Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Donald Trump faced a deadline of midnight on Thursday to say if he would appear before a Washington grand jury convened by the special counsel Jack Smith to consider federal charges over his election subversion and incitement of the attack on Congress on 6 January 2021.
Prosecutors had assembled evidence to charge Trump with three crimes, the Guardian reported late on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. They were: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and an unusual statute that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights.
A federal grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election has heard testimony from an aide who was with the former president for much of the day on 6 January 2021. William Russell was asked to appear on Thursday after making previous grand jury appearances. A data expert who worked on the 2020 election was also reportedly scheduled to appear before a grand jury.
House speaker Kevin McCarthy has denied he privately promised Trump that he would get legislation passed that would erase Trump’s two impeachments. According to a Politico report, in return for delaying an endorsement for Trump’s 2024 president election, McCarthy pledged that he would get the House to vote to expunge both impeachments against the former president. The outlet said McCarthy had promised to do so before Congress leaves for an August recess.
The Democratic-led Senate judiciary committee voted to advance a supreme court ethics reform bill that would tighten financial disclosures and bolster recusal requirements for justices. The vote was along party lines, with Republicans adamantly opposed. The panel vote came after months of scrutiny on the court over ethical controversies supreme court justices have been involved in.
Conservative non-profit groups steered by the rightwing legal activist, Leonard Leo, reportedly orchestrated a $1.8m public relations campaign to defend and celebrate supreme court justice, Clarence Thomas, after he faced renewed scrutiny over his past misconduct claims.
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr defended himself against accusations of racism and antisemitism at a hearing on alleged “weaponization” of the federal government. Kennedy provoked anger last week when he was filmed falsely suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. A report seen by the Guardian said Kennedy has a long history of racism, antisemitism and xenophobia.
Updated
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis backed Senator Tommy Tuberville’s months-long blockade on military nominations over the Pentagon’s abortion policy, saying that the policy would “go out the window” if he became president.
Asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt if he thinks Tuberville should release his hold, DeSantis replied: “No I don’t.” He added:
The military’s policy is not following US law. They are using tax dollars. They’re funding abortion tourism, which is not an appropriate thing for the military to be doing.
He said:
Day one as commander-in-chief, that policy will go out the window.
Tuberville, the Republican senator for Alabama, mounted his obstruction effort earlier this year. He is seeking the end of Department of Defense policy that provides paid time off and covers travel costs for servicewomen and dependents in need of abortion services.
Tuberville’s blockade has so far impacted nearly 300 military promotions, according to the Hill. The Pentagon has said more than 650 leadership positions could be vacant by the end of the year.
Joe Biden and the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said last week that the senator’s hold is jeopardising US national security.
