Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department has approved a potential $1.1 billion sale of military equipment to Taiwan, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, the Pentagon said on Friday, amid heightened tensions with China.

The package was announced in the wake of China’s aggressive military drills around Taiwan following a visit to the island last month by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to Taipei in years.

The sale includes Sidewinder missiles, which can be used for air-to-air and surface-attack missions, at a cost of some $85.6 million, Harpoon anti-ship missiles at an estimated $355 million cost and support for Taiwan’s surveillance radar program for an estimated $665.4 million, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said.

The principal contractor for the Harpoon missiles is Boeing Co. Raytheon is the principal contractor for both the Sidewinders and the radar program.

President Joe Biden’s administration said the package has been under consideration for some time and was developed in consultation with Taiwan and U.S. lawmakers.

“As the PRC continues to increase pressure on Taiwan – including through heightened military air and maritime presence around Taiwan – and engages in attempts to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, we’re providing Taiwan with what it needs to maintain its self-defense capabilities,” Laura Rosenberger, White House senior director for China and Taiwan, said in a statement.

Reuters reported last month that the Biden administration was planning new equipment for Taiwan but that the equipment would sustain Taiwan’s current military systems and fulfill existing orders, not offer new capabilities, despite the heightened tensions that followed Pelosi’s visit.

The Pentagon said the equipment and support announced on Friday would not alter the basic military balance in the region. U.S. officials said they did not reflect any change in policy toward Taiwan.

“These proposed sales are routine cases to support Taiwan’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson said, requesting anonymity.

Taiwan’s defense ministry expressed its thanks, adding that China’s recent “provocative” activities represented a serious threat and the arms sale would help it face China’s military pressure.

“At the same time, it also demonstrates that it will help our country strengthen its overall defense capabilities and jointly maintain the security and peace of the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region,” the ministry said in a statement.

Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, said his organization opposed what he termed a “limited approach” to arms sales to Taiwan.

“As the (China’s) People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently demonstrated in its mock blockade, the island faces a range of threats that require a range of capabilities. To deny the island the ability to mount a full defense will, over time, create new gaps in Taiwan’s defenses that the PLA can exploit,” Hammond-Chambers said in a statement.

The order reflects continued U.S. support for Taiwan as Taipei faces pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and has never ruled out using force to bring the democratically ruled island under its control.

The sales must be reviewed by Congress, but both Democratic and Republican congressional aides said they do not expect opposition. There have been at least two other visits to Taiwan by members of Congress from both parties since Pelosi’s visit, as well as by governors of U.S. states, all condemned by Beijing.

Taipei says that as the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island, it has no right to claim it.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Michael Martina; additional reporting by Rami Ayyub, Steve Holland and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Writing by Caitlin Webber, Editing by Mark Porter, Sandra Maler and Lisa Shumaker)

source

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s State Board of Elections will not fight a recent decision by the state rules panel blocking its proposed restrictions on party-appointed poll watchers this fall. But the board pledged Friday to do all it can to help county elections officials maintain a safe and orderly voting environment and to deter any voter intimidation.

The state’s Rules Review Commission — a 10-member panel appointed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly — shot down two temporary rule changes last week that would have more clearly outlined the code of conduct for partisan election observers. The elections board said more than a dozen reported conduct violations during the May primaries prompted the proposed changes.

Comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans, the board had unanimously approved the temporary rule changes — one prohibiting poll watchers from standing too close to voting machines or pollbooks where they could view marked ballots, and another granting elections officials the authority to remove disruptive observers who try to enter restricted areas or harass voters.

Although the state elections board could have appealed the commission’s decision in court or resubmitted a revised proposal, Chairman Damon Circosta said Friday it will instead offer guidance to county boards of elections and county poll workers to ensure they understand their authority.

Seventy days out from Election Day in a narrowly divided state, Circosta said the board does not “have the luxury of time to go back and forth with the commission or the courts to ensure that our reasonable rules are put in place before voting begins.”

“The Rules Review Commission lacks the expertise and the authority to determine how to best maintain order at the polls,” Circosta said. “It is our duty to the voting public to protect their right to vote, and it will be protected.”

