newspaper clippings and documents with him after leaving the white house, something his aides apparently refer to as his beautiful mind boxes, this as trump s defense comes under scrutiny even by some conservatives like carl rogue who say trump invited this indictment. plus, there s even more legal trouble for the former president as writer e. jean carroll s second defamation case gets a court date. we ll run through it all straight ahead. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, june 16th. we are all glad it is friday. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. so one week after the latest indictment of donald trump, there s new reporting that pokes holes in one of the former president s defenses. despite claiming earlier in the week that he, quote hadn t had a chance to go through all the boxes that he took with him to mar-a-lago, former white house aides are telling the new york times that trump was unusually attached to those boxes
style we re seeing fighting in foxholes and hand dug trenches, so it s really tough going. and i think what s really concerning to many people in the pentagon is that ukraine has been losing a lot of western equipment that the west has been given including u.s. equipment, but that s something i think ukraine has expected and i think everyone s tamped down expectations on this counter offensive in the last couple of months, and i think we re going to see this probably last into the fall or winter. the last counter offensive last year was so successful they re trying to say, hey, a little different this time around, it s going to be harder. today secretary of state antony blinken will head to beijing with chinese officials. obviously this was a trip initially scheduled months ago, postponed because of the sky balloon incident over the u.s. talk to us about the hopes and agenda of this meeting. i think the idea is to get relations to thaw.