Closing summary
The justice department announced the disturbing findings of their investigation into the Minneapolis police department, whose officers killed George Floyd in 2020, sparking weeks of nationwide protests. Federal investigators determined Minneapolis cops “routinely” use excessive force, and discriminate against Black and Native American people, as well as those with behavioral health issues. The city and the federal government agreed to negotiate on an agreement to make what appear to be much-needed changes to the department. Meanwhile, Joe Biden spoke to gun safety advocates and decried how mass shootings happen “every damn day” in America.
Here’s what else happened today:
Iowa’s top court maintained a block on the state’s strict abortion ban, but lawmakers appear to have an avenue to reimpose it.
National security experts are reacting with horror to the emerging revelations about Donald Trump’s handling of government secrets.
The supreme court issued more rulings, but none concerned closely watched cases over Biden’s student loan relief plan, affirmative action, or congressional redistricting. The justices will release more opinions on 22 June.
Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, died, aged 92.
This is the week Donald Trump and Boris Johnson’s paths appear to have diverged.
The message from Joe Biden’s speech to gun safety advocates in Connecticut? Don’t give up.
Recounting how his administration joined with activists to push Congress to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year, the president said, “Whether you’re Democrats or Republicans, we all want families to be safe. We all want to drop them off at a house of worship, a mall, a movie, a school door without worrying that’s the last time we’re ever going to see them. We all want our kids to have the freedom to learn, to read and to write instead of learning how to duck and cover in a classroom. And above all, we all agree we are not finished,” he concluded as applause broke out.
“We are not finished. We are not finished,” he repeated.
Here’s the moment where Joe Biden decried how mass shootings happen in the United States “every damn day”:
“Every single day, every damn day in America. In areas that are poor, mostly minority, there’s a mass shooting that never reaches the crescendo that it reaches other places. Every single day.”
— The Recount (@therecount) June 16, 2023
— Biden decries the drumbeat of shootings at a gun safety summit in Connecticut pic.twitter.com/uWY3QjIBEW
Later in the speech, which was delivered before an audience of gun safety advocates, he called for stricter liabilities for gun owners whose weapons are used in crimes:
President Biden: “If any one of you drove up to the parking lot here today … and left your key in your car, and a kid comes along … takes it on a joyride and kills someone, guess what? You’re liable. Why should that not be the case if you don’t lock up your weapon?” pic.twitter.com/wPXVGtu2Ba
— The Recount (@therecount) June 16, 2023
Mass shootings plague America 'every damn day' – Biden
In a speech marking the one-year anniversary of a major bill intended to fight gun violence, Joe Biden decried how mass shootings occur in the United States “every damn day”.
The president recounted how public outrage swells after high-profile killings at schools and places of worship, before declaring, “Every damn day in America, in areas that are poor, mostly minority, there’s a mass shooting. It never reaches the crescendo that it reaches other places – every single day.”
Biden’s was speaking in Connecticut during a summit to mark last year’s passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress approved following the mass shooting weeks earlier at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The legislation toughened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keeps firearms from more domestic violence offenders and helps states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous.
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Daniel Ellsberg’s family has released a statement about his death earlier today:
Daniel Ellsberg has died. pic.twitter.com/N0S40b7wo2
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) June 16, 2023
Here’s the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly with a look back at the life of Daniel Ellsberg:
Daniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.
In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care.
“I am not in any physical pain,” Ellsberg wrote, adding: “My cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my favourite foods!”
Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg dies, aged 92
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers detailing secrets about America’s policy during the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 92, the Guardian can confirm.
Ellsberg’s son, Robert Ellsberg, said by phone that Ellsberg died this morning. In March, Ellsberg announced he had terminal cancer. The former US government analyst’s leaks revealed to the public that successive presidents believed American troops could not win in Vietnam.
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Ilhan Omar, the progressive Democrat whose district in the House of Representatives includes Minneapolis, has responded to the justice department’s report finding the city’s police “routinely” use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native Americans and people with behavioral health issues.
Her statement reads, in part:
As a Black woman living in Minneapolis, I have experienced some of these violations firsthand.
