SALISBURY — The Salisbury Democratic Town Committee will hold a caucus Feb. 28 at the Hilton Senior Center, 43 Lafayette Road, to elect delegates to attend as voting members of the Democratic State Convention.
The snow date is March 7. Caucus registration takes place between 9:30 and 10 a.m. The caucus begins at 10 a.m. All are welcome to observe the proceedings.
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The U.S. Senate is set to vote next week on overturning a 20-year mining ban in Minnesota’s Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties. Former President Joe Biden signed the protection during the end of his time in office.
Lawmakers, including Minnesota Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, were joined Monday by environmental groups and outfitters that serve the Boundary Waters to say they don’t want to see the bill pass.
Their fear is that copper mining projects will quickly move in, causing pollution and destruction to what has been protected land.
Smith says she’s working on rallying Senate Republicans to join her side to block the bill. She and others say at least one foreign group is already interested in mining the area.
Mining groups say any projects would be heavily regulated and vetted, but Smith says it’s not a deal she wants to see go through.
“We appreciate that mining is crucial to our economy and our national security and our way of life, but that is not what this mine is about. This mine is about a very well-connected, foreign mining conglomerate, Antofagasta,” Smith said. “It wants to develop this mine, dig up the copper, leave us with the mess, then send the metal most likely to China, and then sell it back to us or whoever is willing to pay the highest price.”
Washington — Unless there’s a last-minute breakthrough, another partial government shutdown is due to begin at midnight after the Senate failed to advance a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday.
In a 52 to 47 vote, all but one Democrat — Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — opposed moving forward with the bill, which would fund DHS through September. The motion needed 60 votes to succeed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, voted against the motion in a procedural move that allows him to bring it up again.
Funding for DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, is set to lapse at 12 a.m. Saturday. ICE and CBP would continue operating if that happens, since they received billions of dollars in separate funding last year.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said his caucus would vote against moving forward because the bill “fails to make any progress on reining in ICE and stopping the violence.”
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who has led the negotiations with Democrats and the White House, sought to approve a two-week funding extension by unanimous consent after the failed vote.
“Two weeks ago we agreed to extend funding while we talked and tried to find a pathway forward. However, the timeline we knew was going to be short,” Britt said. “We are working in good faith to find a pathway forward. What we’re asking is, let us continue to do that.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, objected.
“I wish we weren’t here. I wish our Republican colleagues and the White House had shown more seriousness from the start,” Murphy said. “But Senate Democrats have been clear that we have all taken an oath, an oath to uphold the law of the country, and this Department of Homeland Security, this ICE, is out of control.”
Democrats and Republicans have been negotiating reforms to ICE and CBP, but the two sides have failed to reach an agreement. The White House sent a legislative proposal for full-year funding late Wednesday, days after Democrats sent their own draft bill. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, told CBS News that his “preliminary assessment” of the latest offer “is that it falls short of the type of dramatic changes necessary in order to change ICE’s out-of-control behavior.”
Last week, in a letter to their GOP counterparts, Democratic leadership laid out a list of their demands for ICE reforms. Congressional Democrats have demanded changes to ICE and CBP in exchange for their votes to fund DHS since Alex Pretti was shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis last month.
Democrats want to restrict immigration agents from wearing masks, require them to wear identification and body cameras and standardize their uniforms and equipment. They also want to ban racial profiling, require judicial warrants to enter private property and bar immigration enforcement at medical facilities, schools, child care facilities, churches, polling places and courts. And they pushed to impose “reasonable” use-of-force standards; allow state and local jurisdictions to investigate and prosecute “excessive force;” and introduce safeguards into the detention system.
President Trump told reporters Thursday afternoon that some of the Democrats’ demands are “very, very hard to approve.”
Thune told reporters Thursday morning that he thought the White House’s latest offer is “pretty close” to getting into the “agreement zone.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2026.
Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
“I think it’s up to the Dems to react to this,” Thune said. “Right now, at least there ought to be an understanding that these discussions need to continue, and that a solution is at least in sight.”
Still, senators are leaving town after Thursday and are set to be away from Washington on recess next week. And Thune said he doesn’t see the benefit of keeping senators around as talks continue.
