Politics

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republicans will have the power to block aid to Ukraine if they win back control of Congress, but they are more likely to slow or pare back the flow of defense and economic assistance than stop it, analysts said.

They might also use support for the Ukrainian war effort as leverage to force Democrats to back Republican priorities such as clamping down on immigration across the southern border with Mexico.

Democrats have been raising the possibility Republicans would curb assistance to Kyiv for months, given polls showing the party likely to end the Democrats’ narrow control of the House of Representatives, if not the Senate, in the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Europeans bearing the brunt of the war’s impact have also voiced concern.

President Joe Biden said on Thursday during a visit to Pennsylvania – a state with close congressional races – that he was worried about the Republican stance on aid to Ukraine.

There has been more Republican opposition in the House, where the caucus is more closely allied than in the Senate with former President Donald Trump and his “America First” policies. All 57 House votes against a bill providing more than $40 billion for Ukraine in May came from Republicans.

“You’ve got big pockets of the Republican party that have very kind of isolationist views,” said Scott Anderson, a governance expert at the Brookings Institution.

However, Anderson and other analysts said there remains widespread bipartisan support for Ukraine eight months after Russia’s invasion and that is unlikely to change soon, especially if Ukrainian forces continue a recent series of battlefield advances.

Anderson said some Republicans have viewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration as corrupt since Trump’s first impeachment trial.

House Democrats voted to impeach Trump in 2019 on charges he held up military aid for Kyiv to put pressure on Zelenskiy to investigate one of Biden’s sons. The issue could loom large again for Trump’s closest House allies, especially if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

“They’re a minority element (but) that doesn’t mean they won’t wield potentially outsized influence in the Republican caucus,” Anderson said.

Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, chided Republicans who have questioned supporting Ukraine, condemning what he termed “apologists” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and warning against “unprincipled populism” during a speech on Wednesday at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Conservative U.S. television personalities who wield a major influence over the Republican base have also inveighed against assistance approved for Kyiv, which totals about $66 billion so far including military, economic and humanitarian support.

“It is certainly a question that looms large over Capitol Hill at the moment,” said Brett Bruen, who was director of global engagement in President Barack Obama’s White House.

NO ‘BLANK CHECK’

Concern about a Republican-led shift in policy on Kyiv was amplified this week when Representative Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican and likely next Speaker, said there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine if Republicans take over.

“I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News. “And then there’s the things [the Biden administration] is not doing domestically. Not doing the border and people begin to weigh that.”

In an appearance on Bloomberg Television, Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said some in his party are concerned about the cost of the Ukraine effort but not the goal, and he pledged “more oversight and accountability” if Republicans win the majority.

Biden administration officials have said they will support Ukraine’s fight against Russia for as long as necessary.

Mark Cancian, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the total U.S. price tag for the Ukraine war is relatively small, given the Pentagon’s $800 billion annual budget and the importance of supporting democracy and stability in Europe.

“Many strategists – and I would put myself among them – would say this is a reasonable amount of money and it’s cost-effective,” he said, noting the price would be much higher if U.S. troops were doing the fighting.

Several defense industry executives said they viewed the Republican comments on Ukraine aid as political rhetoric ahead of the midterms, not a threat.

Shares of companies including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corp., L3Harris Technologies, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman have outperformed major stock market indexes so far this year.

Polls have Americans backing the aid. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion survey this month showed 73% of Americans felt the United States should continue to support Kyiv. There was more support among Biden’s fellow Democrats – 81% – than Republicans – 66%.

The possibility of less U.S. military assistance has prompted jitters in Ukraine itself and elsewhere in Europe.

“It’s the war of the free world, and rules-based world against the aggressor and this is exactly how we have to take it,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters this week after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“When anyone, doesn’t matter whether it’s Republican or Democrat, says that we don’t care about the rules-based world, then we can say that we stop helping Ukraine,” Pevkur said.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Mike Stone; Editing by Mary Milliken and Daniel Wallis)

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ADA, Okla. (AP) — Many of the 39 Native American tribes based in Oklahoma have played roles in state politics for decades, often behind the scenes. They became bigger, more outspoken players when voters approved Las Vegas-style gambling in 2004. The budgets of several major tribes ballooned with casino revenue.

