Politics

By Jarrett Renshaw and David Morgan

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Pennsylvania’s hotly contested U.S. Senate Republican primary between TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive David McCormick was still undecided on Wednesday and could drag on into next week, with a possible recount looming.

Oz, whose candidacy was propelled by a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by just over 500 ballots cast on Tuesday out of nearly 1.3 million counted, while conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette trailed at a distant third, according to Edison Research.

Under Pennsylvania law, any margin of 0.5% or less triggers an automatic recount.

A top state election official told CNN that ballot counting would continue in coming days and said authorities should know by the middle of next week whether a recount will be necessary.

Oz and McCormick, who have Pennsylvania roots but only recently moved back to the state, have both struggled with questions about their authenticity and commitment to Trump-style populism.

Either could be at a disadvantage in November against Democratic nominee John Fetterman — the goateed, tattooed lieutenant governor with an “everyman” appeal.

“A lot of Republicans, especially populist Republicans, didn’t find Oz or McCormick to be populist enough. And of course, they’re both seen as carpetbaggers,” said Jeffrey Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College.

A McCormick adviser estimated there were 30,000 to 50,000 votes still uncounted, with some 23 counties still tallying votes.

The two leading campaigns focused on Lancaster County, where a technical error caused delays.

POLL WATCHING

The Oz and McCormick campaigns have poll watchers in the county and will be also sending people to monitor the processing of provisional and military ballots across Pennsylvania, according to campaign officials.

Trump waded into the contest on Wednesday by saying Oz should “declare victory” and suggesting without evidence that his chosen candidate could lose through voter fraud. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, an allegation refuted by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

“It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find’,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform.

Both Oz and McCormick told supporters late on Tuesday that they wanted all the votes counted, with each predicting ultimate victory.

On the Democratic side, Fetterman defeated moderate U.S. Representative Conor Lamb just hours after having had a pacemaker implanted to address irregular heart rhythms that caused a stroke last week. He has said doctors expect a full recovery.

The contest between Oz and McCormick represents the latest test of Trump’s influence with Republicans, after an election night in which candidates bearing his endorsement won their party’s nominations for governor of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed.

One such endorsee, U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn, lost his bid for a second two-year term in North Carolina after a dizzying string of self-inflicted scandals. Trump’s pick for Idaho governor, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, failed in her bid to oust the incumbent Republican, Brad Little.

But another Trump-endorsed candidate in North Carolina, U.S. Representative Ted Budd, won the state’s Republican U.S. Senate nomination. He will face Democratic former state Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is seeking to become the state’s first Black senator.

The Pennsylvania and North Carolina Senate races are two of the most important midterm contests, as Democrats fight to retain slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Both seats are held by retiring Republicans: Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Richard Burr in North Carolina.

Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to stonewall President Biden’s legislative agenda. Biden’s public approval rating is at 42%, with 50% of Americans disapproving of his performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.

Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.

Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano, who has amplified Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and who marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will face Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in a Pennsylvania governor’s race that could have major implications for abortion rights and election integrity.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, David Morgan in Washington and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone, Ross Colvin, Will Dunham, Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis)

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Family members of the late U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota say his widow, Jennifer Carnahan, who is running to replace her husband in Congress, hasn’t come through on a promise to pay them back medical expenses related to his cancer treatments.

Carnahan calls it a political stunt.

Two lawsuits filed Monday by Hagedorn’s mother, stepfather and sister allege they helped pay for cancer treatments he received at Envita Medical Centers in Arizona. Carnahan made a “clear and definite promise” to use inheritance she was to receive after his death to reimburse his family members, according to the complaints.

Carnahan said Hagedorn’s estate is required to go through the probate process in the courts to determine how to divide up his assets and there is nothing more she can do at this time.

“Grief affects everyone differently. Handling the affairs of my husband’s estate should be a private matter,” Carnahan said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate a very simple process has been turned into a political stunt.”

Hagedorn died after a long battle with kidney cancer on Feb. 17. He was told in January that there were no more treatments available for him at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which is his congressional district, so he sought additional treatments at the facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Star Tribune reported.