“If and when there’s a breakthrough, we’ll make sure people are here to vote on it,” Thune said. The GOP leader told CBS News that senators would be expected to return within 24 hours or as soon as possible if a deal is reached.
Schumer said Democratic negotiators “will be available 24/7” to continue discussions once the White House and Republicans are ready to “get serious.”
“Today’s strong vote was a shot across the bow to Republicans,” Schumer said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Along with funding for the immigration enforcement agencies, DHS also oversees the Coast Guard, FEMA and TSA, all of which would be impacted by a lapse in funding. ICE and CBP operations would continue because they received an influx of funds in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The impasse over DHS funding led to a four-day-long partial government shutdown earlier this month. Lawmakers ultimately agreed to fund every government agency except DHS until the end of the fiscal year. They also extended DHS funding for two weeks to buy more time for negotiations.
What’s holding up the funding bill after Senate Democrats struck deal with White House? – CBS News
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Senate Democrats struck a deal with the White House late Thursday on a funding deal ahead of the government shutdown deadline, but the upper chamber has yet to hold a vote to pass the package. CBS News’ Nikole Killion has the latest.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration “made multiple attempts” to get former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to leave the country before the U.S. military operation to capture him. “You couldn’t make a deal with this guy,” Rubio told GOP Sen. James Risch of Idaho.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” Schumer said in a statement. “I will vote no. Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”
In the Senate, the DHS funding measure was expected to be packaged with the other legislation that funds key federal departments in hopes the Senate passes the measures together before the Jan. 30 deadline to fund the government.
To advance the legislation, Republicans will likely need eight Democrats to vote for the legislation, since Sen. Rand Paul has generally voted against appropriations bills. If the funding package does not pass the Senate, there will be another partial government shutdown.
But on Sunday, Schumer called for the six-bill funding package to be broken up, allowing the Senate to pass the non-DHS portions “while we work to rewrite the DHS bill.”
Schumer’s comments come after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 37-year-old man in south Minneapolis Saturday morning. Saturday’s shooting comes after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good on Jan. 7 in South Minneapolis as well. Both victims are American citizens, and video of both incidents have spread quickly online.
Family identified the victim in Saturday’s shooting as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse living in Minneapolis. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news conference that the man who was killed “approached” U.S. Border Patrol officers while they were conducting “targeted” immigration enforcement operations, with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Noem said officers attempted to disarm him, but he “reacted violently,” and “fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
Nevada Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, who were two of the eight Democrats who voted against their party to end the 43-day government shutdown last year, both said Saturday that they will not support the measure funding DHS. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, another one of those eight Democrats, already said Friday he would not support funding DHS.
Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and had consistently voted to keep the government open during the last shutdown, said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he would not vote to fund DHS.
“I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances — what they’re doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis,” he said.
King suggested separating out DHS funding from the rest of the appropriations package to avoid a shutdown. “If those bills passed, 96% of the federal government is funded,” King added.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Saturday evening she “will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands.”
Several other Democratic senators on Saturday did not support funding DHS, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Mark Warner of Virginia, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California and Jon Ossoff of Georgia.
Murphy and Padilla, along with a small group of Democratic senators, have spent the past two days calling colleagues to whip opposition to the DHS funding bill, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
Senate Democrats are expected to hold a caucus call on the issue Sunday evening, a source told CBS News.
Although several House Democrats supported the bills to fund the government, prominent House Democrats on Saturday called on the upper chamber to reject the bill.
“DHS just shot a man in broad daylight two weeks after they shot a mother in the face without consequence,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York posted on social media Saturday. “They need our votes to continue. We cannot give it to them. Every Senator should vote NO.”
And Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, in a debate Saturday in the race for the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, reasserted that she “absolutely voted against” funding DHS.
“There was no way I was going to continue to pump a historic amount of money into this rogue organization that is going out and is violating people’s rights every single day on American cities,” Crockett said.
A handful of Republicans in Congress also spoke out following the shooting.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, called the events in Minneapolis “incredibly disturbing,” arguing that the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake” and calling for a joint federal and state investigation.