For years, we have been offered a false choice between public safety and accountability. We have been told that bending to the will of the police union and the MPD is the only way to reduce crime. But rampant abuse and racism, constitutional violations, and killing of unarmed Black people does not make our community any safer. Lack of accountability only undermines relations with the community they are designed to protect, and poisons the civic trust that is the lifeblood of a democracy and its institutions.
I welcome this accountability from the Justice Department and support the consent decree being negotiated between the city and the federal government. We must demand a public safety system built on data and trust, not fear and racism.
We must recognize that we cannot prosecute and incarcerate our way to sustainable public safety, that building that trust requires that we address the system that allows racial discrimination—from the disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates Black and brown people face, to the marijuana laws that criminalize Black and brown people. We need to act at the federal level, including by passing my Amir Locke End Deadly No Knock Warrants Act, my package of bills making police violence against protesters a federal crime (among other provisions), and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And most of all, we must build a police force that is well-trained, held accountable by its leadership, and follows the highest standards of ethics and conduct.
Britain’s former prime minister Boris Johnson and America’s former president Donald Trump appear headed down different paths this week as they navigate the fallout from their conduct now that they’ve left higher office – a reflection of the varying political cultures and systems in the nations they once led, the Associated Press reports.
Here’s mostly AP’s take, with some light Guardian editing:
On Thursday, a committee of the House of Commons released a scathing report about how Johnson lied to Parliament and intimidated those investigating lockdown-flouting parties in his administration during the pandemic. The committee said Johnson’s conduct was so flagrant that it warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament, although that recommendation was largely symbolic because he resigned from the House of Commons last week. He was ousted as prime minister almost a year ago, partly due to the “partygate” scandal.
Two days earlier, Trump became the first former US president to appear before a federal judge in a criminal case. He also faces charges of filing false business documents in an unrelated matter in New York involving Stormy Daniels, and additional legal risk in two more investigations of his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, and the ongoing civil case with writer E Jean Carroll after a jury found he sexual assaulted her.
Both Trump and Johnson want to return to power. But while Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2024 election, despite facing possibly decades in prison if he is convicted in federal court, Johnson is out in the cold, politics-wise (if not media-wise).
Under Britain’s parliamentary system, prime ministers are selected not by popular vote but because they are the leaders of the party that controls a majority in the House of Commons. That means Johnson would have to win back the support of luminaries in his Conservative Party before he had any chance of returning to Parliament, much less the prime minister’s office.
“We are a parliamentary as opposed to a presidential system. That means that actually there is probably less room for a thorough-going populist to capture both his or her or her party – and, indeed, the country – in the United Kingdom than there is in the United States,” said Tim Bale, a political science professor at Queen Mary University of London.
That’s because of the United States’ two-party system, which Trump exploited in 2016 when he entered electoral politics for the first time. The parties nominate candidates in primary elections decided by their own voters, giving an edge to the most partisan or bombastic. Trump has cemented his power by focusing on building loyalty among Republican voters, so any party member who criticizes him is vulnerable to a primary challenge. That’s effectively split the United States in two.
By contrast, Britain doesn’t have primary elections and doesn’t elect prime ministers by popular vote, making it difficult for politicians to take their message to voters without first winning the support of party leaders.
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The US senator Tina Smith, a Democrat of Minnesota, has praised the federal investigation into policing in Minneapolis in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the city in 2020 and said the “findings released today enumerate in vivid and heartbreaking detail what members of this community have known for a long time”.
Smith issued a statement, saying:
I commend the Department of Justice for its thorough investigation into the patterns and practices of the Minneapolis Police Department. Following the tragic murder of George Floyd, and the violence and harm done to too many people at the hands of the MPD, I called on the Department of Justice to conduct this investigation. The findings released today enumerate in vivid and heartbreaking detail what members of this community have known for a long time, that the MPD has engaged in longstanding practices that deny people their rights under the Constitution and federal law, and has brought lasting and real harm to people. Nonetheless, it is shocking to see spelled out the discriminatory, violent and unaccountable behavior of MPD, especially toward Black and Native American people, and those living with behavioral disabilities.
