Politics

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Democratic-led Senate panel on Tuesday explored the possibility of pursuing legislation to impose ethics standards on the U.S. Supreme Court amid revelations about luxury trips and real estate transactions by conservative justices, but the panel’s Republican members voiced stern opposition.

“The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, who asserted at a hearing that the court’s failure to fix the problem on its own means Congress must do it instead. “That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court. The status quo must change.”

None of the nine justices appeared at the hearing, with Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday declining Durbin’s invitation for him to testify. Instead, the committee heard from lawyers and academics who differed over whether Congress possessed the authority to impose ethics guidelines on the government’s judicial branch.

The news outlet ProPublica has detailed ties between conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s longest-tenured member, and wealthy Republican donor Harlan Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman.

Separately, the news outlet Politico has reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose the buyer of a Colorado property in which he had a stake – the chief executive of a major law firm whose attorneys have been involved in numerous Supreme Court cases.

Some Republican committee members sought to portray these revelations as part of an effort by liberals and Democrats to smear the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. Liberals have decried some of the court’s recent major rulings including expanding gun rights and ending its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion.

Senator Lindsey Graham, the panel’s top Republican, expressed reservations about Congress imposing regulations on the justices and said he would not support ethics legislation that has been proposed. But Graham urged the justices to act themselves to improve transparency and “instill more public confidence” in the court.

Another Republican committee member, Senator John Kennedy said the hearing represented “an excuse to sling more mud at an institution that some – not all – some Democrats don’t like because they can’t control it 100% of the time.”

Supreme Court justices are not bound like other federal judges by a code of conduct adopted by the policymaking body for the broader federal judiciary. Other federal judges under that code must avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Roberts has said Supreme Court justices consult that code in assessing their own ethical obligations.

“Justices read the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said, “and when they’re caught out of bounds, they refuse to allow any investigation of the facts.”

Whitehouse has proposed legislation that would impose on the justices new requirements for disclosure and recusal from cases involving conflicts of interest.

Other legislation has been introduced by Senators Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, that would require the Supreme Court to create a code of conduct and appoint an official to review ethics complaints.

With Republican opposition expected, any such bill faces an uphill battle in a divided Congress.

Witnesses at the hearing included former federal judge Jeremy Fogel and judicial ethics expert Amanda Frost of the University of Virginia School of Law, who both said the justices need a code of conduct.

Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the ethical standards of the justices, Frost said, just as laws it passes already provide for the court’s funding, size, quorum, staffing and other operations.

Two other witnesses, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and lawyer Thomas Dupree, argued that imposing such a code through legislation would infringe on the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers among the government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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By David Lawder, Trevor Hunnicutt, Andrea Shalal and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday summoned the four top congressional leaders to the White House next week after the Treasury warned the government could run short of cash to pay its bills by June.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress that the agency will be unlikely to meet all U.S. government payment obligations “potentially as early as June 1” without action by Congress.

The estimate raised the risk that the United States is headed for an unprecedented default that would shake the global economy, adding new urgency to political calculations in Washington, where Democrats and Republicans were girding for a months-long standoff.

Biden called Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Jerusalem, where he is on a diplomatic trip, to invite him to a May 9 White House meeting. The two leaders haven’t sat down to discuss the issue since February.

Biden also extended invitations to House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, whose fall in March sidelined him for weeks, said he and Biden had a “good conversation” today, adding: “I’m sure we’ll be speaking again.”

House Republicans passed a bill to raise the debt limit last week that includes steep cuts to spending from healthcare for the poor to air-traffic controllers, which the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden say they will not approve.

Biden has steadfastly said he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling increase, but will discuss budget cuts after a new limit is passed. Congress has often paired debt-ceiling increases with other budget and spending measures.

A White House official said Biden, who had previously said he wouldn’t meet McCarthy at all to discuss the debt limit, would “stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions” on May 9.

The new potential “X-date,” which takes in to account April tax payments, is largely unchanged from a previous estimate, issued in January, that the government could run short of cash around June 5. But Yellen added some wiggle room, noting federal receipts and outlays are “inherently variable.” The actual date that Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures “could be a number of weeks later than these estimates,” she wrote.

“It is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date when Treasury will be unable to pay the government’s bills,” she wrote.

