But Republican leaders could still take procedural steps to send all those pieces as one package to the Senate, which could enrage the right wing of the House GOP conference.

A fourth bill will address foreign adversaries and include a ban on TikTok, the sources said.

Among the ways GOP leaders plan to address Ukraine aid: a bill to seize Russian assets, a lend-lease program for Ukraine military aid and convertible loans for humanitarian relief.

Former President Donald Trump, who recently met with House Speaker Mike Johnson at Mar-a-Lago, has expressed openness to structuring Ukraine aid as a loan.

GOP Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma told CNN that Johnson is allowing germane amendment votes on these bills as well – a process that far right Republicans had been demanding of Johnson.

In the wake of Iran’s unprecedented retaliatory strikes on Israel, Democrats have called on Johnson to bring up a Senate-passed foreign aid package that includes aid to Israel and Ukraine, but hardline conservatives have urged the Louisiana Republican against attaching Ukraine funding to any Israel aid package – a warning that comes as the speaker faces the threat of a potential vote to oust him from his leadership post.

House Republicans have also announced that a series of pro-Israel and anti-Iran bills will be taken up, including a measure condemning the attack by Iran and affirming that lawmakers stand with Israel and support its right to respond to Iranian aggression.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged immediate passage of the foreign aid package passed by the Senate in a new letter to colleagues.

“The gravely serious events of this past weekend in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to act immediately. We must take up the bipartisan and comprehensive national security bill passed by the Senate forthwith,” Jeffries wrote.

In November, the House passed a bill to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, but Democrats objected to the fact that the bill did not include aid to Ukraine and would enact funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service.

The Senate passed its bill in February – a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with assistance for Ukraine, Israel and other priorities.

A significant number of House Republicans are opposed to sending further aid to Ukraine. Now, Johnson faces the most significant threat to his speakership to date after GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is among those who oppose additional Ukraine aid, filed a motion against him that could be used to force a vote on his ouster.

Greene told CNN on Monday that Trump’s backing of Johnson during a Friday press conference will not deter her from moving to oust the speaker.

“No, no, and as a matter of fact, there’s more people that are probably going to be angry from whatever happens this week,” she said.

Greene called the push for aid to Ukraine “the dumbest thing on the planet,” before dismissing Trump’s endorsement of Johnson.

“He also said that I’m his friend, so don’t leave that part out. No, I don’t think President Trump should have ever been put in that situation, at that press conference,” she said. “He shouldn’t have had to sit there and be questioned back and forth between myself and Speaker Johnson. I am one of President Trump’s biggest fighters here in Washington, everyone knows that.”

Johnson called Greene’s decision to file the motion to vacate a “distraction” during an interview on Fox News.

“That’s a distraction. What Marjorie has done with the motion to vacate is not helpful for our party, for our mission to save the country, because if we don’t grow the House majority, keep the House majority, win the Senate and win back the White House for President Trump, we’re going to lose the republic,” he said.

In other words: a familiar routine.

But inside the courtroom, which was closed to TV cameras, Trump was a different man — reserved and muted in a stark departure from his feisty approach to other legal troubles.

The contrast spoke to the gravity of his situation. Trump is now the first former president ever to stand trial on criminal charges and faces the prospect, if he loses, of becoming the first major American presidential candidate in history to run as a convicted felon.

Trump is accused in the case of falsifying business records to hide alleged hush money payments made to a porn star to keep her from going public during his 2016 campaign with allegations of an affair.

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks and Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is required to attend every day court is in session — a schedule that will dramatically alter his daily life and his ability to campaign in battleground states.

So Trump instead brought his campaign to the courthouse, delivering statements before and after the day’s proceedings, which he again cast as nothing more than a politically motivated effort by his rivals to hinder his campaign.

“This is political persecution,” he steamed after arriving with a phalanx of lawyers and several senior aides, but without his wife or other family members. “This is an assault on our country,” he went on.

Trump is already well practiced in the art of campaigning from the courtroom. In addition to appearances related to his four criminal trials, Trump this year voluntarily attended most days of his civil fraud trial as well as a defamation case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused Trump of rape.

Those two trials did not end well for Trump: The former president was found liable in both cases, and now owes over half a billion dollars, including interest.

During those hearings, Trump was often admonished by the judges, who instructed him to be quiet or answer questions more succinctly. At one point, the judge in the Carroll suit threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom for speaking loudly. Another day he stormed out. Trump also openly sparred with the judge in his civil fraud case, including from the witness stand.

Such behavior would not be tolerated in a criminal courtroom and Judge Juan Merchan made clear Trump could be sent to jail and prosecuted separately if he were to engage in such disruptive behavior.

On Monday, Trump did not.

At times, he was seen whispering and passing notes with Todd Blanche, his lead attorney. But during other stretches, Trump slouched forward, casting his gaze toward the ceiling, or leaned back in his chair with his arms folded and his eyes closed.

Every movement was memorialized by a small pool of reporters inside. As he entered the courtroom, Trump “paused for a split second” and “licked his lips” before walking up the courtroom’s center aisle. When he was introduced as the defendant, Trump turned and gave prospective jurors “a little tight-lipped smirk.” Later, when he exited the courtroom for a break, Trump glared at a New York Times reporter who earlier had reported Trump had fallen asleep in his chair.

While his body language was carefully parsed, he was seen more than heard.

During the first day of his trial, Trump said just five words on the record — “Yes” once, and “Yes, sir” twice — as he was read his so-called “Parker warnings” informing him that his right to be present at the trial could be revoked if he acted out and that he could be sent to jail for disruptive behavior.

It remains unclear how long Trump’s restraint will last as the trial drags on.

The sterile, fluorescent-lit courtroom is a world away from the gilded Mar-a-Lago club where he has taken up residency in his post-presidential life. There he is surrounded by doting staff and ardent supporters who deliver standing ovations every night as he enters the dining room.

In the courtroom, Trump was introduced to jurors not as president — as his aides still call him — but “Mr. Donald J. Trump” — and faced restraints, including the prospect that he might not be granted permission to attend his youngest son’s high school graduation.

The judge has not ruled on the matter, but did bar Trump from traveling to Washington next Thursday, when the Supreme Court will take up his argument that, as a former president, he is immune from prosecution.

“We think that it is important for the court to remind Mr. Trump that he is a criminal defendant and that he is under the court’s supervision,” one prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, said.

With Trump stuck in New York for the foreseeable future, aides have been planning rallies and other political events on weekends and on Wednesdays, when court is not supposed to be in session. Merchan said Monday that Wednesdays could be added if he trial falls behind schedule.

Aides are also considering possible events around New York after court ends for the day. Trump has often talked about wanting to campaign in his home state, even though New York remains overwhelmingly Democratic.

He is also expected continue to speak from the courthouse and hold press conferences to spin each day’s proceedings, as he has in his other trials.

While Trump has complained about being taken off the campaign trail, he has been keeping a relatively light schedule of public events since he locked up the GOP nomination last month, with most of his rallies scheduled on weekends anyway. Instead, he has been focused on fundraising as he tries to close the gap with his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden.

He is also expected to rely more heavily on surrogates. On Monday, allies including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds — all potential vice presidential or cabinet picks — fanned out across cable networks to blast the case.

Trump’s indictments proved beneficial during the primaries, helping him rake in tens of millions of dollars from angry supporters and denying his GOP rivals the media spotlight as they were trying to gain traction.

It’s unclear, however, how a criminal trial and possible conviction resonate with the broader general election audience, which includes more moderate and independent voters that could decide the race.

Nearly half of registered voters, 46%, said in a recent NYT/Siena College poll that Trump “should be found guilty” in the New York trial. And about 6 in 10 said the charges were “very” or “somewhat” serious.

The details of the case are salacious — involving a porn star, tabloids and hush money payments. But the case is widely see as posing less of a legal risk to Trump than his other cases, which accuse him of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and of charges under the Espionage Act over his hoarding of classified documents that could lead to serious jail time.

But the hush money case could be the only one that makes it to trial before November’s vote.

Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, ignored Monday’s proceedings as his aides seek to avoid the appearance of judicial interference.

Campaign officials said Monday that they will instead focus on continuing to present a political split-screen between the two men, with the president focused on governing and Trump focused on himself.

That contrast was especially striking this weekend, as Iran launched an attack against Israel and Biden worked to prevent a wider Middle East escalation, speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

He’ll spend the week campaigning in battleground Pennsylvania, with events planned in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as Trump remains in court.

Johnson, R-La., is already under immense political pressure from his fellow GOP lawmakers as he tries to stretch between the Republican Party’s divided support for helping Kyiv defend itself from Moscow’s invasion. The Republican speaker has sat for two months on a $95 billion supplemental package that would send support to the U.S. allies, as well as provide humanitarian aid for civilians in Ukraine and Gaza and funding to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan.

The attack by Iran on Israel early Sunday further ratcheted up the pressure on Johnson, but also gave him an opportunity to underscore the urgency of approving the funding.

Johnson told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he and Republicans “understand the necessity of standing with Israel” and he would try this week to advance the aid.

“The details of that package are being put together right now,” he said. “We’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference also said that President Joe Biden held a phone call Sunday with the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, including Johnson. The New York Democrat said there was consensus “among all the leaders that we had to help Israel and help Ukraine, and now hopefully we can work that out and get this done next week.”

“It’s vital for the future of Ukraine, for Israel and the West,” Schumer said.

The White House said Biden “discussed the urgent need for the House of Representatives to pass the national security supplemental as soon as possible.”

Johnson has also “made it clear” to fellow House Republicans that he will this week push to package together the aid for Israel, Ukraine and allies in Asia and pass it through the House, said GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The speaker has expressed support for legislation that would structure some of the funding for Kyiv as loans, pave the way for the U.S. to tap frozen Russian central bank assets and include other policy changes. Johnson has pushed for the Biden administration to lift a pause on approvals for Liquefied Natural Gas exports and at times has also demanded policy changes at the U.S. border with Mexico.

But currently, the only package with wide bipartisan support in Congress is the Senate-passed bill that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby called on the speaker to put that package “on the floor as soon as possible.”

“We didn’t need any reminders in terms of what’s going on in Ukraine,” Kirby said on NBC. “But last night certainly underscores significantly the threat that Israel faces in a very, very tough neighborhood.”

As Johnson searches for a way to advance the funding for Ukraine, he has been in conversations with both the White House and former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

With his job under threat, Johnson traveled to Florida on Friday for an event with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club. Trump expressed support for Johnson and said he had a “very good relationship” with him.

“He and I are 100% united on these big agenda items,” Johnson said. “When you talk about aid to Ukraine, he’s introduced the loan-lease concept which is a really important one and I think has a lot of consensus.”

But Trump, with his “America First” agenda, has inspired many Republicans to push for a more isolationist stance. Support for Ukraine has steadily eroded in the roughly two years since the war began, and a cause that once enjoyed wide support has become one of Johnson’s toughest problems.

When he returns to Washington on Monday, Johnson also will be facing a contingent of conservatives already angry with how he has led the House in maintaining much of the status quo both on government spending and more recently, a U.S. government surveillance tool.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia, has called for Johnson’s ouster. She departed the Capitol on Friday telling reporters that support for her effort was growing. And as Johnson on Sunday readied to advance the aid, Greene said on X that it was “antisemitic to make Israeli aid contingent” on aid for Ukraine.

While no other Republicans have openly joined Greene in calling to oust Johnson, a growing number of hardline conservatives are openly disparaging Johnson and defying his leadership.

Meanwhile, senior GOP lawmakers who support aid to Ukraine are growing frustrated with the months-long wait to bring it to the House floor. Kyiv’s troops have been running low on ammunition and Russia is becoming emboldened as it looks to gain ground in a spring and summer offensive. A massive missile and drone attack destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others last week.

“What happened in Israel last night happens in Ukraine every night,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The divided dynamic has forced Johnson to try to stitch together a package that has some policy wins for Republicans while also keeping Democrats on board. Democrats, however, have repeatedly called on the speaker to put the $95 billion package passed by the Senate in February on the floor.

Although progressive Democrats have resisted supporting the aid to Israel over concerns it would support its campaign into Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians, most House Democrats have gotten behind supporting the Senate package.

“The reason why the Senate bill is the only bill is because of the urgency,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week. “We pass the Senate bill, it goes straight to the president’s desk and you start getting the aid to Ukraine immediately. That’s the only option.”

Many Democrats also have signaled they would likely be willing to help Johnson defeat an effort to remove him from the speaker’s office if he puts the Senate bill on the floor.

“I’m one of those who would save him if we can do Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine and some reasonable border security,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat.

