Category: US

Becca Balint, Vermont’s state Senate president, has won the Democratic nomination for the state’s at-large congressional seat, NBC News projects.

The victory makes her likely to become the first woman to represent the heavily Democratic state in Congress. Vermont is the only state that has never had a female member of its congressional delegation.

Balint, a state senator since 2014 who rose to Senate president two years ago, would also be the first openly gay lawmaker to represent the state on Capitol Hill should she win in November.

Balint, 54, a progressive Democrat backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the Vermont icons Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, defeated Lt. Gov. Molly Gray.

The more centrist Gray had the backing of fellow Democrats like former Vermont Govs. Madeline Kunin and Howard Dean, while retiring Sen. Pat Leahy had donated $5,000 to her campaign.

Leahy’s retirement announcement set the race for the House seat in motion. Democratic Rep. Peter Welch is running for the seat he is vacating.

Leahy, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 1974. Sanders, an independent and a former at-large representative, was elected to the Senate in 2006, the same year Welch was elected to the House.

The state has only three representatives in Congress — its two senators and an at-large House member.

These days, Republicans are making no secret of their plans to use a Hunter Biden inquiry next year as a platform to go after his father — after years of brushing off conflicts of interest within Trump’s family. No evidence has emerged to show that the business dealings of Hunter Biden, who’s faced a years-long federal investigation, affected his father’s decisions by him as president.

GOP lawmakers are pushing ahead anyway, planning a sprawling probe that will reach into the ethics of Hunter Biden’s artwork sales and other business deals, as well as policy decisions by the Biden administration.

“I’m not exactly sure I see a big difference” between starting with Hunter and incorporating Joe Biden from the getgo, said Rep. glenn grothman (R-Wis.), a member of the Oversight Committee, who is expected to take the lead on a House inquiry into Hunter Biden. “Obviously, you start with Hunter… [but] it appears as though the president is involved as well, and it’s something you’re going to have to look into.”

The president’s son has long fueled a conservative media fixation on par with Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified material, and a House majority would help Republicans try to push their narrative into the mainstream. But GOP plans to poke at Hunter Biden may have to compete with a growing GOP appetite for an in-depth House inquiry into the DOJ’s scrutiny of Trump, particularly if Republicans decide to form a select committee instead of launching an investigation through the Judiciary Committee.

Conversations Tuesday with more than a half-dozen House Republicans revealed deep concern about constituents panicked and infuriated by the FBI’s daylong Mar-a-Lago search.

“The base has lost its mind. If Trump decides to call them to arms, then I think he could get another Jan. 6,” one senior House Republican said in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But before this week’s law enforcement activity against Trump, House Republicans had been homing in on Hunter, and several name-checked him in their response to the FBI’s search. Months before an election that will determine whether they control the House, GOP lawmakers and committee aides are already doing prep work, including planning hearings, collecting documents and nailing down potential witnesses — including former business associates and banks.

Rep. james eat (R-Ky.), set to chair the Oversight Committee if Republicans win the majority, said he’ll be ready to formally launch an investigation in January, when the new Congress is sworn in.

“We’re going to have a great hearing early on the potential wrongdoing within the Biden family,” Comer said in an interview. “The fear is that these shady business dealings have compromised the president.”

Comer declined to name the witnesses he’d like to call, simply saying they’d be some of Hunter Biden’s former business associates. Hunter Biden will be invited to testify and it is “very possible” the First Son would be subpoenaed, he added.

The Oversight chair-in-waiting is prepared to answer critics who say his work is manufactured to ding Joe Biden; he insisted that House Republicans wouldn’t investigate Hunter Biden as a “political witch hunt.” But other Republicans are more open in depicting their broader oversight as a way to tee up a 2024 election where they hope to win back the White House.

“That will help frame up the 2024 race, when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again. And we need to make sure that he wins,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who’s set to chair the Judiciary Committee under a 2023 GOP majority, said at a CPAC conference in Texas late last week.