After hitting the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap on Jan. 19, Yellen previously told Congress that Treasury would keep up payments on debt, federal benefits and make other spending by using extraordinary cash management measures. One such step Treasury is taking is suspending the sales of securities that state and local governments use to temporarily hold cash.

In 2011, a similar debt ceiling fight took the country to the brink of default and prompted a downgrade of the country’s top-notch credit rating. This time, negotiations may be even more difficult, veterans of 2011’s face-off say.

GRAPHIC-U.S. government approaches its debt ceiling again https://www.reuters.com/graphics/US-DEBT/US-DEBT-CEILING/gdpzqwnxlvw/graphic.jpg

SPENDING CUT DEMANDS

The April 26 bill passed by the Republican-led House would slash tax incentives for solar energy and implement $4.5 trillion in spending cuts – or about 22% – in exchange for a $1.5 trillion increase in the U.S. debt limit.

The bill has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has said Biden would veto the legislation if it did.

Budget analyst Shai Akabas at the Bipartisan Policy Center said the short deadline underscored the urgency of finding a solution to the bitter standoff, and that it dashed hopes that the Congress could negotiate through the late summer months.

A potential default within weeks “is not a position befitting of a country considered the bedrock of the financial system, and only adds uncertainty to an already shaky economy,” he added.

BREATHING ROOM

Yellen’s vagueness on the actual default date is due to some fiscal events in June that could buy some breathing room.

If Treasury can make it past early June benefit payments, it could take in significant cash from quarterly estimated tax payments due on June 15, analysts say. Then Treasury could float until June 30, when it would be able to tap $143 billion in borrowing by suspending reinvestment of maturing securities held by the government retirement funds.

Along with tax receipts, that borrowing would allow it to pay bills well into July.    

Nonetheless, the U.S.’s debt ceiling battles are likely to persist for years to come, with benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare accounting for the largest category of the budget and projected to grow dramatically as the population ages.

As the current debate heats up, Biden, who is seeking re-election in 2024, is using the House Republican proposal to tag his opposition as an economic threat to local economies.

(Reporting by David Lawder, Trevor Hunnicutt, Andrea Shalal and David Morgan in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio, Heather Timmons, Matthew Lewis and Shri Navaratnam)

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By David Morgan and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers responded to news that the federal government could be unable to pay its bills as soon as June 1 by digging in on partisan positions, even as Democratic President Joe Biden agreed to meet with lawmakers on the debt ceiling next week.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday began to clear the way for a vote for a bill that would suspend the government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit for two years without conditions.

Republicans in the Senate and House have said repeatedly that they would not vote for such a measure, instead lining up behind a bill passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last week that would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, whichever comes first, with $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years.

Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have not met since February, with the White House insisting that it would not negotiate on raising the debt ceiling, a move needed to cover the costs of spending and tax cuts previously approved by Congress.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress that the agency may be unable to meet all of its debt obligations as soon as June 1 if the debt ceiling is not raised, putting new urgency on talks in Congress.

The potential June 1 deadline was earlier than Treasury’s prior June 5 forecast, though it said it was possible that the actual “X-date” would not come until weeks later than June 1.

“It’s about time. I’m glad Biden is finally doing his job,” Republican Senator Rick Scott said on Twitter, after the White House said Biden would meet with the top two Republicans and Democrats on May 9.

Democrats urged prompt action to raise the limit, necessary to cover the costs of spending and tax cuts previously agreed to by Congress.

“This is nothing to fool around with. The money has been spent. We do not want to default. Let’s get the debt ceiling taken care of, but let’s talk about how we can reduce the deficit and common sense ways,” Democratic Senator Jon Tester told reporters. “If we don’t get the debt ceiling, then we go into a depression.”

PRIOR RATING CUT

Congress’ last long standoff, in 2011 when Democrat Barack Obama was president and Republicans controlled the House, led to a historic downgrade of the nation’s credit rating, which hammered markets and raised borrowing costs.

The May 9 date for Biden to meet with McCarthy, Schumer, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries is also the next time both chambers of Congress are scheduled to be in session, after a week-long House recess. In all, Congress is scheduled to convene for no more than a dozen days before the June 1 deadline.

Some lawmakers said they wished the meeting were sooner.

