Politics

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump was issued an order on Friday to testify under oath and provide documents to the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

The committee said it had sent a subpoena to Trump

requiring documents to be submitted to the panel by Nov. 4 and him to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about Nov. 14.

Deposition testimony often refers to closed-door, videotaped questioning of a witness on the record. Such testimony could be made public and become part of a final report by the special panel.

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee wrote in a letter to Trump on Friday.

Trump, who regularly refers to the panel as the “unselect committee,” has accused it of waging unfair political attacks on him while refusing to investigate his charges of widespread election fraud.

He is not likely to cooperate with the subpoena and could simply try to run out the clock on a committee whose mandate will likely end early next year if Republicans win a majority in the House in November’s midterm elections.

Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump delivered a fiery speech at a rally near the White House featuring false claims that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by Democrat Joe Biden was the result of fraud.

The assault saw rioters smash through glass and battle police. Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot, more than 140 police officers were injured, the Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage and Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and staff were sent running for their lives.

The committee announcement came just hours after Steve Bannon, an influential far-right figure and a former adviser to Trump, was sentenced by a federal judge to four months in prison for refusing to cooperate with the panel’s investigation. He is free, however, pending his appeal.

CRIMINAL CHARGES?

The House Select committee’s seven Democratic and two Republican members voted unanimously on Oct. 13 in favor of subpoenaing Trump, a move that could lead to criminal charges if he does not comply.

While noting that the Supreme Court has ruled that former presidents retain a limited ability to assert executive privilege in refusing to testify, the committee also said there were limits to that privilege.

It also made clear that congressional testimony by a former or sitting president was not unprecedented. The letter listed seven former presidents — most recently Gerald Ford — having testified after leaving office. “Even sitting presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Gerald Ford” also appeared while still in the White House, it said.

“In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote Trump.

Committee members have not said how they will proceed if Trump disregards his subpoena.

Federal law says that failure to comply with a congressional subpoena is a misdemeanor, punishable by one to 12 months imprisonment. If the select committee’s subpoena is ignored, the committee would vote to refer the issue to the full House. The House then would vote on whether to make a referral to the Department of Justice, which has the authority to decide whether to bring charges.

The rioters were attempting to stop Congress’ formal certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. By day’s end they had only succeeded in delaying that certification.

The House Jan. 6 select committee has been investigating the attack on the Capitol for more than a year.

It has held a series of hearings making its case – via documents, live witness testimony and recorded testimony from interviews conducted behind closed doors – that Trump was largely responsible for the deadly assault on the Capitol.

They argued that the Republican planned in advance to deny his election defeat, failed for hours to call off the thousands of his supporters who stormed the Capitol and followed through with his false claims that the election was stolen even as close advisers told him he had lost.

The former reality television star continues to hold rallies repeating his false allegations of election fraud, hinting that he will seek the presidency again in 2024.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When jury selection begins next week in the criminal trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s company, prosecutors and the defense will likely be on alert for “stealth” jurors seeking to hide political biases in the hopes of being named to the panel, legal experts told Reuters.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has charged the Trump Organization with nine counts of tax fraud and other crimes for allegedly making “off the books” payments to executives since 2005, allowing employees to understate their taxable income and enabling the company to evade payroll taxes.

The company has pleaded not guilty.

Trump has not been charged in the case, but has called the allegations politically motivated. The trial comes as the former president, a Republican, is weighing another possible bid for the White House in 2024.

“It’s very, very hard, especially with a name this big … for people to be able to separate your organization from the person who it’s named after,” said Melissa Gomez, president of MMG Jury Consulting in Philadelphia.

During jury selection – which begins on Monday – lawyers for both sides will question prospective jurors to select a panel of 12 members and six alternates. While jurors cannot be excluded for simply holding certain political views or expressing disapproval of Trump, experts said the lawyers will aim to remove jurors who cannot be fair and impartial.

Experts said they expect the defense to look out for so-called “stealth jurors” who do not answer questions about their views honestly in the hopes of being chosen. Partisan Democrats who hope that a guilty verdict could hurt Trump’s political prospects may be particularly motivated to hide the intensity of their views to get on the panel, Gomez said.

“Because of the social and societal implications – and particularly because this could be one of the first steps in ensuring that Donald Trump cannot run in the future – there’s a high risk of a stealth juror,” Gomez said.

