Politics

By Jonathan Stempel and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A New York judge found Donald Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets, in a major defeat for the former U.S. president that could severely restrict his ability to do business in the state.

The scathing decision by Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York state court in Manhattan will make it easier for state Attorney General Letitia James to establish damages at a scheduled Oct. 2 trial.

Engoron also ordered the cancellation of business certificates for the Trump Organization and other corporate defendants, and ordered the appointment of a receiver to manage their dissolution.

The judge described how Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and other defendants made up valuations and inflated Trump’s net worth to suit their business needs.

“That is a fantasy world, not the real world,” Engoron wrote.

The judge also sanctioned the defendants’ lawyers for making “preposterous” legal arguments and fueling their clients’ “obstreperous” conduct.

Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump, who holds a commanding lead in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied all wrongdoing, and attacked James’ case and other litigation against him as part of a politically-motivated “witch hunt.”

MAR-A-LAGO, TRUMP TOWER

James sued Trump in Sept. 2022, accusing him, his adult children and the Trump Organization of lying for a decade about asset values and his net worth to defraud banks and insurers into providing better terms.

The attorney general has said Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.23 billion, and by one measure as much as $3.6 billion, on annual financial statements.

Engoron said James had established liability for false valuations of several properties including Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his penthouse apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, and various office buildings and golf courses.

He took particular issue with Trump’s claim that the penthouse was 30,000 square feet, nearly three times its actual size, resulting in an overvaluation of as much as $207 million.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

The judge also chided Trump for offering defenses in a deposition that were “wholly without basis,” legally and factually.

“He claims that if the values of the property have gone up in the years since the (financial statements) were submitted, then the numbers were not inflated at that time,” Engoron wrote.

“He also seems to imply that the numbers cannot be inflated because he could find a ‘buyer from Saudi Arabia’ to pay any price he suggests.”

SLEW OF LITIGATION

Engoron ruled three months after a state appeals court said some of James’ claims were too old because statutes of limitations had expired in either July 2014 or February 2016.

He rejected Trump’s argument that the decision essentially gutted James’ lawsuit, which James has said reflected a series of “continuing wrongs” that she could prove at trial.

The appeals court dismissed one defendant, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, from the case.

Trump also faces a slew of other litigation.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges in four indictments accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election, hoarding classified materials, and covering up hush money payments to a porn star.

Trump also faces a January civil trial over damages he owes for defaming a writer who claimed he raped her.

Engoron’s decision does not automatically mean the trial will begin next Monday.

Trump has sued to delay the trial, accusing Engoron and James of ignoring the appeals court order to narrow the case.

He and the other defendants have said this made it impossible to prepare for trial because they did not know which claims they would have to defend against.

The appeals court is expected to rule on that request this week.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York;Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)

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By Jonathan Stempel and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A New York judge found Donald Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets, in a major defeat for the former U.S. president that could severely hamper his ability to do business in the state.

The scathing decision by Justice Arthur Engoron of New York state court in Manhattan will make it easier for state Attorney General Letitia James to establish damages at a scheduled Oct. 2 trial.

Engoron also ordered the cancellation of certificates that let some of Trump’s businesses, including the Trump Organization, operate in New York, and ordered the appointment of a receiver to manage the businesses’ dissolution.

The judge described how Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and other defendants made up valuations and inflated Trump’s net worth to suit their business needs.

“That is a fantasy world, not the real world,” Engoron wrote.

The judge also sanctioned the defendants’ lawyers for making “preposterous” legal arguments and fueling their clients’ “obstreperous” conduct.

Trump and the other defendants have argued that they never committed fraud, and that the challenged transactions were profitable. They plan to appeal Engoron’s decision.

“Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law,” Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement. “President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.”

James said she looks forward to presenting the rest of her case at trial.

“It’s a devastating ruling,” said Bill Black, distinguished scholar in residence for financial regulation at the University of Minnesota Law School. He said cancelling business certificates could hurt Trump’s ability to make money.

“If the decision is upheld, they have to liquidate the LLCs which actually hold the enormous bulk of the assets,” Black said, referring to limited liability companies.

Trump is seeking the Republican presidential nomination for 2024 and has maintained a commanding lead in the race despite the criminal charges he faces in multiple cases.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called accusations that he committed fraud “ridiculous and untrue,” and blasted Engoron as a “DERANGED” judge doing the bidding of James, a Democrat.