This year, in their most forceful political move yet, they are wielding their considerable influence to oppose a second term for Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, himself a Cherokee citizen, who is facing a tough reelection challenge after feuding with the tribes for nearly his entire first term.

With the election just weeks away, five of the state’s most powerful tribes jointly endorsed Stitt’s Democratic opponent, Joy Hofmeister, the state’s public schools superintendent who has promised a more cooperative relationship with the tribal nations. It’s the first time in modern history that the tribes, which often have unique or competing interests, have weighed in on a governor’s race in such a public way.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen (the tribes) more active than they are today,” said Pat McFerron, a longtime Oklahoma GOP political consultant and pollster. “I think they might have flown under the radar a little bit more before.”

The effect is an unexpectedly tight race in a deep-red state that is typically an afterthought in national politics. Reflecting concerns about Stitt’s vulnerability, the super PAC for the Republican Governors Association released an ad late in the campaign tying Hofmeister to President Joe Biden and rising gas prices.

Stitt’s feud with the tribes began during his first year in office when he unsuccessfully attempted to renegotiate the state’s gambling compact with the tribes. His administration then sought to overturn a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on tribal sovereignty in 2020 and drew the ire of the tribes again last year when he terminated hunting and fishing compacts between the state and tribes.

“He seems to have enjoyed this fight, relishes it and points to it as a badge of honor,” McFerron said. “It’s almost like he’s taunting them.”

The animosity between Stitt and the tribes has spilled into public view as the midterm elections draw closer. Tribal leaders have publicly assailed the governor, public meetings about law enforcement in Indian Country have turned ugly and Stitt has faced an onslaught of dark-money attack ads.

“Any governor that postures and attempts dominion of tribes is detrimental to the tribes and the state,” said Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill.

Stitt, a multimillionaire mortgage company owner and political newcomer when he ran four years ago, has been dogged by scandals in his administration, including a sweetheart deal given to a barbecue restaurant owner that resulted in a criminal probe, improper spending of coronavirus relief funds intended for education and $2 million spent on malaria drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic that doctors had warned shouldn’t be used to treat the virus without more testing.

Stitt also has touted new laws outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, and targeting medical treatment for transgender children, both of which have turned away some moderate Republicans and independents.

For his part, Stitt says he hopes that if he’s elected to a second term, he will have improved relations with Native American tribes. Yet he insists that the Supreme Court ruling expanding tribal sovereignty has been detrimental to the state.

“I’ve told people I will not go down in history as the governor that gives my state away,” Stitt said. “A lot of people want to paint this as an anti-Indian thing. This is not. This is a pro-Oklahoma thing.”

In the leadup to the election, several nonprofit groups that focus on registering and engaging Native American voters say they’ve never seen this level of enthusiasm among Indian voters in statewide politics.

At a recent voter registration event at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, home of the Chickasaw Nation, a steady stream of students, many of them Native American, signed up to register to vote at an event hosted in part by Rock the Native Vote. That’s a nonprofit sponsored by the Indian Methodist Church of Oklahoma that was formed in 2002. In the parking lot were cars with tribal license plates from Cherokee, Chickasaw, Comanche, Kiowa and Otoe-Missouria tribes.

“Our goal is to get people registered, and more importantly, the Native voters within our state,” said 19-year-old Devon Rain Potter, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation who was helping run a registration booth. “Once we get Native voters to show up to the polls, we can get a lot of things done.”

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, Oklahoma has one of the highest percentages of Native American citizens at nearly 10% of the state’s population. An additional 6.6% identify as being two or more races. That’s easily enough to tip the scales in a closely contested statewide race.

And it’s not just Oklahoma where Native voters are being courted and urged to turn out. The Native Organizers Alliance is targeting Indigenous voters in states across the country, including swing states with large Native American populations like Arizona, said Judith LeBlanc, the group’s executive director.

Even in deep-red Texas, which has seen an increase in the American Indian population over the past 10 years, the group Democracy is Indigenous DFW drew dozens to a meet-and-greet with candidates, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The goal of the nonpartisan group is to increase voter engagement in the American Indian and Indigenous population in Texas.

“We are doing a wholehearted voter registration campaign,” LeBlanc said. “I believe in Oklahoma we can make a difference.”

