Politics

By Gabriella Borter and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Secret Service’s acting director will appear on Thursday before a House of Representatives panel investigating security lapses involved in two failed assassination attempts of President-elect Donald Trump.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe will testify as the task force, of seven Republicans and six Democrats, prepares to issue a final report on its probe.

“It is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure on July 13, 2024. I personally carry the weight of knowing that we almost lost a protectee and that our failure cost a father and husband his life,” Rowe said in prepared testimony ahead of the hearing.

“This entire incident represents the failure to meet the expectations and responsibilities of the Secret Service.”

The Secret Service has faced questions over its staffing levels and communication capabilities after Trump twice survived attempts on his life during this year’s presidential campaign.

A gunman fired eight shots during a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, wounding Trump in the ear and killing another attendee. The gunman was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

Two months later, a man with a gun holed himself up near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida with what prosecutors have said was an intent to kill the then-Republican candidate while he golfed.

The suspect, Ryan Routh, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges and is awaiting trial.

Rowe has said he was “ashamed” of security lapses surrounding the Pennsylvania shooting. He defended the agency’s response in the Florida incident, commending an agent who spotted the gunman before he could open fire.

Rowe, who took over after his predecessor resigned following the Pennsylvania shooting, has vowed to hold accountable agents responsible for security lapses and said during the campaign that Trump’s protection was equal to the current president, Joe Biden.

The rally shooting shook confidence in the Secret Service, damaging its elite “zero fail” reputation for protecting presidents and high-level dignitaries to the United States.

The Secret Service has largely been exempt from Trump’s criticisms of federal law enforcement and vows to overhaul government, but the agency’s response to the Pennsylvania shooting drew bipartisan condemnation.

An interim report from the House task force, released in October, found a lack of planning between the Secret Service and local law enforcement ahead of the July rally.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Stephen Coates)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday he has chosen Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano to head the Social Security Administration.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Eric Beech)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden uses his final days in office to boost Ukraine’s defenses, Russia is playing a different game: spreading disinformation aimed at eroding U.S. support for Ukraine before Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month.

Since the U.S. election on Nov. 5, the Kremlin has used state-run media and its networks of fake news sites and social media accounts to push divisive narratives about the war and America’s Republican president-elect. Analysts say the content, translated into English for American audiences, is intended to turn sentiment against Ukraine at a pivotal time, with the hope of reducing U.S. military assistance and ensuring a Russian victory.

Recent examples include fake videos supposedly showing Ukrainian soldiers burning effigies of Trump or his supporters. One clip depicts soldiers saying Trump must not be allowed to take office and should “never be president again.” Multiple researchers have debunked the video, noting telltale signs of digital manipulation.

A different video claims to show Ukrainian soldiers firing at a mannequin wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a Trump campaign shirt. That video was analyzed and determined to be fake by private analysts and Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, a government agency that tracks Kremlin propaganda.

Other versions — just as fake — depict Ukrainian soldiers burning Trump’s books or calling him a coward. In the weeks after the election, the clips spread far beyond Ukraine and Russia, circulating among Trump supporters and believers in QAnon, the conspiracy theory that claims Trump is fighting a war against a Satanic cabal of powerful world leaders.

It’s part of Russia’s continued push to divide Americans over the nearly 3-year war in Ukraine and paint Ukrainians as unreliable, dishonest allies, according to analysts who have tracked Russian disinformation and propaganda since the war began. By discouraging American support for Ukraine, the Kremlin is hoping to cut off the most vital source of military assistance that has kept Ukrainian hopes alive since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Early in the war, Russian propagandists portrayed Ukrainian leaders as corrupt and self-serving. Russian state media claimed Ukraine’s leaders held Nazi sympathies — even though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish — or were involved in clandestine bioweapons research that Moscow sought to tie to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each false claim was used to justify Russia’s invasion.