“This is Democrat Political Lawfare, and a Witch Hunt at a level never seen before,” Trump wrote. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to YOU!”

Trump has repeatedly asserted without evidence that indictments he faces are “witch hunts.”

NOT ‘IMMATERIAL’

James sued Trump in September 2022, accusing him, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization of lying for a decade about asset values and his net worth to defraud banks and insurers into providing better terms.

Engoron said James submitted “conclusive evidence” that Trump had overstated his net worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion.

“Even in the world of high finance, this court cannot endorse a proposition that finds a misstatement of at least $812 million dollars to be ‘immaterial,’” he wrote.

The judge said Trump’s overvaluations included his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his penthouse apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, and various office buildings and golf courses.

He took particular issue with Trump’s claim that the penthouse was 30,000 square feet (2,787 square meters), nearly three times its actual size, resulting in an overvaluation of as much as $207 million.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

The judge said Trump also grossly overvalued Mar-a-Lago, estimating it was worth as much as $612.1 million, though an assessor said its market value was no more than $27.6 million.

Engoron also chided Trump for offering defenses in a deposition that were “wholly without basis,” including that there was nothing wrong with how he valued properties in a given year if their values subsequently went up.

“He also seems to imply that the numbers cannot be inflated because he could find a ‘buyer from Saudi Arabia’ to pay any price he suggests,” the judge wrote.

SLEW OF LITIGATION

Engoron’s ruling comes three months after a state appeals court said that some of James’ claims were too old because statutes of limitations had expired in either July 2014 or February 2016.

Engoron rejected Trump’s argument that the decision essentially gutted James’ lawsuit, which James has said reflected a series of “continuing wrongs” that she could prove at trial.

The appeals court dismissed one defendant, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, from the case.

Trump also faces a slew of other litigation.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges in four indictments accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden, hoarding classified materials, and covering up hush money payments to a porn star.

Trump also faces a January civil trial over damages he owes for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who claimed he raped her. He has denied wrongdoing.

Engoron’s decision does not automatically mean James’ fraud case will go to trial next Monday.

Trump has sued to delay the trial, accusing Engoron and James of ignoring the appeals court order to narrow the case.

He and the other defendants have said this made it impossible to prepare for trial because they did not know which claims they would have to defend against.

The appeals court is expected to rule on the request for a delay this week.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York;Editing by Chris Reese, Deepa Babington and Leslie Adler)

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By David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday took a step forward on a bipartisan bill meant to stop the government from shutting down in just five days, while the House sought to push ahead with a conflicting measure backed only by Republicans.

The Senate voted 77-19 to begin debate on a measure that would fund the government through Nov. 17, and includes around $6 billion for domestic disaster responses and another roughly $6 billion in aid for Ukraine.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives, however, planned to push along with its own partisan approach that was unlikely to win support in the Democratic-majority Senate.

The House took a procedural vote to move ahead on four spending bills that reflect conservative priorities and stand no chance of becoming law. Even if enacted, the measures fund only a portion of the government and would not avert a shutdown.

The split between the two chambers suggests the federal government is increasingly likely to enter its fourth shutdown in a decade on Sunday, a pattern of partisan gridlock that has begun to darken Wall Street’s view of U.S. government credit.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell worked in tandem to win passage of a bipartisan short-term extension of federal funding at current levels.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday told reporters he would seek approval from his splintered Republicans on a bill that also would temporarily fund the government.

But he intends to attach tough border and immigration restrictions that are unlikely to win support from enough Democrats in the House or Senate to become law.

Democratic President Joe Biden and McCarthy had aimed to head off a shutdown this year when they agreed in May, at the end of a standoff over the federal debt ceiling, to discretionary spending of $1.59 trillion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The White House on Tuesday urged Republicans to honor that deal.

“House Republicans should join the Senate in doing their job, stop playing political games with peoples’ lives, and abide by the bipartisan deal two-thirds of them voted for in May,” said Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement.

But hardliners to the right of McCarthy have rejected that deal, demanding another $120 billion in cuts.

McCarthy’s measure would restart construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, a signature policy of former President Donald Trump, and tighten immigration policies.

