Closing summary
A federal magistrate judge is leaning towards releasing at least part of the affidavit used to justify the search of Mar-a-Lago, which could shed light on what federal investigators hoped to find at Donald Trump’s resort. Meanwhile, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced a crackdown on election fraud in the state, a day after the justice department alleged the state’s new voting law discriminated against African Americans.
Here’s what else happened today:
The Trump organization’s finance chief pled guilty to tax charges, and is set to testify against his former employer.
Democrats plan to take to the airwaves to make sure voters credit them for the Inflation Reduction Act, which is meant to lower greenhouse gas emissions and health care costs.
Liz Cheney’s opponent claims she didn’t concede following her Republican primary loss, so Cheney released a recording of the phone call.
First lady Jill Biden is recovering from Covid-19, the White House says.
Here’s more from The Guardian’s Sam Levine on Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ claims of voter fraud in the state:
Florida officials have arrested and charged 20 people with felony convictions and charged them with illegal voting Florida governor Ron DeSantis said on Thursday, a move designed to show the muscle of a new office tasked with policing voting in the state.
The announcement came just days before the state’s primary election and as early voting is ongoing. DeSantis, flanked by law enforcement, said the 20 people were charged with voting in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach county, some of the most Democratic in the state. “They did not go through any process, they did not get their rights restored, and yet they went ahead and voted anyways. That is against the law and now they’re gonna pay the price for it,” DeSantis said. He also said all 20 had convictions for murder or sexual offenses, crimes that continue to result in a lifetime voting ban. Florida voters lifted the ban for all other offenses in 2018.
The Senate’s top Republican has once again sounded a note of caution over the party’s chances of retaking Congress’s upper chamber in the November midterm elections:
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate ... Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 18, 2022
— Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does not sound too confident in Republicans’ ability to retake the Senate pic.twitter.com/XK8G451i01
Earlier this month, McConnell predicted the balance of power in the Senate would remain tight, with either a slim Democratic or Republican majority. Currently, Democrats control it by the vice-president’s casting vote.
Updated
Florida's DeSantis announces voter fraud crackdown
Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced the arrest of 20 people this afternoon along with other measures as part of a crackdown on alleged voter fraud in the state.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has more details on the move by DeSantis, who is considered a potential contender for the Republican party’s presidential nomination in 2024:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says during presser Florida officials have charged and are in the process of arresting 20 people for voter fraud. Some are people with felony convicted of murder and sexual assault, which are exempt from rights restoration in Florida, he says.
— Sam Levine (@srl) August 18, 2022
Gov. DeSantis says state is also telling all 67 supervisors of elections to preserve records related to the 2020 elections.
— Sam Levine (@srl) August 18, 2022
Really important to see the charges, indictments, and how the cases play out. There is a history of prosecutors trumpeting voter fraud charges against people with felonies and then having them turn out to be people who didn't know they were ineligible.
— Sam Levine (@srl) August 18, 2022
Yesterday, the justice department alleged a recently enacted voting law in the state discriminated against African Americans.
Updated
Deanna Shullman, an attorney for two of the news organizations who asked for the Mar-a-Lago affidavit to be released, spoke to reporters outside the court about what might be in the document.
Not the best video but here you go:
Attorney for ABC and the Wall Street Journal Deanna Shullman on what the Justice Dept. said was in the affidavit used for the Mar-a-Lago search:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 18, 2022
“It includes a roadmap for the investigation … It explains the scope and breadth ... and it has a number of confidential informants.” pic.twitter.com/J4eLssQfMc
From Miami, Richard Luscombe has the full report on today’s today’s court hearing, which paved the way for the warrant used in the Mar-a-Lago search to be released – at least partially:
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the US justice department to redact and prepare for release the affidavit used to justify the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s home, earlier this month.
The federal magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, made the announcement at a hearing in West Palm Beach.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) opposed release of the affidavit. Reinhart said portions of it “could be presumptively unsealed”.
“I’m not prepared to find that the affidavit should be fully sealed,” Reinhart said, adding that he believed there were “portions” that could be released.
Reinhart asked the justice department to provide him a redacted version within seven days.
Boston children’s hospital is dealing with a campaign of threats after rightwing activists began attacking it for providing care to transgender youth, prompting a warning from the justice department.
Axios reports that the threat campaign centers around allegations the hospital provides gender-affirming care to children, and have spread to other health care facilities in the nation, including Phoenix children’s hospital and another facility in Nebraska. One of the loudest voices has been Libs of TikTok, which has 1.3 million followers on Twitter, but Boston children’s hospital says its allegations are false.
Yesterday, Rachael S Rollins, the US attorney for Massachusetts, issued a warning against people who threaten the hospital. “I want to make it clear that the Department of Justice will ensure equal protection of transgender people under the law,” she wrote. “While free speech is indeed the cornerstone of our great nation, fear, intimidation and threats are not. I will not sit idly by and allow hate-based criminal activity to continue in our District.”
