Summary
- The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty to tax crime charges. In a 15-count indictment, New York prosecutors accused Weisselberg and his associates of carrying out a 15-year-long scheme to avoid paying taxes and receive company perks without properly reporting them.
- The supreme court upheld two voting restrictions in Arizona. In a 6-3 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court ruled the restrictions did not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision outraged Democrats and voting rights groups, who argued the court had dealt another significant blow to the Voting Rights Act.
- The supreme court also struck down a California policy requiring charities to disclose information on their donors. The court’s six conservative justices sided with two conservative groups who had argued the policy violated their First Amendment rights.
- Joe Biden visited Surfside, Florida, to meet with first responders and the families of victims of last week’s tragic condo collapse. The condo collapse has already claimed at least 18 lives, and more than 140 people remain unaccounted for. Delivering remarks in Miami after meeting the first responders and families, Biden said, “The whole nation is mourning with these families.”
- Nancy Pelosi named Liz Cheney to the select committee to investigate the 6 January insurrection. The announcement came one day after the House approved the resolution to form the select committee. Cheney was one of just two House Republicans to support the resolution.
- California’s gubernatorial recall election date has been set for 14 September. Democrats had pushed for a quick recall election, believing that the effort to remove the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, from office would fizzle out as the state reopened and returned to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy.
- Attorney general Merrick Garland has ordered a temporary pause on all federal executions, while the justice department reviews its capital punishment policies and procedures. “The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” said Garland. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Updated
Civil rights and advocacy organizations had called on the Biden administration to halt federal executions from the moment he took office.
BREAKING: Thank you, AG Garland!
— David Cole (@DavidColeACLU) July 1, 2021
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Imposes a Moratorium on Federal Executions; Orders Review of Policies and Procedures https://t.co/ahtlsqcn70
In February, 82 organizations, including the ACLU, wrote to Biden:
As youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman proclaimed on your inaugural stage: “If we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.” By taking immediate action to commute the sentences of the 49 individuals on federal death row, you have the ability to show that the Biden-Harris administration will govern with mercy and will work to put the might of the federal government behind policies that recognize, reflect, and respect the dignity, humanity, and rights of all individuals.
Updated
Dustin John Higgs was the last person executed by the Trump administration’s Justice Department – he died by lethal injection on 16 January.
My colleague Richard Luscombe wrote about the liberal supreme court justices’ scorching opposition to Higgs’ execution:
Higgs, 48, was convicted of murdering three women at a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, even though it was an accomplice who fired the fatal shots. Willis Haynes was convicted of the same crime but sentenced to life.
“This was not justice,” Sotomayor, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote in an order issued late on Friday.
Sotomayor, who was critical of the Trump administration’s July 2019 announcement that it would resume federal executions after a two-decade hiatus, condemned what she saw as “an unprecedented rush” to kill condemned inmates. All 13 executions have taken place since July 2020.
“To put that in historical context, the federal government will have executed more than three times as many people in the last six months than it had in the previous six decades,” she wrote.
“There can be no ‘justice on the fly’ in matters of life and death,” Sotomayor added. “Yet the court has allowed the United States to execute 13 people in six months under a statutory scheme and regulatory protocol that have received inadequate scrutiny, without resolving the serious claims the condemned individuals raised.”
Breyer, a fellow liberal on the nine-justice high court, was equally scathing, naming each of the 13 executed prisoners and noting a lower court’s observation that Higgs had significant lung damage. The lethal injection of pentobarbital, Breyer said, would “subject him to a sensation of drowning akin to waterboarding”.
He said the court needed to address whether execution protocols risked extreme pain and needless suffering and pressured the courts into last-minute decisions on life or death.
“What are courts to do when faced with legal questions of this kind?” he wrote. “Are they supposed to ‘hurry up, hurry up?’”
Updated
When the Trump administration resumed executions after a 17-year hiatus, 13 people were put to death using lethal injections.
While prison officials characterized the process as putting people to sleep, reports from journalists indicated the lethal injection process was violent – leaving prisoners shuddering and shaking as they died.
The AP reports:
The AP witnessed every execution.
Secrecy surrounded all aspects of the executions. Courts relied on those carrying them out to volunteer information about glitches. None of the executioners mentioned any.
Lawyers argued that one of the men put to death last year, Wesley Purkey, suffered “extreme pain” as he received a dose of pentobarbital. Purkey was the second inmate put to death. The court papers were filed by another inmate, Keith Nelson, in an effort to halt or delay his execution. But it went forward.
