Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to decide later this summer whether Donald Trump and associates will face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August.
The federal judge overseeing the case involving former Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office has agreed to delay an upcoming hearing in the case. The hearing, originally scheduled for 14 July, will now occur on 18 July.
Trump asked the federal judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case to indefinitely postpone setting a trial date in court filings and suggested, at a minimum, that any scheduled trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election.
Joe Biden’s pick to become the country’s top military officer, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown, warned senators that an indefinite blockade of senior officer promotions could have a far-reaching impact across the US armed forces.
Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville has tripled down on his belief that not all white nationalists should be labelled as “racists”, just a day after he said the definition of a “white nationalist” was a matter of “opinion”. Tuberville was “wrong, wrong, wrong”, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said, while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said “white supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.”
Supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff pressed public institutions, including colleges and libraries, to buy copies of her books when she traveled there for speaking engagements, according to an AP report.
The House rules committee held a hearing on the $874bn annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). More than 1,500 amendments were filed to the bill, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will need to navigate between the demands of his most conservative members and the need for Democratic votes in order to get a bill ultimately signed into law.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will host the first GOP presidential forum for the 2024 primary season this week, but notably missing from the lineup is the current GOP frontrunner, former president Donald Trump.
The Secret Service will provide a briefing to Congress on the discovery of cocaine at the White House on Thursday.
A US thinktank chief who accuses Joe Biden of China-linked corruption involving his son, Hunter Biden, and who has been presented by Republicans as a “missing” witness against the president, was charged with China-linked offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent, arms trafficking and violations of sanctions on Iran.
Updated
Joe Biden’s pick to become the country’s top military officer warned senators that an indefinite blockade of senior officer promotions could have a far-reaching impact across the US armed forces.
Testifying at his Senate armed services committee confirmation hearing to be the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown, the outgoing air force chief of staff, said “we will lose talent” as a result of the prolonged hold on general and flag officers.
Brown made the remarks shortly after being questioned by Republican senator Tommy Tuberville, who has used a Senate procedure to put a hold on hundreds of military nominations from moving forward in protest of Pentagon abortion policies. An aide to Tuberville said his block would also apply to Brown, Reuters reported.
Brown also said that the inability of senior officers to take new assignments created a “chain of events” that affects junior officers as well as military families.
Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren have slammed Tuberville for punishing uniformed military leaders who were not responsible for the policy on abortion travel that he was protesting. Warren said:
If the senator from Alabama continues his reckless action, he will soon be holding 650 leaders who have served their country honorably hostage.
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