Trump Arraignment, Biden in Mississippi, Electric Car Tax Credit
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Donald Trump gets arraigned next Tuesday. He's the first former U.S. president ever to face criminal charges. We'll bring you the latest on what we know about the case. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Biden says he'll do what he can for the people of Mississippi after last week's devastating tornado. Folks, I know there's a lot of pain, and it's hard to believe at a moment like this, this community is going to be rebuilt again.

and rebuilt and built back better than it was before. And if you're thinking about buying an electric car, listen up. You might not get that tax credit after all. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

Donald Trump is expected to appear in criminal court next week. That's when the charges against him will be formally presented. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here to walk us through it. Welcome. Hey there. So what's the arraignment of a former U.S. president going to look like?

It's a good question. What we do know is that Trump is scheduled to appear in criminal court in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon around 2 p.m. Normally, someone who's been indicted will go through the regular booking process. So fingerprints are taken, mugshot, all

all that. And then the individual would head to court to be arraigned and enter a plea. Now, the exact arrangements are often worked out between prosecutors and the defendant's attorneys ahead of time. Trump has the added twist here of being, of course, a former president. He has a secret service detail. So we'll see how all of this sorts out come Tuesday. So fill us in on the background of this case.

So this is the case that was brought by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. There's a lot we don't know, but we do know that the grand jury has been hearing testimony and evidence that revolves around hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. At that time, an adult film star named Stormy Daniels was considering going public to talk about what she says was an affair that she had had with Trump. An affair, it's important to say, that Trump denies ever having.

But Trump and his campaign didn't want Daniels to tell this story, didn't want this story to get out. And so Trump's attorney and fixer at that time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Trump then reimbursed Cohen that money. Trump's company recorded that payment as a legal retainer. And that's something that Cohen has said under oath was simply not true. And so the question with this case is whether Trump falsified business records, because that would be a crime in New York state.

So, I mean, how strong is the prosecution's case against Trump? That's a question that everybody wants an answer to. But unfortunately, at this point in time, we just really don't know. And that's because the indictment is still under seal. So we don't know what the actual charges are at this point. We don't know how many counts there are. And we don't know all of the evidence that the DA has gathered over what's been several years of this investigation. I spoke with Harry Sandek about this. He's a former federal prosecutor, now defense attorney in New York.

He said that, well, we don't know the charges and the full legal theory that the DA has in this case. We do know that Michael Cohen seems like an important government witness. And Sandek points out that Cohen is a tricky witness. And that's because Cohen himself has pleaded guilty to federal crimes, tax evasion, false statements, and campaign finance violations. And that last one involves the payment made to Daniels. Here's Sandek. So it may be a challenge for the government to show

that, you know, Michael Cohen is telling the truth. And that's a factual issue apart from the legal issue. That's something the government will have to deal with if Cohen is called as a witness, if and when this case ever gets to trial. And it's important to say that we are still very much a long way off from that.

So how could this indictment affect Donald Trump's bid for the presidency? I mean, he is running for president. He is. He is. It's a it's a huge question. The fact that Trump is leading the Republican field, he's a leading Republican candidate right now is shocking.

something that can't be denied. His attorneys say that Trump is innocent and he's going to fight this case. Trump himself has lashed out about this prosecution on his social media platform just yesterday. He said this amounted to election interference. And so this is, of course, going to factor into the 2024 campaign.

as are no doubt the other state and federal prosecutions, federal investigations that Trump faces. Trump supporters, many House Republicans have rallied to his cause so far, as interestingly have Trump's presumed opponents in any Republican primary. What's unclear, though, is how the broader American electorate, the broader American public is going to view Trump as a candidate in light of this indictment as this case moves forward. NPR Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

President Biden visited Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where more than a dozen people died from a tornado last week. The president announced that the federal government is paying the full cost of recovery efforts for a month. We're not just here for today.

I'm determined that we're going to leave nothing behind. We're going to get it done for you. His visit took place as another storm system tore through the center of the country, leaving a number of casualties, including some fatal. NPR's Deepa Shivaram traveled with the president and joins us now. Hi, Deepa. Hey, good morning. So we've seen just devastating images out of Rolling Fork since the tornado hit, like

What's it like on the ground there one week later? Yeah, Rolling Fork is still looking really rough. Even in just the president's drive in and the press corps' drive in to Rolling Fork yesterday, we saw so much of the town just...

A gas station that had essentially collapsed. There are entire neighborhoods that have just been flattened. So much debris is strewn all over farmland. Fences are down. There were just a series of trees that looked like they had been split in half. And the president spoke about some of this in his remarks yesterday. 300 homes and businesses are nothing more than piles of twisted materials mixed up with personal items that mattered so much.

Teddy bears, family albums.

And keep in mind, Rolling Fork is a really small town. There's about 2,000 residents, most of whom are Black, in a really rural part of the South. This has been a horrific week for their community. But in the middle of all of that, there's been a surge of energy from volunteers and organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army that have been in town to help distribute cleaning supplies and hot meals. There's a years-long road ahead for Rolling Fork, but at this moment, they have a lot of partners pitching in to help.