The board’s decision comes as North Carolina is gearing up for several tight races, including a high-profile U.S. Senate contest, two state supreme court races and several crucial state legislative elections that will determine whether Republicans gain the few seats they need to override the Democratic governor’s veto.

State law allows political parties to appoint precinct-specific and at-large poll watchers to monitor election proceedings from designated areas inside the voting facility on Election Day and during one-stop early voting. Observers can report concerns to a precinct manager but are prohibited from interacting with voters, distributing information or interfering with the duties of poll workers.

North Carolina Republicans, including some with close ties to former President Donald Trump, have been leaders in opposing the proposed rule changes since July, arguing that tighter restrictions for poll watchers could undermine the integrity of elections in a crucial swing state. The Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party also wrote to the rules commission urging it to reject the changes.

Trump’s debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election results were fraudulent have prompted thousands of his supporters to scrutinize elections operations nationwide, popularizing the poll-watching practice and leading several states to reevaluate their existing rules.

Paul Cox, associate legal counsel to the elections board, said the state’s existing guidelines for election observers “are not models of clarity,” which had motivated the board’s bipartisan collaboration.

___

Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter @H_Schoenbaum.

source

By Jeff Mason and Valerie Volcovici

(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden revamped his climate change team on Friday, announcing that longtime political operative and climate advocate John Podesta would join the White House and Ali Zaidi would take over for Gina McCarthy as domestic climate adviser.

Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and counselor to President Barack Obama, will take on a role implementing the energy and climate parts of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

Zaidi, who served as deputy to McCarthy, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, was promoted to become Biden’s top national climate aide. McCarthy steps down on Sept. 16.

“Under Gina McCarthy and Ali Zaidi’s leadership, my administration has taken the most aggressive action ever, from historic legislation to bold executive actions, to confront the climate crisis head-on,” Biden said in a statement.

Podesta’s climate and government background, Biden said, “mean we can truly hit the ground running to take advantage of the massive clean energy opportunity in front of us.”

Biden, a Democrat, campaigned on making climate change a top policy priority. The issue is especially important to young voters in his politically left-leaning base.

McCarthy, 68, led the charge in implementing Biden’s pledge throughout the federal government.

Her departure comes just weeks after Congress passed a $430 billion package of policies aimed at combating climate change that Biden signed into law in August after months of uncertainty and roller-coaster negotiations. Securing the legislation was a key victory for the president ahead of congressional elections in November.

Zaidi said even with the law in place there was work to be done to meet Biden’s goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

“We’re not going to get there on autopilot, it’s going to take real sweat and pushing,” he told Reuters, noting the law had created certainty for business. “This is the first time that we have certainty around … the investment environment for clean energy technologies, manufacturing and employment over the next decade.”

Zaidi worked in the Obama administration for years and later served as deputy secretary for energy and environment and chair of climate policy and finance for New York state. He has been a key player, with McCarthy, in formulating and advancing Biden’s climate goals.

Under McCarthy’s leadership as Obama’s EPA administrator, the agency devised the Clean Power Plan aimed at slashing emissions from power plants, which was later struck down by courts.

She briefly served as the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council environmental group before being tapped to join Biden’s White House.

McCarthy has been the U.S.-focused counterpart to former Secretary of State John Kerry, who Biden appointed as his special international envoy on climate change.

The New York Times first reported that McCarthy’s last day would be Sept. 16. Reuters was first to report in April that she planned to step down.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Josie Kao)

source

By Sarah N. Lynch and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs during its Aug. 8 search at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, as well as 48 empty folders labeled as “classified,” according to court records that were unsealed on Friday.

The unsealing by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in West Palm Beach came one day after she heard oral arguments by Trump’s attorneys and the Justice Department’s top two counterintelligence prosecutors over whether she should appoint a special master to conduct a privilege review of the seized materials at Trump’s request.

Cannon deferred ruling immediately on whether to appoint a special master but said she would agree to unseal two records filed by the Justice Department.

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who was appointed by Trump, questioned the usefulness of such an appointment.

“I think at this stage, since they’ve (FBI) already gone through the documents I think it’s a waste of time” to have a special master, Barr said in an interview on Fox News.

