Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump plans to skip the first Republican primary debate next week and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter.

Wednesday night’s debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is being hosted by Fox News, which parted ways earlier this year with Carlson, who now is starting his own media company. Trump has also criticized Fox over its recent coverage of him.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Fox, the Republican National Committee and Carlson also could not be immediately reached.

Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the 2024 election will gather at the debate to tout their candidacies. Trump has an Aug. 25 deadline to voluntarily surrender in Fulton County, Georgia, after being charged this week in a fourth criminal indictment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, charged Trump and 18 associates for a scheme intended to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Most self-identified Republicans polled in June said they saw politics behind the indictments of Trump up to that point. Trump is leading polls for the party’s nominations.

Most Republicans have said they see politics behind the indictment of Trump, who is leading polls for the party’s nominations.

Trump also faces two federal indictments over his handling of classified documents after leaving office in January 2021 and over his alleged role in efforts to overturn his election loss. He also faces charges in New York over alleged hush money payments to a pornographic film star ahead of the 2016 election.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Ismail Shakil and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump plans to skip the first Republican primary debate next week and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter.

Trump has for months suggested that he would likely pass on Wednesday night’s debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arguing that it did not make sense to give others a change to attack him given his sizeable lead among Republicans in national polls.

Trump has also criticized Fox, which is hosting the debate, over its recent coverage of him.

Trump’s absence could mean Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a distant second in the polls, will become the focus of attacks from other candidates looking to position themselves as the primary alternative to the former president.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said nothing had been confirmed on the candidate’s debate plans, without elaborating.

Representatives for Fox, which parted ways earlier this year with Carlson, and the Republican National Committee could not immediately be reached for comment. Carlson, who now is starting his own media company, also could not be reached.

In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month, Trump held 47% of the Republican vote nationally, with DeSantis dropping six percentage points from July down to just 13%. None of the other candidates due to attend the debate have broken out of single digits.

Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the 2024 election will gather at the debate to tout their candidacies, but so far only a few have aggressively criticized Trump despite his mounting legal troubles.

Trump has an Aug. 25 deadline to voluntarily surrender in Fulton County, Georgia, after being charged this week in a fourth criminal indictment, for an alleged scheme intended to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Most self-identified Republicans polled in June said they saw politics behind the indictments of Trump up to that point.

Trump also faces two federal indictments over his handling of classified documents after leaving office in January 2021 and over his alleged role in efforts to overturn his election loss. He also faces charges in New York over alleged hush money payments to a pornographic film star ahead of the 2016 election.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Ismail Shakil and Alistair Bell)

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By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In mid-March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the Ukraine war as a “territorial dispute” that was not of vital strategic interest to the United States, in a written reply to a questionnaire from Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

His comment dismayed allies and drew fierce rebukes from many Republicans who favor a more active role for the U.S. in Ukraine, including some who are challenging him for the 2024 presidential nomination.

Playing a quiet but important role in shaping the governor’s remarks was the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, America’s top conservative think tank, according to two people with knowledge of their interactions.

Senior Heritage officials had advocated for months in conversations with DeSantis’ team that he oppose policies that could move the U.S. toward direct confrontation with Russia, the people said.

While officials at Heritage have been in contact with almost every 2024 Republican presidential campaign, including that of former President Donald Trump, the think tank’s proximity to DeSantis is unique, eight people involved in the discussions said.

    Heritage personnel have held near-daily conversations with DeSantis officials in recent months about key issues, including downsizing federal agencies, reorienting U.S. foreign policy to better prepare for confrontation with China, and lowering hurdles to domestic energy production, the eight people said.

    The range and frequency of those discussions with DeSantis’ campaign have not been previously reported.

    “It just makes sense. He’s such a policy mind,” said one Heritage official who, like the other people, asked not to be identified so he could speak freely about the private conversations.

    DeSantis’ aides and allies say next week’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee will be an opportunity for the governor to show that he is better versed in policy than his opponents. They portray it as a pivotal moment as DeSantis tries to regain momentum following a summer slide in the polls.

    Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ press secretary, said the candidate had received “a wide variety of input” when formulating his proposals. He did not elaborate on what role Heritage had played regarding specific policies.

    “The Heritage Foundation is a principled conservative organization and we are grateful for their contributions and suggestions,” Griffin said in response to Reuters’ detailed questions for this story. 

    Although the news agency was unable to pinpoint every policy DeSantis has adopted due to his campaign’s relationship with Heritage, many of his preferences mirror the think tank’s deep skepticism of the federal government, corporate elites and foreign entanglements.

    Several days after DeSantis’ March comments on Ukraine, his top aides met privately with Heritage President Kevin Roberts and other officials of the think tank at an office building near the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee, Florida.

    During that meeting, Generra Peck, who would later serve as DeSantis’ first campaign manager, thanked the Heritage officials for helping lay the groundwork for the governor’s position on the conflict, according to one person with direct knowledge of that conversation.

    Publicly, Heritage is taking pains not to take sides, in a bid to position itself as the pre-eminent conservative think tank no matter who wins the Republican nomination.

    During Trump’s presidency, Heritage developed a close working relationship with him. With the former president holding a formidable 34-point lead in polls, the think tank could again find itself working with a Trump administration should he win the 2024 election.

    “We are happy to provide policy recommendations to any lawmaker or candidate who asks,” said Noah Weinrich, a Heritage spokesperson, in response to detailed questions about this story.

Weinrich said Heritage has ‘hosted’ all major Republican candidates, but he did not comment on the contents of any policy discussions held between the think tank and any of the presidential contenders.

    TALLAHASSEE VISITS

    Either Roberts himself or other top Heritage officials have traveled to DeSantis’ home base in Tallahassee about once a month this year, people with knowledge of the trips said. Roberts has also traveled to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort owned by Trump, but the last visit was more than six months ago, those people added.

    The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    DeSantis’ policy chief, Dustin Carmack, who was a Heritage research fellow before joining the campaign, talks with officials at the think tank almost daily, according to two of the people, an unusual level of contact for a policy chief at this early stage of a campaign.

    Heritage officials have held in-depth discussions with DeSantis’ team about restructuring the Justice Department, abolishing the Department of Education, firing thousands of mid-level bureaucrats and disentangling the U.S. from Ukraine, according to those people.

    While Heritage officials have also held talks with all other major Republican presidential campaigns, those discussions have not been as frequent or in-depth, those people said.

    Some of those conversations have included DeSantis himself as well as Roberts, those people added.

    In addition to Carmack, the policy director, at least seven other Heritage staffers have taken positions in the DeSantis campaign.

    Among the policy areas in which discussions have taken place is the need to reform federal law enforcement, according to a DeSantis campaign official.

    DeSantis, like other Republican presidential contenders, has accused the Justice Department and the FBI in particular of bias against conservatives, accusations that law enforcement officials deny.

    Steve Bradbury, the general counsel for the Department of Transportation under Trump and a Heritage scholar, has talked with DeSantis about the need to relocate the FBI outside of Washington and empower its field offices, according to the DeSantis campaign official. Bradbury did not respond to interview requests.

    DeSantis appears to have embraced that view in part, saying on the campaign trail he would move much of the agency’s functions outside the capital.

    The governor, as well as many senior Heritage officials, holds the view that the concentration of federal employees in Washington leads to anti-conservative bias, as the city and its suburbs vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.

    Top Heritage officials, one person familiar with the think tank’s operations said, were among a small cadre of policy experts who saw an advance draft of DeSantis’ “Declaration of Economic Independence,” which condemned the effects China and large corporations were having on everyday Americans.

    While Reuters could not determine if Heritage staff suggested changes to the speech, the sharing of the document was a sign of the trust, that person said. The speech, which called for a decoupling of the U.S. economy from China and railed against President Joe Biden’s recent bank bailouts, was consistent with Heritage’s institutional policies, the person added.