“I’m happy they’re going to sit down and talk. Why not tomorrow and over the weekend?” Republican Senator Mitt Romney said. “I’m not going to try and scare anybody. But I’ll tell you that as soon as people start realizing what we’re talking about here, I think there are going be a lot of very upset people.”

McConnell told reporters that he had had a “good conversation” with Biden on Monday, but offered few other details.

Democrats said they could not accept the bill House Republicans passed last week.

“Republicans’ failure to agree to cleanly raise the debt ceiling has brought the United States to the brink of economic catastrophe,” said Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the Senate Budget Committee. “Hostage-taking is not the way this country governs. We must change course, cleanly raise the debt ceiling, and avert widespread economic pain and instability while we still can.”

No. 2 Senate Republican John Thune told reporters that word from the Treasury Department that the “X-date” beyond which the government will no longer be able to meet all its obligations could arrive by June 1 was a wake-up call.

“It reinforces the need for the president to get up here or to get McCarthy down there to meet with him, one way or the other. I mean, time is a-wasting.”

(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan in Washington; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

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By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin introduced on Tuesday his latest measure to speed permitting of both fossil fuel and renewable energy projects, as he tries to win support from both major parties after similar bills failed several times last year.

The legislation, Building American Energy Security Act, sets a two-year limit on environmental reviews of major federal energy projects and one year for smaller ones, reduces court delays over energy projects, and directs the U.S. president to designate at least 25 high level energy projects and prioritize their permitting.

“There is overwhelming bipartisan recognition that our current permitting processes aren’t working, and equally bipartisan support for addressing it through comprehensive permitting reform legislation,” Manchin, a conservative Democrat from coal- and gas-rich West Virginia, said in a release.

The bill also calls for completion of Equitrans Midstream Corp’s Mountain Valley Pipeline, that would run through Manchin’s state. The $6.6 billion, 300 mile (480 km), natural gas project is mostly built, but still needs several permits.

Environmental groups and some of Manchin’s fellow Democratic lawmakers had slammed his previous permitting measures as handouts to fossil fuel companies, which contributed to last year’s failures.

And Republicans who were angry with Manchin for supporting President Joe Biden’s climate legislation did not support his bill last year.

But clean energy advocates have said the legislation, which would speed power transmission projects, is key to implementing an energy transition supported by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act that had $369 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to help combat climate change.

And Manchin could get support from some Republicans in the Senate, currently controlled by Democrats, whose states would benefit from energy projects.

The House, controlled by Republicans, passed an energy reform bill March 30 intended to boost oil and gas and scale back climate initiatives. The House would likely have to drop many of those provisions for the bill to progress. To become law, the legislation would have to pass both chambers and be signed by Biden.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ethics concerns relating to U.S. Supreme Court justices are set to be scrutinized on Tuesday by a Senate panel during a hearing called amid revelations about luxury trips and real estate transactions involving members of the nation’s top judicial body.

None of the nine justices will appear at the Judiciary Committee hearing, with Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday declining an invitation by Senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s Democratic chairman, for him to testify. Instead, the committee will hear from lawyers and academics versed in the subject.

“Supreme Court ethics reform must happen whether the court participates in the process or not,” Durbin said in a statement responding to the decision by Roberts not to appear. “It is time for Congress to accept its responsibility to establish an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court, the only agency of our government without it.”

The news outlet ProPublica has detailed ties between conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s longest-tenured member, and wealthy Republican donor Harlan Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman.

Separately, the news outlet Politico has reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose the buyer of a Colorado property in which he had a stake – the chief executive of a major law firm whose attorneys have been involved in numerous Supreme Court cases.

Despite calls over the years to tighten their ethical restraints, Supreme Court justices are not bound like other federal judges by a code of conduct adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body for the broader federal judiciary.

Other federal judges under that code must avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Roberts has said Supreme Court justices consult that code in assessing their own ethical obligations. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

In a letter to Durbin declining to testify, Roberts attached a “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices” to which the justices adhere. The statement noted that justices in 1991 voluntarily adopted a resolution to “follow the substance” of the Judicial Conference’s regulations and since then follow disclosure requirements on gifts and outside income.

ProPublica last month reported that Thomas did not publicly disclose the 2014 purchase by one of Crow’s companies of properties in the Georgia city of Savannah from Thomas and his relatives, calling it the first known instance of money going directly from Crow to the justice.

