A federal grand jury has been meeting to decide whether to bring charges against former President Trump in connection with the transfer of power following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
But what is a grand jury?
Before unveiling felony charges in federal court, prosecutors must present evidence to grand jurors and receive their signoff.
Federal grand juries comprise between 16 to 23 people, and at least 16 must be present for a quorum. In this instance, the jurors are all residents of Washington, D.C. They have been meeting behind closed doors in a courthouse just blocks from the Capitol and White House.
Prosecutors have brought in numerous witnesses from Trump’s orbit to testify.
Ultimately, the proceedings wrap up with the grand jury taking a vote on prosecutors’ proposed indictment.
Recent signs suggest the indictment vote could be close. Trump has said he received a target letter from the Justice Department more than two weeks ago that gave him the opportunity to testify before the grand jury, a step that usually occurs when prosecutors are nearing a final charging decision.
At least 12 jurors must vote in favor of the indictment for it to be returned, known as a “true bill.”
Grand jurors are asked to decide whether there is probable cause to believe the person in question committed a crime. It’s a much lower standard than prosecutors would need to prove at trial: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
What charges prosecutors are considering remain unclear. If the grand jury votes to return the indictment, in D.C. it is generally received by the duty magistrate judge and placed under seal. On Tuesday, Judge Moxila Upadhyaya is scheduled as the duty magistrate. A different judge would oversee the trial.
In the classified documents case filed in Florida, prosecutors moved to unseal the charges ahead of Trump’s first court appearance. It remains unclear when the charges would be unsealed in the Jan. 6 case.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) blasted President Biden’s decision Monday to keep the headquarters of the Space Command in Colorado, overturning former President Trump's decision to move it to Alabama.
“As soon as Joe Biden took office, he paused movement on that decision and inserted politics into what had been a fair and objective competition—not because the facts had changed, but because the political party of the sitting President had changed,” Tuberville said in his statement.
Tuberville is locked in a standoff with the Pentagon over its abortion policy, placing a hold on hundreds of Biden's military nominations in protest.
Some officials have said Alabama's restrictive abortions laws played into the Space Command HQ decision, though the White House said it was motivated entirely by concerns that a major move would undermine military readiness.
Tuberville wrote that it was “shameful” the Biden administration waited until Congress was in recess to make this decision, noting it came after the House and Senate passed versions of next year’s defense budget. The two chambers still need to hammer out a final version of the defense budget.
And he claimed that Colorado Springs did not even crack the top three sites for the headquarters in a review by the Air Force, trailing locations in Alabama, Nebraska and Texas.
“This decision to bypass the three most qualified sites looks like blatant patronage politics, and it sets a dangerous precedent that military bases are now to be used as rewards for political supporters rather than for our security,” he wrote.
Trump's initial decision to move the HQ to Alabama also prompted claims of political motivations from Democrats. Alabama overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the 2020 election and has two GOP senators, while Colorado voted for Biden and has two Democratic senators.
Tuberville on Monday said the fight to bring the headquarters to Alabama was “not over,” adding he hopes House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will continue an investigation into the matter.
“This is absolutely not over. I will continue to fight this as long as it takes to bring Space Command where it would be best served—Huntsville, Alabama,” he said.
Rogers said in a statement that he will continue the committee's investigation into the relocation of the headquarters, also saying the “fight is far from over.”
“The Biden administration’s shameful delay to finalize the permanent basing decision for U.S. Space Command warranted the opening of a Congressional investigation," Rogers said.
"I will continue this investigation to see if they intentionally misled the Armed Services Committee on their deliberate taxpayer-funded manipulation of the selection process. I will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable for their egregious political meddling in our national security."
Other Alabama Republicans, including Sen. Katie Britt and Gov. Kay Ivey, also took aim at Biden’s decision Monday.
“President Biden has irresponsibly decided to yank a military decision out of the Air Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics,” Britt said in a statement. “Huntsville finished first in both the Air Force’s Evaluation Phase and Selection Phase, leaving no doubt that the Air Force’s decision to choose Redstone as the preferred basing location was correct purely on the merits."
“The White House choosing to not locate Space Command Headquarters in Alabama – the rightful selection – is very simply the wrong decision for national security,” Ivey posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “The fact that a CNN reporter is who first delivered the news to Alabama should say all.”
President Biden overturned a decision from the Trump administration to relocate the temporary headquarters of Space Command to Alabama, deciding instead to keep the base in Colorado.
The decision was made because Biden believes keeping the HQ in Colorado Springs, rather than relocating it to Huntsville, would maintain stability and not impact readiness, according to a senior U.S. official.