Barr, who left the post in late December 2020, defied Trump by not backing his false claims that the presidential election that year had been stolen from him.

In the interview, Barr added that he saw no “legitimate reason” for Trump having documents at his Florida estate if they were classified.

He added, “I frankly am skeptical of this claim (by Trump) that ‘I declassified everything.’ Because frankly I think it’s highly improbable and second, if he sort of stood over scores of boxes not really knowing what was in them and said ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse, show such recklessness that it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”

One of the records https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.39.1_1.pdf, released on Friday, provides a little more detail about the 33 boxes and other items the FBI found inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into whether he illegally retained national defense information and tried to obstruct the probe.

It shows that documents with classification markings were at times co-mingled with other items such as books, magazines and newspaper clippings.

Also found were unspecified gifts and clothing items.

Of the more than 11,000 government records and photos, 18 were labeled as “top secret,” 54 were labeled “secret” and 31 were labeled “confidential,” according to a Reuters tally of the government’s inventory.

“Top secret” is the highest classification level, reserved for the country’s most closely held secrets.

There were also 90 empty folders, 48 of which were marked “classified,” while others indicated that they should be returned to staff secretary/military aide.

It is not clear why the folders were empty, or whether any records could be missing.

The other record https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.39.0_2.pdf that was unsealed is a three-page filing by the Justice Department updating the court about the status of its investigative team’s review of the documents seized.

That filing, dated Aug. 30, said investigators had completed a preliminary review of the materials seized and will investigate further and interview more witnesses.

The Justice Department’s criminal investigation could be potentially put on pause if Cannon agrees to appoint a special master to come in and conduct an independent third-party review of the seized records.

However, Cannon signaled at Thursday’s hearing she might be willing to permit U.S. intelligence officials to continue reviewing the materials as part of their national security damage assessment, even if a special master is appointed.

The Justice Department has previously said in court filings it has evidence that classified documents were deliberately concealed from the FBI when it tried to retrieve them from Trump’s home in June.

The Justice Department also opposes the appointment of a special master, saying the records in question do not belong to Trump and that he cannot claim they are covered by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that can be used to shield some presidential communications.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jason Lange; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Richard Cowan and Lisa Shumaker)

source

ATLANTA (AP) — After the 2020 election, a Georgia poll worker who was falsely accused of voting fraud by former President Donald Trump was pressured and threatened with imprisonment during a meeting arranged with the help of an ally of the Trump campaign, a prosecutor said in a court filing Friday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating whether Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia. As part of the probe, Willis filed court documents on Friday seeking testimony from Willie Lewis Floyd, a director of Black Voices for Trump, a group aimed at increasing the former president’s support among Black voters.

In December 2021, Floyd was asked to arrange a meeting to discuss an “immunity deal” with Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker whom Trump and his allies falsely accused of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase, according to Willis.

Willis said Floyd arranged for Trevian Kutti — whom Willis described as a “purported publicist” based in Chicago — to meet with Freeman. The prosecutor has previously sought Kutti’s testimony.

Kutti told Freeman that “an armed squad” of federal officers would approach her and her family within 48 hours and that Kutti had access to “very high-profile people that can make particular things happen in order to defend yourself and your family,” according to Willis’ court filing.

The district attorney cited video footage as evidence of those statements.

Kutti did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment Friday. A message to Floyd’s Instagram account was also not immediately returned.

Freeman and Kutti met at the Cobb County Police Department, where Kutti told Freeman that “freedom and the freedom of one or more of your family members” would be disrupted if Freeman declined her assistance. Kutti said Freeman was “a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up,” according to Willis.

The meeting was captured in part by a body camera, Willis said.

Kutti also said she wanted to connect Freeman to Floyd, whom she described as a “Black progressive crisis manager, very high level, with authoritative powers to get you protection that you need,” Willis said.

During a subsequent phone call with Kutti and Floyd, Freeman was pressured to reveal information under threat of imprisonment, Willis said.

Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, appeared in June before the House Jan. 6 committee and have told lawmakers how the lies about election fraud upended their lives. Moss was also a poll worker in Fulton County.

