Closing summary
Ron DeSantis’s brief interview on CNN has finished, and we’re closing the US politics blog now. But look out shortly for my colleague Martin Pengelly’s analysis of what DeSantis had to say.
We’ll leave you with news, as promised, of the decision by authorities in Michigan to charge 16 “fake electors” over the scheme to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
Please join us again tomorrow for what is shaping up to be another lively day.
Updated
DeSantis: I'm 'doing better than everybody' despite poll slump
Ron DeSantis claims he’s “doing better than everybody else” in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite overwhelming evidence he is far behind Donald Trump.
The eye-raising claim came as he attempted to explain his lackluster recent polling in his CNN interview, which, as we’ve noted, is the first time the rightwing Republican governor has strayed beyond the friendly confines of Fox News.
He referenced his re-election in Florida in November:
I took a state that had been a one-point state, and we won it by 20 percentage points, 1.5 million votes. Our bread and butter were people like suburban moms, we’re leading a big movement for parents be involved in education, school choice, get the indoctrination out of schools.
I was getting a lot of media attention at the time coming off the victory. I had to do my job as governor with my legislative session, and we had a great legislative session. I had to do that and I was basically taking fire.
A lot of people view me as a threat. I think the left views me as a threat because they think I’ll beat Biden and actually deliver on all this stuff. And then of course people that have their allegiances … [and people] have gone after me.
But the reality is this is a state by state process. I’m not running a campaign to try to juice you know, whatever we are in the national polls, and then whatever we did in the CNN [poll]. It’s fine. I’m definitely doing better than everybody else.
Updated
Ron DeSantis is insisting that “nobody really knows what wokeness is” as he attempts to defend his attacks on the US military for being “woke”.
The Florida governor and presidential hopeful gave a campaign speech earlier today condemning “woke” in the armed forces that he says is becoming a deterrent to recruitment.
Jake Tapper, the CNN host of DeSantis’s interview, is pushing back, citing recruitment statistics that say “wokeness” in the military is a long way down the list.
DeSantis said:
People see the military losing its way, not focusing on the mission, and focusing on a lot of these other things, which we see that in other aspects of society.
People want to join the military because they think it’s something different. And I think some of the civilian leaders in the military are trying to have the military mimic corporate America, academia, that’s ultimately not going to work.
Nobody really knows what wokeness is. I defined it, but a lot of people who railed against wokeness can’t even define it. There’s huge amount of concern about the direction that the military is going with all this.
DeSantis brushed off a question on the war in Ukraine, calling it a “secondary or tertiary” priority for the US:
The number one threat to our country is from China. We are going to approach the world instead of Europe being the focus, like it has been since world war two, and it was understandable why it would be, Nato stopping the Soviets, but now the Asia Pacific really needs to be to our generation what Europe was to the post-world war two generation.
Michigan charges filed for 'fake' Trump electors
Prosecutors in Michigan have filed felony charges against 16 state residents “for their role in the alleged false electors scheme” that followed the 2020 US presidential election.
The scheme, repeated in several swing states, attempted to install voters to falsely certify that Donald Trump had won the state, and deny Joe Biden victory.
We’ll have more details soon.
BREAKING: Michigan AG charges 16 individuals who signed certificates claiming Trump won the 2020 election in the state — https://t.co/reLXwDUvAU
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 18, 2023
The court hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, has wrapped up, with federal judge Aileen Cannon indicating she is not minded to move towards a quick trial for Donald Trump over his hoarding of classified documents.
According to the CNN account of proceedings, Cannon, a Trump appointee, called the justice department’s proposed timeline for a December start as “rushed”, and she “challenged prosecutors to explain to her exactly how this was not what is called a complex trial”, referring to the espionage element of some of the charges against Trump.
Lawyers for the defense also spoke, arguing Trump “is unlike any other defendant”, and repeating their request to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.
While Cannon reportedly does not look minded to grant that request, she said she would look at the timeline and make a ruling shortly.
DeSantis attacks justice department over Trump target letter
Ron DeSantis is defending Donald Trump, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, during his first non-Fox News interview.
Florida’s governor is speaking on CNN now, repeating the former president’s claim that the justice department is being “weaponized”, though, notably, trying to distance himself from Trump over his January 6 conduct.
