New Jersey senators blast DOJ for firing new U.S. attorney
Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats from New Jersey, blasted Bondi’s decision to fire Desiree Leigh Grace, the newly chosen U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
“Trump’s Department of Justice is once again criticizing a court that acted within its authority, continuing a pattern of publicly undermining judicial decisions and showing disregard for the rule of law and the separation of powers,” they wrote. “The firing of a career public servant, lawfully appointed by the court, is another blatant attempt to intimidate anyone that doesn’t agree with them and undermine judicial independence.”
They added, “The people of New Jersey deserve a U.S. Attorney who will enforce the law and pursue justice for the people of our state without partisanship or politics.”
Tillis says he won’t support Trump special counsel nominee
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., says he will not support Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel.
“I had not been following him. I went into my office, got a preliminary briefing, and that’s enough for me to know there’s probably virtually no way I could get to a yes,” Tillis said, “It’s Jan. 6th; it’s a number of other things. So I think, I think he’s one of these people that’s checked all the boxes, and they’re all the wrong boxes.”
Ingrassia is a far-right former podcaster and commentator with a lengthy list of incendiary comments. He has called for Jan. 6 to be declared a national holiday to honor the “peaceful protest against a great injustice affecting our electoral system” and dismissed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel as a “psyop.”
Tillis has said in recent weeks that he will oppose any Trump nominee who participated in or acted in support of those who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump’s nominees can lose only three votes in the Senate to be confirmed, and Tillis’ early opposition could mean Ingrassia’s nomination is in trouble.
“It’s pretty apparent to me he’s not ready for prime time, but he’s young, he’s got plenty of time to learn,” Tillis said.
Ingrassia is set to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a member of the committee, said Ingrassia’s previous comments will come up.
“I would never make some of the statements he’s made,” Lankford told NBC News. “So I think those are all things to be able to ask about and try to be able to figure out his perspective.”
GOP senator appears to freeze during Fox Business interview
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., appeared to freeze up while he was speaking on Fox Business around 5 p.m. ET, a moment that led anchor Larry Kudlow to cut the feed and say the issue was a technical issue with a microphone.
During the interview, Kennedy said, “I’m sure Jesus loves ’em, but everybody else thinks … everybody else …” before he fell silent.
Kennedy, 73, was seen on Capitol Hill last week wearing a mask because he was sick. Kennedy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for a response.
Kennedy voted in all four of the votes the Senate held this afternoon — votes that started before Fox Business interview and ended after it.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins says she will vote no on Emil Bove’s judicial nomination
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, will vote no on Emil Bove’s nomination to be a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, she said in a new statement shared with NBC News.
“We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be,” she said in the statement. “Mr. Bove’s political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as an impartial jurist.”
The nomination has faced heightened scrutiny after a whistleblower alleged that Bove, previously Trump’s personal lawyer, suggested that Justice Department officials could ignore court orders about deportations. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, also a former Trump personal lawyer, denied the allegation and blasted the reporting as “falsehoods purportedly made by a disgruntled former employee.”
Collins voted to advance a procedural motion related to Bove’s nomination earlier today, but she has shown a tendency to vote yes to advance bills or nominees but ultimately oppose them.
Trump sets 15% tariff on Japanese imports as part of investment agreement
Trump said on Truth Social that his administration had reached a deal with Japan, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, to lower its tariff rate to 15% as part of a sweeping trade agreement.
The rate is lower than the 24% that Trump threatened Japan with April 2 and the 25% he said he would hit Japanese imports with in a letter July 7. Before Trump’s current term, the effective U.S. tariff rate on Japanese imports was less than 2%, according to World Bank data.
Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the details of the agreement.
Pam Bondi removes U.S. attorney whom N.J. judges had named to replace Trump ally Alina Habba
Reporting from Washington
Attorney General Pam Bondi today removed a federal prosecutor whom New Jersey’s federal judges had named to replace the state’s interim U.S. attorney, Alina Habba, a close Trump ally.
Bondi said on X that Habba — previously Trump’s personal lawyer — had been “doing a great job making NJ safe again” but that “politically minded judges refused to allow her to continue in her position.”
