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#The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump unleashes ‘political speech’ as legal weapon

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Former President Trump and his lawyers are crafting a legal defense that at the outset appears simple.

Step one: Plead not guilty and claim that multiple indictments to date against Trump are politically motivated, without basis in law and are violations of the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

Step two: Delay Trump’s tangle of judicial hearings and trial dates for as long as possible.

On Sunday, the former president took aim at Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is assigned to oversee the 2020 election conspiracy trial, saying his team will seek her recusal and a change of venue from the nation’s capital (The Hill). The former president claimed on social media that he has “very powerful grounds” to urge that Chutkan step down (Forbes).

Trump has launched a scorched-Earth public relations campaign that relies on his belief that there is no authority, other than perhaps the collective will of his supporters, that would prevent him from criticizing judges, prosecutors, lawmakers, 2024 election rivals and the news media while asserting that his battles are waged on behalf of the American people (The Hill).

John Lauro, a lawyer representing Trump, appeared Sunday on every major network talk show and defended his client against a four-charge federal case that alleges that Trump conspired to defraud the government, attempted to disenfranchise voters and corruptly attempted to block a congressional proceeding, namely the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of the Electoral College tally, which officially put President Biden in the Oval Office.

Lauro sidestepped questions about his client’s posting last week to Truth Social.

“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU,” Trump wrote, referring to an indictment brought by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Trump’s campaign defended Trump’s comments as “the definition of political speech,” but a magistrate judge last week and legal analysts before and since the indictment have warned that any Trump threats or attempted intimidation of witnesses could be used against him in court (USA Today).

Lauro told NBC News on Sunday that Trump’s eagerness in 2020 to “find” votes in Georgia during a recorded call with the state’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, was an “aspirational” request that the state official act appropriately, was “pure political speech” and is not evidence of criminal wrongdoing (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: Lauro told CBS News that Trump would be acquitted if former Vice President Pence testifies at trial in the 2020 election case. Pence has been critical of Trump’s actions in late 2020 and early 2021, but as a current rival to Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024, he has said he did not view Trump’s actions as criminal.

▪ NBC News: Lauro said if Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution” with a pressure campaign aimed at Pence to reject the Electoral College tally, it was not a breach of criminal law.

▪ The Hill: Trump asserted Saturday that Pence has “gone to the dark side.” (Pence said last week, “On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”)

▪ Fox News: The former vice president, who provided information to the Justice Department as part of its investigation, does not rule out being a witness in Trump’s prosecution.

Smith last week reacted to Trump’s broadsides by requesting a protective order from the court, which Lauro said Sunday the former president and his team will oppose. Trump’s legal team asked for more time to respond, which was denied by Chutkan. The defendant and his team are expected to respond today by 5 p.m. (The Hill).

Prosecutors wrote in their original protective order request that if Trump were to make public statements or social media posts that use details such as grand jury transcripts, it could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Legal experts predict the Supreme Court won’t spare Trump from a trial and a verdict.

▪ The Hill: Will the Jan. 6 indictment affect Trump’s debate calculus? … Fox News, set to broadcast the debate on Aug. 23, will be in a bind if Trump is a no-show (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: How Trump’s legal woes could affect a future presidency. “We faced a bigger constitutional crisis when the country had a Civil War,” said Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. “Other than that, I think this is the worst thing we’ve faced.”

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage, The Memo: Trump cases will stress-test American democracy.

▪ The Washington Post: If Trump is convicted, Secret Service protection may be an obstacle to imprisonment.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday rejected Trump’s claim that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election in his most forceful comments to date on the matter. “Of course he lost,” DeSantis told NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns in his first broadcast network interview since he launched his presidential campaign — set to air today across NBC shows — adding “Joe Biden’s the president.”

DeSantis’s comments come just days after the former president pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election. At a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday, DeSantis also strongly dismissed theories that the election was stolen, saying they “did not prove to be true.”

