Politics

By Tiyashi Datta

(Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce on Wednesday he is entering the 2024 presidential race during a Twitter Spaces discussion with billionaire Elon Musk, the first time such an announcement will be made on social media.

Musk and DeSantis will host the event on Twitter Spaces at 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) and the session will be moderated by tech entrepreneur and close Musk confidant David Sacks.

WHAT IS TWITTER SPACES?

It is a feature on Musk-owned social media platform Twitter where users can have live audio conversations. They can join, listen and speak in a “Space,” according to Twitter.

Any user with 600 or more followers can host a Space. Up to 13 people can speak in a Space at any given time, including the host and two co-hosts. Spaces are public and can be accessed by anyone.

Musk has previously appeared on Spaces to talk about Twitter’s performance, his plans for electric vehicle maker Tesla, and the global economy.

WHAT HAS MUSK SAID ABOUT DESANTIS?

Musk, who tweets liberally on politics and economics, said during a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday he was not “at this time planning to endorse any particular candidate.”

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” said in November he would support DeSantis in 2024 if the Florida governor were to run for president.

“My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far,” Musk had said on Twitter.

In June last year he said DeSantis would easily defeat Biden in the election.

IS MUSK A REPUBLICAN?

Musk, who had previously said he supported Democrats and had voted for President Joe Biden, urged his Twitter followers in November to elect a Republican Congress in U.S. midterms.

Musk, chief executive of Tesla, has been critical of the Biden administration for their proposals to tax billionaires and give more tax incentives to union-made EVs.

Twitter, which Musk bought last year, reinstated former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Twitter account in November, following his ban from the social media service for inciting violence. Twitter then reinstated the account of Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who had been banned for violating its COVID misinformation policies.

WHO IS DAVID SACKS?

Sacks, a venture capitalist, is the founder of business networking site Yammer and a former colleague of Musk’s at payment service PayPal. According to NBC, he is a major Republican donor supporting DeSantis and is considered to be part of Musk’s inner circle on decisions about Twitter.

WILL TWITTER BENEFIT FROM THE SPACES CHAT?

Musk said on Tuesday: “I am interested in Twitter being somewhat of a town square.”

Twitter is eyeing political ad dollars after several corporate advertisers have fled since Musk took over in October.

The company said in January it will reverse its 2019 ban on political advertisement, bringing its policies closer to Meta Platform’s Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Chris Reese)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks will visit the U.S. State Department on Tuesday to view a classified cable related to the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, department spokesperson Matt Miller said.

McCaul is investigating the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans, and some Democrats, say there has never been a full accounting of the chaotic operation, in which 13 U.S. service members were killed at Kabul’s airport.

McCaul has for months been seeking a “dissent channel” cable sent in July 2021 that a Wall Street Journal article in August 2021 said warned top officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk, Jasper Ward; Editing by Chris Reese)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Timothy Haugh to be the new leader of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The report cited an Air Force notice sent out Monday.

(Reporting by Paul Grant and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Rami Ayyub)

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By James Oliphant and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -If Ron DeSantis hopes to defeat Donald Trump and win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, he will ultimately have to bring every possible anti-Trump voter he can into the fold. But even that likely will not be enough, political analysts say.

DeSantis will also have to pull some supporters away from Trump — and that could make for a tricky balancing act that DeSantis is already struggling with.

“You can’t court MAGA while courting the rest of the party,” said Chris Stirewalt, a Republican analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, referring to Trump’s diehard supporters in his Make America Great Again movement. “That’s a difficult decision he is going to have to make.”

The Florida governor is expected to announce his presidential bid this week after months of speculation. With deep financial resources and a growing national profile, DeSantis will quickly become Trump’s top rival in the race.

But he will have much work to do: Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted this month showed Trump backed by 49% of Republicans and DeSantis 19%.

DeSantis’ initial challenge is that the anti-Trump field is fractured. Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, a U.S. senator from South Carolina, among others, are already in the race, with more candidates such as Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, perhaps to follow.