GOP Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington likewise said he’s “disturbed” by what he’s seen in Minnesota, while lauding the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee for seeking testimony from ICE leaders and other officials.
The deadly Minneapolis shootings have occurred amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city in recent weeks. Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Saturday that the state “has had it,” and he called on the Trump administration to pull ICE agents from Minneapolis, characterizing their efforts an “absolute abomination.”
The Trump administration has deployed 3,000 federal agents from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection throughout Minnesota as part of “Operation Metro Surge.” Tensions between the federal agents and residents are high, especially after the Jan. 7 shooting and an altercation after an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan migrant in the leg last week.
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday in Minneapolis that many of those officers are not even doing targeted immigration enforcement, but instead are stepping in to protect ICE officers from clashes with protesters. He blamed a “failure of cooperation” by local and state authorities for the rising tensions.
On Friday, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the Twin Cities to protest Operation Metro Surge, and hundreds of businesses closed in solidarity.
Former television sports reporter Michele Tafoya has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota as a Republican, according to federal filings submitted Tuesday afternoon.
Tafoya is seeking the open seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, as Republicans target a pickup opportunity in a state the GOP has not won statewide since 2006, when then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty was reelected.
A Republican has not been elected to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota since Norm Coleman in 2002.
“NBC Sunday Night Football” reporter Michele Tafoya on the sidelines during a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Football Team at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 26, 2021, in Arlington, Texas.
Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
CBS News can confirm Tafoya met last week with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to Republican sources familiar with the meeting. The Senate GOP’s campaign arm has been recruiting Tafoya since Smith announced she would not seek reelection, as Republicans look to defend their current 53–47 majority in the upper chamber during this year’s midterm elections. Tafoya’s meeting with the NRSC was first reported by Fox News.
On the Democratic side, a competitive primary is also taking shape between progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and centrist Democratic Rep. Angie Craig. In a recent interview with Newsweek, Craig that she believes Congress should impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem following the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in south Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this month.
Tafoya spent about a decade as a sideline reporter for NBC Sports’ “NBC Sunday Night Football” before ending her tenure in 2021. She also had stints during her long sports broadcasting career with ABC Sports, ESPN and CBS Sports. In 2022, she served as co-chair for Kendall Qualls, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who is running again in this year’s governor’s race.
Extended interview: Pennsylvania Sens. Fetterman and McCormick – CBS News
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Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick join Tony Dokoupil on the “CBS Evening News” to discuss President Trump’s plan for Greenland, the debate over health care and more.
BOSTON — Massachusetts’ two U.S. senators have joined other Democrats and a handful of Republicans in passing a war powers resolution to limit President Donald Trump’s military action in Venezuela, as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote on a similar measure.
The Senate voted 52-47 Thursday to approve a resolution that prohibits further U.S. military action in Venezuela, unless Congress authorizes it. The move comes after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were brought to New York to face drug trafficking and weapons charges.
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BOSTON — An expected vote by the U.S. Senate on a war powers resolution to restrict U.S. military action in Venezuela has become a campaign issue in the Democratic primary race between incumbent U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and challenger U.S Rep. Seth Moulton.
The Senate on Thursday is poised to vote on a war powers resolution, filed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, to halt President Donald Trump’s use of military force against Venezuela. The move comes after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were brought to New York to face drug trafficking and weapons charges.
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The race for U.S. Senate in Minnesota gets underway in less than a month, with both the DFL and GOP caucuses set for Feb. 3.
The DFL race pits two prominent party leaders, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig, against each other.
The Democratic Party has struggled to define itself in the Trump era, with the party split between progressives and moderates. That same split is evident in the race for the DFL U.S. Senate nomination.
Flanagan is widely seen as the more progressive candidate; Craig is viewed as more moderate.
“My opponent, Angie Craig, voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act right out of the gate since the first vote under the second Trump administration, which strips immigrants of due process,” Flanagan said.
Craig has received $3.5 million in contributions and has $2.9 million cash on hand. Flanagan has received $2.2 million in contributions and has $835,000 on hand.