Critics have said it would effectively put an end to U.S. asylum for immigrants.

‘SHUTDOWNS ARE BAD NEWS’

McCarthy called on the Biden and congressional Democrats to reconsider their opposition. The top Senate Republican pleaded with his House counterpart to embrace the Senate bill.

“Government shutdowns are bad news, whichever way you’d look at it,” McConnell said.

McCarthy countered: “Let’s do something on the border, keep the government open and show this nation that we can do it right, and solve the rest of our problems as we go.”

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed and a wide range of services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, will be suspended beginning on Sunday if the two sides do not reach agreement.

The standoff has caused concern at credit rating agency Moody’s, though it is unclear whether it will hurt U.S. creditworthiness, as past shutdowns have not had a significant impact on the world’s largest economy.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has cheered on the shutdown talk.

The cuts that hardliners are pushing for only account for a fraction of the total U.S. budget, which will come to $6.4 trillion for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are projected to grow dramatically as the population ages.

Congress has shut down the government 14 times since 1981, though most of those funding gaps have lasted only a day or two.

(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan, with additional reporting by Makini Brice and Moira Warburton; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Grant McCool, Chris Reese and Tom Hogue)

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By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by Alabama officials to halt a lower court’s ruling that rejected a Republican-crafted electoral map for diminishing the clout of Black voters, likely clearing the way for a new map to be drawn ahead of the 2024 congressional elections.

The court’s action leaves intact a Sept. 5 decision by a federal three-judge panel in Birmingham that the map approved by the state’s Republican-led legislature to set the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House of Representatives districts was unlawfully biased against Black voters and must be redrawn.

That map was devised after the Supreme Court in June blocked a previous version, also for weakening the voting power of Black Alabamians.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

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By David Morgan and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House and Senate on Tuesday plan to take sharply divergent paths in a high-stakes spending battle, with just five days remaining until a deadline that could force wide swaths of the government to shut down for the fourth time in a decade.

The Democratic-controlled Senate plans to vote on a stopgap funding bill with bipartisan support that would keep the federal government operating after current money runs out at midnight on Saturday (0400 GMT Sunday), giving negotiators more time to agree on full-year spending numbers.

Meanwhile Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, aiming to hold off a rebellion by hardline members of his own caucus, will push ahead with four full-year spending bills that reflect conservative priorities and stand no chance of becoming law.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed and a wide range of services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, will be suspended beginning on Sunday if the two sides do not reach agreement. In Washington, the National Zoo says it would have to curtail its farewell party for three giant pandas before they return to China.

Congress has shut down the government 14 times since 1981, though most of those funding gaps have lasted only a day or two. Though disruptive, they have not had a significant impact on the world’s largest economy.

But Moody’s warned on Monday that a shutdown this time would have negative implications for the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating, as it would highlight how political polarization is worsening the country’s fiscal standing.

Democratic President Joe Biden and McCarthy had aimed to head off a shutdown this year when they agreed in May, at the end of a standoff over the federal debt ceiling, to discretionary spending of $1.59 trillion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Lawmakers on McCarthy’s right flank have since rejected that number, demanding $120 billion in cuts, even as more moderate members of their party including top Senate Republicans voiced support for the agreed-on plan.

That only accounts for a fraction of the total U.S. budget, which will come to $6.4 trillion for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are projected to grow dramatically as the population ages.

Republicans control the House by a narrow 221-212 majority and have few votes to spare, particularly since some Republican hardliners have threatened to move to oust McCarthy from his leadership role if he relies on Democratic votes to pass legislation.

‘PAYING THE PRICE’

Biden himself has called on House Republicans to honor McCarthy’s deal.

“Just a few months ago the speaker of the House and I agreed to spending levels of the government,” Biden said. “Now a small group of extreme House Republicans, they don’t want to live up to that deal, and everyone in America could be faced with paying the price for it.”

Despite the looming shutdown deadline, the House will turn its attention first to the four full-year bills, which even if they pass would not fund the full government or prevent a shutdown. Success is not guaranteed: Republican hardliners blocked action on spending bills last week and some have said they would try to do so again.

If McCarthy surmounts that first obstacle, debate could consume most of the week, leaving little time to hammer out a stopgap bill before Sunday.

