Closing summary
The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee has asked supreme court chief justice John Roberts to testify early next month about the panel’s approach to ethics. The request comes after a series of articles published by ProPublica raised questions about conservative justice Clarence Thomas’s ties to Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Roberts has not responded yet, and the judiciary chair Richard Durbin says he’s not looking to compel his testimony with a subpoena.
Here’s what else happened today:
The debt limit battle has officially started. Latest development: one Democratic senator thinks Joe Biden should negotiate with House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
House Republicans pushed through a measure to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports at schools and universities, a bill that will meet its doom in the Senate.
A top Donald Trump adviser was scheduled to be interviewed by the special counsel investigating the former president’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and possession of classified documents.
Trump’s comments about abortion being left to the states displeased an influential group opposed to the procedure.
Mike Lindell, a noted conspiracy theorist and pillow magnate, appears to be on the hook for $5mn to a software expert who took him up on his challenge to debunk data Lindell claimed proved fraud in the 2020 election.
An Internal Revenue Service official alleges an investigation into the president’s son Hunter Biden has been mishandled, and is seeking whistleblower protection to inform Congress, the Associated Press reports.
The GOP has for months been trying to use the younger Biden’s legal trouble to tar the president. The US attorney in Delaware, who was appointed by Donald Trump and whom Joe Biden’s White House kept in his post after taking office, is reportedly considering charges against Hunter Biden related to lying on a gun purchase background check form and failing to report some business activities to the tax authorities.
According to the AP, the unnamed IRS employee contacted through their attorney the leaders of several congressional committees after sharing their information within the IRS, and with the justice department’s watchdog. Here’s more from their report:
Mark Lytle, the attorney for the IRS whistleblower, wrote to lawmakers Wednesday that his client has information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of a criminal investigation related to the younger Biden’s taxes and whether he made a false statement in connection with a gun purchase.
“Despite serious risks of retaliation, my client is offering to provide you with information necessary to exercise your constitutional oversight function and wishes to make the disclosures in a nonpartisan manner to the leadership of the relevant committees on both sides of the political aisle,” Lytle said in a letter, obtained by The Associated Press, that was sent to the chairmen and ranking members of several House and Senate committees.
The letter states that the supervisory special agent previously disclosed the information they are seeking to share with Congress internally with the IRS and a watchdog for the Justice Department. Lytle added that his client is able to contradict sworn testimony to lawmakers “by a senior political appointee.” That appointee is not named.
The special agent also wants to disclose “examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected,” the lawyer added.
Donald Trump’s legal troubles are continuing, with a civil case over an alleged rape heading to trial in New York City. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports on a clash between the judge in the case and a lawyer for the former president:
Donald Trump on Thursday was rebuked by the judge in his looming civil rape trial over a request for jurors to be told that if the former president did not testify, it would be out of concern that his presence would adversely affect New York City.
This week, a lawyer for Trump, Joe Tacopina, first tried to delay the trial then requested the jury instruction.
In a letter to Kaplan on Wednesday, Tacopina said jurors should be told: “While no litigant is required to appear at a civil trial, the absence of the defendant in this matter, by design, avoids the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City.
Anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has taken issue with Donald Trump’s stance that he regards abortion as an issue to be decided by the states.
Citing a statement the former president’s campaign made to the Washington Post, the group’s president Marjorie Dannenfelser hit out at Trump, who played an instrumental role in the overturning of Roe v Wade by appointing three conservative justices to the supreme court.
“President Trump’s assertion that the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion solely to the states is a completely inaccurate reading of the Dobbs decision and is a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold,” Dannenfelser said.
“We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to embrace at a minimum a 15-week national standard to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact further protections.”
You can read the rest of the statement here.
Mike Lindell, who is best known outside the world of pillow enthusiasts for spreading baseless tales about the 2020 election, may now have to pay up big time after challenging a software expert to debunk data supposedly proving fraud was behind Donald Trump’s election loss. It’s an unusual story, and the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly tells it well:
Mike Lindell must make good on a promise and pay $5m to a software expert who debunked data the conspiracy theorist touted in advancing Donald Trump’s lie that his 2020 presidential election defeat was the result of voting fraud, an arbitration panel decided.
In its decision, the panel said: “The data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data.”
Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 was conclusive: by more than 7m votes and a clear margin in the electoral college.
But Lindell, who is recovering from substance use disorder and is chief executive of MyPillow, has spent millions in support of Trump’s lie.
In Florida, Ron DeSantis’s feud with Disney is escalating, all while the governor appears to be moving towards announcing a run for the Republican presidential nomination next year. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe has the latest from Miami:
The Republican-dominated legislature in Florida has moved quickly to amplify Governor Ron DeSantis’s feud with Disney over LGBTQ+ rights, advancing a proposal to overcome the company’s thwarting of his earlier plan to seize control of the theme park giant.
DeSantis, a likely candidate for the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nomination, was outfoxed by Disney after installing a hand-picked board of directors with oversight of the state’s biggest private employer. At its first meeting, the board discovered a last-minute deal between Disney and outgoing directors had rendered it in effect impotent.
Now, in a move Democrats say is unconstitutional, lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a measure handing the DeSantis loyalists retroactive power to nullify the agreement by amending a land use law relating to special taxing districts.
In Oklahoma, the fallout continues from revelations that local officials fantasized about killing Black people and news reporters. Here’s the latest from the Associated Press:
A county commissioner in far south-east Oklahoma who was identified by a local newspaper as one of several officials caught on tape discussing killing reporters and lynching Black people has resigned from office, the state’s governor confirmed on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Governor Kevin Stitt, Carly Atchison, said their office received a handwritten resignation letter from the McCurtain county commissioner Mark Jennings. In it, Jennings says he is resigning immediately and that he plans to release a formal statement “in the near future regarding the recent events in our county”.
The threatening comments by Jennings and officials with the McCurtain county sheriff’s office were obtained after a 6 March meeting and reported by the McCurtain Gazette-News earlier this week in its weekend edition. They have sparked outrage and protests in the city of Idabel, the county seat.
The day so far
The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee has asked supreme court chief justice John Roberts to testify early next month about the panel’s approach to ethics. The request comes after a series of articles published by ProPublica raised questions about conservative justice Clarence Thomas’s ties to Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. The judiciary chair Richard Durbin says he has no intention of compelling Roberts’s testimony with a subpoena – thus, we’ll be keeping an eye out to see if the chief justice responds.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The debt limit battle has officially started. Latest development: one Democratic senator thinks Joe Biden should negotiate with House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
House Republicans pushed through a measure to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports at schools and universities, a bill that will meet its doom in the Senate.
A top Donald Trump adviser is scheduled to be interviewed by the special counsel investigating the former president’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and possession of classified documents.
Updated
Once they’re confirmed, supreme court justices don’t appear before Congress often. How did we get to the point where a top Democrat wants the court’s chief justice to appear before his committee? This piece from the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington answers that question:
Earlier this month, the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas put out a statement in which he addressed the storm of criticism that has engulfed him following the blockbuster ProPublica report that revealed his failure to disclose lavish gifts of luxury vacations and private-jet travel from a Texan real estate magnate.
Thomas confirmed that the Dallas billionaire and Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow and his wife Kathy were “among our dearest friends”. Thomas admitted, too, that he and his wife Ginni had “joined them on a number of family trips during the more-than-a-quarter-century we have known them”.
The justice, who is the longest-serving member of the nation’s highest court and arguably its most staunch conservative, insisted he had taken advice that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends” did not have to be reported under federal ethics laws. He emphasized that the friend in question “did not have business before the court”.
CBS News reports that Senate judiciary chair Richard Durbin hopes John Roberts will honor his invitation to testify before his committee, and isn’t considering sending the chief justice a subpoena:
Durbin told reporters, "There's been no discussion of subpoenas for anyone at this point."
— Jack Turman III (@jackturmanIII) April 20, 2023
Senate invites supreme court chief justice to testify on ethics
The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee has asked chief justice John Roberts to testify on 2 May about the court’s ethics, following revelations of undisclosed links between a Republican megadonor and conservative justice Clarence Thomas.
In a letter to Roberts, judiciary committee chair Richard Durbin did not mention those reports about Thomas specifically, but noted that since he last addressed the court’s ethics in 2011 “there has been a steady stream of revelations regarding Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and, indeed, of public servants generally. These problems were already apparent back in 2011, and the Court’s decade-long failure to address them has contributed to a crisis of public confidence. The status quo is no longer tenable.”
