The Hill’s Morning Report — Grassley defies FBI with Biden-focused clash

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 07/21/23 7:03 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

Former President Trump’s reaction to his mounting legal woes is familiar. He says partisan enemies are working to block his return to power to keep President Biden in the White House.

House and Senate Republicans who are sympathetic to Trump’s distrust of the FBI decided Thursday to defy the bureau and disclose an unverified tip suggesting that then-Vice President Biden was in cahoots in Ukraine to help his son Hunter Biden make money.

Amid oversight hearings and finger-pointing by Republican House committee chairs, Senate Judiciary Committee member and whistleblower advocate Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) turned to social media to disclose a sensitive document the FBI reluctantly shared with lawmakers in June with the stipulation that its details were unproven and should not be public (The Hill).

The Hill: FBI “expressly” opposed release of unverified tip about Biden.

In Congress on Thursday, the dustup was about whether the information and its origins are credible, were long ago debunked or are part of what Trump and his allies allege is a Department of Justice coverup. Republicans say allegations of Biden misdeeds aimed at helping his son remain central to oversight investigations ahead of the 2024 elections. The president has dismissed the GOP attacks as false and defended his son, who separately agreed this summer to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and a felony firearm violation.

BBC: Two IRS whistleblowers have alleged to lawmakers that throughout the Hunter Biden investigation, Justice Department decisions were made that benefited the president’s son.
The Hill: In whistleblowers, Democrats see GOP hypocrisy on IRS.

Democrats have defended the FBI and DOJ and denied allegations that the elder Biden abused his authority with Ukrainian officials in order to bolster his son’s business ventures. Biden’s defenders accuse Republican colleagues of dirty tricks.

“Today’s release … at a minimum unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source,” the FBI responded in a blistering statement on Thursday.

Grassley’s tweet disclosed a four-page FBI document known as “FD-1023” that describes a tip dating back to 2016 and references former Ukrainian officials. 

Thx to whistleblowers now the world can see what ive seen & what the FBI tried to conceal Serious allegations from trusted FBI source What did the FBI do to investigate????” Grassley wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump’s federal criminal peril has mushroomed while he continues campaigning for the GOP nomination. Some of his associates continue to appear before the federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection (The Hill). 

And in Georgia, where efforts by Trump and allies to overturn the state’s 2020 election results remain under investigation, the Fulton County prosecutor is preparing racketeering charges next month, The Guardian reports. District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has amassed enough evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, according to the Guardian’s sources. A grand jury that could decide whether to return an indictment against Trump was seated on July 11.

CNN:Special counsel continues to schedule witness interviews even as potential Trump indictment looms.

Trump is still being urged to debate GOP primary rivals in Milwaukee Aug. 23, although he’s expected to be a no-show (The Hill). The former president continues to issue policy promises, such as a vow to end progressive climate change initiatives, some of which are embodied in law, “on day one” (The Hill).

2024 roundup: The Cook Political Report moved three House 2024 races in Democrats’ favor and two toward the GOP (The Hill). … Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday denied during a Republican-led House hearing on government censorship that he spread racist and hateful conspiracy theories online (The Associated Press and The Hill). … Amid low vice presidential approval ratings as the Biden-Harris campaign takes shape, The Wall Street Journal reports “Where is Kamala Harris?” … The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign is a partnership with the Democratic National Committee, a noted departure from Obama-Biden campaigns (The Associated Press). … Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is campaigning and fundraising in Utah today (The Associated Press).

 The Hill: A federal judge on Thursday denied a request to toss out the conviction of the so-called QAnon Shaman on charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Jacob Chansley pleaded guilty at trial with an apology and was sentenced in late 2021 to serve 41 months in prison. 
Yahoo News: Poll: Most Americans say Biden and Trump are not “fit” to serve as president. 
Bloomberg News: Just 16 percent of registered voters would consider supporting a third-party ticket with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) as the presidential candidate, according to a Monmouth University poll released Thursday.
Post and Courier: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) says he is weighing a future primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who would be up for reelection in 2026.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to advance a Supreme Court ethics reform bill in the wake of media reports that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts and perks from wealthy Republican donors. The committee voted 11 to 10 to approve the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, which would require justices to adopt a code of conduct and create a transparent process for members of the public to submit ethics complaints against members of the court. 

The bill would also require the Supreme Court to adopt disclosure rules for gifts, travel and income received by justices and law clerks that are as rigorous as Senate and House disclosure rules. It would establish a panel of chief judges from the lower courts to investigate and make recommendations in response to complaints and require greater disclosure of funding behind amicus curiae briefs to the court. Committee Democrats, who for years have urged the court to adopt ethics guidelines on its own, said Thursday’s bill is long overdue (The Hill and The Washington Post).

