Donald Trump: Arizona attorney general investigating attempts to overturn 2020 vote, reports say – live | US supreme court

Arizona’s Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes is moving forward with an investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in the crucial swing state, the Washington Post reports.

Mayes’s inquiry is the second known attempt by a state to hold the former president accountable for the effort to disrupt Biden’s win. Fani Willis, a Democratic prosecutor in Fulton county, Georgia, is reportedly close to obtaining indictments in her investigation of Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s win in that state. Separately, justice department special counsel Jack Smith is still investigating the former president over the January 6 insurrection, and the broader campaign to prevent Biden from entering the White House.

Here’s more from the Post’s report:

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the probe. Investigators have requested records and other information from local officials who administered the 2020 election, the two people said, and a prosecutor has inquired about evidence collected by the Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor for similar probes.

It is unclear if the investigation will broaden into other attempts to undermine President Biden’s victory in the state, including a pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to thwart the will of voters and remain in office.

Dan Barr, Mayes’s chief deputy, said the investigation is in the “fact-gathering” phase. He declined to say whether subpoenas have been issued and which state statutes the team thinks might have been broken.

“This is something we’re not going to go into thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll get a conviction,’ or ‘Maybe we have a pretty good chance,’” he said. “This has to be ironclad shut.”

Joe Biden will meet the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, at the White House next week, his spokeswoman has confirmed.

Herzog will be in Washington on 18 and 19 July and will deliver a joint address to Congress.

The Israeli president’s US visit comes amid protests in Israel at a government push to advance legislation that would weaken the supreme court’s independence.

Israel’s parliament recently voted for a bill that would scrap a “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions.

Biden and Herzog are due to discuss deepening Israel’s regional integration, a more peaceful Middle East and Russia’s relationship with Iran.

The White House statement on the visit said:

President Biden will stress the importance of our shared democratic values, and discuss ways to advance equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

The Secret Service announced it had closed its investigation of the cocaine discovered at the White House earlier this month without naming any suspects, but Republicans seem to want to keep the matter alive. Several lawmakers, including House speaker Kevin McCarthy, expressed skepticism at the agency’s conclusion, part of a pattern of attacks on federal law enforcement by the GOP’s right wing. Meanwhile, the Democratic leader of the Senate judiciary committee Dick Durbin outlined plans to continue pressing the supreme court to tighten its ethics, after a series of reports found questionable ties between the justices and parties with interests in its decisions.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, accused Democrats of seeking to retaliate against conservative justices.

• Durbin left open the possibility of his committee investigating liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor after a report emerged of her staff asking institutions to buy her book.

• Far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was among lawmakers who raised their eyebrows at the Secret Service’s decision to close the investigation into the White House cocaine.

In the latest indication that this is not the last we have heard about the White House cocaine saga, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is calling on the Secret Service to continue searching for whomever left the powder at the executive mansion, Fox News reports:

The Secret Service has concluded its investigation of the cocaine found at the White House without identifying any suspects, CNN reports, citing two sources familiar with the investigation.

Here’s more from their story:

Secret Service officials combed through visitor logs and surveillance footage of hundreds of individuals who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, one of the sources said.

Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.

The second source said that the leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones inside those cubbies.

The White House and Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN previously reported that cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing where staff-led tours of the White House pass through on their way into the building.

Visitors entering the West Wing for tours are asked to leave their phones in those cubbies, which can also be used by staff who cannot bring their phones into a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility, where classified materials are handled. The cubbies are located near the Situation Room, which has not been used for months due to ongoing renovations.

The top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has done more than arguably anybody to craft the supreme court’s current conservative majority, and in an interview today with broadcaster Hugh Hewitt, he accused Democrats of running a punitive campaign against justices they didn’t like:

His comments are a good indication that there will be little GOP support for Dick Durbin and other Democratic senators’ attempts to get the supreme court to tighten its ethics – potentially imperiling the effort.

As Senate majority leader in 2016, McConnell blocked Barack Obama from filling a vacancy on the court then worked with Donald Trump to appoint three conservative justices to the bench, creating the majority that, in the most recent term, struck down affirmative action and Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan.

The failure to adopt a code of ethics imperils the reputation of chief justice John Robert and the supreme court itself, and is a sign that Congress must act, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee said.

“He has the authority today, tomorrow or any day he chooses to solve this problem, to establish a code of ethics that is responsible and reflects what other branches of government follow, and to establish standards of disclosure so that every single justice knows they will have to answer for their conduct in public,” Dick Durbin said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Durbin has announced that on 20 July, his committee will vote on the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, which would require that the high court adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism for investigating violations of it, and mandate that justices publicly explain their decisions to recuse themselves from cases.

Referring to recent media reports of ties between the court’s justices and parties with interests in its decisions, Durbin said, “It is hard for me to understand … how chief justice Roberts can rationalize the disclosures that have come up before the public.”

Good mornings, US politics blog readers. The supreme court is a quiet place currently, as the nine justices are on recess after a term in which the conservative majority once again handed down decisions with major implications for Americans life – including striking a death blow to Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan and deciding that race-conscious university admissions are illegal. But Democrats in the Senate remain incensed by reports of ties between the justices and parties with interest’s in the courts outcome. Yesterday, the Guardian reported that a top aide to conservative justice Clarence Thomas received payments over Venmo from lawyers who have had business before the court, which appeared to be in connection with a Christmas party.

Dick Durbin, the chair of the chamber’s judiciary committee, has vowed to hold a vote on legislation that would, among other things, require the court to adopt a code of ethics. This morning at 9am eastern time, he will appear at a Washington Post event to elaborate on his campaign.

Keep in mind that while Democrats control the Senate, their majority is slim, and Republicans in the chamber as well as the House have shown no willingness at this point to back Durbin and his Democratic counterparts’ efforts. There’s a good reason for this: six of the nine supreme court justices were appointed by GOP presidents and often band together to issue decisions that align with conservative policy goals.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• The House will continue haggling over amendments to the defense funding bill Congress passes every year, and Punchbowl News reports speaker Kevin McCarthy gave into the GOP’s right wing and will allow them to propose “culture war” provisions dealing with everything from abortion to critical race theory.

• Biden is wrapping up a visit to Finland and will return today to Washington DC, after traveling to Europe for a Nato summit held in Lithuania.

• America is once again dealing with another day of severe weather, including scorching heat in the southwest and a tornado in the Chicago area. We have a live blog about it all that you can read here.