Politics

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – The final report from a special grand jury that investigated Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election is due to be released on Friday, weeks after the former U.S. president and 18 associates were indicted.

The report, which has remained sealed for nine months, includes the grand jury’s recommendations to prosecutors on whom to charge. The document could show whether the jurors felt any additional Trump allies should have been indicted beyond those who face charges.

The special grand jury was convened in 2021 at the request of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to aid in her investigation. Over the course of several months, the jurors subpoenaed testimony from 75 witnesses, including Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani and Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and top Georgia officials such as Governor Brian Kemp.

The special grand jury did not have the power to issue charges. But Willis used the evidence it gathered to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury last month, which accused Trump and his co-defendants of overseeing a wide-ranging conspiracy to sabotage Democrat Joe Biden’s statewide victory.

The indictment listed 30 unindicted co-conspirators, who have not been charged but allegedly played a role in the scheme.

All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty. As with his three other criminal prosecutions, Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he is the victim of political persecution.

Despite his legal troubles, he remains the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination next year.

The grand jury report had stayed secret at Willis’s request while she determined what charges to bring. Now the indictment has come down, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McNurney wrote in an order last week, there is no longer any reason to keep it from the public.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to endorse Donald Trump’s presidential campaign when he travels to her state for a Republican fundraiser on Friday.

Trump will appear in Rapid City for an event hosted by the state’s GOP, and Noem is expected to introduce and endorse Trump, according to a senior Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury said only that the event should be watched for such a development.

The Republican governor has been coy about her endorsement plans, telling Fox News only that “you’ll hear something from me, too.”

CNN first reported news of the endorsement.

When Trump was asked Thursday whether Noem will endorse him, he said, “I don’t know exactly.”

“But I am going,” he said. “I like her a lot. I think she’s great. Kristi’s done a great job.”

He praised her for taking a hands-off approach to pandemic restrictions and at times encouraging people to resume mass gatherings. In July 2020, Noem hosted Trump for a fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore.

Noem was long considered a potential candidate in her own right and had told The New York Times in November 2022 that she didn’t believe Trump offered “the best chance” for the party in 2024. But she removed herself from presidential consideration this summer, saying there was no point in joining the crowded field running for the nomination, given Trump’s dominant position.

Noem, however, has looked for ways to stay in the national conversation. During the first GOP presidential debate, she ran an ad to encourage people to move to South Dakota. In the TV spot, she appeared wearing plumber’s overalls and touted the state as “the freest state in America.”

The state’s senators, John Thune and Mike Rounds, have endorsed one of Trump’s rivals, their colleague South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

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By Nandita Bose and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s strategy of backing politically crucial unions while avoiding strikes that cripple the economy has hit a bump in Detroit.

During a summer of labor unrest, Biden has touted his pro-labor policies by speaking out for unions, while his administration behind the scenes tries to smooth the way for deals with employers to avoid costly walkouts, union leaders and administration officials said.

But in a reminder of how hard it is to appease energized workers while tamping down on price hikes that cause inflation, Biden and auto workers union UAW – the only major union not to endorse his 2024 presidential run – are at loggerheads.

Biden’s Labor Day prediction that the union would not strike against Detroit’s automakers ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline was soundly rejected by UAW President Shawn Fain.

“He must know something we don’t know,” said Fain in response, adding that he was “shocked” by the comment. “Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands on the night before. I don’t know, but he’s on the inside on something I don’t know about.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s comments about the UAW over Labor Day was him being “an optimistic person.”

The president remains “optimistic” about a resolution of negotiations with the UAW, she said on Tuesday, and believes the union is at the “heart of an electric vehicle future that is Made in America with union jobs.”

Labor unions like the UAW – which represents 146,000 workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis NV’s North American unit who are demanding cost of living increases and pay that matches company profits – are key to Biden’s game plan for winning reelection in 2024.

He needs their support to win key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan again, which stand to bear the brunt of any major strikes against carmakers.