A suit filed by Hagedorn’s mother, Kathleen Kreklau, and stepfather said they used $10,000 of a $25,000 home equity loan to help cover medical costs. In a separate complaint, Hagedorn’s sister, Tricia Lucas, said she charged $10,000 on a credit card to help cover the costs of his treatment and was promised repayment by Carnahan.

Both lawsuits allege Carnahan was to receive a $174,000 death benefit from the United States government after Hagedorn died, as well $174,000 from his life insurance policy.

Carnahan closed her statement by saying she wishes “Jim’s family well and know this time has been very difficult for all of us.”

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By James Oliphant and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After far-right candidate Doug Mastriano won the Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor, Democrats quickly warned voters that he poses a threat to abortion access, voting rights and election integrity should he win in November.

Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general and the Democratic nominee for governor, called Mastriano the most extreme gubernatorial candidate in the country.

The Republican supports abortion bans with no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother. He has proposed restrictions on mail-in voting and eliminating ballot drop boxes, and he backs former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential contest.

Shapiro’s campaign said it had raised about $200,000 since the polls closed in the Republican primary on Tuesday night, and the Democratic candidate asked for more donations on Wednesday.

Democrats view the Pennsylvania governor’s race as one of the most critical contests in the country. The current governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, has blocked measures from the Republican-controlled state legislature that would limit abortion and voting rights.

Some Republicans in Pennsylvania are also alarmed by Mastriano, who marched in Washington before the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. They said they fear Mastriano is all but unelectable and could drag down the party’s entire state ticket with him.

“We are going to lose state house and state senate races,” said Val Biancaniello, a Republican state committee member from Philadelphia’s suburbs. “It is very difficult for someone like me to rally behind Doug Mastriano, who is going to get his butt kicked in November because he is a far-right extremist.”

Mastriano, who was endorsed by Trump the weekend before the primary, disputed that he is a far-right candidate.

“I repudiate that,” he said in his victory speech on Tuesday. “That is crap.”

ABORTION, VOTING RIGHTS AT PLAY

As voters worry about inflation, the coronavirus pandemic and crime, Democrats are looking to leverage the battle over abortion rights to boost turnout among women and young voters, including independents and some Republicans.

Shapiro has vowed to veto any abortion restrictions that come before him as governor.

Mastriano, a state senator, has proposed a so-called “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortions after six weeks. He recently called abortion “genocide.”

The Pennsylvania legislature has introduced a bill that would prevent the state Supreme Court from declaring abortion a right if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its Roe v. Wade precedent and sends the issue of legalization back to individual states.

“With our fundamental rights on the line, we must work harder than ever to ensure that an anti-choice extremist like Doug Mastriano never holds the governor’s office,” said Ally Boguhn, a spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Mastriano also has championed Trump’s stolen election claims, proposing a state audit of the 2020 results.

A retired Army colonel, Mastriano was seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the building. He has said he peacefully participated in a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally that day but left before the siege.

Some influential Republicans in the state, such as Sam DeMarco, a Republican Party committee chair in Pittsburgh, warned ahead of the primary that Mastriano was unelectable, pointing to survey research that predicted swing voters would shift to Shapiro in large numbers if Mastriano won the nomination.

Analysts say Shapiro, a candidate who has won statewide and went unchallenged in the Democratic primary, has the edge in the race. Heading into the primary, Mastriano had about $800,000 in his campaign account, while Shapiro was sitting on a war chest of more than $18 million.

Mastriano “needs to start showing how he’s going to appeal to moderate Republicans and independent voters,” said Charlie O’Neil, a veteran of Republican campaigns in Pennsylvania. “You don’t win Pennsylvania by winning the Republican base.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant in Washington and Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Jarrett Renshaw and Joseph Ax

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Voters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina will pick nominees in critical U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests on Tuesday that provide another test of former President Donald Trump’s sway with Republican voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Idaho’s incumbent Republican governor also faces a Trump-backed primary rival, while Trump ally Madison Cawthorn, a first-term Republican congressman who has generated numerous controversies, hopes to fend off a primary challenge in North Carolina.

President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats are fighting to retain their slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in the Nov. 8 congressional elections. Democrats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina are trying to win Senate seats currently held by Republicans.

The Pennsylvania Republican senatorial primary has turned into an unpredictable three-way battle in its final days after conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette surged into contention against two better-funded rivals: Trump-endorsed TV wellness celebrity Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick.