It would hardly be the first time a congressional investigation has converged with presidential politics, nor the first Hill investigation into Hunter Biden and by extension the wider Biden family. sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and chuck grassley (R-Iowa) conducted a joint probe of Hunter Biden heading into the 2020 election, sparking warnings from fellow Republicans about unintentionally spreading Russian disinformation.

But House Republicans are planning a more sweeping look: Comer fired off a laundry list of topics to delve into, including Hunter Biden’s work in China and an ethics agreement governing Hunter Biden’s art sales that’s been questioned by Obama-era officials.

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last year that ethics arrangements governing sales of the art were “not White House arrangements; they’re arrangements between Hunter Biden’s representatives and ones that we, certainly, were made aware of.”

Comer is using material from a laptop linked to Hunter Biden that’s attracted controversy, though he underscored that he’s interested in the Biden son’s finances, not salacious personal details.

In addition, Oversight Committee Republicans are still seeking Treasury Department suspicious activity reports relevant to Hunter Biden, though they’ve complained of an inability to obtain the material without Democratic support.

Treasury responded by indicating that its policy of requiring a committee chair or majority of members to OK requests for those reports applies regardless of political party. Some Democrats have also bristled over the department’s handling of suspicious activity reports.

“Since the beginning of this Administration, Treasury has made SARs available in response to authorized committee requests and continues to engage on the process with any individual members seeking information,” Treasury spokesperson Mike Gwin said in a statement.

Democrats are already excoriating the GOP’s investigative plans, accusing Republicans of selectively attacking Biden while ignoring ethical lapses during the Trump years.

“To borrow an old line, every time these Republicans open their mouths, it’s a noun, a verb, and Hunter Biden. They are pushing false conspiracy theories in a desperate effort to attack the President personally and politically, all in service — as they have admitted — of assisting another Trump campaign. And the public will see it for what it is: an abuse of power,” a person close to Biden said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Current Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.) said in a statement that if Comer “is concerned about presidential conflicts of interest, I would welcome him to join me in investigating taxpayer funds spent at Trump properties, serious deficiencies in President Trump’s financial disclosures, foreign government spending at the former Trump Hotel,” and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s ties to Saudi Arabia.

That criticism doesn’t faze House Republicans, who view this week’s search of Mar-a-Lago as further evidence that federal investigations are biased against conservatives — despite the role that one played in derailing Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

“When contrasted with their actions following Clinton-inspired Russian collusion allegations, [the] Clinton [email] server and Hunter Biden, the impression is strong that the FBI is selective and politicized,” said Rep. don bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a swing district.

And Comer, when asked about critics who cite Trump world conflicts of interest, described those as well-trodden ground by others.

“It is not like they are disagreeing on Hunter Biden,” Comer said, adding that “what I say is, ‘There are plenty of people investigating the Trump kids.’”

Olivia Beavers contributed.

The mere fact that the federal authorities had taken the remarkable step of searching the private residence of a former US president was a reminder of just how much legal scrutiny Mr. Trump is under as he considers running for president again in 2024.

He and his family have criticized the various investigations swirling around him as partisan or vindictive, and they have denied wrongdoing.

Federal prosecutors investigating attempts to reverse Mr. Trump’s loss in the 2020 election have asked witnesses directly about his involvement in those efforts. In Georgia, a criminal inquiry is focused on his push for him to have the election results altered there.

More immediately, Mr. Trump is scheduled to be deposed on Wednesday by lawyers from the New York State attorney general’s office as part of a long-running civil inquiry into whether he and his family’s real estate business fraudulently inflated the value of his hotels, golf courses and other assets to obtain favorable loans.

The status of other investigations into the former president is harder to fathom, although one — a criminal inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney’s office — appeared to lose steam in the spring. (A matter that had receded into the background re-emerged on Tuesday, when a federal appeals court ruled that the House could gain access to Mr. Trump’s tax returns.)