Willis has sought testimony from numerous witnesses with ties to Trump as part of her investigation, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. Giuliani, who’s been told he’s a target of the investigation, testified before the special grand jury last month. A federal judge on Thursday ruled that constitutional protections don’t shield Graham from testifying.

Trump has blamed voter fraud for his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. State officials and federal investigators, including Trump’s own attorney general, have said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 contest.

___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

source

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury on Friday issued a formal response to a Republican lawmaker who has been requesting financial “suspicious activity reports” on President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, saying that it would consider only official requests from relevant congressional committees.

Democrats control Congress and its committees, making such a request from Republicans virtually impossible, though mid-term congressional elections could shift control. The request to Treasury referenced the Bank Secrecy Act which is intended to help prevent money laundering.

Representative James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has accused the Treasury of changing rules to shield Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign companies.

Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress made Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine a line of attack against the elder Biden during the 2020 election campaign. Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing.

In July, Comer said that Treasury officials told the committee’s Republican staff that the department would not provide access to the suspicious activity reports unless Democrats join the request.

Suspicious activity reports are filed by financial institutions when clients make large cash transactions or transfers above $5,000 that could signal money laundering or other offenses, although many such transactions are legitimate.

In a letter to Comer seen by Reuters, the Treasury said such reports are normally kept confidential, but that it complies with current statutes and regulations on providing requested information to Congress. Such access would require written requests from committees, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has the final say.

The House Oversight Committee is controlled by Democrats.

“Under the current regulation, the Secretary may make BSA information available to ‘Congress, or any committee or

subcommittee thereof, upon a written request stating the particular information desired, the criminal, tax or regulatory purpose for which the information is sought, and the official need for the information,’” the Treasury wrote. “These decisions are entrusted to the Secretary’s discretion.”

Treasury said a requesting committee should provide a detailed statement of purpose for seeking the information to ensure that it meets Bank Secrecy Act purposes and protecting law enforcement investigations.

The requirement for a committee request would effectively shut down Comer’s demands for reports involving Hunter Biden because Democrats now control the House of Representatives and its committees. They have refused to aid Republicans seeking to dig up information that would be potentially damaging to the president and Democratic candidates.

But the tide could shift if Republicans win House control in November, enabling the House Oversight Committee leaders to make a formal request for suspicious activity reports involving Hunter Biden, a move that could lay the groundwork for a probe into his finances.

The Treasury said that when it approves requests for Bank Secrecy Act information to any authorized party, it is provided only in secure reading rooms that are meant to keep the information confidential.

(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is seeking information from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about his communications with senior advisers to then-President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote in a letter sent to Gingrich on Thursday that the panel has obtained emails Gingrich exchanged with Trump’s associates about television advertisements that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and were designed to cast doubt on the voting after it had already taken place.

Thompson wrote that Gingrich also appeared to be involved in Trump’s scheme to appoint fake electors and emailed Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, about those efforts on the evening of Jan. 6, after Trump supporters had attacked the Capitol.

“Information obtained by the Select Committee suggests that you provided detailed directives about the television advertisements that perpetuated false claims about fraud in the 2020 election, that you sought ways to expand the reach of this messaging, and that you were likely in direct conversations with President Trump about these efforts,” Thompson wrote to Gingrich.

The request for Gingrich to cooperate voluntarily comes as the committee has been quietly continuing its investigation and preparing for a new set of hearings next month. Lawmakers and staff have been interviewing witnesses and compiling a final report in recent weeks after a series of hearings in June and July shed new light on Trump’s actions before and after the deadly rioting — and his lack of a response as the violence was underway at the Capitol.

If he cooperates, Gingrich would be one of more than 1,000 witnesses interviewed by the committee, including dozens of Trump allies. The committee’s eight hearings this summer featured not only live witness testimony but also clips of video interviews with some of the former president’s closest aides, Cabinet secretaries and even family members. The panel is expected to resume the hearings in September, ahead of the midterm elections.

In the letter to Gingrich, Thompson said the former Georgia lawmaker exchanged emails with top Trump aides in which he provided “detailed input” into the television advertisements that encouraged members of the public to contact state officials and pressure them to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden. “To that end, these advertisements were intentionally aired in the days leading up to December 14, 2020, the day electors from each state met to cast their votes for president and vice president,” Thompson wrote.