The senior administration official said Biden consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other military leaders before deciding to keep the base in Colorado permanently.
Gen. James Dickinson, the head of Space Command, also helped to convince Biden to not relocate the base, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Space Command headquarters is set to achieve “full operational capability” at Colorado Springs later this month, according to the senior administration official.
The official said moving the headquarters to Alabama would force a transition process that does not allow the new base to open until the mid-2030’s.
"The President found that risk unacceptable, especially given the challenges we may face in the space domain during this critical time period," the official said. "Locating Headquarters U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs ensures peak readiness in the space domain for our nation during a critical period."
Biden's reversal is likely to spark the fury of Alabama Republicans who have for months feared the administration would scrap the relocation plan.
Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers (R), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has been investigating the delay behind the relocation plan, which was first put in motion when Space Command was resurrected in 2019.
Former President Trump's decision to temporarily establish a headquarters in Colorado and relocate Space Command to Alabama was criticized as a political choice based upon a more favorable constituency in the Yellowhammer state.
Since coming into office, the Biden administration ordered reviews of the decision, none of which found anything improper in Trump's decision, though they found the former president could have followed better practices in the process.
The delayed relocation reached new heights over the spring when NBC News reported the Biden administration was considering scrapping the relocation plan because of restrictive abortion laws in Alabama.
Rogers and other Alabama Republicans objected to any such plan, saying Huntsville, also known as Rocket City, was selected based on its merits and in a fair process, while pointing to the reviews that found nothing improper.
The House version of the annual defense bill that passed earlier this month includes provisions that slash funding for the Air Force Secretary until the administration makes a final decision. It's unclear whether Rogers will be satisfied with a reversal.
Other Alabama politicians, including Gov. Kay Ivey (R), quickly blasted the the decision as political. Alabama overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the 2020 election and has two GOP senators, while Colorado voted for Biden and has two Democratic senators.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said the base Redstone Arsenal in Alabama was the correct location based on its merits, arguing "Biden has irresponsibly decided to yank a military decision out of the Air Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics."
"The President’s blatant prioritization of partisan political considerations at the expense of our national security, military modernization, and force readiness is a disservice and a dishonor to his oath of office as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief," she said in a statement.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby reiterated during an interview with CNN on Monday that the president's decision was entirely due to national security considerations, pointing specifically to the rising threat from China.
"This was really a decision based on one thing and one thing only for a president and that was operational readiness," Kirby said. "He took the inputs of many leaders across the Department of Defense that when it came down to it, he believes that it's in the best national security interest of the country if we leave Space Command in Colorado."
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett (D) joined officials from his state in celebrating Biden's decision.
"Over the past two and half years, we have repeatedly made the case that the Trump administration’s decision to relocate U.S. Space Command was misguided," the senator wrote on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Today’s decision restores integrity to the Pentagon’s basing process and sends a strong message that national security and the readiness of our Armed Forces drive our military decisions," he added.
Vice President Kamala Harris is doubling down on her rebuke of new Florida education guidelines that call for the teaching of how enslaved people benefited from slavery.
In an interview Monday with ABC News’s Linsey Davis, Harris dismissed allegations that her response to these guidelines is “ideological posturing.”
“I think that this is just a matter of whether one chooses to speak fact and truth or not, and its pretty much that simple,” said Harris. “I don’t think this is up to any ideological debate to say that people who were enslaved did not benefit from slavery, period.
"It almost seems ridiculous to have to say what I just said, that enslaved people do not benefit from slavery,” Harris continued. “There are so-called leaders, extremists, who are attempting to require in our nation an unnecessary debate with the intention, I believe, to try and divide us as Americans. Stop. Stop.”
Harris has been among the top voices to criticize Florida’s new education guidelines, going as far as to accuse the Florida Department of Education and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of creating a “revisionist history.”
“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it,” Harris said earlier this month at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s 56th national convention in Indianapolis. “We who share a collective experience in knowing we must honor history and our duty in the context of legacy.”
Later, the nation’s first Black vice president traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., a predominantly Black city in the Sunshine State, and accused Republican leaders of “pushing propaganda” on children.
Black leaders around the country have condemned the lesson, along with another lesson that discusses how acts of violence were perpetrated against and by African Americans, including the Tulsa Race Massacre and the 1920 Ocoee Massacre.
DeSantis, who is campaigning for president, has defended the guidelines, saying that the state's education department “did a good job with those standards."
