(The Consumer Price Index rose to a 3.2% annual rate in July, the Commerce Department reports, a slight uptick from a 3.0% rate in June. Although it is the first CPI increase after 12 months of inflation easing from record highs, The Wall Street Journal says it remains modest and could deter the Federal Reserve from raising rates at its September meeting.)
MONDAY 8/14/23
Indictment Number Four? – More than two years since launching an investigation into former President Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 Electoral College vote, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to begin presenting her case before a grand jury early this week, The Washington Post reports. Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has confirmed he was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury Tuesday.
New quote of the year: Duncan tweeted; “I look forward to answering their questions around the 2020 election. Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness.”
Did Trump team breach Georgia ballot boxes?: CNN says in an exclusive report that Georgia’s prosecutors have messages showing that Trump’s legal team was behind a Coffee County, Georgia voting system breach in January 2021.
--TL
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FRIDAY 8/11/23
Garland Names Weiss Special Counsel in Biden Investigation – U.S. Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland has elevated David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware appointed by the Trump administration to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings (The Hill) to special counsel in the case. The appointment puts focus of the investigation back on two whistleblowers, Gary Shapely and Joseph Ziegler, after U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika snuffed out a plea deal over Biden’s tax evasion issues.
Shapely and Ziegler claim the Justice Department slow-walked the Hunter Biden investigation, gave him preferential treatment and declined to pursue charges in California and Washington, D.C., where they say there was stronger evidence. The two also said Weiss earlier had sought and was denied special counsel status, a claim both Garland and Weiss deny.
While House Republicans had once called for Garland to promote Weiss to special counsel. They now are criticizing the move for potentially obstructing the House Oversight Committee’s own investigation into the younger Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has floated the possibility of an impeachment inquiry into Garland over how the case was handled, as well as a possible inquiry into President Biden over issues regarding the family’s foreign business dealings.
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Trump Backs Out of Debate – Will Donald J. Trump or won’t Donald J. Trump? The punditocracy has been a-twitter for a few weeks trying to figure out whether the former president and frontrunner by far in the race for the 2024 GOP nomination will join the party’s first debate, August 23 in Milwaukee. The answer appears to be “no,” and Trump’s rationale might take its toll on his popularity, at least among the non-MAGA Republicans who have failed to push back against him so far.
“I wouldn’t sign the pledge” to support another GOP candidate for president next year unless it is him, Trump told right-of-Fox News Newsmax, according to The New York Times. “Why would I sign a pledge? There are people here that I wouldn’t have.”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told CNN last month that only candidates who sign a pledge they will support the eventual winner of the party’s nomination are allowed to participate in the debate.
“The rules aren’t changing. We’ve been very vocal with them.”
That won’t stop former governors Chris Christie (NJ) and Asa Hutchinson (AR) from signing the pledge, just to get on to the debate stage.
“I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” Christie, who is running (in part) to help stop the former president’s efforts, told CNN.
Hutchinson, who so far has not met other qualifications to participate, said he would sign the pledge “based on the far-from-safe assumption” Trump won’t win the nomination, the NYT reports.
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Trump and Co-defendant Plead 'Not Guilty' -- Donald J. Trump and co-defendant Waltine Nauta pleaded "not guilty" to multiple charges alleging the former president kept classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and with help of two aides, tried to hide some material from government officials seeking their return to the National Archives. Trump did not appear in-person for the plea at federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, but made the plea via his attorneys, The Washington Post reports. Nauda, who faces six charges in the initial indictment plus two additional crimes in a superseding indictment did appear. Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira was charged for the first time in the superseding indictment, and did not enter a plea.
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Imminent Perp Motorcade – A fourth indictment of former President Trump, this time from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over his alleged attempts to turn over Georgia’s Electoral College vote, are expected as early as Thursday. Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat say they have prepared, in anticipation for Trump’s indictment motorcade, the biggest preventive security dragnet in the region since the 1996 Olympics, USA Today reports.
On the right: Don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s critique of Trump’s planned defense in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, the former president’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, now in the right column.
Tweet this: Twitter was fined $350,000 for failing to turn over Trump’s data from tweets made leading up to the January 6thCapitol insurrection, The Washington Post reports. An appellate court referenced 18 of Trump’s tweets, including seven from January 6, 2021, in an order to turn over the data to Special Counsel Jack Smith.
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FBI Shoots Armed Man Over Biden Threats – FBI special agents shot to death Craig Deleeuw Robertson, of Provo, Utah, as they attempted to serve a warrant over accusations he made threats against President Biden ahead of an appearance in Salt Lake City, Wednesday. Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting, law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the AP. Self-described “MAGA Trumper” Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah, and would dig out a camouflage suit and begin “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle.”
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Ecuador Presidential Candidate Assassinated – Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate who vowed to crack down on drug trafficking and corruption in Ecuador, was assassinated at a campaign event in the capital, Quito, Wednesday night (The Washington Post). A criminal gang named Los Lobos has claimed responsibility, the BBC reports. A former journalist, Villavicencio had been a member of Ecuador’s National Assembly since 2017. President Guillermo Lasso has announced that the first round of voting, scheduled for Sunday, August 20, will not be delayed.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa