Judge In Trump Georgia Case Says Willis Can Continue Prosecution

Judge In Trump Georgia Case Says Willis Can Continue Prosecution

March 15 (Reuters) - The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat in the U.S. state said that lead prosecutor Fani Willis can remain on the case, so long as she removes a deputy she had a personal relationship with.

Judge Scott McAfee's ruling was a blow to the Republican former U.S. president, who seeks to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden in a Nov. 5 election. Trump has sought to delay trials in the four criminal cases he faces until after the election.

McAfee's decision caps a tumultuous two months for Fulton County District Attorney Willis, whose romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she appointed to lead the case, was disclosed in a January court filing by a Trump co-defendant.

It also ends three months of contentious litigation and evidentiary hearings over the relationship that effectively paused the rest of the case, though McAfee has yet to set a trial date.

Defense lawyers said the relationship posed a conflict of interest and improperly enriched Willis and Wade, who vacationed together while Wade was drawing a government salary.

McAfee found the relationship did not pose a conflict of interest but said it created "a significant appearance of impropriety" that required either Willis or Wade to step aside.

Trump's lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement that he respected the judge's ruling but believed it did "not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade."

Willis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases against him. He is accused in the Georgia case of illegally pressuring state officials to overturn his loss to Biden there in the 2020 presidential election.

He has so far been successful in delaying the start of any trial as he seeks to return to the White House.

One in four self-identified Republicans and about half of independents said they would not vote for Trump if he was convicted of a felony crime by a jury, according to a February Reuters/Ipsos poll. That would be a significant liability in a race where opinion polls show Trump and Biden essentially tied.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review Trump's bid for presidential immunity in a federal election interference case in Washington, which could delay that trial until after the election.

The judge in Trump's upcoming trial in New York on charges related to hush-money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign is weighing postponing the March 25 scheduled trial start after federal prosecutors turned over a mountain of new evidence.

Willis and Wade testified that their relationship did not begin until after Wade was hired. Prosecutors argued the affair was irrelevant because it did not harm the defendants.

Defense lawyers accused the prosecutors of lying to the court, saying the relationship began before Wade was hired. In court papers filed on Feb. 23, Trump's attorney cited location data from Wade’s cellphone suggesting he made numerous late-night visits to Willis’ home before she appointed him.

Trump is also under indictment in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office. The judge overseeing that case is weighing Trump's bid to move his May 20 trial date.

Reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Andrew Goudsward in Fort Pierce, Florida; editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller

Campaign Reports $10 Million Raised In 24 Hours Following Biden Speech

Campaign Reports $10 Million Raised In 24 Hours Following Biden Speech

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's re-election campaign said on Sunday it raised $10 million in the 24 hours following a fiery State of the Union address, where he accused Donald Trump of threatening democracy and torpedoing a bill to tackle U.S. immigration woes.In a 68-minute address to Congress on Thursday, Biden also charged Trump, his Republican challenger in the November 5 election, with burying the truth about the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The fundraising haul is notable given the Biden campaign and his Democratic Party allies raised over $42 million in the entire month of January.An estimated 32.2 million people watched Biden's State of the Union speech, according to Nielsen ratings from 14 television networks, an increase of 18 percent from last year. This did not include viewers on streaming, social media and other platforms.

Leaning into its cash edge, the Biden campaign on Saturday announced a $30 million ad blitz, which will target key battleground states over the next six weeks..

Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, editing by Deepa Babington

Coup Plotter Navarro Ordered To Report To Federal Prison On March 19

Coup Plotter Navarro Ordered To Report To Federal Prison On March 19

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - Ex-Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro has been ordered to report to prison this month, his lawyers said in a court filing, which could make him the first senior member of the former president's administration to do so for efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat.Navarro, who served as Trump's trade adviser, is due on March 19 to begin his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the U.S. House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, his lawyers revealed in a court filing late on Sunday.

They are asking a federal appeals court in Washington to pause the sentence while Navarro appeals his conviction. His defense team indicated they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene if his request is denied.Navarro, 74, was found guilty of contempt of Congress last September for refusing to turn over documents or sit for an interview with the Democratic-led House committee that investigated the Capitol riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election. He was sentenced in January.

Navarro, a China hawk who also advised Trump on the response to the COVID pandemic, has claimed Trump invoked the legal doctrine of executive privilege, which shields some presidential records and communications from disclosure.A federal judge found that Trump had not formerly invoked the privilege.Steve Bannon, a onetime top strategist to Trump, was also sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 panel, but a judge has allowed him to remain free while he appeals.

Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Scott Malone and Mark Heinrich

Haley Suspending Presidential Campaign, Won't Endorse Trump Yet

Haley Suspending Presidential Campaign, Won't Endorse Trump Yet

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, March 6 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will suspend her presidential campaign on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with her plans, ensuring that Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination and once again face Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election.

Haley will give a speech at 10 AM ET to address her future in the race, the source said, but she will not make an endorsement at that time. She will urge Trump to try to win the backing of her supporters, which include a significant chunk of moderate Republicans and independent voters, the source added.

Haley's decision to suspend her campaign comes a day after Super Tuesday, opens new tab, when Trump beat her soundly in 14 of the 15 Republican nominating contests.