    PROJECT 2025

    The Florida governor has also embraced Heritage’s “Project 2025.” In addition to a 920-page book that contains policy suggestions for every federal department, the think tank is assembling a vast list of hires that would staff the next administration in 2025 should a Republican win – even for positions that have in the past been seen as nonpartisan.

    In June, DeSantis dispatched a senior adviser, David Dewhirst, to work on the project. On the trail, the governor makes frequent references to firing mid-level bureaucrats, which two senior Heritage officials said they considered lightly veiled references to the project.

    Whether DeSantis’ connection to the think tank has been helpful for his campaign is an open question. In recent weeks, the governor has unveiled a number of policies from immigration and the military to the economy. He has yet to see a bump in the polls.

    DeSantis’ decision in March to characterize the Ukraine war as a “territorial dispute” was consistent with the views of about half the Republican Party, surveys show. But some donors and many Republican voters vigorously disagree.

    Following the controversial March 13 statement, Heritage officials had a suggestion for the campaign, according to one person with knowledge of the discussions.

    Perhaps, they said, DeSantis’ message on Ukraine could be delivered with more nuance. He could acknowledge the unjustness of the Russian invasion, while insisting the U.S. needed to limit its involvement and keep its attention on China.

    It is unclear if DeSantis took that advice to heart. But the governor’s message subtly shifted. DeSantis told Fox Nation in an interview on March 23 his remarks had been “mischaracterized.”

    “Obviously, Russia invaded,” he said, “and that was wrong.”

(Reporting by Gram Slattery, editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Flynn)

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(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had canceled a press conference scheduled for next week to release a report into the 2020 election in Georgia, saying his attorneys would put his arguments in court filings instead.

Trump said earlier this week that he would hold the press conference on Monday to release a detailed, 100-page report into what he described as “election fraud” in the state of Georgia during the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has been charged in Georgia and in federal court with attempting to overturn those election results.

“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Therefore, he added, the news conference was no longer necessary.

Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has repeatedly claimed that the election was marred by widespread fraud. Those claims have been rejected by courts, state reviews and members of his own administration.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Dan Whitcomb)

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By Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) -Lawyers for Donald Trump on Thursday asked a federal judge in Washington to schedule an April 2026 trial for the former president, on federal charges that he allegedly sought to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

That requested date would place the trial after the November 2024 U.S. election, in which Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

“The public interest lies in justice and fair trial, not a rush to judgment,” Trump’s attorneys wrote on Thursday.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office is prosecuting the federal 2020 election case against Trump, last Thursday asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to schedule a trial to start on Jan. 2, 2024. That date is two weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

A spokesperson for Smith on Thursday declined to comment beyond that earlier court filing.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Dan Whitcomb and Jacqueline ThomsenEditing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)

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By Kanishka Singh and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Law enforcement officials are investigating threats related to former President Donald Trump’s election interference investigation in Georgia, after names and addresses of grand jury members were posted online, a sheriff’s office said.

“Our investigators are working closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to track down the origin of threats in Fulton County and other jurisdictions,” the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.

Posts on social media of the purported names and addresses of the Fulton County grand jury were tracked by Advance Democracy, a non-profit research organization whose president, Dan Jones, is a former FBI investigator and staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Two NBC News reporters who wrote about the grand jury incident later had their own purported addresses posted online, according to the group’s latest draft report seen by Reuters.

The organization also found posts employing violent rhetoric against Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, who oversaw the more-than-two-year investigation of a suspected scheme by Trump and 18 others to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“Statements by Trump and his allies continue to inspire violent language and threats online,” Jones told Reuters.

“The latest threats against jury members shows you don’t have to be a politician or government official to be the target. It’s critical that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office take this matter seriously. Equally important is that political leaders on the right denounce these threats and the statements that inspire them.”

Fulton County contains Atlanta, Georgia’s largest city and the state capital.

