| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | | With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
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While much of the reaction the past few days has focused on the strength of Trump's indictment, a skilled defense will inevitably unearth new facts and new interpretations of the narrative described by the government. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | HAPPENING TODAY — “You’re up, Joe: Europe awaits Biden’s nod on next NATO chief,” by Lili Bayer: “NATO Secretary-General JENS STOLTENBERG will visit the White House on Tuesday, part of a trip that could determine whether he stays on at the helm of the Western military alliance or if the U.S. will back a new candidate.” INSIDE THE TRUMP DEFENSE — Good morning from Miami, where DONALD J. TRUMP will be arraigned at 3 p.m. today inside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Courthouse on a 37-count federal criminal indictment. The former president is scheduled to travel this afternoon from Trump National Doral Golf Club, where he arrived Monday, to downtown Miami, where police are preparing for large scale protests, and then fly to Bedminster, N.J., tonight to deliver a speech at his club there. First off, here’s what to expect inside the courtroom: Don’t expect to see much. U.S. Magistrate Judge JONATHAN GOODMAN, who will preside over today’s hearing, ruled against allowing media cameras inside, citing in part “the massive security arrangements put in place.” A closed-circuit video feed will be available in a spillover room for members of the media and public who won’t fit inside the courtroom, but it won’t be broadcast to the outside world. He did arrange for “an expedited transcript” of the event. As to who will be representing Trump before Goodman, it’s unclear. Per Josh Gerstein, Trump aide BORIS EPSHTEYN spent much of yesterday holding a cattle call at Doral to find potential lawyers to defend Trump. WaPo reported last night that Trump has been “scrambling” to identify a seasoned Florida trial lawyer willing to take the case, and that Trump attorneys TODD BLANCHE and CHRIS KISE, who are leading that search, are likely to appear today. Eventually Trump will find representation, and the legal assault on special counsel JACK SMITH’s case will begin. While much of the reaction the past few days has focused on the strength of the indictment and the evidence Smith has amassed, a skilled defense will inevitably unearth new facts and new interpretations of the narrative described by the government. Overseeing it all is likely to be AILEEN CANNON, the Trump-appointed judge who garnered scrutiny last year over rulings friendly to the former president. To understand how to mount a defense of Trump, we turned to the man who until recently was charged with that task: TIMOTHY PARLATORE, who left the Trump team last month after he determined that Epshteyn was making it impossible for him to do his job. We spoke to Parlatore at length last night, and two things were very clear: (1) He is no MAGA diehard. Like a lot of criminal defense attorneys he seems more driven by a jaundiced view of the government and a desire to check its enormous powers to accuse citizens of crimes and deprive them of liberty. His hero is JOHN ADAMS, who famously defended the British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre. (2) He is sincere in his belief that Trump has some eminently viable pre-trial strategies that could blow some holes in Smith’s case.
| | | | A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: DCA is already at capacity, with no room to grow, and cannot accommodate more flights. Previous changes at DCA have led to more noise, delays, congestion, and traffic, and adding more flights now would make it even worse. Combined with a shortage in pilots and air traffic controllers, any changes to the slot and perimeter rules are not sustainable, risk severely overburdening DCA, and will cause further delays and daily disruption at our airports. Learn more. | | | Here’s how he would handle the first stages of the case: — Pursue aggressive discovery. Indictments usually mark the high point of the strength of the government’s case. Prosecutors decide what information is released and, just as important, what’s not released. But that will soon change as Trump’s legal team gains access to the full record and has a better understanding of any alternative explanations they can craft in response to what now reads like damning evidence. “So that’s the first big motion,” Parlatore said. “There will be a dispute. The government won’t give them as much as they want. But what’s in an indictment and what discovery shows don’t always match up.” — Probe potential prosecutorial misconduct. A central — and serious — allegation from team Trump is that JAY BRATT, the Justice Department’s counterintelligence chief, pressured Trump co-defendant WALT NAUTA during an interview by inappropriately mentioning that Nauta’s attorney, STANLEY WOODWARD, is currently applying for a presidentially nominated D.C. Superior Court judgeship. Trump’s lawyers “may seek additional discovery related to the issue of prosecutorial misconduct — the attempted extortion or witness tampering of one of the attorneys,” Parlatore said. “What communications are there between DOJ and anyone who oversees the judicial process? You would want to try to find any corroboration of that.” — Attack the search warrant. Parlatore said he would next go after the legitimacy of the search warrant in an effort to suppress the evidence obtained from the raid of Mar-a-Lago last August. The Trump team will no doubt finally have access to the fully unredacted version of the search warrant, which could offer lawyers new avenues to pursue. (They will no doubt hype this dispute between DOJ and FBI detailed by a former FBI official over the execution of the raid.) — Get the lawyer’s notes excluded. One of the biggest pretrial fights will be over Trump lawyer EVAN CORCORAN’s notes. D.C.