Closing summary
The Secret Service announced it closed the investigation into the cocaine discovered at the White House earlier this month without naming any suspects, but Republicans seem to want to keep the matter alive. Several lawmakers, including House speaker Kevin McCarthy, expressed skepticism at the agency’s conclusion, part of a pattern of attacks on federal law enforcement by the GOP’s right wing. Meanwhile, the Democratic leader of the Senate judiciary committee Dick Durbin outlined plans to continue pressing the supreme court to tighten its ethics, after a series of reports found questionable ties between the justices and parties with interests in its decisions.
Here’s what else happened today:
Arizona’s attorney general is moving forward with an investigation of Donald Trump and his attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory in the state three years ago, the Washington Post reported.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis remains far below Trump in support among Republicans, but NBC News obtained a memo outlining his campaign’s strategy for success in the presidential primaries.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, accused Democrats of seeking to retaliate against conservative supreme court justices.
Durbin left open the possibility of his committee investigating liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor after a report emerged of her staff asking institutions to buy her book.
Far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was among lawmakers who raised their eyebrows at the Secret Service’s decision to close the investigation into the White House cocaine.
A spat has broken out between Republican former president Mike Pence and a prominent progressive Democrat over Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s plans to address Congress next week during his visit to Washington DC.
Ilhan Omar, a progressive Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, announced she would not attend Herzog’s speech, citing a 2019 episode in which Israel said fellow progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian origin, could visit family in the West Bank, but only if she avoided promoting the boycott campaign against the country:
There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma. A thread👇🏽
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 13, 2023
WE SHOULD NOT BE INVITING THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL—A GOVERNMENT WHO UNDER ITS CURRENT PRIME MINISTER BARRED THE FIRST TWO MUSLIM WOMEN ELECTED TO CONGRESS FROM VISITING THE COUNTRY—TO GIVE A JOINT ADDRESS TO CONGRESS.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 13, 2023
Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address comes on behalf of the most right wing government in Israel’s history, at a time when the government is openly promising to “crush” Palestinian hopes of statehood—essentially putting a nail in the coffin of peace and a two-state solution.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 13, 2023
This afternoon, Pence, who is seeking the GOP’s nomination for president, took direct aim at Omar, one of only three Muslims currently serving in Congress and the only Somali-American:
.@IlhanMN has consistently shown over her years in Congress that she would rather support terrorists instead of America’s most cherished ally.
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 13, 2023
Back at the Capitol, Republicans continue to complain about the Secret Service’s conclusion that it can’t identify who left cocaine at the White House.
Here’s Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett’s take, as captured by CNN:
Lawmakers say Secret Service found dime bag of cocaine in a WH locker randomly, and it's unclear how long it was sitting in there. About 500 people tracked through that area. No suspect and probe is ending.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 13, 2023
"This is most ridiculous thing I've seen in my life," Burchett says pic.twitter.com/eQ5CuX9yVY
Ron DeSantis may be considered frontrunner Donald Trump’s biggest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, but polls have consistently shown that it’s not a particularly close race.
Take this one from Morning Consult released on Tuesday. It shows Trump with 56% support among potential GOP primary voters, and DeSantis in second with a measly 17%. If there’s any news there, it’s that entrepreneur and first-time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is in third place with 8%, ahead of more experienced Republicans like former vice-president Mike Pence and senator Tim Scott.
NBC News has obtained a confidential memo from the DeSantis campaign laying out their strategy in the GOP’s primary process. The Florida governor plans to aim for success in the first states that vote, particularly New Hampshire, and focus less on “Super Tuesday”, when 14 states will hold primaries on 5 March.
Here’s more from their story:
Ron DeSantis is trying to reassure donors and activists that his campaign only looks stalled.
A confidential campaign memo obtained by NBC News lays out what the Florida governor’s presidential campaign sees as its path forward: focusing on the early states, refusing to give up on New Hampshire, not yet investing in “Super Tuesday” battlegrounds, zeroing in on DeSantis’ biography and sowing doubts about his competitors — particularly Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
“While Super Tuesday is critically important, we will not dedicate resources to Super Tuesday that slow our momentum in New Hampshire,” the memo states. “We expect to revisit this investment in the Fall.”
The document, dated July 6, is labeled a “confidential friends and family update” and makes clear that it’s “not for distribution.” Its details about the campaign’s strategy are far more in-depth than what has been shared publicly.
As DeSantis’ ability to surpass Donald Trump as leader of the Republican Party is now an open question among the GOP faithful, the memo is an effort by the governor’s top aides to reach out to donors to provide more clarity on their path forward.