Updated
Attorney general orders a pause on federal executions
Attorney general Merrick Garland has ordered a temporary pause on all federal executions, while the justice department reviews its capital punishment policies and procedures.
“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” said Garland. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”
In a memo to senior officials, he raised issues with the death penalty, including “the troubling number of exonerations” in death penalty cases. Court cases over the cocktail of drugs used for lethal injections had stopped executions for nearly two decades until former attorney general William Barr directed federal prisons to restart executions with a single drug.
Updated
Threat to vulnerable Americans rises as Delta variant spreads
Just as the troubling Delta variant was spreading through the US, Charis Hill got a worrying call from their doctor.
The medications Hill takes to treat their spondylitis affect their immune system, and they knew the Covid-19 vaccine might not work as well for them as it does for others. So weeks after their second shot, they got a test.
The results were shocking: “No antibodies were detected in my system,” said Hill, who lives in California. As the rest of their state celebrated a grand reopening, a jubilant lifting of social distancing rules and mask mandates, Hill went back into isolation.
Across the country, coronavirus death rates have plummeted as more and more Americans who are eligible for the vaccine get inoculated. And research from the UK indicates that the current vaccines are effective against new variants.
But even in states like California, which has one of the highest rates of per capita vaccination in the world, those who don’t want to get vaccinated, those who can’t, and those like Hill – for whom the vaccines don’t provide adequate protection – remain unprotected against Delta, which researchers believe to be the most infectious variant yet. Scientists are also studying whether the variant is deadlier than others, and causes more severe infections. Epidemiologists and other public health experts worry that state and federal policies are leaving the most vulnerable behind.
The vast majority of Americans now dying of Covid-19 are unvaccinated, public health officials say. And with most Americans eligible for the vaccine, “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to Covid-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.
As American society adjusts back to pre-pandemic normals, “you’re seeing the multiplication of vulnerabilities,” said Cecília Tomori, an anthropologist and a public-health scholar at Johns Hopkins. The issue, she said, is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local governments, have embraced a public health strategy centered on individual responsibility.
While the CDC and local public health agencies have focused on winning over the vaccine hesitant, launching rewards programs and vaccine lotteries, offering free burgers, beers and even college scholarships – immunocompromised Americans and those who are unable to access the vaccine have gotten lost in the mix, Tomori said.
Read more:
Here are some images from Surfside - where Biden visited today to comfort survivors and meet with officials and rescue teams.
Rescue workers resume search of condo collapse
The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue announced their search of the condo collapse site was back on, “following a temporary halt of operations after the recommendation of structural engineers who inspected the remaining structure.”
The search had been paused at around 2 am due to safety and structural concerns.
“Finding missing loved ones continues to be at the forefront of our operations,” the department said on Twitter.
California saw staggering rise in hate crimes against Asians in 2020
Erin McCormick in San Francisco:
Hate crimes against Asians in California more than doubled in 2020, as part of an overall 31% surge in hate-based crimes, according to a pair of new reports by California’s attorney general.
The increase in anti-Asian crimes was fueled by rhetoric, including that of Donald Trump, blaming Asian communities for the spread of Covid-19 in the United States, the reports said.
“For too many, 2020 wasn’t just about a deadly virus, it was about an epidemic of hate,” said the attorney general, Rob Bonta. “The facts here are clear: there was a surge in anti-Asian violence correlated with the words of leaders who sought to divide us when we were at our most vulnerable.”
While the reports highlighted the stunning increase in often-overlooked violence against Asians, hate crimes against Black people in California increased by 87% as well, and made up the largest number of events counted in the report – 456 of the total 1,330 hate crimes reported in 2020. The number of anti-Asian crimes jumped from 43 in 2019 to 89 in 2020 – a total increase of 107%.
Hate crimes against transgender people in the state also rose from 29 in 2019 to 54 in 2020, the reports said, while the number of crimes based on religious bias fell.
Read more:
Gavin Newsom’s odds of surviving the recall election appear to be in his favor
The California recall campaign, spearheaded by the former sheriff’s deputy Orrin Heatlie, had railed against Democrats and the Newsom administration’s aid to undocumented immigrants and homeless residents, and spending on social programs. The effort was bolstered by financial support from big business donors and a few Silicon Valley venture capitalists and also attracted rightwing conspiracy theorists.
Newsom, who saw his approval ratings plummet during the worst of the pandemic, nonetheless retains broad support in recent polls. No major Democratic candidates have challenged Newsom – and none seem likely to do so.