-based federal judge AMY BERMAN JACKSON allowed Smith to pierce attorney-client privilege based on the so-called “crime-fraud exception,” and the indictment relies on the Corcoran notes to establish key elements of the obstruction case against him. When they fought the issue previously, Trump’s lawyers were not privy to every part of the government’s motion or the government’s oral argument or even the entire order from the judge, Parlatore said: “They essentially have to redo that motion, now with the benefit of seeing all of the evidence.” The defense argument for excluding the notes is straightforward: How can someone be charged with criminal counts for simply asking questions of their lawyer during what they believed was a privileged conversation? “It should have never been a crime-fraud exception, and once it was, it should never have been the evidence for a charge,” Parlatore said. “It’s insane.” — Undermine the process that produced the indictment. Parlatore also alleges a pattern of misconduct that he says he witnessed inside the grand jury, where prosecutors repeatedly asked about privileged attorney-client communications then argued to jurors that invoking that privilege was evidence of guilt. That, Parlatore said, would justify a motion “that the entire grand jury process was flawed,” he said — part of a strategy to discredit the case based on legal issues while Trump’s lawyers unearth factual issues that are likely to emerge later in the case. “Attack the conduct of the entire investigation and show through death by a thousand cuts why this entire investigation is irreparably tainted by government misconduct,” he continued. “The case therefore should be dismissed or, at a minimum, the prosecutor should be disqualified.” Further reading:
Good Tuesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports:   Discover the facts about DCA’s at-capacity operations. | | | CLICKER — Trump now faces charges or ongoing investigations in four criminal cases, from Miami to NYC to Fulton County, Ga. The former president may be on trial in multiple criminal cases as he mounts his bid to regain the White House in 2024. Check out POLITICO’s up-to-the-minute tracker on the status of each case, the key players and the legal risks.
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POLITICO Illustration | END OF THE REVOLUTION — For now, at least. The hard-right House Republicans who brought the chamber to a standstill over the last week struck a deal yesterday with GOP leadership to end the logjam, though threats of a restart still linger, Sarah Ferris and Jordain Carney report. Conservatives said they agreed to the truce, which will restart floor maneuverings tomorrow, after being reassured that they’d be more closely involved in decision-making. (Reports from members differed as to how explicit the power-sharing will be.) The far-right flank said they’ll have a seat at the table in this year’s big spending fights — though it’s hard to see that going smoothly for Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY. “Whatever power McCarthy might have picked up from the debt fight was just enough to quell the conservative rebellion Monday night,” Roll Call’s Niels Lesniewski and John Bennett report. “But the far-right rebels made clear they were not afraid to apply the brakes again.” Specifically, beyond some votes this week, they told McCarthy he can’t expect their support without a clearer power-sharing agreement, per NYT’s Annie Karni. Already, there’s daylight between the two sides on what we can expect: Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) said the agreement will be written down and released publicly, per ABC’s Gabe Ferris. McCarthy said … not so fast. Regrets, he (says he) has a few: CNN’s Melanie Zanona reports that McCarthy told the hard-liners he wouldn’t have struck the debt ceiling deal with Biden had he known how much turmoil it would sow among Republicans. Spending saga: In a statement memorializing one of McCarthy’s key concessions, House Appropriations Chair KAY GRANGER (R-Texas) announced last night that House Republicans will mark up next year’s spending bills at fiscal 2022 levels — i.e., dollar amounts below the debt ceiling deal’s caps. But that will almost certainly be a no-go for the Senate, setting up a major spending clash later this year that could threaten a government shutdown. Watch this space: Meanwhile, Roll Call’s Aidan Quigley points out there’s an underappreciated dynamic that could compel Congress to pass a cap-busting supplemental spending bill later this year: “The government’s main disaster relief fund is expected to run out of money in August, while Congress is on its summer break.” Separate pushes for Ukraine, border and other funding could conceivably hitch a ride.
| | BIDEN’S TUESDAY:
10 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
1 p.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Stoltenberg in the Oval Office.