Here is where the notable inquiries involving Mr. Trump stand.

New York State Civil Inquiry

Mr. Trump fought for months to avoid the high-stakes deposition he is scheduled to sit for on Wednesday, which could shape the outcome of the civil inquiry by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, into him and his family business, the Trump Organization . (The deposition was to have been in July; it was delayed after the death of his first wife, Ivana.)

Ms. James’s investigation, which is in its final stages, is focused on whether financial statements in which Mr. Trump valued his assets reflected a pattern of fraud, or were simply examples of his penchant for exaggeration.

Ms. James said in a court filing this year that the Trump Organization’s business practices were “fraudulent or misleading,” but that her office needed to question Mr. Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., to determine who was responsible for the conduct.

The two sat for depositions recently after the judge overseeing the case ordered them to do so. Their brother Eric was interviewed in 2020 as part of the inquiry and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to a court filing.

The former president’s deposition follows a protracted legal battle that resulted in a state judge ruling in April that Mr. Trump was in contempt of court. That ruling came after Ms. James filed a motion asking that Mr. Trump be compelled to produce documents sought in eight previous requests.

His lawyers said they had searched for, and could not find, any documents the attorney general did not already have. The judge nonetheless fined Mr. Trump $10,000 a day until he filed affidavits describing the search. The contempt order was lifted in May after he paid a $110,000 fine and submitted the affidavits.

The same month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump that sought to halt Ms. James’s inquiry because, the former president’s lawyers argued, she had violated his rights, and her inquiry was politically motivated.

Because Ms. James’s investigation is civil, she can sue Mr. Trump but she cannot file criminal charges. She could also opt to pursue settlement negotiations in hopes of obtaining a swifter financial payout rather than file a lawsuit that would undoubtedly take years to resolve.

If Ms. James were to sue and prevail at trial, a judge could impose steep financial penalties on Mr. Trump and restrict his business operations in New York.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers would most likely argue in any such suit that valuing real estate is a subjective process, and that his company simply estimated the value of the properties in question, without intending to artificially inflate them.

Manhattan Criminal Case

Despite its civil nature, Ms. James’s inquiry and Mr. Trump’s deposition still carry the potential for criminal charges. That’s because the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation was also focused on the valuations of Mr. Trump’s properties before it appeared to flag in the spring. It could gain new life depending on Mr. Trump’s performance of him on Wednesday.

Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, said in April that the inquiry, which began under his predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., was continuing but he did not offer a clear sense of its direction.

Mr. Bragg’s comments came after two prosecutors who had been leading the investigation left. One of them, Mark F. Pomerantz, said in a resignation letter published by The New York Times that he believed the office had enough evidence to charge Mr. Trump with “numerous” felonies. Mr. Pomerantz criticized Mr. Bragg for not pursuing an indictment in the case.

In his April remarks on the matter, Mr. Bragg said new witnesses had been questioned and additional documents had been reviewed, although he declined to provide details. Later in April, The Times reported that at least three witnesses considered central to the case had not heard from Mr. Bragg’s office for several months or had not been asked to testify.

The investigation has yielded criminal charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg.

Last July, before Mr. Vance’s tenure ended, the district attorney’s office charged the company with running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from authorities. Mr. Weisselberg was charged with avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income.

The case has been tentatively scheduled to go to trial later this year.

Georgia Criminal Inquiry

Mr. Trump is also under scrutiny in Georgia, where Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, is investigating whether the former president and others criminally interfered with the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Trump and associates had numerous interactions with Georgia officials after the election, including a call in which he urged the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” the number he would have needed to overcome President Biden’s lead in the state.

It is the only known criminal inquiry that focuses directly on Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. In January, Fulton County’s top judge approved Ms. Willis’s request for a special grand jury in the matter.