Similarly, Gomez said the government will look to weed out strongly pro-Trump jurors who are unable to put those views aside. Such prospective jurors are likely to be vastly outnumbered: Democratic President Joe Biden won 86% of the vote in Manhattan in the 2020 election, according to New York State data.

However, a guilty verdict must be unanimous, which means one juror unwilling to convict the Trump Organization would upend the government’s case.

During a discussion about jury selection at a Sept. 12 court hearing before Judge Juan Merchan, Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles said she wanted to ensure that any jurors were excused if they said, “I hate former President Trump. I would always vote to convict.”

Joshua Steinglass, an assistant district attorney, said his office shared the same concerns “in terms of who we are trying to prevent from being on the jury.

Neither the district attorney’s office nor the Trump Organization’s lawyers responded to requests for comment.

‘DEEP SCOURS’ OF JURORS’ INTERNET HISTORIES

The trial comes as the former U.S. president’s legal woes are mounting. He faces a civil lawsuit brought by New York State’s attorney general for allegedly overstating his net worth and the value of his real estate assets, a federal probe into the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office and a defamation lawsuit brought by a writer who has accused him of raping her.

Lawyers for the Trump Organization have claimed the Manhattan district attorney’s case is a “selective prosecution” based on animosity toward Trump’s political views, though the judge overseeing it has rejected that argument.

Both Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his predecessor Cyrus Vance, who began the investigation, are Democrats.

Lawyers for the defense will likely conduct “deep scours of internet research” and review jurors’ social media profiles to make sure jurors who said they could be fair have not expressed a disqualifying level of antipathy to Trump online, said Christina Marinakis, director for jury research at Litigation Insights in Baltimore

“There is some degree of due diligence that needs to be done to look at whether people are posting things online against your client, or that may be not consistent with what they’re saying in court,” Marinakis said.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Josie Kao)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is promoting Biden administration policies as the key to advancing the nation’s “long-term economic well being” in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

The former Federal Reserve chair is visiting a Virginia research and development business park with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine on Friday and talking up administration efforts to revitalize America’s manufacturing capacity, spur computer chip production and upgrade the country’s infrastructure. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., also will attend.

Yellen’s visit is part of the Treasury leader’s ongoing tour of the U.S., as she and other administration officials try to quell the impact of persistent high inflation.

Voters have made clear that price increases are a top concern. A June Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed that 40% of U.S. adults specifically named inflation in an open-ended question as one of up to five priorities for the government to work on in the next year.

Democrats want to retain their control in Congress and will need to convince voters they can wrangle inflation, which accelerated in September. In Virginia, Yellen will talk about how a boost in domestic industrial manufacturing will be one of the solutions.

“Our government’s failure to invest in innovation has had wide-ranging impacts on our long-term economic well being,” Yellen said in prepared remarks. “At the most fundamental level, it impacted our productive capacity.”

She said that over the past year President Joe Biden’s administration “has begun to reverse that trend.”

“We have advanced an economic plan that finally puts innovation and technology at the forefront of our national agenda,” she said.

Yellen planned to attend a roundtable with local entrepreneurs and people representing Virginia colleges who are focused on semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and other emerging technologies.

“Together, our efforts are raising our economy’s aggregate production capacity,” she said. “And in turn, we are raising America’s long-term economic outlook.”

Early voting is underway in many states, including Virginia.

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By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Steve Bannon, a prominent figure on the American right who served as a senior strategist for former President Donald Trump, is set to be sentenced on Friday after being convicted in July on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from lawmakers investigating last year’s U.S. Capitol attack.

The sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. (1300 GMT). Prosecutors on Monday asked the judge to sentence Bannon to six months in prison, while Bannon’s attorneys had sought probation. Each of the two counts is punishable by 30 days to one year in prison and a fine ranging between $100 to $100,000.

Prosecutors also had recommended that Bannon be ordered to pay the maximum possible fine of $200,000 after they said he refused to cooperate with a routine pre-sentencing financial investigation.

A jury of eight men and four women convicted Bannon after just three hours of deliberations for refusing to testify or provide documents subpoenaed by the House of Representatives select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and efforts by Trump’s allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Bannon, 68, was a key adviser to the Republican Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, then served as his chief White House strategist during 2017 before a falling out between them that was later patched up. Bannon helped articulate the “America First” right-wing populism and stout opposition to immigration that helped define Trump’s presidency. Bannon has played an instrumental role in right-wing media and has promoted right-wing causes and candidates in the United States and abroad.

