Politics

ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon will debate Tuesday for the final time before the November election for control of the battleground state.

Dixon, a former businesswoman and conservative commentator who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is hoping a late surge of support will help her unseat the first-term incumbent Democrat. Whitmer, a former state legislator, has a multimillion-dollar fundraising advantage over Dixon, who has never held public office.

The governor and fellow Democrats spent months pummeling Dixon with ads before the Republican and her supporters — including the family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — responded. The final weeks of the campaign have seemed more like a competitive contest, with both hopefuls on TV and the candidates holding public events around the state.

At their first of two face-to-face debates earlier this month, the candidates attacked each other as “too extreme” on issues such as abortion, gun laws and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitmer and other Democrats have made Dixon’s opposition to abortion rights a focus after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, removing the nationwide right to abortion and leaving the issue to states to decide.

Dixon opposes abortion rights except to save the life of the mother, though she said she would abide by the results of a ballot question asking voters whether to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution. That would eliminate the state’s 1931 abortion ban, which has been on hold since a judge’s ruling in a lawsuit Whitmer filed seeking to block the ban from taking effect.

Both candidates are getting outside reinforcement. Trump held a rally with Dixon and other GOP candidates, and the Republican Governors Association recently began running TV ads to support Dixon’s campaign. RGA chairman Doug Ducey, the Arizona governor, visited Michigan to campaign on Dixon’s behalf, saying “the time is right in Michigan for a change.”

On Tuesday, a group affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association began airing a pro-Whitmer ad featuring former President Barack Obama. In it, Obama praises Whitmer as “Michigan tough” and says she “gets the job done” and is moving Michigan forward. Obama will be in Detroit on Saturday to campaign with Whitmer and other Democrats. The stop is part of a multi-city swing the Democrat is making to boost the party’s candidates in states that also are presidential battlegrounds: Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada, all of which also have competitive Senate races on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Many voters have already cast their ballots. As of Tuesday, more than 1.8 million voters had requested mail-in ballots and more than 770,000 ballots had been returned, the secretary of state’s office said. Voters approved a ballot measure in 2018 that allows all voters who request to vote by mail to do so.

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Burnett reported from Chicago.

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Joey Cappelletti 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.

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By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman faces his biggest political test since his May stroke on Tuesday when he debates Republican rival Mehmet Oz in a Pennsylvania race that will help determine whether Democrats keep their razor-thin majority in the chamber.

Fetterman, the state’s 53-year-old lieutenant governor, has seen Oz, a 62-year-old celebrity doctor backed by Donald Trump, largely erase his lead in polls since summer, as concerns about rising inflation have helped sour voters on President Joe Biden’s Democrats ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Fetterman’s stroke left lingering problems with his speech and hearing that sometimes cause verbal miscues, but his doctor said in a recent note that he is fit for office with no restrictions. He is still using closed captioning to conduct interviews and will use one in Tuesday’s debate that could cause a slight delay in answering some questions, Fetterman’s campaign said.

Oz and Republicans have raised questions about whether Fetterman has been candid about his health. The debate offers the Democrat’s biggest opportunity yet to prove his detractors wrong in front of a statewide audience.

“I have not spoken to a Democrat in Pennsylvania or in Washington, D.C., who is not concerned about the debate,” said a senior Democrat strategist from Pennsylvania, who was granted anonymity to discuss his concerns candidly.

A poll last week by the Philadelphia Fox affiliate showed the two in a tie. The race has been among the most expensive in the country, with Fetterman raising $48 million through September and Oz raising $35 million, including millions of his money.

The race to succeed retiring Republican Pat Toomey is Democrats’ best hope at gaining ground in the 50-50 Senate, which they control by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

A win in Pennsylvania could offset losses elsewhere, as Democrats are defending embattled incumbents in states including Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Republican control of either the House or Senate would be enough to stop Biden’s legislative agenda.

A Fetterman campaign official told Reuters that the campaign has realistic expectations of the debate.

“Even before the stroke, John was not a great debater. Meanwhile, Oz is a showman who spent years in front of a camera, so we know what we are up against,” the official said

In remarks last week at a Philadelphia fundraiser also attended by President Joe Biden, Fetterman said that he still has lingering effects, such as missing words or mushing words together, but that he’s on the mend.

“In January, I’ll be feeling much better, but Dr. Oz will still be a fraud,” Fetterman said

There are risks for as well for Oz, who could come across as insensitive if he attacks Fetterman over his health. The Oz campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

‘DON’T EXPECT HIM TO HOLD BACK’

However, Oz supporters expect him to continue to raise questions about Fetterman’s fitness for office and his candor about his health.