This month, following an indictment by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith on Republican Trump’s efforts to overturn his election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump lashed out on his Truth Social media site, saying, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

The 98-page Georgia indictment on Monday listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal counts in all. Echoing his criticism of the other investigations he faces, Trump has called the indictment a political “witch hunt.” Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination to run for president in the 2024 election.

“We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty,” the sheriff’s office said.

An indictment in Georgia that is available as a public record includes the names of grand jurors but not their addresses or any other personally identifiable information.

A woman from Texas was charged this month with threatening the federal judge overseeing Trump’s separate criminal case in Washington about the 2020 election.

Reports by Advance Democracy, which conducts public interest investigations, this week found posts by users on at least four social media websites targeting the grand jurors that “often included violent rhetoric.”

“These jurors have signed their death warrant by falsely indicting President Trump,” one report quoted a poster as saying.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Grant McCool and Don Durfee)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Republican U.S. lawmaker heading a congressional probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings asked the National Archives on Thursday for emails between President Joe Biden and his 53-year-old son.

House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called on the official depository of U.S. records to produce unredacted emails and other documents from 2015 and 2016, when the elder Biden was vice president and his son sat on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

House Republicans are mulling a possible impeachment inquiry against the elder Biden, based partly on allegations that the president, his son and other family members have engaged in financial misconduct, allegations the White House strongly denies. They have not produced evidence of financial misconduct by the president.

The White House had no immediate comment.

David Weiss, the newly elevated U.S. special counsel leading the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, last week said he may be heading to trial on charges of tax evasion and a gun charge, after a judge refused to accept a proposed plea deal to settle the charges.

That raises the possibility that President Biden’s son could face a criminal trial as his father is seeking reelection, in a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump, who faces his own broad array of legal woes.

Late last month, a former Hunter Biden business associate told investigators that the president’s son gave the impression to Burisma executives that he had leverage because of his father and sold those family ties as part of his business brand.

But the witness, Devon Archer, said that while Hunter Biden had his father talk to associates and others by speakerphone about 20 times over 10 years, the conversations did not involve any business dealings. Archer said he was not aware of any wrongdoing by the elder Biden.

“Joe Biden has stated there was ‘an absolute wall’ between his family’s foreign business schemes and his duties as vice president. But evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling,” Comer alleged in a statement.

“The National Archives must provide these unredacted records to further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption,” the Republican said.

After the proposed plea deal collapsed, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty in July to charges of failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018 despite owing more than $100,000. He did not enter a plea in a separate case where he is charged with unlawfully owning a firearm while using illegal drugs, which is a felony.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Jacqueline Thomsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The district attorney prosecuting former U.S. President Donald Trump on election interference charges in Georgia has proposed that his trial start in March of next year, a date that would have Trump in court mid-campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The proposed March 4 trial date is one day before Super Tuesday, during which voters in more than a dozen states are set to cast their ballots for the Republican presidential nomination.

Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, submitted her recommendation in a court filing on Wednesday, which also said that initial appearances for the various defendants charged in the Georgia election case should happen during the week of Sept. 5.

Lawyers and a spokesperson for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.

A Fulton County grand jury on Tuesday indicted Trump and 18 others, accusing the former president of seeking to undo his 2020 election loss to U.S. President Joe Biden.

Trump is set to be on trial in New York on March 25, 2024, on separate charges of concealing a hush money payment to a porn star – a schedule that the former president is certain to raise in response to the recommended start date in Georgia.

Willis said in Wednesday’s filing that the proposed schedule does “not conflict” with other hearings and trial dates set in Trump’s other criminal cases.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in an interview with WNYC radio last month — before Trump was indicted in two other cases, including Georgia — that the various judges involved may “confer” about the schedules.

Trump’s attorneys have argued in other criminal cases that any trial be scheduled until after the November 2024 presidential election.

He is set to go on trial in Florida in May on charges of retaining sensitive government documents after leaving office.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has also asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge to schedule a Jan. 2 trial start date on charges that Trump plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump’s attorneys face a Thursday deadline to propose their own trial date in that case.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Grant McCool and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will push Camp David into the international spotlight on Friday when he hosts the leaders of Japan and South Korea there, a return to glory for a mountain retreat that has become indelible in diplomatic history.

