GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, August 4, where the only thing better than a recess week is a recess weekend. TRUMP INDICTMENT LATEST Even with a Trump arraignment just down the block, there was not a lawmaker in sight Thursday when the former president pleaded not guilty to four felony charges related to efforts to block the transfer of power following the 2020 election. There were roughly a dozen protesters outside the federal courthouse in Washington, along with hundreds of onlookers who gathered to observe as Trump’s motorcade rolled in. But unlike previous arraignments — which featured cameos by the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and George Santos (R-N.Y.) — no members chose to devote a precious recess day to showing up for (or against) the former president. Don’t miss our team’s coverage on all things arraignment: Trump pleads not guilty to charges that he conspired to overturn 2020 election, from Kyle Cheney and Betsy Woodruff Swan. — Daniella Diaz and Andrew Zhang A SOLEMN BIPARTISAN SCHOOL VISIT Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Mario Diaz-Balart will lead a bipartisan group of nine lawmakers on a Friday visit to the scene of one of the nation’s worst school shootings, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Moskowitz, a Democrat, led a similar tour for Florida legislators in the immediate aftermath of the 2018 shooting and credits it in part with building support for a state-level gun safety package signed into law weeks later by then-Gov. Rick Scott. He’s hoping Friday’s visit might crack open a window, however slightly, for more action. “We got a full tour around the building — the blood outside the doors where people dragged themselves out, the bullet holes, the backpacks piled up outside, the homework scattered everywhere,” Moskowitz told Huddle of the prior visit. “I think the most impactful thing was the legislators seeing that firsthand.” Why now: Moskowitz said he doesn’t have “a specific policy objective” for Friday’s tour, but the goal remains the same: that an in-person visit might inspire an appetite for further legislation to prevent gun violence and protect students. “I don't ever want to underestimate what political times we live in,” he said. “Because I didn't at the time — at that moment, I didn't think we would respond the way we did.” Refresher: The last gun control package passed Congress just over a year ago, spurred by the May 2022 shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. That legislation provided grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws and closed what’s known as the “boyfriend loophole.” The product of across-the-aisle negotiations in the Senate, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed in that chamber on a 65-33 vote that included support from 15 Republicans. Just 14 Republicans in the House voted in favor of the bill, which passed 234-193. What’s next: The post-Uvalde package appears to have exhausted whatever bipartisan interest existed on Capitol Hill to pursue gun legislation. Republicans have resisted any effort to kick-start talks on the issue, and Diaz-Balart suggested in an interview Thursday that lawmakers focus on schools, not guns. “That may be things like whether it's bulletproof glass design areas, so that people’s kids are safe,” said the Florida Republican, who voted against the post-Uvalde legislation. “Make sure that you just can't walk up and do whatever you want to, whether it's to kidnap a kid or to do mass shootings.” Moskovitz conceded this week that additional movement will be incremental: “We're not gonna get a Hail Mary on this issue. So we’ve got to continue to try to make progress, because making progress means we're gonna save kids.” Also attending: Reps. Bowman, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Nanette Barragan (D-Calif.), Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.), John Rutherford (R-Fla.) and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) ABOUT THAT DEVON ARCHER TRANSCRIPT Congress's days-long fixation on ex-Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer is going down a new rabbit hole: into the backstory behind the quick release of his Oversight Committee interview transcript. The Thursday release of a 140-page record came less than 72 hours after Archer met privately with staff and lawmakers, and it happened without Archer’s attorney verifying the transcript’s accuracy. It's an unusual step in politically sensitive congressional investigations, though some Democrats began calling for its release on Monday before the transcript was even in the committee's possession. The committee’s July 17 interview with a former FBI official about the Hunter Biden investigation, for example, hasn't yet been released. A GOP committee aide told POLITICO that releasing the transcript followed committee protocols and they did not hear from Archer’s attorney ahead of 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline to review and correct the transcript — and still had not heard from him as of Thursday evening. “We gave a deadline,” the aide added, “and we received no corrections, no response, and no request for an extension.” Matthew Schwartz, Archer’s attorney, isn’t directly criticizing the transcript release — which came amid a pitched battle between Republicans and Democrats on the committee over what precisely what Hunter Biden's former business associate said. But Archer, Schwartz said, was “happy for people to read for themselves what he shared with the Committee,” but Schwartz warned that “we cannot confirm the accuracy of the transcript that was released, as Committee staffers gave us only a handful of hours to review it before it was made public.” — Jordain Carney
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