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Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to take the stand as a witness for the defense of Tom Barrack, a onetime fundraiser for former U.S. President Donald Trump who is on trial on charges of illegally acting as a foreign agent, the judge overseeing the case said on Thursday.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Barrack, 75, used his influence with the Trump campaign and administration to push the United Arab Emirates’ interests without notifying the U.S. attorney general, as required by law.

Barrack has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have said his interactions with Middle Eastern officials were part of his role running private equity firm Colony Capital, now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc.

Before the jury entered the courtroom on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said the UAE was a “very important client” for Mnuchin, who started a private equity fund after leaving office in 2021.

Cogan said there was therefore “some indication of bias” from Mnuchin’s testimony given that the UAE would likely not want a jury to convict Barrack. He said he would nonetheless limit prosecutors’ ability to detail the “mind-boggling” amounts of money involved in Mnuchin’s dealings with the UAE.

The trial began on Sept. 19, and prosecutors rested their case earlier this week.

Mnuchin is not the first former Trump administration official to take the stand in the case. Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testified as a prosecution witness on Oct. 3, stating he was unaware of the role Barrack played in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker)

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By Sarah N. Lynch and Ned Parker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Arizona state officials have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a case of possible voter intimidation when a group of people followed a voter in Maricopa County dropping off a ballot at a drop box for the upcoming midterm elections.

A spokesperson for the Arizona secretary of state’s office, Sophia Solis, on Thursday said her office had also asked the state’s attorney general to look into the incident. The Justice Department confirmed it had received the referral, but declined further comment.

“The voter was approached and followed by a group of individuals when the voter was trying to drop off their ballot at an early voting drop box on Monday,” Solis said.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment before normal business hours.

Since his 2020 election defeat, former U.S. President Donald Trump has continually voiced false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud, though reviews by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration rejected his claims.

But the belief has taken root. Some 51% of Americans, and 71% of Republicans, say they believe that voter fraud is a widespread problem, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

Officials in at least three additional states – North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada – have reported incidents of voter intimidation this election cycle, though it is unclear if any have led to a criminal referral.

In North Carolina alone, officials noted unusually aggressive observers during May’s primary elections in 16 counties. Officials in Arizona have previously said they were aware of reports of voters being monitoring when dropping off votes.

Reuters reported earlier in October that many incidents of alleged voter intimidation are being carried out by an expanding group of thousands of grassroots poll observers, many of whom have been recruited by prominent Republican Party figures and activists, a trend that has worried elections experts and officials.

In dozens of cases throughout the country, an onslaught of intimidation and threats has pushed elections officials to resign.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Ned Parker; Writing and additional reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

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By Luc Cohen and Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators on a range of issues – from the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, to allegedly inflating the value of his properties to secure favorable loans and tax benefits.

Here is a look at some of the numerous investigations and lawsuits that Trump faces as he considers another run for the presidency in 2024.

MISSING GOVERNMENT RECORDS

The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Trump for retaining government records, including some marked as classified, after leaving office in January 2021. The FBI seized 11,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in a court-approved Aug. 8 search, including about 100 marked as classified. Some were designated top secret, the highest level of classified information.

The department began its investigation after the National Archives, the U.S. agency responsible for preserving government records, tried to get Trump to return missing government property and received 15 boxes with classified documents mixed in.

Trump has accused the Justice Department of engaging in a partisan witch hunt.

A so-called special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is reviewing the seized documents to determine whether any are protected by attorney-client privilege or by executive privilege, a legal doctrine under which a president can keep certain documents or information secret.

The Justice Department is also asking a federal appeals court to end that review and to let them access unclassified materials taken in the search, arguing that both measures are hindering their criminal investigation.

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL SUIT

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a civil lawsuit filed last month that her office uncovered more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations by Trump and the Trump Organization between 2011 and 2021. James accused Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to satisfy loan terms and get better insurance coverage.

James is seeking to permanently bar Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump from running companies in New York state, and to prevent them and his company from buying new properties and taking out new loans in the state for five years. James is also seeking to have the defendants disgorge around $250 million that she described as obtained through fraud.

After James announced the lawsuit, Trump in a social media post called the action “Another Witch Hunt.” A lawyer for Trump called the lawsuit’s claims “meritless.”

