Lawsuit contends Constitution's 'insurrection' clause bars Trump from running again for president
DENVER (AP) — A liberal group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the U.S. Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.”
The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
It will jolt an already unsettled 2024 primary campaign that features the leading Republican candidate facing four separate criminal cases.
Liberal groups have demanded that states’ top election officials bar Trump under the clause that prohibits those who “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding higher office. None has taken that step, looking for guidance from the courts on how to interpret a clause that has only been used a handful of times since the 1860s.
While a few fringe figures have filed thinly written lawsuits in a few states citing the clause, the litigation Wednesday was the first by an organization with significant legal resources. It may lead to similar challenges in other states, holding out the potential for conflicting rulings that would require the Supreme Court to settle.
___
Prosecutors seeking new indictment for Hunter Biden before end of September
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors plan to seek a grand jury indictment of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter before the end of the month, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The filing came in a gun possession case in which Hunter Biden was accused of having a firearm while being a drug user, though prosecutors did not name which charges they will seek. He has also been under investigation by federal prosecutors for his business dealings.
U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, newly named a special counsel in the case, referred to seeking an indictment before Sept. 29 in a status report required by Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Defense attorneys, for their part, said Hunter Biden has kept to the terms of their original agreement with prosecutors on the gun charge. That calls for sparing him from prosecution if he stays clean and out of trouble for two years, and his lawyer argued it remains in force. Prosecutors disagreed.
That agreement, which also contains an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for some other potential crimes, was part of a plea deal on misdemeanor tax offenses that fell apart during a court appearance in July.
___
Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion nationwide
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, two years after ruling that abortion was not a crime in one northern state.
That earlier ruling had set off a grinding process of decriminalizing abortion state by state. Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to decriminalize the procedure. Judges in states that still criminalize abortion will have to take account of the top court's ruling.
The Supreme Court wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that it had decided that “the legal system that criminalized abortion in the Federal Penal Code is unconstitutional, (because) it violates the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate.”
The court's sweeping decision Wednesday comes amid a trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on abortion, even as access has been limited in parts of the United States. Some American women were already seeking the help of Mexican abortion activists to obtain the pills used to end their pregnancies.
Mexico City was the first Mexican jurisdiction to decriminalize abortion 15 years ago.
___
Russian missile strike on Ukrainian market kills 17 as Blinken announces new $1B aid package
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile tore through an outdoor market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the country with more than $1 billion in new American funding for Ukraine, including military and humanitarian aid.
Blinken’s fourth visit to the country was overshadowed by the strike in the city of Kostiantynivka, near the front line in the Donetsk region, that turned the marketplace into an inferno. It was one of the deadliest bombardments of civilians in the 18-month-old war. In addition to the dead, at least 32 people were wounded.
“Those who know this place are well aware that it is a civilian area,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a news conference with the Danish prime minister in Kyiv. “There aren’t any military units nearby. The strike was deliberate.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said such brutal Russian attacks underscore "the importance of continuing to support the people of Ukraine.”
Blinken’s visit was aimed at assessing Ukraine’s 3-month-old counteroffensive and signaling continued U.S. support as some Western allies express worries about Kyiv’s slow progress against invading Russian forces.
___
A football coach who got job back after Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field has resigned
SEATTLE (AP) — A high school football coach in Washington state who won his job back after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field resigned Wednesday after just one game back.
Assistant Bremerton High School coach Joe Kennedy made the announcement on his website, citing several reasons, including that he needed to care for an ailing family member out of state. He had been living full-time in Florida, and before the first game last Friday he said he didn’t know if he’d continue coaching.
“I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do,” Kennedy wrote. “I will continue to work to help people understand and embrace the historic ruling at the heart of our case.”
Kennedy was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. His publicist, Jennifer Willingham, told The Associated Press he was on a plane back to Florida.
In a statement, the Bremerton School District confirmed Kennedy had submitted his resignation. School officials declined to comment on his exit, calling it a personnel matter.
___
Georgia judge rules that Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro can be tried together starting Oct. 23
ATLANTA (AP) — The judge overseeing the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election in the state on Wednesday denied requests by two of the 19 defendants to be tried alone, instead saying the pair would be tried together starting next month.
Since lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell have both filed speedy trial demands, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said their trial would begin Oct. 23, but he seemed skeptical of prosecutors’ arguments that all 19 defendants could be tried together that soon.
“It just seems a bit unrealistic to think we can handle all 19 in 40 days. That’s my initial reaction,” he said.