Both candidates must navigate upcoming caucuses, conventions and a potential August primary before they face off against the Republican nominee in November.
Flanagan will have to run amidst a backdrop of evolving fraud scandals that have mushroomed under the Walz-Flanagan administration.
When asked if she and Gov. Tim Walz should have done more, Flanagan said, “You know, the governor has been clear that the buck stops with him. He has taken the lead here. And of course, I have expressed concern, and, you know, he has been clear with the legislature. They put additional measures in place.”
But a key issue for Flanagan is just now emerging. On Thursday, the state’s new paid family and medical leave act went into effect. If that rollout is a success, it could boost her campaign.
Historically, Minnesota has not done well with statewide roll-outs like MNsure and MNLARS. Flanagan is among the DFL leaders predicting that the program, which will provide paid leave to almost all Minnesotans, will be a success and widely popular.
On the Republican side, top candidates for U.S. Senate include former GOP Chair David Hann and former U.S. Senate candidate Royce White.
You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rosso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia has agreed to pay nearly $5.2 million in overdue personal taxes, the latest saga for the former billionaire who has been followed by a trail of financial challenges going back well over a decade.
An attorney for Justice and his wife, Cathy, entered into a joint motion for consent judgment with the federal government on Monday, the same day the government filed a lawsuit saying the couple “have neglected or refused to make full payment” for the income taxes dating to 2009. An attorney for the Justice Department’s tax division signed off on the agreement.
Justice had a fortune estimated at $1.9 billion last decade by Forbes magazine, which stripped his billionaire title in 2021, when Justice’s worth had dwindled to an estimated $513 million. Earlier this year, Forbes estimated that Justice’s net worth had disintegrated to “less than zero” due to liabilities that far exceeded assets.
A spokesperson for Justice’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
During a briefing with local media in October, Justice asserted that his companies “are complicated and complex” and that his children “are doing a magnificent job” running them. He then repeated past assertions that collection efforts against him were politically motivated, before concluding: “At the end of the day, I’d say just let it be and see how it all plays out.”
Justice, a former two-term governor who owns dozens of businesses that include coal and agricultural operations, was elected last November to the Senate. He took over the seat vacated by the retiring Joe Manchin, a Democrat who became an independent in 2024 near the end of his second full term.
Justice still has other financial challenges to work out.
The Internal Revenue Service last month filed liens totaling more than $8 million against Justice and his wife on unpaid personal taxes. In September, state tax officials filed $1.4 million in liens against the Justice family’s historic hotel, The Greenbrier, and the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Club, over unpaid sales taxes.
Last month, a foreclosure auction on several hundred lots owned by the Justice family at a resort community near Beckley was paused. The auction centered on a dispute between the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association and Justice Holdings over unpaid fees. The state Supreme Court plans to review the case more closely.
In 2021, the IRS filed liens over $1.1 million in unpaid taxes on the Greenbrier Hotel and an additional $80,000 on the resort’s medical clinic. Those debts were paid off later that year.
Justice’s family settled debts last year in a separate case to avoid the Greenbrier Hotel’s foreclosure. The 710-room hotel, which has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats, had come under threat of being auctioned off on the steps of a Lewisburg courthouse. That was after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by Justice to a credit collection company, Beltway Capital, which declared it to be in default.
The state Democratic Party has said efforts to seize the hotel from Justice were “a direct consequence of his own financial incompetence.”
Last year, a union official at the Greenbrier said that Justice’s family was at least $2.4 million behind in payments to an employees’ health insurance fund, putting workers’ coverage at risk. In 2023, dozens of properties owned by the Justice family in three counties were auctioned as payment for delinquent real estate taxes. Others have sought to recoup millions in fines for environmental issues and unsafe working conditions at his company’s coal mines.
Justice bought The Greenbrier resort out of bankruptcy in 2009 for $20.1 million. The sporting club is a private equity club and residential community on the property that opened in 2000.
The resort in White Sulphur Springs that dates to 1778 also has a casino, spa and dozens of amenities and employs around 2,000 workers. The resort held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.