Haley lasted longer than any other Republican challenger to Trump but never posed a serious threat to the former president, whose iron grip on the party's base remains firm despite his multiple criminal indictments.

The rematch between Trump, 77, and Biden, 81 - the first repeat U.S. presidential contest since 1956 - is one that few Americans want. Opinion polls show both Biden and Trump have low approval ratings among voters.

The election promises to be deeply divisive in a country already riven by political polarization. Biden has cast Trump as an existential danger to democratic principles, while Trump has sought to re-litigate his false claims that he won in 2020.

Haley, 52, had drawn support from deep-pocketed donors intent on stopping Trump from winning a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, particularly after she notched a series of strong performances at debates that Trump opted to skip.

She ultimately failed to pry loose enough conservative voters in the face of Trump's dominance.

But her stronger showing among moderate Republicans and independents - she won unaffiliated voters by a wide margin in New Hampshire and notched almost 40% of the vote in South Carolina - highlighted how Trump's scorched-earth style of politics could make him vulnerable in the Nov. 5 election.

On March 3, she won the Washington, D.C., Republican primary with 62.9% of the vote, versus 33.2% for Trump. On Tuesday, her only win came in Vermont, a small, deeply Democratic state.

Biden has his own baggage, including widespread concern about his age. Three-quarters of respondents in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll said he was too old to work in government, after already serving as the oldest U.S. president in history.

About half of respondents said the same about Trump.

Key Issues In 2024 Campaign

As in 2020, the race is likely to come down to a handful of swing states, thanks to the winner-take-all, state-by-state Electoral College system that determines the presidential election. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are all expected to be closely contested in November.

The central issues of the campaign have already come into focus. Despite low unemployment, a red-hot stock market and easing inflation, voters have voiced dissatisfaction with Biden's economic performance.

Biden's other major weakness is the state of the U.S.-Mexico border, where a surge of migrants overwhelmed the system after Biden eased some Trump-era policies. Trump's hawkish stance on immigration - including a promise to initiate the largest deportation effort in history - is at the core of his campaign, just as it was in 2016.

Voters expect Trump would do a better job on both the economy and immigration, according to opinion polls.

Republican lawmakers, egged on by Trump, rejected a bipartisan immigration enforcement bill in February, giving Biden an opportunity to argue that Republicans are more interested in preserving the southern border as a problem rather than finding a solution.

Democrats are also optimistic that voter sentiment on the economy will shift in Biden's favor if economic trends go on rising throughout 2024.

Trump may be dogged by his myriad criminal charges throughout the year, though the schedule of his trials remains unclear. The federal case charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 election, perhaps the weightiest he faces, has been paused while Trump pursues a long-shot argument that he is immune from prosecution.

While most Republicans view his indictments as politically motivated, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, about a quarter of Republicans and half of independents say they won't support him if he is convicted of a crime before the election.

Biden has argued that Trump poses a threat to democracy, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters seeking to reverse Biden's 2020 victory.

Abortion, too, will play a crucial role after the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court, buoyed by three Trump appointees, eliminated a nationwide right to terminate pregnancies in 2022. The subject has become a political liability for Republicans, helping Democrats over-perform expectations in the 2022 midterm elections.

Abortion rights advocates have launched efforts to put the issue before voters in several states, including the battleground of Arizona.

Haley Thwarted

Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been among the first Republican contenders to enter the race in February 2023, but she was largely an afterthought until garnering attention for her standout debate performances later in the year.

She put her foreign policy expertise at the center of her campaign, adopting hawkish stances toward China and Russia and forcefully advocating for continued aid to Ukraine, a stance that put her at odds with the more isolationist Trump.

But she was reluctant to completely disavow her former boss - she served as Trump's U.N. ambassador - despite his four indictments and two impeachments. Trump showed no such reticence, frequently insulting her intelligence and Indian heritage.

Only in the last months of her campaign did Haley begin to forcefully hit back at Trump, questioning his mental acuity, calling him a liar and saying he was too afraid to debate her. In the final weeks of the campaign, she became the standard-bearer for the anti-Trump wing of the party, a dramatic evolution for someone who just months earlier praised the former president in her stump speeches.

Still, she said she would pardon Trump if he were convicted in any of the criminal cases he faces, a position she has never abandoned.

Reporting by Gram Slattery and Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Jyoti Narayan and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker

Trump Aide Weisselberg Will Plead Guilty To Perjury In Fraud Trial

Trump Aide Weisselberg Will Plead Guilty To Perjury In Fraud Trial

NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg will plead guilty to perjury charges stemming from his testimony in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York, the New York Times reported on Monday.His plea could come as early as Monday, sources familiar with the matter told the Times.

A lawyer for Weisselberg and a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Weisselberg, 76, was ordered last month to pay $1.1 million including interest as Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was found liable for manipulating his net worth in a civil fraud case brought by New York state's attorney general.As part of the agreement, Weisselberg is expected to admit that he lied during his trial testimony and could also concede to misleading investigators from the attorney general’s office, according to the Times. He is not expected to cooperate against the former president, it reported.

Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu

troubled Trump

S.C. Exit Poll: One Third Of GOP Voters Won't Back Convicted Trump

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Some 32 percent of voters in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary contest think Donald Trump would not be fit for the presidency if he were convicted of a crime, according to the preliminary results of an exit poll conducted on Saturday by Edison Research.The poll gathered responses from 1,508 voters in the Republican contest. Updated results will be available as more responses are gathered.

Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Helen Coster, editing by Ross Colvin

New York Trump Judge Is Latest Target Of Threats Aimed At US Officials

New York Trump Judge Is Latest Target Of Threats Aimed At US Officials

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, January11 (Reuters) - A threat against the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York on Thursday is the latest in a string of incidents targeting prominent U.S. officials that have raised worries in the U.S. Justice Department.

Justice Arthur Engoron, a frequent target of the former U.S. president’s ire, was threatened hours before he was due to preside over closing arguments, a court spokesperson confirmed. It was not clear if any arrests were made.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last week warned of a “deeply disturbing spike in threats against those who serve the public.” Prosecutors have recently brought cases against those accused of threatening FBI agents, federal judges, presidential candidates, members of Congress, members of the military and election workers, Garland said.

“These threats of violence are unacceptable,” Garland told reporters. “They threaten the fabric of our democracy.”Security incidents in the first weeks of 2024 have generated added concern in a year when a presidential election and progressing legal cases against Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, are poised to put the nation’s divisions on vivid display.

The threat against Engoron came days after Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is assigned to the election interference case against Trump in Washington federal court, was the subject of an apparent “swatting” incident, in which people report fake emergencies to trigger a police response to a specific address.Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the two federal criminal cases against Trump, and Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Trump ally, were both subjects of “swatting” incidents on Christmas Day, according to media reports.

A spate of hoax bomb threats on Jan. 3 briefly forced the evacuation of several U.S. statehouses. Authorities said there was no credible threat.

Federal prosecutors recently indicted a New Hampshire man accused of sending texts threatening the lives of three presidential candidates and charged a 72-year-old Florida man with leaving voicemails threatening to kill Democratic U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell and his children.

Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot

President Joe Biden

As Biden Market Hits Record High, Trump's Predictions Crash (And He Whines)

By Tim Reid

(Reuters) - Donald Trump, who predicted three years ago that if Democratic President Joe Biden won the White House in 2020 markets would crash, said on Sunday that stock markets hitting record highs were just making "rich people richer."

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, often took credit for a rising stock market when he was president between 2017 and 2021. He was mocked by Biden last week for wrongly predicting a crash when they campaigned against each other in 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high last week, topping 37,000 and surpassing the previous record set in 2022. In a 2020 debate with Biden, Trump said that if Biden won the election, "the stock market will crash."

Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

In an attempt to give a populist and anti-Biden twist on the new record stock market high, Trump, a self-described billionaire, told a crowd of supporters in Reno, Nevada: "The stock market is making rich people richer."

Turning on Biden, he changed the subject to high prices, a hallmark of Biden's three years in office.

"Biden's inflation catastrophe is demolishing your savings and ravaging your dreams," Trump said, as he looks ahead to a likely rematch with Biden in the November 2024 White House contest.

Despite decreasing inflation in recent months, an increase in wages and low unemployment, Trump added: "We are a nation whose economy is collapsing into a cesspool."

Republican voters begin picking their 2024 White House standard-bearer on January 15 in Iowa, the state that kicks off the nominating process.

Trump was holding a rally in Nevada, where Republicans vote on February 8.

Trump enjoys commanding leads over his Republican rivals in state and national polls, despite his myriad legal problems and more than 90 criminal charges bought against him this year.

In a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, however, one of Trump's Republican rivals - former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley - had narrowed the gap on Trump in New Hampshire, the second GOP primary state that will hold its primary on January 23.

Trump has 44 percent support of likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State, while Haley has increased her support to 29 percent.

In a clear sign Trump sees Haley as emerging as his closest rival for the nomination, rather than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has fallen in many polls all year, Trump went after Haley in his Nevada speech.

Citing other polls where he has bigger leads over Haley, Trump said: "Nikki Haley - where's the surge?"

Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Mary Milliken and Deepa Babington

Dispatches From Moscow And Kyiv Dispute Ukraine Counter-Offensive

Dispatches From Moscow And Kyiv Dispute Ukraine Counter-Offensive

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Monday its forces had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the front in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of troops while Ukraine accused Moscow of spreading lies.

It was not immediately clear whether or not the attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to drive out Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022.

Russia's defense ministry said Ukraine had attacked on Sunday morning with six mechanized and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.

"On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction," the defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1:30 a.m. Moscow time (2230 GMT).

"The enemy's goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front," it said. "The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success."

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Russian statement and the Ukrainian defence ministry and military did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

The commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces continued "moving forward" near the long-contested city of Bakhmut in northern Donetsk. He made no comment on the counter-offensive.

The daily report from Ukraine's General Staff said only that there were 29 combat clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications did not address the Russian statement directly but said, without providing evidence, that Russia would seek to spread lies.

"To demoralize Ukrainians and mislead the community (including their own population), Russian propagandists will spread false information about the counteroffensive, its directions, and the losses of the Ukrainian army," it said.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov published a cryptic message on Twitter on Sunday, quoting Depeche Mode's track "Enjoy the Silence".

Russian war bloggers reported fighting at several points across the front, particularly around Vuhledar, some 150 km (93 miles) southwest of Bakhmut.

FIGHTING

Russia's defence ministry released video of what it said showed several Ukrainian armoured vehicles in a field blowing up after being hit.

Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian troops as well as destroying 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles, the ministry said.

Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, was in the area at the time of the Ukrainian attack, the ministry said.

Prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the name War Gonzo, said Ukrainian forces were attacking near Velyka Novosilka, a village west of Vuhledar.

"There is a tough fight going on."

Other Russian military bloggers reported also heavy fighting on Monday morning near Bakhmut, nearby Soledar and Vuhledar. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Counter-Offensive Beginning?

For months, Ukraine has been preparing for a counter-offensive against Russian forces which officials in Kyiv and CIA Director William Burns have said will pierce Russian President Vladimir Putin's hubris.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Saturday that he was ready to launch the counteroffensive but tempered a forecast of success with a warning that it could take some time and come at a heavy cost.

"I don't know how long it will take," he told the Journal. "To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready."

After seeking tens of billions of dollars of Western weapons to fight Russian forces, the success or failure of the counter-offensive is likely to influence the shape of future Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.

Ukraine has in recent weeks sought to weaken Russian positions but its specific plans have been shrouded in secrecy as it seeks to strike yet another blow against the much larger military of Russia.

Moscow was last month struck by drones which Russia said was a Ukrainian terrorist attack while pro-Ukrainian forces have repeatedly crossed into Russia proper in recent days in the Belgorod region.

After a two-month lull, Russia has launched hundreds of drones and missiles on Ukraine since early May, chiefly on Kyiv, with Ukraine saying it was targeting military facilities but also hitting residential areas.

WAR IN UKRAINE

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year in what the Kremlin expected to be swift operation but its forces suffered a series of defeats and had to move back and regroup in swathes of eastern Ukraine.

Russia now controls at least 18% of what is internationally recognized to be Ukrainian territory, and has claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory.

For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been digging in along a front line which stretches for around 600 miles (1,000km), bracing for a Ukrainian attack which is expected to try to cut Russia's so-called land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Ukraine vows to eject every last Russian soldier from its territory, and casts the invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Russia.

Russia says the West is fighting a hybrid war against Russia to sow discord and ultimately carve up Russia's vast natural resources, allegations that Western leaders deny.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; editing by Diane Craft, Lincoln Feast and Philippa Fletcher)

Chuck Schumer

Senate Passes Bipartisan Debt Limit Bill, Averting Catastrophic Default

By Richard Cowan and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation backed by President Joe Biden that lifts the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, averting what would have been a first-ever default.

The Senate voted 63-36 to approve the bill that had been passed on Wednesday by the House of Representatives, as lawmakers raced against the clock following months of partisan bickering between Democrats and Republicans.

The Treasury Department had warned it would be unable to pay all its bills on June 5 if Congress failed to act by then.

"We are avoiding default tonight," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday as he steered the legislation through his 100-member chamber.

Biden praised Congress' timely action. "This bipartisan agreement is a big win for our economy and the American people," the Democratic president said in a statement, adding that he will sign it into law as soon as possible. He said he would make an additional statement on Friday at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT).

Biden was directly involved in negotiations on the bill with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

While this bitter battle has ended, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time flagging the next budget fight.

"In the coming months, Senate Republicans will continue working to provide for the common defense and control Washington Democrats’ reckless spending," he said in a statement.

McConnell was referring to 12 bills Congress will work on over the summer to fund government programs in the fiscal year beginning October 1, which will also carry out the broad instructions of the debt limit bill.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, meanwhile, issued some pointed advice saying, "I continue to strongly believe that the full faith and credit of the United States must never be used as a bargaining chip," as Republicans did over the past several months.

Before the final vote, senators tore through nearly a dozen amendments - rejecting all of them during a late-night session in anticipation of Monday's deadline.

With this legislation, the statutory limit on federal borrowing will be suspended until January 1, 2025. Unlike most other developed countries, the United States limits the amount of debt the government can borrow, regardless of any spending allocated by the legislature.

"America can breathe a sigh of relief," Schumer said in remarks to the Senate.

Republicans had blocked passage of any debt limit increase until they locked in some wide-ranging spending cuts in a move they said would begin addressing a rapidly escalating national debt.

Biden instead pushed for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to help address the growing debt. Republicans refused to consider any sort of tax hikes.

Both parties walled off the sprawling Social Security and Medicare retirement and healthcare programs from cuts, and McCarthy refused to consider reducing spending on the military or veterans.

That left a somewhat narrow band of domestic "discretionary" programs to bear the brunt of spending cuts. In the end, Republicans won about $1.5 trillion in reductions over 10 years, which may or may not be fully realized. Their opening bid was for $4.8 trillion in savings over a decade.

Treasury technically hit its limit on borrowing in January. Since then it has been using "extraordinary measures" to patch together the money needed to pay the government's bills.

Biden, Yellen and congressional leaders all acknowledged that triggering a default for lack of funds would have serious ramifications. Those included sending shock waves through global financial markets, possibly triggering job losses and a recession in the United States and raising families' interest rates on everything from home mortgages to credit card debt.

The Republican-controlled House passed the bill on Wednesday evening in a 314-117 vote. Most of those who voted against the bill were Republicans.