DeSantis’ campaign will have to figure out how to appeal to mainstream Republicans turned off by Trump while also finding ways to attract conservative voters who may be unsure about supporting Trump in 2024 even if they have backed him before.

“He can’t win the nomination with only non-Trump votes,” said Sarah Isgur, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns. “He has to peel voters away from Trump.”

A longtime Republican pollster, Whit Ayres, argues that the Republican electorate is divided into three segments, with Trump die-hards comprising about 30-35% of the party, anti-Trump voters making up about 10% and the rest somewhere in between – what he calls “maybe-Trumpers.”

“It looks to me like DeSantis is going after the always-Trumpers rather than the maybe-Trumpers,” Ayres said.

That’s a waste of time, Ayres said. Instead, DeSantis’ mission should be to convince “voters looking for an alternative to Trump that he’s the right guy.”

Stirewalt agrees, saying DeSantis needs to first build a strong base within the segment of the party not aligned with Trump before he can try to broaden his appeal.

“He needs a launchpad,” Stirewalt said.

DeSantis appears, however, to have chosen to court the party’s most conservative voters – and those most likely to stay with Trump – to the dismay of some potential donors and supporters.

As governor, he signed one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the nation earlier this year, and made it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons. He suggested supporting Ukraine was not in the national interest before backtracking under a fire storm of criticism.

And his continued blood feud with Walt Disney Co., one of the largest employers in Florida, has baffled some traditional Republicans who prefer a hands-off approach to corporate governance.

DeSantis’ political team did not respond to a request for comment.

In a telephone call with donors last week, DeSantis said Trump would not be able to beat Democratic President Joe Biden and that he was the only one capable of winning both the Republican primary and the general election, according to the New York Times, which listened to the call. 

An analysis of recent Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows that the core DeSantis voter is more likely to be an older college graduate who lives in the suburbs and drives an SUV. Trump’s strength is pronounced among younger, less educated voters who are more likely to live in rural areas and drive pick-up trucks.

In Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted this month, Trump garnered 36% of Republicans with a college degree, and DeSantis 26%.

The poll showed Trump dominating among rural Republicans 53% to 19%. But the gap narrows in the suburbs, where Trump has 44% of Republican support to DeSantis’ 21%, the poll found. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll in March found 43% of DeSantis supporters said they drove SUVs, compared to 31% of Trump supporters.

A DeSantis voter is also more likely to want the United States to strongly support Ukraine in its war with Russia, to not believe the 2020 election was riddled by fraud, and to be strongly opposed to progressive policies such as affirmative action and the teaching in schools of so-called Critical Race Theory, the argument that the U.S. is riven by systemic racism.

Trump’s own prospects are clouded by his ongoing legal problems, including being indicted for a hush-money scheme involving a porn star, a recent finding by a New York jury that he committed sexual abuse, and the potential for charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Isgur said DeSantis has time to build a winning coalition, arguing that non-Trump voters are likely to forgive the Florida governor for tacking hard to the right to chase some Trump supporters if it helps him secure the nomination.

But can DeSantis pull it off?

Isgur has her doubts, given Trump’s strength. “I’m just not sure it’s possible,” she said.

(Reporting by James Oliphant and Jason Lange, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

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By David Morgan and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representative said they were making little progress in negotiations with the White House over raising the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, with the nation facing the risk of default in as soon as nine days.

    Aides for President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, will convene again on Tuesday, McCarthy’s lead negotiator said. The two parties remain deeply divided about how to rein in the federal deficit, with Democrats arguing wealthy Americans and businesses should pay more taxes while Republicans wanting spending cuts.

The Treasury Department has warned that the federal government could no longer have enough money to pay all its bills as soon as June 1, which would cause a default that would hammer the U.S. economy and push borrowing costs higher.

Republican negotiator Representative Garret Graves said he had seen little progress.

“I don’t think things are going well,” Graves told reporters. “They are refusing to truly change the trajectory, to truly reduce spending, and that is a red line

Biden and McCarthy emerged from a Monday evening meeting on the debt ceiling talking about the need to find bipartisan compromise, even as they cling to policies that expose the divides between the two parties.

