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MORNING REPORT

Friday, July 28

by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch

DOJ adds charges to Trump documents case

The Justice Department on Thursday added charges to its case against former President Trump involving retention of classified documents, compounding the legal peril facing the GOP presidential candidate who is also a federal target in a separate government probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.  

The government alleged that Trump and aides asked a Mar-a-Lago staff member to delete surveillance camera footage in an effort to obstruct the government's investigation of classified materials he removed from the White House and stored at his Florida estate (The Associated Press and The Washington Post). Alleged obstruction of a federal investigation and more than 30 alleged violations of the Espionage Act are at the heart of the government's case against Trump. 

The indictment updates more than three dozen counts against the former president, and now involves Mar-a-Lago maintenance manager Carlos de Oliveira, a new defendant. The former president is scheduled for trial on May 20, at the end of a string of primary contests in a presidential election in which he's the GOP front-runner.

The government also amended its case Thursday to charge Trump with illegally retaining national defense information.

The Hill: Read the government's superseding indictment.

Federal prosecutors charged de Oliveira with false statements and representations made during a Jan. 13 FBI interview. He is expected to appear at a federal courthouse in Miami on July 31 (NPR). The Justice Department previously charged Trump valet Walt Nauta, who continues to work for the former president and has pleaded not guilty, as a co-conspirator. 

The government alleges that de Oliveira and Nauta instructed a worker, not named in the indictment, to delete surveillance video footage at Mar-a-Lago last summer "to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury." 

Trump called the additional allegations "ridiculous" while speaking with Fox News Digital on Thursday (The Hill).

"This is prosecutorial misconduct used at a level never seen before," Trump said. "If I weren't leading Biden by a lot in numerous polls, and wasn't going to be the Republican nominee, it wouldn't be happening. It wouldn't be happening." 

His campaign did not address the specific evidentiary details in an unsigned written statement: "This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him," the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Trump used social media to describe a "productive meeting" with the Justice Department, adding that his legal team, apparently in reference to possible charges in the 2020 election probe, explained "in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country. No indication of notice was given during the meeting" (The New York Times). 

No indictments in the election case were made on Thursday. The members of Trump's legal team who attended Thursday's meeting were John Lauro and Todd Blanche (CNN). Lauro recently joined the Trump team to handle matters related to the 2020 election and Jan. 6. Blanche has represented Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and the Manhattan criminal case stemming from a hush-money scheme. 

CNN: Here's who has testified to the grand jury or met with prosecutors in the Justice Department's election investigation. 
The Hill: Trump probes put GOP rivals on the spot over Jan. 6.
The Hill: Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday would not say if indictments should disqualify Trump in 2024. Voters "make those decisions," he told CBS News during an interview in Iowa. 
The Hill: The Senate GOP rallies behind Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney's call for winnowing the anti-Trump primary field. 
The Hill and The Washington Times: Trump is scheduled tonight to join 11 other presidential contenders at Iowa's annual Lincoln Dinner fundraiser. It's billed as the first time in the early caucus state that Trump and DeSantis will appear together.

The New York Times: Military commanders will no longer have authority over cases of sexual assault, rape and murder in the armed forces in a change intended to ensure prosecutions that are independent of the chain of command, according to an executive order President Biden will issue today. The changes were mandated by a 2021 law Biden signed, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
NBC DFW-5: The Department of Justice asked a federal judge late Wednesday to order Texas to remove floating barriers in the Rio Grande River.
Bloomberg News: The White House said Thursday there is no possibility that the the president would pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who faces charges for tax violations and a felony gun charge. 
The Associated Press and The Washington Post: Biden welcomed Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday despite her far-right leanings, thanking her for her strong support of Ukraine.

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Leading the Day

➤ CONGRESS

House Republican leaders on Thursday punted plans to pass an appropriations bill to fund agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to September amid internal discord about funding levels and policy gripes, canceling Friday floor votes and starting the chamber's August recess a day early, write The Hill's Emily Brooks and Mychael Schnell. The move to punt the bill comes as House conservatives have pressured GOP leaders to further slash the funding levels in the bill — and in other funding bills. Moderates, meanwhile, have taken issue with a provision in the legislation that would limit access to an abortion pill.