James said her probe also uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing, which she referred to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service for investigation.

NEW YORK CRIMINAL PROBE

The Trump Organization is set to go on trial on Oct. 24 on New York state criminal tax fraud charges. Its former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, also named as a defendant in the James lawsuit, has pleaded guilty and is required to testify against the company as part of his agreement with prosecutors.

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has also been investigating whether Trump misled lenders and others about asset valuations. Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the probe politically motivated.

DEFAMATION CASE

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York City department store. Trump accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.

Trump appeared on Wednesday for a deposition in the case, according to his and Carroll’s lawyers.

In a letter made public on Sept. 20, a lawyer for Carroll said she also plans to sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under a new state law in New York giving adult accusers a one-year window to bring civil claims over alleged civil misconduct regardless of when it occurred.

A lawyer for Trump has argued that he is protected by a federal law that makes government employees immune from defamation claims. Trump was president at the time the lawsuit was filed.

The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last month that Trump was a federal employee when he called Carroll a liar, but left open the question of whether he was acting as president when he made the statement to a Washington, D.C., appeals court.

U.S. CAPITOL ATTACK

A House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol is investigating whether he broke the law in actions taken to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat. The rioters sought to block Congress from certifying the election results.

The committee unanimously voted last week to subpoena Trump as part of its probe. Trump could face a misdemeanor charge if he does not comply. The former president could also challenge it in court, as he has done with other subpoenas, which would likely tie the matter up in litigation until the committee concludes its work.

Committee vice chair Liz Cheney has said the committee could make multiple referrals to the Justice Department seeking criminal charges against Trump, who has accused the panel of conducting a politically motivated sham investigation.

The committee cannot charge Trump with federal crimes. That decision must be made by the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The panel is expected to issue a written report on its findings in the coming weeks.

GEORGIA ELECTION TAMPERING PROBE

A special grand jury was selected in May to consider evidence in a Georgia prosecutor’s inquiry into Trump’s alleged efforts to influence that state’s 2020 election results.

The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021. Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss.

Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

Trump could argue he was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech.

A California federal judge said on Wednesday in a separate lawsuit that Trump had knowingly made false voter fraud claims in a Georgia election lawsuit, according to emails the judge reviewed.

It is not immediately clear what ramifications Trump could face from the ruling.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin, Will Dunham and Daniel Wallis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Britain are enduring allies and their strong bond will last, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday after British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation.

“The United States and the United Kingdom are strong Allies and enduring friends — and that fact will never change. I thank Prime Minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. We will continue our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face,” Biden said in a statement.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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By Nandita Bose, Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to sell off the rest of his release from the nation’s emergency oil reserve by year’s end and begin refilling the stockpile as he tries to dampen high gasoline prices ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 8.

Biden is seeking to add enough supply to prevent near-term oil price spikes that could punish Americans, and assure U.S. drillers that the government will enter the market as a buyer if prices plunge too low.

He said 15 million barrels of oil will be offered from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) – part of a record 180 million-barrel release that began in May, and added the United States is ready to tap reserves again early next year to rein in prices.

“We’re calling it a ready and release plan,” Biden said at a White House event. “This allows us to move quickly to prevent oil price spikes and respond to international events.”

Biden’s use of the federal government’s reserve to manage oil price spikes and attempts to increase U.S. production underscore how the Ukraine crisis and inflation have changed the policies of a president who came into office vowing to cut U.S. dependence on the fossil fuel industry.

The White House had an added sense of urgency after the Saudi Arabia-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rankled Biden by siding with Russia and agreeing to a production cut, prompting the president to declare that the U.S.-Saudi relationship needs a revaluation.

“With my announcement today, we’re going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the prices at a time when the actions of other countries have caused such volatility,” Biden said.

Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for higher crude and gasoline prices, while noting prices had fallen 30% from their peak earlier this year.

He also repeated a plea to U.S. energy companies, gasoline retailers and refiners, asking them to stop using record-breaking profits to buy back stock, and to invest in production instead.

Prices “are not falling fast enough,” he said.

“Families are hurting,” and gasoline prices are squeezing their budgets, he added.

The president, facing criticism from Republicans who charge he is tapping the SPR for political reasons and not because there is an emergency, also said he would refill the nation’s stockpiles in the upcoming years.