“It’s planted by the Russians, this idea that ‘Ukraine is so corrupt it shouldn’t even be a state, and we are the right people to be running this place,’” said Rupert Smith, a retired British general and former NATO deputy supreme commander who now leads a Brussels-based consulting firm called Solvo Partners. “Now this is being used as an excuse for not supporting Ukraine.”

The fake video claiming to show Ukrainian soldiers firing on the Trump mannequin spread on platforms such as X, Telegram and YouTube, getting an early boost from pro-Kremlin news sites before migrating to ones popular with Americans, according to an analysis by researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks disinformation.

Some versions of the video were created long before the election but were passed off as more recent. Within days, the video was receiving hundreds of thousands of views and had been translated into several languages besides Russian and English, including German, Chinese and Polish, NewsGuard found.

According to U.S. intelligence, Russia sought to support Trump in the presidential election, believing he would reduce American backing for Ukraine and perhaps the NATO alliance. The incoming president has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticized U.S. military aid to Ukraine and NATO and promised to end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory now occupied by Russia.

In response to questions about Russia’s role in spreading disinformation about Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Washington referred to past statements rejecting any involvement.

In the time it has left, the Biden administration has urged Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and has stepped upweapons shipments while forgiving billions in loans provided to Kyiv. So far, the White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and expects to send billions more before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, 2025.

It’s easy to understand Russia’s motives in trying to cut off that supply of aid, said Joshua Tucker, a New York University professor and Russia expert who studies online disinformation. What’s harder to gauge, he said, is the effectiveness of Russian disinformation, especially on social media platforms already crowded with false, bizarre and debunked claims.

One reason that Russia may persist with disinformation targeting Americans is the relative ease and affordability of such operations compared with diplomatic or military alternatives.

Russia likely sees disinformation as part of a long-term effort to undermine America’s global leadership by dividing its people and undermining support for its institutions, Tucker said. Whether the topic is immigration, the government, the U.S. economy or the war in Ukraine, he said, the goal remains the same and goes beyond one election cycle or one candidate.

“I think what they were really hoping for is a contested result with lots of people out in the streets, arguing the election wasn’t legitimate,” Tucker said.

If they couldn’t have that, however, Russia’s disinformation agencies will keep pushing narratives that they believe will inflame Americans and boost their chances in Ukraine, Tucker said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Jerry Nadler announced Wednesday that he will be stepping down as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee next year, avoiding an intra-party fight over a prominent position as the party prepares to confront a second Trump presidency.

Nadler’s decision to relinquish control of the powerful committee came a day after fellow Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin announced his bid for the job and quickly amassed support from colleagues.

“I am also proud that, under my leadership, some of our caucus’s most talented rising stars have been given a platform to demonstrate their leadership and their abilities,” Nadler wrote in the letter to Democrats that was obtained by The Associated Press. “That includes Jamie Raskin, who in just a few terms in Congress has already proven himself to be an exceptional leader and spokesperson for our party’s values.”

The 77-year-old chose to step aside as the Democratic party undergoes an internal reckoning over their losses in the election, which swept Republicans into a trifecta of power in Washington. Many Democrats are eager for generational change and a new approach as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The decision by Nadler, who is serving his 17th term in Congress, reflects that generational shift. Before he made his decision Wednesday morning, Nadler spent time speaking with staff about what his next step should be. He also made a call to Raskin, which was described as cordial by a person familiar with the conversation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

“Jerry Nadler is an extraordinary lawyer, patriot and public servant,” Raskin posted on X. “His dogged defense of civil rights and civil liberties is a great inspiration to our people.”

He added, “I am honored and humbled to have his support in the battles ahead.”

Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries also reached out to Nadler, according to the same person, and offered him an emeritus status on the Judiciary committee, an honorary title that recognizes a member’s seniority and service to the chamber. Nadler said he plans to stay on the committee as a senior member and will likely take up a ranking member role on one of the various subcommittees.

