After we scooped this morning that the Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed documentarian ALEX HOLDER for his 2020 footage of DONALD TRUMP and his inside circle, Holder confirmed the news in a statement, saying he’s absolutely cooperating with the probe.
“When we began this project in September 2020, we could have never predicted that our work would one day be subpoenaed by Congress,” he stated. “As a British filmmaker, I had no agenda coming into this. We simply wanted to better understand who the Trumps were and what motivated them to hold onto power so desperately.”
Holder added that the venture is a three-part sequence over which he had whole editorial management, together with filming on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
— Per CBS’ Robert Costa: Trump marketing campaign people “recall a film crew coming to HQ at least once. They also remember it being odd because campaign’s legal team seemed surprised, as if it was an unvetted project. … The campaign’s lawyers were like, ‘Huh, what is this? What’s going on today?’ Saw it as another side project from the family/Trump confidants.”
— Per NYT’s Maggie Haberman: “A very small group of people had knowledge of this documentary project, and a lot of Trump advisers were surprised to see it existed this morning. … Senior campaign officials were unaware of the project, according to one former official.”
— “‘What the F-ck Is This?’: Team Trump Blindsided by Jan. 6 Committee Getting Doc Footage,” by Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez and Asawin Suebsaeng: “Former administration and campaign officials tell Rolling Stone they had no idea a film crew had months of access to the former president and his family.”
The committee’s subsequent listening to kicks off at 1 p.m.CNN’s Ryan Nobles and Manu Raju report that it’s going to embody “information on how at least [one] Republican member of Congress pressured at least one state to overturn its election results.”
SCOTUS WATCH — The much-anticipated Supreme Court abortion ruling didn’t arrive this morning, however the excessive courtroom did hand down a significant ruling on public funding for spiritual college tuition. There are few arenas of the regulation through which the present conservative majority has been as constant and lively as spiritual liberty, and the 6-3 ruling in Carson v. Makin immediately proved no exception.
The courtroom struck down a Maine regulation that bars college students from utilizing taxpayer cash to attend spiritual non-public faculties in cities that lack a public highschool. (The funds have been allowed to go solely to secular non-public faculties.) Though the variety of Maine college students affected is fairly small, the case drew outsize publicity for its implications for training and faith nationally. Details from the Portland Press Herald
— The majority opinion: In his ruling, Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS wrote that the Maine program “promotes stricter separation of church and state than the Federal Constitution requires. But a State’s antiestablishment interest does not justify enactments that exclude some members of the community from an otherwise generally available public benefit because of their religious exercise.”
— A putting dissent: Justice SONIA SOTOMAYOR warned that with the ruling “the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation.” Read the ruling and dissents here
Another notable SCOTUS transfer: The courtroom declined to take up an attraction from Bayer to guard the corporate from most cancers lawsuits over its Roundup weed-killer, which may value Bayer billions of {dollars}. More from Bloomberg
Good Tuesday afternoon.
THE ECONOMY
RECESSION WATCH — Goldman Sachs immediately predicted a 30% chance of a recession throughout the subsequent yr, up from its earlier estimate of 15%. More from Reuters
CONGRESS
GUN REFORM LATEST — Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) told ABC’s Allison Pecorin that invoice textual content on a weapons deal may come immediately — “hopefully shortly” — as negotiators work out remaining “details.” He added that getting booed by Republicans final week for his function in negotiations hasn’t modified his method.
RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES — In the most recent signal that chatter is constructing once more round a doable Democratic reconciliation invoice, AARP is launching a brand new TV advert marketing campaign in West Virginia pushing Sen. JOE MANCHIN to again prescription drug reform within the laws, NBC’s Sahil Kapur scooped. The cable and broadcast spots are half of a bigger multimillion-dollar effort together with print and radio.
ALL POLITICS
FOLLOWING THE MONEY — JEFF YASS, an under-the-radar billionaire who’s change into one in every of America’s wealthiest individuals and one of many largest megadonors to conservatives, has managed to keep away from a minimum of $1 billion in taxes by way of “trading strategies that reduce his tax burden but push legal boundaries,” ProPublica’s Justin Elliott, Jesse Eisinger, Paul Kiel, Jeff Ernsthausen and Doris Burke report in a giant investigation. Yass declined to remark, however an skilled tells them his strikes (which yielded a latest common federal revenue tax charge of 19%) are “very suspicious and suggestive of potential abuse that should be examined by the IRS.” Now Yass is likely one of the nation’s strongest funders, pumping $100 million into causes and candidates on the precise.
A TALE OF TWO GOVERNORS — Two fascinating tales out this morning seize the events’ diverging midterm fortunes: Democrats’ enthusiasm struggles, exemplified by New York Gov. KATHY HOCHUL’s reelect, and Republicans’ try to rile up the bottom whereas successful over moderates, exemplified by Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS’ reelect.
— Democrats throughout New York are sounding the alarm about Hochul’s sleepy reelection marketing campaign, which is cruising towards a main win however might not be doing sufficient to drive engagement and turnout for “Democrats in key congressional and state races” in November, NYT’s Nick Fandos and Jeffery Mays report.