Desiree Leigh Grace was named U.S. attorney for New Jersey, according to an order the chief judge for the District of New Jersey, Renee Marie Bumb, signed today. The order means judges declined to extend Habba’s interim role, which expires after 120 days. Trump appointed Habba on March 24, and she was sworn in on March 28.
Obama spokesperson rebukes Trump after he accuses former president of treason
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Monica Alba, Sarah Dean and Zoë Richards
A spokesperson for former President Barack Obama sharply rebuked Trump’s comments today that accused Obama of “treason” and alleged he tried to rig the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
The spokesperson, Patrick Rodenbush, called the allegations “ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction” in a statement today.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” Rodenbush said.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” he added.
Earlier today, Trump had responded to a question about his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case by accusing Obama of criminality.
“After what they did to me — and whether it’s right or wrong — it’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly,” Trump told reporters. “What they did in 2016 and 2020 is very criminal. It’s criminal at the highest level. So that’s really the things you should be talking about.”
“Look, he’s guilty. It’s not a question,” Trump added. “This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election.”
Republicans propose naming the Kennedy Center’s opera house after Melania Trump
Reporting from Washington
Republicans today proposed naming the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Opera House after first lady Melania Trump, with the lawmaker who sponsored the measure saying he wanted to honor her “support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities.”
House Republicans tucked the provision by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, into the bill that would fund the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and other related agencies for fiscal year 2026, which begins in October. The House Appropriations Committee adopted it as part of an amendment in a 33-25 vote and reported the legislation out of committee in a 33-28 vote. It would next head to the full House for a vote.
Trump announces 19% tariffs on imported products from Indonesia and the Philippines
Trump made two new tariff announcements today, continuing his effort to tax products that are imported into the United States.
After a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office, Trump said he was lowering a planned tariff on imports from the Philippines from 20% to 19%, with U.S firms able to export their goods there tariff-free. U.S. goods imports from the Philippines totaled $14.2 billion in 2024, compared with $9.3 billion worth of exports there.
Several hours later, he said he had struck a trade agreement with Indonesia that also puts a 19% tax on products imported from that country. In return, it would eliminate 99% of duties on U.S. imports. U.S. goods imports from Indonesia totaled $28.1 billion last year. U.S. goods exports to Indonesia last year were $10.2 billion.
As with similar announcements from Trump, it was not clear whether formal documents had yet been signed to cement terms.
A White House spokesperson referred a request for comment to a joint statement issued today about the deal with Indonesia.
“In the coming weeks, the United States and Indonesia will negotiate and finalize the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, prepare the Agreement for signature, and undertake domestic formalities in advance of the Agreement entering into force,” it said.
Compared with the first months of his term, markets have come to accept such tariff announcements — or to at least no longer produce knee-jerk responses to them. Instead, investors are waiting to see how the increased prices implied by the taxes get filtered into the rest of the economy. So far, the evidence for an inflationary effect largely remains to be seen.
Sen. Bernie Sanders meets with freed Palestinian activist
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted a picture of himself on social media with Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump administration detained for over three months.
Khalil “was imprisoned for 104 days by the Trump administration for opposing Netanyahu’s illegal & horrific war in Gaza. Outrageous,” Sanders wrote in the post.
“We must not allow Trump to destroy the First Amendment & freedom to dissent,” he added.
Federal immigration agents arrested Khalil, a green-card holder who is married to an American citizen, in March for what officials said was his support for a designated terrorist organization, Hamas. Khalil has said he was protesting against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, not in support of Hamas. A judge ordered his release last month.
Ex-Trump lawyer Alina Habba replaced as U.S. attorney in N.J.
Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba has been replaced as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey after having served the maximum of 120 days on the job.
Trump had officially nominated her for the position, but her nomination became stalled in the Senate. Federal judges could have authorized her to remain on the job, but they instead named her top deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, as her replacement.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urged the judges not to extend Habba’s term in a post on X last week.
“Alina Habba is a woefully unqualified political hack who has to go,” Jeffries wrote, saying she “maliciously indicted Congresswoman LaMonica McIver for doing her job.”
McIver, D-N.J., was charged with “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers” during a confrontation with ICE officers in May. She has pleaded not guilty.