But despite the cordial back-and-forth, the timeline of events that led to Raskin’s surprise bid and Nadler’s swift decision to step down damaged a close friendship between the two men.

Nadler’s staff had expected that there would likely be a challenger for the ranking member spot. And a week before Thanksgiving, they heard that Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, was making the rounds, talking to Democratic colleagues about a potential run.

Nadler, who ran the vote counting operation to successfully land Raskin the top spot on the House Oversight Committee, confronted the Maryland lawmaker, who denied he was making a play for the job, according to the same person. Raskin told him that he would soon put out a letter announcing that he would run for the Oversight post again.

Raskin’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

That letter never came and when Nadler inquired again about it days later, Raskin softened his stance, according to the person, saying that he was hearing from a lot of people that he should run.

On Saturday, reports came out of Raskin pursuing the post before he made it official with a letter to colleagues on Monday.

He wrote that the Judiciary Committee under his leadership would become “the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism” as well as other efforts by Trump and his allies to thwart the Constitution.

It was a stunning turn of events given that over the years Democrats have rarely broken from the seniority system for committee assignments, no matter how long someone has held a position, making the outcome of the race uncertain.

But being the face of the resistance against Trump is not new territory for Raskin who spent the last two years on the House Oversight committee as the most vocal defender of President Joe Biden and his family as they faced a sprawling Republican investigation — encouraged by Trump — into their various business affairs.

He also helped draft articles of impeachment against the incoming president for his encouragement of the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and led the impeachment prosecution in the Senate.

“As our country faces the return of Donald Trump, and the renewed threats to our democracy and our way of life that he represents, I am very confident that Jamie would ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we confront this growing danger,” Nadler wrote at the end of his letter.

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(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked former congressman Billy Long to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service tax body.

Trump cited Long’s previous experience in real estate and as a business and tax advisor in a post on social-media site Truth Social, where he made the announcement.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed course and selected David Warrington as his top White House lawyer, reassigning his previous choice, William McGinley, to a role working with Elon Musk’s outside government efficiency group.

Warrington, who has served as Trump’s personal counsel and a lawyer for his campaign, currently leads the political law unit at the Dhillon Law Group, where he is a partner.

“He is an esteemed lawyer and Conservative leader,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social announcing the change.

Meanwhile, McGinley, will serve as the lead lawyer for a Trump-created government efficiency board dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Trump had initially named McGinley, who served in his first presidential term as White House cabinet secretary, as his White House lawyer on Nov. 12.

Trump has indicated that the DOGE entity led by billionaire Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would operate outside the government but its planned operations remains unclear.

Musk and Ramaswamy, who both have business ties impacted by the U.S. government that could be conflicts of interest, have called for mass layoffs of government workers and billions of dollars in budget cuts.

McGinley “will play a crucial role in liberating our Economy from burdensome Regulations, excess spending, and Government waste. He will partner with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to provide advice and guidance to end the bloated Federal Bureaucracy,” Trump wrote.

Warrington has also served as a lawyer for Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser during his first White House term, and led a lawsuit for the National Association for Gun Rights over forced reset triggers.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump asked a Georgia Appeals Court on Wednesday to end the criminal case against him in that state for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Lawyers for Trump argued that his continued prosecution by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has also charged several of Trump’s allies, would violate the U.S. Constitution as he prepares to return to the White House next month.

They urged the appeals court to remove Trump from the proceedings and to order a lower court judge to dismiss the case against Trump in its entirety.

A spokesperson for Willis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal prosecutors have already dropped two criminal cases against Trump based on a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump’s sentencing on charges in New York involving hush money paid to a porn star was put on hold indefinitely following Trump’s election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump’s lawyers renewed their attempts to dismiss that prosecution on Tuesday.

In Georgia, Trump and 14 others face racketeering and other charges for allegedly forming a criminal conspiracy to reverse Trump’s narrow defeat in the battleground state in the 2020 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and has argued that the case, and others he has faced, were politically motivated attempts to damage his campaign.