Barnette’s rise has worried some establishment Republicans concerned that the right-wing activist could prove too conservative for general election voters choosing a successor to retiring Senator Pat Toomey.

A weekend opinion poll by the Trafalgar Group, a Republican firm, showed Oz leading Barnette 28.5% to 26.8%, within the margin of error, with McCormick trailing at 21.6%.

In the Democratic primary, progressive Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who is finishing his primary campaign from a hospital after suffering a stroke last week, faces centrist U.S. Representative Conor Lamb.

Final results may not be known tonight. State officials said voters had requested 908,000 absentee or mail ballots, and state law prevents them from being processed until election day.

In North Carolina, Trump-endorsed congressman Ted Budd leads former Governor Pat McCrory as they vie to succeed retiring Senator Richard Burr. Cheri Beasley, the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court, is expected to win the Democratic nomination.

More than 580,000 voters had already cast their ballots in person or by mail, nearly twice as many as four years ago, according to figures provided by the state Board of Elections. Those voters returned slightly more Democratic than Republican ballots.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed. His support helped author J.D. Vance win the Ohio Senate primary, but his favored candidate lost in Nebraska’s gubernatorial race last week.

Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to frustrate Biden’s legislative agenda. Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.

HEALTH SCARE

The 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) tattooed and goateed Fetterman, who has a penchant for hoodies and liberal stances, has proven to be an adept fundraiser and a social media force. On Tuesday, his campaign released a photo showing him voting an absentee ballot from the hospital.

His health scare has added a new wrinkle to the Pennsylvania race. Fetterman revealed on Sunday he had suffered a stroke two days earlier. He said he was recovering and had not sustained cognitive damage.

Polls show Fetterman leading Lamb, whose moderate politics make him a better general election candidate in the view of many party insiders.

Barnette, seeking to become Pennsylvania’s first Black U.S. senator, has called her rivals insufficiently conservative. She was photographed, according to news reports, marching toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, alongside members of the far-right Proud Boys group shortly before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Barnette’s campaign in a statement to NBC said she did not take part in or condone the destruction of property and has no connection to the Proud Boys.

Trump last week endorsed state Senator Doug Mastriano, who is leading the polls in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary and was present outside the Capitol on the day of the riot.

Mastriano has also said he would pursue a statewide abortion ban. Abortion has become a flashpoint issue in the race since a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Some Pennsylvania Republicans view Mastriano, like Barnette, as too extreme to win a general election.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the front-runner in the Democratic primary, has vowed to protect abortion rights. Shapiro said on Tuesday that he was isolating at home after testing positive for COVID-19.

In North Carolina, Cawthorn, at 26 the House’s youngest member, faces a challenge from Republican state Senator Chuck Edwards. Cawthorn has turned some in his own party against him with a string of embarrassing episodes, including a claim that legislative leaders invited him to a cocaine-fueled orgy, two attempts to bring a gun onto a plane, and a old video that appeared to show a naked Cawthorn gyrating against someone.

In Idaho, incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little faces Trump-backed primary challenger Janice McGeachin, the state’s lieutenant governor.

Primary elections also take place in Kentucky and Oregon.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Joseph Ax in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Rosalba O’Brien)

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BRADDOCK, Pa. — Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the leading contender in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, is getting a pacemaker following last week’s stroke.

His campaign said Tuesday that Fetterman was “about to undergo a standard procedure” to get a pacemaker with a defibrillator. Campaign officials say the pacemaker will “protect his heart and address the underlying cause of his stroke.”

Fetterman has said his stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that’s potentially serious but treatable.

The stroke put him in the hospital in the campaign’s closing days. The 52-year-old says he’s expected to make a full recovery.

Fetterman is facing three other candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring.

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Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Idaho and Oregon are holding primary elections Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump put his endorsement record on the line in two key Republican primaries for open U.S. Senate seats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Voters in three states — Pennsylvania, Idaho and Oregon — are picking their nominees for governor.

