid the flash flooding.
The National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings and advisories across Vermont from the Massachusetts line north to the Canadian border. In the south and west, states were blistering under a worsening heatwave, as the US embarked on another week of extreme weather and experts warned that the human-caused climate crisis is driving the record-breaking conditions.
You can follow the latest extreme weather news from across the US on our live blog.
At least one of the far-right lawmakers on the House rules committee, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, said he planned to oppose the defense authorization bill.
Norman, a Freedom Caucus member, told CNN he was concerned the bill did not go far enough to target “woke” Pentagon policies, and won’t receive the amendment votes to change that.
Another conservative member of the panel, Chip Roy of Texas, said “there are still glaring issues at the DOD that it needs to address in order to receive my support”.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will host the first GOP presidential forum for the 2024 primary season this week, just weeks before the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) first debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The event in Iowa will feature Carlson speaking one-on-one with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, and former vice-president Mike Pence.
But notably missing from the lineup is the current GOP frontrunner, former president Donald Trump.
A Trump campaign spokesperson told the Hill:
Unfortunately there is a scheduling conflict and the President will be in Florida this weekend headlining the premier national young voter conference with Turning Point Action conference while DeSantis is nowhere to be found.
Few Republicans are highly confident that votes will be counted accurately in next year’s presidential election, according to a new poll.
The poll, conducted by Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that only 22% of Republicans have high confidence that votes in the upcoming presidential election will be counted accurately, compared with 71% of Democrats.
While Democrats’ confidence in elections has risen in recent years, the opposite is true for Republicans. Overall, the poll found that fewer than half of Americans – 44% – have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that the votes in the next presidential election will be counted accurately.
The results suggest years of sustained attacks against elections by former president Donald Trump and his allies have taken a toll, AP writes.