"Time is a luxury the Senate does not have," Schumer said on Thursday. "Any needless delay or any last-minute holdups would be an unnecessary and even dangerous risk."

Among the amendments debated were ones to force deeper spending cuts than those contained in the House-passed bill and stopping the speedy final approval of a West Virginia energy pipeline.

Republican Senator Roger Marshall offered an amendment to impose new border controls as high numbers of immigrants arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. His measure, he said, would "put an end to the culture of lawlessness at our southern border."

The Senate defeated the amendment, however. Democrats said it would strip away protections for child migrants and rob American farmers of needed workers.

Some Republicans also wanted to beef up defense spending beyond the increased levels contained in the House-passed bill.

In response, Schumer said the spending caps in this legislation would not constrain Congress in approving additional money for emergencies, including helping Ukraine in its battle against Russia.

"This debt ceiling deal does nothing to limit the Senate's ability to appropriate emergency supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities are sufficient to deter China, Russia and our other adversaries, and respond to ongoing and growing national security threats, including Russia's evil ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine," Schumer said.

The bill was cobbled together over weeks of intensive negotiations between senior aides for Biden and McCarthy.

The main argument was over spending for the next couple of years on discretionary programs such as housing, environmental protections, education and medical research that Republicans wanted to cut deeply.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would save $1.5 trillion over 10 years. That is below the $3 trillion in deficit reduction, mainly through new taxes, that Biden proposed.

The last time the United States came this close to default was in 2011. That standoff hammered financial markets, led to the first-ever downgrade of the government's credit rating and pushed up the nation's borrowing costs.

There was less drama this time as it became clear last week that Biden and McCarthy would find a deal with enough bipartisan support to get through Congress.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Moira Warburton and Gram Slattery; editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, Diane Craft, Kieran Murray and William Mallard)

Far Right In Retreat As McCarthy Secures GOP Maority To Pass Debt Deal

Far Right In Retreat As McCarthy Secures GOP Maority To Pass Debt Deal

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kevin McCarthy secured his position as Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday night, navigating fierce hardline opposition in his own caucus to pass a debt ceiling bill containing federal spending limits that President Joe Biden for months vowed to resist.

Six months after he endured 15 humiliating floor votes just to be elected speaker, McCarthy proved capable of dragging Biden into negotiations over spending and other Republican priorities, and then marshalling two-thirds of his often fractious House Republican majority to enact bipartisan legislation.

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," McCarthy told reporters after the vote, repeating one of his comments from the January night he was finally confirmed as speaker. The House approved by a 314-117 margin the bill, which lifts the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling in exchange for cutting non-defense discretionary spending and stiffening work requirements in assistance programs.

Yet it was a bruising victory for McCarthy. The bill gained 165 votes from Democrats, outnumbering the 149 from members of McCarthy's own Republican party.

The bill now goes to the narrowly Democratic-controlled Senate, which must enact it and get it to Biden's desk by June 5 to avoid a crippling U.S. default.

Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson, a McCarthy ally who helped craft the Republican debt-ceiling legislation that buttressed the speaker in negotiations, said the vote proved wrong Democratic predications that the 58-year-old Californian would have little chance of holding his caucus together.

"They said he would never become speaker, and of course they were wrong. They said he would never be able to manage the floor effectively and we haven't had a single bill fail," Johnson said in an interview. "They said he wouldn't be able to cut a deal with the president, and they were wrong about that."

McCarthy has so far succeeded in passing the bill without drawing direct verbal attacks from former President Donald Trump, who urged Republicans to push for a default if they were not able to extract sufficient concessions from Democrats.

Trump, who is seeking a return to the White House in 2024, had blasted top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling during Biden's first year in office. McConnell largely stayed in the background during these talks, which began to move forward after Biden agreed to one-on-one negotiations on May 9.

Avoiding Trump's ire appears to have protected McCarthy's standing with Republican voters nationally, some 44% of whom told a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May that they approve of his job performance, notably higher than McConnell's 29% approval rate.

The bill approved by the House on Wednesday would suspend the debt limit - essentially meaning that it no longer applies - through Jan. 1, 2025. That sets the stage for another showdown in the weeks following the 2024 presidential election.

Republican lawmakers and analysts say McCarthy's masterstroke in getting Biden to the negotiating table was his decision to bring a debt ceiling bill to the floor and pass it in April with only the support of his own party members.

Up to that point, Biden had refused McCarthy's requests to negotiate over the debt ceiling, insisting that House Republicans enact their own budget for fiscal 2024 as a prerequisite for spending talks.

But in getting the April measure passed, House Republicans became the only body in Washington that had acted to raise the debt ceiling.

"Once the House passed a bill, 'no negotiations' was a clearly unsustainable place to be," said Rohit Kumar, a former top aide to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who is now co-leader of PwC's national tax office in Washington.

The White House, for its part, contends that the talks between Biden and McCarthy were not a negotiation on the debt ceiling.

"The debt ceiling had to be lifted, and it had to be lifted for a long period of time," White House budget director Shalanda Young told a Tuesday press conference. "You see this bill lift the debt ceiling until 2025. You can call it a negotiation; I call it a declarative statement."

House Republicans say McCarthy has succeeded as speaker, because of an inclusive leadership style, cultivating support from a majority of caucus members by working through major party caucuses, known as the "Five Families," a reference to the warring organized crime clans of The Godfather movie.