“It was 11 years ago, and a very different Supreme Court, when I first called on Chief Justice Roberts to adopt a binding code of conduct for all Supreme Court justices,” Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in his opening remarks. The bill “would finally bring Supreme Court justices’s ethics requirement in line with virtually every other public servant in the federal government.”

The proposal is highly unlikely to become law due to the opposition from Republicans in the Senate and House. GOP senators have painted the revelations about Thomas as part of a broader attempt by Democrats to delegitimize the high court’s conservative majority after major decisions on abortion, guns, affirmative action and religious rights. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican, put the bill’s prospects in stark terms, saying, “This ill-conceived effort in the name of reforming the court will go nowhere in the United States Senate.”

The Wall Street Journal: An internal plan for the Supreme Court’s first-ever code of conduct has been stalled for years, and justices are deeply divided despite increased scrutiny surrounding their ethical behavior.
CBS News: Senate Judiciary Committee advances Supreme Court ethics bill amid scrutiny of justices’ ties to GOP donors.
The Associated Press: Book sales, a lure for money and more takeaways from the AP investigation into Supreme Court ethics.

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization measure. The legislation authorizes $4 billion per fiscal year for the Airport Improvement Program, directs the FAA administrator to draw up a plan to expand the agency’s capacity to train air traffic controllers, clarifies language related to ticket refunds for passengers and addresses safety on runways, among other tenets (The Hill).

Roll Call: Democrats rally around election proposal as counterpoint to GOP plan.
The Hill: Senators announce a push to reform college athletics.
Politico: What no one will say out loud about former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Russia stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s port cities Thursday, while a White House official warned that Russia was also mining Ukraine’s ports and appeared to be laying the groundwork for attacks on civilian vessels. The strikes on silos and other infrastructure critical to exports have increased since Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered deal that for a year had allowed grain shipments from Ukraine, a major grower of wheat, to reach the wider world and ease global food shortages. Moscow warned on Wednesday that all commercial ships headed to Ukraine’s ports could be treated as hostile, suggesting attempts to bypass its blockage might be seen as an act of war. The statement sent wheat prices, which have surged since Russia pulled out of the deal, higher.

“We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks,” Adam Hodge, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement (The New York Times and Reuters).

The Associated Press: By pulling out of the Ukrainian grain deal, Russia risks alienating its few remaining partners.
The Hill: Wheat prices rise in the U.S. after Russia pulls out of Ukraine grain deal.
Reuters: Europe struggles to convert Ukraine migration into labor boom.

Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday that he was expelling the Swedish ambassador after a protest was allowed to take place in Stockholm in which a copy of the Quran was burned outside a mosque in June by Salwan Momika, an Iraqi asylum-seeker in Sweden. The order came after hundreds of young men stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday for the second time in the past few weeks, setting fire to a portion of the entrance hall and inflaming a growing political crisis.

The prime minister’s response, and an apparent inability to defend the Swedish mission, is a reminder of the weakness of his government — which is seeking an increase in foreign investment to support a troubled economy — in the face of powerful populist leaders who can easily mobilize followers over perceived slights (Reuters and The Washington Post).

The Associated Press: Muslim-majority nations express outrage and plan street protests over Quran desecration in Sweden.
CNN: Chinese President Xi Jinping hails “old friend” Henry Kissinger during a meeting that harkened back to an era of warmer ties.
The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. ambassador to China was hacked in a China-linked spying operation.
The Associated Press: The U.S. and North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to talk about the defected U.S. soldier.

A one-day conference that celebrates African and Caribbean culture will take place in the nation’s capital Saturday, The Hill’s Cheyanne M. Daniels reports. Experience Africa, organized by the Voice of Africa, will feature food, fashion, music and keynote speakers and panels that highlight the different African and Caribbean diasporas and the contributions they have made to the global society. The event hopes to champion African and Caribbean Embassies and their peoples, said Kadmiel Van Der Puije, founder of Voice of Africa, an immigrant from Ghana who said the event and its mission to educate is personal for him. 

The Washington Post: The Pentagon dubbed Afghanistan “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Now, it is American rivals that are angling to exploit those coveted reserves.
The Wall Street Journal: The political rise of ultra-orthodox Jews shakes Israel’s sense of identity.
The Washington Post: Cerberus. Charon. Gary? Heat wave naming debate intensifies in Europe.
The New York Times: For Europe’s older population, heat is the new COVID-19.

OPINION

The price-cutting loophole that airlines hate, by Sheldon H. Jacobson, opinion contributor, The Hill.
Building a legal wall around Donald Trump, by David French, columnist, The New York Times.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will convene on Monday at 11 a.m.