Rollins College is opening its doors Saturday to anyone in Central Florida who lost a loved one to suicide.It’s in honor of International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.Register for free.Those who show up will learn coping strategies, explore grief and discover resources to help with each unique healing journey. The Central Florida chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is hosting the seminar. It’s from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. at 1000 Holt Ave.International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is an event in which survivors of suicide loss come together to find connection, understanding, and hope through their shared experience.This event is for survivors of suicide loss only.In 1999, Senator Harry Reid, who lost his father to suicide, introduced a resolution to the United States Senate, leading to the creation of International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. Also known as Survivor Day, the day was designated by the United States Congress as a day on which those affected by suicide can join together for healing and support. It was determined that Survivor Day would always fall on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, as the holidays are often a difficult time for suicide loss survivors.If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can chat online here.
Rollins College is opening its doors Saturday to anyone in Central Florida who lost a loved one to suicide.
Those who show up will learn coping strategies, explore grief and discover resources to help with each unique healing journey.
The Central Florida chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is hosting the seminar. It’s from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. at 1000 Holt Ave.
International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is an event in which survivors of suicide loss come together to find connection, understanding, and hope through their shared experience.
This event is for survivors of suicide loss only.
In 1999, Senator Harry Reid, who lost his father to suicide, introduced a resolution to the United States Senate, leading to the creation of International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.
Also known as Survivor Day, the day was designated by the United States Congress as a day on which those affected by suicide can join together for healing and support.
It was determined that Survivor Day would always fall on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, as the holidays are often a difficult time for suicide loss survivors.
If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can chat online here.
Klobuchar, who met with the pope for about 20 minutes along with a Ukrainian delegation, said it was an honor to meet him, calling him “a true moral force for peace and justice.”
Klobuchar, Hennepin County’s former top prosecutor, has led on human trafficking issues in the Senate.
“Any path towards peace must start with returning the kidnapped children,” Klobuchar said. “A lot of this are children that are in bombed out areas, orphanages that were bombed out.”
Watch: John Thune speaks during rare Saturday session on government shutdown – CBS News
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Senators convened for a Saturday session on the 39th day of the record-breaking government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke as both sides still appeared far apart.
Congressional Republicans are pushing back on calls from the White House to end the filibuster so that Republicans don’t need the help of Democrats to pass a bill to reopen the government. CBS News’ Lindsey Reiser explains what the filibuster is, and why the Senate has held on to the rule for decades.
President Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats and reopen the federal government.
“THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social.
The filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown when the new fiscal year began.
Mr. Trump’s call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate and congressional dealmaking operate, with the president saying in his post that he gave a “great deal” of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday.
CBS News has reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune for comment. The Senate adjourned on Thursday and is not schedule to meet again until Monday.
Reporters ask questions as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican from South Dakota, turns to enter his office at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29, 2025. With the government shutdown now on its 29th day, the standoff in Congress over spending is increasingly piling pain on the public sector, with the largest federal employees’ union pressuring Senate Democrats to reopen the government.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The president declared the trip a success because of a trade truce with China and foreign investment planned for American industries, but he said one question kept coming up during his time there about why did “powerful Republicans allow” the Democrats to shut down parts of the government.
His call to end the filibuster came at a moment when certain senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson believed it was time for the government shutdown to come to an end. It’s unclear if lawmakers will follow Mr. Trump’s lead, rather than finding ways to negotiate with Democrats.
From coast to coast, fallout from a shuttered federal government is hitting home: Alaskans are stockpiling moose, caribou and fish for winter, even before SNAP food aid is scheduled to shut off. Mainers are filling up their home-heating oil tanks, but waiting on the federal subsidies that are nowhere in sight.
Flights are being delayed with holiday travel around the corner. Workers are going without paychecks. And Americans are getting a first glimpse of the skyrocketing health care insurance costs that are at the center of the stalemate on Capitol Hill.
“People are stressing,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as food options in her state grow scarce.
“We are well past time to have this behind us.”
While quiet talks are underway, particularly among bipartisan senators, the shutdown is not expected to end before Saturday’s deadline when Americans’ deep food insecurity — one in eight people depend on the government to have enough to eat — could become starkly apparent if federal SNAP funds run dry.