Punting a bill sets up a September scramble to fund the government after the House returns from a six-week recess. The House is scheduled to be in session for just 12 days before a Sept. 30 funding deadline (Politico). House Republicans on Thursday did pass their first government funding bill, overcoming an initial hurdle in Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) attempts to wrangle the GOP conference to approve all 12 appropriations bills. The bill — which allocates funding for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies — passed in a 219-211 vote. Two Republicans — Reps. Tim Burchett (Tenn.) and Ken Buck (Colo.) — voted with every Democrat against the measure (The Hill).

Senate appropriators, meanwhile, are marking up spending bills at levels higher than the House GOP is, laying the foundation for a clash between the two chambers in the fall.

The Senate on Thursday passed the annual defense bill 86-11, teeing up a showdown with the House. Six Democrats — Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) — voted against the bill, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Four Republicans also opposed the package: Sens. Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.) and JD Vance (Ohio) (The Hill).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sought to quash speculation Thursday about whether he will finish out this term as GOP leader after a brief, very public freeze at a Wednesday press conference. A spokesperson for McConnell told Politico in a statement that "Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do."

McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader of all time; his term in office ends in 2026. Three of his deputies are seen as in contention to succeed him: Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Republican Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) and Minority Whip John Thune (S.D.).

The minority leader had been weakened for months before the incident, both physically and politically, The New York Times reports, but Wednesday's situation made those issues glaringly apparent. McConnell, 81, froze mid-remarks, unable to continue speaking, and appeared disoriented. He previously had a concussion in March when he fell at a Washington hotel and was absent from the Capitol for weeks while giving almost no updates on his health status. Since then, he has had at least two more falls; his office disclosed neither, and has not commented about Wednesday's freeze, which some doctors said could have been a mini stroke or partial seizure.

Business Insider: If McConnell leaves the Senate before completing his term, Kentucky Republicans made sure years ago it won't be a Democrat who replaces him.
CNN: McConnell has fallen multiple times this year, sources say.

The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily cleared the way for the completion of construction of the Mountain Valley pipeline, which has long been favored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and others in his state. It could carry 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia when its 300-mile expanse is complete (The New York Times).

The Hill and CNN: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif). told to "just say aye" at vote.
Roll Call: House panel backs away from Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg contempt vote.
The Hill: "Jackasses," "little s": Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) curses out teenage Senate pages.
NBC News: House lawmakers introduce a bill to ban solitary confinement in federal prisons.

➤ ECONOMY

By the numbers, the booming U.S. economy bolsters confidence among consumers and businesses, cheers politicians who are eager to claim credit and reassures investors that recession is not looming around the corner.

Inside the Federal Reserve, Thursday's gross domestic product report for the second quarter — showing a growth of a surprisingly strong 2.4 percent, tells a slightly different story, reinforcing Wednesday's Fed announcement that battling inflation by trying to cool the economy using higher interest rates is working, but is taking time.

Claims for jobless benefits fell 7,000 to 221,000 in the week ending July 22, another bright spot for the labor market in the latest data. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 1.6 percent pace in the second quarter. Although it slowed from the first quarter's 4.2 percent rate, it was enough to add more than a full percentage point to GDP growth (Reuters).

Biden and his economic advisers hail the newest data, aware that a majority of Americans tell pollsters they disapprove of the job Biden is doing handling the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 5 percent in the past month and more than 7 percent thus far in 2023, a snapshot of investors' sentiments (The Hill).

And speaking of employment, judging from the nosedive seen in the number of college students majoring in education since the 1970s, there's a national challenge afoot if anyone hopes to shrink the teacher shortage and help struggling students excel. A combination of low pay, culture wars in curricula and on school boards and student discipline issues are contributing to decisions by college students to aim for other careers, The Hill's Lexi Lonas reports.

In Focus / Sharp Takes

➤ INTERNATIONAL

In an apparent coup, Niger's military has backed soldiers who have reportedly seized the president of the West African country, prompting warnings from international leaders over further unrest in a region plagued by political volatility. The country's army command said Thursday it was supporting the takeover against President Mohamed Bazoum to prevent bloodshed and maintain "the well-being of our populations" (CNN). Two days after the mutiny, it was still unclear this morning who was running the country and what mediation efforts were underway (The Associated Press).