He said his aim would be to replenish stocks when U.S. crude is around $70 a barrel, a level he said would still allow companies to profit while being a good deal for taxpayers. The U.S. benchmark was around $85 on Wednesday. [O/R]

The SPR, which is now at its lowest levels since 1984, is more than half full with more than 400 million barrels of oil, Biden said, “more than enough for any emergency drawdown.”

The administration’s plan was to end the sale of the 180 million barrels in November. However, purchases by companies, including Marathon Petroleum Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Valero Energy Corp, were slower than expected over the summer and some 15 million barrels remained unsold.

Those will be put up for bidding for delivery in December, a senior administration official said.

GRAPHIC: The gap between retail and wholesale gasoline prices https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/GASPRICES/lbvgnbmyqpq/chart.png

PUSHING ENERGY COMPANIES TO DO MORE

U.S. presidents have little control over petroleum prices, but the country’s massive gasoline consumption – the highest in the world – means high prices at the pump can be political poison. Retail gasoline prices have fallen from a high in June, but remain above historical averages, and are a major contributor to inflation.

The gap between wholesale and retail prices has grown, too, spurring White House warnings against price-gouging.

Biden said oil companies should feel more confident about investing in production with the new SPR repurchase pledge, and stop pushing stock buybacks.

“So my message to all companies is this: You’re sitting on record profits and we’re giving you more certainty. So you can act now to increase oil production,” he said.

Companies “should not be using your profits to buy back stock or for dividends. Not now, not while a war is raging,” he said, asking them to bring down prices they charge at the pump.

In recent weeks, the oil industry has grown increasingly concerned the administration might take the drastic step of banning or limiting exports of gasoline or diesel to help build back sagging U.S. inventories. They have called on the administration to take the option off the table, a move officials are unwilling to do.

“We are keeping all tools on the table, you know, anything that could potentially help ensure stable domestic supply,” the official said.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland, additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Heather Timmons, Lisa Shumaker and Marguerita Choy)

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump was deposed on Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit brought in New York by writer E. Jean Carroll after he denied her allegations that he had raped her, lawyers for both sides said in separate statements.

The deposition came a week after a federal judge denied Trump’s bid to postpone the proceeding, rejecting his contention in legal filings that subjecting the former president to questioning under oath in the lawsuit would impose an “undue burden.”

“We’re pleased that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump’s deposition today,” her spokesperson said in a statement, declining to provide further details.

An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, issued a separate statement later in the day confirming the deposition, saying: “As we have said all along, my client was pleased to set the record straight today.”

Habba added: “This case is nothing more than a political ploy like many others in the long list of witch hunts against Donald Trump.” .

Carroll, 78, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, sued Trump in Manhattan federal court in November 2019, five months after he denied raping her in the mid-1990s. In denying the allegations, Trump said at the time that Carroll was “not my type.”

Trump, 76, has accused Carroll of making up the original accusation and said the courts should have thrown out the lawsuit. Habba has previously called the case “entirely without merit.”

In seeking to delay the deposition, Trump had argued that the case should be put on hold while a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., decides whether he was acting in his official capacity as president when he called Carroll a liar.

His lawyers have argued that Trump was shielded from Carroll’s lawsuit by a federal law providing immunity to government employees from defamation claims.

Carroll has said she also plans to sue Trump on Nov. 24 for battery and inflicting emotional distress.

On that date, a recently enacted New York state law gives victims a one-year window to sue over alleged sexual misconduct even if the statute of limitations has expired.

Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in late 1995 or early 1996 in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. Trump has accused her of concocting the rape claim to sell her book.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Will Dunham, Bill Berkrot and Gerry Doyle)

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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A former legislator told an Oregon House committee Wednesday that he was bullied by then-House Speaker Tina Kotek, the Democratic candidate for governor, to the point that he suffers from PTSD.

The hearing, held remotely via video, was emotional, with another former legislator testifying that the complainant, former Rep. Diego Hernandez, tried to kill himself recently.

“He called me,” former Rep. Brian Clem said haltingly as he tried to compose himself. “I went to his home. This is about a month ago. He had a broken belt. Luckily, the belt broke or he wouldn’t be here.”

