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Axios Atlanta

The Atlanta special grand jury investigation of former president Donald Trump and his allies has concluded, according to the Fulton County judge overseeing it. 

Driving the news: In an order released Monday Judge Robert McBurney wrote that the panel has finished its work and should be dissolved. But it's unclear if the final report will be made public.

McBurney set a hearing later this month on the matter. 

Why it matters: The investigation probed whether the former president himself, and/or his allies, for criminal efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia 

 The nearly two dozen members of the grand jury have been investigating the matter for more than six months and it’s unclear what, if any charges, could stem from it. 

The high-profile case has featured testimony from Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani, Lindsey Graham, Michael Flynn, plus testimony from state leaders including Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and others.

What they’re saying: “The court thanks the grand jurors for their dedication, professionalism, and significant commitment of time and attention to this matter,” McBurney said in the order. “It was no small sacrifice to serve.”

What’s next: McBurney scheduled a Jan. 24 hearing for lawyers and news outlets to argue whether the report should be kept secret or released.

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Georgia grand jury investigating Trump for election interference finishes work

It's unclear if the final report will be made public.

Rudy Giuiliani stands between two men and looks down with his fingers touching 

Rudy Giuliani arrives at Fulton County Superior Court on Aug. 17, 2022 to testify on before a special grand jury investigating possible efforts to interfere with Georgia's vote. Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

2020 presidential election

Donald Trump

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Axios AM

House Republicans plan to launch a new investigative panel this week that will demand copies of White House emails, memos and other communications with Big Tech companies, top sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans a quick spate of red-meat actions and announcements to reward hardliners who backed him through his harrowing fight for the gavel.

The new panel, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, is partly a response to revelations from Elon Musk in the internal documents he branded the "Twitter Files."

House conservatives requested the subcommittee. McCarthy granted it as he worked to wrangle votes.  

What we're hearing: The subcommittee will be chaired by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan — a close McCarthy ally, and a favorite of the hard right. 

The probe into communications between tech giants and President Biden's aides will look for government pressure that could have resulted in censorship or harassment of conservatives — or squelching of debate on polarizing policies, including the CDC on COVID.

The request for documents will be followed by "compulsory processes," including subpoenas if needed, a GOP source tells Axios.

In December, Jordan wrote letters to top tech platforms asking for information about "'collusion' with the Biden administration to censor conservatives on their platforms."

The subcommittee's top target is what Republicans call "the politicization of the FBI," including scrutiny of the investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

The subcommittee also will look into Anthony Fauci and his approach to COVID misinformation and disinformation ... the Justice Department’s interaction with local school boards on masking and other COVID policies … and the Department of Homeland Security's failed effort to create a Disinformation Governance Board.

Ian Sams, a White House spokesman on investigations, tweeted last month after news of the committee broke:

"House Republicans continue to make clear that they’re focused on pointless political stunts ... instead of working with [Biden] or congressional Dems to take on the issues Americans care about like tackling inflation."

House Speaker votes for McCarthy, by ballot

Data: Office of the House Clerk. Chart: Axios Visuals

Zoom out: McCarthy, 57, signaled aggressive plans in his victory speech just after he finally won the gavel in Saturday's wee hours:

"We're going to pass bills to fix the nation's urgent challenges — from wide-open Southern borders, to American last energy policies, to woke indoctrination in our schools," he said.

"We'll also address America's long-term challenges — the debt and the rise of the Chinese Communist Party," he said, vowing to "hold 'the Swamp accountable — from the withdrawal [from] Afghanistan to the origins of COVID and to the weaponization of the FBI."

One of the most aggressive panels will be the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which will change its name under Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday, Comer brought up his plans to hold hearings on "Biden family influence-peddling," telling Chuck Todd: "[L]et me be clear — we're not investigating Hunter Biden, we're investigating Joe Biden."

McCarthy said the new bipartisan Select Committee on China will "investigate how to bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to China."

The bottom line: It's all an effort by Republicans to show unity after the speakership crackup.

McCarthy's fast start: Big Tech is a top target

He plans a quick spate of red-meat actions and announcements to reward hardliners who backed him

Speaker McCarthy meets reporters in Statuary Hall early Saturday after being sworn in.

Speaker McCarthy meets reporters in Statuary Hall early Saturday after being sworn in. Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Kevin McCarthy

Emerging Tech

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

The job of the modern-day archaeologist is changing rapidly, as flooding, wildfires and other extreme weather-related curveballs damage or destroy excavation sites — and drought reveals long-hidden historic artifacts.

Why it matters: Important cultural treasures and historical records are at stake as heirlooms from the past are damaged or curiosity-seekers grab souvenirs. 

"From Iran to Scotland, Florida to Rapa Nui and beyond, sites are currently being eroded at an increasing rate, often before scientists can record them and assess their value," according to a scholarly article in Antiquity magazine.

At the same time, drought and low water levels have uncovered everything from 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Texas to World War II-era boats in California's Lake Shasta and the Nevada portion of Lake Mead.

Tourists who stumble on freshly unearthed relics are being asked to report them to authorities — and keep their distance.

Driving the news: As deadly storms pummel Northern California and record-shattering heat envelops Europe, archaeologists brace for more research sites to be washed away or degraded.

Inundation can harm relics, but worse still is the yo-yo action of being repeatedly submerged and exposed.

Artifacts can be damaged by many phenomena — coastal erosion, mudslides, shifting sands that bury ruins — depending on local topography.

"Archeological sites are rapidly disappearing due to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise, as well as storm surge and modern development," per the U.S. National Park Service, which conducts archaeological research in the areas it supervises.

Of note: Native American history is at stake in particular in California, where ancient villages and settlements are being washed into the sea.