A UAW strike that shuts Detroit’s Big Three manufacturers could cost carmakers, suppliers and workers over $5 billion, a study by the Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group says. With new car inventories slim, consumer experts say that could translate to higher car prices – an important component of inflation.

Biden is “more pro-labor than any other president but he is doing a balancing act when it comes to strikes,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industry & Labor Relations (ILR).

Biden created a White House team in 2021 to support new unions, which his administration says are key to fighting U.S. inequality, and has backed collective bargaining and union wage increases since taking office. The White House has tried to play a role in several recent large-scale union contract negotiations involving rail workers and West Coast port workers.

On Wednesday, Biden reiterated that “collective bargaining means everyone wins,” and said the successful negotiations to resolve a labor dispute at West Coast ports will have a direct impact on lowering inflation. Workers there ratified a new six-year contract last month that includes a 32% pay raise.

While other major labor unions have endorsed Biden’s 2024 run, the UAW, which backed Biden in 2020, has held out, citing his electric vehicle policies. Biden’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, stepped up his attacks on the Democrat’s EV policies over the Labor Day weekend, urging auto workers to support him. Trump won Michigan in 2016, helping propel him to the White House; Biden beat him by 154,000 votes in Michigan in 2020.

The UAW failing to endorse Biden is “a bit of a danger signal,” given Michigan’s importance in 2024, said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The hesitancy to endorse Biden, Shaiken said, “could convince many UAW members, ‘Well, if the leadership doesn’t think they’re so great, why not Trump?’”

SEASON OF STRIKES

The labor tensions in Detroit come as unionized workers across a wide range of industries are striking, or threatening to strike, to win back concessions made during the pandemic.

In 2022, there were 23 large strikes in the U.S. involving 1,000 workers or more, affecting over 120,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2023, the data through August shows 34 similar work stoppages affecting over 142,000 workers. Around half a million more threatened strikes in the first half of 2023, estimates from national labor unions show.

Biden, 80, is tying his 2024 re-election bid to the health of the economy, highlighting job growth, rising wages and fading recession fears. At the same time, the Biden campaign is seeking donations from corporations and executives, and endorsement from business for its economic policies.

Accelerating Detroit’s shift to electric vehicles is a central element of Biden’s climate policy, and the administration is offering billions of dollars in federal subsidies to spur domestic EV and battery production.

UAW members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and other Midwestern states, however, mainly build combustion trucks and SUVs.

WHITE HOUSE’S ROLE

The president has directed his staff to engage in “prudent policymaking,” over labor issues, two senior White House officials said in late July, indicating that the White House will not jump into every high-profile negotiation. They said they are in constant touch with unions and employers, monitoring the progress in talks.

“We don’t view our role as waiting for more opportunities to jump in and facilitate,” one of the officials said.

The White House last week announced $12 billion in Energy Department grants and loans that automakers could use to retool factories to build electric vehicles, a nod to the UAW’s push to stop Stellantis from closing a Jeep assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. The company blamed the decision to idle the plant on the high cost of converting to electric vehicles.

That is a contrast from direct mediation by administration officials last year in an agreement to prevent a national rail strike that could have devastated the American economy.

Biden’s intervention provoked criticism from some workers and labor allies, who blamed the administration for undercutting their negotiating position.

That dynamic is why the Teamsters, representing UPS workers, urged the White House to stay out of its talks at a critical phase in July – as it ultimately did, labor experts said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson in Washington, Additional reporting by Joseph White in Detroit, Editing by Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he will finish his term as party leader and his term as senator following two recent episodes of seemingly freezing up during public remarks.

McConnell told reporters he does not have anything to add to the report by the congressional physician report on his health, which found no evidence that he had suffered a stroke or seizure.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Katharine Jackson; editing by Dan Whitcomb)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he plans to serve the rest of his two-year term as party leader and his full six-year term in office, allowing for the possibility that he would step down from leadership before leaving office.

KEY QUOTE

“I am going plan to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term,” McConnell told reporters.

