Morning Report — Hunter Biden convicted; Mace wins primary

It is too early to know how Hunter Biden’s conviction on gun charges Tuesday will color a political battle in which the presumptive Republican nominee, a convicted felon, angrily vows to uproot the judicial system, and President Biden, agonizing about his son, pledges to defend that system.

The younger Biden is not running for office. But he is a political target for former President Trump and GOP allies who claim without evidence that the president leads a “Biden crime family” and should be defeated in November. The president says he loves his son, won’t grant him a pardon and “respects” the judicial process.

Trump argues he’s a victim of Justice Department bias — even though the same Justice Department successfully prosecuted the president’s son for purchasing a gun in 2018 and signing a form denying unlawful drug use. The younger Biden, who is likely to appeal Tuesday’s verdict, faces a riskier federal trial in September in California on tax charges. A judge’s sentence for the gun felonies could be handed down around the same time. His travails may mushroom in headlines come fall.

The election year’s overlay of partisan “weaponization” of law and consequences is startling but has been decades in the making. It puts the Constitution to the test and is a favorite Trump campaign theme. It ensnared the Biden family, pressures the attorney general and federal prosecutors, and contributes to the public erosion of trust in the Supreme Court.

“Alarming” is the word constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe used last month when asked by The Washington Post about attacks on the courts, combined with the larger broadside against elections.

“They’re all symptoms of an increasingly deep disease, a disease of social and political order, and they can easily pave the path to a dictatorship,” Tribe warned.

With courtrooms and verdicts as a backdrop, Republican candidates who were endorsed by Trump won primaries in South Carolina, Maine, Nevada and North Dakota.

In South Carolina, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who was backed by the former president, defeated fellow Republican Catherine Templeton in a contest seen as a proxy fight between Trump’s wing of the GOP and establishment conservatives.

Democrats took heart in Ohio that high turnout by the party’s voters in a special election won by a Republican might nonetheless be an encouraging sign ahead of November’s Senate battle in which incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown seeks reelection. 

⬇️ Read more GOP primary results, below.

Plus, Decision Desk HQ and The Hill’s Election Center is HERE.

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LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS 

TUESDAY’S PRIMARIES, featuring a couple of closer-than-expected races, put Trump’s endorsement power to the test as he heads toward a rematch with Biden.

An under-the-radar special election in Ohio turned out to be the biggest shocker of the night. The race was triggered following former Rep. Bill Johnson’s (R) decision to resign in January, with the winner serving the remainder of his term. But GOP state Sen. Michael Rulli only defeated the Democratic nominee, Michael Kripchak, by about 9 points, based on the latest vote count with more than 95 percent reporting. That’s a roughly 20 percent overperformance for the Democratic candidate from what was expected for this district.

Read about five key takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries here.

In Nevada, Retired Army Capt. Sam Brown is projected to win the Senate GOP primary to take on Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) this fall. Brown had already been endorsed by the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm before he notched an endorsement from Trump just hours after the former president made a weekend appearance in the Silver State. 

👉 Veepstakes: Next up in The Hill’s series examining Trump’s possible vice-presidential picks is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Less than a year ago, Burgum jumped into the Republican presidential primary with little fanfare. Now, he’s one of the leading candidates to be the party’s nominee for vice president. Burgum is a former businessman who won his first ever political campaign in 2016, when he was elected governor. His path to the national political spotlight in many ways resembles that of Trump — who has taken notice.

“He’s done a lot of good in North Dakota and is very well regarded, and I think he’s bolstered his national name ID,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor and CEO of Canar LLC, a drilling services company with business in North Dakota. “I don’t think any of us really know what Trump is going to do, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Burgum overperforms people’s expectations.”