"Speaker McCarthy's done an incredible job," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. "And I think he's proved over and over again that he defies the odds, and he also defies people's expectations."

McCarthy also expanded his influence through trusted friends and longtime associates such as Reps. Patrick McHenry and Garret Graves, who became his lead negotiators with the White House.

But McCarthy is not quite out of the woods. After stirring the ire of far rightists who decried the compromise bill as a sellout, he could face the prospect of ouster at the hands of any single member.

One of the conditions he agreed to in January to win the speakership was allowing for any one member to call for a "motion to vacate the chair," in essence a vote on whether to depose the speaker.

Senior members of the Freedom Caucus have said they would consider next steps in coming weeks.

One of their number, Ralph Norman, said McCarthy should have forced Democrats to accept the House-passed bill.

"I think it weakens him. Whether it's permanent or temporary, I don't know," Norman said.

But Norman said he would not support an immediate effort to oust McCarthy as speaker, adding "To threaten to kick him out now, that's not right."

A similar threat triggered the resignation of former House Speaker John Boehner in 2015.

"This is where the honeymoon can definitely end," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, a one-time aide to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Asked this week whether he expects to keep his speakership, McCarthy told a reporter: "What do you think? You guys ask me all the time, and I'm still standing."

His allies say they will defend him against any potential threat to his position.

"We'll have to deal with the internal politics of a hard-fought fight. Tempers are short and emotions are raw right now. But we'll deal with it," Representative Kelly Armstrong, a McCarthy adviser, told Reuters.

(Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by Steve Holland and Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Suzanne Goldenberg)

'Utter Capitulation': How Will McCarthy Sell Debt Deal To Angry Far Right?

'Utter Capitulation': How Will McCarthy Sell Debt Deal To Angry Far Right?

By Moira Warburton, Katharine Jackson and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After tough negotiations to reach a tentative deal with the White House on the U.S. borrowing limit, the next challenge for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing it through the House, where it may be opposed by both hardline Republicans and progressive Democrats.

As Democratic and Republican negotiators iron out the final details of an agreement to suspend the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling in coming days, McCarthy may be forced to do some behind-the-scenes wrangling.

A failure by Congress to deal with its self-imposed debt ceiling before June 5 could trigger a default that would shake financial markets and send the United States into a deep recession.

Republicans control the House by 222-213, while Democrats control the Senate by 51-49. These margins mean that moderates from both sides will have to support the bill, as any compromise will almost definitely lose the support of the far left and far right wings of each party.

To win the speaker's gavel, McCarthy agreed to enable any single member to call for a vote to unseat him, which could lead to his ouster if he seeks to work with Democrats.

Hours before the deal was announced, some hardline Republicans balked at McCarthy cooperating with the White House.

"If Speaker's negotiators bring back in substance a clean debt limit increase ... one so large that it even protects Biden from the issue in the presidential ..., it's war," Representative Dan Bishop, a Freedom Caucus member, tweeted.

The deal does just that, sources briefed on it say: it suspends the debt ceiling until January 2025, after the November 2024 presidential election, in exchange for caps on spending and cuts in government programs.

Bishop and other hardline Republicans were sharply critical of early deal details that suggest Biden has pushed back successfully on several cost-cutting demands on Saturday, signaling McCarthy may have an issue getting votes.

"Utter capitulation in progress. By the side holding the cards," Bishop said.

Progressive Democrats in both chambers have said they would not support any deal that has additional work requirements. This deal does, sources say, adding work requirements to food aid for people aged 50 to 54.

The deal would boost spending on the military and veterans' care, and cap it for many discretionary domestic programs, according to sources familiar with the talks. But Republicans and Democrats will need to battle over which ones in the months to come, as the deal doesn't specify them.

Republicans have rejected Biden's proposed tax increases, and neither side has shown a willingness to take on the fast-growing health and retirement programs that will drive up debt sharply in the coming years.

Several credit-rating agencies have said they have put the United States on review for a possible downgrade, which would push up borrowing costs and undercut its standing as the backbone of the global financial system.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Kim Coghill)

Texas House Votes To Impeach Election-Denier Attorney General Paxton

Texas House Votes To Impeach Election-Denier Attorney General Paxton

By Brad Brooks and Maria Caspani

LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) -The Texas House on Saturday voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, a conservative firebrand and ally of former President Donald Trump who has been accused by his fellow Republicans of abuse of office.

In historic proceedings, the 149-member House voted 121-23 to impeach Paxton after hours of debate during which the chamber heard speeches from supporters and opponents of impeachment. Two members were present but not voting while three were absent.

Paxton will now be temporarily removed from office pending a trial in the Senate, where his wife, Angela Paxton, is a senator. The Texas Senate is in recess until 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT) on Sunday, according to its website.

Paxton has denied the accusations and denounced the proceedings as "illegal, unethical, and profoundly unjust" in a statement on Twitter after Saturday's vote.

"I look forward to a quick resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence the process will be fair and just," he said.

In a message on his social media channel Truth Social ahead of the vote, Trump, who is seeking re-election in 2024, vowed to "fight" Texas House Republicans if Paxton were to be impeached.