The lack of clear progress continued to weigh on Wall Street with U.S. stock indexes opening lower Tuesday morning and global markets on edge.

Biden and Democrats want to freeze spending in the 2024 fiscal year at the levels adopted in 2023, arguing that would represent a spending cut because agency budgets won’t match inflation. The idea was rejected by Republicans, who want spending cuts.

Biden wants to cut the deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for the oil and pharmaceutical industries. McCarthy declared that boosting revenue is a non-starter.

“I don’t think it’s a revenue problem. It’s a spending problem,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy told reporters on Monday that he expected to talk with Biden daily at least by telephone.

If and when Biden and McCarthy reach a deal, they will still need to sell it to their caucuses in Congress. It could easily take a week to pass a deal through the House and Senate, which would both need to approve the bill before Biden could sign it into law.

COMMON GROUND

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling and allows the federal government to borrow money to pay its bills, the United States could default on its obligations for the first time in history, potentially tipping the nation into recession and plunging global financial markets into chaos.

Any deal to raise the limit must pass both chambers of Congress, and therefore hinges on bipartisan support. McCarthy’s Republicans control the House 222-213, while Biden’s Democrats hold the Senate 51-49.

Despite the gridlock, the two sides have found some common ground on several areas, including permit reform that will help energy projects move forward.

McCarthy on Monday said including some permitting reforms in the debt deal would not solve all of the related issues and that talks on further reforms could continue later, declining to address transmission for renewable energy.

The two sides are also discussing clawing back unused COVID relief funds and imposing stricter work requirements on two popular public benefit programs aimed at helping Americans out of poverty.

But leaders cautioned that nothing has yet to be agreed upon.

“It’s very important to recognize that urgency should be the order of the day. And that is not currently the vibes I’m getting,” said Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, who chairs the House Finance Committee.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan, Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

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By David Morgan and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House and congressional Republican negotiators will meet again on Tuesday to resolve a months-long impasse over raising the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, with the nation facing the risk of default in as soon as nine days.

    Aides for President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, will convene again on Tuesday, McCarthy’s lead negotiator said. The two parties remain deeply divided about how to rein in the federal deficit, with Democrats arguing wealthy Americans and businesses should pay more taxes while Republicans wanting spending cuts.

The Treasury Department has warned that the federal government could no longer have enough money to pay all its bills as soon as June 1, which would cause a default that would hammer the U.S. economy and push borrowing costs higher.

Republican negotiator Representative Garret Graves said he had seen little progress.

“They are refusing to truly change the trajectory, to truly reduce spending, and that is a red line,” Graves told reporters at the Capitol.

Biden and McCarthy emerged from a Monday evening meeting on the debt ceiling talking about the need to find bipartisan compromise, even as they cling to policies that expose the divides between the two parties.

The lack of clear progress continued to weigh on Wall Street with U.S. stock indexes set to open lower Tuesday morning and global markets on edge.

Biden and Democrats want to freeze spending in the 2024 fiscal year at the levels adopted in 2023, arguing that would represent a spending cut because agency budgets won’t match inflation. The idea was rejected by Republicans, who want spending cuts.

Biden wants to cut the deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for the oil and pharmaceutical industries. McCarthy declared that boosting revenue is a non-starter.

“I don’t think it’s a revenue problem. It’s a spending problem,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy told reporters on Monday that he expected to talk with Biden daily at least by telephone.

If and when Biden and McCarthy reach a deal, they will still need to sell it to their caucuses in Congress. It could easily take a week to pass a deal through the House and Senate, which would both need to approve the bill before Biden could sign it into law.

COMMON GROUND

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling and allows the federal government to borrow money to pay its bills, the United States could default on its obligations for the first time in history, potentially tipping the nation into recession and plunging global financial markets into chaos.

Any deal to raise the limit must pass both chambers of Congress, and therefore hinges on bipartisan support. McCarthy’s Republicans control the House 222-213, while Biden’s Democrats hold the Senate 51-49.

Despite the gridlock, the two sides have found some common ground on several areas, including permit reform that will help energy projects move forward.