DeSantis told host Jake Tapper:
This country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. And I think that’s wrong. [Manhattan district attorney] Alvin Bragg stretched the statute to be able to try to target Donald Trump.
Most people, even people on the left, acknowledge if that wasn’t Trump, that case would not have likely been brought against the normal civilian.
As president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’re gonna have a new FBI director on day one, we’re gonna have big changes at the department of justice.
Americans across the political spectrum, need to have confidence that what is going on is based on the rule of law, not based on what political tribe you’re in.
DeSantis’s interview looks like it’s going to be played in chunks throughout the coming hour, rather than as one big block.
Before it began, Tapper wondered at the timing of Trump’s decision to announce he had received the “target” letter from justice department special counsel Jack Smith, noting it was suspiciously close to the DeSantis interview.
The Trump target letter story has dominated the day’s headlines and assuredly stolen some of DeSantis’s thunder.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
A new indictment for Donald Trump could be imminent after the former US president announced on Tuesday morning he had received a letter from special prosecutor Jack Smith identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection. People who receive target letters from federal authorities are often – but not always – indicted. It is unclear what specific charges Trump could face.
Federal prosecutors have reportedly interviewed officials from all seven battleground states targeted by former Trump and his allies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results – Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
Republicans defended Trump after news of the latest development, criticizing the Biden administration for his prosecution. Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested the government was targeting Trump out of fear he could win next November, while House majority leader Steve Scalise questioned the timing of the new development in the January 6 investigation.
President Joe Biden “respects the Department of Justice, their independence”, the White House’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing.
Lawyers for Trump and federal prosecutors have appeared before US district judge Aileen Cannon for a first hearing in Florida that could decide the crucial timing of the former president’s criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents. Tuesday’s session is Cannon’s first time hearing arguments in the case since Trump’s indictment last month.
Trump is already facing criminal charges in Florida for illegally hoarding classified documents from his presidency, and prosecution in New York for a hush-money payment to an adult movie star.
Trump is also under investigation in Fulton county, Georgia, for efforts to overturn his defeat to Biden there. Georgia’s supreme court on Monday unanimously rejected a request by Trump to block the prosecutor, Fani Willis, from prosecuting the case. His lawyers had argued that a special grand jury report that is part of the inquiry should be thrown out.
Ron DeSantis is formally a candidate in South Carolina’s 2024 presidential primary after the Republican Florida governor filed paperwork during a campaign stop. He’s the first presidential candidate from either major political party on the ballot for the primary, which will take place on 3 February, the first of any other southern state.
Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress. Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
US district judge Aileen Cannon said a proposal from federal prosecutors that a trial in the classified documents case against Donald Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, be held in mid-December was “a bit rushed”, CNN is reporting.
Cannon did not decide on a trial date but said she plans to “promptly” issue an order on the matter, the news channel said.
DeSantis to hold rare CNN interviwe
Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is due to sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper for a rare interview that will air at 4pm ET.
It will be his first discussion with a major news organization other than Fox News.
The interview comes days after a report said DeSantis had reduced campaign staff as his campaign has struggled to meet fundraising goals. Fewer than 10 staffers were reportedly laid off.
Updated
Democratic divisions over Israel were on stark display on Tuesday, as lawmakers prepared to welcome Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, the president of Israel, for an address to a joint session of Congress.
Several progressive House members, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, intend to boycott Herzog’s speech on Wednesday to protest the treatment of Palestinians under the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In solidarity with the Palestinian people and all those who have been harmed by Israel’s apartheid government, I will be boycotting President Herzog’s joint address to Congress,” Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat of Michigan, said on Monday.
I urge all members of Congress who stand for human rights for all to join me.
House Democratic leaders have struck a much more conciliatory tone toward Herzog, embracing the opportunity to hear from the Israeli president.
“President Bougie Herzog has been a force for good in Israeli society,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said on Friday.
I look forward to welcoming him with open arms when he comes to speak before Congress.
The tension between House Democrats reached a boiling point over the weekend, after Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described Israel as a “racist state” while speaking at a conference in Chicago.