He has also accused Democrats, including Harris, of lying about Florida’s educational standards “to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children.”
But the growing criticism has also come from within DeSantis’s own party. Black conservatives have called for the standards to be reviewed.
It’s unclear if the guidelines will be changed at all, but the fallout so far has come as DeSantis’s competitors for 2024 have begun to gain on his second-place position for the GOP nomination.
Harris's comments with Davis are part of a larger interview set to air Monday night. The full interview will include her thoughts on reproductive rights and the way Black history is taught in schools.
President Biden is opening up about the crummiest advice he’s ever gotten, saying holding grudges “gets you nowhere.”
“I guess the worst advice I’ve ever received was holding a grudge — because lots of times when people do something that is really not good, it’s because they were fearful when they did it. Not fearful of you, but their circumstance,” Biden said in an interview on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast released Monday.
“It gets you nowhere, which means people will doubt that I’m really Irish,” Biden quipped.
“But all kidding aside,” the 80-year-old president continued, “remembering is important, but holding a grudge is not helpful.”
The best advice Biden said he’d been given was to “show up.”
“My mother used to say, ‘Joey, get up. Never bow, never bend. Just get up.' But showing up, that's a big part,” he said.
In the wide-ranging chat focused on grief and mental health, Biden also revealed he’s definitely not serving as the country’s TV viewer in chief.
Asked which TV show set in the world of politics and Washington is the most accurate and which is the least, he cracked, “’Mission Impossible.’”
“Look, one of the problems I have is I don't — and I should — I don't watch much television,” Biden said.
“And it's not because I'm above it or anything like that,” he told Shetty during the pair’s conversation at the White House. Biden blamed decades of commuting between D.C. and Delaware as a senator for cutting into potential TV time.
“And so when I get home, there wasn't much to watch,” Biden said, noting he’d focus his energy on spending time with his then-young children.
“So I've been back and forth so much I just haven't watched many programs,” the 46th president said after describing his usual Amtrak train commute while in the Senate.
“There’s a lot of good stuff, I'm sure. I mean, every once in awhile I turn it on,” Biden said of current television fare.
Living at the executive mansion, which is equipped with a movie theater, has helped his viewing habits, according to Biden.
“I get this list what movies are in and we have the new one,” Biden said of “Oppenheimer,” adding that he’s yet to see the summer box office hit starring Cillian Murphy as the famed real-life Manhattan Project physicist.
“They’re the movies I see these days,” Biden said of the films screened at the White House. “I get to see them at night every once in awhile.”
A White House board of intelligence experts made the case Monday for reauthorizing one of the intelligence community’s most controversial tools, arguing failure to do so could be “one of the worst intelligence failures of our time.”
Congress has until the end of the year to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a process looking more in doubt amid growing lawmaker mistrust of the FBI as well as concern the practice unnecessarily sweeps up information on Americans.
“The Board strongly believes that Section 702 authorities are crucial to national security and do not threaten civil liberties, so long as the requisite culture, processes, and oversight are in place,” the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) wrote in its report.
“The cost of failure is real. If Congress fails to reauthorize Section 702, history may judge the lapse of Section 702 authorities as one of the worst intelligence failures of our time.”
Section 702 allows intelligence outfits to undertake warrantless surveillance of foreigners located outside of the U.S., but their communications with American citizens are often captured in the process. That creates a database officials can query that critics have likened to backdoor searches of U.S. citizens.
Much of the consternation around Section 702 has been focused on the FBI, the intel agency with the most domestic scope of work but also a history of improperly using the tool — a problem the bureau has acknowledged and done some work to address.
That issue surfaced anew when a FISA court opinion from April released earlier this month revealed 702 searches were improperly done on a U.S. senator, state lawmakers and a state court judge.
“The Board, however, found no evidence of willful misuse of these authorities by FBI for political purposes,” PIAB wrote in the report.
“To date, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has only identified three incidents of intentional misconduct from among millions of FBI queries of Section 702 information and FBI has addressed the incidents appropriately.”
However, many of the board's proposed reforms are directed at the FBI, including directing the attorney general to limit the bureau’s ability to conduct some 702 queries for non-national security-related crimes.
The board also recommends establishing a more rigorous preapproval process for those wishing to use 702 to search for information related to U.S. citizens.
In a call with reporters, however, officials stressed they would not back any plan that would require getting a warrant to use the 702 database for information concerning Americans, noting that it's been used to assess whether an American is the victim of a crime or the target of foreign intelligence services.
