| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | |  The latest news about the Jan. 6 committee's subpoena to get new footage of Donald Trump comes just ahead of the panel's next hearing. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | After we scooped this morning that the Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed documentarian ALEX HOLDER for his 2020 footage of DONALD TRUMP and his inner circle, Holder confirmed the news in a statement, saying he's fully cooperating with the probe. "When we began this project in September 2020, we could have never predicted that our work would one day be subpoenaed by Congress," he said. "As a British filmmaker, I had no agenda coming into this. We simply wanted to better understand who the Trumps were and what motivated them to hold onto power so desperately." Holder added that the project is a three-part series over which he had total editorial control, including filming at the Capitol on Jan. 6. — Per CBS' Robert Costa: Trump campaign folks "recall a film crew coming to HQ at least once. They also remember it being odd because campaign's legal team seemed surprised, as if it was an unvetted project. … The campaign's lawyers were like, 'Huh, what is this? What's going on today?' Saw it as another side project from the family/Trump confidants." — Per NYT's Maggie Haberman: "A very small group of people had knowledge of this documentary project, and a lot of Trump advisers were surprised to see it existed this morning. … Senior campaign officials were unaware of the project, according to one former official." — "'What the F-ck Is This?': Team Trump Blindsided by Jan. 6 Committee Getting Doc Footage," by Rolling Stone's Nikki McCann Ramirez and Asawin Suebsaeng: "Former administration and campaign officials tell Rolling Stone they had no idea a film crew had months of access to the former president and his family." The committee's next hearing kicks off at 1 p.m. CNN's Ryan Nobles and Manu Raju report that it will include "information on how at least [one] Republican member of Congress pressured at least one state to overturn its election results." SCOTUS WATCH — The much-anticipated Supreme Court abortion ruling did not arrive this morning, but the high court did hand down a major ruling on public funding for religious school tuition. There are few arenas of the law in which the current conservative majority has been as consistent and active as religious liberty, and the 6-3 ruling in Carson v. Makin today proved no exception. The court struck down a Maine law that bars students from using taxpayer money to attend religious private schools in towns that lack a public high school. (The funds were allowed to go only to secular private schools.) Though the number of Maine students affected is pretty small, the case drew outsize publicity for its implications for education and religion nationally. Details from the Portland Press Herald — The majority opinion: In his ruling, Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS wrote that the Maine program "promotes stricter separation of church and state than the Federal Constitution requires. But a State's antiestablishment interest does not justify enactments that exclude some members of the community from an otherwise generally available public benefit because of their religious exercise." — A striking dissent: Justice SONIA SOTOMAYOR warned that with the ruling "the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation." Read the ruling and dissents here Another notable SCOTUS move: The court declined to take up an appeal from Bayer to protect the company from cancer lawsuits over its Roundup weed-killer, which could cost Bayer billions of dollars. More from Bloomberg Good Tuesday afternoon.
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Learn how Meta is helping build the metaverse. | | | THE ECONOMY RECESSION WATCH — Goldman Sachs today predicted a 30% likelihood of a recession within the next year, up from its previous estimate of 15%. More from Reuters CONGRESS GUN REFORM LATEST — Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) told ABC's Allison Pecorin that bill text on a guns deal could come today — "hopefully shortly" — as negotiators work out remaining "details." He added that getting booed by Republicans last week for his role in negotiations hasn't changed his approach. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES — In the latest sign that chatter is building again around a possible Democratic reconciliation bill, AARP is launching a new TV ad campaign in West Virginia pushing Sen. JOE MANCHIN to back prescription drug reform in the legislation, NBC's Sahil Kapur scooped. The cable and broadcast spots are part of a larger multimillion-dollar effort including print and radio. ALL POLITICS FOLLOWING THE MONEY — JEFF YASS, an under-the-radar billionaire who's become one of America's wealthiest people and one of the largest megadonors to conservatives, has managed to avoid at least $1 billion in taxes via "trading strategies that reduce his tax burden but push legal boundaries," ProPublica's Justin Elliott, Jesse Eisinger, Paul Kiel, Jeff Ernsthausen and Doris Burke report in a big investigation. Yass declined to comment, but an expert tells them his moves (which yielded a recent average federal income tax rate of 19%) are "very suspicious and suggestive of potential abuse that should be examined by the IRS." Now Yass is one of the country's most powerful funders, pumping $100 million into causes and candidates on the right. A TALE OF TWO GOVERNORS — Two interesting stories out this morning capture the parties' diverging midterm fortunes: Democrats' enthusiasm struggles, exemplified by New York Gov. KATHY HOCHUL's reelect, and Republicans' attempt to rile up the base while winning over moderates, exemplified by Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS' reelect. — Democrats across New York are sounding the alarm about Hochul's sleepy