Habba called Jeffries’ post “obstruction” and “wrong” in an interview with Fox News yesterday. “I was appointed by Pam Bondi. I was nominated by President Trump. They have no business interfering with the federal bench in the state of New Jersey,” she said.
Trump announces Philippines will face a 19% tariff
Trump announced on his Truth Social account after a meeting with the president of the Philippines that goods from the country will be subject to a 19% tariff.
“President Ferdinand Marcos, of the Philippines, is just leaving the White House, with all of his many Representatives. It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs,” Trump wrote.
“The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff. In addition, we will work together Militarily,” he wrote, referring to Marcos as “a very good, and tough, negotiator.”
Judge seeks more information about the administration’s request to release Epstein grand jury transcripts
U.S. District Judge John Berman has responded to the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case.
Berman’s order is nearly identical to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer’s response to the government’s request to release grand jury transcripts in Ghislaine Maxwell’s case.
Berman directed the government to file additional details about its request with the court by July 29. He also ordered Epstein’s representative and victims to file letters about their positions on the proposed disclosure by Aug. 5.
Marjorie Taylor Greene welcomes DOJ meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, but urges caution
Reporting from The U.S. Capitol
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told NBC News that within the past week, most of the calls to her congressional office have “been all about Epstein.”
She added that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is “absolutely” making “the right move to go talk with Ghislaine Maxwell,” a decision Blanche announced this morning amid a two-week backlash over the administration’s announcement earlier this month that no new information on Epstein would be released.
But, Greene said, she does not know if any information Maxwell provides Blanche can be trusted.
“She should have to present evidence if she’s making statements about people,” Greene said. “I think she should have to provide evidence of that. So it’s like, maybe innocent people are getting accused of a crime by her, and then it becomes believable by the public.”
“I think they’re doing the right thing so far,” she continued. “And I hope the American people get the transparency they want.”
White House faces backlash after booting The Wall Street Journal from Scotland media coverage plans
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Garrett Haake, Zoë Richards and Megan Lebowitz
The White House faces backlash from media groups after it booted The Wall Street Journal from a cohort of media outlets set to cover Trump’s upcoming trip to Scotland.
“This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,” Weijia Jiang, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said in a statement.
Trump administration must submit more information in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, judge orders
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who is presiding over Ghislaine Maxwell’s federal case, responded to the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts.
The court intends to “resolve this motion expeditiously,” but he cannot rule on it without additional submissions, Engelmayer said in his order.
The government has not “adequately” addressed the “factors” that district courts weigh in considering applications for disclosure, including “why disclosure is being sought in the particular case” and “what specific information is being sought for disclosure,” he said.
The government must file a memorandum of law no later than July 29, the judge said. He also ordered the government to submit the following materials under seal: an index of Maxwell grand jury transcript materials, a complete set of the transcripts, and a set with proposed redactions.
Engelmayer ordered Maxwell and the victims to file their positions on the proposed disclosure by Aug. 5.
Trump says it would be ‘appropriate’ for DOJ to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office today that he was unaware of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s plan to meet with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, but that he thought it would be “appropriate.”
“I don’t know about it, but I think it’s something that would be, sounds appropriate to do,” Trump said while taking questions before a bilateral meeting with the president of the Philippines.
Blanche said in a post on X this morning that he reached out to Maxwell’s legal team and intends to meet with her soon. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking after recruiting teenage girls who were abused by Epstein, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in a statement.
House cancels its last day of votes before summer break as Epstein consumes Capitol Hill
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Scott Wong, Kyle Stewart and Syedah Asghar
The GOP-controlled House is cutting short its last workweek before the summer recess because of a fight on Capitol Hill over the release of the government’s files on the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The House was scheduled to hold votes on Thursday before lawmakers departed for their lengthy, five-week recess.
But Republican leaders informed rank-and-file lawmakers today that the final vote of the week would now be a day earlier, tomorrow afternoon. The shift in schedule occurred because of a standoff on the Rules Committee, which decides how legislation comes to the floor, but has been ground to a halt by the Epstein issue.
Little new information in Martin Luther King Jr. files
As experts and historians spent the night sifting through the 230,000 pages of documents released yesterday related to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., there doesn’t seem to be any blockbuster revelations so far.
The documents do not appear to contain FBI wiretap transcripts or much other sensitive information on King’s personal life.