Every Minnesotan deserves to be safe and protected by law enforcement in their community. Minneapolis has taken some initial steps in advancing reforms, and this investigation provides a template for the work ahead to remake MPD policies, supervision, training, and officer wellness programs so we have true accountability. I’m grateful for the city leaders, faith leaders, public safety and mental health providers, and all the community members who provided their experiences for this report.
I am also deeply aware of the challenges facing MPD officers, and know there are many people inside the department who work hard every day to make our community safe and want the department to do better. I look forward to the Department of Justice negotiating with the City and MPD toward a consent decree to enforce reform. It is vitally important that the community have every opportunity for input into that process.”
What else has Smith been talking about lately? Here are a couple of pertinent tweets.
About the Supreme Court decision yesterday:
This is a welcome decision — but efforts to undermine Tribal sovereignty will no doubt continue.
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) June 15, 2023
I’m fiercely committed to defending the law and upholding our responsibilities to Tribal Nations. https://t.co/fxvmEG81FR
This:
A policy that lifted *millions* of kids out of poverty expired. Sitting on our hands and doing nothing isn’t an option.
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) June 14, 2023
The Child Tax Credit is what politics is all about: improving people’s lives.
We need to renew it. https://t.co/Frjio5cAP9
And this!
Republicans’ America:
— Tina Smith (@TinaSmithMN) June 15, 2023
—
Violate the Espionage Act? Meh.
Perform an abortion? Jail.
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The day so far
The justice department announced the disturbing findings of their investigation into the Minneapolis police department, whose officers killed George Floyd in 2020, sparking weeks of nationwide protests. Federal investigators determined Minneapolis cops “routinely” use excessive force, and discriminate against Black and Native American people, as well as those with behavioral health issues. The city and the federal government agreed to negotiate on an agreement to make what appear to be much-needed changes to the department. Meanwhile, the supreme court announced more decisions, but did not include closely watched cases on affirmative action or Joe Biden’s student loan plan.
Here’s what else happened today:
Iowa’s top court maintained a block on the state’s strict abortion ban, but lawmakers appear to have an avenue to reimpose it.
National security experts are reacting with horror to the emerging revelations about Donald Trump’s handling of government secrets.
The next opportunity for the supreme court to release decisions is on Thursday, 22 June.
As he headed to the airport for today’s visit to Connecticut, Joe Biden said he had not been briefed about the justice department’s findings into the Minneapolis police department.
“I haven’t spoken to the attorney general at all,” the president replied, when asked by a reporter.
That’s consistent with what he’s been saying ever since the federal charges against Donald Trump were unveiled last week – that while he may have appointed Garland as the country’s top law enforcement officer, he does not discuss such things with him.
As the press conference ended, assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke elaborated on how the consent decree will be negotiated:
The community will be deeply engaged every step of the way. The city has entered into an agreement in principle and agreed to enter into a consent decree that will include an independent monitor. That consent decree will be entered in a federal court before a federal judge. We will take an input from the community, from stakeholders, and from law enforcement in putting together the terms of that consent decree, that will include the reforms that we deem necessary to resolve the four core findings that are set forth in the justice department’s findings report.
After all that, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara spoke to reporters.
“We are incredibly thankful for the deep dive assessment that the United States department of justice has done on behalf of the people of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis police department,” O’Hara said. “We acknowledge the pain, anger, frustration, fear and sense of vulnerability that many people in our community have endured.”
He continued: “Our goal is to move forward together and ensure that we provide the best possible policing services for all members of our community. I promise you today that our department will be transparent and will provide an ongoing accounting of our successes as well as our challenges while at the same time continuing our dedicated efforts to keep all people of Minneapolis safe and secure, today and tomorrow.”
“Out of the darkness and trauma our residents and our police officers have experienced over the last three years, we will emerge as a beacon of light for the rest of the world,” O’Hara concluded.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey took the podium to remark on the justice department’s findings.
“Today marks a new chapter in the history of public safety in Minneapolis,” Frey said.