5:15 p.m.: Biden will speak at the Chiefs of Mission reception in the East Room.
7 p.m.: Biden will hold a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn, with VP KAMALA HARRIS participating and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF attending.
Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will brief at 1:30 p.m.
THE HOUSE will meet at noon to (finally) take up the rule for gas stove legislation, the pistol brace bill and more, with a vote around 1:10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN will testify before the Financial Services Committee at 10 a.m. HHS Secretary XAVIER BECERRA will testify before the Education and the Workforce Committee at 10:15 a.m.
THE SENATE will meet at 10 a.m., with votes throughout the day on the nominations of ELIZABETH ALLEN as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, HERNAN VERA for a judicial opening and JARED BERNSTEIN to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. The Senate will recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for weekly conference meetings and from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for an all-senators closed briefing. The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on FISA Section 702 reauthorization at 10 a.m. | | | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
|  VP Kamala Harris is presented with a trophy by University of Texas at Austin volleyball player Logan Eggleston as Douglas Emhoff looks on during a College Athlete Day event at the White House on Monday, June 12. | Alex Wong/Getty Images | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 2024 WATCH OFF-LABEL — No Labels may opt out of the presidential race if Trump doesn’t land the GOP nomination — even if another MAGA conservative like Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS does, Shia Kapos reports from Chicago this morning. That “underscores that the group’s calculus is not tied tightly to ideological considerations,” since the group disagrees with DeSantis on, say, the debt ceiling deal, and it won’t take a stand on abortion for now. CEO NANCY JACOBSON and chief strategist RYAN CLANCY dismiss the heavy criticism that’s been levied against their idea, and they’re moving ahead with a convention in Dallas in April, even if they decide not to field a nominee. ABOUT LAST NIGHT — “Takeaways from CNN’s town hall with Chris Christie,” by CNN’s Eric Bradner and Gregory Krieg: “He called Trump a ‘loser’ and a ‘child,’ comparing the former president’s refusal to accept his defeat for reelection in 2020 to a blame-deflecting tantrum from a child who had failed a test at school.” INTERESTING ROLL CALL — “GOP 2024 Candidates Cautious About Committing US Troops To Taiwan,” by the Daily Caller’s Diana Glebova: “Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declined to provide comment. Former United Nations Ambassador NIKKI HALEY, North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM and South Carolina Sen. TIM SCOTT emphasized deterrence. Four GOP hopefuls — VIVEK RAMASWAMY, LARRY ELDER, MIKE PENCE and ASA HUTCHINSON — said directly that they would be open to potentially sending the U.S. military to defend Taiwan.” CASH DASH — “Ron DeSantis to attend fundraiser with Wall Street execs, including former Soros firm partner,” by CNBC’s Brian Schwartz MORE POLITICS BIG ENDORSEMENT — “McCarthy endorses Riley Moore for open West Virginia House seat,” by Brittany Gibson: “McCarthy’s endorsement could help [RILEY] MOORE clear the field in his primary election, where he is already [outraising] all of his opponents. … He is the nephew of Sen. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO.” THE WHITE HOUSE WRIST SLAPPED — “White House press secretary violated Hatch Act, government watchdog says,” by NBC’s Katherine Doyle: “Jean-Pierre violated a law intended to prevent federal employees from using their offices to influence elections when she repeatedly referred to ‘mega MAGA Republicans’ in the run-up to the 2022 midterms.” CONGRESS BERNIE’S OWN REVOLUTION — “Sanders vows to oppose NIH nominee until Biden produces drug-pricing plan,” by WaPo’s Dan Diamond: “Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate health panel, is vowing to not move forward with President Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health — or any health nominee — until he receives the administration’s ‘comprehensive’ plan on lowering drug prices.” NIGHT OF THE HUNTER — “Oversight Committee subpoenas former Hunter Biden business partner,” by CBS’ Catherine Herridge and Graham Kates: DEVON “ARCHER’s potential testimony to the GOP House Government Oversight