Updated
In Alabama, a Republican group has apologized after using an image of the GOP’s elephant symbol that an artist had modified to include Ku Klux Klan hoods, the Associated Press reports.
“I would like to offer a deep and sincere apology for a picture that temporarily appeared on this page last night. A google search picture of a GOP elephant was used and later found to have hidden images that do not represent the views or beliefs of the Lawrence County Republican Party,” Shannon Terry, a local Republican official, wrote on Facebook, according to the AP.
The art was commissioned by Mother Jones in 2020 for an article about racism in the GOP. On Twitter, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery shared some thoughts on the own goal:
Two years ago, we commissioned this art from Woody Harrington to reference how white supremacy was taking over the GOP. Not only didn't they not get it, they appropriated copyrighted art. https://t.co/lxEJoXjhap https://t.co/FxwRMo9Mqd
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) August 18, 2022
So you can decide whether Alabama Republicans are so blind to the white supremacy in their party, or whether by stealing this image they thought it was a dog whistle/own the libs moment they wanted.
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) August 18, 2022
Magistrate signals willingness to partially unseal Mar-a-Lago affidavit
The judge considering the request to unseal the affidavit used to justify the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last week say he is considering releasing at least some of it, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
NEW: Federal magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart says he’s inclined to partially unseal the Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit — instructs DOJ to file a redacted affidavit by next Thursday at 12 noon ET and be prepared to explain redactions.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 18, 2022
The justice department had opposed releasing the document, saying it could put at risk their investigation and potentially reveal the identities of their sources of information regarding Donald Trump’s handling of classified material.
Updated
Politico has more details about the justice department’s argument against releasing the affidavit justifying the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
Jay Bratt, the head of the department’s counterintelligence division, described the investigation into the classified documents found at Donald Trump’s resort as “in its early stages”, according to the report.
He argued that releasing the document could put “several witnesses” at risk of being identified, saying “This is not a precedent that we want to set.”
The hearing over the Mar-a-Lago search affidavit has begun in Florida. Here’s a cut from the Reuters report:
The justice department has opposed the release of the affidavit containing the evidence, which gave investigators probable cause to believe crimes were committed at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home.
Jay Bratt, head of the department’s counterintelligence and export control section, appeared in court on Thursday to argue the government’s position.
The search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort was part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.
The justice department is investigating violations of three laws, including a provision in the Espionage Act that prohibits the possession of national defense information and another statute that makes it a crime to knowingly destroy, conceal or falsify records with the intent to obstruct an investigation.
Attorneys for media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and NBC News are asking a US magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, to unseal the affidavit and other related materials filed with the court, saying the public’s right to know and the historic significance of the search outweigh any arguments to keep the records sealed.
“The affidavit of probable cause should be released to the public, with only those redactions that are necessary to protect a compelling interest articulated by the government,” attorneys for the media companies wrote in a filing.
The Republican senator Rick Scott has warned Americans not to apply for new positions with the Internal Revenue Service because he says his party will defund them if it takes Congress later this year.
Scott, from Florida and head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also misrepresented the nature of the positions in several ways. He claimed in an open letter that Democrats planned “to defund the actual police and create an IRS super-police force”.
That, Scott said, would “not be tolerated by the American people”.
But such claims, in response to Democrats’ including funding for new IRS roles in their new domestic spending bill, have been debunked.
Story:
The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has appealed a judge’s order that he must testify before a grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia.
Graham, a close Trump ally, made calls to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and his staff in the weeks following the election.
Raffensperger told the Washington Post Graham questioned him about a signature-matching law and asked if political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures.
According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in those counties. Raffensperger said he was “stunned” by Graham appearing to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.
“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said.
Graham has argued calls were part of his duties as chair of the Senate judiciary committee, with lawyers arguing that his position in Congress protects him from having to appear before the grand jury.
The 11th US circuit court of appeals will consider Graham’s request to avoid testimony about the call, a request filed late on Wednesday – the same day another Trump associate, former attorney Rudy Giuliani, spent about six hours before the grand jury.
The former New York mayor spread false claims of election fraud as he led efforts to challenge results in Georgia. On Wednesday, Giuliani told the Associated Press he “satisfied his obligation under the subpoena”.
The day so far
More details on the Mar-a-Lago search could soon be revealed if a federal magistrate grants a request to unseal the affidavit supporting the FBI’s actions last week. Meanwhile, president Joe Biden announced a rally in Maryland, where he’s expected to capitalize on the Democrats’ recent streak of legislative successes.
Here’s more of what has happened so far today:
The Trump organization’s finance chief pled guilty to tax charges, and is set to testify against his former employer.