“I will be forced to sit fully gagged. I’m not allowed to talk. They want to take away my constitutional right to talk,” said Trump, who has been barred from publicly discussing potential witnesses and jurors but not the judge or prosecutors.

“I’m proud to do it for you,” Trump told a crowd in northeast Pennsylvania. “Have a good time watching.”

Trump spoke as Israel was fighting off a retaliatory drone attack from Iran that threatened to tip into a regional war in the Middle East. After a short mention of the attack, which he claimed wouldn’t have happened if he were president, Trump turned to an extended tirade against his own legal troubles.

He went after Judge Juan M. Merchan, whom he called “corrupt,” and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declaring himself a victim of Democrats bent on blocking his return to the White House.

Trump is navigating four separate criminal prosecutions while running to avenge his loss to President Joe Biden, creating an unprecedented swirl of legal and political chaos.

Jury selection starts Monday in New York in his trial where he is charged with seeking during his 2016 campaign to bury stories about extramarital affairs by arranging hush money payments.

It will be the first criminal trial ever of a former U.S. president. And it will limit Trump’s availability on the campaign trail, though he is expected to speak to the media after court often and has for months fundraised and campaigned on the felony charges he faces.

Trump spoke at the Schnecksville Fire Hall in Lehigh County, where a long line formed outward three hours before Trump’s planned appearance. It was Trump’s third visit this year to the vital swing state, one that could decide who wins this year’s presidential race. He also plans to attend a fundraiser in nearby Bucks County before the event.

Pennsylvania is a critical battleground in the rematch between Trump and Biden, with both candidates expected to visit the state frequently through November. Trump flipped the state to the Republican column in 2016 but lost it four years after to Biden, who was born in the northeast city of Scranton and has long talked about his roots in the city. Biden plans to deliver a major address Tuesday in Scranton on tax fairness.

Bob Dippel, 69, retired after working as a chief financial officer for several small businesses. He said he didn’t think the upcoming trial “would matter too much” to independent voters because “people are starting to see the mockery being made” of the legal system.

Biden has argued Trump’s lies about losing the 2020 election are dangerous for the country. He has said Trump poses a fundamental threat to democracy and U.S. alliances abroad — rhetoric that Trump has argued applies to Biden.

“We’re going to win in the biggest landslide in history, because we’re the ones who are fighting to save our democracy and Joe Biden is a demented tyrant,” Trump said.

Iran’s attack on Israel, in apparent retaliation for a strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed 12 people, may once again push foreign policy and the Middle East into the center of the presidential campaign.

It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, where officials have vowed to strike Iran directly in response to any attack from Iranian soil.

Prior to Saturday, Trump has recently said Israel needs to “finish up” its offensive in Gaza, warning the country is “absolutely losing the PR war ” as deaths mount and images of mass destruction proliferate. Israeli forces are going after Hamas after militants staged an Oct. 7 attack in which they killed an estimated 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.

“Get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this month. “They have to get it done. Get it over with, and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”

Trump recently said that any Democratic-leaning voters who support Israel should back him instead, as Biden has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in his war against Hamas. The Republican said Wednesday that “any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined.”

During his presidency, he moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and facilitated the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab states through a series of agreements known as the Abraham Accords. He pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, a move that Israel welcomed.

The deal lifted sanctions on Iran, which agreed in exchange to limit its nuclear program and allow inspections. Trump said it was too generous to Iran, while supporters of a deal said it was the best option to forestall a nuclear-armed Iran.

The case will force the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to juggle campaigning with sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks to defend himself against charges involving a scheme to bury allegations of marital infidelity that arose during his first White House campaign in 2016.

It carries enormous political ramifications as potentially the only one of four criminal cases against Trump that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House.

Here’s what to know about the hush money case and the charges against Trump:

WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.

The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.

Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill” in which a publication pays for exclusive rights to someone’s story with no intention of publishing it, either as a favor to a celebrity subject or to gain leverage over the person.

Prosecutors say Trump’s company reimbursed Cohen and paid him bonuses and extra payments, all of which were falsely logged in Trump Organization records as legal expenses. Cohen has separately pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments.

WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charge carries up to four years in prison, though whether he will spend time behind bars if convicted would ultimately be up to the judge.

The counts are linked to a series of checks written to Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded as legal expenses in various internal company records.

To win on the felony charge, prosecutors must show that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely — which would be a misdemeanor — but that he did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did not specify the other crime in Trump’s indictment, but has since said that evidence shows his actions were meant to conceal state and federal campaign finance and tax crimes. Some experts argue it’s an unusual legal strategy that could backfire.

HOW WILL JURY SELECTION WORK?
The process to choose 12 jurors, plus six alternates, will begin with Judge Juan M. Merchan bringing scores of people into his courtroom to begin weeding out people for potential biases or other reasons they cannot serve. The judge has said he will excuse anyone who indicates by a show of hands that they can’t serve or can’t be fair and impartial before calling groups of those who remain into the jury box to answer 42 questions. Potential jurors will be known only by number, as the judge has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

Among the questions potential jurors will be asked: Whether they follow the former president on social media, have ever worked for a Trump organization and have ever attended a Trump rally — or anti-Trump organizations or rallies and whether potential jurors are supporters or followers of far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members were among the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or of the far-left-leaning collective known as antifa, which resists fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.

WHO’S EXPECTED TO TESTIFY?
Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic, is expected to be a key prosecution witness, as he was the one who orchestrated the payoffs. Before testifying in front of the grand jury that brought the indictment last year, Cohen said his goal was “to tell the truth” and insisted he is not seeking revenge but said Trump “needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.” Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging the payouts to Daniels and McDougal.

Other expected witnesses include Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 that she didn’t want, but didn’t say no to. Trump says it never happened.

WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has slammed the case as an effort to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump said in 2018 it had nothing to do with the campaign.

Trump’s lawyers will likely attack the case by trying to undermine the credibility of prosecution witnesses like Cohen and Daniels. Trump has described the two as liars, testing the limits of a gag order that the judge imposed. It seeks to curtail the president’s inflammatory rhetoric about the case. Trump’s lawyers are expected to paint Cohen as a con man and point to his conviction on multiple federal crimes as well as his disbarment to try to persuade jurors that he can’t be believed.

Trump recently posted on social media a picture of a 2018 written statement from Daniels, in which she denied they had a sexual relationship. Not long after, Daniels recanted the statement and said that a sexual encounter had occurred. She said her denials were due to a non-disclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because the parties involved “made it sound like I had no choice.”

WHAT ABOUT TRUMP’S OTHER CASES?

Trump’s three other criminal cases have gotten bogged down in legal fights and appeals, which may mean jurors won’t hear about them before the November election.

The 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith remains on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in the White House. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter in late April.

The other case brought by Smith accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The trial had been scheduled to begin in May, but the judge heard arguments last month to set a new trial date and has yet to do so.

No trial date has been set in the Georgia case accusing Trump and his allies of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Prosecutors have suggested a trial date of August, but defense attorneys are now urging an appeals court to consider whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the prosecution over a romantic relationship she had with a former top prosecutor who recently withdrew from the case.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all three cases and says he did nothing wrong.

It’s the latest in a string of delay denials that Trump has gotten from various courts this week as he fights to stave off the trial’s start Monday with jury selection.

Among other things, Trump’s lawyers had argued that the jury pool was deluged with what the defense saw as “exceptionally prejudicial” news coverage of the case. The defense maintained that was a reason to hold off the case indefinitely.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said that idea was “not tenable.”

Trump “appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality,” the judge wrote.

Pointing to Trump’s two federal defamation trials and a state civil business fraud trial in Manhattan within the past year, Merchan wrote that the ex-president himself “was personally responsible for generating much, if not most, of the surrounding publicity with his public statements” outside those courtrooms and on social media.

“The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing,” the judge added. He said questioning of prospective jurors would address any concerns about their ability to be fair and impartial.

There was no immediate comment from Trump’s lawyers or from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case.

In a court filing last month, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche had argued that “potential jurors in Manhattan have been exposed to huge amounts of biased and unfair media coverage relating to this case.

“Many of the potential jurors already wrongfully believe that President Trump is guilty,” Blanche added, citing the defense’s review of media articles and other research it conducted.

Prosecutors contended that publicity wasn’t likely to wane and that Trump’s own comments generated a lot of it. Prosecutors also noted that there are over 1 million people in Manhattan, arguing that jury questioning could surely locate 12 who could be impartial.

Trump’s lawyers had lobbed other, sometimes similar, arguments for delays at an appeals court this week. One of those appeals sought to put the trial on hold until the appellate court could give full consideration to the defense’s argument that it needs to be moved elsewhere, on the grounds that the jury pool has been polluted by news coverage of Trump’s other recent cases.

Trump’s lawyers also maintain that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces “real potential prejudice” in heavily Democratic Manhattan.

All this week’s appeals were turned down by individual appellate judges, though the matters are headed to a panel of appeals judges for further consideration.

Trump’s hush money case is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

Trump is accused of doctoring his company’s records to hide the real reason for payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped the candidate bury negative claims about him during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her story of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier, which Trump denies.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellations Friday in an update on the progress of its SAVE Plan. More people are becoming eligible for student loan cancellation as they hit 10 years of payments, a new finish line for some loans that’s a decade sooner than what borrowers faced in the past.

Casting a shadow over the cancellations, however, are two new lawsuits challenging the plan’s legality. Two groups of Republican-led states, fronted by Kansas and Missouri, recently filed federal suits arguing that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in creating the repayment option.

“From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”

With the latest action, the Education Department has now approved cancellation for about 360,000 borrowers through the new repayment plan, totaling $4.8 billion.

The SAVE Plan is an updated version of a federal repayment plan that has been offered for decades, but with more generous terms.

Congress created the first income-driven repayment option in the 1990s for people struggling to afford payments on standard plans. It capped monthly payments to a percentage of their incomes and canceled any unpaid debt after 25 years. Similar plans were added later, offering cancellation in as little as 20 years.

Arguing that today’s borrowers need even more help, the Biden administration merged most of those plans into a single repayment option with more lenient terms.

The SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) Plan allows more borrowers to pay nothing until their income rise above certain limits. It also lowers payments more than past plans, eliminates interest growth and cancels unpaid debt in as little as 10 years.

Biden announced the plan in 2022 alongside his broader proposal for a one-time cancellation of up to $20,000 for more than 40 million people. While the one-time cancellation was struck down by the Supreme Court, the SAVE Plan moved forward and initially escaped legal scrutiny.

The repayment plan opened for enrollment last fall, with certain provisions scheduled to be phased in later this year. The faster path to cancellation was among those slated to start this summer, but the Biden administration fast-tracked that benefit early this year, announcing forgiveness for 153,000 borrowers who had hit 10 years of payments.

Almost 8 million Americans have enrolled in the plan, including 4.5 million who pay nothing because they have lower incomes.

In a call with reporters, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the plan provides relief and prevents borrowers from falling behind on their loans.

“Now they have some money back in their pockets, instead of a bill that too often competed with basic needs like groceries and health care,” he said.

Under the plan, borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less are eligible for forgiveness after 10 years. Those who took out more than $12,000 can get cancellation but on a longer timeline. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond $12,000, it adds an additional year of payments on top of 10 years.

The Biden administration says it’s designed to help those who need it most. Counterintuitively, those with smaller student loan balances tend to struggle more. It’s driven by millions of Americans who take out student loans but don’t finish degrees, leaving them with the downside of debt without the upside of a higher income.

In two separate lawsuits, Republican attorneys general in 18 states are pushing to have the plan tossed and to halt any further cancellation. They say the SAVE Plan goes beyond Biden’s authority and makes it harder for states to recruit employees. They say the plan undermines a separate cancellation program that encourages careers in public service.

It’s unclear what the suits could mean for loans that have already been canceled. A court document filed by Kansas’ attorney general says it’s “unrealistic to think that any loan forgiveness that occurs during this litigation will ever be clawed back.”

The lawsuits don’t directly address the question, and the attorneys general didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request.

The Education Department says Congress gave the agency power to define the terms of income-driven payment plans in 1993, and that authority has been used in the past.

Along with the repayment plan, Biden is trying again at a one-time student loan cancellation. In a visit to Wisconsin on Monday, he highlighted a proposal to reduce or cancel loans for more than 30 million borrowers in five categories.

It aims to help borrowers with larges sums of unpaid interest, those with older loans, those who attended low-value programs, and those who face other hardships preventing them from repaying student loans. It would also cancel loans for people who are eligible for other forgiveness programs but haven’t applied.

The Biden administration says it will accelerate parts of the proposal, with plans to start waiving unpaid interest for millions of borrowers starting this fall. Conservative opponents have threatened to challenge that plan, too.