Republican Representative Ralph Norman, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said on Monday he was “100%” certain that Congress would not be able to keep the government open.

McCarthy said he was more optimistic. “I’m working everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen,” he told reporters on Monday. “I always like the ball at the last second.”

How that might play out is unclear at this point. If the Senate passes a stopgap funding bill, McCarthy could allow a vote in the House, where it could pass with support from Democrats and more pragmatic Republicans.

But that could prompt Republican hardliners to act on their threat to depose McCarthy, plunging the chamber further into chaos.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has been cheering on the shutdown talk, saying on his Truth social media site, “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!”

(Reporting by David Morgan and Andy Sullivan, additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

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By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – When Republican U.S. Representative Don Bacon was asked if he supports Donald Trump’s bid for the White House next year at Nebraska town hall last month, he batted away the question, saying it was too early to say, given the former president hadn’t yet secured the nomination.

Despite the non-answer, a Democratic activist with a video camera filmed the exchange, and it was quickly blasted it online with the headline Bacon “refuses to tell Nebraskans if he supports Trump.”

The attempt to tie a vulnerable Republican like Bacon is a scenario likely to be repeated in competitive districts around the country in the months to come, Democratic strategists tell Reuters. While U.S. President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign have rarely commented on Trump’s string of criminal indictments, Democrats running for state and local office across the nation are taking the opposite tactic and making the charges a key part of their campaign.

Democrats are hoping to exploit what they see as a structural weakness for Republicans in battleground states in 2024: any Republican candidate who criticizes Trump risks losing the party’s Trump-loving voter base. But they believe any Republican who doesn’t condemn Trump risks losing more moderate Republicans and independent voters they need to beat a Democrat.

“Republicans are contorting themselves to not alienate Trump supporters while appealing to the more moderate parts of their party,” said Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist. “Democrats are going to work hard to make sure that is no longer a tenable strategy.”

While Trump’s legal woes have boosted his popularity with some Republican primary voters, many independent voters, who often decide both national and local elections, see Trump’s potential criminal conviction as a reason to vote against him, Reuters/Ipsos polling and reporting in key states like Arizona shows.

The Bacon campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Republican party officials say Democrats’ time would be better spent worrying about their own presidential candidate Joe Biden’s popularity.

“Biden’s approval ratings have been under water since his botched Afghanistan withdrawal. It’s been two years and Democrats refuse to look in the mirror,” said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

‘SAME DAY FOOTAGE’

Democrats are monitoring local radio interviews, scouring news stories and hiring teams of political trackers armed with cameras to blanket Republican events, to capture the moment a candidate is asked a Trump loyalty question.

North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania Democrats are currently hiring “trackers” to follow, record and post footage of Republicans at local events, according to job websites.

For $4,000 a month, a tracker will be responsible for “comprehensively tracking opponents’ schedules” and providing “same day footage” to “drive the campaign narrative,” one such job posting says.

Tracking, essentially following an opponent with the hopes they slip up or do something that can be used to influence voters, has become a ubiquitous practice in U.S. political campaigns in recent years. It will only grow in 2024, some Democrats say.

American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, spent $84 million tracking Republican candidates and using the footage to run ads against them in their home states in 2020.

In 2024, the operation is “going to be bigger than it’s ever been,” President Pat Dennis told Reuters.

IN THE SUBURBS

Republicans in suburban districts are the most squeezed by Trump politics, making them the best areas to film, Dennis said.

“The amount of damage Trump has done to the Republican Party in the suburbs is extraordinary. So that’s sort of the pain point for them,” Dennis said.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has a national favorability rating of around 41%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Sept 8-14, which had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points. That’s roughly tied with the equally unpopular Biden.

Pennsylvania Democrats are taking aim at Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger to incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. for remaining silent on Trump’s legal woes and hiring former Trump officials during a failed 2022 Senate run.

McCormick jumped into the senate race on Thursday after spending weeks debating whether Trump would be a drag on his campaign. He did not mention the former president during his campaign speech, but his aides say they know questions about Trump are coming.

“Dave will speak to the Trump question, which I know he will see on the trail and when he’s out in interviews for sure,” a McCormick campaign strategist said.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggles to negotiate a deal to keep the government open, he faces a challenge from his right flank, with hardline members of his caucus threatening to oust him as their leader.

