1/ A federal judge ordered Pence to testify to a grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Pence, however, can decline to answer questions related to his role in Congress on Jan. 6, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence for his testimony and documents earlier this year in the investigation into whether efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory constituted federal crimes. Pence challenged the subpoena under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect the separation of powers. Trump, meanwhile, argued that executive privilege barred Pence from appearing. It’s unclear whether Pence plans to appeal Judge James Boasberg’s decision, but previously said he would take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.

2/ The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations for a conservative group. Between 2019 and the end of 2021, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas acted as the self-described “convener” who helped raise $596,000 in donations to Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty, which were channeled through the right-wing think tank Capital Research Center. The majority of that money – $400,000 – was routed through a different nonprofit, Donors Trust, which receives money from wealthy donors whose identities are not disclosed and steers it toward conservative causes. The arrangement, known as “fiscal sponsorship,” meant that Crowdsourcers didn’t have to disclose the donors, information about the group’s activities, or its spending that would’ve been required if it had registered as a nonprofit. It is not clear how much compensation, if any, Ginni Thomas received. Mark Paoletta, a lawyer for Ginni Thomas, claimed her activism with people and groups that have interests before the court represents “no plausible conflict of interest issue with respect to Justice Thomas.” (Washington Post / USA Today)

3/ Kevin McCarthy demanded a meeting with Biden to discuss raising the debt limit. The White House, however, responded to McCarthy’s demands by calling for House Republicans produce a budget proposal first. Republicans wants Biden and the Democrats to agree to spending cuts as a condition of raising the debt limit, but the White House has called on Republicans to accept a “clean” debt limit increase without any conditions...

1/ A 28-year-old woman shot and killed three children and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville before being shot and killed by the police. The woman, Audrey Hale, 28, a resident of Nashville, was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun. The White House, meanwhile, said: “Enough is enough […] How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban, to close loopholes in our background check system, or to require the safe storage of guns?” [Editor’s note: This is a developing story.] (The Hill / New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News)

2/ Trump threatened “potential death & destruction” if he’s indicted by the Manhattan grand jury investigating the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. In a late-night post on his personal social media platform, Trump called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “degenerate psychopath” while wondering aloud “What kind of person can charge another person […] with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed?” (Washington Post / CNN)

3/ The former publisher of the National Enquirer testified before the Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump’s role in a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels. David Pecker, who previously served as CEO of American Media, also testified in January about how Michael Cohen asked American Media to buy the rights to Stormy Daniels’ story to keep her from publicly disclosing it – a practice known as “catch and kill.” The grand jury adjourned Monday without taking a vote on whether to indict Trump, and is next scheduled to meet on Wednesday. (CNN / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / CNBC / NBC News)

4/ A federal judge ordered Mark Meadows and other former Trump aides to testify to the grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Judge Beryl Howell rejected Trump’s claims of executive privilege to block more than a half-dozen former administration officials from responding to grand jury subpoenas issued by special counsel Jack Smith for testimony and documents. In a separate decision last week, Howell ordered Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran ...

1/ The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about Trump’s role in the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels will not consider the matter again until at least Monday. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to give details of the investigation, and it was unclear whether the grand jury was hearing witness testimony or reviewing other evidence today. Last week, Trump declared that he would be arrested Tuesday. (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico)

2/ The Manhattan district attorney called demands by three House Republican leaders to force his testimony about his criminal investigation into Trump “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.” The District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office rejected the House Republicans’ request for documents and testimony, saying they lacked a “legitimate basis for congressional inquiry” and that their requests for information “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.” In a five-page letter to Jim Jordan and other House Republicans, Bragg said their request “treads into territory very clearly reserved to the states” and would be an inappropriate use of congressional power. (New York Times / CNN / Politico / The Hill / Washington Post)