On Friday the administration also said it’s canceling loans for 65,000 borrowers who are enrolled in older income-driven repayment plans and hit the finish line for forgiveness. It also announced cancellation for another 5,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Through a variety of programs, the Biden administration says it has now provided loan relief to 4.3 million people, totaling $153 billion.

“I don’t want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later,” Biden said to reporters when asked how imminent an Iranian attack on Israel would be.

Asked what his message to Iran is right now, the president said, “Don’t.”

In response to more shouted questions from reporters in the room, including CNN’s MJ Lee asking if American troops were at risk – Biden returned to the podium and said that the United States is “devoted” to the defense of Israel.

“We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden said.

The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days as fears grow of a wider regional war.

There remains a “real,” “credible” and “viable” threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said Friday, following Israel’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week that killed three Iranian generals.

Biden, who warned this week that Iran was threatening a “significant attack” on Israel, has been receiving constant updates on the situation from his national security team.

The US and several other countries, including Britain and France, issued new travel guidelines for government employees in Israel as the Iranian threat loomed.

“We’re watching this very, very closely,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, who declined to provide information about the expected timing of the threat.

The US will attempt to intercept any weapons launched at Israel if it’s feasible to do so, two US officials told CNN, an indication of the level of ongoing cooperation between the two militaries.

US Navy forces in the Red Sea have previously intercepted long-range missiles launched from the Houthis in Yemen towards Israel. US forces in Iraq and Syria could also potentially intercept drones and rockets targeting northern Israel, depending on the location from which they’re launched.

The Defense Department is also moving additional assets to the Middle East region “to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces,” a US defense official told CNN, as Israel and the US brace for a potential Iranian attack.

The Pentagon has been working specifically to bolster air defenses for the US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria who came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces over 100 times between October and February. In January, three US servicemembers were killed when a drone got through US air defenses at the Tower 22 base in Jordan.

The US is not anticipating that Iran or its proxies will attack US forces as part of its retaliation but is moving the assets just in case.

“It would be imprudent if we didn’t take a look at our own posture in the region to make sure that we’re properly prepared,” Kirby said.

CNN reported last week that the US was on high alert and actively preparing for an attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region. Officials said such an attack could come within the week.

Sources say Iran wary of dramatic escalation
CNN reported earlier this week that an Iranian attack on Israel would likely be carried out by Iranian proxy forces in the region rather than by Iran directly, according to two people familiar with US intelligence on the matter.

Tehran is wary of a dramatic escalation in the fighting, the sources said, and does not want to give the US or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly.

The sources said Iran and its proxy militia groups do not appear poised to attack US troops or other assets in the region, but they noted that Iran does not have perfect command and control over all its proxy forces, so the possibility of an attack on US assets cannot be completely ruled out.

The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, and that they could attack as soon as this week.

“The threat is very clear and credible,” said one of the sources. “They have put the pieces in place to conduct the attack now. Just waiting for the right time.”

Biden spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the threat of an Iranian attack during a telephone call last week.

A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict – something Biden has long sought to avoid.

Biden is receiving briefings multiple times a day on the situation, Kirby said.

Kirby said Friday that US officials were in “constant communication” with their Israeli counterparts about the matter and that steps were underway to ensure Israel is able to defend itself.

“We are certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks on Israel,” Kirby said Friday.

He pointed to a visit to Israel on Friday by US Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla to have “those conversations directly with his IDF counterparts.”

Kurilla’s trip to Israel was moved up because of the expectation of an Iranian response to Israel’s targeting of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria last week.

There have also been a number of conversations in which US officials have urged Israel not to escalate the situation in retaliating against Iran, according to one of the US officials said.

Separately, US officials were frustrated with their Israeli counterparts over the lack of information Israel shared prior to carrying out the strike in Damascus last week, sources told CNN. Israel only informed a US official when its planes were already in the air en route to Syria, another US official said.

“We were not aware that Israel was going to carry out this airstrike in advance,” the official said. “Minutes before it happened and when Israeli planes were already in the air, Israel reached out to a U.S. official to say they were in the process of conducting a strike in Syria. It did not include any details on who they were targeting or where it would be conducted, and the strike was already underway before word could be passed through the U.S. government.”

Diplomatic pressure
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the foreign ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia to urge them to press Iran not to escalate the conflict in the Middle East after threats made by Iran against Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

Miller said the US has also “engaged with European allies and partners over the past few days” to deliver a similar message on Iran. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron have both spoken to the Iranian foreign minister in recent days.

Blinken “has been making clear to every country that has any semblance of a relationship with Iran that it is in their interest to use that relationship to send a message to Iran that they should not escalate this conflict. But I will let those countries speak for themselves about what action they may or may not take,” Miller said.

The US State Department has restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran.

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” a security alert posted by the US Embassy Thursday said, “U.S. government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.”

“The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted.

France has advised its citizens to “absolutely refrain” from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories due to the risk of “military escalation,” the French Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The ministry added that families of diplomatic staff in the Iranian capital Tehran will be returned to France and civil servants will be banned from work missions to those countries and territories.

The French foreign minister issued the new recommendation following a crisis meeting on the region, the ministry said in a post on X.

Trump and Johnson appeared side-by-side at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago club, a rite of passage for the new House leader as he hitches himself, and his GOP majority, to the indicted Republican Party leader ahead of the November election.

“I stand with the speaker,” Trump said at an evening press conference at his gilded private club.

Trump said he thinks Johnson, of Louisiana, is “doing a very good job – he’s doing about as good as you’re going to do.”

“We’re getting along very well with the speaker — and I get along very well with Marjorie,” Trump said.

But Trump flashed some criticism over efforts to oust the speaker calling it “unfortunate,” saying there are “much bigger problems” right now.

The visit was arranged as a joint announcement on new House legislation to require proof of citizenship for voting, but the trip itself is significant for both. Johnson needed Trump to temper hard-line threats to evict him from office. And Trump benefits from the imprimatur of official Washington dashing to Florida to embrace his comeback bid for the White House and his tangled election lies.

“It is the symbolism,” said Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and frequent Trump critic.

“There was a time when the Speaker of the House of Representatives was a dominant figure in American politics,” he said. “Look where we are now, where he comes hat in hand to Mar-a-Lago.”

While the moment captured the fragility of the speaker’s grip on the gavel, just six months on the job, it also put on display his evolving grasp of Trump-era politics as the Republicans in Congress align with the “Make America Great Again” movement powering the former president’s re-election bid.

Johnson and Trump underscored their alliance Friday by using similar wording to describe one part of their campaign strategy — pummeling President Joe Biden with alarmist language over what Republicans claim is a “migrant invasion.”

By linking the surge of migrants coming to the U.S. with the upcoming election, Trump and Johnson raised the specter of noncitizens from voting — even though it’s already a federal felony for a noncitizen to cast a ballot in a federal election and exceedingly rare.

Trump called America a “dumping ground” for migrants coming to the U.S., and revived pressure on Biden to “close the border.”

The speaker nodded along. “It could, if there are enough votes, affect the presidential election,” warned Johnson, who had played a key role in challenging the 2020 election that Trump lost to Biden, previewing potential 2024 arguments.

In fact, Trump had made similar claims of illegal voting in 2016 but the commission he appointed to investigate the issue disbanded without identifying a single case. A previous voter crackdown risked striking actual citizens from the voting rolls.

Ahead of the meeting, the Trump campaign sent a background paper that echoed language from the racist great replacement conspiracy theory to suggest that Biden and Democrats are engaging in what Trump’s campaign called “a willful and brazen attempt to import millions of new voters.”

Some liberal cities like San Francisco have begun to allow noncitizens to vote in a few local elections. But there’s no evidence of significant numbers of immigrants violating federal law by casting illegal ballots.

Afterward, Trump’s team said the speaker agreed to hold a series of public committee meetings over the next two months ahead of the new House legislation.

Greene, a top Trump ally, said on social media that while she is “working as hard as possible” to elect Trump, “I do not support Speaker Johnson.”

In the Trump era, the sojourns by Republican leaders to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, have become defining moments, amplifying the lopsided partnership as the former president commandeers the party in sometimes humiliating displays of power.

Such was the case when Kevin McCarthy, then the House GOP leader, trekked to Mar-a-Lago after having been critical of the defeated president after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A cheery photo was posted afterward, a sign of their mending relationship.

Johnson proposed the idea of coming to Mar-a-Lago weeks before Greene filed her motion to vacate him from the speaker’s office, just as another group of hardliners had previously ousted McCarthy. The visit comes days before the former president’s criminal trial on hush money charges gets underway next week in New York City.

The speaker’s own political future depends on support — or at least not opposition — from the “Make America Great Again” Republicans who are aligned with Trump but creating much of the House dysfunction that has brought work there to a halt.

Johnson commands the narrowest majority in modern times and a single quip from the former president can derail legislation. He was once a Trump skeptic, but the two men now talk frequently.

“I think it’s an emerging relationship,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as interior secretary in the Trump administration.

Even still, Trump urged Republicans this week to “kill” a national security surveillance bill that Johnson had personally worked to pass, contributing to a sudden defeat that sent the House spiraling. The legislation was approved Friday in a do-over but only after Johnson provided his own vote before departing for Florida.

Johnson understands he needs Trump’s backing to conduct almost any business in the House — including his next big priority, providing U.S. aid to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.

In a daring move, the speaker is working both sides to help Ukraine, talking directly to the White House on the national security package that is at risk of collapse with Trump’s opposition. Greene is warning of a snap vote to oust Johnson from leadership if he allows any U.S. assistance to flow to the overseas ally.

“We’re looking at it,” Trump said about the national security package.

On the issue of election integrity, though, Johnson is leading his House GOP majority to embrace Trump’s lies about a stolen election and laying the groundwork for 2024 challenges.

Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was marred by fraud, even though no evidence has emerged in the last four years to support his claims and every state in the nation certified their results as valid.

As he runs to reclaim the White House, Trump has essentially taken over the Republican National Committee, turning the campaign apparatus toward his priorities. He supported Michael Whatley to lead the RNC, which created a new “Election Integrity Division” and says it is working to hire thousands of lawyers across the country.

Tired of the infighting and wary of another dragged-out brawl like the monthlong slugfest last year to replace McCarthy, few Republicans are backing Greene’s effort to remove Johnson, for now.

But if Trump signals otherwise, that could all change.

The use of party funds to cover Biden’s legal bills is not without precedent and falls within the bounds of campaign finance law, but it could cloud Biden’s ability to continue to hammer former President Donald Trump over his far more extensive use of donor funds to cover his legal bills.

The former president has tapped more than $100 million in donor money for a web of legal challenges, ranging from his upcoming criminal trial in New York over hush money payments to ongoing prosecutions over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and his refusal to turn over classified documents to the federal government after leaving office.

For months, Biden aides and advisers have criticized Trump and Republicans for their spending on the former president’s legal issues, which has left the GOP campaign cash-strapped and diverted resources from battleground states.

“We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers,” Biden campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford told MSNBC last week.

The payments to Biden attorney Bob Bauer and the law firm Hemenway & Barnes were disclosed in regular campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission. Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the payments, confirmed the money went for work on the Biden probe. Axios first reported on the payments.

The money for Biden’s legal team came from the Democratic National Committee’s legal account, according to the people. That account is primarily funded by high-dollar donors who have already met federal contribution limits for the party’s political activities.

“If these corrupt Democrats didn’t have HYPOCRISY, they’d have NOTHING!” the Republican National Committee said in a post Friday on X.

The bill was approved on a bipartisan basis, 273-147, though it will have to clear the Senate to become law. The surveillance program is set to expire April 19 unless Congress acts.

Passage of the bill represented a much-needed victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been wrangling with conservative critics of the legislation for months. A group of 19 Republicans revolted to block the bill from coming to the floor earlier in the week, forcing Johnson to make late changes to secure their support.

The legislation approved Friday would extend the surveillance program two years, rather than the five first proposed. Johnson hoped that the shorter timeline would sway GOP critics by pushing any future debate on the issue to the presidency of Donald Trump if he were to win back the White House in November.

Still, the legislation teetered precariously Friday morning as lawmakers voted on an amendment — vociferously opposed by Johnson, the White House and sponsors of the legislation — that would prohibit the warrantless surveillance of Americans.

The amendment failed by the narrowest of margins, in a 212-212 tie. Supporters breathed a sigh of relief as the vote was gaveled to a close.

The vote on the amendment cut across party lines, uniting progressives and conservatives who agree on little else, but are skeptical of the government’s surveillance powers.