Democrats plan to take to the airwaves to make sure voters credit them for the Inflation Reduction Act, which is meant to lower greenhouse gas emissions and health care costs.
Liz Cheney’s opponent claims she didn’t concede following her Republican primary loss, so Cheney released a recording of the phone call.
First lady Jill Biden is recovering from Covid-19, the White House says.
A federal magistrate in Florida will soon weigh whether to release the affidavit supporting the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, which could provide more details on what agents are investigating.
According to ABC News, a lawyer for Donald Trump has appeared in the courtroom where the matter is being heard, but says she won’t intervene in the case:
Trump lawyer Christina Bobb just showed up to court here in Florida. She said she’s here to watch and no one from the Trump legal team is arguing or filing anything.
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) August 18, 2022
How did David Valadao, a California House representative who is one of only two Republicans to vote for Donald Trump’s impeachment and not lose his primary, pull it off? By keeping a low profile, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
In an article published today, the Chronicle examines Valadao’s ability to survive the primaries that resulted in eight other Republican lawmakers either losing their primaries or declining to seek re-election. There were a few factors in Valadao’s favor as he fought to keep his seat representing the state’s agricultural central valley, including Trump’s decision not to endorse any of his challengers. Indeed, Valadao had two challengers to his right, splitting the votes of his opponents. His race was also one in which a Democrat-aligned group intervened to try to promote a more extreme challenger, in this case to no avail.
Then again, perhaps the Trump faction of the GOP didn’t bother to act against Valadao because they don’t think he’ll win re-election. Democrats have an edge in voter registration in his district, though three different political analysis groups rate nonetheless rate his re-election bid as a “toss-up”, according to the article.
Come January, conservative Republican firebrand Louie Gohmert will depart Congress, but the brand of politics he helped promote during his 18 years speaking for an east Texas district in the House of Representatives is here to stay.
The Texas Tribune today published a look back at the lawmakers’ stint in office, concluding that Gohmert was ahead of his time when it came to his policies and tactics:
His retirement will be less of the end of an era, and more of a changing of the guard — as the House is attracting a new, younger class of like-minded firebrands who similarly seek conflict over policymaking and who came into office during Trump’s presidency. In recent years, Gohmert’s found allies in the House Freedom Caucus including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida. Last year, they attempted to visit a Washington, D.C., jail where rioters from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are being imprisoned. Greene recently urged the GOP to become the party of Christian nationalism and has made comments supportive of QAnon, an unfounded conspiracy theory and far-right political movement that claims Trump is waging a secret war against Satanic pedophiles.
Gohmert’s influence may be about all he’s remembered for. As the Tribune’s story points out, he managed to pass only one bill into law as a House representative.
First lady Jill Biden appears to be on the mend following her positive Covid-19 test earlier this week, the White House has told reporters:
FLOTUS COVID UPDATE: She continues to make progress and is steadily feeling better. This morning she is participating in NOVA meetings via zoom in preparation for the upcoming semester, per East Wing.
— Emily Goodin (@Emilylgoodin) August 18, 2022
The Trump organization’s finance chief just pleaded guilty to tax charges and will soon testify against his former employer, Dominic Rushe reports:
Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of Donald Trump’s company and one of his most trusted executives, pleaded guilty to tax violations on Thursday, further complicating the former president’s legal woes.
Weisselberg, 75, has worked for the Trump family for five decades. He was charged with accepting more than $1.7m in off-the-books compensation from the former president’s company, including untaxed perks like rent, car payments and school tuition.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 charges and faced a 15-year sentence. Under the agreement, he will serve a five-month prison term at New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail. He will also have to pay back more than $1.9m in taxes he owed, prosecutors said in court.
Updated
Republicans are divided over the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, but lean towards the belief that federal investigators acted irresponsibly, according to a new poll from Reuters and Ipsos.
The survey carried out over two days up to this past Wednesday showed 54% of Republicans believe the FBI behaved irresponsibly and 23% viewed their actions as responsible. Among Democrats, 71% saw federal investigators as responsible, along with half of independents. The data indicates Trump’s argument that the FBI’s search was inappropriate may have some traction among the GOP, if not an overwhelming amount.
Reuters and Ipsos also surveyed voters about their attitudes towards using violence for political ends, and found little support. Eighty-five per cent of Americans view violence as unacceptable in politics, though 12% of both Democrats and Republicans saw it as allowable.
Updated
Florida is among the many Republican-led states who recently enacted new voter identification laws, and Sam Levine reports the state is now being sued by the justice department, arguing they discriminate against African Americans:
Florida Republicans intentionally targeted Black voters when they enacted new voting restrictions last year, the justice department said in a court filing on Wednesday.