A key ally of the United States, France and other Western countries, Niger is one of the few remaining nations shouldering democracy in a region fraught with Islamist insurgencies. Bazoum was apparently taken by members of the presidential guard on Wednesday, although his precise whereabouts remain unknown. The start of Bazoum's presidential term in 2021 marked the country's first democratic transfer of power following years of military coups since gaining independence from France in 1960. On Thursday, Niger's presidential office said in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that "the hard-won achievements will be safeguarded. All Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom will see to it" (Politico). 

The coup threatens to disrupt the entire U.S. strategy for fighting Islamist militants as Washington finds itself constrained by American law that prohibits it from providing most security aid to military regimes. With the Nigerien Armed Forces saying Thursday they backed the revolt, U.S. officials worry the coup leaders risk ceding more ground to the militants and could turn instead to Russian mercenaries to help them fight back (The Wall Street Journal).

Al Jazeera: Who is Omar Tchiani, the suspected brain behind the Niger coup? 
The New York Times: What's behind the military coup in Niger?
The Associated Press: How the coup in Niger could expand the reach of Islamic extremism, and the Wagner Group, in West Africa.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine had intensified its frontline attacks over the last few days; meanwhile, a Ukrainian official said Kyiv was making slow but steady progress in liberating its territory (Reuters and The Associated Press). Putin's comments come as African leaders gather in St. Petersburg for the Russia-Africa summit; African Union Chairman Azali Assoumani on Thursday called on Russia to allow the export of both Ukrainian and Russian grain at the opening session of the summit amid fears that the blockade will lead to a spike in food prices that would worsen a food security emergency in the Horn of Africa (The Washington Post).

Notably, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been photographed at the summit in St. Petersburg, appearing on the sidelines of the event just a month after launching a failed mutiny (Politico EU). Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone was shot down early Friday outside Moscow, Russia's defense ministry said, marking the third drone strike or attempt on the capital region this month as Kyiv escalates its counteroffensive (The Associated Press).

The Associated Press: Bluffing or not, Putin's declared deployment of nuclear weapons to Belarus raises tensions.
The New York Times: Ukraine aims to drive a wedge through Russian-occupied territory in the south.
Politico EU: Putin can't count on his friends in Italy anymore.
The Washington Post: Ukrainians are breaking their ties with the Russian language.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday during a CNN interview that Israel would enter "uncharted territory" should the Supreme Court strike down his hardline coalition's controversial "reasonableness" law, which passed amid widespread opposition and intense protests, and that he hopes "we don't get to that." Netanyahu said he has no intention of removing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from her position (Times of Israel). Netanyahu called the judicial changes dividing his country "a minor correction," during an interview with ABC News.

Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli army reservists — the backbone of the military — are threatening not to show up for work, leading Israel's leaders to sound alarms about the country's readiness for war. The threat is unprecedented in its scope, experts say, and the military has pleaded with reservists to remain in their posts (CNN).

"At the current point in time, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is competent," IDF Chief Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Tuesday, but he acknowledged that the country's military readiness could be affected. "If reservists do not show up for a long time, there will be damage to the army's competence. It is a gradual process that will be affected according to the presence of the reservists."

The Wall Street Journal: Israeli protesters say they will intensify civil unrest.
NBC News: China helps Russia evade sanctions and likely supplies tech used in Ukraine, U.S. report says.
Vox: The saga of China's missing-then-fired foreign minister.

Opinion

Ron DeSantis at a crossroads, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
We're going to need that Ukraine no-fly zone after all, by Andreas Umland, opinion contributor, The Hill.

Where and When

The House will convene at 10 a.m.

The Senate will convene at 11:45 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President's Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden will sign an executive order changing the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as mandated by a 2021 law. The president will travel to Auburn, Maine, for his first visit to the state as president, to discuss growth in U.S. manufacturing and "Bidenomics" during a 1:15 p.m. event at Auburn Manufacturing Inc. He will headline a campaign fundraiser at 4 p.m. in Freeport, Maine before flying to Delaware and heading to Rehoboth Beach, arriving at 7:30 p.m. for the weekend.  

