Category: News

Gravity of new Trump charges scrambles GOP politics

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

The indictment brought against former President Trump for trying to halt the transfer of presidential power in 2021 has been met with somber silence from many Republican senators, who view the new charges as more serious than the previous felony counts faced by Trump.

The four new charges unveiled by special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday focus on Trump's actions in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which prompted seven Senate Republicans to vote in February 2021 to convict him on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection.  

Senate Republican aides and strategists say the gravity of the new charges is underscored by the blistering speech Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered at the end of Trump’s impeachment trial, in which he called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the chaos of that day and suggested he could face criminal prosecution.  

Conservative legal experts are raising concerns about the free speech implications of charging Trump for claiming repeatedly over the course of weeks that the election was marred by fraud and for revving up a large crowd of supporters that then marched on the Capitol. 

Related coverage from The Hill

But Republican strategists say the latest indictment could have the biggest impact on Trump’s candidacy for president because the American public is well aware of the chaos and violence of Jan. 6.  

“It’s politically more salient because of Jan. 6. The whole country knows what happens on Jan. 6. Most of the country watched it unfold on television. Whereas the Mar-a-Lago [documents case], while it may be very serious, it’s not something the average person pays a lot of attention to,” said Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House GOP leadership.  

“In terms of its political impact, this one is more salient to people, but I’ve also noted that among the conservative legal community, [Tuesday’s] indictment is more controversial on free speech grounds,” he said. “It’s a serious matter but it’s also somewhat debatable.”  

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A Senate Republican strategist who requested anonymity to discuss Trump’s indictment said the latest charges are the ones he most “deserves,” because Jan. 6 was a direct attack on the nation’s tradition of transferring power peacefully and resulted in injuries to more than 100 Capitol police officers.  

“This is the most significant because of what happened on Jan. 6,” the source said.  

Two prominent Trump critics in the Senate GOP conference issued statements underscoring what they view as the significance of the new charges.  

“In early 2021, I voted to impeach former President Trump based on clear evidence that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election after losing it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in a statement responding to the indictment.   

“Additional evidence presented since then, including by the January 6 Commission, has only reinforced that the former president played a key role in instigating the riots, resulting in physical violence and desecration of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” she said.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) asks a question during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government.  

Of that group, only Murkowski, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) still serve in Congress.  

Romney blamed Trump for inciting an insurrection on the very day of the attack against the Capitol and stood firm in response to Smith charging Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing the vote certification proceedings and conspiring to violate civil rights. 

“My views on the former president’s actions surrounding Jan. 6 are well known. As with all criminal defendants, he is entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence,” Romney said in a statement.  

Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written about Trump’s efforts to hold onto power, said the latest indictment puts many Senate Republicans and moderate GOP House members in a tough position.  

“It puts Republicans who are defending Trump in the stance of opposing democracy. The indictment outlines fundamental threats to democracy on the part of Trump, and so it really puts the GOP in a very difficult political stance,” he said.  

Senate Republicans have had an easier time dismissing the charges against Trump for mishandling classified documents at his residence at Mar-a-Lago because investigators have also retrieved classified documents from President Biden’s personal office in Washington and his home in Wilmington, Del. He kept the documents after leaving the vice president’s office at the end of the Obama administration. Biden has cooperated with the Justice Department in returning them.  

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has shrugged off the charges against Trump over holding classified information as a “storage” issue. 

West pointed out that Smith, the special prosecutor, said Tuesday he wants a “speedy trial,” which raises the possibility that a jury may render a verdict on Trump’s actions before the 2024 election.   

“It could be the most ominous” of the charges, he said, because “there could be a verdict before the election.”  

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks to a reporter as he arrives to the Senate Chamber for a vote on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.

McConnell has remained silent on the latest round of federal charges against Trump, in contrast to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who quickly rallied to Trump’s defense after the charges became public.  

McConnell told reporters last month that he wouldn’t have anything to say about Trump if he was indicted for his actions in the lead-up to Jan. 6.  

Asked on July 19 whether it would be legitimate to charge Trump for trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election, McConnell replied: “I’ve said every week out here that I’m not going to comment on the various candidates for the presidency.” 

Referring to his view of Trump’s culpability for inciting the violence on Jan. 6, McConnell said: “How I felt about that I expressed that at the time, but I’m not going to start getting into sort of critiquing the various candidates for president.” 