ProPublica also reported that Thomas has for decades accepted luxury trips from Crow, who he considers a close friend, also without public disclosure.

Durbin in an April 10 letter urged Roberts to investigate the revelations. Highlighting concerns that were raised in 2011 about Thomas and his dealings with Crow, Durbin stated: “Mr. Crow’s dispensation of favors escalated in secret during the years that followed. Now the court faces a crisis of public confidence in its ethical standards that must be addressed.”

Witnesses scheduled for Tuesday include former federal judge Jeremy Fogel and judicial ethics expert Amanda Frost of the University of Virginia School of Law, who both contend that the justices need a code of conduct. Two other witnesses, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and lawyer Thomas Dupree, argue that imposing such a code through legislation would infringe on the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers among the government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Two U.S. senators, independent Angus King who caucuses with Democrats and Republican Lisa Murkowski, introduced legislation on April 26 that would require the Supreme Court to create a code of conduct and appoint an official to review ethics complaints.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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Administration and congressional officials confirmed the individual calls to lawmakers and the meeting date, insisting on anonymity to discuss the plans. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he spoke with Biden and expects to speak with him again, though he did not say whether he will attend the meeting.

Biden plans to stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions and will discuss the urgency of preventing default, as well as how to begin a separate process for passing a separate fiscal 2024 budget. But if even the lawmakers talk, there is no guarantee of progress on an issue that has revealed a gulf in how Democrats and Republicans think the country should be governed.

McCarthy has called on Biden to engage in talks. But as recently as shortly after noon on Monday, the president said in a speech that the GOP congressional leader needed to first make a commitment that the U.S. government would not default. House Republicans passed a bill last week that would cleave discretionary spending over the next decade in return for increasing the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, possibly setting up another showdown going into that year’s presidential election.

The stalemate started to breakdown Monday afternoon after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter that “we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government’s obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time.”

Economists have sounded the alarm about a financial catastrophe if the government of the world’s largest economy is unable to pay its bills. A default could plunge the U.S. and other nations into severe recessions, all while cracking America’s financial credibility in ways that could make a recovery difficult.

McCarthy made no reference to the outreach from Biden, but insisted Monday after Treasury’s update that “the clock is ticking.”

“House Republicans did their job and passed a responsible bill that raises the debt ceiling, avoids default, and tackles reckless spending,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The Senate and the President need to get to work — and soon.”

It’s still unclear how the president and Congress can resolve the matter, yet Democratic leaders want to decouple the debt limit from the budget process.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., quickly seized on Yellen’s letter as a reason to address the debt cap and settle differences over spending “as part of our annual budget process, which is currently underway,”

“It’s time to put aside partisan interests and do what is right and necessary for the American people to avoid a first-ever U.S. government default that crashes the stock market, raises costs on families and jeopardizes retirement savings,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said that, like it or not, the precedent for negotiating a debt ceiling increase was set during the Obama presidency, noting that “when we have a divided government, that’s what happens, so sit down, get a deal done and don’t scare the pants off the people of America.”

In a White House speech celebrating small businesses before the Yellen letter, Biden portrayed the House Republicans’ plan as an attempt to extort spending cuts from the administration by putting the federal government at risk of default. He portrayed some of the backers of the bill as unreasonable extremists who are loyal to the “Make America Great Again” movement started by former President Donald Trump.

“We pay our bills and we should do so without reckless hostage-taking from some of the MAGA Republicans in Congress,” Biden said.

White House officials calculate that the House GOP bill would force a 22% slash to non-defense discretionary spending, putting housing vouchers, food aid and basic medical care at risk for millions of U.S. households. Biden on Monday cited a Moody’s Analytics report that there would be 780,000 fewer jobs next year if the bill became law.

But the House passed a bill with spending caps that avoids making specific cuts. Instead, it would place strict limits on how much the federal government could spend over the next decade and leave lawmakers to sort out the details.

In return for raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion into 2024, House Republicans voted by a narrow margin to claw back unspent COVID-19 funds, put work requirements on government aid, cancel Biden’s plans to forgive student debt, put spending levels back at 2022 levels and place a 1% cap on growth going forward.

Republicans insist defense and veterans accounts will be spared, though the bill does not explicitly spell out the actual reductions. Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., said he was “very, very frustrated” with the Biden administration’s suggestion that services would be cut. “No veteran will lose benefits,” Bost promised on a weekend conference call.

