Trump Indicted Again; China Surprise Rate Cut

Good morning.

I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today.

We begin with breaking news overnight. Donald Trump now faces a new set of criminal charges. For the fourth time, a prosecutor has issued an indictment against the former president, this time in Fulton County, Georgia, over efforts to overturn the twenty twenty election. Eighteen co defendants are also facing charges, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former

The indictment alleges that, rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result.

Fulton County DA Fanny Willis says she has authorized arrest warrants for the former president and his eighteen co defendants. They have until August twenty fifth to surrender.

Well.

Nathan. Reaction is pouring into this latest indictment. Genie Shehanzeno is a political contributor for Bloomberg.

This is a screaming indictment. It is long and it is detailed. But she said in her comments, you have a right to challenge the election in court, but you cannot engage in a criminal racketeering activity to overturn the results. And that's what all of these nineteen individuals, including the former president and Rudolph Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and others are charged with.

Genie Sanzeno notes the charges include one hundred and sixty one specific acts of racketeering by the former president. Bloomberg Law host jun Garosso says some are questioning the timing of the late night indictment.

I am really surprised as to why she decided that she had to do a press conference at eleven forty five at night, when you know most people are not going to be watching people who were interested in this. And also it seeds into the Trump theory or the Trump allegations that this is happening also fast, and she's wrapping it up, and it's just an indication that she's not taking a turn, even though we.

Know that she took two and a half years.

Bloomberg Law host Dean Grasso says the charges carry a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of twenty Karen.

Jeff Duncan is among those who testified before the Fulton County grand Jury. He is a Republican and the former lieutenant governor of Georgia. Duncan spoke to the Atlanta Journal Constitution outside the courthouse does.

A pivot point for this country to do something more than just stew on the twenty twenty election cycle. Right, We're either going to as Republicans take our medicine and realize the election wasn't rigged. Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever in the history of the party, even worse than Herschel Walker.

Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan testified before the Fulton County Grand Jury after receiving a subpoena earlier this month.

Well, Nathan, we'll have more on this latest in men coming up shortly, but first let's turn to the action in financial markets this morning. China is in focus yet again as data out of Beijing shows more evidence of a slowdown in the economy that had China's central bank cut interest rates overnight by the most in three years. On Bloomberg Daybreak Asia Anda, Brian Curtis has the details from Hong Kong.

The PBOC cut the rate on its one year MLF loans by fifteen basis points to two and a half percent. It also lowered the seven day reverse repo eight by ten basis points to one point eight percent. July's industrial output and retail sales missed estimates. Fixed asset investment from January to July also was worse than expected. Also adding to this, China will pause publishing its unemployment rate for young people. Authorities say the government wants to iron out

All right, Brian, thank you, and staying in Asia, we have an exclusive interview with the front runner in Taiwan's presidential Lii Ching Da is currently vice president of Taiwan, and he's promising to cooperate with China to achieve peace. That's despite Beijing's refusal to acknowledge Taiwan as a sovereign country. Li says voters face a choice about democracy itself.

We don't want to be enemies, we can be friend and we love to see China can enjoy democracy and freedom just like us. As long as SLAO is parity and dignity, our door is always open. We are willing to cooperate with China to advance peace and prosperity.

Taiwan Vice President Lii ching Da spoke exclusively to Bloomberg as he kicks off a trip to the US. China's Foreign ministry has condemned the visit.

Well back here in the US, Nathan, stocks are poised to start the day with losses. Retail could be a catalyst for traders today. Home Depot reports earnings this morning, and we also get the July reading on US retail sales. Economists forecast again of four tenths of a percent.

We're watching data in Europe Karen. UK wage growth is accelerating at its strongest pace on record. Average pay in the UK rows seven point eight percent in the second quarter. That's the highest since records began in two thousand and one. The reading likely means the Bank of England will keep raising rates.

And finally, Nathan, let's get you the latest moves by Warren Buffett. Regulatory filing show, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway continues to cut its stake, and Activision Blizzard. The conglomerate also exited other positions in the second quarter, including Chevron. So it's Buffett buying what looks like he's betting on housing, Berkshire disclosed positions and home builders Dr Horton and VR and Lanar. And it's five o seven on Wall Street Time now for a look at some of the other stories making

Morning, Karen.

The death toll from the Malley wildfires has reached at least ninety nine. Federal response teams are on the ground in Mali helping with critical assistance with those who've lost everything. Bloomberg's Nancy Lions has more on the government's response.

FEMA Administrator Dian Criswell says they're providing an immediate payment of seven hundred dollars to each resident to cover essentials. They're also using hotels to house those left homeless.