Across the DeSantis political universe there is a heightened awareness of the importance of the early states and the reality that DeSantis will burn out without strong performances there. It means that even as the group has a plan in place now, the strategy is subject to change.
“From my understanding, if we don’t see a bump in the polls, we are basically going to shut down the idea of a national operation,” a DeSantis-aligned operative told NBC News.
Donald Trump’s top opponent for the Republican presidential nomination is governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, which used to be considered a swing state, but lately has trended towards the GOP. The Guardian’s Sam Levine and Andrew Witherspoon report that the DeSantis administration is carrying out a crackdown against groups that are trying to encourage people to vote:
Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by Governor Ron DeSantis.
At least 26 groups have cumulatively racked up more than $100,000 in fines since September of last year, according to a list that was provided by Florida officials to the Guardian. The groups include both for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as political parties, including the statewide Republican and Democratic parties of Florida.
The fines, which range from $50 to tens of thousands of dollars, were levied by the state’s office of election crimes and security, a first-of-its-kind agency created at the behest of DeSantis in 2022 to investigate voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and the office has already come under scrutiny for bringing criminal charges against people who appeared to be confused about their voting eligibility.
Donald Trump’s legal trouble is both criminal, and civil. As the Associated Press reports, the former president yesterday suffered a setback in his attempt to defend himself against a potent defamation lawsuit:
Donald Trump lashed out on social media against the US justice department on Wednesday after it stopped supporting his claim that the presidency shields him from liability against a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says he sexually attacked her in the mid-1990s.
The former president said in a post on his social media platform that the department’s reversal a day earlier in the lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll was part of the “political Witch Hunt” he faces while campaigning for the presidency as a Republican.
The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arizona attorney general investigating Trump attempts to overturn 2020 vote - report
Arizona’s Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes is moving forward with an investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in the crucial swing state, the Washington Post reports.
Mayes’s inquiry is the second known attempt by a state to hold the former president accountable for the effort to disrupt Biden’s win. Fani Willis, a Democratic prosecutor in Fulton county, Georgia, is reportedly close to obtaining indictments in her investigation of Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s win in that state. Separately, justice department special counsel Jack Smith is still investigating the former president over the January 6 insurrection, and the broader campaign to prevent Biden from entering the White House.
Here’s more from the Post’s report:
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the probe. Investigators have requested records and other information from local officials who administered the 2020 election, the two people said, and a prosecutor has inquired about evidence collected by the Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor for similar probes.
It is unclear if the investigation will broaden into other attempts to undermine President Biden’s victory in the state, including a pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to thwart the will of voters and remain in office.
Dan Barr, Mayes’s chief deputy, said the investigation is in the “fact-gathering” phase. He declined to say whether subpoenas have been issued and which state statutes the team thinks might have been broken.
“This is something we’re not going to go into thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll get a conviction,’ or ‘Maybe we have a pretty good chance,’” he said. “This has to be ironclad shut.”
Biden will meet Israel's president at White House on 18 July
Joe Biden will meet the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, at the White House next week, his spokeswoman has confirmed.
Herzog will be in Washington on 18 and 19 July and will deliver a joint address to Congress.
The Israeli president’s US visit comes amid protests in Israel at a government push to advance legislation that would weaken the supreme court’s independence.
Israel’s parliament recently voted for a bill that would scrap a “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions.
Biden and Herzog are due to discuss deepening Israel’s regional integration, a more peaceful Middle East and Russia’s relationship with Iran.
The White House statement on the visit said:
President Biden will stress the importance of our shared democratic values, and discuss ways to advance equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Updated
The day so far
The Secret Service announced it had closed its investigation of the cocaine discovered at the White House earlier this month without naming any suspects, but Republicans seem to want to keep the matter alive. Several lawmakers, including House speaker Kevin McCarthy, expressed skepticism at the agency’s conclusion, part of a pattern of attacks on federal law enforcement by the GOP’s right wing. Meanwhile, the Democratic leader of the Senate judiciary committee Dick Durbin outlined plans to continue pressing the supreme court to tighten its ethics, after a series of reports found questionable ties between the justices and parties with interests in its decisions.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, accused Democrats of seeking to retaliate against conservative justices.
Durbin left open the possibility of his committee investigating liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor after a report emerged of her staff asking institutions to buy her book.
Far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was among lawmakers who raised their eyebrows at the Secret Service’s decision to close the investigation into the White House cocaine.