3/ Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen backtracked on the prospect that regulators would not extend deposit insurance to protect the banking system. Yesterday, Yellen made a point of saying she had not considered or discussed temporarily expanding emergency federal insurance – or as she called it, “blanket insurance” – to all U.S. banking deposits without approval by Congress. Yellen, however, testified today before a House Appropriations subcommittee that federal emergency actions could be deployed again in the future if necessary, saying: “We have used important tools to act quickly to prevent contagion. And they are tools we could use again. Regional bank stocks fell Wednesday following comments Yellen made at a Senate hearing that afternoon. (Bloomberg / CNBC / Reuters)

4/ A hospital in Idaho will stop delivering babies or providing other obstetrical care due recently enacted state laws “that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.” After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Idaho banned nearly all abortions and subjected physicians to prosecution for providing aborti...

1/ The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about Trump’s involvement in the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels did not meet today as scheduled. The reason for the grand jury adjournment, which typically meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, wasn’t immediately clear. The pause comes after unexpected testimony from Robert Costello, appearing on behalf of Trump, who called into question Michael Cohen’s testimony. Cohen, who has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump, had spent two days of testimony walking grand jurors through the chronology of Trump’s involvement in the payment. Any potential indictment against Trump will not be issued by the panel until Thursday at the earliest. Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly told advisers that he wants to be handcuffed when he makes an appearance in court, if he is indicted. Trump – apparently – wants to be handcuffed behind his back for a perp walk because he thinks any special arrangements would make him look weak. (Insider / New York Times / The Guardian / CNN / Associated Press / Washington Post / ABC News / CNBC / Politico)

2/ A federal appeals court ordered Trump’s attorney to testify before the grand jury investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and to turn over documents to federal prosecutors. Last week, prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office presented “sufficient” evidence that Trump “intentionally concealed” the existence of additional classified documents from his attorney, Evan Corcoran. U.S. Judge Beryl Howell wrote that prosecutors had made a “prima facie showing that [Trump] had committed criminal violations.” Trump appealed Howell’s ruling, but a three-judge appeals court panel denied the request to halt the order. Corcoran is scheduled to testify Friday. (Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Washington Post / New York Times / ABC News /

1/ The Senate advanced a bill to repeal the congressional authorization used to attack Iraq in 1991 and 2003 – nearly 20 years to the day that the U.S. began its “shock and awe” campaign to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. The bipartisan legislation would repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force that Bush used for the 2003 invasion, as well as the 1991 authorization for the first Gulf War under H.W. Bush. Although Obama formally ended the war in 2011 and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Trump used the 2002 authorization to justify the airstrike that killed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. It’s unclear, however, if Kevin McCarthy will bring the legislation up for a vote in the House. “Repealing this [Authorization for Use of Military Force] is a necessary step towards putting the final remnants of the Iraq War squarely behind us,” Chuck Schumer said. (CBS News / NPR)

2/ The Pentagon will accelerate the training and delivery of Abrams tanks and Patriot missile defense systems for Ukraine. The U.S. will send 31 older M1-A1 models instead of the more modern version of the tank in order to get them to Ukraine this fall. A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers, meanwhile, are scheduled to complete their training on the Patriot missile system in the coming days. Two Patriot systems are expected to be deployed to Ukraine in the coming of weeks. (CNN / Politico / Associated Press)

3/ The Minnesota House of Representatives advanced legislation that would shield patients who travel to the state for an abortion and the providers that treat them. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act would prevent state courts or officials from complying with extraditions, arrests or subpoenas related to reproductive health care that a person receives in Minnesota. The bill now goes to the state Senate, where Democrats hold a thin majority. (Minnesota Public Radio / Associated Press / Washington Post)

4/ Missouri’s Republican attorney general filed an emergency regulation to limit access to gender-affirming treatments for minors. Andrew Bailey’s new rules will require an 18-month waiting period, 15 hourlong therapy sessions, and treatment of any mental illnesses before Missouri doctors can provide that kind of care to transgender children, Bailey’s office said. The Missouri Senate, meanwhile, advanced a pair of bills to prohibit gender-affirming health care for minors and restrict them from competing in sports. Both bills, which sunset in 2027, need a final vote from the Senate before heading to the House. (Associated Press /