THE TAKE

Two recent episodes in which McConnell, 81, froze up while in public have raised questions about how long he will continue to serve and McConnell has offered few details as to what caused the incidents.

Already the longest-serving party leader in U.S. Senate history, McConnell’s current term as leader expires in January 2025, while his term as a senator runs through January 2027.

McConnell did not address the two-year gap between the end of his current job as leader and end of his Senate term. A spokesperson declined further comment.

CONTEXT

* There is precedent for long-serving and powerful party leaders remaining in office after leaving their leadership role. Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has done so and is currently serving in the rank-and-file as speaker emerita.

* McConnell tripped at a Washington dinner on March 8 and was admitted to a hospital for treatment of a concussion. He returned to the Senate in April. He has frozen up twice in public since then, most recently while speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky on Aug. 30.

* McConnell has served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021 and as Senate minority leader since then.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson, additional reporting by Makini Brice and David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

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By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A New York state judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to delay a scheduled Oct. 2 trial in state Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud lawsuit accusing him, family members and his business of overvaluing assets by billions of dollars.

Trump and the other defendants had said the trial should be “briefly” delayed until three weeks after Justice Arthur Engoron ruled on both sides’ requests for summary judgments, which seek victory on various legal issues without the need for a trial.

In a Tuesday night court filing, Trump accused James of “callous disregard” of a June 27 appeals court decision that prevented her from suing over loans that took place too long ago, “substantially” limiting the claims remaining for trial.

But in a one-sentence order, Engoron called Trump’s arguments for a delay “completely without merit.”

The judge had earlier this year said the Oct. 2 trial date would not change “come hell or high water.”

Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. James’ office had no immediate comment.

Separately, the defendants on Tuesday demanded that James withdraw what they called her “frivolous” motion to sanction them and their lawyers $20,000 for rehashing what she called their “frivolous” legal arguments on multiple issues.

On Wednesday, James refused the demand, saying that just because there was now a more “complete record” did not make legal arguments that courts have repeatedly rejected any better.

James is suing Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and others for allegedly inflating asset values in a decade of annual financial statements to obtain better terms on loans and insurance.

The attorney general said the fraud enabled Trump to inflate his net worth by as much as $2.23 billion, and that he should be found liable for fraud even before a trial began.

James is seeking at least $250 million, and to bar Trump and his sons from leading their family business.

The defendants have denied wrongdoing, and Trump has called James’ case part of a partisan “witch hunt.”

In another legal development on Wednesday, a federal judge found Trump liable for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll by denying in 2019 that he had raped her, and said jurors will decide only how much Trump owes in damages.

Trump has separately pleaded not guilty to charges in four separate federal and state criminal indictments, including two indictments for attempting to reverse his 2020 election loss.

Despite his legal problems, Trump has a dominating lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Daniel Wallis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he plans to serve the rest of his two-year term as party leader and his full six-year term in office, allowing for the possibility that he would step down from leadership before leaving office.

KEY QUOTE

“I am going plan to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term,” McConnell told reporters.

THE TAKE

Two recent episodes in which McConnell, 81, froze up while in public have raised questions about how long he will continue to serve and McConnell has offered few details as to what caused the incidents.

Already the longest-serving party leader in U.S. Senate history, McConnell’s current term as leader expires in January 2025, while his term as a senator runs through January 2027.

McConnell did not address the two-year gap between the end of his current job as leader and end of his Senate term. A spokesperson declined further comment.

CONTEXT

* There is precedent for long-serving and powerful party leaders remaining in office after leaving their leadership role. Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has done so and is currently serving in the rank-and-file as speaker emerita.

* McConnell tripped at a Washington dinner on March 8 and was admitted to a hospital for treatment of a concussion. He returned to the Senate in April. He has frozen up twice in public since then, most recently while speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky on Aug. 30.

* McConnell has served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021 and as Senate minority leader since then.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson, additional reporting by Makini Brice and David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

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By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A key witness in the case accusing former U.S. President Donald Trump of mishandling classified documents after leaving office has entered into a deal with prosecutors to provide testimony, his former attorney said in a Wednesday court filing.