Opponents of the legislation weren’t giving up. In a surprise move after the vote was closed on the overall bill, a Republican made a procedural motion preventing the legislation from being sent to the Senate. An additional vote will be needed next week.

The legislation approved Friday would permit the U.S. government to collect, without a warrant, the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.

But far-right opponents have complained that those changes did not go far enough. The vocal detractors are some of Johnson’s harshest critics, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have railed against the speaker the last several months for reaching across the aisle to carry out the basic functions of the government.

To appease some of those critics, Johnson also plans to bring forward next week a separate proposal that would close a loophole that allows U.S. officials to collect data on Americans from big tech companies without a warrant.

Though the program is technically set to expire next Friday, the Biden administration has said it expects its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance applications. But officials say that court approval shouldn’t be a substitute for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could cease cooperation with the government.

First authorized in 2008, the spy tool has been renewed several times since then as U.S. officials see it as crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage. It has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.

But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have repeatedly encountered fierce, and bipartisan, pushback, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden who have long championed civil liberties aligning with Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, who in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday stated incorrectly that Section 702 had been used to spy on his presidential campaign.

“Kill FISA,” Trump wrote in all capital letters. “It was illegally used against me, and many others. They spied on my campaign.” A former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign was targeted for surveillance over potential ties to Russia under a different section of the law.

A specific area of concern for lawmakers is the FBI’s use of the vast intelligence repository to search for information about Americans and others in the U.S. Though the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications of Americans when they are in contact with those targeted foreigners.

In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the U.S., including about a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Those violations have led to demands for the FBI to have a warrant before conducting database queries on Americans, which FBI director Chris Wray has warned would effectively gut the program’s effectiveness and would also be legally unnecessary given that the information in the database has already been lawfully collected.

“While it is imperative that we ensure this critical authority of 702 does not lapse, we also must not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warrant requirement or some similar restriction, paralyzing our ability to tackle fast-moving threats,” Wray said in a speech Tuesday.

Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira are charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the hoarding of classified documents at the former president’s Palm Beach estate. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira are set to ask U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon during a Friday afternoon hearing to throw out the charges they face, a request opposed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team, which brought charges against them and Trump. It’s unclear when the judge might rule.

The two Trump aides are not charged with illegally storing the documents but rather with helping Trump obstruct government efforts to get them back.

Prosecutors say that Nauta in 2022 moved dozens of boxes from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago to Trump’s residence in an apparent effort to prevent their return to the government and that he and De Oliveira conspired with Trump to try to delete surveillance video that showed the movement of the boxes and that was being sought by the FBI.

Lawyers for the men argue that there is no allegation that either man knew that the boxes contained sensitive government records.

“The Superseding Indictment does not allege that Mr. De Oliveira ever saw a classified document. It does not allege that Mr. De Oliveira was aware of the presence of any classified documents in the boxes that he moved,” lawyers for De Oliveira wrote in court filings.

They also say there’s no evidence that he was aware of any government investigation at the time he helped move boxes inside the property.

Trump, Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee, has separately filed multiple motions seeking to dismiss charges against him. Cannon has denied two that were argued last month — one that said the Espionage Act statute at the heart of the case was unconstitutionally vague, the other that asserted that Trump was entitled under a 1978 law called the Presidential Records Act to retain the classified files as his personal property after he left the White House following his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump, who is supposed to be in court and does not have the option of skipping any of the estimated six-to-eight week trial, is now the presumptive Republican nominee set to rematch President Joe Biden in November – a key difference from his attendance during a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James that inherently raises the stakes and will mean a more robust security package.

The hallmark of the strategy is a combination of extra staffing, strategically placed frozen zones, high-tech deployments and intelligence, which includes monitoring social media for anything ranging from lone wolf threats to major politically themed protests and disturbances, the officials said.

“Obviously, the threat picture is bigger,” said New York Police Department Assistant Chief John Hart, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, who added that they did a similar security ramp up around Trump when he became the GOP nominee in 2016.

“We had to set up a whole infrastructure around Trump Tower, which we will have to rebuild for this,” Hart said of the security posture around the former president. “We’re going to be looking at the threat picture on a constant basis. Social media scrubbing, just listening to people making calls or making threats online, all of those things.”

The NYPD will monitor security at the criminal court in lower Manhattan from two main locations: a mobile command center, which will be a short walk from 100 Centre St. where high-ranking NYPD officials will be stationed and manage deployments, and the Joint Operations Center, a massive intelligence hub where police can access over 50,000 cameras in the city. Hart called the hub the “nerve center of the city” and said they’ll be in communication with the mobile command center. Officers in both the command center and the Joint Operations Center will listen to radio channels tethered to Trump’s movements, follow cameras along his route and even zoom in on unruly crowds and troublesome incidents around Trump Tower and the courthouse.

Other federal law enforcement agencies that help monitor from the Joint Operations Center for big events will be present starting on Monday, Hart said. Even specialized NYPD units that aren’t usually present will be there because of the trial.

The security package for Trump during the civil fraud trial and his brief appearance at Manhattan criminal court served as a precursor for law enforcement to build upon before the main event starts on Monday, Hart said.

“This is six to eight weeks of a trial, jury selection and then a trial, of unprecedented scale,” Hart said. “A former president running for president on trial here in New York City. It’s a big challenge. It’s a lot of moving parts. He’ll be also moving in and out of the city on a regular basis so we are working with all of our partners, our federal partners, our New York State court officers, all the people on the ground that are going to help us manage that stuff.”

The security plan has taken shape during the last several months at regular meetings between the Secret Service, the NYPD, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and the New York State Office of Court Administration, according to officials.

The Secret Service will primarily be in charge of transporting the former president, taking him from Trump Tower to the courthouse on Centre Street, according to officials.

“The route is going to be up to the Secret Service,” said NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Manhattan South who will oversee the NYPD’s presence at Trump Tower, the courthouse and the route the motorcade will travel. “I’m sure it’s going to change up. It’s not going to be the same every day.”

Most of the perimeter of the courthouse will be frozen, including the back entrance and the side entrance at Hogan Place where court staff and even Trump has been known to enter from, McCarthy said.

The NYPD will focus on street closures leading from Trump Tower to the courthouse and will have a heavy presence outside the building. There, they will make sure areas are frozen along key routes to and around the courthouse, while potential demonstrations will be relegated to Collect Pond Park, located right across from the courthouse.

“It all depends on where he is at the time,” McCarthy said. “Once he’s in I’d like to make things as back to normal as possible. Once he’s in, we’re good. When he’s leaving, we’re frozen, but I want to make that time as small as possible.”

Once Trump gets into the building, court officers will be concerned with the former president’s movements in the building. An elevator will be frozen inside the courthouse and will be Trump’s designated lift that will take him to the 15th floor, which will also be frozen and where the courtroom is located, according to a law enforcement official.

Secret Service agents, who have been seen going in and out of the courthouse for months, making sure that they have the former president’s exact route inside the building planned, even down to the stairwell he would take in an emergency, will be sitting right behind him, the official said. Some agents will even be sprinkled throughout the courtroom and will be undercover, according to another law enforcement official.

To handle the need for extra security, court officers who worked security during Trump’s civil fraud trial are now being used to help bolster the staff during the hush money trial, the officials said. They will be sitting in each bench in the courtroom closest to the center aisle, serving as a buffer between Trump and anyone else inside as he walks down the aisle, the official said.

The challenge for court staff will be running the trial while the rest of the courthouse remains active. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a letter to staff telling them of revised and updated security protocols for the Trump trial, which included moving screenings by the clerk’s office for grand juries as well as other additional security measures for employees, visitors and witnesses.

“Our priority is the safety of the thousands of New Yorkers, including Manhattan D.A. employees, court staff, crime victims, and witnesses, who come through our courthouse doors,” spokesperson Danielle Filson said in a statement. “We’re especially grateful to our law enforcement partners at the NYPD, as well as OCA for their tireless efforts to maintain a safe environment for us and to protect the integrity of all ongoing court proceedings.”

Anyone going into the courtroom will pass through two magnetometers, one in the lobby and one right outside the courtroom, according to the law enforcement official.

And while the courtroom is full, bomb sniffing dogs from the court officers and the NYPD will be patrolling the halls and the grounds. The NYPD will also be using its drones, barricades and extra police officers to keep the location safe.

“We use drones, they’ve been very effective for us,” McCarthy said. “You’re going to see a lot of toys out there.”

The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who don’t perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.

It’s the administration’s latest effort to combat gun violence. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters — especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates — that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

The rule, which was finalized this week, makes clear that anyone who sells firearms predominantly to earn a profit must be federally licensed and conduct background checks, regardless of whether they are selling on the internet, at a gun show or at a brick-and-mortar store, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters.

Biden has made curtailing gun violence a major part of his administration and reelection campaign, creating the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden also has urged Congress to ban so-called assault weapons — something Democrats shied from even just a few years ago.

But the rule is certain to prompt criticism from gun rights advocates who believe the Democratic president has been unfairly and unlawfully targeting gun owners.

The Biden administration first proposed the rule in August, after the passage of the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise in response to the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school.

That law expanded the definition of those who are “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, and are required to become licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and therefore run background checks. The rule, which implements the change in the law, will take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

There are already roughly 80,000 federally licensed firearms dealers. Administration officials believe the new rule will impact more than 20,000 dealers who have gotten away with selling firearms without a license and performing background checks at places like gun shows and over the internet by claiming they aren’t “engaged in the business” of firearm sales.

“This final rule does not infringe on anyone’s Second Amendment rights, and it will not negatively impact the many law-abiding licensed firearms dealers in our nation,” ATF Director Steve Dettelbach said. “They are already playing by the rules.”

It comes a week after the ATF released new data that shows more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five-year period. The ATF report also showed that guns trafficked through unlicensed dealers were used in nearly 370 shootings between 2017 and 2021.

Gun control advocates have praised the regulation as a big step toward their goal of universal background checks for gun buyers — a Democratic priority that has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

“Expanding background checks and closing the gun seller loophole is a massive victory for safer communities — and it was made possible thanks to the tireless advocacy of our grassroots movement,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in an emailed statement.

But the rule is likely to be challenged in court by gun rights activists, who have previously sued over other ATF rule changes that they argue infringe on gun rights. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, previously warned of a court challenge if the rule was finalized as written.

Biden administration officials said they are confident the rule — which drew more than 380,000 public comments — would withstand legal challenges.

Kishida was in Washington this week visiting President Joe Biden as the White House completed hosting each leader of the Quad — an informal partnership between the U.S. Japan, Australia and India that is seen as important to countering China’s growing military strength in the region. Kishida is expected to talk about the future of the relationship between Japan and the U.S.

He will be addressing many Republicans who have pushed for the U.S. to take a less active role in global affairs as they follow the “America First” ethos of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The Republican-controlled House has sat for months on a $95 billion package that would send wartime funding to Ukraine and Israel, as well as aid to allies in the Indo-Pacific like Taiwan and humanitarian help to civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.

While the package does not include any direct funding for Japan, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this week that he hoped Kishida’s visit would underscore “that we’re in a worldwide situation here against the enemies of democracy — led by China, Russia and Iran.”

Japan has taken a strong role in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Moscow as well as helping humanitarian aid get to Gaza. It is also seen as a key U.S. partner in a fraught region where China is asserting its strength and North Korea is developing a nuclear program.

“Japan is a close ally — critical to both our national and economic security,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement. “This visit will continue to deepen the diplomatic and security relationship between our two countries and build on the strength of decades of cooperation.”

Kishida was also attending a U.S.-Japan-Philippines summit on Thursday in another effort to bolster regional cooperation in the face of China’s aggression.

In Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson has held up the foreign security package since its Senate passage in February but is now working to advance it in the coming weeks. It will be a difficult task to navigate the deep divides on support for Kyiv among Republicans. Making matters worse for the Republican speaker, he is already facing the threat of being ousted from the speaker’s office.

Kishida, who was elected in 2021, arrives in Washington while facing political problems of his own in Japan. Polls show his support has plunged as he deals with a political funds corruption scandal within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The nation’s economy has also slipped to the world’s fourth-largest last year, falling behind Germany.

It will be the first time a Japanese prime minister addresses Congress since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveled to Capitol Hill in 2015. Kishida will also be the sixth foreign leader to address Congress during Biden’s presidency.

The breakdown comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program fell apart before it even reached the House floor. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the program “critically important” but has struggled to find a path forward on the issue, which has been plagued by partisan bickering for years. The procedural vote to bring up the bill Wednesday failed 193-228, with nearly 20 Republicans voting no.

“We’re going to regroup and consider next steps,” Johnson told reporters after the vote failed. “We can’t allow this important provision to expire.”