HERE’S WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW:

— Election 2022: Pennsylvania, North Carolina hold key races

— 2022 Midterms: What to watch as 5 states hold primaries

— Pennsylvania governor’s race divides Republicans, unites Democrats

— North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn faces voters after missteps

— Oregon Democrat at risk as 5 states hold US House primaries

— Idaho governor faces Trump-backed challenger in GOP primary

Follow all AP stories on the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

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The Ukrainian government is marrying some digital marketing tools with crowdfunding and other incentives for giving to keep global attention trained on its war efforts against the Russian invasion.

“There is a wave and there is this kind of euphoria, but then it abates,” Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation, told The Associated Press. “We want to keep up this positive energy, the positive vibes.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tasked Fedorov, 31, the youngest member of the nation’s cabinet, with setting up a new fundraising campaign and website to encourage donations for the country’s defense, humanitarian aid and reconstruction.

That resulted in the United24 website and campaign that lets donors send funds via PayPal, cryptocurrency, credit card or direct bank transfer to the state’s accounts.

“It’s very important that people helping Ukraine are not paying money directly all the time, but that they have some fun,” said Yaroslava Gres, who runs a public relations company and is one of the coordinators of the project.

In the future, people looking to help Ukraine might buy a T-shirt with an image of Zelenskyy printed on it or attend a soccer match played by the national team with ticket or merch sales benefiting the country, Gres suggested.

“I cross my fingers,” she said of the Zelenskyy T-shirt.

Gres has asked international companies and banks to invest in repairing Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure. She envisions a menu of projects that a donor can choose to support.

They want, “to see these two pictures: as it was, as it is,” she said of the before and after comparison that shows precisely where funds were spent.

Donations from individuals over a recent seven day period totaled around $27 million, a drop in the ocean compared to the support other governments have sent to Ukraine. The U.S. alone will send over $50 billion if the U.S. Senate approves a new aid package, which it is expected to do.

On May 10, a single entity donated almost $22 million directly to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense through the United24 site, representing the bulk of the donations that came in between May 5-11. The National Bank of Ukraine does not share the name of donors, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine pledges to release weekly reports detailing funds raised and dispersed. The project will be reviewed by the international accounting firm Deloitte pro bono, Sergey Kulyk, managing partner of Deloitte Ukraine, said. The company is still finalizing the scope of work with United24, he said.

Most individual donations come from Ukraine’s political allies: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany, though Ukrainians have also been giving, Gres said. She considers their donations a mark of trust.

In late February, Ukraine started soliciting donations in cryptocurrencies that raised some $67 million in about a month.

Ukrainians have crowdsourced funds for national defense since at least 2014, when private campaigns raised money online for volunteers fighting Russian-allied forces in the country’s eastern region. The government also set up a way to collect donations through text messages to support the army, though that was less popular.

Garrett Wood, an economics professor at Virginia Wesleyan University, studied what motivated Ukrainians to donate to their defense at that time and found donors could chose at a very granular level to fund things like winter clothing, body armor or drones.

One group, the People’s Project, had the accounting firm Ernst & Young audit their finances, which further bolstered its credibility. In comparison at the time, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and its largest contractor were seen as corrupt and ineffective.

“You were dealing with an army that’s poorly equipped,” Wood said. “Rotted out from the inside from corruption, and it’s got low morale.”

In the years since, reforms have improved government accountability. Andrii Borovyk, who directs Transparency International Ukraine, pointed to online court records and procurement systems as examples of greater transparency.

“I would say that Ukraine is moving really in the right direction if you’re talking about fighting corruption. But is it fast enough? No,” he said speaking from Kyiv.

This current crowdfunding also differs from previous examples, because civilians from other countries are now donating to Ukraine’s defense rather than Ukrainians donating to volunteer fighters. Does giving to a conflict produce desirable outcomes, Wood asked?

“One obvious answer is that anything that allows for more funding of conflict is going to produce more conflict,” he said.

It is, of course, entirely up to donors large or small to decide where to give. Derek Ray-Hill, director of international strategy at Charities Aid Foundation, said for those interested in supporting charitable causes, experienced humanitarian organizations are still working even through the apparent chaos of the current fighting.

“I would always advise to look either at international NGOs that are delivering work locally and are very experienced at dealing with this kind of situation, or finding local organizations that are genuinely charitable in purpose,” he said.

Donating without the help of expert advice also raises the risk of breaking laws or regulations.