The president said the federal government will pay for recovery efforts in the near term. So what does that mean? The White House says it'll cover things like debris cleanup, shelters, and overtime pay for emergency workers for 30 days. The funding also includes cash grants for people who lost their homes, whether they own them or rented, and to help pay for things that insurance might not cover. The government's also taking a large-scale approach in other ways here too. One of the things that the

president mentioned in his remarks is the town's post office, which was hit by the storm. A lot of people in Rolling Fork get their medications through the mail, but after the storm, that access to medications became an immediate concern. So the National Postal Service is setting up a temporary post office to keep things running.

It's unclear right now, though, how long the full recovery for Rolling Fork will take. Both Biden and FEMA Director Dan Criswell said that they want the community to be able to strengthen their infrastructure for the long term instead of patching things up for now.

Another deadly storm system struck the center of the country yesterday. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, thunderstorms and tornadoes were sweeping into the middle of the country all through last night. Yesterday, we're talking regions from Texas to

Illinois. Similar scenes, there were just homes, businesses, shopping centers just completely shredded. At least two people were killed near Little Rock, Arkansas from a tornado that hit through there. And more than 30 people were taken to hospitals.

In northern Illinois, there was a storm that actually tore the roof off of a theater during a heavy metal concert. At least one person died and 28 people were injured. So there are first responders sifting through debris today to look for additional victims who may be trapped under collapsed buildings trying to clean up. And of course, as we go through that, the death toll here may rise as well. My goodness. That's NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thank you so much. Thank you.

The government wants more people to buy electric vehicles in the fight against climate change. But it also wants those cars to be built in North America or by a trade partner. That means not every model will qualify for the full tax credit contained in legislation last year. And Piers, Camilla Domenoski joins us. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. Basically what happened this week.

Well, basically, if you take these EV tax credits, they're worth up to $7,500 per qualifying vehicle. And starting on April 18th, what it means to be a qualifying vehicle will change. You have to meet all the existing requirements and the requirements of the EV tax credit.

And a lot of the stuff that goes into that vehicle's battery has to come from the U.S. or North America or a trade partner. This is a requirement that is supposed to bring jobs to the United States and reduce reliance on China for the supply chain. I'm not sure I understand how the Treasury Department figures into this.

Yeah, it's kind of curious. This is a law that was passed by Congress last year, but it is a tax credit. So the IRS is involved in figuring out how it actually works. And it is complicated. I'm actually going to use a metaphor here, if you'll humor me. If you had a bag of dried rice and I asked you, did 50% of that rice come from the United States or not? Like, you might be confused by why I was asking that question, but you could figure out how to answer it, right? Yeah.

What if you had a burrito and I asked you, Scott Simon, is half of that burrito from the United States? You would have a lot of follow-up questions about like how you consider where the beans were grown versus where they were boiled. And then you have the salsa that has a lot of different ingredients. Every ingredient has its own pathway. So even figuring out how you do the math is hard.

And so what the Treasury Department just dropped is basically 60 pages of instructions on how to calculate where a burrito is from. And now companies need to actually apply that and break down their burritos. And the burritos, in this extended analogy, are the batteries. For the record, I would pat my stomach and say the burrito is here now. But let's continue with this extended metaphor. After all the analysis, how many cars will still get the tax credit?

The Treasury Department says that it doesn't know. I asked John Bozzella, he's the head of the Trade Group for Auto Manufacturers. He's the guy who would know, and he said... So the short answer is we're not entirely sure. Now, since I spoke to him, we've gotten some information. GM says the Bolt will get some credit. Tesla says the Model 3 will see its credit reduced. Looks like we're going to be hearing company by company on this.

We should know the full list on April 18th, exactly when this goes into effect. So quick note here, if you're buying a used EV or you're leasing an EV, you don't have to worry about this at all. But if you are in the market for a new EV and you know you would qualify for the credit today, you might not in a few weeks. So maybe don't go. Camila, why is this happening now?

These EV tax credits have been changed to try to do two things at once. Sell more electric vehicles for the fight against climate change, but also get more mines and processing plants and battery factories built in the United States for jobs and to reduce dependency on China, like I said earlier. And those two goals are in direct tension. The easier you make it to qualify, the more cars you sell. The harder you make it, the more you boost to the supply chain.

And so these battery sourcing rules are right at the heart of this tension, right? They're designed to build up the supply chain, but the Treasury Department has added some flexibility because they want to also sell EVs. It's a tug of war, and this is not the end. There's going to be more debates over these tax credits in the months and the years ahead. And here's Camilla Domenoski. Thanks so much for being with us. Thank you.

And that's Up First for Saturday, April 1st, 2023. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon. Tomorrow on Up First, a dispatch from El Salvador and how some groups say so-called reforms there have trampled on the rights of the accused. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Halima Abdullah, Rafael Nam, Dana Farrington, Hadil El-Shalchi, and Matthew Sherman. The episode was produced by Fernando Naro, Andrew Craig, Michael Radcliffe, and Danny Hensel.

We get engineering support from Hannah Glovna. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Sarah Lucy Oliver. And our deputy managing editor is Jim Kane. And as always, be sure to find us on the radio every Saturday and Sunday morning on Weekend Edition from NPR News. You can find your NPR station at stations.npr.org.