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1 Trump Receives A Target Letter In January 6th Special Counsel Investigation
Former President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he received a letter informing him that he’s the target of a grand jury investigation in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump said the letter gave him four days to report to the grand jury and repeated his claims that the Department of Justice was engaged in a “witch hunt” against him because he’s President Joe Biden’s leading opponent for next year’s election. Multiple sources confirmed to CBS News that Trump did receive a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith on Sunday night. Smith is investigating to determine if Trump criminally conspired to block the certification of the Electoral College vote, and also if the former president pressured Republicans in several states to think about sending alternate slates of electors declaring him the winner in their states, and urging state official and governors to make statements saying there was a basis for overturning some of Biden’s state victories. The Justice Department defines a target letter as being sent to a “target” who is “a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant. Sending a target letter is usually one of the last steps before charging a person with a federal crime, which suggests an indictment could come soon.
2 Michigan Attorney General Charges "False Electors" From 2020 Election
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced in a recorded statement yesterday that she’s filed charges against 16 people she alleges signed paperwork falsely claiming that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. The move was allegedly part of a scheme to overturn the results of the election by representing themselves as electors for the state. This is reportedly the first charges filed against fake electors. The 16 people allegedly met in the basement of the state’s Republican Party headquarters and signed multiple certificates saying they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan. ‘That was a lie,” Nessel said in the statement, adding that “They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors and each of the defendants knew it.” The “false electors” are being charged with eight felony counts each, including forgery. The people charged include the state GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock and state Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden. Another of the people charged, Michele Lundgren, told an NBC affiliate that she thought she was signing an attendance sheet for a meeting, telling WDIV, “I didn’t even know what an elector was, let alone a fake elector.” Maddock called the charges “political persecution,” and said, ‘The Democrats know they can’t beat Trump in 24 so they have to use lawfare to try to imprison their opponents.”
3 Phoenix Broke A 1974 High Temp Record Yesterday For Most Consecutive Days Over 110 Degrees
Phoenix, Arizona had 18 days in a row with a high temperature over 110 degrees in 1974, and now that record has been broken. Yesterday was the 19th consecutive day that the temp climbed above 110 in the city, with Phoenix hitting a high temperature of 117 degrees by 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The city broke two other records this week; with Tuesday night’s low of 94 degrees, it’s been nine straight days that the temp didn’t drop below 90 degrees, and Phoenix set a record for the hottest overnight low temperature on Monday night with 95 degrees. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, U.S. weather stations have broken over 860 heat records in the last seven days. The last time Phoenix didn’t hit 110 was on June 29th, when the high temperature was 108. The Southwest’s monsoon season usually starts around the middle of June, but the heat dome that continues to stay in place in the area means there hasn’t been measurable rain in Phoenix since the middle of March.