1/ Trump claimed he will be arrested Tuesday and urged his supporters to “protest, take our nation back!” The claim comes while District Attorney Alvin Bragg considers criminal charges over Trump’s handling of a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, however, provided no clear basis for his expected arrest, and a Trump spokesperson said there had been no actual “notification” about an imminent arrest from Bragg’s office. If charged, Trump would be the first former president to be indicted in U.S. history. (New York Times / NPR / Associated Press / CNN / Politico)

2/ Three House Republican committee chairmen are demanding that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg testify before Congress “about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision” in any potential indictment of Trump in connection with hush money payments made ahead of the 2016 election. The letter to Bragg comes before any decision on charging Trump with a crime has been made. House Republicans, meanwhile, have threatened to defund Bragg’s office, vowing to “investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” (Politico / The Hill / NBC News)

3/ Trump asked a Georgia court to scrap the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the state’s presidential election by him and his allies. The motion seeks to prohibit Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from filing charges and to suppress the grand jury’s final report, which recommended indictments for more than a dozen people. Trump’s lawyers also requested that Willis be “disqualified from further investigation and/or prosecution of this matter.” (Politico / NBC News / USA Today / New York Times / Wall Street Journal)

4/ A federal judge ordered Trump’s attorney to testify as part of the special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents. The judge said in an order under seal that Justice Department prosecutors had met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception – a provision that allows prosecutors to get around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime. Prosecuto...

1/ The Biden administration threatened to ban TikTok if the app’s Chinese owners refuse to sell their stake in the U.S. version of the app. TikTok has been under scrutiny over fears that Beijing could request Americans’ data from its parent company, ByteDance, for more than two years. In 2020, the Trump Administration threatened to ban the app, citing national security concerns. Since then, the White House has been trying to negotiate an agreement with TikTok that would safeguard its data and eliminate the need for ByteDance to divest. TikTok, meanwhile, dismissed the threat, saying: “If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access. The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.” TikTok is used by more than 100 million Americans. (Wall Street Journal / New York Times / Associated Press / NPR / NBC News / CNN / Washington Post / Axios)

2/ The Fulton County special grand jury heard an audio recording of Trump pressuring the then-Georgia House speaker to call a special legislative session to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. The call from Trump to Georgia House Speaker David Ralston lasted about 10 minutes, and at one point Trump asked Ralston who would stop him from holding a special session. Ralston responded: “A federal judge, that’s who.” The call to Ralston was in addition to the call where Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the number of votes needed to overturn Biden’s victory and suggested that he publicly announce that he “recalculated” the election results. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution / CNN / NBC News)

3/ Federal prosecutors investigated Trump’s social media company for money laundering in connection with $8 million in loans with suspected Russian ties. The loans were wired through the Caribbean to Trump Media, which owns Trump’s Truth Social platfor...

1/ A federal judge in Texas heard arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the FDA’s approval of the pills used in medication abortions. The abortion-inducing pill known as mifepristone is used in more than half of the abortions in the U.S. The lawsuit alleges that the FDA did not adequately evaluate mifepristone’s safety before it approved the drug in 2000, and argues that the FDA should not have made the medication accessible via telehealth during the pandemic. The FDA, which took more than four years to approve mifepristone, said it approved the drug after “a thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence presented and determined that it was safe and effective for its indicated use.” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Trump and and is known for his conservative views on abortion and same-sex marriage, took the unusual step of intentionally delaying the public notice of today’s planned hearing, citing a “barrage of death threats and protesters” and his interest in avoiding a “circus-like atmosphere.” Kacsmaryk said he would issue his ruling as soon as possible, which is expected to be appealed and could eventually reach the Supreme Court. (Associated Press / NBC News / Washington Post / NPR / Wall Street Journal)