Among the Republicans challenging the governor are businessman John Cox, whom Newsom beat in the 2018 governor’s race, reality television star Caitlyn Jenner, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former representative Doug Ose.
In a May poll, just 40% of likely voters said they would remove Newsom from office.
The poll, from the Public Policy Institute of California, found that the governor had a 54% approval rating, with 64% approving specifically of his handling of the pandemic. About 90% of likely voters said they believed worst of the crisis had passed.
Updated
California's gubernatorial recall election date has been set for 14 September
Democrats had pushed for a quick recall election, believing that the effort to remove the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, from office would fizzle out as the state reopened and returned to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy. Candidates challenging Newsom have about two weeks to join the race.
“Although the window of time from which I could select a date was narrow, I believe we have chosen a fair and reasonable date for this election to take place,” Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis said in a statement. “It has always been my intention to choose an election date that gives election officials and the public ample time to ensure a smooth election with broad participation.”
The Republican-led recall effort gained traction – and signatures – this winter, while California endured its most severe and deadly phase of the pandemic.
Updated
In an annual report on White House staffing, the administration revealed that about 56% of senior staff are women, and 36% “part of racially and/or ethnically diverse communities”.
The White House said this was “most diverse Administration in history”.
The gender pay gap was about 1% – compared to 37% during the Trump administration, according to the Associated Press. Biden had signed an executive order last week to boost diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce. His most senior advisers – like chief of staff Ron Klain and senior adviser Mike Donilon – are white, the AP points out.
Miami condo rescue work halted over fears remaining structure will topple
Richard Luscombe in Miami:
Rescue work at a Miami condo block that collapsed one week ago, killing at least 18 and leaving 145 more unaccounted for, was halted early on Thursday amid fears the remaining structure would also topple.
Workers reported hearing sounds of shifting inside the still-standing 12-storey section of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside overnight and evacuated the disaster site out of safety concerns.
The halt came exactly seven days after the oceanside section of the building suddenly collapsed in the early hours of last Thursday, killing residents as they slept, and the same day Joe Biden is scheduled to visit to observe the rescue work and comfort families of the scores still missing.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Elsa formed in the Atlantic early on Thursday, with forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicting a path that could bring the cyclone towards south Florida, and potentially over the site of collapse, as soon as Tuesday.
Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s department of emergency management, announced Wednesday that contingency plans were in place to evacuate the site and relocate resources as the storm approached.
The suspension of rescue activities is a blow to relatives waiting anxiously for news of loved ones believed to have been in the building when it came crashing down at about 1.30am on 24 June.
Other than short delays for thunderstorms passing overhead, and a deep-set fire in the rubble brought under control earlier this week, the dangerous search and rescue operation involving dozens of experienced workers from several countries sifting through a 30ft mound of tons of concrete rubble, has continued round the clock for a week.
Read more:
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty to tax crime charges. In a 15-count indictment, New York prosecutors accused Weisselberg and his associates of carrying out a 15-year-long scheme to avoid paying taxes and receive company perks without properly reporting them.
- The supreme court upheld two voting restrictions in Arizona. In a 6-3 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court ruled the restrictions did not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision outraged Democrats and voting rights groups, who argued the court had dealt another significant blow to the Voting Rights Act.
- The supreme court also struck down a California policy requiring charities to disclose information on their donors. The court’s six conservative justices sided with two conservative groups who had argued the policy violated their First Amendment rights.
- Joe Biden visited Surfside, Florida, to meet with first responders and the families of victims of last week’s tragic condo collapse. The condo collapse has already claimed at least 18 lives, and more than 140 people remain unaccounted for. Delivering remarks in Miami after meeting the first responders and families, Biden said, “The whole nation is mourning with these families.”
- Nancy Pelosi named Liz Cheney to the select committee to investigate the 6 January insurrection. The announcement came one day after the House approved the resolution to form the select committee. Cheney was one of just two House Republicans to support the resolution.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Joe Biden took a few questions from reporters after delivering his prepared remarks on the Surfside condo collapse.
Asked about the potential cause of the disaster, Biden said, “I don’t think there is, at this point, any definitive judgement as to why it collapsed.”
The president noted that many of the victims’ families mentioned potential causes to him, such as rising sea levels and climate change, but it was too early to draw any conclusions.
Biden was also asked about the tax crime charges filed against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, but he declined to weigh in on the matter.
The president’s remarks have now concluded, and he will soon start the trip back to Washington.
Joe Biden noted that the families of the victims of the Surfside condo collapse are “very realistic” about the odds of their loves ones being found alive.