A federal judge had previously denied a DOJ request to include the wiretaps, and ruled that only documents related to the assassination should be included in the release.
The remainder of the files will now stay under court seal until 2027.
Under the direction of then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI wiretaps and surveillance were an effort to discredit King and expose details of his personal life, including extramarital affairs.
But according to experts, the release, which came unexpectedly yesterday, shed little new information on King’s death and the circumstances surrounding his assassination.
Some pages were very faint after this much time, making them hard to read. The release included many letters regarding congressional investigations, outside commissions and accounts of the investigation and manhunt for James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the assassination but later renounced that plea.
House Oversight Committee will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, spokesperson says
Musk’s xAI was a late addition to the Pentagon’s set of $200 million AI contracts, former Defense employee says
David Ingram and Ben Goggin
The Pentagon last week announced multimillion-dollar contracts with four artificial intelligence companies intended to “address critical national security challenges,” including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.
But the fourth raised questions among artificial intelligence experts: Elon Musk’s xAI.
Now, a former Pentagon employee who worked on the early stages of the AI initiative told NBC News that including xAI was a late-in-the-game addition under the Trump administration.
Trump admin can end deportation restrictions for people from Afghanistan and Cameroon, court says
A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for more than 11,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon while appeals are underway.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there is “insufficient evidence to warrant the extraordinary remedy of a postponement of agency action pending appeal.”
Last week, the appeals court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending the protected status for Afghans and Cameroonians, which has prevented them from being deported, while it considered the issue more fully.
Temporary protected status, which is granted to people from countries embroiled in armed conflict or suffering from environmental disasters, ended for Afghans last week and Aug. 4 for Cameroonians.
U.S. says it’s leaving U.N. cultural agency UNESCO again, only 2 years after rejoining
The Associated Press
The United States announced today that it will again pull out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining.
“President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO — which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November,” White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly told the New York Post. UNESCO and the White House did not immediately confirm the U.S. move.
Timing of DOJ decision to release Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files ‘raises eyebrows’
The Trump administration releases thousands of records on Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination against the wishes of the King family. NBC News Justice Reporter Ryan Reilly discusses the Justice Department’s decision to release files and possibly divert attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case.
DOJ seeks a meeting with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell
Megan Lebowitz and Chloe Atkins
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that he has reached out to Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team and wants to meet with her soon.
“For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” Blanche said in a post on X. “At @AGPamBondi’s direction, I’ve contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also posted a statement from Blanche, reaffirming the Justice Department and FBI’s conclusion from earlier this month that “no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,” the statement from Blanche read. “If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.”
Reached for comment, Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, confirmed that his team is “in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully.”
“We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case,” Markus continued.
Maxwell was convicted of federal sex trafficking charges in 2021, and she is currently serving a 20–year prison sentence. She had been accused of grooming girls for Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Trump as foil disappears from Andrew Cuomo’s rebooted New York mayoral bid
Andrew Cuomo framed himself as Trump’s foil during the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, adamant that his past record standing up to Trump as governor positioned him as the party’s best choice to defend the city during Trump’s second term.
But as the former governor reboots his campaign for a third-party general election bid, after losing the Democratic primary to state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Trump is taking a back seat.
Trump’s intelligence chiefs try to rewrite the history of the 2016 election
Trump’s intelligence chiefs are conducting a systematic campaign to rewrite the history of the 2016 election, seeking to reverse an eight-year-old assessment that Russia waged an information war to boost Trump’s candidacy.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have cited declassified emails to allege in social media posts and television appearances that Obama administration officials manipulated intelligence and conspired to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s electoral victory in 2016.
But a bipartisan Senate investigation in 2020 and a recent CIA review both found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, launching a disinformation campaign designed to damage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
Trump to meet with the president of the Philippines
Megan Lebowitz and Lindsey Pipia
Trump will host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House today.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that the two leaders could discuss trade and the upcoming Aug. 1 tariff deadline.
“Perhaps this will be a topic of discussion,” Leavitt said. “You will all see for yourselves in the Oval Office, as you always do. But the Aug. 1 deadline is just the, really the start date for when the United States of America will begin collecting this revenue from all of the countries around the world who the president has sent these letters to.”