GEORGE ARZT, Democratic strategist: “Everyone is scratching their heads. She’s held no rallies and she needs to get out the vote … The person who’s in jeopardy is not her, but her running mate, [ANTONIO DELGADO].”
— Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS could delight in performing as a conservative lightning rod within the tradition wars, however he’s managed to sway many Sunshine State moderates by holding life comparatively unrestricted by the pandemic, reports WaPo’s Tim Craig from Jacksonville. His reelection marketing campaign this fall will current a significant take a look at of his technique: Democrats hope to end up voters turned off by DeSantis’ pugnacity, whereas Republicans anticipate to sail to victory on his dealing with of the financial system and Covid. Craig finds that many conservative voters love DeSantis’ combating spirit, and the GOP hopes to make inroads with Black voters in Duval County.
Interesting case research: 52-year-old pharmaceutical gross sales employee DEB SCHAEFER, a lifelong Democrat and JOE BIDEN voter in Jacksonville, says she loves DeSantis for his dealing with of the pandemic — and abortion rights is the one challenge that would make her rethink.
2024 WATCH — Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN didn’t rule out a run for president on “Fox and Friends” this morning: “Whenever anybody asks me this question, I am incredibly humbled and honored by it. … We’ve still got a lot of work to do in Virginia, and that’s where my attention is.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
TRADE WARS — Biden possible gained’t decide on whether or not to raise some China tariffs earlier than subsequent week’s G-7 assembly, Reuters’ Andrea Shalal, David Lawder and Trevor Hunnicutt report. The president mentioned the matter with White House officers Friday; now, as Biden leans towards motion, “advisers are poring over Trump-era tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods – many of which they see lacking strategic value.”
MAJOR REVERSAL — The White House immediately stated the U.S. will principally cease utilizing land mines exterior of the Korean Peninsula, undoing the Trump administration’s transfer to make the deadly weapons extra broadly accessible to U.S. forces, per WaPo. The change, which shifts management from the Pentagon to the White House, constitutes a extra important elevation of human rights as a decision-making precedence. It will convey the U.S. into compliance with most points of the 1997 Ottawa Convention prohibiting land mines, which advocates cheered, although they urged the U.S. to go additional and absolutely finish land mine use to affix the treaty.
WAR IN UKRAINE
SURPRISE STOP — A.G. MERRICK GARLAND visited Ukraine immediately, assembly with Prosecutor General IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA to debate her conflict crimes probes. More from USA Today
WHAT’S NEXT — After just a few key weeks of combating in Ukraine’s east, U.S. officers say they now have a greater sense of the place they anticipate the conflict to move finally, report NYT’s Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Julian Barnes: “Russia is likely to end up with more territory, they said, but neither side will gain full control of the region as a depleted Russian military faces an opponent armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons.” And Russia could have problem replicating its gradual Luhansk successes in Donetsk.
POLICY CORNER
UP IN SMOKE — The Biden administration is anticipated this week to roll out new guidelines primarily forcing cigarettes to lose all their nicotine. WSJ’s Jennifer Maloney dives into the previous 15 years of analysis underpinning the shift, which have proven that lowering nicotine will assist wean individuals off dependancy and expose them to fewer toxins. (The tobacco trade disputes the findings.) The upshot: “The policy could sharply decrease U.S. cigarette sales,” although it might take a number of years to enter impact.
RAISE THE ROOF — The Biden administration immediately introduced main new pay raises for greater than 16,000 federal wildland firefighters, per the AP. The cash had initially been designated within the bipartisan infrastructure regulation, however the administration wanted time to work out the logistics.
PLAYBOOKERS
MEDIA MOVES — Shawn Zeller is becoming a member of POLITICO as a deputy well being care editor. He most lately was nationwide safety editor at CQ Roll Call, the place he labored for 17 years. … WaPo announced several internal moves, naming Sean Sullivan deputy politics editor for campaigns, Hannah Knowles a nationwide political reporter and Scott Wilson a senior nationwide correspondent in California.
TRANSITIONS — Daleep Singh is now chief world economist and head of worldwide macroeconomic analysis for PGIM Fixed Income. He beforehand was deputy nationwide safety adviser for worldwide economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council, the administration’s high sanctions coordinator. … Neel Maitra is now a company accomplice in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s securities regulatory and complicated transactions group. He beforehand was a senior particular counsel within the Division of Trading and Markets on the SEC.
ENGAGED — Meredith Good-Cohn, director of strategic gross sales at Unite Us and a CMS and Senate HELP alum, and Matthew Little, a venture supervisor at Buch Construction, received engaged on the Potomac River on Friday. The couple met in Washington on the precise date (additionally Matt’s birthday) 5 years in the past. Pic … Another pic
WEEKEND WEDDING — Marya Hannun, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and Michael Berry, VP of Tillman Global Holdings, received married Saturday in Positano, Italy. They met at a good friend’s wedding ceremony. Pic … Another pic
