The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump: Double standard in Hunter Biden plea deal

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 06/21/23 6:25 AM ET

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Former President Trump on Tuesday received an Aug. 14 trial date to begin to defend himself against the government’s prosecution of his handling of classified documents, although most observers expect the GOP presidential candidate to prolong the case for as long as possible rather than concede mistakes or try to settle.

Trump — who for years has accused President Biden and his son Hunter Biden, without evidence, of business corruption — pounced on Tuesday’s news that the president’s 53-year-old offspring agreed to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor charges stemming from late-filed tax returns and enter into a pretrial diversion agreement on a felony involving a handgun application during a period of drug use. Hunter Biden’s federal punishment would be probation (The Hill and The New York Times).

Trump turned to Truth Social to complain about the government’s plea deal with the president’s son.

“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere `traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” Trump said.

The former president’s allies on Capitol Hill said the younger Biden will still be subject to House Republican investigations of the Biden family’s business dealings despite settling with the Justice Department ahead of the presidential election year.

“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” said Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a Trump ally. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal” (The Hill).

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called the plea agreement a “slap on the wrist” and the Trump-supporting Make America Great Again super PAC criticized it as a “sweetheart deal” (The Hill). GOP lawmakers who may be reluctant to defend Trump in the classified documents case are more comfortable assailing what they see as politicized justice.

The president, who was fundraising in California this week, wants to keep the public focus on economic and legislative achievements, the mission among top officials during a three-week public relations blitz to more than 20 states beginning Monday and ending July 15. Biden wants to avoid getting drawn into Trump’s legal woes, or even Hunter Biden’s actions before Biden was elected president.

“I’m very proud of my son,” Biden told reporters.

▪ NBC News: Legal experts say the charges against Hunter Biden are rarely prosecuted.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Hunter Biden’s messy path to a plea deal.

▪ The New York Times: The plea agreement must be approved by a federal judge. Hunter Biden is expected to appear in court in Delaware in the coming days to be arraigned on the misdemeanor tax charges and plead guilty. He would not be prosecuted for owning a firearm during a period when he was using drugs, contingent on remaining drug-free for 24 months and agreeing never to own a firearm again.

Republicans who do not support Trump for a return to the White House, or fear he will cost the party seats in the House and Senate next year, are eyeing his apparent concession during a Fox News interview that he willfully retained boxes of White House documents. His shifting explanations for his actions are expected to be brought up at his trial.

His accounts: He was “busy” when the National Archives sought the presidential records, and he instead wanted to sort through cartons that he said contained papers as well as clothing and other personal items. Trump also suggested with zero evidence that the government could have ”stuffed” his boxes, stored at Mar-a-Lago, in order to frame him (Fox News).

Former Attorney General William Barr, who served Trump before quitting after the 2020 election, said decisive action by Attorney General Merrick Garland is required. Barr said there is a public perception that the Justice Department has a double standard while investigating Hunter Biden’s alleged law-breaking and Biden’s discovery of a handful of classified documents at his Delaware home, dating to his time as vice president and senator. The president’s handling of sensitive documents remains under Justice Department investigation.

“I think AG Garland should move quickly with concrete steps to address it,” Barr told Fox News. “The public needs to be assured that the two pending investigations about the Bidens — the one about mishandling of classified material and the broader one in Delaware — are being pursued with the same rigor as the case against Trump,” he added.

▪ The New York Times: Trump’s real estate deal with a Saudi firm building in Oman raises potential ethics questions as business and political roles intersect.

▪ CNN poll: Trump’s GOP support appears to soften post-indictment, but he holds the lead in the 2024 primary field.

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▪ CBS News: More than 29,000 LGBTQ+ military members were denied honorable discharges because of their sexuality, new figures show.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

As the 2024 campaign season heats up, there are plenty of surprises left. As the Hill’s Hanna Trudo reports, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could walk away with a win in the New Hampshire primary next year — a reality that few mainstream Democrats have let sink in. Though Kennedy, whose closeness to conspiracy theories — from COVID-19 vaccine misinformation to the origins of mass shootings — deeply worries the establishment, is unlikely to clinch the party’s nomination, he sees a conceivable path to victory in the Granite State, thanks to Biden’s push for a new primary calendar. While a win there would hardly spell doom for Biden, it could be a high-profile embarrassment at a time when he faces low approval ratings.

