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With help from Josh Gerstein

TO BENGHAZI, OR NOT TO BENGHAZI? A certain potential presidential candidate looked unbeatable, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) once said, until a congressional select committee dug so deeply into a crisis on that candidates watch that the politician in question became untrustable. McCarthy uttered those words six years ago about Hillary Clinton, but they could soon apply to Donald Trump.

Thats because, after GOP senators blocked a proposed independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, House Democrats are set to vote this week to create a select committee devoted to that purpose. The panel will examine security issues raised by the riot as well as its root causes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Oct. 22, 2015, on Capitol Hill. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

As we reported last week, Democrats are leery of turning this select panel into a rerun of the hyper-partisan brawl that was the 2015 GOP-led select committee on the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. One should take House Democrats seriously when they say they dont want a bitter Benghazi reboot, particularly as some of them warn against animating Trumps base ahead of the 2022 midterms. Still, the party may find value in crafting an insurrection inquiry that, without getting overly partisan, can bruise Trump ahead of 2024.

After all, the Benghazi committee gave conservatives a chance to tee off on Clintons handling of the attack as secretary of state and launched Clintons private email server into the national consciousness, creating an indelible (albeit ultimately questionable on the substance) line of attack for her opponents. While her unflappable demeanor during an 11-hour appearance before the panel gave her 2016 presidential bid a boost, the email flap arguably dimmed her 2016 chances.

Democrats Jan. 6 select committee will have even more potentially damaging Trump-related avenues of inquiry to pursue. They range from the then-presidents mid-insurrection phone call with McCarthy Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are, Trump is reported to have told the House GOP leader to direct ties between the former presidents 2020 campaign aides and the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the riot.

When Pelosi refers to root causes of the deadly siege, its hard to picture her partys select committee not considering Trumps speech to that rally. We fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, he told the crowd before its march to the Capitol turned violent.

Trump might not look as unbeatable in a 2024 primary as McCarthy claimed Clinton was in 2015. Still, a party trying to cling to its majorities might want to consider that its Jan. 6 select committee is a powerful tool to make Trump look, to use another McCarthy term, un-trustable in the eyes of swing voters.

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BUZZING IN AD-VANCE The Manhattan District Attorneys office is expected to file charges against the Trump Organization this week. The question remains: How big will DA Cyrus Vance go? The legal world has been abuzz with several possibilities ranging from a very limited indictment over unreported perks for Trump employees to a more far-reaching case over alleged fraud related to numerous Trump properties. Trump, for his part, today called the prosecutors rude, nasty, and totally biased in a statement.

Heres our own Josh Gerstein with an update on where things stand: There seems to be some debate among lawyers whether Vances office will bring a narrow case initially, focusing on a few select instances of alleged wrongdoing, as the Trump firms lawyers say theyve been told, or whether the prosecutor will try to frame any charges more broadly as an enterprise corruption case against the Trump Organization as a whole. In any case, signals are that the indictment whether narrowly targeted or framed as an attention-grabbing RICO case will initially focus on failure to properly report and pay taxes on benefits to key employees like CFO Allen Weisselberg. We havent seen indications that prosecutors are ready, yet, to unleash a massive indictment addressing the kind of property tax fraud and insurance fraud claims Michael Cohen leveled at the Trump Org during his House testimony two years ago or that charges are imminent against Trump himself. And as for the hush money payments and campaign finance violations Cohen admitted to in 2018, people close to the investigation say theyve heard crickets on that front for many months now.

Psaki: No plans right now for Biden to visit collapsed condo building: White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today that such a trip would draw law enforcement resources away from ongoing search-and-rescue operations in South Florida. Psaki said Biden does support a full investigation by federal agencies into Thursdays collapse, which killed at least 10 people and has left more than 150 still missing.

GOP senator jams up Pentagon pick over Bidens Navy plan: Republican Sen. Roger Wicker is holding up a high-level Pentagon nominee in an attempt to push the Navy to commit to buying more amphibious ships, according to two people familiar with the situation. The nominee on hold, Susanna Blume, had been tapped to run the Pentagons Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, which would give her a central role in assessing new weapons systems proposed by the armed services. The veteran of the Obama Pentagon largely sailed through her confirmation hearing in May, and her nomination has been sent to the full Senate for a vote with several other top picks for the department.