"It’s the coastal maritime heritage of dozens of tribes, and it’s about to go away all at once," says Michael Newland, who leads the study of climate change for the Society for California Archaeology. 

The growing prevalence of massive wildfires has also reshaped the practice of archaeology in California, with more scientists dedicating their time to post-fire cleanup, Newland tells Axios.

Meanwhile: Widespread drought is revealing previously buried treasure, as last summer's global bonanza of fresh finds proved.

Wondrous discoveries in 2022 included a "Spanish Stonehenge" of megalithic rocks, three 600-year-old Buddhist statues on the Yangtze River, and (perhaps less wondrously) dozens of explosives-laden German warships sunk in 1944 in the Danube.

In the U.S., the catalog includes a 19th century wooden shipwreck dredged up by Hurricane Ian in Florida and a variety of vessels — both curious and mundane — in Lake Mead. (See a USA Today pictorial here.)

What they're saying: "In all of those places, whether it's Lake Mead or the Rhine River in Germany, people are seeing things that haven't been seen in a generation or more," says Charles "Chip" McGimsey, Louisiana's state archaeologist. 

"These are random opportunities for archaeologists," he told Axios. "You can’t plan on a drought." 

A World War II-era boat in the waters of Lake Mead.

A World War II-Era Higgins landing craft that used to be nearly 200 feet underwater in Lake Mead was photographed in July. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

How it works: This fall in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a ferry called the S.S. Brookhill that sank in 1915 became a major tourist attraction after a treasure-hunter stumbled upon it while looking for trinkets in the Mississippi River.

As people flocked to see the skeleton of the 100-foot-long boat — which used to carry passengers and cargo between Baton Rouge and Port Allen, Louisiana — it thrust McGimsey and his colleagues into the spotlight.

"Once the word got out, we had hundreds of people a day coming down to see her," McGimsey told Axios. "There were times when I'd be down there at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and there'd be 40 to 50 people."

Because his office is small — and typically occupied with the more quotidian work of checking out cemeteries and oil spills — "it wasn't possible for us to have someone there 24/7 monitoring things and answering folks' questions," he said. 

Once the waters of the Mississippi started to rise from their historic lows, the Brookhill disappeared — and so did the visitors.

While the ferry wasn't that historically significant, "from a science and historical perspective, what we got was information on how she was built," McGimsey said.

Nonetheless, people started stealing pieces of the boat.

The bottom line: It's illegal to toy with a relic on state or federal land.

 "Vandalism, graffiti and climbing on walls damage the resources," Mary Plumb of the National Park Service tells Axios. 

"Moving objects and creating 'collector’s piles,' which is where visitors pile up all the artifacts that they find into one place, destroy the original context of how the artifacts were arranged in the site, and thus information about the site is lost," Plumb adds. 

Drought, floods, wildfires: Climate change upends archaeology

Artifacts are being jostled or buried — or emerging as extreme drought causes water levels in rivers and lakes to fall due to extreme drought.

A shipwreck along the banks of the Mississippi River.

In downtown Baton Rouge this fall, drought exposed the wreck of a ferry called the Brookhill that plied the shores of the Mississippi in the 19th century. Image courtesy of the engineering firm of Forte & Tablada.

Archaeology

Breaking climate science and policy coverage as extreme weather events reshape communities. Keep tabs on the race to a low carbon economy, which may be bumpy as governments, climate tech startups and major oil and gas companies race to find their niche amid the changing energy landscape.

Energy & Climate

President Joe Biden arrived in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday as part of his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as president amid a major influx of migrants and asylum seekers arriving at the border.

Why it matters: Republicans, who made border security one of their top campaign issues in the 2022 midterms, have argued that Biden's lack of a visit is evidence the president is unserious about addressing illegal immigration across the southern border. 

Biden, after announcing the El Paso visit, unveiled a new policy last week to curb illegal border crossings, telling migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti in a rare public address dedicated to the border issue to "not just show up at the border," Axios' Stef Kight reports.

The big picture: During his visit, Biden met with local officials, faith leaders and non-governmental groups who've supported migrants fleeing political oppression and economic collapse in their home countries at the El Paso County Migrant Services Support Center.

"If I could wave the wand, what should I do?" Biden asked aid workers there, per a pool report.

Biden also inspected the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry, the busiest port in El Paso, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, members of Congress, and local officials and law enforcement.

He was joined by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, several Democratic members of Congress, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego.

The other side: After the president departed Air Force One at El Paso International Airport, Biden briefly spoke to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), whose office said Abbott gave Biden a letter containing five actions the governor would like the president to carry out to secure the border. 

Among the steps mentioned in the letter was to continue enforcing the pandemic-era border policy called Title 42, which the Supreme Court last month allowed to remain in force as legal challenges against it unfold.

Abbott also demanded that Biden resume construction of a border wall along Texas' portion of the border.

What he's saying: Asked about the letter, Biden told reporters that he hadn't read it yet, according to a pool report. 

Biden visits El Paso in first trip to southern border as president

"They need a lot of resources. We're going to get it for them," Biden said when asked what he's learned from his border visit.

Axios

Monday's top stories

Georgia grand jury investigating Trump for election interference finishes work

McCarthy's fast start: Big Tech is a top target

Drought, floods, wildfires: Climate change upends archaeology

Biden visits El Paso in first trip to southern border as president

Biden's '24 pivot

What we know about Kevin McCarthy's concessions to become speaker

Some Republicans expect rocky road for McCarthy's speakership

Rep. Comer "not convinced" there won't be motion to oust McCarthy as speaker

Mayorkas unfazed by McCarthy impeachment threat: "I've got a lot of work to do"

America's public schools are losing students

Bills prepare for emotional game after Hamlin collapse