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ZOOM IN

CONGRESS

SCOTUS ETHICS: Senate Democrats are planning to try moving legislation on Supreme Court ethics on the floor this week, the latest step in their lengthy back-and-forth with conservative justices in the past year. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters that Democrats will attempt to move the ethics bill, which he authored with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), via unanimous consent. A Durbin spokesperson said the UC request would happen today, and a Republican senator is widely expected to deny consent (The Hill).

“We’re planning on making a move on the floor this week to move the ethics bill for the Supreme Court,” Durbin said, adding that “there may be some new evidence that comes out” related to ethics at the Court. Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the evidence is not related to the recordings of Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, that emerged on Monday.

“It relates to the ethical considerations from some of the justices for gifts they’ve taken and not reported,” he said.

THE SECRET RECORDING of Alito at a Supreme Court gala endorsing the idea that the country should return to a place of “godliness” has both Senate Republicans and Democrats furious. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that the comments are further exacerbating the tensions between Democrats and Alito, the author of the opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Republicans are crying entrapment as Alito was recorded by a liberal activist journalist posing as a Catholic conservative and asked what they say were leading questions, while Democrats say the recording reveals Alito’s true colors as a partisan. 

“Alito is an extremist who is out of touch with mainstream America. His rising power on the Supreme Court is a threat to our democracy,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

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COURTS

Tensions in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case are coming to a head, with his creditors now hoping for the drastic remedy of having a third party take control of the former New York City mayor’s finances. Since Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection late last year, spurred by a $148 million defamation verdict, his creditors have accused him of hiding assets and a coffee deal, spending egregiously and failing to file required paperwork in a timely manner. They have now had enough, writes The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld. On Monday, lawyers representing Giuliani’s creditors will return to bankruptcy court in New York, hoping to persuade a judge that the time has come for a trustee to step in. 

“Simply put, Mr. Giuliani and his bankruptcy case have reached an impasse,” the unsecured creditors committee wrote in their motion. 

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ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: A day after the United Nations Security Council unanimously endorsed a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal for Gaza, Israel and Hamas both emphasized that they were open to the plan. An Israeli government official told The New York Times that the proposal “enables Israel to achieve” its war goals, including destroying Hamas’s capabilities and freeing all the hostages in Gaza. But the official stopped short of saying whether Israel would accept the agreement. A senior Hamas official said the group had “dealt positively” with the proposal despite “no clear and public stance” from the Israeli government. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the fate of the deal rests with Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who has not said whether he supports it.

Qatari and Egyptian mediators said Tuesday that Hamas responded to the proposal with some “remarks,” saying in joint statement that they were examining the response and that they would continue their mediation efforts along with the U.S. “until an agreement is reached.” The U.S. on Tuesday also confirmed it was evaluating the response (The Hill and The Associated Press).

Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a U.N. inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. By Israel’s count more than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Oct. 7; more than 37,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian tallies (Reuters).

THE SWEEPING GAINS made by far-right parties in the European Union parliamentary elections over the weekend puts support for Ukraine on thinner ice as more skeptical lawmakers take up a bigger share of seats in the legislative chamber. The Hill’s Brad Dress reports the growing influence of lawmakers who are skeptical on Ukraine mirrors the ongoing fight in the U.S., where far-right lawmakers have worked to block military aid to Kyiv.

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THE CLOSER

And finally … They really are sleepless in Seattle. For weeks, residents have been dealing with the “Belltown Hellcat,” a modified Dodge Charger roaming Seattle’s downtown by night. But it seems no one can stop it.

The driver in question, Miles Hudson, 20, is now facing some $83,000 in penalties. He’s been documenting his reckless, speedy and noisy driving on social media, and he has failed to comply with a court order to stop driving the car and to correct its exhaust. Even his mother couldn’t make him quit.

In an email to city officials, she said the Hellcat was off the streets and in the shop. “This letter is just informing and responding to you that I am working on it and he is no longer driving the car or having it in his possession,” she wrote. But a few weeks later, the noise — and the driving — started up again.

Hudson posted a clip to Instagram. The caption? “Villain arc.”

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