“It was President Biden’s decision to deprive New Hampshire of its historic First in the Nation Primary status,” Dennis Kucinich, the former left-wing presidential candidate who serves as Kennedy’s campaign manager, told The Hill on Monday. “Our decision is to respect the people of New Hampshire.”

For the time being, Biden’s allies are waving off any concerns about the primary. But Kennedy, who has seen surprisingly strong poll numbers in recent weeks, is almost sure to seize on a possible win amid growing discontent with the president.

📺 Our partners at NewsNation will host a 90-minute town hall with RFK Jr. at 9 p.m. EDT on June 28, originating from Chicago and moderated by anchor Elizabeth Vargas (The Hill).

▪ Politico: Your guide to the first Republican presidential primary debate. Candidates will face off Aug. 23. Here’s what to know.

▪ The Hill: Trump has not made a final decision on participating in the GOP debate on Fox.

▪ The Washington Post analysis: The tedious demand that everything be subjected to a made-for-TV “debate.”

More 2024 news: Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made dueling trips to California this week, underscoring the importance of the state politically and financially as they prepare for 2024 (The Hill). … DeSantis is continuing his feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), mocking Newsom’s apparent “fixation” on Florida while insisting that the Democratic governor’s “leftist government” is destroying The Golden State. Newsom, for his part, called DeSantis “weak” and “undisciplined” and said he “will be crushed by Donald Trump,” while insisting there’s no chance “on God’s green earth” he’ll run for president in 2024 (The Associated Press). … Trump suggested that his attacks against DeSantis are personal in a Fox News interview, saying that he finds it “very disloyal” that DeSantis joined the 2024 presidential race after Trump helped him get elected (Fox News). … In the same interview, the former president advocated for imposing the death penalty on convicted drug dealers, even as anchor Bret Baier pointed out that the policy would have applied to a woman Trump granted clemency to (The Hill). … As Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) flirts with a third-party campaign for president, his Democratic colleagues are taking him seriously enough to try to talk him out of it (Politico).

Meanwhile, Republicans are facing a dwindling number of alternatives to mount a challenge to Kari Lake in the Arizona Senate primary, raising concerns over what should be a prime pickup opportunity next year, The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports. Lake, who narrowly lost her gubernatorial election to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) last November, is weighing a potential Senate run for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I) seat.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) previously threw his hat in the ring while Sinema has not yet announced whether she’s running again. Republicans concede Lake would be the party’s frontrunner if she officially launched a bid and see almost no serious alternatives who could take her on — but they also worry her emphasis on baseless allegations of election fraud could cost them.

▪ The Hill: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) moves to force a vote on impeaching Biden over his handling of the border.

▪ Axios: House to vote this week on Biden impeachment and censure of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

▪ The Washington Post: DeSantis used a secretive panel to flip Florida’s Supreme Court. Leonard Leo, the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority, led the advisers who helped DeSantis.

▪ Politico: The sleeper legal strategy that could topple abortion bans. Jews, Espiscopalians, Unitarians, Satanists and other people of faith say the laws infringe on their religious rights.

A strike authorized Friday by Teamsters working for shipping giant UPS is the latest flash point in a conflict between organized labor and global logistics companies caused by 40-year high inflation that itself originated in global supply chain problems, writes The Hill’s Tobias Burns. The authorization comes after work stoppages on West Coast ports by longshoremen and port workers earlier this month, as well as a threatened strike last year by U.S. rail workers that prompted Biden — who has called himself the most pro-union president — and the White House to intervene.

Disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is back in the headlines, as a federal judge denied his latest attempt to keep sealed the identities of the people who financially backed his criminal bond. U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, an appointee of former President Clinton, ordered the names be unsealed at noon Thursday, giving the bond sureties a window to withdraw beforehand (The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Washington will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, highlighting a bipartisan effort to move past the many differences in the U.S.-India relationship and focus on their shared problem: China. As The Hill’s Laura Kelly and Sarakshi Rai report, the Indian premier’s trip comes amid a push for defense and tech deals between the countries, but some lawmakers and human rights groups are critical of the visit given the religiously motivated violence in the country. His historic address to the joint session of Congress has also raised alarm bells among activists and groups critical of the Modi administration’s push towards silencing dissenters in India and are worried the Biden administration will soften criticisms in exchange for advancing a powerful economic and military relationship.