McConnell was unequivocal two years ago in blaming Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot and suggested at the time that he could face criminal charges.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, returns to his press conference after the 81-year-old GOP leader froze at the microphones and became disoriented, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

He warned that Trump “didn’t get away with anything yet,” adding: “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”  

McConnell’s top deputy, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), didn’t say anything either about the newest charges.   

The highest-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership to come to Trump’s defense was Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).  

“The American people have lost faith in Biden’s Justice Department. They are uncomfortable watching the current president weaponize the justice system against his political opponent,” he said in a statement his office provided to The Hill.  

--Updated at 7:28 a.m.

Comer jokes special counsel ‘plagiarized’ notes on Biden but put in Trump’s name

Posted on (Updated by Tara Suter

In an interview on Fox News in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s third indictment, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said he feels like the charges Trump is now facing mirror his committee’s own observations about President Joe Biden.

“I feel like someone broke into our notes on the Oversight Committee and plagiarized them, only they put them down for Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden,” the Kentucky congressman said. 

Comer went on to say Biden has damaged the American “system of government” and is causing a loss of trust in multiple government institutions like the FBI and Department of Justice. He said Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland are using the investigations for their own “self-preservation,”

“That's the ultimate goal for the deep state bureaucracy in Washington D.C.,” Comer said. 

McCarthy accuses DOJ of using Trump indictment to ‘distract’ from Biden probes

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of using the latest indictment against former President Trump — which stems from his efforts to remain in power following the 2020 election — to “distract” from recent information GOP-led committees have gathered about President Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, McCarthy listed several points Republicans have been hammering in their investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.

“And just yesterday a new poll showed President Trump is without a doubt Biden’s leading political opponent,” McCarthy continued. “Everyone in America could see what was going to come next: DOJ’s attempt to distract from the news and attack the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, President Trump.”

While pointing the finger at the DOJ and Biden, McCarthy did not engage with any specific allegations in the Trump indictment, a tactic that has become typical for the Speaker in recent weeks when speaking to the press about charges against Trump.

The office of special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four charges Tuesday: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

The charges drew immediate criticism and accusations against the DOJ from Trump allies that echoed McCarthy's.

The Speaker, and other Republicans, pointed to former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer saying in closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Monday that Hunter Biden had put his dad on the phone with people he was meeting with, which at times included business partners, at least 20 times over a decade, according to lawmakers in both parties.

A Democratic lawmaker said that the conversations did not involve business discussions and were limited to pleasantries, but Republicans said the testimony conflicted with Biden claiming during the 2020 presidential campaign that he had never spoken to his son about his business dealings. 

McCarthy also pointed to President Biden previously saying that his son Hunter Biden did not make money from China, even though GOP investigations — along with Hunter Biden himself in court — said he did make money from Chinese sources.

And finally, McCarthy pointed to a plea deal that Hunter Biden struck with federal prosecutors on tax charges that would have granted him broad immunity from prosecution, which fell apart in court after a judge questioned its constitutionality and lack of legal precedent.

The indictment against the former president cites a phone call between Trump and McCarthy — then the minority leader — during which Trump “told the Minority Leader that the crowd at the Capitol was more upset about the election than the Minority Leader was.” Left unmentioned in the document is that McCarthy had reportedly yelled expletives back at Trump, saying that the rioters were trying to kill him.

But the indictment does not identify the call as an act “to effect the object of conspiracy,” as it does other statements from Trump on the day of Jan. 6 and leading up to it.

McCarthy’s reaction following Tuesday’s indictment is a stark contrast from remarks he made days after the attack, when he said the president bore responsibility for the actions that day.

“The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said on the House floor on Jan. 13, 2021, as the chamber debated impeaching Trump. He added that Trump “should have immediately denounced the mob.”

Shortly after, however, McCarthy changed his tune, saying that he did not think the former president “provoked” the riot and making a trip to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

McCarthy further underscored his support for Trump in June, backing an effort on Capitol Hill to expunge the former president’s impeachments — including one that was a result of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Democrat Goldman and GOP’s Donalds spar over Devon Archer coverage

Posted on (Updated by Sarah Fortinsky

Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman (N.Y.) and Republican Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.) gave conflicting accounts of the closed-door testimony given by Hunter Biden’s business associate Devon Archer and over the news coverage of the testimony.

As conservative lawmakers claim Archer helped bolster their case against the president and his son, Goldman has emerged as a key figure in Democratic efforts to counter the GOP narrative.