That came as Georgia election officials were facing intimidation and threats of violence.

In an Dec. 8, 2020, email to the White House aides, according to the committee, Gingrich wrote: “The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before. … If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger, they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.”

The panel also cited a Nov. 12, 2020, email from Gingrich, just days after the election, to Meadows and then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone: “Is someone in charge of coordinating all the electors? … the contested electors must meet on (D)ecember 14 and send in ballots to force contests which the house would have to settle.”

On the evening of Jan. 6, Gingrich wrote Meadows at 10:42 p.m., after the Capitol had been cleared and after Congress had resumed certifying Biden’s win. He asked about letters from state legislators concerning “decertifying electors,” the committee says.

“Surprisingly, the attack on Congress and the activities prescribed by the Constitution did not even pause your relentless pursuit,” Thompson wrote.

source

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Bernadette Demientieff said she cried when she learned of Democrat Mary Peltola’s win in Alaska’s U.S. House special election, making Peltola the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress.

“I feel a little bit of relief knowing that somebody will be down there that can really relate and understand what it is to be Alaskan, to be an Alaska Native and to have that connection to our homeland,” said Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. The indigenous Gwich’in have fought for years against efforts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she hopes to lay out their concerns with Peltola.

Peltola, 49, who is Yup’ik, is set to serve the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Don Young’s term, which ends in January.

Young, who died in March, held the seat for 49 years. Zack Brown, a former spokesperson in Young’s office, said that “many staffers over the years heard the Congressman express that he’d like to see the seat one day held by an Alaska Native woman.”

But even as Peltola celebrated Wednesday, when results of the Aug. 16 ranked choice special election were released, she was looking toward November, when she will once again face Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, her competitors in the special election. The November general election will decide who wins a full two-year term.

Peltola sought to stay above the fray during a campaign in which Begich cast Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a former governor, as unserious and chasing fame.

Palin, who touted widespread name recognition and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, questioned Begich’s Republican credentials and issued perhaps her strongest rebuke of him Thursday, saying “Negative Nick” had divided Republicans with his “dirty campaigning” and should drop out of the race. Begich comes from a family of prominent Democrats but has said he’s a lifelong Republican.

This was the first statewide ranked voting election in Alaska. Supporters of ranked voting say it encourages candidates to run positive campaigns to earn support from beyond their traditional bases. Scott Kendall, who helped write the ballot measure passed by voters in 2020 that scrapped party primaries and instituted ranked voting in general elections, said Begich “ran a clinic on how to perform poorly in a ranked choice election.”

“He was negative,” he said. “And what do you know? When you tell your supporters that the other Republican is worthless, maybe they believe you.”

Begich finished third in first choice votes, meaning he was eliminated. Voters who ranked him first had their votes count for their next choice. Of the Begich voters who ranked a second candidate, about 36% chose Peltola and 64% chose Palin, according to preliminary figures.

Peltola said she is “very excited to work for Alaskans” over the next few months but also “very committed to staying focused to the campaign for the two-year seat and really focused on November.”

She acknowledged the historic nature of her win, which Peltola said Wednesday was “still sinking in,” but said she is “much more than just my ethnicity or gender.” Peltola also will be the first woman to hold Alaska’s House seat.

Alaska is a diverse state, she noted, and “we really need to be focused on all working together to overcome our challenges.”

Peltola served five terms in the Alaska House, ending in 2009, and most recently worked for a commission aimed at rebuilding salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River. Her time in the Legislature overlapped with Palin’s time as governor and the two have been cordial.

Peltola said she began fishing as a child with her father. The self-described salmon advocate said she was motivated to run for the U.S. House by environmental issues facing Alaska and wanted to draw attention to issues of ocean productivity and food insecurity. She has raised concerns over low salmon runs.

With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June, Peltola has said she wanted to be “an advocate for safe and legal abortions.”

Peltola said any additional leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “should proceed as long as there is support by the people that live there and protections in place for our natural resources, including the caribou.”