Washington — Former FBI Director James Comey is urging a federal court to dismiss the two federal charges brought against him over allegedly false testimony he gave to Congress in September 2020. He’s arguing that the questions he answered, which were asked by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, were “confusing” and “fundamentally ambiguous.”
In a new filing with the court in Alexandria, Virginia, Comey’s lawyers argued that his testimony in response to Cruz’s questions was “literally true” and cannot support a conviction. The former FBI director’s legal team suggested that the government is attempting to try Comey on “cherry-picked statements” given during a four-hour long Senate hearing without specifying which parts of his testimony it believes were false or misleading.
They argued that while the government has the authority to prosecute witnesses who mislead federal investigators by giving false answers to clear questions, “it does not authorize the government to create confusion by posing an imprecise question and then seek to exploit that confusion by placing an after-the-fact nefarious interpretation on the ensuing benign answer.”
Comey’s lawyers also asserted that “basic due process principles in criminal law require that the questioner frame his questions with clarity so that a witness does not have to guess.”
A federal grand jury in Alexandria indicted Comey late last month on charges he lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional investigation. The alleged offenses stem from testimony Comey gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Comey has already filed one tranche of motions with the court that argue the indictment should be tossed out on the grounds that it is based on a vindictive and selective prosecution. He is also challenging the validity of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan‘s appointment to that role.
Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in one of those filings that he would seek to dismiss at least the first count of the indictment — the allegation that Comey lied to Congress — because of Cruz’s questioning.
In addition to his latest bid to have the charges dismissed, Comey’s lawyers are asking for more details about the conduct underlying the two counts. They are claiming the indictment is “sparse” and has a “total absence of factual allegations.”
The indictment against Comey references an exchange the former FBI director had with an unnamed senator, believed to be Cruz, during the Judiciary Committee hearing more than five years ago. During the questioning, Cruz asked Comey about testimony he gave in May 2017, in which the former FBI chief was questioned about whether he had ever been an anonymous source or authorized anyone to be an anonymous source about matters relating to investigations into President Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.
Cruz then referenced comments from Andrew McCabe, who was Comey’s deputy at the FBI, and claimed McCabe publicly said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the press.
“Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz asked Comey.
Comey said in response, “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what, the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”
Cruz reiterated that Comey was testifying that he “never authorized to leak. And Mr. McCabe when if he says contrary is not telling the truth, is that correct?”
“Again, I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today,” Comey replied.
But prosecutors have claimed that Comey’s testimony was false because he authorized Daniel Richman, a longtime friend of his, to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the FBI investigation involving Clinton.
The government confirmed to Comey’s lawyers that an unidentified individual referred to as “Person 3” in the indictment is Richman. A Columbia University law professor, Richman is a former federal prosecutor who also served as a “special government employee” at the FBI when Comey was director.
Richman has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His name also did not come up in the exchange that appears to have led to the charges against Comey.
In their bid to have the indictment dismissed, Comey’s lawyers said that any false-statements charge that rests on an interpretation of a “fundamentally ambiguous question” must be dismissed.
“Fundamental to any false statement charge are both clear questions and false answers,” they wrote. “Neither exists here.”
Comey’s lawyers argued that a “reasonable person” would’ve interpreted Cruz to be asking only about whether the former FBI chief had authorized McCabe to be an anonymous source, rather than broadly inquiring about Comey’s interactions with anyone at the FBI.
“The indictment contains no allegations that Mr. Comey’s answers were false: it never alleges that Mr. Comey made a false statement regarding Mr. McCabe,” they wrote. “On the contrary, the indictment omits Senator Cruz’s statements about Mr. McCabe, obscuring the context necessary to understand both the questions themselves and Mr. Comey’s responses.”
Comey’s legal team reiterated that he maintains that his 2017 testimony was truthful, but was also argued that his “statement that he stood by his prior testimony was truthful regardless of whether that prior testimony was itself truthful.”
California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter responded to a question on Tuesday about her behavior in recent viral videos. Sabrina Rodriguez, national politics reporter for The Washington Post, and Eleanor Mueller, Congress reporter for Semafor, join with analysis.