“What he testified to yesterday completely absolves Joe Biden of any involvement in Hunter Biden’s business world. And notwithstanding whatever alleged smoke Chairman [James] Comer [R-Ky.] says there is, the witness testimony was very clear that Joe Biden was not involved in any of their business dealings, Joe Biden got no benefit, Joe Biden did not change any of his actions for the benefit of his son in any way, shape or form,” Goldman said in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC.

“Hunter may have, quote, promoted the illusion of influence [of] his father, but the witness was very clear that it was an illusion. There was no actual influence and what the evidence has shown in this entire investigation,” Goldman continued. 

After Donalds posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday morning complaining that cable news networks were not covering the testimony, Goldman fired back with a clip of his interview, writing, “Hey @byrondonalds, this must have happened before you woke up.” 

“That's cute @danielsgoldman,” Donalds wrote in a post on X. “I noticed that they had you on at the bottom of the hour, and no one is there to give the other side. Typical for @MSNBC. @RepJamesComer or I would had loved to get an invite.”

Goldman shot back, repeating his request for the panel to release the transcript of Archer’s testimony so the public can decide how damning it was.

“I think MSNBC wanted members who were actually present for the entire testimony, @ByronDonalds, and unfortunately I was the only one. In fact, neither you nor @RepJamesComer were there at all, so what value would you add? Unless you have the transcript… #ReleaseTheTranscript,” Goldman wrote on X.

A Republican aide to the House Oversight Committee told The Hill that the committee plans to release the transcript after a review process. The aide said the witness will have the opportunity to review the transcript for corrections before it is released.

Greene, Gaetz renew calls to defund Jack Smith over latest Trump indictment

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are renewing their calls to defund the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who on Tuesday indicted former President Trump on charges stemming from his efforts to remain in power following the 2020 election.

Trump was charged with four counts Tuesday, capping off days of anticipation that began after the former president disclosed that he received a letter informing him he was a target of the investigation.

Gaetz, a staunch Trump supporter, introduced a bill to prohibit federal funding for Smith’s office shortly after Trump’s announcement, an effort he renewed calls for on Tuesday as news broke of Trump’s indictment.

“DEFUND JACK SMITH'S WITCH HUNT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP!” Gaetz wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Greene echoed that call Tuesday, writing on X just before the indictment was handed down, “I will not fund Jack Smith’s special counsel.” She also said she would utilize the Holman rule “to defund his office.”

The Holman rule allows lawmakers to propose amendments to appropriations bills that cut the salaries of specific federal workers down to $1, effectively defunding them.

“Jack Smith is a terrible attorney with a lot of failures in his career. Now, he’s abusing his power, the power of the special counsel, and the power of the Department of Injustice,” Greene said in her tweet.

“President Trump is innocent and we must end the witch hunts!” she added.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), a co-sponsor of Gaetz’s bill, also called attention to the legislation amid news of Trump’s indictment, urging his congressional colleagues to back the measure.

“Another sham indictment from Biden’s Department of Injustice! This is a blatant attempt by the Left to tamper with our elections. I urge my House and Senate colleagues to immediately support @RepMattGaetz’s bill, as I have, to defund this witch hunt,” he wrote on X.

Tuesday’s indictment charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. He will make his first court appearance in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

It is his third indictment this year: He was charged in Manhattan earlier this year in relation to an alleged hush money scheme, and in another probe led by Smith that focused on his handling of classified documents. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Democrat calls for footage of Republican’s tirade against pages to be released

Posted on (Updated by Tara Suter

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) on Tuesday called for the release of security footage of his fellow Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R), who cursed out teenage Senate pages last week.

Pocan wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he wants “greater transparency” around the incident, which occurred early Thursday morning. Pocan also included a letter he wrote asking Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Committee on Administration, for the footage.

According to a transcript obtained by The Hill, Van Orden called the pages resting in the rotunda “jackasses” and “little s----," and he told them they were “defiling the space.”

“If widely shared reports are accurate, Representative Van Orden’s behavior towards the pages was completely unacceptable and further calls into question his fitness for office,” Pocan said in the letter. “It is critical that members of the public, including his constituents in Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, know the truth of what happened that evening.”

Van Orden defended his actions in the wake of the incident, saying he thought the pages were disrespecting the space. In a statement to The Hill, he said the rotunda’s history contributed to his reaction. 

“The history of the United States Capitol Rotunda, that during the Civil War it was used as a field hospital and countless Union soldiers died on that floor, and they died because they were fighting the Civil War to end slavery. And I think that place should be treated with a tremendous amount of respect for the dead,” Van Orden said. 