Updated
Federal prosecutors have interviewed officials from all seven battleground states targeted by former President Donald Trump and his allies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, CNN is reporting.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team met with at least one official from the Nevada secretary of state’s office in recent months as part of the justice department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the January 6 insurrection, a source told the news channel.
A spokesperson for Nevada’s current secretary of state, Francisco Aguilar, who was not in office during the 2020 election, said his office has been in contact with Smith’s team and is complying all requests from the justice department.
During that same time period, prosecutors reportedly also spoke with officials from the other six states targeted by Trump and his allies – Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
House majority leader Steve Scalise questioned the timing of the latest development in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
Scalise accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the government against Donald Trump, just days before IRS whistleblowers prepare to testify before a House panel investigating Hunter Biden.
Scalise, at a House GOP conference briefing, said:
Now you see the Biden administration going after President Trump once again, it begs that question: is there a double standard? Is justice being administered equally
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has not met with special counsel Jack Smith’s team over the justice department’s January 6 investigation, Kemp told NBC’s Frank Thorp V.
Spotted in the Capitol after meeting with McConnell, GA Gov Brian Kemp says he has NOT met with Jack Smith's team, tell me, “I have not talked to anybody from the special counsel’s office, no.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) July 18, 2023
Biden 'respects the DoJ's independence', says White House
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in her briefing with reporters this afternoon, did not comment on Donald Trump’s claim that he was a target in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
The president “respects the Department of Justice, their independence”, Jean-Pierre said. She added:
He has been very, very steadfast on making sure that the rule of law comes back in this administration, comes back in the White House and the administration more broadly. That’s what you have seen.
Updated
Former Arizona governor contacted by special counsel Jack Smith's team in January 6 probe
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has contacted former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who Donald Trump pressured to overturn the 2020 election, a source has told CNN.
A spokesperson for Ducey said:
Yes, he’s been contacted. He’s been responsive, and just as he’s done since the election, he will do the right thing.
In a phone call after his presidential election defeat, Trump tried to pressure Ducey to find fraud in the state’s election results that would help him overturn his loss, according to sources.
Trump also reportedly repeatedly asked his vice president, Mike Pence, to call Ducey and prod him to find evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud. Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election, according to sources.
Updated
Wisconsin’s top elections official met with special counsel Jack Smith’s team and the FBI as part of the investigation into the 2020 election, according to a statement.
Wisconsin elections commission administrator, Meagan Wolfe, spoke to federal prosecutors in person in April, her spokesperson said. Wolfe, who was subpoenaed in April, declined further comment, noting that it was an ongoing investigation.
Election leaders in Wisconsin’s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, have also spoken with investigators as part of the justice department’s probe into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump paid for recounts in those two cities and unsuccessfully sued in an attempt to get enough ballots tossed to overturn his loss. Joe Biden won Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes.
Investigators have also spoken with the leader of elections in New Mexico, Michigan and Georgia.
Updated
Special counsel Jack Smith has not commented on whether his team sent a letter to Donald Trump and his lawyers identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment on the Trump target letter when asked about it as he was leaving a Subway in Washington just now, per @matthewaphilips.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 18, 2023
John Eastman, the lawyer who advised Donald Trump on overturning the 2020 election, has not received a target letter from the special counsel, Eastman’s attorney said.
Eastman was in the vanguard of lawyers plotting schemes involving “fake electors” and other ploys to help Trump thwart Joe Biden’s win in 2020. The former California law professor is one of several lawyers whose legal stratagems have been heavily examined by special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to block Biden from taking office.
A statement from Eastman’s lawyer reads:
Our client has received no target letter, and we don’t expect one since raising concerns about illegality in the conduct of an election is not now and has never been sanctionable.
Updated
As we mentioned earlier, Donald Trump’s lawyers, including Todd Blanche, are believed to have received the so-called target letter on Sunday informing them that their client could face charges in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
The letter caught Trump’s team off guard, who had not been anticipating Smith to potentially bring charges this month, or against Trump, according to a CNN report. The letter now indicates he could do so soon.
The White House media briefing is under way, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wasted no time in tearing into Republican Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville for holding up military appointments.
Tuberville is blocking the appointments in protest of Pentagon policy on abortion.