McCarthy calls for Secret Service to continue investigating White House cocaine
In the latest indication that this is not the last we have heard about the White House cocaine saga, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is calling on the Secret Service to continue searching for whomever left the powder at the executive mansion, Fox News reports:
1) McCarthy on cocaine/WH probe: They shouldn't end their investigation. You can't tell me in the White House w/ 24/7 surveillance in a cubby hole by a Situation Room that they don't know who delivered it there. I mean the American people think that's a farce.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 13, 2023
2) McCarthy: We should get an answer to the question. It just seems to me that in America today anything involving Biden Inc gets treated different than anything else and that shouldn't be the case?
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 13, 2023
Here’s more from the Guardian’s Jenna Amatulli on the cocaine found at the White House, and apparent failure of the Secret Service to discover who brought it there:
The investigation into the bag of cocaine found at the White House has concluded, with no suspects identified.
In a statement from the Secret Service, the organization emphasized that it implemented safety closures after discovering the cocaine and that it then “field tested and preliminarily determined” the drug “to not be a hazardous compound”.
They said the US Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center later analyzed the cocaine for any biothreats and those tests came back negative.
On how the item came to be inside the White House, the Secret Service said it conducted a “methodical review of security systems and protocols” that spanned “several days prior to the discovery of the substance”. They “developed an index of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the substance was found” before ultimately concluding there was “insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons”.
If House Republicans decide to hold hearings or otherwise investigate the Secret Service over the White House cocaine, it will be just the latest instance of the party tangling with federal law enforcement. Yesterday, the House judiciary committee grilled the FBI director for about six hours, leading to plenty of partisan fireworks but not much new information, as the Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports:
House Republicans grilled the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, at a frequently contentious committee hearing on Wednesday. While Republicans accused the FBI of political bias in its handling of investigations into Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, Democrats derided the attacks on the bureau as a smokescreen driven by conspiracy theories.
The Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, kicked off the hearing with a litany of complaints about the FBI’s alleged targeting of rightwing leaders and activists, lamenting the supposed “double standard that exists now in our justice system”. Jordan suggested that the allegedly misguided leadership of Wray, a Trump appointee, could jeopardize government funding for the FBI’s planned new headquarters.
Far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was among those criticizing the Secret Service for failing to solve who brought cocaine into the White House:
The Secret Service has narrowed down 500 people as the potential source of cocaine in the White House.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 13, 2023
But they are ending the investigation tomorrow without administering drug tests to these individuals. A total failure.
The American people deserve to know who smuggled illegal… pic.twitter.com/I9tP4LkLyH
Add North Carolina’s Thom Tillis to the ranks of Republican senators who want to know more about the White House cocaine.
From Fox News:
Tillis: Cocaine in the White House is a bad idea. So trying to figure out who did it and and hold them accountable for just the underlying crime, let alone that it was a crime committed in the White House. I think it's pretty important information.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 13, 2023
That said, with Joe Biden’s Democratic allies in charge of the Senate, if Congress decides to hold hearings into the cocaine, they will probably happen in the House, which Republicans control.
Here’s right-wing congressman Chip Roy’s thoughts on the matter:
GOP TX Rep Roy on Fox on USSS not figuring out who the cocaine belonged to: What is this would have been Anthrax? Would we just have said "Oh. Sorry."..This is more of the clear, two-tiered system that we see going on
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 13, 2023
The Secret Service has released a lengthy recounting of its investigation into the White House cocaine, which gives further details of why it was not able to find a suspect for the powder discovered near an entrance to the executive mansion.
After recounting how the substance was found and confirmed to be cocaine, it says:
While awaiting the FBl’s results, the Secret Service investigation into how this item entered the White House continued. The investigation included a methodical review of security systems and protocols. This review included a backwards examination that spanned several days prior to the discovery of the substance and developed an index of several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the substance was found. The focal point of these actions developed a pool of known persons for comparison of forensic evidence gleaned from the FBI’s analysis of the substance’s packaging.
On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons. Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl’s evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine.
There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area. Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered. At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence.
The Secret Service investigation into the White House cocaine may be over, but at least one lawmaker still has questions.
Here’s what Republican senator John Cornyn had to say about the investigation’s inconclusive end, from Fox News:
Cornyn on WH cocaine: This is very disturbing. What's even more disturbing is when it was originally located or identified what part of the White House it was in apparently that story changed later on, which is very suspicious. So yes, I'd certainly like to be briefed as well.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 13, 2023
Secret Service finds no suspects in White House cocaine investigation - report
The Secret Service has concluded its investigation of the cocaine found at the White House without identifying any suspects, CNN reports, citing two sources familiar with the investigation.
Here’s more from their story:
Secret Service officials combed through visitor logs and surveillance footage of hundreds of individuals who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, one of the sources said.
Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.
The second source said that the leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones inside those cubbies.