“Our success won’t be relegated to a report. It won’t be relegated to compliance figures or a judge’s signature,” Frey vowed. “Our success will be defined by the people of Minneapolis feeling safe in fact feeling safer when interacting with police in our city. We are not going to stop until every single person in every single neighborhood and zip code will feel safe interacting with the police.”
Clarke elaborated further on the investigation’s finding that Minneapolis police discriminated against Black and Native American people:
We found that MPD disproportionately stops Black people and Native American people. During stops involving Black and Native American people, MPD performs searches more frequently than during stops involving white people, even when they behave in similar ways. MPD also … uses force during stops involving Black and Native American people more frequently than they do during stops involving white people, even when they behave in similar ways.
The determination came after a deep analysis of police data, Clarke said. “We reviewed over five years of MPD data from November 1 of 2016 to August 9 of 2022 on roughly 187,000 traffic and pedestrian stops. We also conducted interviews and ride alongs and we reviewed other documents and information that the city provided.”
Kristen Clarke, the justice department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, related more horror stories about the Minneapolis police at their ongoing press conference.
“We found that officers use deadly force without probable cause to believe that there was an immediate threat of serious physical harm to the officer or another person,” Clarke said. “In one example, an off-duty officer fired his gun at a car containing six people within three seconds of getting out of his squad car.”
Clarke continued by saying that the police use neck restraints, tasers, pepper spray and bodily force without warning and in ways that is inconsistent with the law.
“We saw repeated instances of excessive force against kids without appropriate attempts to de-escalate the situation,” Clarke said. In one instance, “an MPD officer wearing street clothes drew his gun and pinned a teenager to the hood of a car for allegedly taking a $5 burrito without paying”.
There were instances where Minneapolis police did not take proper care of people in their custody, Clarke said.
“After pepper spraying a group of people who were fighting, MPD officers ignored pleas to call an ambulance for one woman who needed help because she had asthma. Disregarding the medical distress of a person who is in custody or after a use of force is unlawful, and often officers who could have intervened to stop the use of excessive force by their colleagues did not do so. This violates the constitution,” she said.
Updated
Garland noted that the police department had already made some progress in changing their ways, but more needs to be done.
“Some important changes have already been instituted. Those include prohibiting all types of neck restraints and banning no-knock search warrants,” the attorney general said.
“But as the report outlines, there is more work to be done. The justice department is recommending 28 remedial measures that provide a starting framework to improve public safety, build community trust and comply with the constitution and federal law.”
The Minneapolis police also beat up reporters, Garland said.
“One officer approached a journalist who was filming while holding up his press credential and shouting, ‘I’m press.’ The officer … forcefully pushed the journalist’s head to the pavement … and when the journalist held up his press credential again, an MPD sergeant pepper sprayed him in the face and walked away.”
Garland then got into the specifics of what the justice department determined the Minneapolis police did, including instances of brutal treatment of citizens and racist language.
“We found that the Minneapolis police department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust, deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers,” the attorney general said. He related a 2017 incident in which a police officer fatally shot a woman, who an officer said “‘spooked him’ when she approached his squad car. The woman had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in a nearby alley.”
Garland said Minneapolis police “routinely disregard the safety of people in their custody”.
“Our review found numerous incidents in which MPD officers responded to a person’s statement that they could not breathe with a version of ‘you can breathe. You’re talking right now.’”
The attorney general also related a story of four Somali American teens who were stopped by police. “One officer told the teens, ‘do you remember what happened in Black Hawk Down, when we killed a bunch of your folk? I’m proud of that. We didn’t finish the job over there. If we had, you guys wouldn’t be over here right now.’” The comments were a reference to a 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, involving US special forces.
“Such conduct is deeply disturbing, and it erodes the community’s trust in law enforcement,” Garland said.
Updated
Garland also said the justice department and the city of Minneapolis “have agreed in principle to negotiate towards a consent decree”.
That the sort of agreement federal prosecutors reach with cities to reform their police departments following investigations into how they interact with the community.