Jean-Pierre points out that the hold-up is affecting the nation’s military readiness:
I would imagine our adversaries would look at something like this and be pretty happy that we create this kind of turbulence within our force.
Americans are deeply concerned at the damage Senator Tuberville’s holes can have on our armed services, and our military spouses and the children of servicemembers with his disrespect to our national security and our military.
Read more:
Trump once again uses legal woes to boost his fundraising efforts
In some of the day’s least surprising news, Donald Trump is fundraising off his letter from justice department special prosecutor Jack Smith naming him as a target in the January 6 investigation.
His campaign has sent out emails to supporters insisting the former president is “completely innocent”, and asking for donations.
Trump now fundraising off of Jack Smith target letter re Jan 6: pic.twitter.com/5UL0ohGT3H
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) July 18, 2023
The text of the email mostly mirrors that of the statement Trump posted to his Truth Social network earlier today, calling Smith “deranged”, and lamenting how he was disturbed by his attorneys with Smith’s letter bearing “horrifying news” while attempting to eat dinner with his family.
“Let me be perfectly clear: I did nothing wrong,” Trump says, in all-capital letters.
Updated
Ron DeSantis is formally a candidate in South Carolina’s 2024 presidential primary after the Republican Florida governor filed paperwork during a campaign stop on Tuesday.
He’s the first presidential candidate from either major political party on the ballot for the primary, which will take place on 3 February, the first of any other southern state.
Today I officially filed the paperwork to be on the ballot in the Republican Presidential primary in South Carolina.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) July 18, 2023
American revival runs through the Palmetto State! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/xrqNXLVLP3
DeSantis is a distant second place to former president Donald Trump in polling after a lackluster start to a campaign launched in May.
Later on Tuesday, at 4pm, he will take part in an interview on CNN with host Jake Tapper, DeSantis’s first appearance on a major news network outside of Fox News.
Trump’s campaign doesn’t think anybody will be watching.
In a statement, senior adviser Jason Miller said: “DeSantis could have easily joined one of CNN’s high-profile primetime hosts and reached millions of new voters if he had something compelling to say, but with an unlikable candidate, no campaign message, and rapidly sinking poll numbers, the campaign is doing an afternoon hit that nobody will watch.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s daily briefing is scheduled to begin in just a few moments, at which she might be asked – but almost certainly won’t answer – questions about Donald Trump’s letter from justice department special counsel Jack Smith.
Many reporters have tried, but the Biden administration’s response has always been consistent… a blunt “no comment” on matters affecting the former president’s legal troubles.
Today is not expected to be any different. But we’ll monitor the briefing anyway, and bring you any developments as they happen.
Where has special prosecutor Jack Smith been amid today’s kerfuffle over his “target” letter to Donald Trump? At a Washington DC area sandwich shop, it seems.
CNN’s congressional sleuths tracked Smith, and apparently some of his colleagues, to a Subway store in the capital, from which he emerged clutching a brown paper bag probably containing his lunch. What might be in the sandwich, however, is not ours to know.
Here’s the “exclusive” clip of the very moment Smith exited the store:
Special Counsel Jack Smith sighting in DC after Trump says he's target of Jan. 6 probe pic.twitter.com/4RxkDIHEAD
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 18, 2023
Updated
US district judge Aileen Cannon previously presided over a legal challenge that the Trump team filed last year concerning the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump during his presidency, ruled in the former president’s favor in a challenge he brought to the justice department’s investigation brought months before criminal charges were filed.
A three-judge federal appeals court later overruled Cannon’s order and said she had lacked the authority for such a ruling.
Cannon’s ruling drew criticism from legal experts who saw her as overly preferential to Trump, according to AP. It also focused public attention on her limited experience as a judge, particularly in hugely sensitive national security matters.
Updated
US district judge Aileen Cannon will hear arguments on a procedural, but potentially crucial, area of the law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act.
Another issue that could come up during today’s session is the trial date. Cannon initially scheduled the trial to start on 14 August – a date that both the defense and prosecution opposed because they said they needed more time to prepare.