Trump as president will not have the authority to end the Georgia case, but his lawyers argued that continuing to prosecute him would undermine his ability to govern.

Trump and eight of his co-defendants have asked the appeals court to disqualify Willis from prosecuting the case, arguing that a romantic relationship she had with a former deputy tainted the proceedings. The case has been paused since June because of the appeal.

Oral arguments were scheduled for Thursday, but were postponed by the court last month without explanation.

Trump’s filing applies only to his case. The other co-defendants can continue to press their appeal if Trump is removed from the case.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Republican Austin Theriault on Wednesday ended a recount in his congressional race in Maine and conceded to Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, bringing to an end the closely watched contest a month after Election Day.

Theriault decided to end the recount before its completion after early results did not show a significant change in the outcome after Golden won by 2,706 votes using the state’s ranked choice voting.

“I ran this campaign centered around putting people over politics, and it’s time to do that now,” Theriault announced, calling the contest “an extremely close and hard-fought race.”

Between ranked voting and the recount, the election was a drawn-out process.

Golden won the most first-choice votes but fell shy of a majority with less than 49% of the votes cast because about 12,000 ballots were either blank or had write-in candidates. That necessitated another voting round in which ballots were brought to Augusta, entered into a computer and reallocated with the second choices from ballots that were blank or had write-in candidates.

The Associated Press declared Golden the 2nd Congressional District winner upon conclusion of the process more than a week after Election Day. The recount began Monday.

“I’d like to thank the voters for participating in the greatest democracy the world has ever known, and all the staff and volunteers who helped ensure the election’s integrity on Election Day, during the runoff and over the course of this recount,” said Golden, who was in Washington when Theriault called to concede Wednesday.

This race drew attention and more than $50 million in spending as both parties fought to control the House of Representatives.

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who demonstrated a willingness to defy his own party, campaigned on his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans. He also touted his advocacy for the lobster industry, which is crucial to the economy in the region. But Golden was attacked for his opposition to assault weapons, which he announced after an Army reservist used an assault rifle to kill 18 people and injure 13 others in Lewiston in October 2023.

Theriault, a former NASCAR driver, had the backing of President-elect Donald Trump, but he also portrayed himself as a potential uniter during a time of division. “We need more balance and less extremism in Washington,” Theriault said previously.

It was the third time Golden won through an additional voting round under ranked voting. The system allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot and allows for additional voting rounds to ensure a majority winner. Ranked choice tabulations allowed Golden to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2018, and to win a rematch in 2022.

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This story has been corrected to show Jared Golden received the most first-place votes.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election next spring already had high stakes, with majority control on the line. But a judge’s ruling this week restoring collective bargaining rights to roughly 200,000 teachers and other public workers in the state further intensifies the contest.

The liberal-controlled court has already delivered a major win to Democrats by striking down Republican-drawn legislative maps. Pending cases backed by liberals seek to protect abortion access in the state and kneecap Republican attempts to oust the state’s nonpartisan elections leader.

Now, the court could be poised to notch another seismic win for Democrats, public teachers and government workers by restoring the collective bargaining rights they lost 13 years ago in a fight that decimated unions, sparked massive protests and emboldened Republicans who later restricted rights for private-sector unions.

Liberals gained the majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in 15 years following a 2023 election that had deep involvement from the Republican and Democratic parties, broke turnout records and shattered the national record for spending on a court race.

Abortion took center stage in that race. Now, it appears that union rights could be a major issue in the 2025 contest to replace a retiring liberal justice.

“You can make the argument that this race is more important than the race for the Legislature or the governor,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said Wednesday. “I don’t think you can understate the importance of this race to the voters, no matter which side of the political divide you are on.”

