Axios

President Biden has appointed more new federal judges than former President Trump had at the same point in his term, and there are more still to come.

Why it matters: One of Trump's defining legacies was reshaping the federal judiciary. Since its earliest days, the Biden administration has been determined to maximize its own stamp on the courts.

Two of the highest-profile Republicans in the Senate are publicly defying Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on high-stakes issues vital to the GOP's chances of retaking the majority next year.

The big picture: In interviews with Axios, GOP senators and party strategists declined to blame McConnell for the antics of Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). They see the "freelancing" — as one source close to the leader described it — as a sign of the Senate as an institution breaking down under modern incentive structures.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Why it matters: The designation is intended to curtail defense and technology exports to Russia and to reduce foreign assistance, according to a news release from Graham's office.

Nearly two-thirds of likely voters in battleground states support "protecting the national right to same-sex marriage," according to a Human Rights Campaign poll released Wednesday.

Why it matters: The clock is ticking as the Senate inches toward a vote on Democrats' Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to marriage equality for same-sex and interracial relationships. Whether it succeeds could influence voters in battleground states ahead of November's midterms.

The chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack said Wednesday that the panel has received "thousands of exhibits" from Secret Service agents in response to its July subpoena of the agency.

Why it matters: Uncovering information from the Secret Service has been a major focus for the panel since testimony during its public hearings in June and July revealed the agency's role in key events on Jan. 6.

Driving the news: Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters that the materials obtained are "a combination of a number of text messages, radio traffic ... thousands of exhibits."

• Thompson said the the materials consist "primarily" of texts from agents on Jan. 5 and 6, but declined to go into further detail because the committee is still reviewing them.
• "The tranches we've received have been significant," he said. "It's a work in progress."
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), another committee member, said on MSNBC on Wednesday "it's been a large volume of information that we really pressed hard for the agency to release."

The context: The panel also became engaged in a back-and-forth with the Secret Service this summer over the deletion of agents' texts from Jan. 5 and 6 in what an agency spokesperson said was a "pre-planned, three-month system migration"

• That culminated in a subpoena requesting "the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021."

The backdrop: The Secret Service came into focus for the committee during its hearings over the summer, in which former Trump administration aides testified that agents were central players in key events on Jan. 6.

• Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she was told former President Trump lunged at an agent in an effort to have his motorcade drive to the Capitol, something Secret Service officials anonymously disputed.
• There was also testimony that former Vice President Mike Pence refused to get into his motorcade, at the urging of his detail, during the Capitol riot.

What we're watching: Lofgren signaled that the materials received by the committee so far are not exhaustive.

• "There's texts, there's emails, there's radio traffic, there's all kinds of information. [Microsoft] Teams meetings," she told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. "We're going through everything that's been provided. More is coming in."

The other side: Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told Axios that they "continue to fully cooperate with the January 6 Select committee," but "no additional text messages were recovered."

• Instead, he said, the agency provided the panel "a significant level of detail from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding January 6th."

Go deeper: Jan. 6 panel aims to "reconstruct" deleted Secret Service texts

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined in a 5-4 vote to block a lower court order requiring Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ club.

Why it matters: The Modern Orthodox Jewish college had argued that a "government-enforced establishment" of the Pride Alliance club would cause "irreparable harm."

A judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Ohio's six-week abortion ban for the next 14 days.

Why it matters: Abortion providers in Ohio filed a lawsuit challenging the state's ban after it took effect following the fall of Roe. Wednesday's ruling means abortions in Ohio are now legal again up to 22 weeks, effective immediately.

Baltimore City prosecutors are asking a judge to vacate Adnan Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and requesting a new trial based on new evidence after a nearly yearlong investigation.

Why it matters: The case received nationwide attention after it became the subject of the first season of the hit podcast "Serial," which cast doubt on the original prosecution and key pieces of evidence used against Syed.

A former aide to then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed a federal lawsuit against him and several of his top aides Wednesday after accusing him of sexual harassment last year.

Driving the news: Charlotte Bennett, who spoke out publicly about the allegations last year, is accusing the former governor of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation.

Federal officials said Wednesday they are investigating whether the employee who reported a package explosion at Northeastern University lied to investigators or played a part in the incident, AP reports.

The latest: Investigators said the employee's story lacked consistency and "his injuries did not match wounds typically consistent with an explosion," per AP.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) on Wednesday introduced reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, months after a bipartisan group of senators unveiled a similar effort.

Driving the news: The proposed legislation, called the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, is similar to the bipartisan effort in the Senate to reform and modernize the Electoral Count Act, per NBC News, which first reported on the legislation.

President Biden predicted Wednesday that "the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified" in the near future as he announced plans for adding more electrical vehicle infrastructure to dozens of states.

The big picture: Biden laid out his plans for building more electric vehicles and clean energy infrastructure at the Detroit Auto Show, highlighting his recent win streak at the same time.

