Iran Intelligence, NATO Summit, Trump Judicial Nod

0:01New intelligence says U.S. airstrikes caused only limited damage to nuclear facilities in Iran. So what happened to Iran's supply of highly enriched uranium? And was the nuclear program, as the president said, obliterated or just set back by months? I'm Michelle Martin with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump is meeting today with NATO members ready to enact one of his chief priorities, a pledge to increase how much they spend on their own defense. What else is on the agenda? And a Justice Department official is in line to become a federal appeals court judge, but some say he's not suitable for the role.

0:36He's been the president's lead enforcer and has been deeply involved in the politicization and corruption of the Justice Department. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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2:15For the great sleep you deserve, visit Mattress Firm and upgrade to cooling comfort. They make sleep easy. President Trump says U.S. airstrikes in Iran wiped out that country's nuclear program, and he's pushing back hard against anyone who disagrees. But some U.S. national security sources are suggesting something different. For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myrie. So, Greg, President Trump's position is pretty clear. Iran's nuclear program was, quote, completely obliterated. So who's saying otherwise? Yeah, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity tells our NPR colleague Tom Bowman that the Defense Intelligence Agency believes the damage was limited at Iran's most important nuclear site, Fordow.

2:58The official says Iran's program has probably been set back by just a few months or so. Now, the Defense Intelligence Agency is part of the Pentagon. This is a preliminary assessment. It's considered low confidence at this point. And the DIA doesn't speak for the entire intelligence community. Other intelligence agencies like the CIA are not commenting, but they're also gathering information. There will be multiple assessments that could change and evolve over time. All right. So what's the White House saying? Yeah, the White House is not happy about this. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said, quote, this alleged assessment is flat out wrong.

3:38But she then went on to say that the report was leaked by someone in the intelligence community. So she seems to be confirming the existence of the report. Now, Trump repeated his position today at the NATO summit in the Netherlands. I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn't have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast. If it would have taken two weeks, maybe, but it's very hard to remove that kind of material. We should also note that the ceasefire in Israel and Iran both seem to be holding now for a second day. Now, if we can get clarity on these key nuclear sites bombed by the U.S., would that settle the all-important questions about the state of Iran's nuclear program?

4:22Well, not entirely. You know, these are the three most important sites, Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan. They're about 100 to 300 miles south of the capital, Tehran. But Iran's nuclear network has many parts. Israel bombed many of them before the U.S. struck over the weekend. There's no doubt that every piece of Iran's known nuclear program was targeted and apparently suffered at least some damage. But there are still questions. For example, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently said Iran has about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Now, this would need to be enriched a little bit more, but it could be used to make multiple bombs.

5:03This material could be moved fairly easily, and the Iranians may have hidden it before the U.S. and Israeli attacks. Here's Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, addressing this yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered. You could literally move that in about 10 car loads. I have not seen any indication that we know where all of that is at this moment in time. All right. So what are Iran and Israel saying about the nuclear program? Yeah, Iran has not made any pledges to shut down the nuclear program and reports in the Iranian media cite officials saying the country will press ahead.

5:39Iran will have to make its own damage assessments and figure out the costs and risk of restarting the program. And Israel has not publicly offered a detailed assessment, but Iran's nuclear program was target number one. I'll add the U.S. and Israel share a lot of intelligence when it comes to Iran. They'll develop a strong sense of where the program is headed, but that's likely to take time. All right. That's NPR's Greg Myrie. Greg, thanks. Sure thing.

6:12President Trump will meet with NATO allies today at the summit in The Hague in the Netherlands. The leaders are expected to announce a large increase in spending to counter possible future threats from Russia and China. New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who's hosting his first summit, is doing his best to make it controversy-free. But President Trump made waves before he even got there. Let's go to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, who's in The Hague. So, Eleanor, bring us up to speed here. Well, President Trump arrived last night. He attended the lavish dinner with NATO allies and the King and Queen of the Netherlands.

6:43And he spent the night in the Royal Palace. And he just spoke to the media. He did sort of what he calls his weave. He talked about many things. And here he is after he was asked what he would say to Ukraine's President Zelensky when they meet today. No, we'll discuss the obvious. We'll discuss his difficulties. He's got a little difficulty. Zelensky, the nice guy. I mean, I'm going to meet him today. I don't know. I assume we're going to be discussing Ukraine. Yes. It seems like a little fuzzy. Can you restart comes there or anything that you might do? Well, we're going to see. I mean, I've spoken to Putin a lot and he actually was very nice.

7:19He volunteered help on, as you know, Iran. I said, no, I don't need help on Iran. I need help on Russia. Well, now President Trump will join the summit and they will talk about Russia and the possible threat it poses to NATO countries in the future. So tell us about that. I mean, what will leaders announce today? There's going to be a quantum leap in spending. That's how NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte put it. They're going to go from 2 % of GDP now to a whopping 5 % of GDP. And here's what Rutte said this morning. I believe this will be a transformational summit. Given the threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative.

