NEW: When Kamala Harris presides over the count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2025, she plans to treat the role exactly like Mike Pence — ministerial, with no power to affect the outcome — even with the presidency on the line.

w/ @ccadelago

politico.com/news/2024/07/2…
Trump embraced a theory in 2020 that the VP has power to decide the outcome of the election by choose which electoral votes to count.

Pence aides argued hypothetically at the time that this precedent would give Kamala Harris that same authority in 2025. politico.com/news/2024/07/2…

WRAY says the FBI recoverd the drone used by Crooks before the shooting and is analyzing it. WRAY says Crooks was flying the drone about 200 yards away from the stage and may have been livestreaming about two hours before the incident.

Finally listening to Peter Navarro's speech to the RNC and boy did he wildly mischaracterize the contempt case against him and the way Judge Mehta handled it. It just doesn't even resemble what actually happened. Navarro was prosecuted not because he refused to testify to theJa. 6 committee but because he didn't even show up to assert a privilege. If he walked into the Capitol and said 'executive priivlege' or '5th amendment,' the case wouldn't have happened.

BREAKING: Judge Cannon has dismissed the Trump documents case, citing violation of appointments clause: Cannon has issued a 93-page opinion. Details TK: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

NEW: When Donald Trump arrives in Milwaukee, he’ll be under conditions of pretrial release that forbid him from discussing his cases with witnesses and alleged coconspirators.

The arena will be packed full of them. The murky risk Trump faces at the RNC:

politico.com/news/2024/07/1…
Experts we spoke to said Trump having glancing interactions with these people wouldn’t raise alarms. But prolonged discussion or remarks that delve into his cases or appear to attack cooperators/specific individuals could raise flags. politico.com/news/2024/07/1…

Rudy Giuliani is steaming right now as creditors urge a judge to either throw out his bankrtupcy case while he liquidates his assets or appoint a trustee to take over his finances/accounts.

Hearing is ongoing, but the judge is expected to rule today on path forward. Ruby Freeman/Shaye Moss want the case thrown out altogether, their attorneys saying it will enable them "to hold America’s mayor accountable for the harms he’s caused." They say he's used bankruptcy to stall the consequences of his defamation ruling.

BREAKING: Donald Trump is immune from criminal charges for official actions but NOT unofficial acts.

Details TK. supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…
The court has essentially wiped out the Jeff Clark-related portion of the Trump indictment: supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…

BREAKING: Supreme Court, 5-4 with Barrett and libs dissenting, significnatly narrows obstruction statute DOJ has used to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants, could upend hundreds of cases. supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf… This ruling may dramatically impact the 350-plus cases of obstrcution against Jan. 6 defendants but have relatively little effect on the obstruction charges against Donald Trump. The court held that the statute in question must include manipulation of physical documents.

NEW: Mark MEADOWS has spent weeks quietly battling NARA and DOJ to obtain an enormous trove of his records as Trump’s chief of staff.

It’s spilled into the open this week in federal court, where NARA is resisting his demands. politico.com/news/2024/06/2…
Meadows says the records will help him fight criminal charges in Georgia and make clear why Jack Smith chose not to charge him or even call him an unindicted coconspirator.

But NARA says the request is too massive and broad to be relevant. What he wants:

politico.com/news/2024/06/2…

The House is free to express its disapproval of the Jan. 6 committee anytime, but this notion they will simply rescind the subpoenas or contempt votes of an earlier Congress — and that it will have some meaningful legal effect — is fanciful. It’s become a litmus test on the right in recent weeks. But whether a contempt occurred in an earlier Congress is up to that Congress. It would be a form of legal chaos to allow Congresses years or decades later to try to unravel prior contempts that were already prosecuted.

👀 Justice MERCHAN has notified the parties in Trump's case that a stray comment was posted on the NY court system's Facebook page on May 29, a day before Trump's conviction. Here is the letter about the Facebook comment: nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…

BREAKING: Steve Bannon has been ordered to surrender to prison by July 1. Judge Nichols has revoked his bail. Bannon’s sentence for defying the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena has been on hold while he appealed. Today, Judge Nichols (a Trump appointee) ruled that the original reasons for staying the sentence no longer be er applied.

Bannon’s sentence would run through early November.

HAPPENING NOW: The jury has signaled it has a note for the judge, so everyone is reconvening for an update. Unclear what the subject is. I've seen some quick verdicts in cases, but that would be a shocker here. I've also seen juries deliberate for hours before sending a note that makes it sound like they've barely scratched the surface and maybe need troubleshooting help accessing evidence.

JUST IN: Unsealed filing in Trump Florida case says there were two rounds of classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago *after* the FBI search. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…


Judge HOWELL also found last year that prosecutors provided sufficient evidence that Trump sought to hide classified documents from prosceutors. It was part of her ruling granting crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

HAPPENING NOW: Trump lawyers and prosecutors began the day with a lengthy sidebar with Justice Merchan, unclear on whaat subject. Cohen cross-examination to resume imminently. politico.com/trumptrial NEW: Bob Costello, a longtime Giuliani attorney and potential Trump defense witness, used yesterday's trial off-day to savage Michael Cohen in testimony to Congress.

Cohen has accused Costello of being part of a Trump-backed effort to pressure him against "flipping" politico.com/live-updates/2…

COHEN begins by talking about a Feb. 2017 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. He says Trump asked if he was OK for money and emphasized a check would be coming to begin reimbursement for Stormy Daniels payoff. Prosecutors are now presenting each of the 7 monthly checks Cohen received in 2017 from the Trump Organization. The paperwork said they were for his legal work when in fact, he says, they were to reimburse him for paying off Stormy Daniels. politico.com/trumptrial

I'm taking a turn at the Trump trial today in Manhattan, joining @eorden and @benfeuerherd for what could be the most crucial day of testimony since this began.

Updates at politico.com/trumptrial
Very little morning business -- prosecutors have submitted their jury instructions, Justice Merchan notes. And now the jury is entering.

NEW: The Arizona grand jury that indicted 18 Trump allies displayed unusual independence and aggressiveness that at times surpassed AG Kris Mayes' prosecutors.

A rare look inside the process that led to last month's indictment.

w/ @woodruffbets

politico.com/news/2024/05/1…
At least two of the 18 people indicted by the grand jury — Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis — were told by prosecutors that they weren't targets of the investigation. In Ellis' case, that assurance was reiterated four days before she was charged.
politico.com/news/2024/05/1…

BREAKING: Steve BANNON's conviction for defying the Jan. 6 committee has been upheld by a unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

His four-month jail sentence has been on hold pending this ruling.

Details TK NEWS: An appeals court rejected Steve Bannon's appeal of his criminal contempt conviction for defying a subpoena the Jan. 6 committee, saying his arguments lacked merit. politico.com/news/2024/05/1…

From afar, I would be surprised if Trump's lawyers don't move for a mistrial when Stormy Daniels is off the stand, given the level of detail Daniels went into that even seemed to bother the judge — and even after he warned prosecutors to steer clear. That's not to say I think he'll *get* a mistrial. I just expect him to ask for it, given the judge's clear frustrations with the scope of Daniels' testimony.

Justice MERCHAN says Trump can go to Barron's graduation on May 17, per @eorden

politico.com/live-updates/t… READ Justice Merchan's contempt order: nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/pre…