“One thing we do not recommend is a warrant for every U.S. person inquiry … That issue of U.S. personal inquiries, particularly by the FBI, has been a dominant issue in this discussion. We do not recommend that in part because obviously, when you're first assessing whether or not the U.S. person is the victim of cyberattack or an effort by a Chinese intelligence officer for recruitment, you have no probable cause to believe that that person is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power,” a PIAB board member said.
“So there are legal limitations to getting a warrant each time, not to mention the burdensome nature.”
The FBI in a Monday statement said Section 702 should be “reauthorized in a manner that does not diminish its effectiveness,” a sentiment backed by the White House on Monday.
“We also agree with the Board’s recommendation that Section 702 should be reauthorized without new and operationally damaging restrictions on reviewing intelligence lawfully collected by the government and with measures that build on proven reforms to enhance compliance and oversight, among other improvements,” it said in a joint statement from national security adviser Jake Sullivan and principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a co-chairman of President Biden’s reelection campaign, on Sunday suggested it may be worth looking at a code of conduct for family members of presidents.
NBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd asked Coons if Congress should try to address creating a code of conduct for presidential family members, including sons and daughters of sitting presidents.
“That may be worth looking at, because frankly, as you referenced, Jared Kushner wasn't just a private citizen,” Coons said, referring to former President Trump’s son-in-law.
Todd responded, “So if you're outraged about Hunter Biden, you should be outraged about Jared Kushner.”
“You can’t pick and choose,” Coons said.
Coons also mentioned that the Senate has been working on trying to get the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics, similar to how members of Congress have to disclose their assets and stock holdings.
Coons comments some as Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has been in the spotlight over his legal issues. The younger Biden appeared in a Delaware court last week, where his plea deal on federal tax and gun charges was put on hold by a judge who questioned the scope of the agreement.
Hunter Biden has faced other legal issues over a daughter he has in Arkansas. The young girl’s mother filed a paternity suit against him in May 2019, and he appeared in court this May. In June, he reached a settlement in his child support case after being ordered to sit for a deposition under oath to answer questions about his finances.
The president made his first public remarks about his 4-year-old grandchild Friday, after silence from the White House over the young girl.
The Biden White House has tried to present itself as being above the fray of day-to-day squabbles, but increasingly, it’s jumping in, bashing the GOP and other critics at every opportunity.
The administration didn’t miss a chance this week to hammer Republicans over Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floating that the House would move towards an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. They were quick with memos and statements to criticize the GOP attacks as a “clown carousel” and the idea of pursuing impeachment as “baseless.”
And the White House issued a scathing rebuke of Fox New host Greg Gutfeld, who said that Jews captured and tortured during the Holocaust survived by having skills and being useful, calling out his comments as a “dangerous, extreme lie.”
The new levels of punchy rhetoric preview the White House messaging strategy going into 2024, which is to fight back and call out what they consider extreme.
President Biden and Vice President Harris arrive for an event to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Tuesday, July 25, 2023, in Washington.
It’s a shift from their previous attitude, which was to let what they considered to be Republican chaos speak for itself.
“The cost is too expensive, both short and long term, to let them operate in a vacuum without showing that one, we know how to fight; two, that we will fight; three, we fight with facts and not with some flaming lies of information,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist.
Early in Biden’s presidency, the White House was careful not to weigh in on controversial comments from the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), hoping to avoid elevating her words and giving the far-right congresswoman more of a platform.
When McCarthy was struggling in January to get enough votes to be Speaker of the House, they sat back and watched it unfold.
Biden gently knocked the vote series at the time, saying, “It’s a little embarrassing it’s taking so long,” but also added, “that’s not my problem.” The White House had also insisted that Biden would not “insert himself” into the election, which ended up taking 15 ballots for McCarthy to finally clench enough votes.
But this week, when the Speaker signaled that the House could move forward with an impeachment inquiry, the White House came out with multiple statements and highlighted quotes from fellow Republicans in his conference pushing back on the idea.
It also released a memo about Republicans’ slams against the president overall, reflecting the Biden argument that the GOP is stepping up attacks on Hunter Biden and talk of impeachment because the economy is getting stronger and is now a less effective avenue for attack.
Hunter Biden appeared in a Delaware court Wednesday, where his plea deal was put on hold by a judge who questioned the scope of the agreement.
The White House this week touted “Bidenomics” after gross domestic product (GDP) numbers showed surprisingly strong economic growth. It rebuked GOP lawmakers for not embracing the data, pointing to Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone, who said Thursday, “There goes that recession talk, right?”