Lawyers for Trump have suggested that the trial be postponed until after next year’s presidential election. In a filing last week, Trump’s attorneys suggested holding the trial before the 2024 election is complete could impact the election’s outcome and make it hard for Trump to get a fair jury. They also argued that Trump’s side could not properly prepare for a trial by December because he will be busy with his campaign and is also facing several other court cases.
Prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith have proposed that the trial begin on 11 December. They have pushed back on the defense suggestions, writing that “there is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the Defendants provide none.”
Cannon’s decision will be more than just a question of timing, as Politico writes.
Postponing the trial until after the election could allow Trump — if he wins a second term — to have the case dropped altogether or pardon himself before he might face jail time.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are due in court in Florida today for a federal court hearing, presided over by US district judge Aileen Cannon, marking the first pretrial conference in the former president’s criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2pm EST. Trump is not expected to attend the hearing as he is scheduled to travel to Iowa today, where he is taping a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
As we reported earlier, Tuesday’s session is a routine subject for any prosecution that concerns classified information. But it is notable because it will be Cannon’s first time hearing arguments in the case since Trump’s indictment last month.
Trump and his codefendant and aide, Walt Nauta, have pleaded not guilty to a 38-count indictment that accuses them of unlawfully retaining national defense documents after Trump left office and of conspiring to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them.
Col Isaac Taylor, spokesperson for the US military in South Korea and UN Command, declined to confirm the individual believed to have been taken into North Korean custody was an American soldier. He said:
We’re still doing some research into this and everything that happened.
The White House, state department and Pentagon did not immediately comment. The state department tells US nationals not to enter North Korea “due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long term detention”.
The South Korean defence ministry said it did not immediately have any information on the case.
Defections by Americans or South Koreans to North Korea are rare. Since the end of the Korean war, which was fought between 1950 and 1953, more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled south to avoid political oppression and economic hardship. In November 2017, North Korean soldiers fired 40 rounds as a colleague attempted to cross the border. The soldier was hit five times but survived.
Numbers of defectors have fallen recently, in large part due to North Korean precautions over the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, foreign embassies in Pyongyang closed down.
During the cold war, a small number of US soldiers defected to North Korea. Among them was Charles Jenkins, who deserted his post in 1965 and crossed the DMZ. He appeared in North Korean propaganda films and married a Japanese nursing student who had been abducted by North Korean agents. He died in Japan in 2017.
Panmunjom was created inside the demilitarised zone (DMZ) at the close of the war. No civilians live in the area, which is jointly overseen by the UN Command and North Korea. Bloodshed and gunfire have occurred there.
A US soldier who crossed into North Korea during a tour of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) Tuesday was believed to have been taken into custody, creating a fresh headache for the Joe Biden White House amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
UN Command, which oversees the DMZ between South Korea and North Korea, said:
A US national on a [joint security area] orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the military demarcation line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our [Korean People’s Army] counterparts to resolve this incident.
US officials told news outlets the individual who crossed into North Korea was a US soldier. An official told Reuters the soldier crossed into North Korea “willfully and without authorization”.
South Korean media named the individual, then deleted the name from reports. According to Reuters, the Donga and Chosun Ilbo newspapers cited South Korean army sources when they said the man was with a group of visitors, including civilians, to the Panmunjom truce village “when he suddenly bolted over the brick line marking the border”.
Two US officials, speaking anonymously, told Reuters the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action. It was not clear how the soldier arranged to participate in the tour.
Ron DeSantis says Trump 'should have been more forceful' against US Capitol attack
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Donald Trump “should have come out more forcefully” to stop the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January, but said the former president’s actions did not amount to criminal behavior.
DeSantis, speaking at an event at South Carolina’s GOP headquarters, said:
I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully […] but to try to criminalize that – that’s a different issue entirely.
From the Washington Post’s Dylan Wells:
DeSantis says Trump “should have come out more forcefully” on Jan. 6.
— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) July 18, 2023
“I think it was shown how he was in the White House & didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully…but to try to criminalize that that’s a different issue entirely.” pic.twitter.com/q5PCR30MLX
DeSantis went on to say:
Criminal charges is not just because you may have done something wrong, it’s – did you behave criminally. What we’ve seen in this country is an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences.