White House targets corporate giants in draft executive order: The White House is crafting an executive order aimed at promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy, a move aimed at lessening the stranglehold of dominant players in industries ranging from banking and agriculture to shipping and air travel, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The order, which could be issued as soon as this week, fits in with a growing theme for Biden, who has elated progressives by appointing advocates of tougher antitrust enforcement to top jobs at the White House and agencies such as the FTC.

Federal court tosses antitrust suits seeking Facebooks breakup: A D.C. federal court today dismissed antitrust suits by the FTC and state attorneys general seeking to break up Facebooks social networking monopoly, dealing a massive blow to Washington regulators attempt to rein in Silicon Valleys giants. In a ruling that goes to the heart of the case, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., said prosecutors didnt offer enough explanation for how they determined that Facebook controls more than 60 percent of the social networking market.

Biden wont attend Tokyo Olympics: Psaki said Biden wasnt planning to attend the games when asked by a reporter about the invitation from the Japanese government.

Nightly asks you: Last summer, before July Fourth, we asked you how the pandemic would change your holiday. After a year of surges, vaccines and variants, we want to know: How are you celebrating July Fourth this year? Is the pandemic still affecting your usual plans? Send us your answers using our form, and well include select responses in our Friday edition.

BUT SHOULD WE STILL EXPECT A CHRISTMAS CARD? Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday denounced the EU and the U.S. for trying to dictate a world order according to their whims, and to force Russia and China to bend to the Wests will.

Lavrovs comments in a lengthy manifesto, published in Russian in the daily newspaper Kommersant, and in English in the journal Russia in Global Affairs came just days after a high-stakes summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva had raised hope of new cooperation and, perhaps, an end to years of badly deteriorated relations between Moscow and the West.

But he seemed to allow little possibility for this new reality. Without any false modesty, Washington and Brussels called themselves an anchor for democracy, peace and security, as opposed to authoritarianism in all its forms, he wrote. In particular, they proclaimed their intent to use sanctions to support democracy across the globe.

Lavrovs article was also published just days after a European Council summit last week, where the 27 heads of state and government unanimously adopted unusually tough conclusions setting preconditions for Putins government before seeking the warming of diplomatic relations. The leaders settled on their statement after a fractious debate, in which Poland and the Baltics led a successful effort to reject a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron for new outreach toward Moscow, including the possibility of a summit.

85 percent

The percentage Rep. Lee Zeldin earned of the weighted vote in a New York gubernatorial straw poll taken during a meeting of GOP county leaders in a suburb of Albany. State party Chair Nick Langworthy said Zeldin will now be considered the presumed nominee to go up against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, allowing him roughly 17 months to drum up support and donors for the 2022 general election.

COMMISSIONING THE COMMISSION Pelosi is considering choosing a House Republican as one of her eight appointees for the Democrat-led investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, according to an aide in her office, Nicholas Wu and Sarah Ferris write.

Though Pelosi hasnt signaled which member she would pick, tapping a GOP lawmaker could dramatically influence a House insurrection probe that Republican leaders have dismissed as an overtly partisan bid to undercut Trump.

The Democrats panel will be composed of 13 members, five of whom will be chosen by the GOP, according to the text of the resolution released this evening. If Pelosi did choose a Republican as one her appointees, the panel would be nearly evenly split between the parties, with a makeup of seven Democrats and six Republicans.

The House is slated to vote on Wednesday to establish the select committee on Jan. 6. The legislation does not specify who would chair the committee, leaving that decision to Pelosi. Congressional Black Caucus members have floated House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) for the role, and hes signaled he wants the position.

Several Democratic sources said they expected Pelosi to appoint a Republican who has already pushed vocally for a meaningful investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than three dozen Republicans supported an independent, bipartisan commission on the floor earlier this month, though it was blocked in the Senate.

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The select committee that could thwart Trump in 2024 - Politico