“Even Fox Business is welcoming today’s blockbuster economic growth numbers, the latest in a long line of proof points that Bidenomics is delivering for middle class families,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a memo. “That’s because this strong growth report is objectively good news for the American people, which elected officials should support regardless of their political party.”
In the past, the White House has called out what it deemed antisemitism, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff in particular has spearheaded the effort against hatred towards Jewish Americans. The rebuke of Gutfeld was particularly notable, considering it called the conservative media voice’s comments insulting to the memory of people who suffered the Holocaust.
Over the last week, Vice President Harris has gone on the attack against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a presidential candidate, over changes his administration has made regarding the way slavery is taught in his state. She quickly traveled to Jacksonville to deliver remarks over his recent moves.
And press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has turned Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) into an almost-daily punching bag, chastising him for blocking military promotions over his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
Democrats argue that it’s significant the White House is getting punchier and not relying on the Biden reelection campaign to do it for them.
“I think the reason why it's so important that it comes from the White House is because Joe Biden is a president for all people, and that White House works for all people,” Seawright said. “It helps weed out some of the foolishness, because I don't think we can afford at this moment to let false information go unchecked or go numb to bad or false information for the sake of political gain.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) speaks to reporters as he arrives to the Senate Chamber for votes on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Greg Nash)
Another Democratic strategist argued the White House has picked its spots well, seeking to highlight when Republicans are fixated on issues that don’t resonate with most moderate voters. The strategist pointed to the GOP’s fixation on Hunter Biden as an example of something that is unlikely to move many mainstream voters.
Democratic communications strategist Katie Grant Drew noted the window for moving legislation closes early in election cycles so it “makes sense” the White House is preparing for 2024.
“They know they’re going to have to defend against Republicans’ insatiable appetite for investigations and impeachments, and the best defense is a good offense,” said Drew, a principal at Monument Advocacy. “When top Republicans continue to spout controversial rhetoric and spend time on divisive issues that the vast majority of Americans don't agree with, the White House is going to use those moments to illustrate to the American people how extreme today’s Republican Party has become.”
Jim Kessler, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, said Biden and his team are wisely both selling their own victories and highlighting Republican dysfunction.
Ultimately, though, Kessler argued the 2024 election will be decided by broader issues such as the economy, something the White House has leaned into with its recent messaging.
“This election is going to come down to the middle. The middle ideologically, the middle of the country geographically, and the middle class,” Kessler said. “These are places where Biden’s got to win.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) said impeachment articles targeted at President Joe Biden and other administration officials would lead to “dead ends” during a TV appearance Friday.
Ivey, a House Judiciary Committee member, said Republicans’ efforts to impeach Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas “damaging” to their party. During his appearance on "The Hill" on NewsNation, Ivey said he sees “no case” against the current president and that Republicans are unclear in what they think his wrongdoing is.
“I think they’re heading in the wrong direction,” Ivey said.
Ivey, also said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given “way too much ground” to Freedom Caucus members. He said he thinks they “definitely” want "one or maybe all three" administration members impeached.
“I think the Speaker's struggling to give them enough to keep them on board, but without destroying the party as a whole in the upcoming elections,” Ivey said.
President Biden on Friday made his first public remarks about his 4-year-old grandchild Navy, the daughter of his son Hunter Biden, after silence from the White House over the young girl amid legal disputes between her parents.
In a statement exclusively provided to People, Biden said that his son and Lunden Roberts, Navy's mother, are working to provide a life for her.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” the president said. “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
The New York Times earlier this month published a piece about the child, writing that she’s never met Hunter Biden or her grandfather. After that was published, the White House dealt with questions in the briefing room from reporters about whether Biden accepted Hunter Biden’s daughter in Arkansas as his granddaughter.
Roberts, who is in Arkansas, filed a paternity suit against Hunter Biden in May 2019, and he appeared in court this May. In June, he reached a settlement in his child support case after he was ordered to sit for a deposition under oath to answer questions about his finances.
An anonymous source told People that the president and first lady Jill Biden have been “giving Hunter and Lunden the space and time to figure things out” and have been “following Hunter’s lead” throughout the legal proceedings involving the young girl.
Biden has come under criticism from the right over not recognizing the 4-year-old child.
The statement given to People, as a result, was significant. It was also given to a publication whose readership is estimated to be 69 percent female. Suburban women voters are a key block for the White House team in 2024.
Hunter Biden’s personal and legal troubles have been increasingly in the spotlight in recent weeks. He appeared in a Delaware court Wednesday, where his plea deal on federal tax and gun charges was put on hold by a judge who questioned the scope of the agreement.