McCarthy on Monday said including some permitting reforms in the debt deal would not solve all of the related issues and that talks on further reforms could continue later, declining to address transmission for renewable energy.

The two sides are also discussing clawing back unused COVID relief funds and imposing stricter work requirements on two popular public benefit programs aimed at helping Americans out of poverty.

But leaders cautioned that nothing has yet to be agreed upon.

“No one’s going to agree to anything until we have a finalized deal,” said Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, who chairs the House Finance Committee.

(This story has been corrected to delete the reference to the start time of meeting in paragraph 2)

(Additional reporting by David Morgan, Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

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By Luc Cohen and Jack Queen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Writer E. Jean Carroll sought on Monday to amend the first of her two defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump to demand at least $10 million in additional damages, citing comments he made on CNN after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing her.

A federal jury in Manhattan on May 9 found Trump sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by lying about it in October 2022. The jury ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump has appealed the verdict and has called Carroll’s claims a “complete con job.”

On Monday, Carroll’s lawyers pointed to Trump’s posts on Truth Social calling the verdict a “disgrace” and criticism of Carroll on CNN on May 10 in arguing that she should be allowed to amend her earlier lawsuit, which alleges Trump defamed her by denying the incident in 2019 comments, while he was president.

“Trump’s defamatory statements post-verdict show the depth of his malice toward Carroll since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will or spite,” her lawyers wrote. “This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award.”

Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Carroll testified at trial that Trump lured her into a dressing room in the lingerie section at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996, then slammed her against a wall and raped her. Two of Carroll’s friends told jurors that she told them about the incident shortly after it happened.

During a CNN town hall the day after the verdict, Trump said he “never met this woman” and called Carroll’s account a “fake,” “made up story” invented by a “whack job.” Those statements are the basis of Carroll’s new filings.

Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, filed her second lawsuit for both defamation and battery after New York passed a law giving sexual assault victims a new window to sue even if the statute of limitations had passed.

Her original Nov 2019 lawsuit has been bogged down in appeals over whether Trump was immune from being sued because he had been president when he spoke.

    Carroll’s lawyers said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday that because Trump’s alleged defamatory statements were essentially the same, the only open issues are whether he was immune for making the first statement, and if not what damages he owes.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could not reach an agreement Monday on how to raise the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling with just 10 days before a possible default that could sink the U.S. economy, but vowed to keep talking.

The Democratic president and the top congressional Republican have struggled to make a deal, as McCarthy pressures the White House to agree to spending cuts in the federal budget that Biden considers “extreme,” and the president pushes new taxes that Republicans have rejected.

Both sides stressed the need to avoid default with a bipartisan deal after Monday evening’s meeting, however, and signaled that they’d be talking regularly in coming days.

A source familiar with the situation said that White House negotiators were returning to Capitol Hill on Monday night to resume talks.

“We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement,” Biden said in a statement after the meeting, which he called “productive.”

McCarthy told reporters after over an hour of talks with Biden that negotiators are “going to get together, work through the night” to try to find common ground.

“I believe we can still get there,” McCarthy said. He is not willing to consider Biden’s plan to cut the deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for the oil and pharmaceutical industries, he said, and is focused on reducing spending in the 2024 federal budget.

Democrats and Republicans have until June 1 to increase the government’s self-borrowing limit or trigger an unprecedented debt default that economists warn could bring on a recession.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday offered a sobering reminder of how little time is left, saying the earliest estimated default date remains June 1 and that it is “highly likely” that Treasury will no longer be able to pay all government obligations by early June if the debt ceiling is not raised.

Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, who was in the White House meeting, ruled out any partial budget agreement to raise the debt ceiling. “No one’s going to agree to anything until we have a finalized deal,” he said.

He said the tone in the Biden meeting was the most positive yet.

Any deal to raise the limit must pass both chambers of Congress, and therefore hinges on bipartisan support. McCarthy’s Republicans control the House 222-213, while Biden’s Democrats hold the Senate 51-49.

A failure to lift the debt ceiling would trigger a default that would shake financial markets and drive interest rates higher on everything from car payments to credit cards.

