- The president has appealed to the Supreme Court to keep his tax returns secret. This is the first time he could potentially have a case at the court in a personal manner rather than the office of the president.
- The day after asking South Korea to drastically increase payments for the US military presence there, Trump has made the same request of Japan.
- The president intervened in three cases of military members accused of or convicted of war crimes – murdering foreign citizens while deployed.
- Lev Parnas, the indicted Giulani associate tied up in his Ukraine activities, had a meeting at the White House with Trump. Parnas told friends afterward that Trump had tasked him with a “secret mission” to get Zelensky to announce an investigation into the Bidens.
- Trump’s Florida golf resort was not initially on the list of considered sites for the G7. It was added at the last minute per Trump’s direction. He announced the conference would be held there but retracted the decision during the backlash.
- I’m not including all of my thoughts on Ambassador Yovanovich’s testimony here, but shortly before it began, the White House released a transcript of Trump’s first call with Zelensky. In April, the White House issued a readout of the call which said they discussed fighting corruption in Ukraine and a commitment to strengthen Democracy there. These topics do not come up in the transcript. The White House lied in their initial readout.
- David Holmes, who works for Bill Taylor, testified today that he was present in Ukraine when Sondland called Trump from a cellphone in a public restaurant. The call was loud enough for Holmes to hear and Trump asked about Zelensky announcing an investigation into the Bidens. Sondland told Holmes that Trump didn’t care about Ukraine, but only things that benefited him personally.