Human rights groups and political opponents have accused Modi of stifling dissent and introducing divisive policies that discriminate against Muslims and other minorities. And India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, has said there are no allies or friends, only “frenemies” (The Associated Press).

“Now, we know that India and the United States are big, complicated countries,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the U.S.-India Business Council in Washington ahead of Modi’s visit. “We certainly have work to do to advance transparency, to promote market access, to strengthen our democracies, to unleash the full potential of our people. But the trajectory of this partnership is unmistakable, and it is filled with promise.”

▪ The Hill: Democrats push Biden to make human rights a focus in meeting with Modi.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: In an interview, Modi sees unprecedented trust with the U.S., touts New Delhi’s leadership role.

▪ The Washington Post: As Modi visits White House, India’s reliance on Russian arms constrains him.

▪ Reuters: After meeting with Modi on Tuesday, Elon Musk said Tesla is looking at significant investment in India.

▪ The Associated Press: Modi will bend leaders into shape on International Yoga Day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country has seen “no lost positions” in the counteroffensive against Russia. In a video update Tuesday, Zelensky assured the Ukrainian people that the high-stakes counteroffensive, for which the country has been preparing for months, is demonstrating Ukraine’s strength as it defends or retakes its territory (The Hill). Ukrainian forces are reinforcing positions they have reached in areas of the southern front line after having “partial success” fighting Russian forces, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday (Reuters).

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces in the south were “gradually, in small steps, but very confidently, making advances. We could even use the allegory that we are carving up every meter of land from the enemy.”

▪ The Associated Press: Russia says it downed three drones outside Moscow, suspects it was attack by Ukraine.

▪ The New York Times: Ukrainian captives released in prisoner exchanges say beatings were common, and that they suffered from woefully inadequate health care and food.

▪ The Associated Press: Once starved by war, millions of Ethiopians go hungry again as U.S., U.N. pause aid after massive theft.

➤ SCALING UP FOR AI GUARDRAILS

Biden on Tuesday met with a group of artificial intelligence experts and academics in San Francisco to discuss the risks and opportunities of a technology that is rapidly burrowing into the fabric of global human existence.

CNN reports the president and his West Wing advisers are racing to use executive authority to try to erect some guardrails and common policies around AI as applications, such as ChatGPT, outrun the snail’s pace of regulatory agencies and Congress.

Vice President Harris will hold a summit on artificial intelligence next month focused on consumer protection, CNN adds.

In July, leading AI companies — such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — are expected to announce privacy and safety commitments crafted in coordination with the White House, and the federal government will employ “appropriate methods to ensure companies live up to these commitments,” CNN’s sources add.

This summer, Biden and his team expect to deploy his executive heft and the government’s existing regulatory reach to tackle AI. They also believe legislation will be needed to address some novel aspects and issues, including the core AI technology. They’re creating an inventory of government regulations that could be applied to AI and identifying where new regulations are needed.

Semafor: AI content floods the internet, making human-generated text a precious resource.

“This is not an area that you can take years to get your arms around or regulate. You’ve got to measure time in weeks,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told CNN. “Speed is really important here. If one acts too slowly, you’re going to be behind by the time you take action, and your action is going to be leapfrogged by the technology,” he continued. “So, we have to act decisively and with speed and pull every lever we have to maximize the positive impact while minimizing any unintended consequences.”

▪ The Los Angeles Times: Biden met with experts on the dangers of AI during his California visit Tuesday.

▪ The Associated Press: The president discusses the risks and promises of artificial intelligence with tech leaders.

▪ Kiplinger: AI has powerful potential to make investing decisions easier.

▪ Foreign Policy: AI is winning the U.S.-China AI race.

California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu, working with Colorado Republican Ken Buck and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), this week plans to introduce legislation that would create a bipartisan commission to regulate artificial intelligence. Lieu in January wrote a New York Times op-ed titled “I’m a Congressman Who Codes. A.I. Freaks Me Out,” but he says he worries that Congress isn’t savvy enough at the moment to regulate AI, a technology that has raced beyond lawmakers’ efforts to figure out what kind of guardrails are required now and later. Lieu’s commission idea is supported in the Senate by Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz (Politico).

Separately, Lieu in April introduced legislation that would codify U.S. defense policy to expressly require humans to approve any launch of nuclear weapons.