2/ South Carolina Republican lawmakers are considering legislation that would make a person who has an abortion eligible for the death penalty. The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act would “ensure that an unborn child who is a victim of homicide is afforded equal protection under the homicide laws of the state.” The bill defines a “person” as an “unborn child at every stage of development from fertilization until birth.” While the bill provides some exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person or if they were “compelled to do so by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury,” it provides no exceptions for rape or incest. (NBC News / Rolling Stone / USA Today / The Hill)

3/ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dismissed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” saying protecting the European nation’s borders is not a “vital” U.S. interest. DeSantis’s view on Ukraine policy, which is now aligned with Trump’s, is a reversal from his earlier support for arming Ukraine in 2015 after Russia annexed Crimea. Some top congressional Republicans, however, have argued that a sovereign Ukraine is in the long-term interests of the U.S. and that Biden should be doing more to help Ukraine, framing Putin’s invasion as a fight to defend the post-World War II international security framework. (

1/ Inflation eased for the eighth straight month. Consumer prices increased 6% in February from a year earlier, down from 6.4% in January and a 40-year peak of 9.1% in June. Inflation, however, remains far above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual inflation target. On a monthly basis, prices increased 0.4%. Just before the collapse of two major banks – which in some ways is the result of the Fed’s efforts to raise borrowing costs after years of near-zero interest rates – Chair Jerome Powell had opened the door to re-accelerating the pace of rate hikes if inflation remained high. Many economists, however, now expect the Fed to either slow its rate hikes or stop them altogether when it meets next week. (USA Today / Associated Press / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / CNBC / New York Times / CNN)

2/ The Justice Department and SEC opened investigations into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The investigations are reportedly focused on stock sales by several bank executives made days before the bank failed. The Justice Department’s probe involves the fraud prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco. No one at the bank, however, has been accused of wrongdoing and the investigation could end without charges being brought. Separately, a class action lawsuit was filed against the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, its CEO, and its chief financial officer, alleging that the company “understated the risks” that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes “had the potential to cause irrevocable damage to the company.” (Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / Bloomberg)

3/ The EPA proposed limiting the amount of harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water – the first time the federal government has suggested setting a standard for a class of chemicals known to pose significant health risks. The proposal would require water utilities to detect and reduce PFAS contamination at 4 parts per trillion – the lowest level that PFAS can be accurately measured and detected. Last year, the EPA found that the chemicals could cause harm at levels “much lower than previously understood” and that almost no level of e...

1/ The Biden administration approved the Willow oil-drilling project in the Alaskan Arctic over the objections of nearby tribal communities, environmentalists, and Democrats, who warned that the development threatens the pristine wilderness and that the project’s greenhouse gas emissions contradict Biden’s vow to fight climate change. Last month, the Interior Department said it had “substantial concerns” about the Willow project, including its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and impact on wildlife. The Interior also estimated that the project would generate roughly 9.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year – the equivalent to adding two million gas-powered cars to the roads. The U.S. currently emits about 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The decision allows ConocoPhillips to start developing three drilling sites within Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. The project is expected to produce about 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak – equivalent to about 40% of Alaska’s current crude production. Separately, Biden made the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing, and limited drilling in more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where ConocoPhillips’s 600 million-barrel Willow venture is planned. (Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Bloomberg / CNN / CNBC / NPR / Politico)

2/ The Biden administration took emergency measures to ensure that all depositors of Silicon Valley Bank – which failed Friday – and Signature Bank – which failed Sunday – would be paid back in full. Following the second- and third-largest bank failures in history, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. invoked a so-called systemic-risk exception to back deposits beyond the federally insured ceiling of $250,000 to prevent contagion at other small and regional banks. “Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe. Your deposits are safe,” Biden said. “Let me also assure you we will not stop at this; we’ll do whatever is needed.” The Federal Reserve also set up an emergency lending program to ensure that other banks could meet the needs of depositors. Federal officials noted that the money being used to aid depositors will come from the Deposit Insurance Fund that banks – not taxpayers – pay into. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank – the nation’s 16th largest bank – occurred two days before the 15th anniversary of the Federal Reserve-backed rescue of Bear Stearns. (NBC News /