U.S. markets rose on Monday as investors awaited updates on the negotiations.

It will take several days to move legislation through Congress if and when Biden and McCarthy come to an agreement. McCarthy said that a deal must be reached this week for it to pass Congress and be signed into law by Biden in time to avoid default.

CUTS AND CLAWBACKS

Republicans want discretionary spending cuts, new work requirements for some programs for low-income Americans and a clawback of COVID-19 aid approved by Congress but not yet spent in exchange for a debt ceiling increase, which is needed to cover the costs of lawmakers’ previously approved spending and tax cuts.

Democrats want to hold spending steady at this year’s levels in 2024, while Republicans want to return to 2022 levels next year and cap spending growth in the years ahead. A plan passed by the House last month would cut a wide swath of government spending by 8% next year.

Biden, who has made the economy a centerpiece of his domestic agenda and is seeking re-election, has said he would consider spending cuts alongside tax adjustments but that Republicans’ latest offer was “unacceptable.”

The president tweeted that he would not back “Big Oil” subsidies and “wealthy tax cheats” while putting healthcare and food assistance at risk for millions of Americans.

Both sides must also weigh any concessions with pressure from hardline factions within their own parties.

Some far-right House Freedom Caucus members have urged a halt to talks, demanding that the Senate adopt their House-passed legislation, which has been rejected by Democrats.

McCarthy, who made extensive concessions to right-wing hardliners to secure the speaker spot, may risk being removed by members of his own party if they do not like the deal he cuts.

Former President Donald Trump, a Republican who is seeking another term after losing to Biden in the 2020 election, has urged Republicans to force a default if they do not achieve all their goals, downplaying any economic consequences.

Liberal Democrats have pushed back against any cuts that would harm families and lower-income Americans. Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, accused Republicans of running a “hostage negotiation” with the talks and said he is seeking Republican votes for a discharge petition that could raise the debt ceiling on its own.

Biden has offered to freeze spending at this year’s levels, Jeffries said, an offer that was rejected by Republicans.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Nandita Bose and David Morgan in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Tyler Clifford, Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Nick Zieminski, Heather Timmons, Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, is set to kick off his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday, betting that his optimistic message will sell in a party in which many voters are still firmly behind former President Donald Trump.

While Scott formally acknowledged his candidacy in a filing with the federal election regulator on Friday, his speech to supporters in his hometown of North Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday is expected to mark the start of campaigning.

With only 1% of support among registered Republicans according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, Scott faces an uphill battle in his bid to win the Republican nomination to take on Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

But with the possible exception of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and fellow South Carolina native Nikki Haley, Scott will be the highest-profile Republican to formally announce his intention to take on Trump – the current front-runner – for the party’s nomination.

Some 49% of Republicans plan to vote for Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

Trump’s closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, will jump into the race in the coming days, according to sources with knowledge of his plans.

Scott stands out in part due to his relentless optimism and his calls for unity. He often points to his own impoverished upbringing as proof that America remains a land of opportunity.

Still, it remains to be seen if a significant number of Republicans find his message appealing.

Many Republicans appear hungry for a bruising fight with Democrats this election. That is particularly true after New York prosecutors indicted Trump in March for allegedly falsifying documents to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. Most Republicans consider those charges politically motivated.

Scott, 57, is likely to be the only Republican senator to jump into the race, an oddity given that the Senate has traditionally been a staging ground for Republicans with presidential aspirations.

Among his political assets are his popularity in South Carolina, which plays a key role in the Republican race. It is the third state in the nation to hold a nominating contest in the state-by-state battle to determine a presidential nominee.

He is also a favorite among donors. Among his major backers is billionaire Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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By Aram Roston and Joseph Tanfani

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) – Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas and his business partner were arrested in 2019, accused by the U.S. government of funneling a Russian oligarch’s money into American political campaigns. One recipient of Parnas’ donations — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — has said he was barely an acquaintance.

“The governor does not have a relationship with these individuals,” DeSantis’ spokesperson at the time, Helen Aguirre Ferré, said in a statement on Oct. 10, 2019. Six days later, DeSantis told reporters that Parnas “was just like any other donor, nothing more than that.”