A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and attacked police with batons, sledgehammers, flag poles, Taser devices, chemical irritants, metal pipes, rocks, metal guard rails and other weapons in a failed effort to block congressional certification of his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

According to the committee, Bannon spoke with Trump at least twice on the day before the attack, attended a planning meeting at a Washington hotel and said on his right-wing podcast that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

In his trial, prosecutors called only two witnesses while Bannon’s defense team called none. Bannon opted not to testify. Bannon’s lawyers have said they will appeal his conviction.

Bannon’s defense was hamstrung by rulings by Nichols including one that barred him from asserting that he relied on claims of executive privilege, a legal doctrine shielding some White House communications, as a basis to refuse to testify. Bannon was also precluded from arguing that he relied on legal advice from his attorney.

The committee’s leaders have called Bannon’s conviction a victory for the rule of law. Bannon had sought to portray the criminal charges as politically motivated, lashing out at Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, while saying, “They took on the wrong guy his time.”

The Democratic-led committee has sought testimony from dozens of people in Trump’s orbit. In addition to Bannon, prosecutors have charged former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro with contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the same committee, with a Nov. 17 trial date set. Navarro has pleaded not guilty.

Friday’s sentencing does not end Bannon’s legal troubles. He was indicted in New York state in September on charges of money laundering and conspiracy, with prosecutors accusing him of deceiving donors giving money to help build Trump’s promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon, who pleaded not guilty, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted on those charges. Trump pardoned Bannon last year on similar federal charges.

Trump and numerous associates like Bannon have been beset with legal issues.

Trump is facing a federal criminal investigation over the removal of sensitive government records from the White House. Trump’s real estate company is set to go on trial in Manhattan on Monday on tax fraud charges. Trump and three of his adult children also face a civil fraud lawsuit by New York state’s attorney general accusing them of overstating asset values and Trump’s net worth to get favorable bank loans and insurance coverage.

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and right-wing lawyers Sidney Powell, John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark, all active in efforts to undo Trump’s 2020 election loss, also are embroiled in legal matters arising from those efforts.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham)

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ATLANTA (AP) — Oprah Winfrey is again shining her star power on Democrat Stacey Abrams’s bid for governor in Georgia, as Abrams pursues a rematch against incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, who she narrowly lost to in 2018.

Winfrey appeared in a prerecorded chat with Abrams on a campaign website Thursday, saying she believes the candidate has a “calling to want people to be able to do better, to live better and to thrive in their lives.”

“I’m wishing that the people of Georgia come out and make that a reality for you and the state of Georgia,” Winfrey said.

The appearance comes during the first of three weeks of early voting in Georgia, as Democrats in particular seek to drive their voters to cast ballots early. More than 434,000 people had already voted as of Thursday morning.

Winfrey visited Georgia in November 2018 to campaign for Abrams in her previous unsuccessful bid, even knocking on some doors in suburban Atlanta. Since then, Abrams has vaulted to her own national fame as a voting rights activist and Democratic leader, earning millions from books and speeches.

Kemp has attacked Abrams as “Celebrity Stacey,” saying last month that Abrams is “running her campaign to cater to liberal elites” and not to Georgians. Kemp generally leads Abrams in polls.

“While Stacey Abrams continues to solicit the help of out-of-state billionaires,” said Kemp spokesperson Tate Mitchell, “Gov. Kemp will continue to talk to hardworking Georgians about his record of economic success and plan to build a safer, stronger Georgia.”

Abrams used the Thursday event to share her platform, which includes expanding Medicaid health insurance, raising teacher pay, improving affordable housing, and developing small businesses, especially ones owned by nonwhite residents.

“As the governor, my mission is to make sure that everyone can can do well that they have education, health care and housing and the ability to make a good living and take care of themselves,” Abrams said.

She also argued that people should vote for her as protection against U.S. Supreme Court decisions that might erode minority voting rights, protections for LGBTQ people, and safeguards against stolen presidential elections.

“And so if you want opportunity, freedom, and the ability to control your future, you need me as governor, because Brian Kemp’s proven he doesn’t care and he won’t help,” Abrams said.