The drama comes as Kotek, a Portland progressive who was the longest-serving speaker of the House in Oregon history, is in a tight race for governor against Republican nominee Christine Drazan. The race is tighter this year in this blue state because unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson, a former veteran Democratic lawmaker, is also on the ballot.

Kotek, for her part, accused Hernandez of deflecting.

“Rep. Hernandez made this unfounded complaint a few days after an independent investigator concluded that he created a hostile work environment for women at the Oregon State Capitol,” Kotek wrote to the committee.

Hernandez, once considered a young, rising political star, filed a complaint against Kotek in early 2021, alleging that she created a hostile work environment for him during the 2019 legislative session. But an independent investigation carried out by a private lawyer hired by the Legislature exonerated Kotek.

“The evidence is insufficient to substantiate Hernandez’s complaint,” investigator Melissa Healy, a lawyer with a Portland firm, wrote in her draft report.

In an Oct. 3 message to the committee, Kotek said the report “is long overdue, but I’m satisfied by the clear conclusion that these were baseless accusations.”

Hernandez told the committee that Kotek had angrily threatened his bill to provide drivers licenses to Oregonians who arrived in the U.S. illegally unless he supported another bill to cut retirement benefits for the state’s public employees — a measure that eventually passed by the narrowest margin.

“I think out of all the messed up things the speaker said and did, the one that crossed the line is when she threatened to ruin my political career, that she’s going to make sure I lose my next election. She said this in rage,” Hernandez said. He said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I’m still recovering from PTSD and other traumas from my legislative experience with Tina,” Hernandez said. “To say her bullying and racism destroyed my soul is an understatement.”

He accused Healy, through her report, of attempting to normalize behavior in which legislative leaders would be allowed to use bullying, threats, intimidation, yelling and outbursts to achieve their goals.

According to Statehouse rules, the investigation of Hernandez’s complaint was supposed to have been completed within 84 days, but it took more than a year.

Clem, who like Hernandez is a Democrat, said he had pleaded with Healy to complete her investigation months ago because he didn’t want it to affect the elections.

Hernandez, who represented working-class neighborhoods of east Portland, announced in February 2021 that he was resigning, days before the House was scheduled to vote on whether to expel him. A panel of lawmakers had determined he created a hostile work environment for three women.

In her letter, Kotek said Hernandez’s complaint against her “was a blatant attempt to distract people from his own harmful behavior.”

She asked the committee to affirm the independent investigator’s findings.

After the hearing Wednesday, Kotek’s campaign declined to comment further to reporters.

The House Committee on Conduct must schedule another meeting to decide whether to accept Healy’s report, or consider taking action against Kotek.

Clem said he was nervous about testifying because he feared retribution. He testified from South Korea, where he said he was working on a project that could create thousands of jobs in Oregon, referring to plans for building a shipping container terminal at the port of Coos Bay, where Clem was raised.

“That project has to be permitted by the next governor,” Clem said. “I don’t want my participation (in the investigation of Kotek) to harm that project.”

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By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – A U.S. grand jury has indicted a jailed Pennsylvania man for threatening to kill the chair of the congressional committee investigating the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Robert Vargo, 25, of Berwick, Pennsylvania, also threatened to kill the committee chair’s family and President Joe Biden, prosecutors said.

He was charged with threatening the president of the United States, threat by interstate communications, and influencing a federal official by threat, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a statement.

Reuters could not immediately identify the lawyer representing Vargo in order to seek a comment in his defense.

Vargo, who once escaped from the Pennsylvania jail where he is being held, could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the federal charges.

Prosecutors allege Vargo sent a threatening letter and white powder to the congressional office of U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee that is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The letter, which referenced the congressional probe and anthrax, also threatened U.S. District Court Judge Robert Mariani, according to prosecutors.

“I’m going to kill you! I will make you feel the rest of our pain & suffering,” the letter to Thompson said. “There is nowhere or nobody who can keep you from me. I am going to kill you & those you love.”

The letter also says, “You & Joe Biden soon will face death for the wrongs you’ve done to US.”

U.S. Capitol Police who investigated the threat found the white powder to be harmless.

Vargo sent the letter from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, prosecutors said.

Vargo had escaped from the Pennsylvania jail in July and was caught several days later in South Carolina, according to media reports at the time that cited Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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