Committee is a significant milestone in the congressional probe.” — “Joe and Hunter Biden caught on 17 recordings with Burisma owner, Grassley reveals FBI form says,” by the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy MARKUP SEASON — “U.S. Senate leaders unveil $107 bln aviation policy bill,” by Reuters’ David Shepardson … “Biggest Troop Pay Raise in 2 Decades on Track in House Defense Bill,” by Military.com’s Rebecca Kheel KNOWING NICK DYER — “The Most Belligerent Flack on Capitol Hill,” by The New Yorker’s Charles Bethea: “Dyer, the deputy chief of staff to MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, has built a career as a political aide out of what one observer calls ‘pure, non-strategic contempt.’” POLICY CORNER LET’S MAKE A DEAL — “Compromise struck to preserve Obamacare’s preventive care mandate,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein: “The agreement … keeps coverage intact nationwide while the case proceeds. The Biden administration, in exchange, pledged not to enforce the mandate to cover HIV prevention drugs and other preventive care services against the employers and individual workers who sued claiming that doing so violated their religious beliefs.” SPY GAMES — A new Office of the Director of National Intelligence report has found that U.S. spy agencies hoover up massive amounts of Americans’ personal information by purchasing their data, raising significant privacy questions, WSJ’s Byron Tau and Dustin Volz report. ODNI’s report is “the first known attempt by the U.S. government to examine comprehensively how federal agencies acquire, share and use” this info. GLASS CEILING INTACT — “Defense secretary passes over woman considered front-runner for Navy’s top job,” by NBC’s Courtney Kube IMMIGRATION FILES — “Biden officials are publicly touting the lack of a migrant surge. Privately, they’re scared,” by Myah Ward
| | | | A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports:   Learn more about The Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports. | | | WAR IN UKRAINE THE VIEW FROM NATO — “NATO secretary-general discusses Ukrainian counteroffensive and Sweden membership dispute,” PBS NewsHour: “Geoff Bennett sat down with Stoltenberg ahead of the NATO leader’s meeting with the president.” THE ECONOMY THE LINGERING THREAT — Washington managed to raise the debt ceiling on time, barely. But the chaos in that negotiation and in American governance writ large could yet exact a toll, as Fitch Ratings considers downgrading Treasury securities for the second time in American history, Sam Sutton reports this morning. Fitch is talking to various officials and experts, with a decision expected in the coming months, managing director JAMES McCORMACK says. BEYOND THE BELTWAY SLOWING THEIR ROLLS — The process of states purging their Medicaid rolls after the pandemic is well underway, and the vast numbers getting kicked off their health coverage are concerning the Biden administration. The Kaiser Family Foundation pegs the number of disenrollees at more than 1 million in its latest data analysis. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary XAVIER BECERRA urged state leaders to proceed with caution, citing high percentages of people who are losing Medicaid because they didn’t return the proper forms, AP’s David Lieb reports from Jefferson City, Mo. BATTLE FOR THE BALLOT — “Ohio Supreme Court orders partial rewrite of ballot language for constitution issue,” by The Columbus Dispatch’s Haley BeMiller MEDIAWATCH WHAT COMES NEXT — “CNN needs a new leader after Chris Licht. Will anyone want the job?” by WaPo’s Jeremy Barr
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Rachel Maddow launched a new podcast. Brian Kemp is going to the other Georgia. Lina Khan is taking on Microsoft/Activision Blizzard. OUT AND ABOUT — At a party yesterday evening for Ben Terris’ new book, “The Big Break” ($30), in the penthouse at the WaPo offices, host and outgoing publisher Fred Ryan introduced his interim CEO replacement, Patty Stonesifer, and assured her that “every single night at the Post, we have a party like this.” Ryan lauded the book as “beautifully written.” Also SPOTTED: Sally Buzbee, Krissah Thompson, Sally Quinn, Carlos Lozada, George Conway, Dave Jamieson, Marin Cogan, Benjy Sarlin, Suzy Khimm, Josh Dawsey, Matea Gold, Hank Stuever, Dan Strauss, John Hudson, Phil Rucker, Adam Kushner, Jack Shafer and Michael Schaffer. — SPOTTED last night at the Picnic Theatre Company's encore performance of “Network” at the Embassy of France: Steve Rochlin, Christina Sevilla, Sara Cook, Nihal Krishan, Ali Dukakis, Nova Daly, Alexa Newlin, Antonio