The hearing provided insight into how the case could play out, with prosecutors estimating a trial would take four months and that they’d call more than 150 witnesses. It was also broadcast live on television and on the judge's YouTube channel, a marked difference from the other three criminal cases against Trump, where cameras have not been allowed in the courtroom during proceedings.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who provided the four-month estimate, said that didn't include jury selection and added that whether or not defendants choose to testify could affect timing. But he said he expects a trial to take that long regardless of how many defendants it includes, arguing that the indictment was brought under Georgia's anti-racketeering law and prosecutors would seek to prove the entire alleged conspiracy against each defendant.
___
The writer who won a sex abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump scores another victory
NEW YORK (AP) — Four months after a civil trial jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that still more of the ex-president’s comments about her were libelous. The decision means that an upcoming second trial will concern only how much more he has to pay her.
The ruling stands to streamline significantly the second trial, set for January. It concerns remarks that Trump made in 2019, after Carroll first publicly claimed that he sexually attacked her in a dressing room after a chance meeting at a luxury department store in 1996. He denies that anything happened between them.
The first trial, this spring, concerned the sexual assault allegation and whether some 2022 Trump comments were defamatory. Jurors awarded Carroll $5 million, finding that she was sexually abused but rejecting her allegation that she was raped.
“The jury considered and decided issues that are common to both cases — including whether Mr. Trump falsely accused Ms. Carroll of fabricating her sexual assault charge and, if that were so, that he did it with knowledge that this accusation was false” or acted with reckless disregard for the truth, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in Wednesday's decision.
The judge wrote that the “substantive content” of the 2019 and 2022 statements was the same. And when the jury found that Trump indeed sexually abused Carroll, it effectively established that his 2019 statements also were false and defamatory, the judge said.
___
Christie says DeSantis put 'politics ahead of his job' by not seeing Biden during hurricane visit
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had put “politics ahead of his job” by declining to meet with President Joe Biden during the Democrat's weekend visit to survey Hurricane Idalia's damage in DeSantis' state.
“Your job as governor is to be the tour guide for the president, is to make sure the president sees your people, sees the damage, sees the suffering, what’s going on and what needs to be done to rebuild it,” Christie said about his rival for the 2024 nomination in an interview Tuesday on Fox News Radio's “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”
“You’re doing your job. And unfortunately, he put politics ahead of his job," Christie said. "That was his choice.”
No one knows better than Christie how such a sticky political situation can create an enduring image. Photos of then-New Jersey Gov. Christie giving a warm greeting to Democratic President Barack Obama during a visit after Superstorm Sandy in 2012 earned Christie scorn among national Republicans.
Obama placed his hand on Christie’s shoulder. Some Republicans labeled it a “hug” and suggested it contributed to GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s loss to Obama in that year’s general election. Christie said he was simply doing his job by meeting with the president.
___
Texas AG Ken Paxton's affair explains his illegal acts, former aide testifies at impeachment trial
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An extramarital affair Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had with a donor's employee helped connect the dots about why the Republican was using his power in ways that are now at the center of his impeachment trial on accusations of corruption, a former top aide testified Wednesday.
“It answered that ‘why’ question,” said Jeff Mateer, who was Paxton's second-in-command at the Texas attorney general's office.
The account by Mateer, who went on to report Paxton to the FBI in 2020 over allegations of abuse of office, quickly injected an affair that Paxton has acknowledged to staff into the historic impeachment trial — the gravest threat to Paxton’s political career after years of criminal charges and alleged scandal.
At the center of the case are accusations that Texas' top lawyer wrongfully used his power to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, one of his political supporters who was under FBI investigation at the time and was indicted this summer on charges of making false statements to banks.
During hours of occasionally tense cross-examination, Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee did not delve into the affair, but waived off Paul's $25,000 campaign contribution as an unremarkable donation in Texas politics and suggested Mateer and other deputies wanted to seize power.
___
UAW chief: Union to strike any Detroit automaker that hasn't reached deal as contracts end next week
DETROIT (AP) — The head of the United Auto Workers warned Wednesday that the union plans to go on strike against any Detroit automaker that hasn't reached a new agreement by the time contracts expire next week.
“That’s the plan,” President Shawn Fain responded when asked if the union would strike any of the companies that haven’t reached a tentative deal by the time their national contracts end.
A strike against all three major automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — could cause damage not only to the industry as a whole but also to the Midwest and even national economy, depending on how long it lasted. The auto industry accounts for about 3% of the nation's economic output. A prolonged strike could also lead eventually to higher vehicle prices.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Fain left open the possibility of avoiding a strike. He acknowledged, more explicitly than he has before, that the union will have to give up some of its demands to reach agreements. Contracts with the three companies will all expire at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.
“There’s a lot of back and forth in bargaining," he said, "and naturally, when you go into bargaining, you don’t always get everything you demand. Our workers have high expectations. We made a lot of sacrifices going back to the economic recession.”
The Associated Press