Speaking from Jerusalem on Monday, McCarthy said the need for talks to begin was reasonable and Biden’s resistance to doing so was the problem. The House speaker suggested that kids who watched the educational cartoon “Schoolhouse Rock” know that laws only result from Congress and the president cooperating.

“’Schoolhouse Rock’ — they never told you not to negotiate,” McCarthy said. “They told you to work together.”

The speaker has said an agreement depends on a commitment to limit the debt, which already totals more than $31.4 trillion. But both Biden and McCarthy have pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare, which will be the primary drivers of the debt in the coming decades, according to economists and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

McCarthy said he looked forward to Biden “changing his mind and negotiating with us.”

Before the day ended, a meeting was on the calendar.

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(Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Montana and its Republican House Speaker on Monday, accusing them of violating a Democratic transgender legislator’s First Amendment rights by barring her from the House floor after she protested a bill banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors.

Montana’s governor signed the bill into law on Friday, two days after the Republican House majority voted to censure Zooey Zephyr and exclude her from the House chamber for the rest of the legislative session for saying in an April 18 floor debate that denying such care would lead to more suicides.

“If you vote yes on this bill… I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” Zephyr said in the debate. Republicans accused her of violating decorum.

The ACLU filed its lawsuit on Monday in Montana’s First Judicial District Court in the County of Lewis and Clark on behalf of Zephyr and four of her constituents, alleging that barring her from the House floor for her comments “extinguishes a vital part of the job her constituents elected her to do.”

Montana House Speaker Matt Regier did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After the Republican supermajority in the legislature silenced Zephyr within the chamber until she apologized for her April 18 comments, her supporters protested at the statehouse on April 24. Seven demonstrators were arrested.

Montana ACLU legal director Alex Rate said in a news release announcing Monday’s lawsuit that Regier had “unfairly, unjustly, and unconstitutionally” silenced Zephyr’s constituents by silencing her, and called his actions “a direct threat to the bedrock principles that uphold our entire democracy.”

A Republican supermajority in the Tennessee statehouse earlier this month expelled two Democratic lawmakers who had protested in support of gun control, drawing national attention. Their county legislatures promptly reappointed them to their seats.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; editing by Donna Bryson and Bill Berkrot)

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By Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday urged House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to take the potential for an unprecedented U.S. debt default off the table, warning that it would result in skyrocketing credit card and mortgage rates.

“America is not a deadbeat nation. We have never, ever failed to meet the debt,” Biden told a small business event at the White House.

He said the threat of default by some Republicans in Congress was “totally irresponsible” and that it was essential to take that threat “off the table.”

“It would lead to higher interest rates, higher credit card rates, mortgage rates would skyrocket,” Biden said.

“The most immediate thing we can do is ensure continued reliance of our economy and the financial system. The most important thing we have to do in that regard is to make sure the threat by the speaker of the House to default on the national debt is off the table,” he added.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to raise the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling that includes sweeping spending cuts over the next decade. While the bill is not expected to win Senate approval, McCarthy hopes to lure Biden into negotiations on cutting spending, even as the White House and congressional Democrats insist on a debt limit increase with no strings attached.

The U.S. Treasury Department could run out of ways to pay its bills in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to act, and financial markets are already flashing warning signs. A 2011 standoff led to a downgrade of the government’s credit rating, which pushed borrowing costs higher and hammered investments.

McCarthy, speaking during a visit to Jerusalem, said he was concerned about the debt ceiling, but that the only way to solve the problem was for Biden to negotiate.

“We are going to have to come together to solve it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the president changing his mind and negotiating with us.”

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal in Washington and Emily Rose in JerusalemEditing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

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(Reuters) – A district board appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to oversee development in and around Walt Disney Co’s Florida theme parks on Monday said it would file a countersuit against Disney in state court, according to prepared remarks seen by Reuters.

The decision, which escalates tensions between Disney and the state of Florida, comes in response to a lawsuit Disney filed last week in federal district court against DeSantis and members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight district board. The company accused the governor and his supporters of illegally using state government to punish the company for voicing an opinion that should be protected by free-speech rights.

“Since Disney sued us, we have no choice now but to respond,” board Chairman Martin Garcia said.