“I’m not even sure we would know what we’re regulating at this point, because it’s moving so quickly,” Lieu told MSNBC on Tuesday. “Some of these harms may in fact happen, but maybe they don’t happen. Or maybe we see some new harm. … It’s good to have a commission of experts advise us because if we make a mistake, as a member of Congress, in writing legislation, you need another act of Congress to correct that.”

OPINION

■ Senators have preferred the art of obstruction, by David Firestone, editorial board member, The New York Times.

■ Antimicrobial resistance will be worse than COVID-19 — we have to act now, by

Donna Shalala, Mark McClellan and Lillian Abbo, opinion contributors, The Hill.

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will meet at 10 a.m.

The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.

The president is in California where he will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. PDT. Biden will return to Washington from California, arriving at the White House at 6:20 p.m. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for dinner at 7:15 p.m.

Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public events.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Paris to participate in a New Global Financing Pact summit.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in London where he participated this morning in the opening session of the Ukraine Recovery Conference and attended an address by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal before their meeting. At noon local time, Blinken met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. The secretary meets in the afternoon in London with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose monetary stewardship attracts much scrutiny, will testify about the state of the economy before the House Financial Services Committee at 10 a.m.

The first lady and Modi will visit the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Va., at 2:15 p.m. to meet with students from the U.S. and India and participate in a moderated conversation. The first lady will host a media preview at 4:30 p.m to describe the preparations for Thursday’s state dinner celebrating ties with India. The first lady will join the president at 6:50 p.m. at the South Portico to officially welcome Modi to the White House for dinner at 7:15 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ SEA AND LAND

The submersible Titan, missing since Sunday, remains the center of a search in the North Atlantic today with five people aboard. A Canadian surveillance aircraft “detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard said early today. In a brief statement on Twitter, it said that remote-operated vehicles were still searching for the tourist-adventure dive vessel, which had been headed to the wreck of the Titanic on Sunday with a limited supply of oxygen that could be exhausted by Thursday (The New York Times and USA Today). In addition to the Coast Guard and salvage equipment, the search includes an underwater robot looking for the Titan in the vicinity of the Titanic, three C-130 aircraft and three C-17 transport planes from the U.S. military. The Canadian military said it provided a patrol aircraft and two surface ships.

Wildfires update: U.S. experts eager to find ways to keep California wildfires at bay say an unusually cool spring means there’s fire suppressing snowpack intact, writes The Hill’s Sharon Udasin. They concede that conditions can change rapidly and that new forest growth could quickly become fuel for fire.

“I’m personally feeling more optimistic about a manageable fire season for the rest of 2023,” Chris Field, director of Stanford University’s Woods Institute and Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, told The Hill. “But one of the things that’s quite dramatic about the drying of fine fuels is that just in a few days of hot weather, it can take you from fire risk to really terrifyingly high fire risk.”

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Firefighters boost the use of prescribed burns in a bid to prevent massive wildfires.

▪ ABC News: A jury verdict that found power company PacifiCorp liable for devastating wildfires in Oregon in 2020 is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities face if they fail to take proper precautions for climate change.

▪ OPB: For victims still recovering from Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day wildfires, millions in legal damages offer hope.

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

Medicare’s new authority to negotiate drug prices launched talks with pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers just as some stakeholders headed to court rather than agree to lower drug costs, writes The Hill’s Joseph Choi. By Sept. 1, Medicare must select and announce the first 10 drugs to be negotiated for pricing. The newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act requires that those 10 be chosen from a list of the highest-spending, brand-name Medicare Part D drugs that don’t have competition. The negotiated Medicare drug prices for those first 10 drugs are to be available to beneficiaries starting in 2026. Merck & Co. and the Chamber of Commerce each filed lawsuits that could delay the implementation of the law and appear to rely on what some experts see as shaky constitutional reasoning.

▪ The Guardian: The last health taboo: why are so many women still suffering with endometriosis?

▪ NBC News: All adults under 65 should be screened for anxiety, health panel says.

▪ The Washington Post: Multiple myeloma has long been a killer. Therapies are changing that.

▪ The Associated Press: Kansas agrees to temporary pause in enforcing new law on medication abortions.

▪ The New York Times: A judge struck down an Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🏖️ Today is the First Day of Summer — a grand excuse for thoughts of lake cabins and beach houses, swimming pools and sleep-away camps, flip-flops and floppy hats, strawberry shortcake and soft serve, plus baseball and barbecue.

Pro tip: Plan immediately, because summer will be gone in a flash.

Stay Engaged

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