To do so, they would need to invoke what’s called the “motion to vacate.”

WHAT IS THE MOTION TO VACATE?

The motion to vacate is the House’s procedure to remove its speaker. The chamber’s current rules allow any one member, Democrat or Republican, to introduce the motion. If it is introduced as a “privileged” resolution, the House must consider it at some point, although it could be delayed with procedural votes.

If the motion to vacate comes to the House floor for a vote, it would only need a simple majority to pass. Republicans currently control the House with 221 seats to 212 Democrats, meaning if McCarthy wants to keep his speaker’s gavel he cannot afford to lose more than four votes.

WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO THIS RULE?

McCarthy endured a brutal 15 rounds of voting in January before being elected as speaker, during which he agreed to multiple concessions increasing the power of Republican hardliners.

One was the decision to allow just one member to put forward a motion to vacate, which meant that hardliners could threaten McCarthy’s speakership at any time.

This was a change from the rules in place under his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, when a majority of one party needed to support a motion to vacate to bring it to the floor.

WHO HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT FILING A MOTION TO VACATE?

Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, a hardline conservative from Florida and perpetual thorn in McCarthy’s side, has repeatedly threatened to file a motion to vacate. The speaker has been unfazed.

In a Sept. 14 closed-door meeting of House Republicans, McCarthy dared Gaetz to bring a motion to the floor.

Others including Representatives Dan Bishop and Eli Crane have also suggested they would support a motion to vacate.

HAS THE MOTION TO VACATE BEEN USED BEFORE?

The motion was first used in 1910, when then-Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon put forward the motion himself to force detractors in his own party to make a decision on whether they supported him or not, according to the House Archives. The motion failed.

Then-Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to vacate in 1997. Although he managed to tamp down resistance and avoid an actual resolution being filed, he resigned in 1998 after disappointing results in the midterm elections that year.

Republican then-Representative Mark Meadows in 2015 filed a motion to vacate against Republican Speaker John Boehner. It did not come to a vote but Boehner resigned anyway a few months later, citing the challenges of managing a burgeoning hardline conservative faction of his party.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Makini Brice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez on Monday ignored calls to resign from his seat, denying wrongdoing and vowing to stay in Congress after prosecutors charged him and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen.

Some elected officials, including the Democratic governor of Menendez’s state of New Jersey, have publicly urged him to step down. His decision to remain in the Senate may complicate his party’s efforts to maintain its narrow 51-49 majority in that chamber, although New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

Menendez has stepped down temporarily from his role as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senate Democratic rules require any member charged with a felony to give up their leadership position, though they can take it back if they are found not guilty.

“I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” Menendez, 69, said in his first public remarks since he was charged on Friday.

U.S. prosecutors said Menendez accepted gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for wielding his influence to aid the Egyptian government and interfere with law enforcement investigations into the businessmen.

Sherrod Brown became the second Senate Democrat to call for Menendez to resign, saying in a statement: “Senator Menendez has broken the public trust and should resign from the U.S. Senate.” U.S. Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, on Saturday urged Menendez to resign in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre did not weigh in on Menendez’s decision to remain in Congress, but told reporters on Monday: “We believe the senator stepping down from his chairmanship was the right thing to do.”

Prosecutors want Menendez to forfeit assets including his home, a 2019 Mercedes-Benz convertible and $566,000 in cash, gold bars and bank account funds.

U.S. Representative Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said on Saturday in a post on X that the allegations against Menendez had compelled him to take on the senator in a primary ahead of the 2024 election. Menendez has not publicly announced if he is seeking re-election.

Menendez said he has worked to hold countries, including Egypt, accountable for human rights abuses and that the cash in his home was withdrawn from his accounts and kept for emergencies.

“If you look at my actions related to Egypt during the period described in this indictment, and throughout my whole career, my record is clear and consistent,” he said. He did not respond to shouted questions.

The probe is the third time Menendez has been under investigation by federal prosecutors, though he has never been convicted.

Menendez, his wife Nadine Menendez and the businessmen are expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. The charges Menendez and his wife face carry a sentence of up to 45 years in prison, though judges in these types of cases usually impose less than the maximum possible sentence.

Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been a powerful voice on foreign policy. He has sometimes been at odds with his own party, critical of moves by President Barack Obama’s administration to ease relations with Cuba and the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. Menendez was also part of several failed efforts to overhaul the U.S. immigration system.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Scott Malone, Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) – At least six Republican candidates will take part in the second 2024 Republican presidential debate on Wednesday in California. Donald Trump will skip the event and give a speech in Detroit to autoworkers.

Here are some facts about the event and what to expect:

+

WHEN AND WHERE WILL IT TAKE PLACE?

Following on from last month’s debate in Wisconsin,

The second showdown will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, California, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Los Angeles.

The Republican National Committee, which organizes the debates, has picked the Fox Business Network to host the event, alongside Univision, the U.S.-based Spanish language TV channel, and Rumble, the online video platform popular with conservatives. The two-hour debate will start at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT).

FEWER CANDIDATES – AND NO TRUMP AGAIN

The qualifying rules for the second debate are more stringent than the first last month, when eight candidates were on stage in Milwaukee. This means two longshot contenders – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson – will likely fail to make the cut due to a lack of donors and poor polling.

Former President Donald Trump, the runaway frontrunner in the nominating contest according to opinion polls, has said he will skip the debates, and did not appear at the first one.

As he did in August, Trump will hold a rival event at the same time as the debate. He will give a speech in Detroit to autoworkers and other blue-collar workers at 8 p.m. ET. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Sept. 14 launched strikes at three U.S. auto plants after failing to reach an agreement over new contracts, the first-ever simultaneous labor action against the Detroit Three automakers.

The six candidates likely to be on stage are: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

With a smaller lineup, there will be more time for each candidate to attack each other and make their pitches to voters. It also gives them more opportunity to shine or self-destruct.

DESANTIS DESPERATELY NEEDS A BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE

DeSantis, who was seen in January as the most likely candidate to topple Trump, has had a difficult year, with sinking poll numbers and two staff shake-ups. Once the clear second-place candidate behind Trump, DeSantis’ campaign has floundered as some other candidates closed the gap with him in recent polls.

The Florida governor delivered a solid, if not flashy, performance in last month’s debate but was frequently overshadowed by Ramaswamy. DeSantis will be looking for some breakout moments this time around to rejuvenate his candidacy.

RAMASWAMY WILL GET HIT FROM ALL SIDES

With Trump currently crushing his rivals by roughly 40 percentage points in national polls, the Republican nominating contest has become a fight for second place. His rivals hope the former president’s four criminal indictments and legal woes will somehow knock him out of the race next year, giving an alternative nominee the chance to emerge.

After Ramaswamy’s pugnacious performance in the August debate, expect to see more attacks on him and his lack of experience, especially by Haley and Pence, both of whom had strong outings last month.

Like DeSantis, Scott also needs a more forceful night after his subdued one last month. The Haley-Ramaswamy-Scott-Pence scramble to overtake DeSantis and become the clear alternative to Trump will likely be a major dynamic.

DEFEND TRUMP, ATTACK BIDEN

Do not expect to see most candidates – with the exception of Christie – going after Trump for his indictments and the fact he is now the first former president with a mug shot. Many Republican primary voters believe Trump’s claim that the indictments are an effort by the Biden administration to thwart his candidacy, and attacking him on the issue would likely be political suicide.

With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over alleged links to the business practices of his son Hunter Biden, expect to see a barrage of accusations against the Democratic president, an issue that plays well with the Republican base despite the dearth of evidence unearthed so far.

A PLAY FOR HISPANIC VOTERS

The inclusion of Univision as a debate host is telling. Republican support among Latinos, an increasingly key voting bloc in some key battleground states, including Arizona and Nevada, has been growing in recent years, while Hispanic support for Biden has been dropping. Expect to see candidates asked about the economy and how they plan to improve the financial prospects for Latino families.

(Reporting by Tim Reid in Los Angeles, editing by Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)

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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged powerful Senator Bob Menendez and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, which could complicate Democrats’ efforts to keep their slim majority in the U.S. Senate in next year’s elections.

Menendez later stepped down temporarily from his role as chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee until the case is resolved, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, adding that Menendez had a right to due process.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan said Menendez, 69, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars in exchange for using his power and influence as New Jersey’s senior senator to benefit the government of Egypt and interfere with law enforcement probes into the businessmen.

