• The grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election concluded meeting for the day. An indictment may be handed down as soon as this afternoon, but it’s unclear what the grand jury has determined.
• Trump and his advisers spent Monday and Tuesday morning preparing for a potential indictment to be filed in the investigation, sources tell CNN. 
• Smith has been conducting a sprawling probe into the election’s aftermath, including the use of fake electors in states Trump lost and a pressure campaign against then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to reverse the election results in when Congress certified Joe Biden’s win on January 6. Dozens of witnesses have testified before the grand jury in the probe, including Pence and Trump’s top White House aides.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to crowd during a campaign event on July 1, 2023 in Pickens, South Carolina.

Former President Donald Trump has raised formidable sums, but his political operation is burning through money as his legal troubles mount, new filings show.

His joint fundraising committee brought in more than $53 million during the first six months of the year, but the committees associated with his 2024 White House bid have spent even more.

The high rate of spending is apparent in Trump’s leadership PAC, where more than 70% – or some $21 million – of its total disbursements during the first six months of the year went to pay the growing legal bills for Trump and his associates, a report filed on July 31 with federal regulators shows.

The leadership PAC, Save America, started July with a little more than $3.6 million remaining in its bank accounts – a fraction of the nearly $18.3 million in reserves it had at the start of the year – underscoring how much the wealthy former president has relied on political contributors to help him confront his growing legal challenges.

The financial toll of multiple Trump investigations has come into focus in recent days as sources within the Trump campaign confirmed that Save America had requested that an aligned super PAC supporting his presidential bid return $60 million to the leadership PAC.

Monday’s filing shows that the super PAC, dubbed Make American Great Again, Inc., had returned nearly $12.3 million – over four installments in May and June. Officials with the super PAC have not responded to inquiries about the refund request and whether it has sent back more money to the leadership PAC since June.

In all, the leadership PAC paid more than three dozen law firms during the first six months of the year.

Save America, which served as the main fundraising vehicle for Trump’s political operation immediately after he left the White House in 2021, ended that year flush with cash and ultimately sent tens of millions of dollars to the super PAC, also known as MAGA Inc. – providing seed money for the group to begin advertising on Trump’s behalf as he mounted his 2024 bid.

Read more here.

Former President Donald Trump and his advisers spent Monday and Tuesday morning preparing for a potential indictment to be filed in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with their plans tell CNN. 

The Trump campaign has lined up surrogates, influencers and allies to immediately respond to new charges should they be filed, and have also prepared a series of pre-written statements and videos defending the former president’s actions in the lead up to and on January 6, 2021, that they plan to send to supporters.

Trump is also expected to release a statement on Truth Social if he is informed of an indictment in the case, the sources said. 

The Trump campaign is planning to lean into the playbook they’ve used with past indictments to frame any additional charges as interfering with his 2024 presidential campaign, as well as paint Smith as targeting Trump for purely political reasons — including allegations that the Justice Department is unfairly putting more focus on his behavior than that of President Joe Biden.

The former president has no scheduled media interviews on Tuesday. However, he is expected to publicly defend himself against any new charges during his campaign stops later this week.  

The grand jury hearing evidence in the special counsel’s probe into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election has concluded meeting for the day. 

CNN spotted jurors exiting the courthouse this afternoon, indicating they are finished for the day. The grand jury met for more than four hours today.  

Former White House Chief of Staff during the Trump administration Mark Meadows speaks during a forum titled House Rules and Process Changes for the 118th Congress at FreedowmWorks headquarters on November 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. 

For months, federal prosecutors have brought witnesses in front of a grand jury in Washington, DC, to investigate efforts by former President Donald Trump and his close allies to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The witnesses, several of whom appeared under subpoena, range from low-level aides to Trump’s own vice president. There are also several key witnesses who have met with prosecutors for interviews.

Any indictment that comes from the sprawling probe into aftermath of the election, efforts to overturn the result or the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol will likely rely, at least in part, on what those individuals testified to under oath behind closed doors.

Here’s who’s appeared before the grand jury:

• Former Vice President Mike Pence 
• Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff
• Marc Short, former chief of staff to Pence,
• Greg Jacob, a former aide to Pence
• Former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino
• Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone
• Patrick Philbin, Cipollone’s deputy
• Stephen Miller, a former White House speechwriter and senior adviser to Trump
• Former Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli
• Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe
• Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich
• Former White House aide Nick Luna 
• John McEntee, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and an aide to the former president
• Beau Harrison, an aide to Trump
• William Russell, a former White House special assistant and deputy director of presidential advance 
• Michael McDonald, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party and was allegedly one of the fake electors appointed in that state
• Jim DeGraffenreid, another Nevada GOP official and Trump elector
• Gary Michael Brown, a Trump campaign election day operations official
• Ali Alexander, leader of the “Stop the Steal” group who helped to organize rallies before the US Capitol attack
• US Secret Service agents on Trump’s detail

Read more here.