It marks the latest blow to Johnson’s leadership as he faces being ousted from his job in the same stunning fashion as his predecessor. Hours before the vote, the Republican leader made a final push urging for passage, saying Congress must “address these abuses” without cutting off the surveillance program entirely.

The bill’s failure also reflected the dramatic ideological shift in the Republican Party, which for years after the Sept. 11 attacks supported expansive surveillance in the name of national security but has more recently walked back from that position thanks in part to lingering outrage over the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign. That skepticism of the government’s spy powers has created an unusual alliance between far-right Republicans and civil liberties-minded Democrats.

The bill in question would renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.

But Republican opponents have complained that those changes did not go far enough. Among the detractors are some of Johnson’s harshest critics, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have railed the speaker for reaching across the aisle several times since taking the gavel in October to carry out the basic functions of the government.

It remains unclear now if the proposal, backed by the Biden administration and Johnson, would eventually have enough votes to advance.

Republicans left a closed-door meeting on Wednesday afternoon frustrated and with few ideas on how to proceed.

Rep. Tom Cole, a senior Republican, predicted that the Senate would dictate the debate by passing a clean reauthorization of the program.

“It is the classic making the perfect the enemy of the good,” Cole said. “We had a pretty good product there. And because people can’t play by the rules, they’re overthrowing a good product.”

Though the program would technically expire on April 19, the Biden administration said it expects its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an earlier opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance applications.

U.S. officials have said the tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage and has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.

But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have encountered fierce, and bipartisan, pushback, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden who have long championed civil liberties aligning with Republican supporters of Trump, who in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday stated incorrectly that Section 702 had been used to spy on his presidential campaign.

“Kill FISA,” Trump wrote in all capital letters. “It was illegally used against me, and many others. They spied on my campaign.” A former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign was targeted over potential ties to Russia under a different section of the surveillance law.

A specific area of concern for lawmakers has centered on the FBI’s use of the vast intelligence repository to look up information about Americans and others in the U.S. Though the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications of Americans when they are in contact with those targeted foreigners.

In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the U.S, including about a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Those violations have led to demands for the FBI to have a warrant before conducting database queries on Americans, which FBI director Chris Wray has warned would effectively gut the effectiveness of the program and was also legally unnecessary since the database contained already lawfully collected information.

“While it is imperative that we ensure this critical authority of 702 does not lapse, we also must not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warrant requirement or some similar restriction, paralyzing our ability to tackle fast-moving threats,” Wray said in a speech Tuesday.

In their latest salvo, Trump’s lawyers had asked the state’s mid-level appeals court to halt the case indefinitely while they fight to remove the trial judge and challenge several of his pretrial rulings, which they argue have seriously hindered the former president’s defense.

“We’re here for this stay because there are restrictions in place that cannot operate in a constitutional way in a trial environment,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued at an emergency hearing Wednesday held in a court basement lobby because the regular courtroom was in use.

“It’s an incredibly important trial. It’s a historic, unprecedented proceeding,” Bove said, adding: “This can only be done once and it must be done right.”

Trump’s hush-money case is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

Adding to a litany of complaints registered this week with the appeals court, Bove argued that trial Judge Juan Merchan “exceeded his authority” in refusing to postpone the case until the Supreme Court rules on an immunity claim Trump raised in another of his criminal cases. Trump’s lawyers argue some evidence in the hush-money case could be excluded if the Supreme Court rules in his favor.

Merchan last week declared that request untimely, ruling that Trump’s lawyers had “myriad opportunities” to raise the immunity issue before they finally did so in March, well after a deadline for pretrial motions had passed.

Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, echoed that sentiment at Wednesday’s emergency hearing. He argued that Trump’s lawyers had months to raise immunity and other issues and should not be rewarded with a delay at the eleventh hour.

“Staying the trial at this point would be incredibly disruptive,” Wu said. “The court, the people, witnesses have made extraordinary efforts to make sure this trial can take place on Monday.”

“There’s a powerful public interest to ensure this criminal trial goes forward,” he added.

Justice Ellen Gesmer presided over the emergency hearing from an armchair, facing a hodgepodge of wooden seats, a collapsable table and a restroom.

Trump is accused of falsifying his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump already struck out twice this week with the appeals court. One appeals court judge Monday rejected his bid to delay the trial while he seeks to move it out of Manhattan. A different judge on Tuesday denied a request, framed as part of a lawsuit against Merchan, that the trial be delayed while Trump fights a gag order imposed on him in recent weeks.

Trump’s lawyers had asked Merchan last month to adjourn the New York trial indefinitely until Trump’s immunity claim in his Washington, D.C., election interference case is resolved.

Trump contends he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers have not raised that as a defense in the hush-money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Cohen — is from his time as president and should be excluded from the trial because of his immunity protections.

The Supreme Court is to hear arguments in that matter on April 25.

“This is a situation where a judge has exceeded his authority under circumstances with very, very serious federalism implications,” Bove argued at Wednesday’s emergency hearing.

Trump’s lawyers also renewed their argument that Merchan should step aside from the case. They’ve accused him of bias and a conflict of interest, citing his daughter’s work as the head of a firm whose clients have included President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.

Trump’s lawyers filed a formal recusal request with Merchan last week. The judge rejected a similar request in August and has not ruled on Trump’s pending request. The judge has also yet to rule on another defense delay request, which claims that Trump won’t get a fair trial because of “prejudicial media coverage.”

“Their recusal arguments are completely meritless,” Wu argued.

Trump’s lawyers also took issue with a protocol Merchan put in place last month to manage a flood of last-minute court filings. And, they revisited their complaints — aired at an emergency hearing Tuesday — about the gag order Merchan imposed on Trump last month that bars him from making public comments about witnesses, jurors and others regarding their connections to the case.

Trump’s ability to campaign “is something that’s protected under the First Amendment, for President Trump and the American people,” Bove argued.

In February, the Australian Parliament approved a motion calling for Assange to be released to his home country of Australia.

Asked Wednesday about Australia’s call to end Assange’s prosecution, Biden told reporters at the White House, “We’re considering it.” CNN has reached out to the National Security Council for additional comment on the president’s remark.

US authorities say Assange, 52, put lives at risk by publishing secret military documents and have for years been seeking his extradition on espionage charges. Assange is being pursued by the US for publishing confidential military records supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011.

In 2019, prosecutors in Virginia charged Assange with 18 offenses including one charge of conspiracy to attempt to hack a computer in connection with the 2010 release of classified military material obtained through Manning and 17 additional counts under the Espionage Act.

The prosecution alleges that Assange goaded Manning into obtaining thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that potentially endangered confidential sources, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Each of those counts carries a potential sentence of 10 years, meaning that if convicted, Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

Assange has fought extradition for the last five years from London’s Belmarsh prison, and for seven years before that was holed up as a political refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital. His case has sparked condemnation from free speech advocates who say if his extradition is allowed it will have a chilling effect on press freedoms.

Last month, he fought off a threat of immediate extradition in a hearing in London, where he is being held.

Assange sought permission to appeal the UK’s 2022 approval of his extradition, arguing the case against him was politically motivated and that he would not face a fair trial. A panel of two judges said Assange, an Australian citizen, would not be extradited immediately and gave the US three weeks to give a series of assurances around Assange’s First Amendment rights, and that he would not receive the death penalty.

If the US fails to give these, Assange would be allowed to appeal his extradition at a hearing in May. The ruling potentially offers Assange an extraordinary lifeline in a years-long saga that saw him shoot to global prominence for revealing what he described previously to CNN as “compelling evidence of war crimes” committed by US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces.

“He’s committed to helping Trump in any and every way,” said Texas businessman Roy Bailey, who attended the retreat. “We are going to follow his lead, and we’re excited to do everything we can to get Trump elected.”

“If we can unlock and motivate our donors for Trump and put more fuel in his tank, that’s what we want to do, and that’s what we need to do to make sure [President Joe] Biden is not reelected,” Bailey said.

The appreciation retreat, which was held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, was for large donors, major fundraisers and finance committee members of the DeSantis campaign. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, attended. It was held on the same weekend the Trump campaign announced a record $50.5 million haul at a fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago.

Upon ending his bid for the White House in January, DeSantis endorsed Trump in the Republican primary, but he has not appeared with the former president at any campaign events since. At a news conference in Florida in March, DeSantis was asked if he would join Trump on the campaign trail and he emphasized how Florida was not as competitive a state anymore.

“This is not going to be a state that’s competitive in November, and that’s just the reality. So I don’t anticipate there being much campaign here for the top of the ticket,” DeSantis said. “How I can help nationally, I want to be able to do that, I don’t know exactly.”

NBC News was first to report that DeSantis plans to help fundraise for Trump.

The joint appearance comes as the embattled Johnson is fighting for his job as House speaker in the face of a threat of ouster from hard-line Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a top Trump ally.

Johnson, of Louisiana, told GOP lawmakers at a private meeting early Tuesday he had spoken with Trump the night before, but he shared no details of their talk.

Another person familiar with the planning said Johnson and Trump will have a “joint announcement” on Friday but provided no other details.

The new Republican speaker, once skeptical of Trump, became a key supporter. He led one of the main legal challenges to the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by the mob of Trump’s supporters trying to stop certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over him.

Since becoming the House speaker, after the ouster last fall of Kevin McCarthy, Johnson has tried to keep a close relationship with Trump. The two speak regularly as Johnson works to keep critics at bay.

The issue of election integrity has been an obsession for Trump since he lost the 2020 election, even though elections are broadly secure and every state in the union certified its 2020 results that were sent to Congress.

Greene met with Johnson at the Capitol on Tuesday as she works to force a snap election to remove him from office.

Johnson offered to give her a spot on a proposed “kitchen cabinet” of advisers to the speaker, Greene said as she left the nearly hourlong session, but she said she was more interested in how he handles several issues before Congress, particularly aid for Ukraine, which she opposes. She has not publicly discussed when she may bring up the motion to vacate and told reporters she does not yet have a “red line” for bringing up the action.

Johnson’s planned meeting with Trump was first reported on CNN.

Scott, who is seeking reelection this fall, was one of multiple senators who followed former President Donald Trump’s lead in softening GOP messaging on abortion. It comes in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion and leaving the matter for states to decide. Democrats, buoyed by a series of wins in state ballot initiatives and other contests since then, have made it clear that they hope to put the issue front and center this November.

After the Florida Supreme Court approved the abortion amendment for November’s ballot, Scott said in a statement that he believes in “reasonable limits placed on abortion” and is focused on ensuring that in vitro fertilization treatments are protected and adoptions are more affordable.

“We all know that life is the greatest gift we have ever received, we want to welcome every unborn baby into life, and we prefer adoption over abortion,” Scott said.

Scott is softening his messaging amid roiling politics on abortion across the country. The Arizona Supreme Court decided Tuesday that state officials can enforce an 1864 law criminalizing all abortions except when a woman’s life is at stake.

Florida Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing not only to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s Constitution but to invoke the issue in their efforts to unseat Scott and other Republicans. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, one of the leading Democrats seeking her party’s nomination against Scott, said the fight was over the “basic dignity for a woman to be able to make that choice of her own body, of when and how to start a family.”

Mucarsel-Powell said in an interview after Florida’s court ruling last week that voting to support the state’s abortion rights amendment in November isn’t the end game. She said voters need to vote Scott out of office so he “doesn’t have a say on what happens to women.”

Once seen as the quintessential swing state, Florida has become more conservative in recent years. Trump won there in 2016 and 2020, but Democrats, which trail in registration numbers by some 800,000 voters, are hoping a focus on abortion rights will swing the state back in their favor.

Scott has been flagged by national Democrats as a prime target this year in their efforts to preserve a narrow majority in the Senate, though Democrats are defending more seats than Republicans. The stakes are especially high for Scott, who said last month that he is “seriously considering” running for Senate leadership. In 2022, he ran against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell to be the Senate’s top Republican but lost with a 37-10 vote.

McConnell recently announced his intention to step down from Senate leadership later this year.

The Monday court opinions from Florida’s Supreme Court included affirmation of a 15-week abortion ban and a trigger mechanism that would put the state’s six-week abortion ban in place by next month. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Florida women have higher stakes on the ballot than they have in years.

“The fight against these new restrictions on access to abortion will shine a brighter spotlight on Rick Scott’s long, dangerous record of supporting draconian abortion bans,” said Maeve Coyle, the DSCC’s spokesperson. “In November, Florida voters will stand up for women’s freedom to make their most personal medical decisions by rejecting this abortion ban and firing Rick Scott from the Senate.”