7:58So will this summit come off with no clashes or controversy? And tell us what's already happened, actually. Well, Rutte for months has been getting ready for this summit. It's in his hometown of The Hague. He wants to avoid all these disagreements and mishaps we've seen in the past with President Trump. He even visited President Trump in Mar-a-Lago. He's been criticized for being too accommodating to him. And then yesterday he sent Trump a personal message that Trump received when he was in his plane and promptly republished on social media. And it went something like this. He said, you're flying into another big success.

8:29You've done what no American president has. And he also said, congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran. He called it extraordinary. That was seen as a bit embarrassing for Ruta. But Alexander de Hoopsche, for the head of the policy think tank, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, says Ruta is just doing his job. The role of the NATO secretary general is a balancing role. It's to balance U.S. and European strategic interests and priorities. You know, she says that Ruta is keeping the U.S. engaged in Europe and with European security and defense. And that's what's important.

9:06So speaking of defense, President Trump also brought in a doubt whether the U.S. would respect Article 5. Tell us what that is and why that's important. Well, that's the core principle of mutual defense, you know, coming to each other's aid in case of attack. And it's actually only been used once, and that was after 9-11 when everyone came to the U.S.'s aid after the terrorist attack. You know, on the plane over, a reporter asked him if he would commit to this, and he said, well, it depends. Article 5 can mean a lot of things. But Ruta just brushed that off this morning and said, of course, the U.S.

9:35committed. It's here. And Ruta was chosen because he's someone who has a relationship with Trump. He knows him well. And I would say there is so far a sense of solidarity here and also a sense among European leaders that they do have to take responsibility for their defense. And this is partly due to the pressure that President Trump has put on NATO. All right. That's NPR's Eleanor Beersley. Thanks a lot. Thank you, A.

10:04A top official at the Justice Department will be making his way to Capitol Hill today for a confirmation hearing. He is in line to become a federal appeals court judge, a job that carries a lifetime appointment. The nomination is drawing fresh attention to some highly controversial activities inside the Justice Department this year in which this nominee played a key role. NPR Justice correspondent Kerry Johnson is here to tell us all about this person. So who is this nominee, Kerry, and what's his background? His name is Emil Bove. He spent years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, but he came to national attention when he helped defend Donald Trump in four different criminal cases over the past few years.

10:42Since January, Bove has been in charge of day-to-day operations inside the Justice Department. And what kind of things has Bove done at the Department of Justice? A lot. President Trump promised to overhaul the Justice Department. Bove has been one of the people spearheading that campaign. This year, he ordered up a list of FBI agents and analysts who worked on January 6th Capitol riot cases. He also directed prosecutors in New York to drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. But those prosecutors refused, in part because it looked to them like an unlawful quid pro quo, where the mayor would help President Trump with immigration, and in exchange, the criminal case against the mayor would go into hibernation.

11:24That case was eventually dropped. Adams has denied the charges. Several former prosecutors say Beauvais is more about loyalty to Trump than to the facts and the law. Greg Nunziata was also critical. He's a former Senate aide who helped confirm conservative judges. Here's what he says. He's been the president's lead enforcer and has been deeply involved in the politicization and corruption of the Justice Department. And that kind of background makes him very ill-suited for a lifetime federal judgeship. Who is supporting Beauvais' nomination? Well, the White House says Beauvais is a talented legal mind and a staunch defender of the Constitution.

12:06They say Beauvais should be a, quote, shoo-in for this job as a federal judge. Mike Fragoso helped confirm judges when he worked for Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Fragoso also offered praise for Beauvais' credentials last week. And I think he's been doing important work during the current administration to try to move a number of controversial but conservative policies over the finish line, which require some pretty creative thinking on the part of the Justice Department. So I think he's, everything I've seen makes me think he's going to be a really good judge. So he mentions controversial but conservative policies, which probably makes some people wonder about the president's immigration agenda.

12:45So how might that come up at the hearing today? The president's been pushing for more deportations and for them to happen more quickly. Just yesterday, a former DOJ lawyer came forward with a whistleblower complaint. That lawyer was fired after he told a judge that a migrant had been deported in error this year. The whistleblower says shortly before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations, Emil Bove said those planes carrying migrants needed to take off no matter what. The whistleblower then described Bove saying they may need to consider telling judges, bleep you and ignore possible court orders.

13:20The Justice Department has said no one told people to ignore court orders, but Senate Democrats plan to bring up the issue today and argue it disqualifies Bove from serving as a judge. That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thanks. Thanks.

13:38And finally today, an update on the mayor's race in the country's largest city. Former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded to 33-year-old State Assemblymember Zoran Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Here's Mamdani speaking to his supporters after the concession. A life of dignity should not be reserved for a fortunate few. It should be one that city government guarantees for each and every New Yorker. Mondani is a Democratic socialist and he ran a largely grassroots campaign focused on reducing the cost of living for New Yorkers. He'll face current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who's running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in November's election.

14:20Now, Cuomo hasn't ruled out running in the general election either as an independent. If Mandani is elected, he will be New York City's first Muslim and first Indian American mayor.

14:34And that's Up First for Wednesday, June 25th. Ami Martinez. And I'm Michelle Martin. You can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's P-L-U-S dot N-P-R dot org. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kevin Drew, Andrew Sussman, Anna Yukoninoff, Jania Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziet Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zach Coleman, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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