Parts of the long-awaited report by a Georgia grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies will be released Thursday amid concerns that some witnesses may have lied during the investigation.
Here’s what else is happening in politics:
- Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department’s special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to media reports.
- Haley in New Hampshire: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley holds two events in the Granite State this week after officially launching her 2024 White House campaign.
- A presidential physical: President Joe Biden is scheduled to undergo a routine medical checkup as he eyes a second term as president.
- Debt ceiling needs to be raised by summer, CBO says: The Congressional Budget Office said the U.S. Treasury will run out of money as soon as July as the president and House Speaker McCarthy continue to spar over the debt ceiling and federal spending.
Trump lawyer Eastman asks to delay California bar charge proceedings
John Eastman – the lawyer who spearheaded an effort to use slates of fake electors in battleground states to overturn the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump – asked the state bar of California to delay any proceedings against him until he is no longer at risk of criminal investigation so that he would not have to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.
“To the extent Respondent is under threat of criminal prosecution, implicating his Fifth Amendment rights, abatement of the disciplinary proceeding is arguably necessary to protect his rights and is within the Bar Court’s discretion to order,” Eastman’s attorneys wrote in a filing Wednesday.
California’s state bar in January said it would seek to revoke Eastman’s law license for violating his duty to uphold the U.S. and California state constitutions in an attempt to “usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land.”
Eastman holds law licenses from both D.C. and California.
– Ella Lee
Deputy AG announces ‘strike force’ to combat foreign technology threats
A new initiative between the Justice and Commerce departments will combat threats to national security posed by the use of “disruptive technologies” by foreign adversaries.
The Disruptive Technology Strike Force, announced Thursday by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, will use intelligence and data analytics to “target illicit actors, enhance public-private partnerships to harden supply chains.” It will also work to catch early warning signs of threats to critical assets like semiconductors.
The announcement comes as the Biden administration looks to answer GOP calls to crack down on growing threats from China.
“Our goal is simple but essential – to strike back against adversaries trying to siphon our best technology,” Monaco said.
–Ella Lee
DOJ special counsel issues subpoena to ex-Trump chief Mark Meadows
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department’s special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to media reports.
The summons for Meadows, a central figure in Trump’s campaign to cling to power, was disclosed as former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he would challenge a separate subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith seeking his testimony in the Jan. 6 inquiry.
The Meadows’ subpoena was first reported by CNN.
The Justice Department declined comment. Meadows and his lawyers also did not respond to requests for comment.
– Kevin Johnson
Voter fraud case:State A.G.: Meadows, former Trump chief of staff, won’t face voter fraud charges in North Carolina
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to travel to U.S.-Mexico border
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to travel to Arizona Thursday in his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since his January election as speaker in the newly Republican-led lower chamber.
Four GOP freshman lawmakers are set to accompany him: Reps. Juan Ciscomani, of Arizona, Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.
The visit will include a briefing with agents from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, which covers most of Arizona’s border with Mexico, as well as an aerial tour of the border in Cochise County, according to Ciscomani’s district director, C.J. Karamargin.
– Rafael Carranza, Arizona Republic; Ella Lee
More:House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Arizona border
FEC Complaint: George Santos staffer posed as McCarthy aide to raise money
WASHINGTON— A staffer from George Santos’ campaign posed as a top aide to House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to raise campaign funds — and kept up the front over the course of two campaign cycles, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday.
The complaint, filed by liberal political action committee End Citizens United, alleges McCarthy’s office was aware since 2021 the campaign staffer was impersonating the then-minority leader’s chief of staff.
The new complaint is the latest sign of trouble for the freshman Republican from New York, who has stepped down from his committee assignments, but has doubled down on his refusal to leave Congress despite calls for his resignation.
– Rachel Looker
Campaign allegation:FEC Complaint: New York GOP Rep. George Santos staffer posed as McCarthy aide to raise money
Proud Boys trial evidence: D.C. police lieutenant warned group’s leader ahead of pre-Jan. 6 arrest
A Washington, D.C., police lieutenant warned Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio that a warrant for his arrest for setting fire to a Black Lives Matter banner had been signed ahead of his arrest, according to evidence presented in federal court Wednesday during the sedition trial of five Proud Boys.
Prosecutors in the high-profile trial showed messages between Tarrio, one of the five defendants, and Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond, suggesting Lamond kept Tarrio in the loop about the police department’s investigations into him and other Proud Boys.