The deal was reached after U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office threatened to prosecute the witness, who is the head of information technology at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, for lying to a grand jury, the attorney, Stanley Woodward, said in the filing.

Woodward currently represents Walt Nauta, one of the two Trump employees also charged in the documents case, in addition to having previously represented the IT head, who is not named in Wednesday’s filing.

Prosecutors have said the employee is likely to testify at trial, posing a potential conflict of interest for Woodward, who will face the prospect of a former client testifying against a current client.

Woodward has not opposed the request for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the case, to hold a hearing on the issue. But he suggested in Wednesday’s filing that prosecutors’ handling of the IT manager’s testimony was improper.

The case is one of four criminal prosecutions of Trump, who leads the field seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.

Prosecutors previously said that the witness, who has been identified by media outlets Politico and CNN as Yuscil Taveras, had information about efforts by Trump’s personal aide Nauta and others to obstruct the classified documents investigation.

Taveras’ current attorney had no immediate comment.

Prosecutors have charged Trump, Nauta and a third Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira, with trying to thwart government efforts to retrieve sensitive documents taken to the Florida resort after Trump left office. All three have pleaded not guilty.

A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment. Woodward declined to comment.

Prosecutors said in an August court filing that the witness initially denied any knowledge of obstruction. After receiving a letter from the special counsel’s office threatening him with prosecution, he dropped Woodward as his attorney and then detailed alleged efforts to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago, they said.

Woodward rejected prosecutors’ account in Wednesday’s filing, saying the IT employee provided new testimony to the grand jury only after being offered a non-prosecution deal, which was reached after he was no longer representing the employee.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrea Ricci)

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -Alabama’s Republican-backed congressional map illegally dilutes Black residents’ voting power and must be redrawn, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday, a decision that the state said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That appeal plan escalated the stakes of a judicial decision that boosted Democratic chances to win back a U.S. House of Representatives majority in the 2024 congressional elections.

The lower court’s ruling marked the second time that the judges threw out a map delineating the boundaries of the seven U.S. House districts in Alabama put in place by the Republican-controlled state legislature. The three-judge panel in Birmingham wrote that it saw little reason to give the state legislature a third chance. Instead, a court-appointed special master will create a new electoral map ahead of next year’s vote, the judges decided.

At issue was whether the Republican-drawn map violated a bedrock federal civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

“We have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close,” the judges wrote. “And we are deeply troubled that the state enacted a map that the state readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”

Under the Republican map, only one of the state’s U.S. House districts is majority Black even though Black residents make up more than a quarter of the state’s population. The state’s lone Democratic U.S. representative, Terri Sewell, represents that district.

The panel first intervened in 2022, ruling that an earlier Republican plan was illegal. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the panel’s decision in June, the Birmingham court ordered Alabama legislators to create a second district with either a Black majority or “something quite close” to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The law bars lawmakers from drawing district lines in a manner that discriminates against minority voters.

The latest plan increased the number of Black voters in a second district but fell short of a majority, prompting civil rights groups to challenge the new map in court once again.

The office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said, “While we are disappointed in (Tuesday’s) decision, we strongly believe that the legislature’s map complies with the Voting Rights Act and the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Alabama’s Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in filings submitted to the lower court disclosed plans to appeal to the Supreme Court and the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The plaintiffs who challenged Alabama’s map, including the state chapter of the NAACP, in a joint statement said: “Alabama openly admits its intention to defy the law and the U.S. Supreme Court. But we will not back down.”

The Alabama case is among several legal battles over redistricting that could result in new congressional maps in at least half a dozen states, enough to determine congressional control in the November 2024 elections. Republicans hold a slim 222-213 majority in the U.S. House.

A Florida state judge on Saturday ruled that a redistricting plan advanced by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis violated the state constitution by diminishing the power of Black voters in northern Florida. The judge ordered lawmakers back to the drawing board.