DeSantis backs Biden impeachment inquiry: ‘It stinks to high heavens’ 

Posted on (Updated by Lauren Sforza

GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he supports an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, just a week after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floated the idea.

“And the inquiry into Biden, I think that they should pursue that,” he said in a Newsmax interview that aired Tuesday. “The corruption is just incredible with what's happened there.” 

McCarthy said last week that he expects the GOP-led investigations into the foreign business activities of Biden’s family to rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry. His comments prompted pushback from both sides of the aisle, with some Republicans calling a potential inquiry a distraction from other work.  

Republicans have been working to tie President Biden to the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. Closed-door testimony Monday from former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer added fuel to those allegations, with McCarthy saying it proved President Biden “lied” when he made campaign trail statements that he had never talked to his son about his foreign business dealings.

Democrats, however, said the testimony showed the opposite — that President Biden had never been involved in those business affairs.

DeSantis in the Newsmax interview also pointed to Hunter Biden’s art sales.

“He does these paintings, someone's paying him a million dollars. You know, my six-year-old daughter does better paintings than him — I don't see people paying her a million dollars for them. So, it stinks to high heavens, and they should get answers for all of that,” he said.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have questioned Hunter Biden’s art sales and have asked for information about an agreement with the White House to keep the buyers of the artworks confidential.

DeSantis also said he wasn't concerned about a government shutdown if it meant cutting government spending. He said spending has gotten to this point because Republicans are “so worried” about a government shutdown.

“First of all, the government doesn't actually shut down,” he said. “They take nonessential workers, and then they don't work. But why do we have nonessential workers to begin with? I think it's ridiculous.”

Harris fires back at DeSantis offer to talk Florida’s Black history curriculum

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Vice President Harris on Tuesday fired back after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered to discuss his state's African American history standards following Florida's approval of controversial new rules for teaching the subject.

"Right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates, and now they attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal that most recently came in of a politically motivated roundtable," Harris said in remarks at the Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention.

"Well, I'm here in Florida and I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery," she added.

The vice president's appearance at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando comes amid contention with DeSantis after Florida’s Board of Education passed the new standards, which Harris said in a separate trip to Florida last month was the state “pushing propaganda” onto children.

DeSantis, who is running for the GOP nomination for president, invited Harris in a Monday letter to Tallahassee to discuss the new standards.

“In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues,” DeSantis wrote in the letter to Harris. “And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice. So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards.” 

The Florida governor had dismissed the vice president's criticisms of the standards and accused her of crafting a “fake narrative" about the curriculum.

One new standard that has come under scrutiny directs teachers to include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Harris has said it's "ridiculous" to have to say "that enslaved people do not benefit from slavery."

"As I said last week, when I was again here in Florida, we will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who try to prevent our children from learning our true and full history," Harris said Tuesday at the event in DeSantis's state. "And so, in this moment, let us remember, it is in the darkness that the candle shines most brightly."

Gaetz calls DeSantis ‘thirsty’ for inviting Harris to Florida amid curriculum drama 

Posted on (Updated by Lauren Sforza

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “thirsty” for inviting Vice President Harris to their home state to debate over African American history standards approved last month.

“Imagine being desperate enough to be thirsty for a Kamala visit,” Gaetz posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, alongside the letter DeSantis sent to Harris inviting her to Florida.

DeSantis, who is vying to be the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, sent Harris a letter Monday inviting her to come to Florida to discuss the new rules for teaching Black history in the state. He said that he could meet with Harris as soon as Wednesday, adding that he hopes she is “feeling up to it.”

“In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues,” DeSantis wrote in the letter. “And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice."

"So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards," he added.

Harris has been outspoken about the new rules, which require lessons on race to be taught in an “objective” manner that does not seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” She said during a trip to Jacksonville, Fla., that the state was “pushing propaganda” onto children over the new standards — which also mandates teachers instruct on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied to their personal benefit.” 

DeSantis has pushed back on her comments, however, accusing Harris of creating a “fake narrative” with her remarks. Harris has stood by her criticism, saying Monday that it was “ridiculous” to have to say slavery had no benefits.

DeSantis has faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans over the new history standards in the state. He has also come under scrutiny from Black conservatives, including fellow GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C), who said in response to the new guidelines that “there is no silver lining in slavery.”

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis's office for comment.

Grand jury convenes in Trump case: Here’s how grand juries work

Posted on (Updated by Zach Schonfeld

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.