Joe Nelson, board chairman at Sealaska, an Alaska Native corporation, said Peltola understands the importance of a subsistence way of life — living off the land and harvesting fish, berries and wildlife. Sealaska had encouraged voters to support Peltola and on Wednesday lauded her win as a “historic moment.”

Nelson, who is also Peltola’s ex-husband, said having an Alaska Native in Congress is “long overdue” and said more Native voices in leadership roles are needed.

Andrew Halcro, a Republican, said he ranked Peltola first in the special election and Republican write-in candidate Tara Sweeney second. Halcro and Peltola served in the state Legislature together, he from Anchorage and Peltola from the rural hub community of Bethel. He said he was a “know-nothing guy” who made some “unfortunate comments” around a program that provides economic assistance to communities where electricity costs can be far higher than in more urban areas.

He said this was at a time when the “urban/rural divide was raging” in the Legislature and that Peltola came to his office saying, “Hey, if you’re interested, I’d be happy to educate you on this.”

Peltola “was really one of the rural lawmakers in my freshman year that really changed my outlook on rural Alaska and really helped me get educated on the challenges that they face,” he said.

Supporters of Peltola say she has a knack for connecting with people. Peltola said one thing she’s learned during the campaign that she hopes to build on is “how much we all need positivity and hope and inspiration.”

Beth Kerttula, a Democrat who served in the Legislature with Peltola, said Peltola’s victory is not a “fluke.”

“Sometimes it’s the right person in the right place at the right time, and that’s Mary,” she said, calling Peltola a gifted speaker and coalition builder who “just shines.”

“If you didn’t know who she was, then it’s like, wow, look at that,” she said of Peltola’s win. “But that was no mistake. People believed in Mary.”

___

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

source

By Francisco Alvarado and Sarah N. Lynch

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday appeared sympathetic to former President Donald Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review the documents the FBI seized from his home in August, though she declined to issue a ruling immediately on the matter.

At a hearing in West Palm Beach, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon pressed the Justice Department on why it opposes the appointment of a special master – an independent third party sometimes appointed by a court in sensitive cases to review materials potentially covered by attorney-client privilege to ensure investigators do not improperly view them.

“Ultimately, what is the harm of appointing a special master to review these materials?” asked Cannon, a Trump appointee. “What I’m wondering from the government – what is the harm beyond delaying the investigation?”

She also suggested that she could feasibly carve out an exception which would permit U.S. intelligence officials to continue conducting their national security damage assessment pending the appointment of the special master before the criminal probe can continue.

“Would your position change if the special master were allowed to proceed without affecting the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] review for intelligence purposes, but pausing any use of the documents in a criminal investigation?” she asked federal prosecutors.

“It would not change,” said Julie Edelstein, the department’s deputy head of counterintelligence. “There is no role for the special master.”

Thursday’s hearing came less than two days after prosecutors laid out fresh details about their ongoing criminal investigation into whether Trump illegally retained government records and sought to obstruct the government’s probe by concealing some of them from the FBI.

In their filing, prosecutors revealed that Trump’s representatives falsely certified that a thorough search had been conducted and all government records had been returned to the government.

The certification was made on June 3, when three FBI agents and a top Justice Department official traveled to Mar-a-Lago following the issuance of a grand jury subpoena to retrieve all remaining records.

During that visit, prosecutors said Trump’s lawyers never claimed he had declassified any of the materials, and they handed over 38 pages marked as classified inside a double-taped envelope.

However, his attorney at the same time also prohibited government investigators from opening or looking inside some of the boxes that Trump kept inside one of his storage rooms, they said.

The department ultimately decided to seek court approval for a search warrant, after the FBI developed evidence of possible obstruction.

“The government developed evidence that a search limited to the storage room would not have uncovered all the classified documents at the premises,” prosecutors said.

“The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”

The FBI ultimately searched Trump’s home on Aug. 8, and recovered more than 33 boxes and other items, including more than 100 pages marked as classified.

Cannon said on Thursday she would unseal a more detailed inventory of the property the FBI seized from Trump’s home following its unprecedented search, after media outlets filed a motion with the court to make it public.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILIGE

Trump’s newest attorney, former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise, made his first appearance in the case on Thursday and presented some of Trump’s arguments to the judge.