The White House and Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNN previously reported that cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing where staff-led tours of the White House pass through on their way into the building.
Visitors entering the West Wing for tours are asked to leave their phones in those cubbies, which can also be used by staff who cannot bring their phones into a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility, where classified materials are handled. The cubbies are located near the Situation Room, which has not been used for months due to ongoing renovations.
Updated
Top Senate Republican says Democrats want to 'target' supreme court conservatives
The top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has done more than arguably anybody to craft the supreme court’s current conservative majority, and in an interview today with broadcaster Hugh Hewitt, he accused Democrats of running a punitive campaign against justices they didn’t like:
“Many of the liberals on the Court have also accepted gifts — it's just an effort to try to target this new Supreme Court. If they can't get their way on the merits, they go after the Court itself."
— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2023
— Senate Min. Leader McConnell defends Justice Clarence Thomas receiving gifts pic.twitter.com/zuHs9Z9JWY
His comments are a good indication that there will be little GOP support for Dick Durbin and other Democratic senators’ attempts to get the supreme court to tighten its ethics – potentially imperiling the effort.
As Senate majority leader in 2016, McConnell blocked Barack Obama from filling a vacancy on the court then worked with Donald Trump to appoint three conservative justices to the bench, creating the majority that, in the most recent term, struck down affirmative action and Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan.
Democratic Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin also commented on an Associated Press report from earlier this week that found aides to Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal supreme court justice, repeatedly asked institutions where she made public appearances to buy her book.
“I’m not going to prejudge it until the facts are known in complete form. But, I will tell you, the rules and proposals we’re making for a code of ethics and disclosure will apply to every single supreme court justice, whether they were appointed by a Democratic president or a Republican President, makes no difference when it comes to ethics,” Durbin said. Sotomayor was appointed by Democrat Barack Obama.
Asked whether he would use his committee’s power to send inquiries to Sotomayor about the book purchases – as he has done following similar reports about the entanglements of conservative justices with parties interested in the court’s decision – Durbin was noncommittal.
“Everything is on the table, regardless of the justice,” Durbin said.
Updated
Lack of ethics code imperils supreme court's reputation - Democratic senator
The failure to adopt a code of ethics imperils the reputation of chief justice John Robert and the supreme court itself, and is a sign that Congress must act, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee said.
“He has the authority today, tomorrow or any day he chooses to solve this problem, to establish a code of ethics that is responsible and reflects what other branches of government follow, and to establish standards of disclosure so that every single justice knows they will have to answer for their conduct in public,” Dick Durbin said in an interview with the Washington Post.
Durbin has announced that on 20 July, his committee will vote on the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, which would require that the high court adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism for investigating violations of it, and mandate that justices publicly explain their decisions to recuse themselves from cases.
Referring to recent media reports of ties between the court’s justices and parties with interests in its decisions, Durbin said, “It is hard for me to understand … how chief justice Roberts can rationalize the disclosures that have come up before the public.”
Democrats keep pressure on supreme court after revelations of questionable ethics
Good mornings, US politics blog readers. The supreme court is a quiet place currently, as the nine justices are on recess after a term in which the conservative majority once again handed down decisions with major implications for Americans life – including striking a death blow to Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan and deciding that race-conscious university admissions are illegal. But Democrats in the Senate remain incensed by reports of ties between the justices and parties with interest’s in the courts outcome. Yesterday, the Guardian reported that a top aide to conservative justice Clarence Thomas received payments over Venmo from lawyers who have had business before the court, which appeared to be in connection with a Christmas party.
Dick Durbin, the chair of the chamber’s judiciary committee, has vowed to hold a vote on legislation that would, among other things, require the court to adopt a code of ethics. This morning at 9am eastern time, he will appear at a Washington Post event to elaborate on his campaign.
Keep in mind that while Democrats control the Senate, their majority is slim, and Republicans in the chamber as well as the House have shown no willingness at this point to back Durbin and his Democratic counterparts’ efforts. There’s a good reason for this: six of the nine supreme court justices were appointed by GOP presidents and often band together to issue decisions that align with conservative policy goals.
Here’s what else is happening today:
The House will continue haggling over amendments to the defense funding bill Congress passes every year, and Punchbowl News reports speaker Kevin McCarthy gave into the GOP’s right wing and will allow them to propose “culture war” provisions dealing with everything from abortion to critical race theory.
Biden is wrapping up a visit to Finland and will return today to Washington DC, after traveling to Europe for a Nato summit held in Lithuania.
America is once again dealing with another day of severe weather, including scorching heat in the southwest and a tornado in the Chicago area. We have a live blog about it all that you can read here.