“We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect. But the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said. “As one city leader told us, ‘these systemic issues didn’t just occur on May 25 2020. There were instances like that, that were being reported by the community long before that.’”
Updated
Minneapolis police use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native Americans
The Minneapolis police force use excessive force and discriminate against marginalized groups, including Black and Native Americans and people with behavioral issues, attorney general Merrick Garland said as he announced the findings of the justice department’s investigation following George Floyd’s death.
“We found that MPD … engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black and Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaged in protected speech and discriminating against people with behavioral disabilities and … when responding to them in crisis,” Garland said.
Updated
We don’t yet know what the justice department will say about the Minneapolis police force, but the signs are not looking good.
Last year, the Minnesota department of human rights found that police in the state’s largest city engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination, including singling Black people out for stops and arrests at a higher rate than white people, tolerating racist language by its officers and using more force on people of color.
In March of this year, the city council okayed a deal with the state to reform its police force. Here’s more on that agreement, from the Associated Press:
The city council approved the court-enforceable agreement on Friday on an 11-0 vote, but not before several members expressed harsh criticism of the Minneapolis police department and other city leaders over the years.
“The lack of political will to take responsibility for MPD is why we are in this position today,” council member Robin Wonsley said.
“This legal settlement formally and legally prevents city leadership from deferring that responsibility any more. And I hope this settlement is a wake-up call for city leaders, whom the public has watched rubber-stamp poor labor contracts, have signed off on endless misconduct settlements, and then shrugged their shoulders when residents asked then why we have a dysfunctional police department.”
The state agency launched its investigation shortly after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes, disregarding the Black man’s fading pleas that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death sparked mass protests that spread around the world and reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement.
It forced a national reckoning on racial injustice and compelled the Minneapolis police department to begin an overhaul.
Chauvin was later convicted of murder. He and three other officers who were at the scene are now serving prison terms.
We’ll find out what the federal investigation discovered when attorney general Merrick Garland speaks at 11am.
Updated
Back to the supreme court, the next chance for the justices to release opinions is this coming Thursday, 22 June.
The court did release two opinions today, both of which dealt with minute aspects of federal law, as Bloomberg Law reports:
1st #SCOTUS opinion in sentencing case, Lora v. United States. Jackson has the opinion for a unanimous #SCOTUS.
— Kimberly Robinson (@KimberlyRobinsn) June 16, 2023
Court says bar on consecutive sentences under 18 USC 924(c) does not apply to convictions under 924(j), meaning those can run either consecutively or concurrently.
Last #SCOTUS opinion is 8-1 ruling in False Claims Act case, US ex rel Polansky.
— Kimberly Robinson (@KimberlyRobinsn) June 16, 2023
Justices say government can move to dismiss FCA action even if after the "seal period."
Justice department to announce findings of inquiry into police department behind George Floyd death
Attorney general Merrick Garland will at 11am eastern time announce the findings of the justice department’s two-year investigation into the Minneapolis police department after George Floyd’s death at the hands of officers in the city, Reuters reports.
Floyd’s death sparked weeks of nationwide protests, and led to the convictions of several police officers involved in his botched arrest. The justice department opened the investigation after the 2021 conviction of Derek Chauvin, the officer responsible for killing Floyd.
We’ll cover the press conference here as it happens.
Updated
No supreme court rulings on loans, redistricting, affirmative action today
The supreme court issued just two rulings this morning, but did not disclose its highly anticipated decisions in cases concerning affirmative action, Joe Biden’s student loan relief program or congressional redistricting.
Those will presumably come at a later date.
Top Iowa court refuses to unblock abortion ban
The highest court in the US state of Iowa has refused to allow a strict abortion ban to go into effect in a just-released ruling, the Associated Press reports.
Here’s more from their story:
Iowa’s high court refused Friday to unblock a strict ban on most abortions, rebuffing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and, for now, keeping the conservative state from joining others that have severely limited access to the procedure.
The decision to uphold a 2019 district court ruling that blocked the law comes roughly a year after the same body – and the U.S. Supreme Court – determined that women do not have a fundamental constitutional right to abortion.