The April 1 election will pit Brad Schimel, a Republican judge who supports President-elect Donald Trump and served as Wisconsin’s attorney general from 2015 until 2019, against Susan Crawford, a liberal judge whose former law firm represented teachers in a lawsuit that sought to overturn the anti-collective bargaining law.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, then controlled by conservatives, upheld the law known as Act 10 in 2014.

Crawford’s past attempt to overturn Act 10 raises questions about whether she could rule objectively on it, Schimel said in a statement to The Associated Press. His campaign on Monday branded Crawford as a “radical” and said she would be a “pawn” of the Democratic Party if elected.

Schimel, when he was attorney general, said he would defend Act 10 and opposed having its restrictions applied to police and firefighter unions, which were exempt from the law.

Treating public safety workers differently from others makes the law unconstitutional, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled Monday. He sided with teachers and restored collective bargaining rights, a decision affecting about 200,000 workers in the state, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

The Republican-controlled Legislature promptly appealed.

Crawford’s former law firm is not involved in the current case.

Crawford didn’t directly address a question from the AP about whether she would recuse herself from any case involving Act 10. But her campaign spokesperson, Sam Roecker, said Crawford “will make a decision at that time about whether she can be fair and impartial, based on the particular facts and parties.”

Roecker said Schimel’s immediate condemnation of the court’s ruling Monday “shows he has already prejudged this case.” Schimel didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether he would recuse himself from any case involving Act 10.

The appeal of Monday’s ruling striking down Act 10 would typically first be heard by a state appeals court — a process that could take months. But the public workers who sued could ask the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, which would make it possible for a ruling before the new justice is seated in August.

Crawford has been endorsed by the state teachers union, which was gutted after Act 10 became law, as well as the Wisconsin Democratic Party and all four of the current liberal justices on the court. In addition to suing to overturn the anti-union law, Crawford also previously represented Planned Parenthood in a case to expand Wisconsin abortion access.

Christina Brey, spokesperson for the statewide teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said she couldn’t speculate about whether Crawford would hear a case challenging Act 10.

Brey said Crawford won the union’s endorsement because “we believe she is going to be the most dedicated and most impartial, constitution-believing judge to put on the Supreme Court.”

Schimel is endorsed by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, all five of the state’s Republican congressmen, the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, and a host of law enforcement agencies and officials, including 50 county sheriffs.

If Crawford wins, liberal control of the court would be locked up until at least 2028, the next time a liberal justice is up for election.

Candidates have until Jan. 1 to enter the April 1 race. The winner will serve a 10-year term.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign.

Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.

Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that the number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow.

The U.S. believes that the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said.

“We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters.

She noted that because the hack appeared to be targeting a relatively small group of individuals, only a small number of Americans’ phone calls and texts have been compromised. Neuberger added that impacted companies are all responding, but none “have fully removed the Chinese actors from these networks.”

“So there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications until U.S. companies address the cybersecurity gaps the Chinese are likely to maintain their access,” Neuberger said.

She said that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the findings and that the White House “has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance.

“The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.

The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday.

White House officials believe that the hacking was regionally targeted and the focus was on very senior government officials.

Federal authorities confirmed in October that hackers linked to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

The number of countries impacted by the hack is currently believed to be in the “low, couple dozen,” according to a senior administration official.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said they believed the hacks started at least a year or two ago.

The suggestions for telecom companies released Tuesday are largely technical in nature, urging encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to deter cyber intrusions.

If implemented, the security precautions could help disrupt the operation, which has been dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it harder for China or any other nation to mount a similar attack in the future, experts say.

Neuberger pointed to efforts that have been made to beef up cybersecurity in the rail, aviation, energy and other sectors following the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline.

“So, to prevent ongoing Salt typhoon type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply a similar minimum cybersecurity practice,” Neuberger said.

The cyberattack by a gang of criminal hackers on the critical U.S. pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, sent ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial confirmed it paid $4.4 million to the gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems as it scrambled to get the nation’s fuel pipeline back online.

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Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed reporting.

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