The Supreme Court in June allowed a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map to advance. A federal court has ordered lawmakers to draw a second majority-Black district. A U.S. appeals court is set to review the case next month.

The Voting Rights Act was passed at a time when Southern states including Alabama enforced policies blocking Black people from casting ballots.

Electoral districts are redrawn each decade to reflect population changes as measured by a national census, last taken in 2020. In most states, such redistricting is done by the party in power, which can lead to map manipulation for partisan gain.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, additional reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Bill Berkrot and Will Dunham)

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By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -The prosecution in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial on Tuesday urged state senators to convict the Republican on corruption-related charges and remove him for using the power of his office for his personal benefit, while his lawyer derided the case as “a lot of nothing.”

Paxton’s lawyer sought to paint the impeachment effort, which has been spearheaded by fellow Republicans in the state legislature, as an attempt by his political enemies to thwart the will of Texas voters who elected him three times to the post – even after the allegations of wrongdoing were publicly known.

Paxton, also under investigation by the FBI, entered pleas of not guilty as the impeachment trial got underway in the Texas Senate. After senators voted down his pretrial motions to dismiss the charges, Paxton rose on the Senate floor to hear the 16 articles of impeachment he faces, but did not speak as his lawyer announced his pleas.

An ally of former President Donald Trump, Paxton has been suspended from his post since the Texas House of Representatives voted in May to impeach him on corruption charges including aiding a wealthy political donor and persecuting whistleblowers from his office who accused him of wrongdoing. Both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans.

Trump has strongly backed Paxton. The political dynamics in a Paxton trial that pits Republicans against one another echo divisions on display in the party at the national level as Trump seeks to regain office, leading a crowded field of candidates vying to become its nominee to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election despite facing criminal charges in four separate cases.

“This whole case is a whole lot of nothing,” Tony Buzbee, the main defense lawyer for Paxton, told senators in his opening statement.

Buzbee promised to present evidence knocking down every allegation. He portrayed Paxton as the innocent target of establishment Republicans – whose power in Texas has waned as party figures focused on hot-button issues such as curbing abortion and transgender rights and securing the border have gained power.

Republican state Representative Andrew Murr, delivering the prosecution’s opening statement, said the witnesses he would present are diehard conservatives who were Paxton’s hand-chosen top aides but were forced to report him to the FBI because of “Paxton’s slow creep of corruption.”

“Mr. Paxton has been entrusted with great power. Unfortunately, rather than rise to the occasion, he’s revealed his true character and, as the overwhelming evidence will show, he’s not fit to be the attorney general for the state of Texas,” Murr said.

As attorney general, Paxton has backed powerful oil and gas interests and pursued restrictions on abortion and transgender rights. Paxton has led Republican state opposition to the policies of Democratic presidents and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

A two-thirds majority vote in the 31-member state Senate vote would be needed to remove Paxton, 60, from office. The last impeachment trial of a statewide office-holder in Texas came in 1917.

Thirty of the 31 senators will serve as jurors. Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a Republican senator but is not acting as a juror due to concerns over conflict of interest. The Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats. If all the Democrats vote to convict Paxton as expected, nine Republicans would need to join them to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to permanently remove him from office.

Senators rejected a motion to dismiss all the charges by a vote of 24-6 and also voted down additional motions to throw out individual charges.

Paxton’s impeachment was triggered by his request that House lawmakers approve a $3.3 million settlement he reached with four former staff members who accused him of abuse of office and were subsequently fired. State lawmakers did not do so.

The House voted 121-23 to impeach him on 20 articles that accused him of improperly aiding a real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul, conducting a sham investigation against the whistleblowers in his office, and covering up wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case, among other offenses.

The Senate’s impeachment rules committee set aside four charges involving Paxton’s private business dealings that House charges called obstruction of justice and false statements in official records. The Senate could dismiss those charges or hold a separate trial on them.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Will Dunham, Donna Bryson and Andy Sullivan)

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