Seven days after the building collapse, hope has severely dwindled about the search-and-rescue teams finding any more survivors, but Biden noted the families are still praying for a miracle.
“At a minimum, they want to recover the bodies,” the president said.
The president became emotional as he recounted how visiting with the families reminded him of the pain of losing his first wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972. He said the worst part of the experience was not knowing whether his sons would survive.
“It’s bad enough to lose somebody, but the hard part, the really hard part, is to not know whether they’re surviving or not,” Biden said.
The president expressed admiration for the families of the victims, telling reporters, “I walked away impressed by their strength.”
Updated
'The whole nation is mourning with these families,' Biden says in Miami
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks in Miami after meeting with first responders and the families of the victims of the Surfside condo collapse.
The president commended the “remarkable” coordination between state and local officials of both parties as search-and-rescue efforts continue at the site of the condo collapse.
“They’ve all cooperated in ways I haven’t seen in a long time,” Biden said.
The president noted the federal government is deploying extensive resources to help respond to this disaster, with FEMA providing temporary housing for the survivors.
Biden praised the commitment and the sacrifice of the first responders who have been leading the search-and-rescue operation.
“These folks are always showing up, no matter what,” Biden said. “They’re always risking their lives to save lives.”
The president also offered his condolences to the families of the victims, as many of them await word on their loved ones. More than 140 people remain unaccounted for.
“The whole nation is mourning with these families,” Biden said. “They’re going through hell.”
Joe Biden was scheduled to start speaking in Miami about 30 minutes ago, but he is running late, as he very often is.
The White House has indicated the president’s remarks about last week’s tragic condo collapse will be short, likely less than 10 minutes long, according to the latest White House press pool report.
The speech comes after Biden met with first responders and families of the victims. The condo collapse has already claimed at least 18 lives, and 145 people remain unaccounted for.
Joe Biden’s meeting with the families of the victims of the Surfside condo collapse has now concluded, after the president spent more than two hours with the group.
A senior administration official told the White House press pool, “He made brief remarks from the center of the room and then went from table to table. ... POTUS stayed until everyone had a chance to speak with him.”
First lady Jill Biden, senator Marco Rubio, senator Rick Scott, governor Ron DeSantis, lieutenant governor Jeanette Nuñez, congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Miami Dade county mayor Daniella Levine Cava were also in attendance for the meeting.
A video posted to Instagram showed the president telling the families, “I just wish there was something I could do to ease the pain.” Biden also told them they were all in his prayers as they await word on their loved ones.
The condo collapse has already claimed at least 18 lives, and more than 140 people remain unaccounted for.
Biden will soon start delivering remarks in Miami, so stay tuned.
Updated
The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe and Victoria Bekiempis report:
According to prosecutors the Trump Organization paid employees rent, utility bills, garage fees, school expenses and other living expenses without properly declaring them “so that they could and did pay federal, state and local taxes in amounts that were significantly less than the amounts that should have been paid”.
Carey Dunne, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, said the 15-year-long arrangement was “a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme”.
The scheme was “orchestrated by the most senior executives” at the Trump Organization, according to prosecutors, and chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was “one of the largest individual beneficiaries” of the scheme.
He received $1.75m in illegal payments, according to the prosecutors, including rent, bills and garage fees for his Manhattan apartment and tuition expenses for Weisselberg’s family members.
Weisselberg and a lawyer for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty.
Noah Bookbinder, the president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said today’s indictment is hugely consequential.
“It is hard to overstate how big a deal this is,” Bookbinder said in a statement released by CREW.
“Criminal charges against corporations are exceedingly rare. For the Trump Organization and one of its top executives to face 15 counts on a scheme to defraud that goes back at least 15 years is extraordinary. These are serious charges, and they may be just the beginning.
“Donald Trump, both as president and in his private life, has a long record of ignoring the law for his personal benefit. Today’s indictment is a much-needed step toward accountability for these abuses, and we hope and trust there will be more accountability to come.”
Donald Trump told ABC News that today’s proceedings have been “shameful,” as the CFO of the former president’s family company, Allen Weisselberg, was charged with tax crimes.
When informed that Weisselberg entered the courtroom wearing handcuffs this afternoon, Trump said, “Disgrace, disgrace, disgrace.”
The former president described Weisselberg, who is accused of engaging in a tax avoidance scheme for at least 16 years, as “a tremendous person”.
I just talked to former President Trump. He tells me today’s proceedings are “shameful”. I broke the news to Trump that his CFO entered court wearing handcuffs - “disgrace, disgrace, disgrace” Trump said adding Weisselberg is “a tremendous person”.