We do have adequate funding to do the response that we're doing right now, but we will need additional funding to ensure that all of our other recovery projects can continue and not get delayed until the next FISTE year.

FEMA has warned that its disaster fund is projected to fall into the red this month because of money already committed to disasters. Officials have sought additional money from Congress. Nancy Lyons Bloomberg.

Radio Hawaii Governor Josh Greens has more than eighty percent of the structures destroyed were residential, and they were also older buildings. That's created an environmental hazard.

There's asbestos in the air down there, and they're heavy metals, and we're getting environmental assessments as rapidly as we can from the Gartment of Health and EPAS is here.

Residents are also bracing for a higher death toll in what is already the deadliest wildfire event in more than a century in the US, as recovery efforts continue. First Noah now NASA warning about a dramatic increase in the Earth's climate temperature. Bloomberg's Ed Baxter brings us that part of the story.

A direct warning about climate change from NASA Director Bill Nelson.

Folks, Mother nature is sending us a message, and that message is we better act now.

And says the earth is warming at an alarming rate, and what.

We find is that July of this year the temperatures are the hottest ever.

On record, and he points to the droughts, the storms, and wildfires like Maui. In San Francisco, I met Baxter Bloomberg dabream.

Back in San Francisco.

Crime in that city has gotten so bad federal workers are being told to work from home for the foreseeable future. San Francisco Chronicle reports that Health and Human Services issued the work from home advisory because of unsafe conditions around the federal building.

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Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager, and once again, former President Donald Trump faces criminal charges over efforts to overturn the twenty twenty election. This latest indictment comes from Fulton County, Georgia, and it includes eighteen co defendants. District Attorney Fanny Willis is accusing all of them of violating state racketeering law to accomplish.

The illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office. Beginning on January twentieth, twenty one.

DA Fanny Willis announced the indictment late last night. She says she hopes to try the former president and the eighteen others within six months, and she's giving them ten days to surrender for more. We're joined now by Greig Valier, chief US policy strategist at AGF Investments. Your reaction, Greg to the indictment and the timing, well.

Good morning, Nathan. I would say that the biggest problem of all is that they cannot get this done in six months or less. Despite what she said, I think that if once you factor in appeals next year, it could be election day November fifth of next year before there's any resolution. With this many cases, this many indictments, a decent percentage will drag into late twenty twenty four. You could have a president or president elect who's been found guilty.

Let's talk about this indictment specifically. We have eighteen co defendants along with the former president. They're facing forty one counts accused of one hundred and sixty one specific acts in furtherance of a conspiracy to overturn the twenty twenty election. It sounds a lot more sweeping than even what we heard from the Special Counsel Jack Smith in a similar case.

Yeah, it really does. And I think that in all of these cases there's a common theme, and that is that the prosecutors want to get some plea bargains. Of the eighteen people who were charged yesterday in Atlanta, I think there's a decent chance that two or three or four will cut a deal and make things even more difficult for Donald Trump.

Does that add to the difficulty that you're implying here in terms of the timing If we do start to see some of these code defendants potentially make a deal and potentially wine themselves up as witnesses against the former president.

It's entirely possible. I think that the prosecutors know that a lot of these potential slippers, as you might say, don't want to spend their late seventies in jail, and that's entirely possible for somebody like Rudy Giuliani. So yeah, I think there's a high likelihood that at least some of them will flip.

What do you make of the scope of the investigation here? It took two and a half years for Fanny Willis to bring these charges that were highly anticipated, and it looks from the indictment that it goes well beyond that infamous find me the Vote's phone call that the former president had with George's secretary of State.

Yeah. I think they have a lot of evidence that's not been released yet in terms of harassment of voting officials, in terms of trying to get these charges changed. So my sense is that there's still a lot more in these cases still to be brought out.

Do you get the sense that this is a stronger case than some of the others. Does it stack up that way for you?

You know, I s thought all along, Nathan, that the strongest law could be the documents in Florida. That's a pretty straightforward case. It's a felony. You can't take documents out of the White House and bring them to your home. All four of these are pretty strong, and I have a hunch that the document case could be the first one resolved.

Does it complicate that case to have this one brought now? I mean we've talked before about how the schedule is going to get I mean it is a lot more complicated heading into a twenty twenty four presidential race, and now you have all these overlapping cases potentially running up against each other.

Absolutely, I mean you're going to have a president, someone a candidate for the presidency actually having to campaign on weekends on holidays. He's not going to be able to campaign probably full time, because of all these charges. And we shouldn't overlook the fact that Joe and Hunter Biden are part of the narrative also. I think they will be dragged into this. But what has been alleged in terms of Trump far exceed in my opinion, what the Bibles have done.

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I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow.

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