Biden chose the rustic redoubt in the Maryland hills for the first U.S.-Japan-South Korea summit because Camp David has often been used to symbolize newfound or hard-won friendship, a senior administration official said.

“Certainly in the case of this summit, we envision Camp David kind of marking a new beginning for all of us as trilateral partners among the U.S., ROK (South Korea) and Japan. So we think the symbolism is heavy here and really can’t be overstated,” the official said.

Biden, Japan’s Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol are expected to meet in the historic Laurel Lodge. Their working lunch is expected to take place in the President’s Cabin, Aspen Lodge, and if the weather is good an afternoon press conference will take place outdoors in the woodsy setting.

Built by the Works Progress Administration, the infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, the camp has hosted its share of international detentes. Most famously, President Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David accords in 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

The first foreign leader to visit Camp David, then known as “Shangri-La,” was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was there for World War Two talks with Roosevelt. U.S. archive photos show them near a stream, Roosevelt holding a fly rod and Churchill a cigar.

Since then, a parade of foreign leaders have been invited to the 180-acre compound in the Catoctin Mountains of western Maryland. Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev visited President Dwight Eisenhower there in 1959, a few years before the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brought Cold War tensions to a boil.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton used Camp David to try to corral Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat into a peace deal, but ended in failure.

When Arafat, who was blamed for the impasse, later called Clinton a “great man,” Clinton wrote in his memoir of his terse reply.

“I am not a great man. I am a failure, and you have made me one,” he told Arafat.

WHERE PRESIDENTS REST

Camp David is also a place where presidents rest up from the rigors of the office and escape the confines of the White House, the antique-filled executive mansion that Harry Truman used to call “the Great White Prison.”

President Ronald Reagan visited Camp David 189 times over eight years. President Donald Trump, by contrast, preferred his own golf resorts and only went to Camp David 15 times over his four years in office. He had to abandon plans for a G7 summit there in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.Eisenhower, who named Camp David for his father and grandson, would grill steaks for family and friends. President George W. Bush would go mountain bike riding. Carter liked to fish in the mountain streams.

One time George W. Bush hosted Russian leader Vladimir Putin at Camp David and introduced Putin to his Scottish terrier, Barney. On a subsequent visit to Russia, Putin showed Bush his big black Labrador and said it was “bigger, stronger, faster than Barney,” Bush said.

The seemingly mundane at Camp David can sometimes erupt into major headlines, like the time President George H.W. Bush was out for a jog and experienced an abnormal heartbeat, prompting the White House to go into crisis mode.

“Marlin, see if you can get me a two-week vacation out of this, will you?” a recovering Bush told his press secretary Marlin Fitzwater later.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Grant McCool)

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By Moira Warburton

(Reuters) – A campaign aide to embattled Republican U.S. Representative George Santos was charged with identity theft and wire fraud in federal court for impersonating a top congressional staffer in fundraising appeals, court documents unsealed on Wednesday showed.

The indictment, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said Samuel Miele created an email account bearing the name of “Person #1,” identified as “a high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities.”

House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has confirmed media reports alleging that Miele impersonated one of his top aides to elicit contributions to Santos’s campaign.

Miele reached out to over a dozen contributors through the email account and phone calls, the indictment said, receiving a commission of 15% of the contributions he solicited to Santos’ campaign.

Miele could not be immediately reached for comment.

According to the indictment, Miele admitted to Santos in August 2021 that he faked his identity “to a big donor,” adding “that he was ‘high risk, high reward in everything I do.’”

Santos’ and McCarthy’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Santos has admitted to lying about his resume during his campaign, and has faced calls from within his own party to step down. He was indicted in May on federal charges including fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment itself did not name Santos, referring instead to “Candidate #1,” but a letter from federal prosecutors to the court said the two cases may be considered “presumptively related.”

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; editing by Andy Sullivan)

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