“It’ll be straightened out and as you know, it’s all about states’ rights,” Trump told supporters and journalists after landing in Atlanta for a fundraiser. “It’ll be straightened out, and I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that’ll be taken care of, I think, very quickly.”

Trump faces political pressure on abortion rights, which Democrats hope will be a defining issue in November’s election, after issuing a video statement this week declining to endorse a national abortion ban and saying he believes limits should be left to the states. His earlier statement angered religious conservatives and energized allies of President Joe Biden who see abortion rights as one of Trump’s weaknesses.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday cleared the way for the enforcement of an 1864 law that bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Trump maintains he is proud that the three Supreme Court justices he nominated voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying states will have different restrictions. He supports three exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.

He also spoke about a Florida law that bans abortions after six weeks, saying that “is probably maybe going to change also.”

“For 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade, to get it back to the states. We did that. It was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement,” he said. “Now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want. It’s the will of the people. So Florida is probably going to change.”

Trump ignored questions about how he plans to vote himself on Florida’s pending state constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion access as a right of his home state’s residents. He did not elaborate on what he thinks the level of restrictions and access should be in Arizona or any other state.

“I would like to propose a toast to our voyage to the frontier of the Japan-U.S. relationship with this word: boldly go,” Kishida said, quoting the iconic opening monologue of the original “Star Trek” series.

Kishida, who spoke in English, and President Joe Biden exchanged warm toasts to each other and the decades-long, alliance between their nations as top figures from business, sports and politics — including an ex-president — looked on. The two leaders, who expressed a genuine friendship, pledged to continue to knit together their countries’ interests in the face of global challenges.

Biden, 81, said he and Kishida, 66, came of age as their countries forged a strong bond in the decades after they were pitted against each other in World War II.

“We both remember the choices that were made to forge a friendship,” Biden said. “We both remember the hard work, what it has done to find healing.”

“Tonight,” Biden continued, “We pledge to keep going.”

As the White House served up a maximum dose of pomp to honor its close U.S. ally, notable guests included Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were on familiar turf for the event. The former president declared it “feels great” to be back before casting an appreciative eye at a portrait of his wife from her first lady days that was on display nearby.

Guests in bright spring colors and lots of shimmery gowns chatted politics and talked shop as they strolled in — that meant eclipse chatter from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (“fabulous” view in Ohio!) and an assessment of Biden’s electoral prospects in Wisconsin from Gov. Tony Evers (looking good!).

But on a day when the inflation news from Washington was less than encouraging, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell shot past reporters without stopping to chat. Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, in a purple gown, said she didn’t expect to be out campaigning for Biden but nonetheless seemed bullish on his reelection. Actor Robert De Niro supplied the night’s Hollywood quotient and seemed to channel one of his tough-talking characters when he was asked for his thoughts about the 2024 election.

“What do you think?” he retorted.

On a warm spring evening, the Bidens came stepped onto the North Portico to welcome Kishida and his wife, Yuko, who stood out in a flowing royal blue gown on the red carpet.

Inside, Jill Biden, wearing a beaded sapphire gown, had transformed the State Floor of the White House into what she called a “vibrant spring garden” for the evening. The floor of the famous Cross Hall was decorated with images giving the nearly 230 guests the feel of walking over a koi pond, a nod to fish that symbolize “friendship, peace, luck and perseverance,” the first lady said at a media preview Tuesday.

Guests at the head table with the Bidens and Kishidas included the Clintons, De Niro and Japanese pop duo Yoasobi.

Kishida, in his toast at the dinner, enthused over the splendor.

“First and foremost, to be honest my breath is taken and I’m speechless in front of such a huge number of prominent American and Japanese guests,” he said.

A state dinner is a tool of U.S. diplomacy, an honor doled out sparingly and only to America’s closest allies. In the case of Japan, the president has granted that honor for just the fifth time to an ally that he sees as a cornerstone of his policy toward the Indo-Pacific region.

Kishida is on an official visit to the United States this week. The state dinner is Biden’s first this year.

The guests included plenty of Biden family members, including granddaughter Naomi and her husband, Peter Neal. Business moguls also were in force, including JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Labor luminaries United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and United Steelworkers President David McCall were also in attenddance. Both unions have endorsed Biden for reelection.

Dry-aged rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and the music of Paul Simon were also part of the evening. Simon opened his after-dinner performance by playing guitar and singing two of his major hits, “Graceland” and “Slip Slidin’ Away.”

Guests dined on a meal that was designed to highlight the “bounty of spring” in Japan and the United States: a first course of house-cured salmon that was inspired by a California roll and an entree of rib eye with shishito pepper butter, fava beans, mushrooms and onions. Dessert was salted caramel pistachio cake with a matcha ganache and cherry ice cream.

Some of Jill Biden’s favorite flowers, including sweet peas, roses and peonies, were arranged alongside imported cherry blossoms to decorate a mix of round and rectangular dinner tables in the East Room in shades of pink. A few floral centerpieces topped out at 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall.

Tables were set with a mix of place settings representing the administrations of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. Glass and silk butterflies danced over the tables.

Simon is one of Jill Biden’s favorite artists, the White House said, adding that she chose him as a special tribute to Kishida because the prime minister also admires his music.

Simon’s career spans six decades, including performing as part of a duo with his childhood friend Art Garfunkel. The 82-year-old New Jersey native has earned numerous accolades, including multiple Grammys and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Kishida is the fifth world leader Biden has honored with a state dinner following counterparts from France, South Korea, India and Australia.

“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” Taylor Haulsee, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson, told CNN in a statement.

House Republican leaders had initially planned to transmit the articles to the Senate on Wednesday, but some Senate Republicans had been urging Speaker Mike Johnson to delay the transfer, as they try to build more support for blocking an expected motion from Democrats to dismiss the trial.

Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy said on Tuesday, “We have asked – and I understand this is public now – the speaker, we asked him to delay sending over the articles until Monday to at least give us a full week. We’ll see if Senator Schumer honors the extra time.”

Senate Republican Whip John Thune explained why some Senate Republicans are pushing for a delay in the impeachment articles being sent over from the House. He also said some members of his conference have been communicating with the House about the matter.

“If we want to have the opportunity in the Senate to have a more fulsome discussions about this when the articles come over, there are times when that could probably happen better than having them come over tomorrow night and having to deal with it Thursday afternoon.”

He added: “It’s the speaker’s call, but clearly our members want to have the opportunity not only to debate, but to have some votes on issues they want to raise, in some cases those will be points of order.”

Asked if Johnson is considering a delay, Thune said, “That’s a question for him. We have members who have been communicating with the House about this, but the only thing I can tell you is what he’s said already and that is the intention is to send it over here tomorrow.”

“It clearly had an effect. We have seen changes in behavior, and we have seen more humanitarian assistance being pushed into Gaza,” Austin said in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “Hopefully that trend will continue.”

Austin’s comments came during a session that was interrupted several times by protesters shouting at him to stop sending weapons to Israel. “Stop the genocide,” they said, as they lifted their hands, stained in red, in the air. A number of senators also decried the civilian casualties, saying the administration needs to do more to press Israel to protect the population in Gaza.

In response, Austin said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on Monday and that he repeated U.S. insistence that Israel must move civilians out of the battlespace in Gaza and properly care for them.

Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. were testifying on Capitol Hill about the Pentagon’s $850 billion budget for 2025. But the hearing offered the first chance for lawmakers on both sides to question the Pentagon’s top civilian and military leadership on the administration’s Israel strategy following Tel Aviv’s deadly strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.

That strike led to a shift in tone from President Joe Biden on how Israel must protect civilian life in Gaza and drove dozens of House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to call on Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel. Half the population of Gaza is starving and on the brink of famine due to Israel’s tight restrictions on allowing aid trucks through.

Israel in recent days took initial steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. In a call Friday, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that future U.S. support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers.

At the hearing, Austin also said that the military is moving ahead with plans to build a pier off the Gaza coast to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid, and initial operations will probably be ready to start by the third week of this month. He said that details are still being worked out but that aid organizations will help do that.

Six U.S. military ships with personnel and components to build a humanitarian aid pier are enroute to Gaza, with several in the Mediterranean Sea, heading toward Cyprus.

The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities. Israeli authorities say 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and roughly 250 people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

In their opening statements, both Austin and Brown emphasized that their 2025 budget is still shaped with the military’s long-term strategic goal in mind — to ready forces and weapons for a potential future conflict with China. About $100 billion of this year’s request is set aside for new space, nuclear weapons and cyber warfare systems the military says it must invest in now before Beijing’s capabilities surpass it.

But the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are challenging a deeply-divided Congress and have resulted in months of delays in getting last year’s defense budget through, which was only passed by lawmakers a few weeks ago.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued desperate pleas that if the U.S. does not help soon, Kyiv will lose the war to Russia.

The Pentagon scraped together about $300 million in ammunition to send to Kyiv in March but cannot send more without Congress’ support, and a separate $60 billion supplemental bill that would fund those efforts has been stalled for months.

“The price of U.S. leadership is real. But it is far lower than the price of U.S. abdication,” Austin told the senators.

If Kyiv falls, it could imperil Ukraine’s Baltic NATO member neighbors and potentially drag U.S. troops into a prolonged European war. If millions die in Gaza due to starvation, it could enrage Israel’s Arab neighbors and lead to a much wider, deadlier Middle East conflict — one that could also bring harm to U.S. troops and to U.S. relations in the region for decades.

Israel’s actions in Gaza have been used as a rallying cry by factions of Iranian-backed militant groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Islamic Resistance groups across Iraq and Syria, to strike at U.S. interests. Three U.S. service members have already been killed as drone and missile attacks increased against U.S. bases in the region.

Lawmakers are also seeing demands at home. For months, a handful of its far-right members have kept Congress from approving additional money or weapons for Ukraine until domestic needs like curbing the crush of migrants at the southern U.S. border are addressed. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is already facing a call to oust him as speaker by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene because Johnson is trying to work out a compromise that would move the Ukraine aid forward.

The law, which can be traced to as early as 1864 and was codified in 1901, also carried a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. There is a 14-day stay on the law.

Arizona’s near-total abortion ban will be one of the strictest in the nation, placing it alongside Texas, Alabama and Mississippi, where there are abortion bans in place with almost no exceptions.

In its decision, the court said, “Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal,” adding criminal sanctions may now apply for abortions performed after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs blasted the decision, noting people in Arizona were living under unacceptable restrictions on abortion prior to the decision.

“Let me be clear. Arizona’s 2022 abortion ban is extreme and hurts women, and the near total Civil War era ban that continues to hang over our heads, only serves to create more chaos for women, and doctors in our state,” Hobbs told reporters shortly after the decision was released Tuesday.

“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday in a statement.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement that her office won’t be enforcing the law, writing, “Let me be completely clear, as long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.”

The case is the latest high-profile example of the battle over abortion access that has played out across several states since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022. Since that decision, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure. Providers have warned that restrictive policies on abortion access place patients at risk of poor health outcomes and doctors at risk of legal liability.

“A couple of weeks ago, I had an abortion – a safe, legal abortion here in Arizona for a pregnancy I very much wanted, a pregnancy that failed,” Arizona Sen. Eva Burch said Tuesday at a news conference. “Somebody took care of me. Somebody gave me a procedure so that I wouldn’t have to experience another miscarriage – the pain, the mess, the discomfort. And now we’re talking about whether or not we should put that doctor in jail.”

Reproductive rights advocates have condemned the ruling and pledged to fight for abortion rights.

“This ruling will cause long-lasting, detrimental harms for our communities. It strips Arizonans of their bodily autonomy and bans abortion in nearly all scenarios,” Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a statement.

In a notice Monday, the Arizona court indicated it will file an opinion in Planned Parenthood of Arizona vs. Mayes/Hazelrigg at approximately 10 a.m. PT Tuesday.

Justices heard opening arguments in the case last December, when abortion rights opponents claimed the state should revert to the 1901 ban, and advocates asked the court to affirm the 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks, CNN previously reported.

When he signed the law in March 2022, then-Gov. Doug Ducey stated the 2022 law would not override the older law.

In late 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled both abortion laws in the state must be reconciled, or “harmonized,” and that abortion is legal through 15 weeks when provided by licensed physicians in compliance with the state’s other laws and regulations, CNN previously reported.

The state Supreme Court was asked for clarity following months of uncertainty and legal wrangling over which law should apply in the state.

Last week, Arizona for Abortion Access, a group of abortion rights organizations, announced it had gathered enough signatures for a November 2024 ballot measure that would ask voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

The push is part of a massive effort to get abortion on the 2024 ballot in several states, a move abortion rights advocates are hopeful will restore some power to voters rather than state courts.