The skirmish began last year after Disney criticized a Florida measure banning classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger children. DeSantis, a Republican who is expected to soon declare that he will run for U.S. president, repeatedly attacked “woke Disney” in public remarks.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation that ended Disney’s virtual autonomy in central Florida where the Disney World theme parks attract millions of visitors each year.

In its lawsuit, Disney also took issue with the DeSantis-appointed board’s assessment that development contracts Disney reached with its predecessors, which laid the foundation for billions of future Disney investment in its Walt Disney World resort, were “void.”

“The government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional,” Disney asserted in its legal filing.

Martin said the oversight board had no role in enacting the legislation that Disney “has been complaining about,” but is merely following the laws enacted by the Florida legislature.

The oversight board’s actions, Martin said, were taken to promote the public good.

“The district will seek justice in state court here in central Florida where both it and Disney reside and do business,” Martin said.

DeSantis weighed in on the Disney dispute at a press conference held Monday to sign several bills that he said would strengthen law and order in the state.

“It is wrong for one corporation to basically corrupt the local government and run it as its own fiefdom, be exempt from laws, have all kinds of benefits that nobody else has,” DeSantis said.

The Florida governor said he is carrying out the “will of the people,” and Disney is “putting their thumb in the eye of the voters of the state.”

DeSantis’ clash with Disney has been a centerpiece of his speeches as he toured the United States ahead of his expected presidential bid. But as the battle has intensified, it has brought mounting political risk.

Former President Donald Trump, the favorite for the Republican nomination, has slammed DeSantis’ stance, saying on social media that the governor “is being destroyed by Disney” and warning that the company would reduce its investments in Florida.

The dispute even earned a mention during Saturday’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner, with Democratic President Joe Biden joking that he had jokes about DeSantis prepared, but “Mickey Mouse beat the hell out of me” and got there first.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Mark Porter, Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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By Jonathan Stempel and Jack Queen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -E. Jean Carroll returned to the witness stand in her rape and defamation civil case against Donald Trump, after the judge denied a defense request for a mistrial.

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina began cross-examining Carroll for a second day, hoping to show jurors inconsistencies or holes in her claims against the former U.S. president.

Carroll, 79, has accused Trump, 76, of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, and then undermining her credibility and career by lying about it online.

Her defamation claim concerns an October 2022 post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, where Trump called the former Elle magazine advice columnist’s case a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”

The trial in Manhattan federal court began on April 25, and is in its fourth day.

In seeking a mistrial, Tacopina wrote an 18-page letter early on Monday accusing U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of bias against Trump.

Trump’s lawyer said the effect of several “unfair and prejudicial” rulings by Kaplan “manifests a deeper leaning towards one party over another,” including comments where the judge “openly expresses favoritism.”

Tacopina said Kaplan, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, should have let him question Carroll about why she did not seek security camera footage of the alleged rape.

Trump is leading the Republican field in the 2024 presidential race.

Trump’s lawyer also challenged Kaplan’s statement that Trump might be “sailing in harm’s way” after his son Eric Trump discussed on Twitter how LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was helping fund Carroll’s case.

Kaplan ruled last Wednesday that Trump’s lawyers cannot mention Hoffman at the trial, calling it “unfairly prejudicial.”

Requests for mistrials are often long shots, though they often form a basis for eventual appeals.

TRUMP NOT ATTENDING TRIAL

A businessman-turned-politician, Trump has not attended Carroll’s trial, and on Monday was in Scotland for a short trip to visit his golf courses there and eventually in Ireland.

Because the case is civil, Carroll must establish her claims by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, and need not meet the tougher criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Carroll had told the six-man, three-women jury last Wednesday that Trump put his fingers into her vagina, which she called “extremely painful, extremely painful,” and then inserted his penis.

She also appeared to lose patience after Tacopina asked her why she did not scream, saying Trump “raped me, whether I screamed or not.”

Others who may testify for Carroll include two friends with whom she spoke shortly after the alleged rape, two other women who have said Trump assaulted them, and a professor who could help jurors estimate Carroll’s damages.

Trump’s lawyers have not said publicly whether he plans to testify. They have identified only one other possible defense witness, the psychiatrist Edgar Nace.

Several women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. He has denied their allegations.

(Reporting by Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Editing by Louise Heavens and Nick Zieminski)

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