Vice President Harris will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for a moderated conversation at 12:10 p.m. CT at Drake University about protecting reproductive freedom. She will return to Washington this evening. On Saturday, she will travel to Boston to address the annual NAACP Convention.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled from Wellington, New Zealand, to Brisbane, Australia. He spoke Friday at a Gender Equality Symposium in the morning, followed by a tour of EV-charger company Tritium. He and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a working lunch along with Australia's deputy prime minister and foreign minister and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. In the afternoon, Blinken met with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane. Blinken will attend the Australia-U.S. ministerial consultations dinner.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will lead a meeting at 10 a.m. will chair an executive meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, followed by remarks at an open session with the council at 11:10 a.m. 

Elsewhere

➤ HOT, HOTTER, HOTTEST

Biden announced new steps to help Americans face the "existential threat of climate change" and extreme heat Thursday and called the effects of climate change impossible to deny.

"I don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate change anymore," Biden said. "I don't know anybody who honestly believes climate change is not a serious problem."

"We want the American people to know help is here, and we're gonna make it available to anyone who needs it," he said, speaking during a period of record-breaking temperatures across the country. Biden added the new measures will shield workers from high temperatures, improve weather forecasting, strengthen access to drinking water and otherwise improve heat resilience. Experts said the measures were positive but modest; the president stopped short of declaring a climate emergency (The Hill and The Guardian).

In a Thursday speech, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived." He focused on new data released from the European Union and the World Meteorological Organization, declaring that July is set to be the hottest month on record (CNBC).

CNN: Coast-to-coast heat wave scorches the U.S.
Reuters: July set to be the world's hottest on record.
Axios: Heat wave puts over two-thirds of U.S. population under heat alerts.

The Northeast had so far been spared some of the heat hitting other regions of the U.S., but it arrived in full force this week. Meteorologists predict the heat will probably peak in the region on Friday, when about 118 million Americans, more than a third of the population, were expected to be in the "danger" zone, where the heat index — a measure that combines temperature and humidity — would rise into the 100s, according to a New York Times analysis of National Weather Service and U.S. Census Bureau data. That's among the largest proportions of the U.S. population to be threatened at the same time by extreme heat so far this year (The New York Times).

The heat also won't let up in the South and Southwest, where heat-related deaths are climbing, emergency rooms are filling with heat-related burn victims and even animals are falling victim to heat illness (CNN).

Reuters and Bloomberg News: Scorching heat stresses U.S. power grids as prices soar.
Minnesota Star Tribune and CBS2 Iowa: How farmers are keeping their livestock safe.

➤ HEALTH

The shortage of penicillin to treat a skyrocketing number of syphilis cases is so dire that health officials are debating the need to declare a public health emergency, Bloomberg News reports. Major U.S. medical centers are rationing the recommended treatment for the deadly sexually transmitted disease because of a supply crunch. Some health-care providers are prioritizing giving a key treatment — penicillin G benzathine — to pregnant patients and babies, because the drug can pass through the placenta and also treat the fetus.

There is a tick-linked allergy to meat and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) think nearly a half-million Americans may have it — and are likely undiagnosed. The symptoms, which often take hours to appear, are wide-ranging, and may include hives, nausea, diarrhea or anaphylactic shock. Even patients who have the syndrome may not feel sick every time they eat meat (The New York Times). 

"It's consistently inconsistent," said Johanna Salzer, a disease ecologist and veterinarian at the CDC. "So this makes it a real challenge for health care providers."

The Closer

And finally … 👏👏👏 Out of this world! Congratulations to Morning Report Quiz winners! Contemplating possible life beyond Earth and Congress's worries about UFO coverups, puzzlers this week proved that answers are out there. 

Here's who triumphed: Paul Harris, Pam Manges, Richard Baznik, Bill Grieshober, Randall S. Patrick, Lynn Gardner, Jaina Mehta, Patrick Kavanagh, Linda Muse, Harry Strulovici, Robert Bradley, Steve James, Ki Harvey and Stan Wasser.

They knew that in the 1950s, the CIA convened the Robertson panel, a secret group that for three days investigated UFO sightings.

It is true that thousands of anxious Americans purchased insurance policies against alien abductions for the low one-time cost of $24.95. 

Venus, bright in the night sky, is the planet most often mistaken for a UFO.

NASA's Voyager Golden Records, offering sounds of Earth for communication with extraterrestrials, contains 90 minutes of music. "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry was included among many classical works. 