“He hasn’t held back and I don’t expect him to hold back. He doesn’t have to because it’s the truth,” said Val Biancaniello, a Republican state committeewoman from the Philadelphia area.

Fetterman has spent significant time and money attacking Oz on his opposition to abortion, arguing that he would vote with Republicans on a strict federal abortion ban. Oz supports strict limits on abortion, with exceptions in the case of incest, rape or the life of the mother.

Democrats had bet that reproductive rights would be an animating issue in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, but the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey data shows that inflation and the economy are far and away the most pressing issues among those who say they are likely to vote.

Oz went on the offensive in recent weeks, flooding the airwaves with ads painting Fetterman as a far-left liberal who is indifferent to rising crime.

Oz argues that Fetterman’s record of seeking lenIency for criminals as head of the state’s Board of Pardons shows he will make Pennsylvania less safe. Fetterman is unapologetic, saying the American justice system is “unforgiving and vindictive” and needs reform, particularly on harsh sentencing guidelines.

Oz’s attacks come against the backdrop of a surge in murders and crime in Philadelphia, the state’s largest city and the most important region in statewide elections.

“The Oz campaign has been strategically smart,” said Chris Borick, a pollster at Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College. “They are making large ad buys on the crime issue in the Philadelphia media market and running them on shows the skew to older audiences.”

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The federal government is set to issue a warning this week about threats to the United States’ elections operations ahead of Nov. 8 congressional elections, Politico reported on Monday.

The internal intelligence bulletin will lay out specifics on cyber threats from China and Russia, as well as potential physical threats to election officials across the country, according to the news outlet’s report, which cited two people familiar with the matter.

Republicans are aiming to win back control of the Senate and the House of Representatives from Biden’s fellow Democrats in the midterm elections.

Representatives of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Domestic disinformation campaigns and homegrown threats to poll workers are emerging as bigger concerns before the midterms, two senior U.S. officials told Reuters last week.

“There is a lot of rhetoric about violence against poll workers,” said one of the U.S. officials. “So we have made it a point … to aggressively investigate all of those threats.”

Russia and Iran, accused of meddling in past U.S. elections using disinformation campaigns, are enmeshed in their own crises – the Russian invasion of Ukraine and mass protests in Iran – and have not yet been found to have targeted this election, according to the U.S. cybersecurity and law enforcement officials.

Election integrity has been a contentious issue in the United States, particularly in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Republican former President Donald Trump continues to make false claims that the election was stolen from him by Democratic President Joe Biden through voting fraud.

Since 2020, there have been numerous reported incidents of poll workers being threatened, harassed or assaulted by Trump supporters, as detailed by Reuters. Opinion polls have shown that a large majority of Republican voters believe Trump won that election.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Kim Coghill and Stephen Coates)

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz will meet Tuesday for one of the most highly anticipated debates of the midterm elections as they wage a fierce contest for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania that could decide control of the chamber and the future of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

Much of the focus is on Fetterman, who has spent the past several months fending off an escalating series of attacks from Oz about his health and fitness for office. Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, had a stroke in May, a health scare that was so severe he said he “almost died.”

But he has insisted he is prepared for the demands of the Senate. Since his stroke, Fetterman has struggled at times to speak clearly in public events. Independent experts consulted by The Associated Press, however, said he appears to be recovering remarkably well. He will use closed-captioning during the debate to help him process the words he hears.

Still, Tuesday’s debate could prove to be a decisive moment in a race that represents the best chance for Democrats to flip a Republican-held Senate seat this year. It will provide an opportunity for Fetterman to prove that he has the stamina for the job and shift the focus to Oz, who Fetterman has argued is a carpetbagger from New Jersey with no understanding of the state. Oz, meanwhile, will have a high-profile chance to unite Republicans and appeal to moderates who could decide the race.

“The debate looms very large, bigger than usual for a Senate debate,” said Republican activist Charles Gerow, a veteran of two decades of Sunday TV political talk shows.

The high-stakes debate — the first and only in the contest — comes just two weeks before Election Day in what polls say is a close race to replace retiring two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. It’s the only major statewide debate happening this year in Pennsylvania since Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano couldn’t reach an agreement on terms for a gubernatorial debate.

Fetterman has grown as a national brand thanks in part to his extraordinary height, tattoos and unapologetic progressive stances. But the 53-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat’s health has emerged as a central issue over the election’s final weeks, even as candidates elsewhere clash over issues like abortion, crime and inflation.

Oz, trailing in the polls, had pushed for more than a half-dozen debates, suggesting that Fetterman’s unwillingness to agree to more than one is because the stroke had debilitated him. Fetterman has insisted that one debate is typical — two is more customary — and that Oz’s focus on debates was a cynical ploy to lie about his stroke recovery.