Updated
Trump rival Vivek Ramaswamy says he showed 'bad judgment' but this 'is not a crime'
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy gave a lukewarm defense of Donald Trump, saying he “would have made very different judgments” than the former president “but a bad judgment is not a crime”.
A statement from Ramaswamy continued:
It’s a mistake to say he was responsible for Jan. 6. The real cause was systematic and pervasive censorship in the lead-up to those events.
Updated
A spokesperson for Make America Great Again has accused the Biden administration of election interference following the news that Donald Trump could face a new indictment imminently.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the campaign, said:
Joe Biden continues to weaponize the government to target his chief political rival. This is election interference. Polling shows that President Donald Trump is the Republican best positioned to beat Joe Biden. Fortunately, President Trump will not back down. He will be back in the White House and he will restore greatness to our beloved nation.
Special counsel Jack Smith informed Donald Trump by letter that he is a special target in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection, NBC news is reporting, citing two federal law enforcement sources.
NBC News independently confirms: Two federal law enforcement sources confirm that Special Counsel Jack Smith informed Donald Trump by letter that he's a target of Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 18, 2023
Rudy Giuliani has not received a target letter, his lawyer says
Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has not received a target letter, according to Giuliani’s lawyer.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation has involved interviews with dozens of top Trump administration officials and advisers, including Giuliani and former vice president, Mike Pence.
JUST IN: Rudy Giuliani has NOT received a target letter in 1/6 probe, his lawyer tells me. As CNN previously reported, Rudy, did a voluntary interview with Special Counsel investigators several weeks back. His lawyer does not expect him to be charged.
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCNN) July 18, 2023
Smith’s team has in recent week taken a growing interet in the role of lawyers and other figures involved in legal efforts aimed at reversing Trump’s defeat, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors have been seeking to learn whether the lawyers, including Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and others, were acting on the former president’s order when they took various steps to try to change the election outcome.
Updated
McCarthy claims Trump target letter for January 6 inquiry is political move
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy responded to the latest news that Donald Trump said he is a target of a grand jury investigation by special prosecutor Jack Smith.
McCarthy accused the Biden administration of weaponizing government against its chief political opponent, and suggested baselessly that it was because of Trump’s poll numbers. He told reporters:
President Trump went up in the polls and actually was surpassing President Biden for reelection. So what do they do now? Weaponize government to go after their number one opponent.
McCarthy suggests that Trump is about to be indicted again because his poll numbers went up pic.twitter.com/V0TFTxiANi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 18, 2023
Updated
Donald Trump said he was told in the so-called target letter to “report” to a grand jury within four days of receiving it on Sunday.
Trump’s attorneys, including Todd Blanche, received the target letter on Sunday, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins writes. The former president’s team has not formally responded to the invitation, she says.
More: Trump’s attorneys, including Todd Blanche, received the target letter Sunday. Trump’s legal team has not formally responded to the invitation to testify before the grand jury, which the letter provides, but it's largely expected that Trump will decline to do so.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 18, 2023
The former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential hopeful, Asa Hutchinson, has issued a statement calling for Donald Trump to suspend his campaign.
A statement from Hutchinson’s campaign reads:
I have said from the beginning that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 should disqualify him from ever being President again. As a former federal prosecutor, I understand the severity of Grand Jury investigations and what it means to be targeted by such an investigation.
Donald Trump has confirmed that he is a target of this investigation and will likely be indicted once again. While Donald Trump would like the American people to believe that he is the victim in this situation, the truth is that the real victims of January 6th were our democracy, our rule of law, and those Capitol Police officers who worked valiantly to protect our Capitol.
Anyone who truly loves this country and is willing to put the country over themselves would suspend their campaign for President of the United States immediately. It is disappointing that Donald Trump refuses to do so.
Updated
A target letter typically provides the recipient the opportunity to present evidence or testify to the grand jury if they choose.
Donald Trump is expected to decline this invitation. Targets of investigations rarely avail themselves of the opportunity to appear before a grand jury, according to Mitchell Epner, a former assistant US attorney for the district of New Jersey.
Epper told the New York Times that he would be “very surprised” if Trump were to testify before the grand jury. He added that he expected the Justice Department to present a potential indictment to the grand jury soon and for a charging decision to be made quickly.