On Thursday, he told Cannon that the former president wants to protect materials that were subject to a legal doctrine known as executive privilege, which can shield some presidential communications.

“The problem is, we haven’t had access to the actual materials,” Kise told her.

But the Justice Department has argued that such a claim is illogical, and that no special master is needed in the case.

“He is no longer the president,” said Jay Bratt, the department’s head of counterintelligence.

“And because he is no longer president, he did not have a right to take those documents. He was unlawfully in possession of them.”

Typically, a special master is appointed in cases involving the searches of the homes or offices of attorneys, where some of the materials could be covered by attorney-client privilege.

A special master was appointed, for instance, after the FBI searched the homes and offices of Trump’s former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.

But some legal experts, along with the Justice Department, have argued a special master makes no sense here because a former president cannot shield executive branch records from the executive branch itself, as Trump is attempting.

In addition, Trump waited so long to make his request that the department’s filter team, a group of agents who are not part of the investigation, have already reviewed the materials, and determined only a limited number may be covered by attorney-client privilege.

At Thursday’s hearing, Edelstein told Cannon that any ruling to appoint a special master would be unprecedented, noting it has never been used in this way.

“Well, there has never been a seizure of this magnitude with a former president,” Cannon replied. “I am not sure it is as cut and dry as you suggest.”

(Reporting by Francisco Alvarado in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin)

source

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – President Joe Biden charged Republican allies of Donald Trump with undermining the country’s democratic foundations and urged voters on Thursday to reject extremism ahead of midterm elections in November.

Biden accused “MAGA forces” – those people devoted to Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda – as willing to overturn democratic elections and “determined to take this country backwards” to a time without rights to abortion, privacy, contraception or same-sex marriage supported broadly by Americans.

“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said.

“As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.”

The prime-time speech in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, marked a sharp turn for Biden as midterm congressional elections approach.

The president is increasingly concerned about anti-democratic trends in the Republican Party, and sees a need to repel an onslaught by the party in November and recast the stakes of his own 2024 re-election bid, aides said.

After devoting much of his energy in 2022 to high inflation at home and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and enduring two bouts of COVID-19 over the summer, Biden has begun lashing out at Trump-aligned Republicans in recent days.

Thursday’s remarks came after speeches in recent days where Biden condemned MAGA philosophy as “semi-fascism” and assailed Republican threats against the FBI after a search of Trump’s Florida home as “sickening.”

House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused Biden of ignoring crime and inflation to criticize his fellow citizens.

“Instead of trying to bring our country together to solve these challenges, President Biden has chosen to divide, demean and disparage his fellow Americans,” McCarthy said in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. “Why? Simply because they disagree with his policies.”

A Democratic fundraiser said donors are closely watching Biden’s performance over the next few months to gauge whether to back him in a 2024 presidential run. Some have already decided that Biden, 79, should step aside to make way for fresh leadership, while others want to see if he can move the needle.

“If we can pull it off and retain the Senate, then there will be enough voices saying he has earned it and pave the way for re-election,” said a senior Democratic official. “If we don’t, the overwhelming sentiment will be ‘Pass the torch.’”

FREE ELECTIONS IN DANGER?

Biden set his remarks in a venue meant to signal the historical significance of his appeal, at Independence Hall, where the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were adopted.

Historians, legal scholars and some elected officials have cast the stakes in much starker terms than Biden’s political future, saying the country’s free elections and commitment to the rule of law hang in the balance.

They say losing Congress would not only make Biden a lame-duck president, but also turn over control of certifying the results of the next presidential election to Trump sympathizers, some of whom never accepted Biden’s 2020 victory and who have pledged to overhaul voting systems.

The speech echoed Biden’s signature 2020 campaign pledge to restore the “soul of the nation” and, by implication, purge the values associated with Trump. In the nearly two years since Biden was elected, Republican voters have mostly backed candidates aligned with the former president; more than half say they believe Trump rightfully won the election.

Confronted by threats after Trump’s loss, one in five election workers polled this year said they may quit before the next presidential election.

(Reporting by Steve Holland in Philadelphia, Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Tyler Clifford in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons, Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis)

source