On Tuesday, a different judge in Fulton County said Rudolph W. Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr. Trump and a central figure in the Georgia inquiry, needed to travel there to appear before the grand jury. Mr. Giuliani, who had two coronary heart stents implanted last month, had prosecutors told he was not healthy enough to fly to Georgia.

But the judge, Robert CI McBurney, tentatively ordered him to show up to deliver in-person testimony on Aug. 17. (Judge McBurney said he might reconsider the date if Mr. Giuliani’s doctor produced an adequate medical excuse.)

“Mr. Giuliani is not cleared for air travel, AIR,” Judge McBurney said. “John Madden drove all over the country in his big bus, from stadium to stadium. So one thing we need to explore is whether Mr. Giuliani could get here without jeopardizing his recovery and his health. On a train, on a bus or Uber, or whatever it would be,” he said, adding, “New York is not close to Atlanta, but it’s not traveling from Fairbanks.”

Judge McBurney also said on Tuesday that prosecutors should let Mr. Giuliani, 78, know whether he is a target of the criminal investigation. Ms. Willis’s office has already told at least 17 people that they are targets.

Westchester County Criminal Investigation

In Westchester County, Miriam E. Rocah, the district attorney, appears to be focused at least in part on whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of a golf course to reduce its taxes. She has subpoenaed the company for records on the matter.

Washington DC Lawsuit

In January 2020, Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, sued Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee, saying he had overpaid his own family business by more than $1 million or space at the Trump International Hotel during the January 2017 inaugural.

The lawsuit, which names the inaugural committee, the hotel, and the Trump Organization as defendants, is scheduled to go to trial in September, after a judge ordered that it could move forward.

Mr. Racine’s office has subpoenaed a range of parties, including Melania Trump, the former first lady, and has questioned Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who chaired the inaugural committee.

Jan. 6 Inquiry

A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — aided by more than a dozen former federal prosecutors — is examining the role Mr. Trump and his allies may have played in his efforts to hold onto power after his electoral defeat in November 2020 .

While the committee itself does not have the power to bring criminal charges, it could refer the matter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, to prosecute them through the Justice Department.

Jonah E. Bromwich, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Michael Rothfield and Ashley Wong contributed reporting.

• A man who helped Donald Trump write a book has a theory why Trump may’ve taken White House records.
• Charles Leerhsen speculated Trump might’ve taken documents to sell as “presidential memorabilia.”
• “If there’s a grift to be grifted, he’s gonna grift it,” Leerhsen told Newsweek.

An author who once helped Donald Trump write a book has a theory on why the former president might’ve taken some documents from the White House.

Charles Leerhsen, a ghostwriter who got contributing credit on the cover of Trump’s book “Surviving at the Top,” weighed in on the FBI’s unannounced search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday.

The reason for the FBI raid wasn’t immediately clear, thought reports indicated it was probably related to government documents that Trump may’ve brought to his Florida residence after leaving the White House. The National Archives asked the Department of Justice in February to investigate whether Trump broke the law by taking government records to Mar-a-Lago.

Leerhsen wrote on Facebook his theory about why Trump might’ve taken documents.

“As a former Trump ghostwriter (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) I feel obligated to point out that Trump may have taken documents that he intended to sell as presidential memorabilia,” Leerhsen said.

Speaking with Newsweek, Leerhsen said he had seen how Trump earned his money even before going into politics, adding that the former president wasn’t above “groveling.” Leerhsen acknowledged, per Newsweek, that he didn’t have firsthand knowledge about what precipitated the FBI raid but speculated that Trump might’ve wanted to keep pieces of paper he signed or other collectible items.

Leerhsen and representatives for Trump didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

“If there’s a grift to be grifted, he’s gonna grift it,” Leerhsen told Newsweek. “He has this very basic sense that he might be able to pawn it off on someone.”

He added that he once had a “firsthand sense” of Trump’s “avariciousness and his personality.”

“Like everyone else, I watched things get worse and spiral out of control,” Leerhsen told Newsweek.