Meanwhile, Fetterman’s lead in polls has shrunk as Oz’s Republican allies poured tens of millions of dollars into a perennial battleground state that Biden won by just 1 percentage point in 2020.

Fetterman’s allies fear that the 60-minute live televised debate may represent a no-win situation for the Democrat, even if the typical audience for a Senate debate is quite small. Much of the attention will likely focus on how Fetterman — who is blunt and plainspoken — can communicate in a high-pressure situation.

His campaign has acknowledged the built-in disadvantage of putting Fetterman on stage with Oz, a longtime TV personality who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show” weekdays for 13 seasons after getting his start as a regular guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show in 2004.

“This was always going to be an away game for John Fetterman,” said Mustafa Rashed, a Democratic political consultant based in Philadelphia.

The debate host declined to allow an AP photographer access to the event, and the AP declined to accept handout photos.

Fetterman’s stroke happened just days before his resounding victory in the Democratic primary. Recovery kept him out of the public eye for much of the summer, though the campaign said he was meeting with aides, taking long daily walks, driving and doing household errands.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, barely survived his own primary, beating Republican rival David McCormick by 951 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast after a dayslong recount.

Fetterman has rebuffed calls to release medical records or let reporters question his doctors, but last week he released a note from his primary care physician, who wrote that Fetterman is recovering well, shows no cognitive effects and “can work full duty in public office.”

Fetterman acknowledges that he continues to stumble over the occasional word and that a common condition of his stroke — called auditory processing disorder — means that his brain’s language network cannot quickly and accurately turn sound into meaning. That requires him to use closed-captioning during interviews and at the debate.

Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democratic state lawmaker who is campaigning for Fetterman after unsuccessfully challenging him in the primary, said Fetterman should talk about his priorities as a senator and be selective about which of Oz’s attacks to respond to.

Fetterman should “to the extent possible ignore the clown show that’s happening on the other side and, if he does that, I think that’s a win,” Kenyatta said.

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Peoples reported from New York.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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RENO, Nev. (AP) — A rural Nevada county’s plan to hand-count all paper ballots for the midterm elections is coming under renewed scrutiny just days before the tally is set to begin.

The sticking point: How the county will keep the ongoing vote totals from leaking publicly.

A ruling Friday from the Nevada Supreme Court allowed the hand count to move forward with several provisions, one of which was to ensure that the vote counting was not live-streamed and to figure out a way to ensure that election workers could keep the tallies secret.

Ballots cast early, either in-person or by mail, are typically counted by machine on Election Day, with results released only after polls close. Nye County, where conspiracy theories about voting machines have run rampant, wants a hand count in addition to the machine tally. The hand-count of mail-in ballots is set to start on Oct. 26, just under two weeks before Election Day to be certified by the state’s deadline.

In a letter to interim Nye County Clerk Mark Kampf over the weekend, Nevada Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin asked for a “written explanation as to how Nye County and you intend to comply with all of the provisions” of the ruling.

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled partially in favor of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that challenged several aspects of the hand-count, including a livestream that Kampf said allows individuals to “become poll watchers at home.”

In Saturday’s letter, Wlaschin said he particularly needed to know how Nye County would ensure that observers do not prematurely learn the running results of any races. Nevada has nationally important races this year for U.S. Senate, governor and secretary of state.

Lawyers who represented Nye County responded Monday by saying only that the county “fully intends to comply” with the state Supreme Court’s Friday order.

Wlaschin did not immediately respond to a text message Monday afternoon asking if the county’s hand-count will still be permitted.

Recordings from the cameras that were originally meant to livestream the hand-count now will not be released until polls close, the county said in its response. As for the public hand-count, the county noted that they will be conducted in four to six different rooms, so viewers will not know the “totality of returns.”

Observers must sign a form saying they will not release any early results they hear. If they do release them, they could be charged with a gross misdemeanor.

“Unless we hear from you otherwise, we will assume that Nye County’s procedures for its parallel process as set forth above sufficiently comply with the Order,” Nye County’s counsel said in the Monday letter.

Hand-count tallies are done publicly for transparency, with observers in the room. Voting groups have said that raises the possibility that someone could release early results before most voters have even cast their ballot, which they have said could cause “manipulative release” and influence voter turnout.

Nye County’s hand-count of mail-in ballots is set to start Wednesday morning.

Under Nye County’s plan, hand-count teams of five will include a reader who announces each result, a verifier who looks over the reader’s shoulder and three talliers who write down the results. The talliers then compare their results before submitting them. They count ballots in batches of 50 in a public area.