— John Santucci (@Santucci) July 1, 2021
The Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were charged with scheme to defraud in the first degree, according to the indictment.
“Beginning from at least 2005 to on or about June 30, 2021, the defendants and others devised and operated a scheme to defraud federal, New York State, and New York City tax authorities,” the indictment says.
“The scheme was intended to allow certain employees to substantially understate their compensation from the Trump Organization, so that they could and did pay federal, state, and local taxes in amounts that were significantly less than the amounts that should have been paid.”
Updated
Trump Organization CFO pleads not guilty to tax crime charges
The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe and Victoria Bekiempis report:
The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged with tax-related crimes, marking the first criminal charges against the former president’s company following a years-long investigation by New York prosecutors.
Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years, surrendered to the authorities at the Manhattan criminal courthouse at 6.20am on Thursday and was charged by the Manhattan district attorney with failing to properly report company perks, including rent-free apartments, school fees and cars, in the latest stage of an escalating battle between New York prosecutors and the former president.
Reporters and TV trucks gathered outside the 100 Centre Street courthouse waiting for the hearing to start.
Weisselberg has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers said he would “fight these charges in court”.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the delta variant of coronavirus is spreading across the US, as many Americans remain unvaccinated despite the accessibility of vaccines.
Speaking at the White House pandemic response team’s briefing today, Dr Rochelle Walensky said that the delta variant now accounts for nearly one quarter of new coronavirus infections in the US.
The Delta variant is a threat to unvaccinated Americans and communities with low vaccination rates. The best way for communities to protect themselves is by getting more people vaccinated.
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) July 1, 2021
So, we're intensifying our efforts to help states prevent, detect and respond to hotspots.
“Looking across the country, we have made incredible progress,” the CDC director said. “However, looking state by state and county by county, it is clear communities where people remain unvaccinated are communities that are vulnerable.”
According to Walensky, there are about 1,000 US counties where less than 30% of the community is vaccinated, making it much easier for the delta variant to spread.
Walensky’s warning comes days before US Independence Day on July 4. Joe Biden had set a goal of having 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4, but the US is expected to fall short of that.
According to CDC data, about 67% of American adults have now received at least one shot, and 58% of adults are fully vaccinated.
No one could accuse Donald Trump of lying low when the long arm of the law finally caught up with him.
On Wednesday the former US president visited the Mexico border, highlighting his favourite campaign issue, then held an hour-long televised town hall with Sean Hannity, his favourite Fox News host.
It looked like a typically Trumpian bid to deflect attention from a scandal that had been expected to erupt that day: tax-related charges against his company and its longtime money man, Allen Weisselberg.
As it transpired, Weisselberg did not surrender himself to the Manhattan district attorney’s office until 6.20am on Thursday, with a court appearance later in the day. But it is already clear that Trump intends to use all his old tactics to deflect, punch back and undermine the rule of law itself.
Joe Biden spoke of the “pain, anxiety and suffering” that the families of the dead and the missing were experiencing when he visited the scene of the Miami condo collapse earlier today.
The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe is in Miami and has this full report on Biden’s visit so far:
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where this extremely newsy day stands so far:
- The supreme court upheld two voting restrictions in Arizona. In a 6-3 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court ruled the restrictions did not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision outraged Democrats and voting rights groups, who argued the court had dealt another significant blow to the Voting Rights Act.
- The supreme court also struck down a California policy requiring charities to disclose information on their donors. The court’s six conservative justices sided with two conservative groups who had argued the policy violated their First Amendment rights.
- Joe Biden is visiting Surfside, Florida, to meet with first responders and the families of victims of last week’s tragic condo collapse. The president received a briefing from state and local officials this morning as search-and-rescue efforts continue, and he will meet with the families this afternoon. The condo collapse has already claimed at least 18 lives, and more than 140 people remain unaccounted for.
- Nancy Pelosi named Liz Cheney to the select committee to investigate the 6 January insurrection. The announcement came one day after the House approved the resolution to form the select committee. Cheney was one of just two House Republicans to support the resolution.
- The chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Weisselberg is expected to face tax-related criminal charges in connection to allegations that he failed to properly report company perks.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Biden meets with first responders in Surfside
Meanwhile in Miami, Joe and Jill Biden met with some of the first responders who have been involved in search-and-rescue efforts at the site of the Surfside condo collapse.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” the president told the first responders. “I promise you, we know. We know what you’re doing here is incredible.”