Durbin said the hearing would focus on “the ethical rules that govern the Justices of the Supreme Court and potential reforms to those rules,” while noting that the “scope of your testimony can be limited to these subjects, and that you would not be expected to answer questions from Senators regarding any other matters.”
At a press conference following the House’s passage of a measure to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports, CNN reports speaker Kevin McCarthy made it clear he wasn’t interested in discussing conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s links to a major GOP donor:
“No, not all,” Speaker McCarthy said when I asked if he had any concerns that Clarence Thomas received gifts from a GOP megadonor and didn’t disclose them. He then moved onto the next question and didn’t entertain a follow
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 20, 2023
The GOP’s offensive into so-called culture war issues – like the transgender sports ban – apparently has limits. As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Lauren Gambino report, Donald Trump is unconvinced that a national abortion ban is a good idea for the party to pursue:
Donald Trump considers a federal abortion ban a losing proposal for Republicans as the party prepares to enter the first presidential election since the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade – and is unlikely to support such a policy, according to people close to him.
The former president has told allies in recent days that his gut feeling remains leaving the matter of reproductive rights to the states – following the court’s reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ended 50 years of federal abortion protections.
But Trump’s crystallizing stance appears to be, in essence, a recognition that a federal abortion ban could cost him in the 2024 election should he become the Republican nominee, mainly because a majority of Americans simply do not support making abortion mostly or entirely illegal.
House passes ban on transgender athletes in women's sports
House Republicans have succeeded in passing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a ban on transgender athletes playing in women’s sports at schools and colleges that receive federal funding.
The bill, which attracted no Democratic support, will not make it through the Senate, but was cast by the GOP as a necessary measure to ensure fairness in sports. “Our daughters should not be forced to compete against biological men in competitive sports, which is why House Republicans took a stand for fairness and to protect the future of women’s sports from being diminished by the radical gender fluidity agenda,” Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, said.
Democrats like House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have condemned the bill as a “bullying” measure targeted at the transgender community:
Transgender children simply want to live, make friends and belong.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 20, 2023
Instead they face bullying by Extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress.
Voted NO on the cruel right-wing effort to ban kids from sports.
Similar legislation has been passed by 21 Republican-controlled states, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
At some point, the Senate will have to consider legislation to raise the debt ceiling, and while Democrats may control that chamber, getting all their lawmakers on board with whatever deal is agreed to is no sure thing.
A new reminder of that dynamic just arrived this morning in the form of a statement from Joe Manchin. He represents deep-red West Virginia and, should he choose to run, faces a tough re-election battle next year. He also has proven to be a thorn in the side of the Biden administration and its priorities over the past two years.
Manchin’s statement was far from an endorsement of McCarthy’s plan, but also called on Biden to negotiate with the House speaker – something the president has refused to do, saying the debt ceiling should be increased, and fiscal reforms should be discussed separately.
Here’s what Manchin said:
America is facing a historic economic crisis brought on by an abject failure to address our exploding national debt, chronic inflation, a looming recession, and the more immediate need to raise the debt ceiling. Our elected leaders must stop with the political games, work together and negotiate a compromise. Instead, it has been more than 78 days since President Biden last met with Speaker McCarthy. This signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change. The fact is we are long past time for our elected leaders to sit down and discuss how to solve this impending debt ceiling crisis.
While it is reasonable to sincerely disagree with any specific debt ceiling approach, we will achieve a historic default, and the economic whirlwind which follows, if President Biden continues to refuse to even negotiate a reasonable and commonsense compromise. To that end, I applaud Speaker McCarthy for putting forward a proposal that would prevent default and rein in federal spending. While I do not agree with everything proposed, the fact of the matter is that it is the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default. For the sake of the country, I urge President Biden to come to the table, propose a plan for real and substantive spending cuts and deficit reduction, and negotiate now. Failing to do so may score political points with the extremes of the Democratic Party, but make no mistake, it will be the American people – and our nation – who will pay the ultimate price if partisan politics continues to define our politics and policies.”
Shifting back to the debt ceiling debate, one of the biggest problems Republicans face is getting all their lawmakers to back House leadership’s proposal to raise the limit while cutting government spending.