The 20 articles of impeachment presented by a Republican-led House committee accuse Paxton of improperly aiding a wealthy political donor, conducting a sham investigation against whistleblowers in his office whom he fired, and covering up his wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case against him, among other offenses.

Paxton's impeachment proceedings laid bare the rift among Texas Republicans. Some spoke passionately in support of impeaching the state's top law enforcement official.

"Attorney General Paxton continuously and blatantly violated laws, rules, policies and procedures," Representative David Spiller said ahead of the vote.

Others vehemently opposed it. John Smithee, a long-serving conservative member of the chamber, said he was not speaking in Paxton's defense but criticized the process and said there was insufficient evidence.

"There is not a word, not one sentence in the testimony before you that would be admissible in any Texas court of law," Smithee said. "It is hearsay within hearsay within hearsay."

Paxton has staked out a position on the far right on divisive cultural issues. He has sued the Biden administration nearly 50 times attempting to halt what has he labeled as "unlawful tyrannical policies" on issues including immigration, gun rights and business regulation.

The five-member Texas House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that Paxton be impeached and removed from office.

Paxton easily won re-election last year after fending off a Republican primary challenge from George P. Bush, a scion of two former presidents.

The committee has heard testimony from its investigators about several years of alleged abuse of office by Paxton, including that he provided friend and donor Nate Paul, a Texas real estate developer, with FBI files related to the bureau's investigation into Paul.

The impeachment articles also allege Paxton engaged in bribery when Paul hired a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, and Maria Caspani in New York; Editing by Tom Hogue, David Gregorio and Daniel Wallis)

DeSantis Challenges Trump On Six-Week Abortion Ban In Political Shift

DeSantis Challenges Trump On Six-Week Abortion Ban In Political Shift

By James Oliphant

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday he was proud to have signed a six-week abortion ban, after seeming initially reluctant to embrace the recently passed law in Florida that outlaws almost all abortions in the state.

As DeSantis prepares to formally announce a 2024 White House run in the coming weeks, he is increasingly trumpeting the measure to help him draw more of a contrast with former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

At a news conference on Tuesday, DeSantis said he was “proud” to have signed the legislation and fired back at Trump, who suggested in an interview this week that the six-week ban is overly restrictive.

“He will not answer whether he would sign it or not,” said DeSantis, who is a leading contender for the Republican nomination. The nominee will take on President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in next year’s general election.

In an interview with online news site the Messenger posted on Monday, Trump said, “If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that was too harsh.”

DeSantis seized upon that at his news conference.

“Protecting an unborn child when there’s the detectable heartbeat is something that almost, probably, 99% of pro-lifers support,” he said.

He cited a similar law in Iowa, which will hold the first Republican presidential nominating contest early next year and is a state with a large bloc of evangelical voters.

Bob Vander Plaats, a leading evangelical advocate in Iowa, criticized Trump’s remarks on Twitter.

“No, Mr. President, many in the #ProLife community do not believe saving babies is too harsh,” Vander Plaats wrote.

He praised DeSantis for “leading on life” and in a later tweet, contended the Iowa nominating contest, known as the Iowa caucuses, is now “wide open.”

During the recent Florida legislative session, DeSantis did not expressly advocate for the six-week abortion ban, and he signed it last month without fanfare to replace what had been a 15-week ban. In speeches afterward, he largely avoided highlighting it.

While DeSantis’ abortion stance could help garner him votes among hard-right conservatives, some Republican donors have expressed unease with his position.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Republican donor Andy Sabin said he could not support DeSantis after he signed the abortion law.

(Reporting by James Oliphant in Washington; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Ross Colvin and Matthew Lewis)

Surprise Victory For Public Interest Groups In Supreme Court Class-Action Decision

Surprise Victory For Public Interest Groups In Supreme Court Class-Action Decision

By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a dispute involving a lawsuit against Bayer AG's Monsanto Co that could rein in a common form of settlement in class action cases under which money is awarded to charities and third parties unrelated to the litigation.

The justices turned away an appeal by Anna St. John, an attorney who opposed an agreement for Monsanto to pay more than $39 million to settle claims that the company deceptively labeled certain Roundup weedkiller products. Lower courts rejected the challenge by St. John, who had objected to the settlement because $14 to $16 million of the award would go to consumer non-profit groups and a university that were not injured by the company's alleged misconduct.

At issue in the case are so-called cy pres awards in class action cases that direct money that may go unclaimed or cannot be feasibly distributed to class members to unrelated entities as long as it would be in the interests of the plaintiffs.

Critics have said such awards encourage frivolous lawsuits and excessive fees going to class action attorneys who may seek to benefit their own interests instead. Proponents have said these settlements can put otherwise low-value awards per person to good use by benefiting groups that work for the public good or support underfunded entities.

The Supreme Court in 2019 sidestepped resolving a challenge to cy pres awards in a case involving Google. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, dissenting in that case, called cy pres settlements "unfair and unreasonable."

The plaintiffs sued in 2019 on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of individuals who bought certain of the company's Roundup weedkiller products with the allegedly deceptive labeling. Monsanto and the plaintiffs defend the settlement because both sides extended efforts to reach out to as many consumers as possible to file a claim - even increasing compensation to generate more claims - before any leftover money would be used for cy pres distribution.