reelection campaign, which is cruising toward a primary win but may not be doing enough to drive engagement and turnout for "Democrats in key congressional and state races" in November, NYT's Nick Fandos and Jeffery Mays report. GEORGE ARZT, Democratic strategist: "Everyone is scratching their heads. She's held no rallies and she needs to get out the vote … The person who's in jeopardy is not her, but her running mate, [ ANTONIO DELGADO]." — Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS may delight in acting as a conservative lightning rod in the culture wars, but he's managed to sway many Sunshine State moderates by keeping life relatively unrestricted through the pandemic, reports WaPo's Tim Craig from Jacksonville. His reelection campaign this fall will present a major test of his strategy: Democrats hope to turn out voters turned off by DeSantis' pugnacity, while Republicans expect to sail to victory on his handling of the economy and Covid. Craig finds that many conservative voters love DeSantis' fighting spirit, and the GOP hopes to make inroads with Black voters in Duval County. Interesting case study: 52-year-old pharmaceutical sales worker DEB SCHAEFER, a lifelong Democrat and JOE BIDEN voter in Jacksonville, says she loves DeSantis for his handling of the pandemic — and abortion rights is the only issue that could make her reconsider. 2024 WATCH — Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN didn't rule out a run for president on "Fox and Friends" this morning: "Whenever anybody asks me this question, I am incredibly humbled and honored by it. … We've still got a lot of work to do in Virginia, and that's where my attention is."
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD TRADE WARS — Biden likely won't make a decision on whether to lift some China tariffs before next week's G-7 meeting, Reuters' Andrea Shalal, David Lawder and Trevor Hunnicutt report. The president discussed the matter with White House officials Friday; now, as Biden leans toward action, "advisers are poring over Trump-era tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods - many of which they see lacking strategic value." MAJOR REVERSAL — The White House today said the U.S. will mostly stop using land mines outside of the Korean Peninsula, undoing the Trump administration's move to make the lethal weapons more broadly accessible to U.S. forces, per WaPo. The change, which shifts control from the Pentagon to the White House, constitutes a more significant elevation of human rights as a decision-making priority. It will bring the U.S. into compliance with most aspects of the 1997 Ottawa Convention prohibiting land mines, which advocates cheered, though they urged the U.S. to go further and fully end land mine use to join the treaty. WAR IN UKRAINE SURPRISE STOP — A.G. MERRICK GARLAND visited Ukraine today, meeting with Prosecutor General IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA to discuss her war crimes probes. More from USA Today WHAT'S NEXT — After a few key weeks of fighting in Ukraine's east, U.S. officials say they now have a better sense of where they expect the war to head ultimately, report NYT's Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Julian Barnes : "Russia is likely to end up with more territory, they said, but neither side will gain full control of the region as a depleted Russian military faces an opponent armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons." And Russia may have difficulty replicating its slow Luhansk successes in Donetsk.
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | POLICY CORNER UP IN SMOKE — The Biden administration is expected this week to roll out new rules essentially forcing cigarettes to lose all their nicotine. WSJ's Jennifer Maloney dives into the past 15 years of research underpinning the shift, which have shown that reducing nicotine will help wean people off addiction and expose them to fewer toxins. (The tobacco industry disputes the findings.) The upshot: "The policy could sharply decrease U.S. cigarette sales," though it would take several years to go into effect. RAISE THE ROOF — The Biden administration today announced major new pay raises for more than 16,000 federal wildland firefighters, per the AP. The money had originally been designated in the bipartisan infrastructure law, but the administration needed time to work out the logistics.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVES — Shawn Zeller is joining POLITICO as a deputy health care editor. He most recently was national security editor at CQ Roll Call, where he worked for 17 years. … WaPo announced several internal moves, naming Sean Sullivan deputy politics editor for campaigns, Hannah Knowles a national political reporter and Scott Wilson a senior national correspondent in California. TRANSITIONS — Daleep Singh is now chief global economist and head of global macroeconomic research for PGIM Fixed Income. He previously was deputy national security adviser for international economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council, the administration's top sanctions coordinator. … Neel Maitra is now a corporate partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's securities regulatory and complex transactions group. He previously was a senior special counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets at the SEC. ENGAGED — Meredith Good-Cohn, director of strategic sales at Unite Us and a CMS and Senate HELP alum, and Matthew Little, a project manager at Buch Construction, got engaged on the Potomac River on Friday. The couple met in Washington on the exact date (also Matt's birthday) five years ago. Pic … Another pic WEEKEND WEDDING — Marya Hannun, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and Michael Berry, VP of Tillman Global Holdings, got married Saturday in Positano, Italy. They met at a friend's wedding. Pic … Another pic
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