But DeSantis and Parnas worked more closely together than the Republican governor has disclosed, according to a detailed account of their relationship Parnas provided to Reuters and 63 previously unreported text messages from DeSantis to Parnas between May and October 2018, as DeSantis campaigned for governor. A jury later found Parnas guilty of campaign finance crimes and other charges.

As DeSantis prepares to take a widely anticipated leap into the 2024 presidential campaign this week, the disclosures from Parnas cast new light on the Florida governor’s relationship with the businessman and the role Parnas played in helping DeSantis gain entree to the circle of former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis spokesman Dave Abrams did not respond to specific questions on the existence of the texts and Parnas’ account of their relationship. “This is another recycled narrative that has been proven wrong many times over,” he said. DeSantis gave back the contribution after Parnas ran into legal trouble.

The text messages reviewed by Reuters show that DeSantis frequently – in more than 20 texts – appealed to fellow Floridian Parnas for introductions, advice and other fundraising help during his hotly contested campaign for governor. Two sources close to DeSantis during his 2018 campaign confirmed the texter’s number belonged to DeSantis at that time.

The texts also reveal that Parnas served as an intermediary between DeSantis and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who at the time was the personal attorney of then-President Trump. In one case, 10 days before the 2018 election, DeSantis sent Parnas a text with suggested wording for a Giuliani tweet in support of his candidacy, the messages show.

Giuliani did not respond to questions sent through his attorney and his spokesman. Ferré, DeSantis’ former spokesperson, did not respond to requests for comment.

“WE BECAME VERY FRIENDLY”

Parnas, now 51, shot to prominence in 2019. He was a key figure in the events leading to Trump’s first impeachment, working with Giuliani to gather damaging information on Democrat Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Ukraine. Accused of withholding aid to Ukraine unless Kyiv investigated Biden, Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives and charged with abuse of power. He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.

A federal judge sentenced Parnas last year to 20 months in prison on a separate matter, defrauding investors in a sham company and illegally making donations to U.S. political candidates on behalf of Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev. Muraviev has been charged in the case but is a fugitive. He declined to comment.

Even before his criminal case, Parnas had an unusual resume for a political rainmaker. After moving to Florida from New York in 1995, he worked for penny stock companies that ran into regulatory problems, according to public records. In 2016, a federal court in New York issued a $508,734 judgment against him for defrauding an individual whose family trust lent Parnas money for a movie, called “Anatomy of an Assassin,” according to the judge’s ruling. Parnas says he did nothing wrong in that case.

Parnas is serving out his sentence under house arrest. Wearing shorts and an ankle bracelet, he spoke with Reuters for several hours at his home in Boca Raton. Parnas says he now regrets his alliance with Giuliani and Trump, believing he was used. He said he shared the texts with Reuters because he feels betrayed by DeSantis, who he says stopped returning texts or calls once he won the governor’s race.

Parnas once considered DeSantis a close confidant, he said. “We became very friendly.”

In 2018, Parnas was a well-known figure in Trump’s orbit, often seen with Giuliani. Parnas and his business partner, another Ukrainian American named Igor Fruman, would later pay Giuliani $500,000 for consultant work, Reuters has reported.

Parnas said he first met DeSantis on May 9, 2018, about three months before Republican primary elections in Florida. DeSantis, then a three-term U.S. Representative, was locked in a tight primary race for governor with Adam Putnam, Florida’s then-commissioner of agriculture.

“Ron DeSantis approached me at the Trump International Hotel and introduced himself, telling me that he was told to come meet me because I was very close with Donald Trump,” Parnas said. Reuters could not establish who told DeSantis to meet with Parnas at the Washington D.C. hotel.

While Trump had already tweeted support for DeSantis the prior December, DeSantis wanted a formal endorsement by Trump ahead of the August primary. “He told me he heard I was the guy to speak to because of my relationship with Trump, that’s how he worded it,” Parnas said.