It could be as little as days but more typically weeks, sometimes months.
Trump’s legal problems: where does each case stand?
Classified documents case in Florida
Status: Trump pleaded not guilty; trial scheduled for August
Key figures:
Charges: 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements and representations, among others
Hush-money case in New York
Status: Trump pleaded not guilty; trial forthcoming
Key figures:
Charges: 34 felony charges of falsifying business records
January 6 case in Washington
Status: Subpoenas issued by grand jury
Key figures:
Potential charges against Trump: Obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government and incitement of an insurrection
2020 election meddling case in Georgia
Status: Grand jury report finished; charging decisions expected this summer
Key figures:
Potential charges against Trump: Election code violations
E Jean Carroll lawsuits in New York
Status: First lawsuit going to trial; second lawsuit on appeal
Key figures:
Allegations against Trump: Defamation and sexual abuse
Updated
The far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has described the news of the alleged letter from special prosecutor Jack Smith to Donald Trump identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection as “absolute bullshit”.
NBC reported her saying:
Yeah, it’s absolute bull----. Yeah, that’s my reaction. This is the only way that the Democrats have to beat President Trump is to arrest him, smear him, charge him with ridiculous charges.
I STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!!
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) July 18, 2023
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/ei7iIKVUJz
It is unclear what specific charges Donald Trump could face in the Justice Department’s 6 January investigation. But it had been clear that the former president’s actions would be a central focus of the DOJ’s investigation.
Attorney general Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to review the matter last year to determine “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power”.
A model prosecution memo suggested Trump could face charges on conspiracy to defraud the US after creating fake electoral certificates that were submitted to Congress, according to the Hill.
This could include Trump pressuring his vice president, Mike Pence, to unilaterally block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, according to Politico.
Investigators have also examined Trump’s consideration of a plan to seize voting machines from the states, his campaign of false claims that the election was stolen and his role in advancing a plan to assemble bogus slates of presidential electors to stoke a conflict ahead of 6 January.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s supreme court on Monday rejected a request by Donald Trump to prevent officials from prosecuting him for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The state’s top court unanimously shot down a petition that Trump’s attorneys filed last week asking the court to intervene. Trump’s legal team argued that Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis and her office should be barred from seeking charges and that a special grand jury report should be discarded.
Willis began investigating after Trump called Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in January 2021 to plead with him to “find” the votes he needed to win the state. She has suggested she is likely to seek charges in the case from a grand jury next month.
The state supreme court noted in its five-page ruling Monday that Trump’s filing didn’t have “the facts or the law necessary to mandate Willis’s disqualification by this Court at this time on this record.”
What is a target letter, and what does it mean for Donald Trump?
A target letter from federal prosecutors to Donald Trump indicates that prosecutors are focused on the former president’s actions in the criminal investigation into efforts to over the 2020 election.
Justice Department regulations allow for prosecutors to notify subjects of an investigation that they have become a target. Those notifications aren’t required, according to CNN, but prosecutors have the discretion to notify subjects that they have become a target.
A target letter is the clearest sign that special counsel Jack Smith is close to seeking an indictment for Trump, though it is not clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face.
But once notified, it is possible the recipient is not ultimately charged. A target has the opportunity to present evidence or testify to the grand jury if they choose. The idea is that they may want to tell the grand jury something to avoid indictment, or may want to assert their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, according to the New York Times.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he was asked if he wishes to appear before the grand jury this week. He is expected to decline the invitation to appear before the grand jury, NYT reported.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment, according to AP.
Updated
Donald Trump is not expected to attend today’s hearing in Florida, where US district judge Aileen Cannon will preside over a pretrial conference in Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
The former president is scheduled to travel to Iowa today, where he is taping a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
His co-defendant, Walt Nauta, may attend Tuesday’s session, sources have told CNN.
A person close to Donald Trump confirmed to the New York Times that the former president had received the so-called target letter.
The letter indicates that yet another indictment of Trump could be imminent, although it is not clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face.
It would be the second time special counsel Jack Smith has notified Trump that he is a target in a federal investigation. In June, Trump received a letter from Smith before he was indicted by a grand jury in Florida for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and his alleged efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation.