WATCH: President Biden and first lady Jill Biden meet with first responders for the Surfside, Florida condo collapse.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 1, 2021
"I really appreciate what you do," President Biden says. "I promise you, we know what you're doing here is incredible." https://t.co/3yCig8NfmH pic.twitter.com/eUxvURmQyt
The Bidens are also scheduled to meet with families of the victims of the condo collapse, which has already claimed at least 18 lives. More than 140 people remain unaccounted for.
The president will then deliver remarks in Miami before leaving for Washington this evening.
Biden condemns 'broad assault against voting rights' after supreme court upholds Arizona restrictions
Joe Biden has issued a statement criticizing the supreme court’s decision to uphold two voting restrictions in Arizona.
“I am deeply disappointed in today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court that undercuts the Voting Rights Act, and upholds what Justice Kagan called ‘a significant race-based disparity in voting opportunities,’” the president said.
Biden lamented that the court’s decision comes as Republican legislators are advancing more voting restrictions in dozens of states.
“While this broad assault against voting rights is sadly not unprecedented, it is taking on new forms,” Biden said. “It is no longer just about a fight over who gets to vote and making it easier for eligible voters to vote. It is about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all.”
The president also argued the court’s decision underscored the need for Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which have stalled in the Senate due to widespread Republican opposition.
“This is our life’s work and the work of all of us,” Biden said. “Democracy is on the line. We can do this together.”
'I was shocked' that Cheney agreed to join January 6 panel, McCarthy says
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said he was “shocked” to learn Liz Cheney had agreed to serve on the select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection.
“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,” McCarthy said.
The Republican leader added, “It would seem to me, since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than us. I don’t know.”
.@GOPLeader on Rep. Liz Cheney joining January 6th Committee: "I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi. It would seem to me since I didn't hear from her, maybe she's closer to her than us. I don't know." pic.twitter.com/5swSaNqEqT
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 1, 2021
But McCarthy denied reports that he had threatened to strip Republicans of their committee assignments if they agreed to serve on the select committee.
“Let me be very clear, I’m not threatening anybody with committee assignments,” McCarthy said.
“What I’m saying is, it was shocking to me that if a person is a Republican, they get their committee assignments from the Republican conference. For somebody to accept committee assignments from Speaker Pelosi, that’s unprecedented.”
Asked whether he would appoint any members to the select committee, McCarthy replied, “When I have news on that, I’ll give it to you.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on the supreme court’s decision in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee:
The US supreme court has upheld two Arizona voting restrictions in a ruling that dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 civil rights law designed to prevent voting discrimination.
In a 6-3 ruling, the justices upheld Arizona statutes that prohibit anyone other than a close family member or caregiver from collecting mail-in ballots, which are widely used in the state.
The court also upheld a statute that requires officials to wholly reject votes from people who show up to cast a ballot in the wrong precinct, even if the person is otherwise entitled to vote in the state.
“Neither Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule nor its ballot-collection law violates §2 of the VRA. Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule enforces the requirement that voters who choose to vote in person on election day must do so in their assigned precincts,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for a majority that included the court’s five other conservative justices, referring to section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
He added: “Having to identify one’s own polling place and then travel there to vote does not exceed the ‘usual burdens of voting.’”
The decision means that the Arizona statutes will remain in effect and make it harder to challenge discriminatory voting laws across America at a time when a swathe of Republican-run state legislatures are pushing a wave of new voting restrictions that voting rights advocates say are aimed at suppressing the vote and especially target communities of color.
Updated
Biden receives briefing on condo collapse in Surfside
Joe Biden has just received a briefing on last week’s tragic condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, which has already claimed at least 18 lives.
State and local officials, including Republican governor Ron DeSantis, provided the president with an update on the ongoing search-and-rescue efforts.
BIDEN IN SURFSIDE: “You know what’s good about this? The way you're cooperating. We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate."
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) July 1, 2021
"When it’s really important ... This is life and death” pic.twitter.com/39lxkP8f6Y
Biden commended DeSantis and the Democratic mayor of Miami Dade county, Daniella Levine Cava, for showing how members of both parties can work together “when it’s really important”.
“You know what’s good about this? The way you’re cooperating. We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate,” Biden said. “This is life and death.”
DeSantis, who has been named as a potential ideological successor to Donald Trump, also thanked the president for his close attention to the dire situation.
“You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and you’ve been very supportive,” DeSantis said.
The chairwoman of the Republican national committee, Ronna McDaniel, celebrated the supreme court’s decision to uphold two Arizona voting restrictions.