The Florida governor has been criss-crossing Iowa trying to drum up support for his campaign, which is facing challenges. The Republican candidate, considered Trump’s toughest primary challenger even before he officially announced his 2024 bid, has been lagging in the polls, and now his top donors are rethinking their support as his signature conservative populism sets some on edge (The Hill and Vanity Fair).

One of DeSantis’s most prominent donors, Robert Bigelow, the founder of Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, told Reuters in an interview Friday that he would cut off funds to his 2024 campaign if he didn’t adopt a more “moderate approach.”

“He’ll lose if he doesn’t,” he said, referring to DeSantis’s chances against Trump. “Extremism isn’t going to get you elected.” Bigelow added his funding wouldn’t resume “until I see that he’s able to generate more on his own.”

DeSantis’s signature message has often centered on attacking what Republicans call “wokeness,” a term, as The New York Times reports, few can define but many use to describe what they see as left-wing views on race, gender and sexuality. While the term has become a quick way for candidates to prove their conservative credentials, it may have less political power than they think. Successive New York Times/Siena College polls of Republican voters nationally and then in Iowa found that candidates were unlikely to win votes by narrowly focusing on rooting out left-wing ideology (Mother Jones).

While balancing their “anti-wokeness” messaging with policy proposals is a task for GOP candidates across the board, DeSantis faces the added challenge of positioning himself as a conservative populist — a skeptic of corporations inside a party often allied with them, and a candidate dependent on contributions from titans of the business world.

As he has stumbled and continued warring with select corporations — engaging in a protracted legal battle with Disney, threatening to sue Bud Light’s parent company and challenging businesses over environmental, social and governance goals known as ESG — big business is starting to show signs of irritation (Politico).

“DeSantis made a fatal error — his whole anti-Disney, anti-corporate stance is so foolish,” said Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for NYC — a trade organization that represents Wall Street executives. “I know a donor to him who sat him down, and told him what a mistake this was early on, and he didn’t care. He’s totally alienated the business community; congratulations on that.”

▪ The Washington Post analysis: What that new poll says about Trump and DeSantis in crucial Iowa.

▪ Fox News: The largest Black fraternity will pull its convention out of Florida over “harmful, racist, insensitive” policies. The convention was estimated to bring $4.6 million in “economic impact” to the Sunshine State.

▪ CNN: DeSantis’s “anti-woke” bills are costing Florida millions of dollars in business.

▪ The New York Times: Barbecues, fairs and weddings: DeSantis amps up retail politics in Iowa.

▪ NBC News: “What a joke”: California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) team slams DeSantis’ debate proposal.

More politics: Ohio voters will go to the polls tomorrow to vote on a ballot measure concerning changes to the state constitution — that could also have a direct impact on abortion rights in the battleground state (The Hill). …Democrats are seeing signs that young people are souring on them, spurring calls for the party to re-engage with what is seen as a critical voting bloc heading into 2024 (The Hill). … At dueling Democrat and Republican youth outreach conferences, differing messages on 2024 (The Washington Post). … Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential bid has tested the bonds of an iconic Democratic clan that does not want him to run and does not know what to do about it (The New York Times). … What it’s like at a Forward Party event: “I saw the hollowness inside Andrew Yang’s new third party,” (Politico Magazine). … Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared at Kentucky’s annual Fancy Farm picnic Saturday and declared that it “won’t be my last,” a week after freezing during a press conference (Louisville Courier-Journal).

➤ CONGRESS

Democrats are looking to pick up three, four or even five seats in New York to win back the House majority and make Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, Jeffries has long term relationships with leaders in the New York State Senate and State Assembly and will have a major say over the redistricting map, according to New York Democratic sources. They are eyeing disgraced Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) 3rd congressional district, to which they are likely to add more Democratic voters to ensure it flips to Democrats, and retired Rep. Tom Suozzi is eyeing a comeback to Congress and is interested in running for his old seat.

