I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sharis. And this is the daily signal top news for Thursday, August 3rd. Here are today's headlines.

Former President Donald Trump is in Washington, D.C. today for his arrangement. Trump appeared before a federal judge around 4 p.m. to face his third indictment. The indictment is led by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith. And it charges Trump with four felony counts.

The charges in the indictment are related to Trump's challenging the results of the 2022 presidential election. The indictment accuses Trump of conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. It's important to note the judge that is overseeing this indictment in federal court.

The judge's name is Tanya Chetkin, and she was appointed as a U.S. District Judge for D.C. by then President Barack Obama. According to reporting from the Daily City Times, Fred Lucas, Judge Chetkin earned a reputation for taking a hard line on sentences for the January 6 riots. But her background before the bench is one of defending accused criminals, white collar defendants, and others who couldn't afford to do so.

The Heritage Foundation's Tim Kennedy is on the ground outside the courthouse in Washington, D.C. where Trump currently is. Tim joins us on the line now. Tim, thanks so much for being with us.

You got wonderful. Thanks for having me.

So Tim, you have been down outside the courthouse for a couple hours now. Can you just explain the scene, what it looks like, and what the atmosphere is like while President Trump is inside that courthouse?

Of course, it's a total media circus. I got here a couple hours ago, and there was a ring upon a ring around the courthouse of cameras, media outlets, media trucks. I mean, the craze over the former president certainly hasn't died down, and it just keeps getting more intense.

You have some protesters in regards to in support of the former president. You have many that are against him, a lot of block them up signs I'm seeing.

You have some people that alleged to have a connection to January 6 that are here protesting as well, which I haven't seen before at previous protests around the city. So that's kind of interesting.

Interesting. Did you see the former president go into the courthouse?

I saw the motorcade go in and some of the photographers around me caught his shadow, but it was a very quick affair. A lot of people weren't even in their position when it happened. He whizzed right in and the rest of history.

Well, Tim, thank you so much for being willing to be down there on the ground for all of our listeners. Be sure to check out the daily signals social media accounts as well as the Heritage Foundation social media accounts so you can see all of the footage that we are capturing that Tim is capturing today down at the courthouse. Tim, thanks so much for your time.

Thank you.

Yesterday Fox News uncovered new Facebook files showing the White House colluded with the social media company to target users who were hesitant about or opposed to COVID-19 vaccines.

The goal appears to have been to influence users to get the shot. Internal communications obtained by Fox show that the White House had many conversations back and forth with Facebook.

The White House appears to have insisted Facebook granted special access to users data and special targeting tools during a conversation about how to persuade vaccine hesitant people to get vaccinated.

Biden's digital director Rob Flaherty has asked since it's a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn't be able to during a call on April 5th.

A former Facebook employee said they tried to caution Flaherty about presenting target content on a user's Facebook page instantly.

The employee said the instant information may set off alarm bells and users heads, making them feel like they're being watched by Facebook.

Biden's head of strategic communications Courtney Rowe appears to have mocked middle Americans for a supposed inability to discern what information is true or not during that same April phone call.

The White House increased the pressure on Facebook to divulge users information as more and more conversations between the two ensued.

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