“To get a charitable donation from here, from anywhere, to people affected by the war in Ukraine is a phenomenally complex task,” he said, acknowledging that for many people following the war online it may feel less dynamic to give through traditional channels.

U.S. residents can donate through a nonprofit set up by the Ukrainian embassy, which allows for a tax deduction. Those gifts are also counted as donations to United24.

Fedorov said the project aims to reduce friction for donors and sets a high bar for transparency while also offering Ukraine maximum flexibility.

“We’ve all seen that in order to win in this very unequal fight with us, Ukraine being smaller than our adversary … we have to be nimble and agile and United24 offers that because it actually cuts out all bureaucracy,” Fedorov said. “That is why maybe in the current circumstances, this channel of donation is the preferred one.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Fox News and its owner Rupert Murdoch on Tuesday to stop what he said was “reckless amplification” of a conspiracy theory believed to have been espoused by a man accused of killing 10 people in a racially motivated shooting in New York.

Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white teenager, is accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Buffalo on Saturday. Investigators have said they are looking into his online postings, which include a 180-page manifesto he is believed to have authored that outlines the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that white people were being replaced by minorities in the United States and elsewhere.

“This pernicious theory, which has no basis in fact, has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors,” Schumer wrote in a letter addressed to Murdoch and other Fox executives.

He singled out top-rated Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, saying he has “spewed rhetoric that echoes replacement theory” at least 400 times on his show since 2016, citing a New York Times investigation.

In response, Fox News released the transcript of a Carlson program on Monday in which he urged a focus on the victims of the shooting, described Gendron’s alleged views as “immoral” and “crazy,” and called for a “colorblind meritocracy” in the United States.

Gendron is accused of shooting 13 people and killing 10. He has been jailed without bail on a charge of first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty.

The shooting follows a number of attacks in the United States that were allegedly racially motivated, including a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina; a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; and a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, on Monday devoted a floor speech to the shooting, describing Fox News as a “special home” for cultural grievances and political resentment that mirror replacement theory.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean Pierre also denounced what she termed a “poisonous false hateful ideology” but declined to name specific news outlets. “The people who spread this filth know who they are, and they should be ashamed of themselves. But I’m not going to give them or their obnoxious ideas they’re pushing the attention that they desperately want,” she told reporters.

Some Republicans in Congress, including staunch allies of former President Donald Trump, have also faced criticism for rhetoric that claims Democrats want to replace the U.S. electorate with immigrants to sustain themselves in power.

On Monday, Republican Representative Liz Cheney said on Twitter that her own party leaders in Congress have enabled “white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-Semitism.” She called on Republicans to renounced and reject those views.

Republicans are trying to forge party unity in their campaign to retake control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the November midterm elections.

(Reporting by David Morgan; editing by Andy Sullivan and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Ted Hesson and Veronica Cardenas

HARLINGEN, TEXAS (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas toured the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas on Tuesday as he pushes a tougher message of restoring consequences for people crossing illegally, countering criticism from Republicans and some Democrats of President Joe Biden’s approach.

During an early morning visit to U.S. border operations, news camera crews were invited to film migrants boarding a removal flight to Guatemala, and Border Patrol officials told Mayorkas they needed more technology and manpower to deal with a record number of crossings, according to Reuters footage and a pool report.

U.S. authorities are currently allowed to quickly expel migrants to Mexico or other countries under a public health order known as Title 42 meant to control the spread of COVID-19. The rapid-fire expulsions mean the migrants cannot claim asylum, but also shield them from possible criminal charges, encouraging repeat attempts to cross the border.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that Title 42 is no longer needed for health reasons and intends for it to end on May 23. But that termination has been temporarily blocked in federal court.

A Louisiana-based federal judge is expected to rule this week over whether to keep it blocked following a lawsuit brought by a coalition of states with Republican attorneys general.

Mayorkas and other top U.S. officials in recent weeks have adopted a tougher message to justify the Title 42 rollback, saying deportations, which can include bars to re-entry, are more effective deterrents than quick expulsions.