“Today’s United States Supreme Court ruling is a resounding victory for election integrity and the rule of law. Democrats were attempting to make Arizona ballots less secure for political gain, and the Court saw right through their partisan lies,” McDaniel said in a statement.
“In Arizona and across the nation, states know best how to manage their own elections. The RNC is proud to have worked closely with the Arizona GOP to support this historic victory, and we will continue our comprehensive efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
Democrats have sharply criticized the decision, accusing the court’s conservative majority of further gutting the Voting Rights Act.
Cheney says she is 'honored' to serve on 6 January select committee
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
Congresswoman Liz Cheney was named to the select committee to investigate the mob attack on the Capitol on 6 January. She is the only Republican member of Congress to be on that committee and was picked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the panel.
Cheney, it’s important to recall, was ousted from her leadership position in the House Republican conference for refusing to refrain from criticizing Donald Trump for his involvement in spurring supporters to storm the Capitol.
I'm honored to serve on the January 6th select committee. Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/LpPoWhBHPx
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) July 1, 2021
Her participation in the committee is another sign of how defiant she is to that pressure. Her statement on joining the committee is below:
I’m honored to have been named to serve on the January 6th select committee. Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814. That day saw the most sacred space in our Republic overrun by an angry and violent mob attempting to stop the counting of electoral votes and threatening the peaceful transfer of power.
What happened on January 6th can never happen again. Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner.
Our oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and the preservation of the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed a question about minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s reported threat to strip House Republicans of their committee assignments if they join the January 6 select committee.
“I’m not responding to him. We’re making our presentation here. Go ask him about what he says,” Pelosi said.
According to multiple reports, McCarthy, who has consistently resisted efforts to investigate the Capitol insurrection, warned he would move to punish any Republican member who joins the select committee by removing them from their assigned committees.
Liz Cheney has already lost her House leadership position because of her criticism of Donald Trump and his lies about widespread fraud in the presidential election, and now she may also lose her committee assignments because of her bold stance.
Pelosi names Liz Cheney to 6 January select committee
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has named Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney as one of the members of the select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.
The Democratic speaker made the announcement at a press conference this morning, saying, “We’re very honored and proud that she has agreed to serve on the committee.”
BREAKING: Nancy Pelosi announces that GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of former President Trump, will serve along with House Democrats on the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection: "We're very honored and proud she has agreed to serve on the committee" pic.twitter.com/mdg5y9wk4F
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 1, 2021
The announcement comes one day after the House passed a resolution to form the committee, mostly along party lines. Cheney was one of just two Republicans who supported the resolution.
The committee will be chaired by Democrat Bennie Thompson. The other committee members are Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, Pete Aguilar, Stephanie Murphy, Jamie Raskin and Elaine Luria.
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Sean Morales-Doyle, the acting director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, said the supreme court’s decision in Brnovich dealt a significant blow to the Voting Rights Act.
“Today the Supreme Court made it much harder to challenge discriminatory voting laws in court,” Morales-Doyle said in a statement provided by the Brennan Center.
“The justices stopped short of eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, but nevertheless did significant damage to this vital civil rights law and to the freedom to vote. Congress must act now to strengthen voting rights by passing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
Those two bills have stalled in the Senate due to widespread Republican opposition.
Supreme court strikes down California policy requiring donor disclosure
The supreme court has issued its second opinion of the day, and the final decision of the term, in Americans for Prosperity v Bonta.
In another 6-3 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court’s conservatives struck down a California policy requiring charities to disclose information on their donors.
In its second ruling of the day (and final opinion of the term), SCOTUS rules in favor of two groups that brought a First Amendment challenge to a California policy requiring nonprofits and charities operating in the state to provide the state with a list of their largest donors.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) July 1, 2021
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a dissent on behalf of the court’s three liberal judges.
“We do not doubt that California has an important interest in preventing wrongdoing by charitable organizations,” Roberts said.
“There is a dramatic mismatch, however, between the interest that the Attorney General seeks to promote and the disclosure regime that he has implemented in service of that end.”
The blog will have more updates and analysis coming up, so stay tuned.
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Justice Elena Kagan wrote a fairly scathing dissent in the Brnovich case, condemning her conservative colleagues for weakening the Voting Rights Act.
“Today, the Court undermines Section 2 and the right it provides,” Kagan wrote in her opinion, which Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor joined.
“What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten—in order to weaken—a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about ‘the end of discrimination in voting.’ I respectfully dissent.”
The Brnovich case centered on two voting restrictions in Arizona, which Democrats had argued violated the Voting Rights Act.