Senators working to garner support for a bill to codify the right to marriage equality are openly raising concerns that the process for building Republican backing is taking longer than expected.

Why it matters: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is expected to file for cloture on the bill on Thursday, setting up votes next week, but at least 10 Republicans will be needed to break a filibuster.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating threats to the federal workforce and grilling the government agency charged with protecting it.

Why it matters: The probe comes in response to highly charged Republican rhetoric over the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago last month and increased funding for IRS agents in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Twitter whistleblower Peiter "Mudge" Zatko yesterday told a Senate committee that the social media company had put financial considerations ahead of user security.

• The assembled senators were shocked. And dismayed. And appalled.
• This included members of a Republican Party that's wielding opposition to corporate ESG (aka "woke capitalism") as an electoral messaging strategy, filtering down to state investment bans that could soon impact private equity.

Why it matters: Two-thirds of the ESG acronym refer to the very things that Zatko alleged.

Don Bolduc, a retired Army general, won the state's GOP primary in a high-profile fight over who will try to unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) in November.

Why it matters: Bolduc's apparent victory comes as Republicans poured millions into the race to try to prevent his victory — as party leaders fear that he's too extreme to win the November election.

MAGA-aligned candidates swept the Republican congressional primaries in New Hampshire last night, defeating better-financed candidates backed by Gov. Chris Sununu and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Why it matters: The GOP's path to win back a Senate majority has narrowed, with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) better positioned to win re-election.

Robert Burns, a former New Hampshire county treasurer, won the GOP primary on Tuesday to advance to the general election that will decide who will represent the state's 2nd district.

Why it matters: Burns' victory tees up a November election pitting the pro-Trump businessman against Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), who is seeking her sixth term.

A federal judge on Tuesday unsealed new portions of the affidavit related to the Mar-a-Lago search warrant for former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

Driving the news: The newly released affidavit shows that the Department of Justice sought "any and all surveillance records, videos, images, photographs ... from internal cameras" at Mar-a-Lago from Jan. 10 to June 24.

Senate Democrats are hoping to persuade their GOP colleagues to approve new funding to fight monkeypox, but several Republicans say the public health funding Congress has already provided should be enough.

Why it matters: The World Health Organization has labeled the outbreak a global health emergency, but limited vaccine supplies could undermine efforts to protect the most vulnerable people.

High prices are hitting hardest in some of the biggest Senate battlegrounds.

Why it matters: Democratic strategists have worried since the spring that pockets of high inflation, particularly in the West and the South, could complicate their efforts to hold the Senate — and new federal data will help validate those fears.

Sen. Lindsey Graham's 15-week abortion ban appears to be a political gift to Democrats less than two months before the midterm elections, but it syncs with nearly half of Americans' views on when the procedure should be legal.

The big picture: Elections aren't won on nuance, and most nationally-elected Republicans have gone silent on the subject in the final stretch of the campaign. In the long run, however, abortion politics will likely pivot around which party can most successfully brand the other side as extreme.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said FBI agents seized his cellphone Tuesday after questioning him at a Hardee's fast-food restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota, about a Colorado county clerk who's accused of tampering with voting equipment.

The latest: The FBI field office in Denver confirmed to several news outlets late Tuesday that the agency had served Trump ally Lindell with a search warrant.

Karoline Leavitt, a 25-year-old former aide to the Trump White House and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), on Tuesday won the Republican primary for a key swing U.S. House district in New Hampshire, according to the AP.

Why it matters: Leavitt’s win represents a victory for the conservative wing of the Republican Party at the tail end of the 2022 primaries, and sets the stage for what is expected to be one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Three men were found guilty of felony and misdemeanor charges related to their role in the U.S. Capitol riot, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.

The big picture: Patrick McCaughey, Tristan Chandler Stevens and David Mehaffie were at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, the site of some of the heaviest violence during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Child poverty in America has dropped by more than 80% since 1993.

• Zoom in: The child poverty rate was 27.9% in 1993, but fell to a record low of 5.2% in 2021, according to new census data.

Why it matters: Growing up poor affects every facet of adult life, from health to wealth.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns Tuesday that one of the nation's largest student loan services may be misleading borrowers.

Driving the news: Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Navient demanding answers about "troubling reports" that it is "attempting to scam borrowers out of student debt relief" by providing "misleading information" that could make them ineligible for loan forgiveness.

Democrats in close races are increasingly leaning on doctors to drive messaging on abortion, betting their credibility will appeal to bipartisan audiences and help center a polarizing political debate around health and safety.

Why it matters: Health care professionals aren't your typical political surrogates, but the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade reversal has changed the midterms playbook for both parties.

Eight weeks out from the midterms, some Republicans in Congress are scrambling to isolate legislation introduced by members of their own party to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks.

Why it matters: The dynamic highlights how dramatically Republicans' posture on abortion has shifted since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade spurred a surge of Democratic enthusiasm on the campaign trail.