The GOP controls the House but only by a narrow margin, and some of its most conservative lawmakers say they won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling at all. George Santos, the Republican congressman and prolific liar, is among that group, Punchbowl News reports:
SANTOS says he’s a hard no — but he wants to talk to McCarthy and he’s opening to coming around.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 20, 2023
So not much of a hard no.
That’s not all the news there is about Donald Trump today. The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that a top adviser to the former president is being interviewed by the special counsel tasked with getting to the bottom of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his possession of classified documents:
Donald Trump’s senior adviser and legal counsel Boris Epshteyn is scheduled to be interviewed on Thursday by special counsel prosecutors investigating the former president’s retention of classified-marked documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.
The investigation Epshteyn is being asked to talk about – potentially both – remains unclear, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the meeting on the condition of anonymity. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
But the interview, which was requested by special counsel prosecutors, marks a moment of potential peril for Trump given Epshteyn has been one of his closest advisers in recent years, with more knowledge about the former president’s legal entanglements than perhaps anyone else.
Appeals court blocks GOP subpoena to former Trump prosecutor
A federal appeals court has temporarily stayed a subpoena from the Republican-led House judiciary committee that would have compelled the deposition of Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor for Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg who was looking into alleged misconduct by Donald Trump.
Pomerantz left Bragg’s office in 2022, and published a book this year outlining why he believes there’s a criminal case against the former president. The House GOP subpoenaed Pomerantz following Bragg’s indictment of Trump last month on charges of allegedly falsifying business records. The prosecutor then sued the committee and its chair Jim Jordan to block the subpoena, a petition that was initially turned down by a judge before being upheld by a federal appeals court today, Politico reports.
With Republican proposal, debt limit battle begins
It’s been brewing for months, but with the release of the House Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling yesterday, it’s safe to say that the latest skirmish in the perennial Washington standoff has officially kicked off.
There’s a lot to say about the debt ceiling, but here’s the gist: the United States, somewhat uniquely, places a legal limit on how much debt the government can take on. The US borrows continuously and that limit was reached in January, meaning everything the government does – from social security payments to the salaries of government workers – is being paid for by the cash the government has on hand. As soon as early June, by some estimates, those funds will be exhausted, meaning the US won’t be able to pay its bills. Of chief concern are the payments it must make on its outstanding debt – if American defaults on one of those, it could have major consequences for the economy.
Led by House speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republicans yesterday unveiled the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, which would raise the limit through March of next year, while targeting several of Joe Biden’s priorities. The bill would block his plan to cancel some federal student loans, rescind $80bn in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which was meant in part to crack down on tax cheats, and make across-the-board spending cuts.
“The American people expect and deserve serious, sensible action to address our soaring national debt,” McCarthy and other House Republican leaders said in a statement announcing the bill. “Unfortunately, President Biden has avoided taking any action, even though he added $6 trillion to our nation’s debt burden in two years and caused historic inflation that continues to hurt families and small businesses. The President seems to have no interest in negotiating a responsible debt limit increase. What President Biden is demanding is irresponsible.”
Biden immediately criticized the idea, and his press secretary’s statement this morning makes clear the White House is not happy with the GOP’s starting position in what will likely be weeks of negotiating. But with the fate of the world’s largest economy in the balance, negotiating is all the two sides can do.
White House excoriates Republican debt limit proposal
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The White House apparently spent the evening at the whetstone, sharpening their rhetorical knives for use against the proposal released by the House Republicans to increase the debt ceiling while also cutting spending to a variety of Joe Biden’s priorities. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is out with a statement first thing this morning that says: “Maga House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage in order to take a hatchet to programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet.”
With the US government expected to exhaust its cash on hand sometime in early June (a date that could change), we are surely going to be hearing a lot about this battle in the weeks to come.
That’s not all that’s happening today:
The House will vote on GOP legislation to ban transgender athletes from women’s athletics at schools and colleges, with speaker Kevin McCarthy holding a press conference about the bill around 11.15am eastern time, after its expected passage.
A Republican senator has introduced a motion of no confidence in homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a frequent target of Republican ire over migrant arrivals at the southern border.
Donald Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn is scheduled to be interviewed today by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor looking into the former president’s possession of classified documents and involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