The Proud Boys on trial are charged with sedition and other alleged crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
– Ella Lee
Tipster case:D.C. police lieutenant warned Proud Boys leader ahead of pre-Jan. 6 arrest: trial evidence
In Iowa, Mike Pence vows to resist special counsel’s ‘unconstitutional’ subpoena
Former Vice President Mike Pence vowed Wednesday to resist special counsel Jack Smith’s decision to subpoena his testimony in his investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election, calling the move “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”
“We’ll stand on that principle, and we’ll take that case as far as it needs to go — if need be to the Supreme Court of the United States,” Pence said at an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Because to me, it’s an issue of the separation of powers.”
Pence argued he is shielded by the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause,” which protects members of Congress from law enforcement scrutiny over their speech and debate in the chamber. The clause says they “shall not be questioned in any other place.”
– Brianne Pfannenstiel
More:In Iowa, Mike Pence vows to resist special counsel’s subpoena in Trump 2020 investigation
Biden, McCarthy spar over debt after CBO releases new projections
President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Republicans of supporting tax cuts for the wealthy and other policies that would add $3 trillion to the national debt, pushing back on their demands for spending cuts as part of raising the debt ceiling.
Biden, speaking at an electrical workers union hall in Lanham Md., singled out Republican efforts to extend expiring Trump-era tax cuts for high-income earners and corporations, which would add a projected $2.7 trillion in debt. “It would explode the deficit and leave the American taxpayer holding the bag,” he said.
His remarks came after the Congressional Budget Office released an updated budget outlook that projects the U.S. will add more than $19 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, $3 trillion more than was projected last year.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy fired back in a tweet, saying Biden’s policies have led to $13 trillion in new spending and renewing his call to “negotiate a responsible debt limit increase that gets our fiscal house back in order.”
“Democrats’ reckless spending is plunging our country into deeper debt & jeopardizing our economy,” McCarthy said. “A blank check for more spending will destroy our country.”
– Joey Garrison
Debt ceiling debate:Debt limit forecast says US could be in default by summer. Here’s how that could impact you
Not just Haley: South Carolina’s Tim Scott is also mulling presidential bid
Nikki Haley might not be the only politician from South Carolina to run for president in 2024.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Senate’s only Black Republican, has hired new political aides and is planning a trip to Iowa, all stoking speculation that he may also jump into next year’s Republican race.
Scott allies are mum on whether he will take the plunge.
“These next few weeks Senator Scott will not just talk about his faith, but also why he has faith in America,” said Jennifer DeCasper, a senior adviser to the South Carolina senator. “He is excited to share his vision of hope and opportunity and hear the American people’s response.”
Asked about Scott’s campaign-like activity, aides stayed mum.
– David Jackson
Susan Page:How do you challenge Trump for the nomination? With Nikki Haley in, let’s count the ways.
As nation reels from Michigan shooting, courts wrestle with access to guns
Should the government be able to take guns from Americans who smoke marijuana? What about people who are the subject of domestic violence protective orders?
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia grappled Wednesday with a case that questions whether Americans who have committed nonviolent felonies can be denied access to guns. It’s one of several such cases questioning who can be denied access to weapons that are percolating in federal courts in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling last year on the Second Amendment.
The case in Philadelphia, which deals with a man who has been denied access to guns after making false statements to boost his food stamp assistance nearly three decades ago, comes as the nation is reeling from another mass shooting. Three Michigan State University students were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting Monday night.
– John Fritze
Gun access:As nation reels from Michigan State shooting, courts wrestle with access to guns
Georgia grand jury concerned witnesses lied in Trump investigation
A Georgia grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump will release parts of a long-awaited report Thursday, including a section mentioning concerns that some witnesses appeared to lie during the investigation.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the release of parts of the report and said it “discusses the concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony to the grand jury.” But he said the witnesses wouldn’t be named.
Even so, legal experts said the section on alleged lies on could allow prosecutors to pursue perjury charges against the witnesses and potentially broaden the investigation. “That expands the scope of potential defendants quite a bit,” said Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University.
– Bart Jansen
Parts of Georgia grand jury report to be made public Thursday
A Georgia judge is set to provide a first – albeit abbreviated – look Thursday at a grand jury’s examination of former President Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled earlier this week that three sections of the panel’s report would be made public Thursday, including a passage expressing concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath.
Yet much of the panel’s work, including specific charging recommendations and names of the witnesses suspected of lying, will remain under seal as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis continues an inquiry launched two years ago.
Willis opened the investigation shortly after Donald Trump’s extraordinary Jan. 2, 2021 conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger went viral, later expanding the inquiry into a far-reaching criminal examination into election fraud and impaneling a special grand jury in May.
– Kevin Johnson