The message counters criticism from both side of the political aisle that Biden lacks an adequate plan for a possible rise in crossings that could accompany the Title 42 termination.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 202,000 migrants at the southwestern border in April, down slightly from March but still near historical highs, according to government data.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Veronica Cardenas in Harlingen, Texas; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal prosecutors on Tuesday sought to portray an attorney who formerly worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as a privileged, high-powered person who abused his connections with the FBI in a bid to harm former President Donald Trump’s campaign just weeks before the election.

In opening arguments in a federal court in Washington, prosecutor Brittain Shaw told a jury that attorney Michael Sussmann misled the FBI about who he represented when he met with the bureau’s top lawyer on Sept. 19, 2016, to provide a tip alleging internet communications between Trump’s business and a Russian bank.

The allegations were investigated and later discredited.

“The evidence will show that this is a case about privilege – the privilege of a well-connected D.C. lawyer with access to the highest levels of the FBI,” Shaw said, adding that Sussmann abused his connections to “use the FBI as a political tool.”

The case against Sussmann is being led by Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to probe any missteps in the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia.

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has allowed Durham to finish his work.

The case focuses on a meeting in which Sussmann met with then-FBI General Counsel James Baker to provide evidence of potential secret communications between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank, including thumb drives with technical data.

Prosecutors say Sussmann lied when he claimed he was not passing along information about Trump on behalf of any specific client, when in fact he was representing two clients: Clinton’s presidential campaign and Rodney Joffe, a technology executive who oversaw the research into the alleged connections between Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.

“The FBI is our institution. It should not be used as a political tool for anyone,” Shaw told the jury, saying they should set aside their political beliefs about Trump and Clinton in this case.

Attorneys for Sussmann said on Tuesday that he did not lie to Baker and did not arrange the meeting on behalf of his clients.

“No one told him to go. No one authorized him to go,” said attorney Michael Bosworth.

Bosworth also poked holes in the government’s case, noting that Baker did not record or document his meeting with Sussmann in any way. “Mr. Baker’s memory is as clear as mud,” he said.

Baker is expected to be called to testify in the trial.

Scott Hellman, one of the FBI agents tasked with vetting the data, testified that he did not find allegations about the secret communications between Trump’s business and Alfa Bank to be credible.

“Whoever had written that paper had jumped to some conclusions that were not supported by the technical data,” Hellman said.

“I did not feel that they were objective in the conclusions that they came to.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in WashingtonEditing by Andy Sullivan, Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Election Commission has decided not to take action against former President Donald Trump after commissioners deadlocked over whether his campaign broke the law by masking how it was spending cash during the 2020 campaign.

In a letter on Monday, the FEC notified the Campaign Legal Center of the outcome. The nonprofit group first brought the complaint against Trump in 2020, alleging his campaign was “laundering” hundreds of millions in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies that were tied to his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale.

The practice has long been considered against the law. But in recent years, the FEC, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, has frequently deadlocked on major decisions such at this one.

That has effectively set a series of new precedents that have slowly whittled away at the law governing how money can be used in national politics. Still unclear is what sort of legal rationale was used to justify the decision.

Adav Noti, a former FEC attorney who is now the Campaign Legal Center’s vice president and legal director, said the commission won’t release its legal reasoning for several weeks. He said filing an appeal would hinge on more details.

“It depends on what’s in the case file,” Noti said. “All we have is notification of the deadlock.”

In a similar case in March, the FEC found probable cause that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee had violated campaign law by misreporting spending on research that eventually became the infamous Steele dossier.

In that case, the Clinton campaign and DNC agreed to pay $113,000 to settle without conceding they violated the law in order to avoid further legal costs.

During the 2020 campaign, most of the payments by Trump’s campaign committees were made to American Made Media Consultants, which has received at least $780 million between 2018 and 2021, according to FEC records. The other firm, Parscale Strategy, collected at least $32 million during that period, the records show.

The campaign said that American Made Media Consultants was formed to purchase advertising directly — and save money by not relying on a go-between. But the company instead acted as a clearinghouse for spending while still using third-party vendors, which it was ostensibly created to avoid, the complaint states.

In at least two cases, outside firms owned by Trump’s digital director Gary Coby appeared to have been the firm tapped to make purchases or develop digital communication products, though there is no record of payments made to Coby in Trump’s campaign finance disclosures, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, Parscale Strategy was used to pay the salaries of some Trump reelection officials, including Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son Eric, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., the complaint stated.

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