There’s no evidence Parnas had any direct influence with Trump. A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

But Parnas conferred frequently with Giuliani. At 9:49 p.m. that day in May 2018, DeSantis texted his cell phone and email addresses to Parnas, according to the messages reviewed by Reuters. Parnas replied by sending his own email address to DeSantis.

At their first meeting at the hotel, Parnas described himself as “a bit standoffish” with DeSantis because he hoped to launch a cannabis business and considered DeSantis hostile to legalized marijuana. In another meeting several days later, also at Trump’s hotel, DeSantis told him he was not opposed to expanding medical marijuana use in Florida, Parnas said.

Reuters could not independently corroborate the hotel meetings. One frequent hotel patron, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he remembered seeing DeSantis and Parnas speaking together in the lobby that May or June. The hotel has since been sold.

Parnas said Dana Rohrabacher, a former Republican congressman from California, was present at the second meeting where Parnas said DeSantis discussed medical marijuana use. Rohrabacher told Reuters he does not recall the meeting or hearing DeSantis talk about marijuana. “What do I remember from five years ago?”

Parnas says after their second meeting, he told DeSantis that he would try to secure a formal Trump endorsement by promoting DeSantis with Giuliani. Parnas spoke with Giuliani the next day, recommending that he talk with DeSantis and back him, he said.

In July 2018, DeSantis publicly expressed support for medical marijuana.

“MAKE SURE HE GIVES A LOT.”

Within a week of their second meeting, DeSantis and Parnas began exchanging ideas and gossip about potential donors, the texts show. On May 29, 2018, DeSantis sent Parnas a text introducing his fundraising aide, Heather Barker, and enlisting Parnas’ help in lining up donors for events in Boca Raton and on Star Island, an exclusive community in Miami.

“Let me know a good time this week to chat about logistics and date ideas,” Barker texted Parnas.

Barker requested that Reuters email her questions for this report, but did not respond to the questions.

The next month, the texts show, DeSantis asked Parnas for advice on how to handle a potential major donor.

“Would it be reasonable to ask him to donate $50K?” DeSantis asked. “I think he did six figures for Trump.”

DeSantis had done his homework: The donor, South Florida roofing contractor Michael Trussell, had contributed $100,000 to a joint Trump-Republican Party fundraising committee in 2016, campaign records show.

Parnas replied by text that he would call DeSantis. On the phone, he told DeSantis that Trussell was an acquaintance and would indeed be good for about $50,000, Parnas said.

Ten days after that exchange, campaign finance records show, Trussell’s roofing firm donated $10,000 to DeSantis, and added another $13,000 before the 2018 election. The firm has contributed another $143,000 since, campaign finance records show.

Trussell said he met Parnas once at a Trump fundraiser but had no relationship with him, adding that DeSantis did not mention Parnas when he called seeking a campaign donation.

On the evening of June 5, DeSantis reached out to Parnas. “I’ll swing by Trump Hotel tonight,” he said, “before I go on Laura Ingraham – is that ok?” Ingraham is a host on Fox News, the rightwing news and opinion channel. DeSantis appeared on her show that evening.

“Perfect,” Parnas texted back. Parnas said the two met at the hotel and discussed Giuliani’s support of DeSantis.

On June 21, 2018, Parnas’ company, Global Energy Producers, donated $50,000 to DeSantis’ campaign for governor. The company was unusual. Although incorporated in early 2018 as an energy investor, it never completed a single deal, according to the U.S. charges against Parnas.

After thanking Parnas for the contribution, DeSantis pushed him again to help land a big donor: Robert Pereira, president of construction firm Middlesex Corp. Parnas knew the businessman from past fundraisers in Florida.

“Now let’s bring Robert home!” DeSantis wrote. Three weeks later, DeSantis added, “Make sure he gives a lot.”

Pereira later co-hosted a fundraiser for DeSantis with Parnas and his company donated $115,000 to DeSantis’ 2018 campaign, campaign finance records show. He declined to discuss Parnas with Reuters and did not respond to detailed questions.

“I’M GOING TO HAVE RUDY DO A TWEET”

Political donations from Parnas’ company later emerged as part of the criminal case against Parnas and Muraviev, the Russian oligarch who federal authorities indicted for making illegal campaign contributions to boost a planned marijuana business.