In an email to The Associated Press, Kampf said he had 98 volunteers as of Monday morning.

Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust in voting machines. In June’s primary, Nevada’s least populous county, Esmeralda, took more than seven hours to hand-count the results on 317 ballots cast to certify results.

Elsewhere in Nevada, Elko County’s board of commissioners signaled their support for hand-counting and paper ballots last week, although they will likely stick with machines this cycle because Election Day is so soon.

Hand-counting is mostly used in small townships across New England and rural Wisconsin. There are 658 jurisdictions in the continental U.S. that rely exclusively on hand-counting, with the vast majority having fewer than 2,000 registered voters, according to data from Verified Voting, a group that tracks voting equipment across states.

The most populous county in the continental U.S. to use only hand-counting is Owyhee County, Idaho, which had 6,315 registered voters in 2020. Nye County had over 33,000 registered voters.

It also will use machine tabulators for the Nov. 8 election. But the sheer number of ballots to be hand-counted raises questions about whether the county can meet the Nov. 17 deadline to certify results.

Kampf was appointed county clerk after the long-time clerk resigned in July, a decision she made after election conspiracies, fueled by those repeating lies about former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, spread throughout the county. The board of commissioners voted unanimously to recommend doing away with voting machines and count all ballots by hand.

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Stern 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 Stern on Twitter @gabestern326.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democratic challenger Charlie Crist head to the debate stage Monday night for what may be Crist’s best — and perhaps last — opportunity to change the trajectory of the Florida governor’s race.

DeSantis, a Republican firebrand with presidential aspirations, is leading many polls after focusing on divisive cultural issues throughout much of his last four years in office. Crist, a former Republican governor who most recently served as a Democratic congressman, is eager to stop DeSantis’ political rise.

The debate, which was postponed from earlier in the month because of Hurricane Ian, coincides with the start of early voting across much of the state. It is the first and only governor’s debate before the final votes are cast on Nov. 8.

The Florida governor’s race may not be the nation’s most competitive election this fall, but Monday’s debate is a rare moment for DeSantis to face questions outside the friendly conservative media circles he gravitates toward.

“He doesn’t like answering questions,” Crist said in an interview. “When he gets asked innocent, fair questions by journalists, he bristles. I don’t think it’s gonna take a whole lot to get to that boiling point for him. He’s a bully.”

DeSantis’ campaign did not respond to an interview request.

State GOP Chairman Joe Gruters suggested that one issue matters this fall more than all others: President Joe Biden.

“This election is a referendum on Biden, on his policies,” Gruters said. “All this other stuff is noise.” He said Floridians are struggling “to survive in this Biden economy.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have been trying to focus voters’ attention on DeSantis’ conservative record — especially the law he signed in April banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

DeSantis, 44, has also signed into law a measure banning critical race theory and LGBTQ issues from many Florida schools. He led efforts to eliminate the Disney Corp.’s special tax status for condemning his so-called Don’t Say Gay bill. And in recent weeks, he flew dozens of Venezuelan immigrants from Texas to a small island off the Massachusetts coast to call attention to illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

His critics are many, but DeSantis’ popularity has surged in Florida, and among Republicans across the nation, especially after he led the GOP’s resistance to the pandemic-related public health measures in 2020. He’s also benefited from a broader conservative shift in the state, a trend a decade in the making.

DeSantis has been largely focused in recent days on recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian, which left more than 100 people dead along the state’s southwest coast. While delivering a storm update over the weekend, he also promised to eliminate sales taxes on diapers, wipes and other baby-related items.

“We’re trying to help lessen the blow of what Washington has done,” DeSantis said, slapping at the Democrats who currently control Congress and the White House. “Obviously, we have an election coming up. You could see a change in leadership in the U.S. Congress potentially. Maybe the policies will change. We’ll see.”

Crist, 66, said he’s most focused on DeSantis’ abortion ban and the governor’s inability to reduce the cost of living in Florida under his watch, especially insurance costs.

“DeSantis is running for president and doesn’t seem to care about these kitchen-table issues in Florida,” Crist said.

The debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Sunrise Theater in Fort Pierce and will be broadcast on local television stations across the state.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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(Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring Senator Lindsey Graham to testify to a grand jury in Georgia in a criminal investigation into whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies unlawfully tried to overturn 2020 election results in the state.

Thomas put the case on hold pending further action either from the justice or the full Supreme Court on a request by Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and Trump ally, to halt the order for testimony. Graham filed the emergency application to the Supreme Court on Friday after a federal appeals court denied his request to block the questioning.

Thomas acted in the case because he is designated by the court to handle emergency requests from a region that includes Georgia.