The Senate will meet for a pro forma session at 6:30 a.m. 

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden at 1:30 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room will speak about the White House achievement in obtaining from seven leading artificial intelligence developers agreements to police themselves to address risks and public safety (The Hill).

Vice President Harris will travel to Jacksonville, Fla., to speak at 3:45 p.m. at the Ritz Theater and Museum about the importance of unfettered learning and teaching about “full and true” U.S. history. She will return to the White House.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Vietnam. On Friday morning, Yellen will participate in a U.S. business roundtable and speak about developing resilient supply chains and combating climate change. She will hold a bilateral meeting in Hanoi with Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc. Yellen will have lunch with Nguyen Thi Hong, the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam. She will participate in a moderated discussion at a Foreign Trade University conference with female leaders who work in the economic sector. Yellen will meet with National Assembly Chairman Voung Dinh Hue. The secretary will then return to the United States. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be interviewed at 9 a.m. MST in Aspen, Colo., as part of an Aspen Security Forum fireside chat event.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will be interviewed at 12:30 p.m. MST in Aspen, Colo., as part of an Aspen Security Forum fireside chat event.

First lady Jill Biden will speak during a Biden Victory Fund political event at 4:30 p.m. in Provincetown, Mass. 

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is in Auckland, New Zealand. On Friday he co-hosts a roundtable to discuss with former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand community leaders efforts to promote societal tolerance. Emhoff also meets with staff of the U.S. Consulate Auckland. 

ELSEWHERE

➤ ADMINISTRATION 

Biden made the pitch Thursday that unions will be building America’s renewable energy future — a courtship of organized labor that comes at a moment when a number of major unions are weighing strikes that could disrupt the growth he wants to campaign on in 2024. Biden has long called on businesses to hire unionized workers, saying that the premium paid will lead to higher-quality work, but companies seem reluctant to meet unions’ terms in separate contract talks with writers, actors, autoworkers and UPS employees.

The president toured the Philly Shipyard, where there was a steel-cutting ceremony for the Acadia, which will help build offshore wind farms. Biden listed the various union jobs being created by the project, promoting a message he has started to amplify as he seeks a second term (The Associated Press and CNN). 

“A lot of my friends in organized labor know, when I think climate, I think jobs,” the president said. “Union workers are the best in the world.”

The Hill: Biden sees small rise in economic approval rating amid “Bidenomics” push, survey shows.
Politico: The White House moves on from confirmation effort for Julie Su as Labor secretary.

Student loans: The Biden administration recently introduced the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan to create what the Department of Education called “the most generous” student repayment option ever given to borrowers. The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Lexi Lonas break down what consumers should know about the new SAVE plan before existing loan repayments resume following a three-year, pandemic-initiated hiatus.  

College students and recent graduates blame the Supreme Court and Republicans for scuttling or complicating opportunities for millions of borrowers and their families to write off up to $20,000 in college debt, according to a new poll from Generation Lab (The Hill). 

USA Today: Biden’s new mass student loan forgiveness plan begins. It won’t go fast.

THE CLOSER

And finally …  👏👏👏 This week’s Morning Report Quiz winners should take a bow! Readers alert to the entertainment and sports worlds used little gray cells (or Google) to complete a puzzle about feats and new record-setting ripped from the week’s headlines.

Editors’ note: Ooops! Two multiple-choice quiz question options were missing in some emailed Morning Report versions due to a technical error. The Hill apologizes for any confusion.

Here are Morning Report champs who went 4/4: Lou Tisler, Stan Wasser, Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Harris, Ki Harvey, Bruce Linderman, Lynn Gardner, Jaina Mehta, Peter John, Bill Grieshober, Harry Strulovici, Randall Patrick, Robert Bradley, Steve James, Pam Manges and Terry Pflaumer.  

They knew that Taylor Swift achieved four of the Top 10 billboard albums on the July 22 Billboard 200 chart. It’s the first time in nearly 60 years that a living artist has at least four albums at the same time in the Top 10.

Tennis player Marketa Vondrousova triumphed Saturday as the first unseeded Wimbledon women’s singles champion.

Tom Cruise performed 500 practice dives and around 13,000 rehearsed jumps to prepare for “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” which recently opened in theaters featuring a stunt in which the star, portraying Ethan Hunt, drives a motorcycle off a mountain, leaps off the bike midair and parachutes to a speeding train. Not CGI. Just Tom. Atop a mountain in Norway.

Twelve teams set a modern-era baseball record on Tuesday by scoring 10+ home runs, one of the highest-scoring days in Major League Baseball history.

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Tags Chuck Grassley Hunter Biden