One provision called for ballots to be thrown out when someone votes in the wrong precinct, and the other barred anyone other than immediate family from collecting and delivering ballots to the polls.
Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the restrictions were not racially discriminatory because they affected such a small percentage of voters.
“A procedure that appears to work for 98% or more of voters to whom it applies – minority and non-minority alike – is unlikely to render a system unequally open,” Alito wrote.
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Supreme court upholds Arizona voting restrictions
The supreme court has issued a decision in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee, the case involving two voting restrictions in Arizona.
In a 6-3 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court upheld the voting restrictions, saying they did not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
BREAKING NEWS: In 6-3 ruling, SCOTUS upholds two Arizona voting provisions: a ban on so-called "ballot harvesting," and a policy that throws out an entire ballot if it was cast in the wrong precinct. Challengers argued that both provisions discriminate against minority voters.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) July 1, 2021
“Held: Arizona’s out-of-precinct policy and HB 2023 do not violate §2 of the VRA, and HB 2023 was not enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose,” the decision says. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
The blog will have more details coming up, so stay tuned.
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Attorneys for Allen Weisselberg said the Trump Organization executive planned to plead “not guilty” to the charges he faces, per CNN.
Weisselberg’s lawyers also said he “will fight these charges in court.” The charges are likely linked to allegations that he failed to properly report company perks.
Weisselberg’s attorneys, Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said he plans to plead not guilty and “will fight these charges in court.”
— erica orden (@eorden) July 1, 2021
Trump Organization executive surrenders to face charges in tax investigation
The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe and agency report:
The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office early on Thursday as he and the Trump family business prepare to face criminal charges in a tax-related investigation.
Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years, entered a building housing Manhattan’s criminal court, where he and a Trump Organization representative are expected to appear later in the day.
These are the first criminal charges against the former president’s company since prosecutors began investigating it three years ago, and represent a pivotal moment in the escalating battle between New York prosecutors and the former president.
The exact charges against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization are not yet known, but are expected to involve alleged tax violations related to benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including the use of apartments, cars and school tuition, people familiar with the case said.
While no charges are expected to be brought against Trump personally, they mark an extraordinary turning point for the former president and more are likely to follow
Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gaggled with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida.
One reporter asked Jean-Pierre whether Joe Biden had any insight into when the Surfside rescue effort might shift into a recovery effort, meaning officials have given up hope of finding any additional survivors in the rubble.
Jean-Pierre said the White House was leaving those decisions up to state and local officials, but she noted the president is still “hoping for the best” when it comes to the 147 people who remain unaccounted for.
Jean-Pierre also noted that local officials had asked the White House to plan the president’s visit today. Administration officials had previously been concerned that a presidential visit would pull resources away from search-and-rescue efforts, but local leaders provided assurances Biden’s trip would not disrupt the operation.
Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian on weather concerns at the Surfside condo collapse site:
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) was monitoring two potential tropical systems crossing the Atlantic, the second of which, it said, had an 80% chance of developing into a dangerous tropical system over the next five days.
It is too early to know if there could be any impact to south Florida, but officials are taking precautions. The director of the Florida department of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, said at a briefing that an additional federal search and rescue team would arrive in Miami later on Wednesday “to free up state assets” that might be needed elsewhere.
“We’re working with our state meteorologist and the NHC. If a system does develop we have contingency plans, which include backup plans of how we will continue to respond here while responding to a hurricane,” he said.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, added: “This is hurricane season. We take this very seriously and take whatever steps are necessary. We hope we don’t have to, we hope it doesn’t come to that, but it is the season and you’ve got to be ready.”
Bidens travel to Miami to meet with victims' families after condo collapse
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe and Jill Biden are en route to Miami, Florida, where they will meet with first responders and the families of the victims who died in the Surfside condo collapse last week.
The president will also receive a briefing from state and local officials on the search and rescue efforts and deliver a speech before traveling back to Washington tonight.
The trip comes as the official death toll in the condo collapse has risen to 18, after six more bodies were recovered from the rubble yesterday. More than 140 people remain unaccounted for.
After seven days of searching for survivors, hope is dwindling for the families who are waiting to hear about their loved ones. Officials are also worried that a developing weather system over the Atlantic may affect the integrity of the site next week.
Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade county, said yesterday that search-and-rescue efforts were continuing “24/7, without stop”.
“We are doing everything humanly possible, and then some, to get through this tragedy, and we are doing it together,” she said.
The blog will have more details on the president’s trip coming up, so stay tuned.
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