“That is a lot on the line,” Winfrey said. “That’s enough to get rid of your lethargy and get you up and out.”

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In their quest to win back statewide office in deep-blue California, Republicans have set their sights — and money — on controller candidate Lanhee Chen.

The race usually attracts little attention compared to other statewide offices, but this year, without an incumbent in the running, contributions to Chen and Democratic candidate Malia Cohen have far outpaced the last election cycle.

Chen, a former policy adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, has crafted himself as an independent manager who can bring order to the state’s finances. Cohen, who serves on a state tax board, says her past role leading the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ budget and finance committee makes her uniquely qualified for the job.

Chen has defied the path of recent Republican candidates in the heavily Democratic state. He’s raised more money than Cohen and his fellow Republicans seeking state office. He won the June primary against four Democrats who split their party’s vote.

That’s led to optimism he could help his party break its California drought, but Chen faces strong headwinds. California hasn’t elected a Republican statewide since 2006 and there are nearly twice as many registered Democrats.

“It’s an uphill battle, no matter what,” said Pete Peterson, who ran as a Republican for secretary of state in 2014 and now serves as dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy. He won 46% of the vote that year, the closest Republicans have come to victory in 16 years.

The controller serves as California’s fiscal watchdog, with the power to disburse state funds and audit government agencies. They also serve on more than 70 boards and commissions, including one that incentivizes renewable energy production and another that gives bonds to nonprofit colleges.

The candidates are vying to succeed Democrat Betty Yee, who’s been in the job since 2015 and previously served on the state Board of Equalization, which administers tax and fee programs. Cohen, the board’s chair, hopes to follow that same path to the job.

Chen has never held elected office, something he says makes him less beholden to any particular party, though he’s advised multiple GOP campaigns. He was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama to a board overseeing social security and is a public policy fellow, now on leave, at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

California’s high cost of living, public education, homelessness, public safety, gas taxes and fraud at the state’s unemployment agency are all within the realm of issues a controller could address, Chen said.

“All of these challenges in some ways can be affected positively by a controller who will focus on bringing greater transparency, greater accountability to how our state spends taxpayer dollars,” Chen said.

Cohen, meanwhile, sees an opportunity to expand the role of controller by looking for patterns revealed in agency audits and pushing for solutions to prevent problems from happening again.

Cohen said she wants to be “on the team that is going to be solving the gaps.”

Both pointed to the more than $20 billion of fraudulent unemployment benefits California gave to criminals as evidence of how the state’s money could be better managed.

Chen came out on top in the June primary, though the Democrats collectively won more votes. Republicans tend to do better in primary races compared to the general election, said Mindy Romero, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Inclusive Democracy. Winning the primary in a divided field still has its benefits.

“It gives more attention to the Republican candidate, raises his profile, and maybe he might have a role in the party going forward,” she said.

By the end of the September deadline to report campaign contributions, Chen had raised nearly $1.4 million more than Cohen for the year.

Chen, who must try to keep supporters of former President Donald Trump on his side while broadening his appeal, waited until after the primary to say he never voted for Trump.

In an ad, Cohen links Chen to “Trump Republicans” pushing to restrict abortion access. Cohen campaign spokesman Joe Armenta suggested a Republican controller could “misappropriate funds dedicated to reproductive health services.”

But Chen said he supports abortion access, and campaign manager Matt Ciepielowski said Chen would not have the power or inclination to restrict abortion access.

Chen’s campaign, meanwhile, has released an online ad calling into question Cohen’s financial management skills. It references reporting by the Los Angeles Times that found a condo Cohen purchased in 2006 was foreclosed on and her social media consulting firm had its license suspended for tax issues.

Cohen defended herself against the Chen campaign’s criticism of her financial background, saying the business license issue was tied to a change of address and was resolved.

“Some may try to exploit my experience with foreclosure during the financial crisis for political gain, but as I said in 2010, it’s why I ran for office,” she tweeted after the Times article published. “I understand the pain that millions of Californians underwent and I have dedicated my career to ensuring it never happens again.”

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Sophie Austin 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.

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By Patricia Zengerle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NO ‘BLANK CHECK’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy

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

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By Luc Cohen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Sarah N. Lynch and Ned Parker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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