The blocked law bans abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
While the state’s high court maintains the block on the law, it does not preclude Reynolds and lawmakers from passing a new law that looks the same. The decision Friday was largely procedural – the 2022 appeal to the 2019 ruling was too late.
Abortions remain legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Updated
Supreme court could decide on affirmative action, student loan relief
We’re a few minutes away from 10am ET, when the supreme court will release a new batch of opinions. There’s no telling which cases it will rule on, but several high-profile challenges from this term remain to be decided.
These include the dispute over Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some federal student loan debt, whether or not affirmative action in college admissions is constitutional, and a case that could upend how congressional districts are drawn nationwide.
We’ll be covering the rulings live on this blog as they come out.
Updated
Donald Trump’s federal indictment over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago represents the worst legal peril the former president has yet faced, but as the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports, it’s turning out to be not much of an opportunity for his Republican rivals:
Donald Trump is contending with grave criminal charges for violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice but the immediate political damage has, jarringly, been felt most acutely not by the defendant but his other rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.
The indictment of a presidential candidate once upon a time would have been a major vulnerability in a Republican primary contest. Damaging details about the illegal activity might have been seized upon as examples of unfitness for office and the legal battle seen as a distraction.
Maddeningly for Trump’s rivals, the biggest winner politically – so far at least – of the indictment against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case appears to be Trump himself, who has been the singular focus of news coverage and embraced as a martyr by much of the wider Republican party.
National security experts appalled at Trump allegations - report
CNN reports that two attorneys representing Donald Trump, Chris Kise and Todd Blanche, have already begun the process of obtaining the security clearances from the justice department they will need to represent the former president in the documents case. Trump is also looking for another attorney to add to his team, who will need a security clearance as well. Federal judge Aileen Cannon has given the attorneys until today to contact the justice department, and wants to hear by 20 June whether they have complied with her instructions.
There’s still plenty we don’t know about the Mar-a-Lago documents case, but the Hill spoke to several national security experts who expressed their outrage at how the government secrets were allegedly handled.
“As a guy who’s spent 32 years working to create and produce this intelligence for our national policymakers, it was nauseating to see somebody who served as our commander in chief, as our president, treat this material so recklessly,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and senior director of the White House situation room.
“Seeing the photographs of boxes on ballroom stages and in bathrooms next to a toilet and spilled out on the floor because of his carelessness just made me sick.”
Tess Bridgeman, a deputy legal adviser to the national security council, called the documents “something that is always alarming to see having made its way outside of a SCIF”, referring to a sensitive compartmented information facility, where such material is typically viewed.
“When you look at some of the portion markings indicating sensitive signals intelligence and even more so sensitive human intelligence, it’s not just indicating what we know are secrets that are very closely guarded but also how we know it, which raises the concern that it’s not just the information that could be compromised, it’s also sources and methods that could be compromised,” Bridgeman added.
Updated
Cannon issues first order in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents case
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The wheels of justice are said to grind slowly, but they move nonetheless, including in the case of Donald Trump allegedly hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Yesterday, Aileen Cannon, the federal judge handling the matter (who also happens to be an appointee of the former president with a history of decisions some observers say indicated partiality towards him), issued her first order in the case.
Cannon told all attorneys involved to obtain from the justice department the security clearances necessary to view the documents Trump is said to have kept with him after leaving the White House – which are crucial evidence for the prosecution. Security clearances are common among the defense and intelligence communities, and the order is largely procedural. But it’s the first step in what is expected to be a long legal road for the former president, with potentially great implications for the 2024 elections.
Here’s what else is going on today:
The supreme court will at 10am eastern time release more decisions. There’s no telling which cases they will rule on, but outstanding matters include Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan and affirmative action at universities.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are both taking jaunts out of Washington DC today. The president is heading to Connecticut to mark the anniversary of a gun safety bill he oversaw passage of last year, while the vice-president will go to Colorado to discuss fighting the climate crisis.
Olivia Dalton, the deputy White House press secretary, will speak to reporters aboard Air Force One sometime after 11.30am.
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