Olivo, Kevin Rooney, Adam Ruben, Jayne Sandman, Hugo Verges, David White, Kimball Stroud, Doug Heye, Daniel Lippman, Amanda Macias, Tony Capaccio, Kasper Zeuthen, Sara Forden, Marie-Helene Zavala, Andrew Oros, Tamara Keith, Hastie and Amir Akhami. MEDIA MOVES — Abby Livingston is now a congressional contributor for Puck. She previously was Washington bureau chief at The Texas Tribune. … Isabel Pellegrino is now senior publicist at CBS News/“CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.” She previously was a managing supervisor at FleishmanHillard. WEST WING ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Brent Woolfork is now chief of staff for Neera Tanden, the new head of the Domestic Policy Council. He most recently was deputy assistant secretary for House affairs at DOD. TRANSITIONS — Eva Kemp is now VP of campaigns at American Bridge 21st Century. She previously was SVP of paid media at Precision Strategies, and is a Biden White House alum. … Alex Ortiz is now an SVP at Capitol Hill Consulting Group. He most recently was chief of staff for Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska). … America Strong and Free Action, a super PAC supporting presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, has added Austin Barbour as national finance chair and senior adviser for strategy, messaging and media and Molly Donlin as senior adviser for strategy and political operations. … … Touchdown Strategies has added Dan Ronayne as SVP and Monica Klopp as operations manager. Ronayne previously was president of Asta Strategies and is a Senate Republican Conference and a Bush campaign alum. Klopp previously was a marketing and comms manager for Georgia-Pacific. … Chris MacArthur is now legislative director for Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.). He previously was senior legislative assistant for Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.). … Talia La Schiazza is now policy comms manager at Intel Corporation. She previously was account supervisor of corporate affairs at BCW Global. WEEKEND WEDDING — Amanda Golden, an incoming MBA candidate and Forté Fellow at U.Va. Darden School of Business and a Google News, NBC News and CNN alum, and Matthew Kincaid, an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell, got married Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. They met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend in 2018. Pic … Another pic … SPOTTED: Betsy Klein and Jeff Solnet, Josh Dawsey, Meridith McGraw, Tom Kaplan, Natasha Sarin, Alan He, Matthew Nussbaum, Ines de la Cuetara, Daniella Diaz, Roy Loewenstein, Caroline Kenny, Gary Grumbach, Micki Fahner and Cate Gropper. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) … Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) … North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper … L.A. Times’ Seema Mehta … FDA’s William Lewallen … Morton Halperin … POLITICO’s Camaryn Kerns, Justice Fears and Eli Stokols … NTIA’s Margaret Harding McGill … Patrick Cuff … Jim Fellinger of the Consumer Technology Association … Kirtan Mehta of Sen. John Hickenlooper’s (D-Colo.) office (4-0) … Mara Liasson … Andrew Lavigne … DSCC’s Dylan Lopez … Genger Charles … Michelle Korsmo … National Journal’s Casey Wooten … Patrick McGill … Trent Allen … former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon … John Del Cecato of AKPD Message and Media … Bryce Bozadjian of BCS … Abbey Nichols of Chong + Koster … CNN’s Jamie Zahn-Liebes … WaPo’s Michelle Ye Hee Lee … USDA’s Victoria Maloch … Josephine Eckert (4-0) … Jessica Ek of American Cleaning Institute … Sarah Lovenheim … Georgetown’s Callum Stewart … Scott Bixby Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine. Correction: Sunday’s Playbook misstated Mike Schoenfeld’s professional affiliation. He is with the Brunswick Group.
| | | | A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: If any changes are made to the slot and perimeter rules, DCA would be forced to accommodate 12.6 million passengers beyond what it was originally designed to handle, without any regard for the impact on passenger safety or convenience, and the physical constraints of the airport itself. Delays will worsen with these changes, and even 20 additional daily round-trip operations would increase delays by 25.9%, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). We are committed to protecting the slot and perimeter rules to ensure that D.C. air travel remains safe and efficient for passengers and airport personnel. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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