A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately return an email seeking comment, according to AP.
Donald Trump, who said he received a letter on Sunday from special counsel Jack Smith informing him that he is a target in the 6 January investigation, claimed “nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before”.
Posting on Truth Social, the former president wrote in all-caps:
This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement!
Trump says he is target of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn 2020 election
Donald Trump has claimed he received a letter informing him that he is a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Posting to the Truth Social platform, Trump said he received “horrifying news” from his attorneys on Sunday night. Trump wrote:
Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.
Target letters are typically given to subjects in a criminal investigation to put them on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment.
Updated
Ahead of Tuesday’s session, special counsel Jack Smith’s team asked US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday to enter a protective order over classified information the government plans to begin handing over in discovery.
The order would, in part, restrict the ability of defense lawyers to share with Donald Trump and his co-defendant and aide, Walt Nauta, classified information in the case. Prosecutors wrote:
The defense may not disclose classified information to the Defendants unless that same information has been previously disclosed to the defense by the Defendants or provided by the government with markings indicating it may be disclosed to the Defendants.
In seeking the order, prosecutors wrote that defense lawyers have told them “that they intend to object to certain provisions of the proposed protective order, but did not specify any such provisions.”
Prosecutors also said they had not heard from Trump’s counsel since a 14 July request for a call with defendants in order to see if it was possible to address the Defendants’ concerns”.
The special counsel’s office also said on Monday that it has handed over a second batch of unclassified discovery, which includes documents related to evidence obtained through subpoenas and search warrants, witness interviews. and other forms generated by the FBI.
At issue during today’s arguments at the first pretrial conference in former president Donald Trump’s criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents is a the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
The 1980 statute governs how classified information is handled by the parties in a criminal prosecution. The law aims to strike a balance between a defendant’s right to access evidence that prosecutors intend to use in a case, against the government’s interest in safeguarding sensitive and secret information, according to AP.
In Trump’s documents case, US district judge Aileen Cannon must agree beforehand that any proposed use of Cipa would not infringe on the former president’s right to a fair trial.
Cases tried under Cipa legally require more precautions and tend to take more time to get to trial than a typical criminal case, according to the Washington Post. This means they can be extremely beneficial to any defendant seeking to delay a trial.
“It is a very complicated lengthy process,” Barry Pollack, a defense lawyer, told the New York Times.
Often, there are hearings not open to the public where the attorneys and the judge will literally go through documents line by line deciding which sentences and which individual words can be used in open court and which ones cannot.
Updated
Trump document case judge may signal whether trial could be pushed beyond 2024 election
Good morning, US politics blog readers. US district court judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents, is scheduled to meet with prosecutors and the former president’s attorneys for the first time this afternoon.
The public hearing, set to take place at Cannon’s courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, is the first one she has held in the case that began when federal prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, indicted the former president last month. Earlier court sessions were held in Miami by federal magistrate judges.
Tuesday’s session is expected to focus on administrative procedures for handling classified government materials, but today’s hearing could also provide insight into whether Cannon – a Trump appointee – will push to resolve the trial before or after the 2024 presidential election. Cannon previously gained significant public attention when she intervened last year in the Justice Department’s investigation.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2pm EST.
Meanwhile, a US national is believed to be in North Korean custody after crossing into the country “without authorization”, according to the US-led UN Command overseeing the area.
The body tweeted that the person was on a tour of the border village of Panmunjom – which is located inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) – and that the UN Command was working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident. It gave no further details on the person’s identity or why he crossed the border.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
10am: House majority leader Steve Scalise, House majority whip Tom Emmer and Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik will hold a news conference after a closed GOP meeting.
10.45 am: House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar, vice chair Ted Lieu, Mark Takano, Raul Ruiz and Mikie Sherrill will hold a news conference after the House Democrats’ meeting.
1.15pm: President Joe Biden will meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office.
1.30pm: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a briefing.
3pm: The Senate will meet to take up Rachel Bloomekatz’s nomination to become a US circuit judge. There will also be a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the National Defense Authorization Act.
4pm: Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will be interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, his first discussion with a major news organization other than Fox News.
5pm: Biden will meet with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to discuss Ukraine.