But putting out a Democratic-friendly map is no sure thing, as the New York Independent Redistricting Commission is in charge of writing the map, which must pass with two-thirds majority in both state chambers — and Democrats got too greedy in the last election cycle and had their map thrown out.

▪ The Hill: Congress looks to rein in college sports: What to know about the legislation.

▪ Roll Call: Red states’ revenge evident in House earmarks distribution.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s unprecedented inaction to confirm Biden nominees has left the administration at a personnel standstill, with a Cabinet official’s confirmation process at a dead end and military leadership unable to move forward with promotions. Almost six months after the president nominated Julie Su to head the Department of Labor, the Senate has made little progress getting her across the finish line — with moderate Democrats not supporting her. Meanwhile, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is holding up Biden’s military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy. As The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Al Weaver report, the Senate went into August recess with no end in sight to Tuberville’s hold and could go into the 2024 election without a confirmed Labor secretary.

But now, with what Su is going through in the Senate, one source familiar with the administration questioned, “Who would offer themselves for a nomination in an environment that they may get jammed up?”

Alabama congressional lawmakers are fuming after President Biden decided against relocating U.S. Space Command to their state, The Hill’s Brad Dress reports, and have pledged that the fight over the location of the headquarters building is far from over. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, launched an investigation this week into the motives behind the decision after publicly alleging Biden’s choice was political and linked to Tuberville’s Pentagon holds.

Lawmakers also allege the Biden administration improperly built up the Colorado Springs temporary headquarters before making the final decision. It’s unclear what legislative or legal action can be taken if there is evidence of any improper decision making, but Congress is still working through the annual defense bill that could technically defund programs or stipulate certain conditions related to Space Command.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Russian airstrikes killed three people in Ukraine while a Moscow airport temporarily ceased its flights due to a failed drone attack, officials said Sunday. Kyiv said Moscow bombed a blood transfusion center near the front line in a wave of airstrikes overnight while Moscow reported that it had shot down a drone heading to the capital.

Meanwhile, Moscow’s Vnukovo airport near the capital city temporarily suspended flights Sunday morning after Russia shot down a drone around the city. Both countries have stepped up attacks on each other’s troops, weaponry and infrastructure supporting the war as Ukraine seeks to dislodge Russian forces who have dug in across southern and eastern Ukraine since their invasion last year (The Hill and Reuters). Nearly a year and a half into Russia’s invasion, both sides appear increasingly ready to open a new dimension in the war, taking violence to people and to places that have largely been spared until now (The New York Times).

The reports of strikes came as officials from 40 different countries, including the U.S. and China, met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to begin Ukraine-organized peace talks seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country. Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope that the senior officials from countries across both the global North and South will agree on principles for a future peace settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia was not invited. The renewed global push to peace comes as Russia exited a Turkey and U.N.-backed deal in July allowing for the safe export of Ukrainian grain, causing a jump in global food prices (NBC News and The Associated Press).

▪ Reuters: Ukraine calls Jeddah talks productive, Russia calls them doomed.

▪ Politico EU: From pariah to peacemaker: Saudi Arabia’s bid to become Ukraine war middleman.

▪ The Washington Post: Ukraine’s elite forces rely on technology to strike behind enemy lines.

▪ The New York Times: Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to lead Russians into a civilizational conflict with the West far larger than Ukraine. Will they follow him?

Dangerous confrontations between Russia and the United States in the skies over Syria are pointing to an escalating shadow war as Putin suffers more losses in Ukraine, The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports. Experts warn that Putin is looking to strike against the U.S. for supporting Ukraine in its defensive war, with Moscow focusing its retaliatory actions in the Middle East to avoid a wider conflict with NATO in Europe.

“We have seen, clearly since at least March of this year, a clear escalation of tensions, driven largely by Russian provocations of the U.S. in Syria,” Mona Yacoubian, vice president of the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Middle East and North Africa center, told The Hill. “Those heightened tensions derive directly from the war in Ukraine, where I think the Russians are looking to stick a finger in the U.S. eye, provoke the U.S. to the extent that they can, in a place that’s a bit removed from the Ukraine conflict arena itself.”