Graham has argued that his position as a senator provides him immunity under the U.S. Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause from having to answer questions related to his actions as part of the legislative process.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has subpoenaed Graham to answer questions about phone calls he made to a senior Georgia election official in the weeks after the November 2020 election.

Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May last month narrowed the scope of questions that Graham must answer from the grand jury, ruling that he is protected from having to discuss “investigatory fact-finding” that he was engaged in during his calls to state election officials.

However, May said he may be questioned about alleged efforts to encourage officials to throw out ballots or alleged communication with the Trump campaign. May rejected Graham’s bid to avoid testifying altogether.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday declined to block Graham’s testimony pending an appeal.

Graham is not a target in the investigation but his testimony could shed further light on coordination among Trump allies to reverse the election results.

The senator’s lawyers said in his application that the testimony would “undisputedly center on Senator Graham’s official acts – phone calls he made in the course of his official work, in the leadup to the critical vote under the Electoral Count Act.”

Trump continues to appear at rallies repeating his false claims that the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

The investigation was launched after Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud. During the phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss to Biden.

The transcript of the call quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” which is the number Trump needed to win Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing in the phone call.

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

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony to a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.

Thomas’ order is intended to prevent Fani Willis, Fulton County district attorney, from compelling Graham to testify while the Supreme Court weighs the senator’s request for a lengthier halt to the proceedings.

Willis has a deadline Thursday to tell the high court why Graham should have to answer the grand jury’s questions. Lower courts have ruled that his testimony can take place.

Thomas acted on his own, as the justice who handles emergency appeals from Georgia.

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By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocked a lower court’s order requiring Senator Lindsey Graham to testify to a grand jury in Georgia investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies attempted to overturn 2020 election results in the state.

Thomas granted the Republican senator’s request to halt the lower court’s decision pending a further order to come, either from him or the Supreme Court. Graham, a Trump ally, filed the emergency application on Friday after a federal appeals court denied his request to block the questioning.

Graham has argued that his position as a senator provides him immunity from having to appear before the grand jury.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has subpoenaed Graham to answer questions about phone calls he made to a senior Georgia election official in the weeks after the November 2020 election.

Last month, a federal judge narrowed the scope of questions that Graham must answer from the grand jury, rejecting Graham’s bid to avoid testifying altogether. Testimony from Graham could shed further light on Trump allies coordinating to reverse the election results.

Trump continues to appear at rallies repeating his false claims that the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Tom Barrack, a onetime fundraiser for former U.S. President Donald Trump, took the witness stand in his own defense on Monday in his trial on charges of being an illegal foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Barrack used his influence with Trump’s election campaign and administration to push the UAE’s interests in 2016 and 2017 without notifying the U.S. attorney general, as required by law. They say Emirati sovereign wealth funds invested $374 million in Barrack’s private equity firm Colony Capital, now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc, in 2017 and 2018.

Barrack, 75, has pleaded not guilty. On the stand on Wednesday, he testified that sovereign wealth funds in Qatar – a UAE rival in the Gulf – were “unquestionably” more significant investors in fueling Colony’s early growth than the UAE, and that Kuwaiti sovereign wealth funds also invested.

Barrack’s defense has argued his close relationship with Qatar shows he was not an Emirati agent. Last week, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified that Barrack urged him to get Trump to back Qatar in a 2017 blockade brought by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and others.

To prove Barrack was a UAE agent, prosecutors must prove he agreed to act under the Middle Eastern country’s direction or control.

Under questioning by his lawyer, Michael Schachter, Barrack said it would have been “impossible” for him to act subject to the “direction or control” of investors such as Kuwait or Qatar, because other investors would not tolerate it.

“If you are acting for them, you’re not going to act for us,” Barrack said.

Prosecutors were expected to cross-examine Barrack once Schachter finished his questioning.

During the monthlong trial, prosecutors have showed jurors text messages and emails indicating that Emirati officials provided feedback to Barrack on what he should say in television interviews and an opinion article about U.S. policy toward the Middle East in 2016 and 2017, and gave input about what Trump should say about energy policy in a 2016 presidential campaign speech.

Barrack’s lawyers have previously argued his interactions with Emirati officials were part of his job running Colony Capital. They have said that even in instances where his interests may have aligned with the UAE’s, Barrack was acting on his own volition.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night, Trump said he did not believe Barrack was a UAE agent, and that Barrack never spoke to him about speeches or “what to say on this subject.”

“Tom Barrack is a highly respected businessman whose DREAM was to see PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, a very good and noble thing,” Trump wrote. “He is being unfairly persecuted only because he is a supporter of ‘Trump.’”

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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