As lawmakers returned to work Tuesday from a two-week spring recess, the fresh onslaught from the Georgia congresswoman dragged the still-new speaker back into the Republican chaos that has defined GOP House control and threatens to grind work to a halt. Johnson may very well be unable to execute the basics of his job.

“Today, I sent a letter to my colleagues explaining exactly why I filed a motion to vacate against Speaker Johnson,” Greene said on social media about the procedural tool that could force the quick vote.

Greene in stark terms warned Johnson not to reach across the aisle to Democrats for votes he would need to pass pending legislation that hard-right Republicans oppose, particularly aid to Ukraine. That aid package as well as other agenda items are in grave doubt.

“I will not tolerate this type of Republican ‘leadership,’” wrote Greene, a top ally of presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, in the five-page letter first reported by The New York Times.

The standoff threatens to mire the House in another standstill, saddling the Republican majority with a do-nothing label after months of turmoil that has sent some seasoned lawmakers heading for the exits.

It comes during what is typically a springtime legislative push in Congress to notch a few priorities before lawmakers turn their attention toward the November election campaigns.

For Johnson, who took the helm just six months ago after the House ousted Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s post, it is political payback for his efforts to keep government running by compromising with Democrats on must-past legislation to fund federal operations and prevent a shutdown.

Partnership with Democrats is about the only way Johnson can pass any bills in the face of a thin majority and staunch resistance from his right flank. He can lose barely more than a single Republican from his ranks on most votes.

Greene, who filed the motion to vacate the speaker before lawmakers left for spring break in March, has stopped short of saying she would call it up for the vote and her next steps are uncertain.

Other Republicans, even some of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy, the California Republican who has since retired from Congress, have cooled on Greene’s effort, trying to prevent another spectacle. McCarthy’s ouster left the House essentially shuttered for almost a month last fall as Republicans argued over a new leader.

And Democrats led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York have signaled they may lend their votes to Johnson, a courtesy they did not extend to McCarthy, which could save the Louisiana Republican’s job in a bipartisan effort to keep the House open and functioning.

But Greene, during a rousing town hall late Monday in her home district in Georgia and in the scathing letter delivered Tuesday as lawmakers returned to work, left clear the threat that hangs over Johnson if he seeks any partnership with Democrats.

In the letter, she outlined the promises she said Johnson made to Republicans during the fight to become speaker, and listed ways she said he had broken them — for example, by passing the spending bills needed to fund the government with existing policies many Republicans oppose, or by failing to include legislation with Republican proposals for securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

”This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority,” she wrote.

Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed.

Trump’s lawyers had wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.

The presumptive Republican nominee’s lawyers argue the gag order is an unconstitutional prior restraint on Trump’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.

“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.

Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.

Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said there is a “public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial.”

“This is not political debate. These are insults,” Wu said of Trump’s statements.

The trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, issued the gag order last month at the urging of Manhattan prosecutors, who cited Trump’s “long history of making public and inflammatory remarks” about people involved in his legal cases.

Merchan expanded the gag order last week to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at his daughter, a Democratic political consultant, and made false claims about her.

It’s the second of back-to-back days for Trump’s lawyers in the appeals court.

On Monday, Associate Justice Lizbeth González rejected the defense’s request to delay the April 15 trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.

Trump’s lawyers framed their gag order appeal as a lawsuit against Merchan. In New York, judges can be sued to challenge some decisions under a state law known as Article 78.

Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his civil fraud trial in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall and again when that judge imposed a gag order on him.

Trump’s hush-money criminal case involves allegations that he falsified his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump has made numerous attempts to get the trial postponed, leaning into the strategy he proclaimed to TV cameras outside a February pretrial hearing: “We want delays.”

Last week, as Merchan swatted away various requests to delay the trial, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case. The judge rejected a similar request last August.

Trump’s lawyers allege the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter Loren’s work as president of Authentic Campaigns, whose clients have included President Joe Biden and other Democrats. They complained the expanded gag order was shielding the Merchans “from legitimate public criticism.”

Merchan had long resisted imposing a gag order. At Trump’s arraignment in April 2023, he admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and said he was “bending over backwards” to ensure Trump has every opportunity “to speak in furtherance of his candidacy.”

Merchan became increasingly wary of Trump’s rhetoric disrupting the historic trial as it grew near. In issuing the gag order, he said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the proceedings outweighed First Amendment concerns.

The gag order does not bar comments about Merchan, whom Trump has referred to as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters,” or about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.

Trump reacted on social media that the gag order was “illegal, un-American, unconstitutionally” and said Merchan was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump suggested without evidence that Merchan’s decision making was influenced by his daughter’s professional interests and made a claim, later repudiated by court officials, that Loren Merchan had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.

After the outburst, Merchan expanded the gag order April 1 to prohibit Trump from making statements about the judge’s family or Bragg’s family.

“They can talk about me but I can’t talk about them???” Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform. “That sounds fair, doesn’t it? This Judge should be recused, and the case should be thrown out.”

Trump filed a similar legal challenge last year over a gag order in his civil fraud case.

Judge Arthur Engoron had issued that order after Trump smeared the judge’s principal law clerk in a social media post. The gag order barred parties in the case — and, later, their lawyers as well — from commenting publicly on court staffers, though not on the judge himself.

A sole appeals judge lifted the gag order, but a four-judge appellate panel ultimately restored it two weeks later. The panel said Trump’s lawyers should have followed a normal appeals process instead of suing the judge. Trump’s attorneys said they had been trying to move quickly.

The brief from prosecutors was submitted just over two weeks before the justices take up the legally untested question of whether an ex-president is shielded from criminal charges for official actions taken in the White House.

“A President’s alleged criminal scheme to use his official powers to overturn the presidential election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power frustrates core constitutional provisions that protect democracy,” they wrote.

The outcome of the April 25 arguments is expected to help determine whether Trump faces trial this year in a four-count indictment that accuses him of conspiring to block the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has argued that former presidents enjoy immunity for official acts in office. Both the judge presiding over the case, Tanya Chutkan, and a three-judge federal appellate panel in Washington have forcefully rejected that claim.

The Supreme Court then said it would take up the question, injecting uncertainty into whether the case — one of four criminal prosecutions confronting Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president — can reach trial before November’s election.

In their latest brief, Smith’s team rehashed many of the arguments that have prevailed in lower courts, pointedly noting that “federal criminal law applies to the president.”

“The Framers never endorsed criminal immunity for a former President, and all Presidents from the Founding to the modern era have known that after leaving office they faced potential criminal liability for official acts,” Smith’s team wrote.

Prosecutors also said that even if the Supreme Court were to recognize some immunity for a president’s official acts, the justices should nonetheless permit the case to move forward because much of the indictment is centered on Trump’s private conduct.

Smith’s team suggested the court could reach a narrow determination that Trump, in this particular case, was not entitled to immunity without arriving at a broader conclusion that would apply to other cases.

“A holding that petitioner has no immunity from the alleged crimes would suffice to resolve this case, leaving potentially more difficult questions that might arise on different facts for decision if they are ever presented,” they said.

The new set of proposals, which CNN reported on Friday, have yet to be finalized. It’s President Joe Biden’s second attempt to implement broad student loan forgiveness after his first plan was struck down by the Supreme Court last summer. The president traveled to Wisconsin on Monday — a key swing state this November — to announce the plan.

“While a college degree is still a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive,” Biden said in remarks at a technical college in Madison.

“Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they’re going to get married, have their first child, start a family. Because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt. It’s not just a drag on them, it’s a drag on our local economies,” he added.

The new policies, when combined with the more narrow actions already taken by the Biden administration to cancel student debt, would benefit more than 30 million Americans, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.

That means that nearly 70% of all federal student loan borrowers would see their debt reduced or fully canceled due to Biden’s policies.

But first, the plans must be finalized – a process that could take months – and must withstand any potential legal challenges.

Biden’s new student loan forgiveness proposals could set up another fight with Republicans. Several conservative-led states and groups sued the Biden administration over the first student forgiveness program, arguing that the executive branch had overstepped its authority.

“President Biden will use every tool available to cancel student loan debt for as many borrowers as possible, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stand in his way,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Sunday on a call with reporters.

After the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s first plan last year, the president vowed to pursue another pathway to delivering student loan debt relief. Since then, the Department of Education has been conducting a formal and lengthy process, known as negotiated rulemaking, to develop a new student loan forgiveness program.

It’s a different process from what the Biden administration used in its first attempt to provide sweeping loan forgiveness, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers earning $125,000 or less a year.

The new plans target specific groups of borrowers. If implemented as proposed, borrowers could see relief if they fall into any of the following categories:

• Those who have balances bigger than what they originally borrowed due to interest.
• Those who already qualify for student loan forgiveness under existing programs but have not applied.
• Those who entered repayment at least 20 years ago.
• Those who enrolled in “low financial value” programs, which left students in debt but without good job prospects.
• Those experiencing financial hardship.

The new proposals unveiled Monday must still go through a public comment period. Then, after reviewing those comments, the Department of Education will publish a final version of the rule.

Typically, if a final rule is published after going through negotiated rulemaking by November 1, it can take effect on July 1, 2025.

But some exceptions are allowed, and parts of the rule could be implemented early. For example, the Biden administration implemented parts of the SAVE Plan – an income-driven student loan repayment plan – last year while other parts of the plan won’t take effect until July.

In the case of the new student loan forgiveness proposals, the Department of Education could start canceling accrued interest for qualifying borrowers this fall, according to the White House.

There are more than 25 million borrowers who owe more than they initially borrowed due to interest accumulation, and they could see debt relief starting this fall if the new proposals are enacted. Low- and middle-income borrowers could see the entire accumulated amount of interest waived, while higher-income borrowers could see up to $20,000 wiped away.

Even though Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness got knocked down by the Supreme Court, his administration has still canceled more student loan debt than under any other president – mostly by using existing programs. His administration has made it easier for certain groups of borrowers – such as public-sector workers, including teachers; disabled borrowers; and people who were defrauded by for-profit colleges – to qualify for student loan debt forgiveness.

So far, 4 million people have seen their federal student debt canceled under Biden, totaling $146 billion.

Justice Lizbeth González of the state’s mid-level appeals court ruled after an emergency hearing Monday where Trump’s lawyers asked that she postpone the trial indefinitely while they seek a change of venue.

They contended the presumptive Republican nominee faces “real potential prejudice” in heavily Democratic Manhattan and said the jury pool has been polluted by news coverage of Trump’s other recent cases, including his $454 million civil fraud judgment and the $83.3 million he’s been ordered to pay for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. He is appealing both verdicts.

“Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair manner,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued, citing the defense’s polling and a review of media coverage.

Trump’s hush money trial is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

In a separate appellate matter, Trump’s lawyers are challenging a gag order barring him from making comments about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case. The trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, recently expanded the gag order after Trump lashed out at his daughter, a Democratic political consultant, on social media. The appeals court will hear that matter Tuesday.

Trump, who lived in Manhattan for decades and rose to fame as a real estate developer shaping its iconic skyline, has suggested the trial should be moved to Staten Island, the only New York City borough he won in 2016 and 2020.

Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, noted that Merchan, had already rejected Trump’s requests to move or delay the trial as untimely.

“The question in this case is not whether a random poll of New Yorkers from whatever neighborhood are able to be impartial, it’s about whether a trial court is able to select a jury of 12 impartial jurors,” Wu said.

He blamed Trump for stoking pretrial publicity with “countless media appearances talking about the facts of this case, the witnesses, and so on.”

As the appeals court fight was playing out, Merchan released his plan Monday for conducting jury selection, including what jurors will and won’t be asked about their views on Trump.

In a letter to both sides, Merchan declared that choosing jurors isn’t about whether they like or don’t like anyone in the case but whether prospective jurors can assure they will “set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”

Paperwork relating to Trump’s appeals was placed under seal and not publicly available.

Trump had pledged to appeal after Merchan ruled last month that the trial would begin April 15. His lawyers had pleaded to delay the trial at least until summer to give them more time to review late-arriving evidence from a prior federal investigation into the matter. Merchan, who had already moved the trial from its original March 25 start date, said no further delays were warranted.

Trump’s lawyers filed their appeals Monday on two separate court dockets. One was styled as a lawsuit against Merchan, a legal mechanism allowing them to challenge his rulings.

In New York, judges can be sued over some judicial decisions under a state law known as Article 78. Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his civil fraud case in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall.

In the hush-money criminal case, he is accused of falsifying his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

As Trump’s lawyers stressed Monday that he was facing an unprecedented level of damaging publicity in Manhattan, they also referenced a decision issued by the state’s appellate court more than 25 years ago.