The leaders of a coup in Niger are digging in their heels as they face a looming deadline from neighbors to give up power or face possible military action. West African regional bloc ECOWAS gave the military a Sunday deadline to release and reinstate the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum. One of the group’s officials said a plan for an intervention had been “worked out,” but that it remained a last resort. Meanwhile, the soldiers closed Niger’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack as the junta defied the deadline and said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.”

The ultimatum also rallied many Nigeriens behind their new military leaders. On Sunday, tens of thousands of defiant junta supporters thronged the capital, Niamey, voicing their anger against ECOWAS and chanting the name of the military official who claims to be in charge. ECOWAS has said it will issue a statement on its next steps as foreign powers said they hoped for a peaceful resolution (CNN, The Associated Press and The New York Times).

▪ Reuters: Behind Niger’s coup, a feud over the former president’s legacy.

▪ Bloomberg News: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to change how judges are named, then stop the government overhaul.

OPINION

■ A new memo shows how Democrats plan to beat vulnerable Republicans, by Jennifer Rubin, columnist, The Washington Post. The memo is HERE.

■ How Trump will fight back in court, by Ruth Marcus, columnist, The Washington Post.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will convene at 10 a.m. on Tuesday for a pro forma session. Lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 11.

The Senate is out until Sept. 5 and will hold a pro forma session on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will depart New Castle, Del., and return to the White House at 10:50 a.m. Biden will welcome the World Series victors the Houston Astros to the White House. The president will depart the White House tonight for Grand Canyon Village, Ariz., where he will remain overnight in advance of an event Tuesday about conservation and climate resilience.

Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public schedule.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak at 8:30 a.m. at an event at the State Department to mark the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Blinken will meet at 3:30 p.m. with Salvadoran Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco.

The first lady, in the East Room at 4 p.m.,will host Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, school administrators, educators and education technology providers from across the country for Back to School Safely: Cybersecurity Summit for K-12 Schools.

ELSEWHERE

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

💉 Childhood vaccine coverage across the U.S. has been found to be on a slight but noticeable decline once again, The Hill’s Joseph Choi reports, as health authorities hope immunization uptake is enough to avert major surges in viruses like RSV and COVID-19 this winter. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the rate of vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for kindergarteners has fallen below the healthy target rate of 95 percent for the second year in a row to 93 percent.

“While this is a small decline, this is the lowest MMR rate reported in almost a decade and leaves approximately 250,000 school children unvaccinated and unprotected against measles, one of the world’s most contagious viruses,” KFF said in a recent brief.

▪ The Atlantic: Millions of people are losing Medicaid coverage because of paperwork.

▪ The Washington Post: What new parents need to know about groundbreaking postpartum treatment.

THE CLOSER

And finally … Emerging trends this summer beyond the “Barbie” movie seem abundant. Here are a few that caught our attention.

📚 Artificial intelligence may be “writing” cheap travel guide books. Buyers beware (especially on Amazon), reports The New York Times. (The Times also found similarly crafted books with phantom authors about cooking, gardening, medicine, religion, mathematics, as well as self-help books and guides to many other topics).

🍎 Teachers are digging into their own pockets to stock their classrooms. Back-to-school sales are booming (The Hill).

🔢 Gen Z is the last generation that is considered majority white, according to the U.S. Census. What does “majority minority” mean and how is race in America tabulated among those who are mixed-race? (The Hill)

🌳 Beech trees, critical to forest ecosystems (think bears) are being destroyed in at least 12 states (and counting) because of a mysterious nematode that could wipe out the Northeastern tree species. Scientists are chagrined they have not been able to locate research funds to try to conquer the microscopic worms (NBC News).

–Updated at 7:39 a.m.

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