Justice Department officials said Muraviev tried to influence the 2018 U.S. elections by plotting to send $1 million to candidates and campaigns, hoping to win favor for a cannabis business venture. It is illegal for foreign nationals to donate to American political campaigns.

Parnas said DeSantis had agreed to meet Muraviev and knew of the tycoon’s ambitions to enter the cannabis business in Florida. The meeting, however, never happened.

Prosecutors did not specifically mention the $50,000 donation by Parnas’ company to DeSantis in their federal case.

But they said Parnas’s donations were part of a scheme that included circumventing campaign finance laws and soliciting money from a foreign national to win influence in Florida. There is no evidence that DeSantis knew of wrongdoing.

Parnas “defrauded the American public” with the foreign donor scheme and lied “about the source of funds for political contributions,” said a Justice Department statement after Parnas’ sentencing last year.

On June 22, 2018, Trump tweeted a strong formal endorsement for DeSantis. “Ron is strong on Borders, tough on Crime & big on Cutting Taxes – Loves our Military & our Vets. He will be a Great Governor & has my full Endorsement!”

Promoting Trump’s support in his mail and TV ads, DeSantis opened a wide lead. On Aug. 28, he won the Republican primary.

But going into the general election, DeSantis was the underdog, trailing Democratic opponent Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, the first Black nominee for Florida governor. As a federal corruption investigation into Tallahassee’s government made headlines, threatening to torpedo Gillum’s prospects, Parnas sent DeSantis a text on Oct. 26, telling him, “I’m going to have Rudy do a tweet” on Gillum.

“He needs to hit him on his scandal,” DeSantis texted back to Parnas. “Can say as a prosecutor this would be an indictable case etc.”

Parnas texted back a thumbs up emoji and wrote, “Tomorrow.”

The next day, Parnas texted DeSantis a picture of Giuliani’s tweet. It wasn’t exactly what DeSantis suggested but did use the phrasing: “As a former prosecutor and Mayor, I ask the people of my adopted State Florida to reject a Mayor with highest murder and crime rates in State…”

During the general election, Parnas attended rallies with DeSantis, taking Giuliani’s plane from one event to the next.

“Big day my brother!!! We will win!!!” Parnas texted on election day.

With Gillum weighed down by the corruption investigation, DeSantis eked out a narrow victory. Parnas was photographed hugging DeSantis that night at the victory party. A jury this month acquitted Gillum of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and failed to reach a verdict on charges that he pocketed campaign contributions. The remaining charges were dismissed last week.

“Had the FBI not leaked their investigation, which ultimately – and correctly – ended up in an acquittal, there is no question that Andrew Gillum would be the Governor of Florida today,” Gillum’s lawyers said in a statement. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment.

After the election, DeSantis quit responding to Parnas’ texts. By then, Parnas and his business partner, Fruman, were facing federal scrutiny over their political donations. After Parnas was indicted in October 2019, DeSantis returned his $50,000 donation to the U.S. government. Fruman pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges in 2021 and was sentenced last year to a year in prison.

A jury convicted Parnas of campaign finance crimes. He pleaded guilty to fraud related to his “Fraud Guarantee” business, which boasted it could insure people against fraud while defrauding its investors of more than $2 million, according to federal prosecutors.

Infuriated at being frozen out, Parnas claims that DeSantis reneged on a promise to give him a place on a gubernatorial transition committee. Finally, he said, DeSantis agreed to a private meeting in January 2019 at a jet terminal at West Palm Beach International Airport. He said DeSantis assured him that “I’m still his boy,” even if he had to avoid associating with him in public.

Parnas said he subsequently spoke several times with DeSantis by phone, but they never resumed their close relationship. He says he remains angry at DeSantis.

“Remember, he was my friend,” Parnas said. “I didn’t just look at him as the governor – he was my friend.”

(Reported by Aram Roston in Boca Raton, Florida, and Joseph Tanfani in Washington. Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in New York. Editing by Jason Szep)

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