Menendez has been an important ally to fellow Democrat Joe Biden as the president has sought to reassert U.S. influence on the world stage, rally support for congressional aid to Ukraine, and push back against a rising China.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, as well as several other Democratic state officials and members of the U.S. House of Representatives, called on Menendez to resign from the Senate.

“The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,” Murphy – who would appoint a temporary replacement for Menendez should he go – said in a statement.

However, Menendez said he had no plan to resign.

“It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” he said in a statement late Friday.

Prosecutors are seeking to have Menendez forfeit assets including his New Jersey home, a 2019 Mercedes-Benz convertible, and about $566,000 in cash, gold bars and funds from a bank account.

The indictment contained an image of gold bars investigators seized from Menendez’s home as well as envelopes stuffed with cash found inside jackets bearing Menendez’s name hanging in his closet. Prosecutors said they found more than $480,000 in cash in his home.

Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, noted that Menendez’s website says that as a senator he cannot compel an agency to act in someone’s favor or influence matters involving a private business.

“Behind the scenes, Senator Menendez was doing those things for certain people – the people that were bribing him and his wife,” Williams said. He added the investigation was ongoing.

Menendez said in a statement that prosecutors mischaracterized routine legislative work.

“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent,” Menendez said. “The facts are not as presented.”

A lawyer for Nadine Menendez, 56, who has been married to the senator since 2020, said she denied wrongdoing and would “vigorously defend” against the allegations in court.

MENENDEZ HAS FACED OTHER PROBES

The investigation marks the third time Menendez has been investigated by federal prosecutors, although he has never been convicted.

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey dropped a case in January 2018 in which Menendez was charged with accepting private flights, campaign contributions and other bribes from a wealthy patron in exchange for official favors. A 2017 trial on those charges ended in a jury deadlock. He was also investigated in 2006.

Senate Democratic rules require any member charged with a felony to give up their leadership position, although they can resume it if found not guilty. Senator Ben Cardin is expected to step in again as foreign relations chairman, as he did after Menendez was indicted in 2015.

Menendez, on his third term, has said he plans to seek re-election next year.

An investigation could complicate Democrats’ effort to expand their slim 51-49 seat majority in the 100-member Senate, although New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

A Cuban American, Menendez has been the toughest opponent among Biden’s Democrats of any move by the administration to soften policies toward Cuba and Venezuela.

He has also been one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, especially resistant to major weapons deals for the kingdom.

Criminal charges against members of the 100-seat Senate are relatively rare. Ted Stevens, a former Republican Senator from Alaska, was found guilty of corruption in 2008, but the conviction was later overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct. Larry Craig, a Republican from Idaho, was arrested for lewd conduct in a bathroom in 2007 and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct.

BUSINESSMEN ALSO CHARGED

Menendez, his wife and the businessmen – Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes – are all expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Sept. 27 to face charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

Bob and Nadine Menendez also each face one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The pair each face up to 45 years in prison, though any sentence would ultimately be determined by a judge and would likely be much shorter.

According to the indictment, Hana – who is originally from Egypt – arranged meetings in 2018 between the senator and Egyptian officials, in which officials pressed Menendez to sign off on military aid Washington had withheld over concerns about the country’s human rights record.

In exchange, Hana, 40, put Nadine Menendez on the payroll of a company he controlled that had the exclusive right to certify halal meat shipped to Egypt from the United States, prosecutors said.

The senator later sought to persuade the U.S. Department of Agriculture to not take any action to interfere with the company’s monopoly status, according to the indictment.

“We are still reviewing the charges but based upon our initial review, they have absolutely no merit,” a spokesperson for Hana said in a statement.

The Egyptian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said Uribe, who worked in the trucking and insurance businesses, gave Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash to help pay for a Mercedes-Benz convertible after her husband asked an official at the New Jersey attorney general’s office to resolve fraud investigations into Uribe’s associates favorably.

Daibes, a real estate developer, gave Menendez gold bars and cash after Menendez sought to influence a federal criminal case in New Jersey against Daibes for obtaining loans under false pretenses, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said. Daibes pleaded guilty and received a probationary sentence.

Lawyers for Uribe and Daibes did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Simon Lewis, Makini Brice and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Writing by Tom Hals; Editing by Mark Porter, Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien)

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