The department told a federal appellate court that a lower court had correctly evaluated claims of racial discrimination when it came to Florida’s new law. In March, US District Judge Mark Walker blocked new restrictions on the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, regulations for third party voter registration groups, and a ban on providing food and water to people standing in line to vote. The US court of appeals for the 11th circuit paused that ruling earlier this year while it considers an appeal from Florida officials.
The justice department’s allegation of racial discrimination is significant because the agency carefully chooses when to get involved in voting dispute litigations filed by private plaintiffs, and the department’s voice carries significant credibility in court. After going largely quiet under Donald Trump, the justice department’s voting section has filed challenges to voting laws in Georgia, Texas and Arizona, in addition to filing several briefs in other voting disputes.
Joe Biden will later today hold a rally in Maryland “to highlight the choice voters have in the midterms”, the Democratic National Committee has announced.
The rally will take place in Democratic stronghold Montgomery county, just outside Washington DC. Biden is looking to build voter support for the Inflation Reduction Act, which represents Washington’s biggest legislative offensive yet against climate change and is also meant to lower health care costs. The president is currently on vacation in Delaware.
Updated
Democratic groups plan to spend $10m on TV advertisements promoting the party’s landmark climate change and healthcare plan, which Joe Biden signed into law earlier this week, Politico reports.
The ads bought by Democrat-aligned Climate Power, the League of Conservation Voters and Future Forward USA Action are a piece of the party’s strategy to overcome the many headwinds it faces, which include high inflation, Biden’s low approval ratings, and the historic trend of voters taking away seats from the president’s party in its first midterm election.
“The magnitude, the scope and the importance of what Congress and Biden just did for climate change is transformational … and it is essential that people understand the magnitude of what just happened,” Pete Maysmith of the League of Conservation Voters told Politico.
The risk that Americans won’t give Biden credit for implementing policies they support is real. A survey from center-left thinktank Third Way found that many voters support the idea of passing a nationwide infrastructure overhaul, but only 24% know that Biden signed such a law last year.
Updated
Joe Biden’s low approval ratings and high inflation nationwide are troubling Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm election. As The Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports, the party is hoping a training strategy will turn their fortunes around:
Democrats knew going into this midterm election campaign season that they would have their work cut out for them. History shows that the president’s party usually loses House seats in the midterm elections, and Joe Biden’s approval rating has been underwater for almost a year.
But that does not mean that Democrats are giving up. Despite the grim forecasts of a Republican shellacking in the midterms, Democratic groups have doubled down on training candidates to compete up and down the ballot in November. Party leaders have expressed hope that teaching these candidates how to tailor a campaign message to their communities’ concerns and execute a successful voter turnout operation can help Democrats limit their losses this fall.
Wyoming voters ousted fiercely anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney from her House seat in Tuesday’s primary, and Martin Pengelly reports she took the unusual step of releasing her concession voicemail, after her opponent claims Cheney didn’t admit defeat:
Liz Cheney has released her concession call to Harriet Hageman, after the Trump-backed Republican who won the Wyoming US House primary on Tuesday told Fox News her rival had not made “any kind of concession or anything else”.
Cheney gave a recording of the call to Politico. In it, she said: “Hi, Harriet, it is Liz Cheney calling. It is about 8.13 [pm] on Tuesday the 16th. I’m calling to concede the election and congratulate you on the win. Thanks.”
Hageman beat Cheney, a three-term congresswoman, in a landslide.
Cheney’s work as vice-chair of the House January 6 committee, and opposition to Donald Trump, sealed her fate in Wyoming, a deep-red state once represented by her father, the former vice-president Dick Cheney.
The affidavit for the FBI’s August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago would shine more light on what brought federal agents to the Florida property, and the justice department has already said it’s not comfortable with it being made public.
“The affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course,” prosecutors argued earlier this week, adding, “Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations.”
Trump meanwhile asked for it to be made public, writing on his Truth Social platform, “There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago”.
“I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN,” he said.
But making the document public may not be the best move for him. A former senior justice department official told the Washington Post these types of affidavits usually reflect poorly on whomever’s property is being searched. “There’s no exculpatory information. It’s never a good story for the defendant,” the person said.
Updated
Judge to decide on releasing more details of Mar-a-Lago search
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Later today, a federal magistrate judge will hold a hearing to consider releasing the affidavit behind the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which would offer more details of what federal agents were looking for. Trump has publicly called for making the document public, while the justice department has opposed doing so, arguing it would jeopardize their investigation. The hearing will convene at 1 pm eastern time.
That’s not all the Trump-related news to be expected today:
Allen Weisselberg, the former finance chief of the Trump organization, is expected to plead guilty to tax evasion charges at court hearing scheduled for 9am eastern time.
Ballot counting in the race to fill Alaska’s open House of Representatives seat continues, with Democrat Mary Peltola leading Republicans including Sarah Palin, but the final result won’t be known till the end of the month.
Joe Biden is on vacation in Delaware, while Congress is in recess.