Class members filed more than 240,000 claims worth more than $13 million. The settlement proposed three cy pres recipients, including the National Consumer Law Center, the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, and the Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice at the University of California, Berkeley.

St. John, the sole individual who opposed the settlement, is an attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute's Center for Class Action Fairness, which is also representing her in the case. Monsanto has called the group, which advocates against what it considers abusive class action procedures, a "serial objector to class-action settlements."

The group said in court papers that further steps could have taken to distribute the settlement award to class members. In addition, it said the cy pres distribution would infringe St. John's right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment because the chosen recipients would subsidize "left-leaning organizations" that "work against her political beliefs."

A federal judge rejected St. John's objections and approved the settlement, a ruling that the St. Louis, Missouri-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld last year.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

Sanders Will Grill Pharma Chiefs Today In Senate Hearing On Insulin Prices

Sanders Will Grill Pharma Chiefs Today In Senate Hearing On Insulin Prices

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of major insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are set to blame each other on Wednesday in their testimonies during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on making the life-saving drug more affordable.

PBMs negotiate with drugmakers for rebates and lower fees on behalf of employers and other clients, and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions they dispense. Both sides blame each other for high drug prices.

The CEOs of the major insulin manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Co, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, which together control 90 percent of the U.S. market, and top PBM executives from CVS Health Corp, Cigna Group's Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group Inc's Optum RX, which control 80 percent of the prescription drug market, will testify.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is a fierce critic of both industries and will likely grill the executives.

"The United States cannot continue to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while drug companies and PBMs make billions in profits. That's what this hearing is all about," Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement.

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson will argue that drugmakers pay substantial rebates aimed at lowering costs but that PBMs and insurers are incentivized to choose drugs with higher prices because they lead to larger rebates, according to his written testimony.

Optum Rx CEO Heather Cianfrocco will say manufacturers alone set the drug prices and abuse patent protections to stifle competition, her written testimony shows.

Around 8.4 million of the 37 million people in the United States with diabetes use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi all said in March they were cutting list prices by more than 70 percent for some insulin products.

The cuts could help around 2 million people pay for insulin. Although many people, including some 3.3 million on Medicare, pay $35 a month or less, about 1-in-5 with private insurance and the 17 percent of insulin users who are uninsured stand to benefit.

Uninsured people often have to pay full list prices, an average of $900 a month, forcing many to ration or skip doses.

Sanders has introduced a bill that caps all insulin list prices at $20 per vial and is working with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the ranking Republican on the HELP Committee, on a bipartisan bill that strengthens government oversight over PBMs, one of several bills aimed at reducing drug prices.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Graphic Video Of Mall Shooting Goes Viral As Biden Calls For Gun Controls

Graphic Video Of Mall Shooting Goes Viral As Biden Calls For Gun Controls

By Maria Caspani

(Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday.

The Democratic president renewed calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers. There is little chance the narrowly divided House and Senate would pass such legislation, although polls show most Americans support background checks.

Biden, who has made similar pleas before, said the assailant at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas, wore tactical gear and was armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon.

The gunman killed eight people, including children, and wounded at least seven, before a police officer killed him, police said on Saturday.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States, with at least 199 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.

As of Sunday morning, law enforcement had not released details about suspect's identity or a possible motive. The identities of the victims had also not been released.

"We don't have anything that we're ready to release at this time," Sergeant Jonathan Maness of the Allen Police Department told Reuters. "It's a lot of moving parts here."

Officials said three people transported to area hospitals were in critical condition as of Saturday, while four had been stabilized.

A graphic 10-second video shared on Twitter on Saturday showed several dead bodies slumped against a planter and white wall bearing the sign of retailer H&M.

At least one of the individuals, lifeless and bloody, appears to be a young child. Reuters was able to verify that the video was taken at the mall where the shooting took place.

In past shootings, social media sites worked to take down links to such graphic images. An emailed request for comment to Twitter, which no longer has a communications team, returned an automated reply with a poop emoji.

Some Twitter users said people and politicians needed to see videos like this one to grasp the magnitude and horrific nature of gun violence.

Others said it should be taken down.

"There is nothing virtuous or ethical about showing easily indentifiable dead children and adults, whose families might not yet know they are dead," wrote Emily Bell, a professor and the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. "It’s deeply unethical - it strips victims and their families of privacy and dignity in death. It serves only Musk’s click farm."

Tragedy Reignites Gun Control Debate

The tragedy in Allen, which happened just over a week after another deadly shooting in the Texas town of Cleveland, reignited the heated debate over gun control in the United States.

The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and that issue is a hot button one for many Republicans, who are backed by millions in donations from gun rights groups and manufacturers.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, called the shooting "devastating" in a Sunday morning interview on Fox News but said that the way to effectively tackle gun violence lies in addressing mental health.

"There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America," he said. "We are working to address that anger and violence by going to his root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats stressed the need to pass stronger gun safety legislation to curtail gun violence.

On Saturday, TV aerials showed hundreds of people calmly walking out of the mall, located about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dallas, after the violence unfolded, many with their hands up as scores of police stood guard.

One unidentified eyewitness told local ABC affiliate WFAA TV that the gunman was "walking down the sidewalk just ... shooting his gun outside."

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York, Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, Moira Warburton in Washington, and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)