In that case, the court agreed to move the trial of four New York City police officers charged with killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Guinean student, in the Bronx. Citing the “public clamor” in the city, the court agreed to move the trial to Albany, where the officers were ultimately acquitted.

Trump’s move to the appeals court Monday is the latest escalation in his battles with Merchan.

Last week, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case, citing Merchan’s daughter’s work as the head of a firm whose clients have included his rival President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.

The former president alleges the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter’s work. The judge rejected a similar request last August.

If the hush-money trial were to be moved out of Manhattan, it’s unlikely Merchan would go with it. In past cases, like the Diallo matter, a new judge was picked from the county where the trial ended up being held.

Trump has also made numerous other attempts to get the trial postponed, echoing a strategy he’s deployed in his other criminal cases. “We want delays,” Trump proclaimed to TV cameras outside a February pretrial hearing in his hush money case.

Merchan last week rejected his request to delay the trial until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in another of his criminal cases.

Trump also filed an eve-of-trial lawsuit against the judge in his New York civil fraud case, accusing the jurist of repeatedly abusing his authority. Among other issues, Trump’s lawyers in that case complained that Judge Arthur Engoron had refused their request to delay the trial. Their suit was filed about three weeks before the trial was slated to begin.

A state appeals court rejected Trump’s claims, and the trial started as scheduled Oct. 2.

Engoron, who decided that case without a jury, ruled that Trump, his company and key executives defrauded bankers and insurers by overstating his wealth in documents used to get loans and coverage. Trump denied any wrongdoing and is appealing the finding and staggering penalty.

If it succeeds, the proposal could establish the US equivalent of the European Union’s landmark privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and rein in what privacy advocates say is a lawless and unregulated space where Americans’ personal data can too easily be shared and sold to the highest bidder.

The proposed agreement would create an unprecedented, single federal standard governing digital privacy in the United States and reflects a significant breakthrough after years of stalled negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. But it could also override some of the toughest state-based privacy laws in the nation, such as in California.

The deal comes as personal data has increasingly become the lifeblood of the modern economy and as artificial intelligence companies have raced to hoover up as much of it as they can to train sophisticated AI models that could transform society.

On Sunday, the lawmakers involved — Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Democratic chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee — announced a proposal they said would return control of personal data to American consumers.

The discussion draft, which was released over the weekend but has not yet been formally introduced as legislation, covers data brokers, tech platforms, telecom providers and virtually every other type of organization an internet user might interact with on a daily basis, with the exception of small businesses and government contractors.

The lawmakers’ proposed American Privacy Rights Act would ban the transfer of Americans’ sensitive personal data to third parties — including geolocation histories, financial data, biometric information and calendar and phone logs — unless a user provides explicit approval for the data or the sharing is for one of several specific purposes allowed under the bill, such as preventing fraud.

It would let users opt out of targeted advertising altogether and require companies to collect only enough data as they need to do their business. And it would guarantee Americans the right to request copies of their data, to correct it or even to have it deleted from a company’s records.

And, in a nod to growing concerns about whether Americans’ personal data may be available to foreign adversaries such as China and Russia, the legislation would require companies to disclose to US consumers whether their information may be sent to, stored or processed in one of those countries. US officials have voiced concerns about whether TikTok user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, but it doesn’t stop there: The Biden administration and US lawmakers have also highlighted data brokers as another potential way for foreign governments to obtain Americans’ personal data.

The draft legislation breaks a yearslong deadlock between Republicans and Democrats over the scope of any national privacy bill. The two parties had long disagreed over two key issues: Whether a federal privacy law should override existing state privacy laws that may provide tougher protections, and whether private citizens should be able to bring their own lawsuits against companies accused of violating their privacy.

This week’s agreement appears to resolve both issues. It would preempt more than a dozen state privacy laws already on the books in states such as California, Texas and Virginia. And it would enable individuals to sue companies for violations of the proposed law.

“This bipartisan, bicameral draft legislation is the best opportunity we’ve had in decades to establish a national data privacy and security standard that gives people the right to control their personal information,” said McMorris Rodgers and Cantwell in a statement.

The legislation has a long road ahead: It must still clear both of the lawmakers’ committees and pass both chambers of Congress in order to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk. Policy experts have predicted low odds of Congress passing much legislation in the months leading up to the 2024 election.

McMorris Rodgers has also announced she will not run for reelection, which could complicate the bill’s future after one of its most powerful co-sponsors leaves the House.

He will also join a first-ever summit of the U.S., Japanese and Philippine leaders in Washington to showcase their cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

The Associated Press explains the significance of Kishida’s visit and the two summits.

WHAT DOES KISHIDA WANT TO ACHIEVE?
The biggest event during the weeklong trip is his summit with Biden on Wednesday. Kishida hopes to further strengthen the alliance as China’s influence grows in the Indo-Pacific.

Kishida is also reaching out to the American public to showcase Japan’s contribution to the U.S. economy and ensure stable relations regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election later this year.

Kishida, who has pushed sweeping changes fortifying Japan’s defense capabilities since taking office in 2021, will emphasize that Japan and the U.S. are now global partners working to maintain a rules-based international order, and that Japan is willing to take on a greater international role in security, economy and space to help Washington.

Expanding arms equipment and technology cooperation between the two countries and other like-minded partners is also highly important, Kishida on Friday told selected media, including AP.

Kishida, stung by a corruption scandal, needs a successful U.S. visit to shore up low support ratings at home.

WHAT IS A STATE VISIT?
As a state guest, Kishida will be welcomed in a White House arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, a formal state dinner and other official events. He is the fifth state guest of Biden, who has also hosted leaders of India, Australia, South Korea and France, underscoring America’s focus on Indo-Pacific security partnerships.

Kishida is the first Japanese leader to make a state visit since Shinzo Abe in 2015. Abe made a major revision to the interpretation of Japan’s pacifist Constitution, allowing its self-defense-only principle to also cover its ally, the United States.

WHY THE DEFENSE FOCUS?
Defense tops the agenda because of growing worries about threats from China, North Korea and Russia. Chinese coast guard ships regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan. Beijing says Taiwan is part of its territory and will be brought under control by force if necessary.

There are also worries about North Korean nuclear and missile threats and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kishida has warned that the war in Europe could lead to conflict in East Asia, suggesting that a lax attitude to Russia emboldens China.

“While we maintain the Japan-U.S. alliance as a cornerstone, we believe it is important to cooperate with like-minded countries, including the Philippines,” Kishida said.

WHAT ARE THE SUMMIT’S MAIN ISSUES?
Biden and Kishida are expected to agree on a plan to modernize their military command structures so they can better operate together. America stations 50,000 troops in Japan. The Japanese Self Defense Force is preparing to restructure so it has a unified command for ground, air and naval forces by March 2025.

Also expected are new initiatives for defense industry cooperation, including co-production of weapons, possibly a new missile, and the repair and maintenance of American warships and other equipment in Japan to help U.S. operations in the western Pacific.

Japan’s possible participation in a U.S.-U.K.-Australia security partnership to develop and share advanced military capabilities, including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonics, may also come up.

Kishida and Biden are also expected to confirm Japan’s participation in NASA’s Artemis moon program and its contribution of a moon rover developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and the inclusion of a Japanese astronaut. The rover, which comes at a roughly $2 billion cost, is the most expensive contribution to the mission by a non-U.S. partner to date, a U.S. official said.

WHAT’S JAPAN’S DEFENSE AIM?
Since adopting a more expansive national security strategy in 2022, Kishida’s government has taken bold steps to accelerate Japan’s military buildup. He hopes to show Tokyo is capable of elevating its security cooperation with the U.S. Kishida has pledged to double defense spending and boost deterrence against China, which Japan considers a top security threat.

Japan, working to acquire what it calls a “counterstrike” capability, has purchased 400 U.S. Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles. After prohibiting almost all weapons transfers, it has relaxed export guidelines twice in recent months, allowing the sale of lethal weapons to countries from which they were licensed and the overseas sales of a fighter jet it’s co-developing with the U.K. and Italy. The changes have allowed Japan to ship Japanese-made PAC-3 missiles to the U.S. to help replace those contributed by Washington to Ukraine.

WHAT ABOUT THE SUMMIT WITH THE PHILIPPINES?
The first-ever trilateral summit between Biden, Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. comes as the Philippines faces escalating maritime tension with China over their contested South China Sea claims.

Biden wants to show that the three maritime democracies are unified as they face aggressive Chinese action against the Philippine coast guard and its supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, according to a senior Biden administration official.

Japan has sold coastal radars to the Philippines and is now negotiating a defense agreement that would allow their troops to visit each other’s turf for joint military exercises.

The trilateral comes eight months after Biden hosted a meeting with leaders from Japan and South Korea at Camp David.

“Cooperation among our three countries are extremely important in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and in defending a free and open international order based on the rules of law,” Kishida said Monday before leaving for Washington.

WHAT HAPPENS IN NORTH CAROLINA?
Kishida also wants to highlight Japan’s economic contributions in the U.S. There is growing uncertainty in Tokyo about U.S. elections, reflected by questions about what happens if former President Donald Trump wins, though experts say there is a bipartisan consensus on a stronger U.S.-Japan alliance.

Kishida will meet with business leaders and visit Toyota’s electric vehicle battery factory under construction for a planned launch in 2025, and Honda’s business jet subsidiary in North Carolina. He will also meet students at North Carolina State University on Friday.

In his congressional speech on Thursday, Kishida said he plans to convey “what Japan and the United States want to hand down to future generations and what we need to do for them.”

“Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights,” Trump said in the video posted on his Truth Social site. “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.”

Trump, in the video, did not say when in pregnancy he believes abortion should be banned — declining to endorse a national cutoff that would have been used as a cudgel by Democrats ahead of the November election. But his endorsement of the patchwork approach leaves him open to being attached to the strictest proposed state legislation, which President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign have already been working to do.

Anti-abortion activists expressed keen disappointment that Trump didn’t go further.

In the video, he again took credit for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, saying that he was “proudly the person responsible for the ending” of the constitutional right to an abortion and thanking the conservative justices who overturned it by name.

While he again articulated his support for three exceptions — in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk — he went on to describe the current legal landscape, in which different states have different restrictions following the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on June 24, 2022, which upended the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s all about will of the people.”

Trump had long argued that the Supreme Court’s decision gave those who oppose abortion rights “tremendous power to negotiate,” leverage he said he wanted to use to strike a deal that he hoped would “make both sides happy” and bring the country together — even though the issue is one of the most contentious in American politics, with some opponents viewing abortion as murder and proponents seeing it as a fundamental women’s right.

The announcement drew immediate condemnation from SBA Pro-Life America, one of the country’s most prominent groups opposed to abortion rights.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, in a statement. “Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s congressional backers and supporter of a 15-week national ban, said he “respectfully” disagreed with Trump over abortion being an issue for the states. Mike Pence — a staunch abortion opponent who served as Trump’s vice president, challenged him for this year’s GOP nomination and has said he won’t endorse him — on X called the stance “a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans” who have previously backed Trump.

Trump took to Truth Social later Monday to lash out at his critics, saying both Dannenfelser and Graham were “of absolutely no help as the Democrats staged rallies and won Elections they should never have won” after Dobbs, adding that Graham should focus instead on “the millions of people dying in senseless, never-ending Wars that he constantly favors and promotes.”

Biden’s campaign was quick to seize on the moment, with spokesperson Ammar Moussa posting on X that Trump was “endorsing every single abortion ban in the states, including abortion bans with no exceptions … and he’s bragging about his role in creating this hellscape.”

In a statement, Biden said Trump has played a part in being “responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision,” a situation he said is reflected in women “being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and left to travel hundreds of miles for health care.”

“Trump’s in trouble and he knows it,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Chicago on Monday.

In a statement, Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes expressed confidence that the voters who “clearly rejected anti-abortion politics” in other post-Dobbs elections will “do the same with Donald Trump and his cronies in 2024.”

In a Biden campaign call with reporters, Texas mother Kaitlyn Kash described her need to obtain out-of-state care after losing one pregnancy, then her difficulty in receiving a “dilation and curettage” procedure after another successful delivery, following the Dobbs decision — situations she laid at Trump’s feet.

“What I went through didn’t need to happen, but it did because of Donald Trump,” Kash said.

Biden’s campaign also went up with an ad featuring Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman they said “nearly died twice after she was denied care for a miscarriage because of the state’s abortion ban — a ban that was only possible because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade.”

Trump had suggested last month in a radio interview that he was leaning toward supporting a national abortion ban at around 15 weeks of pregnancy but, at the same time, seemed reluctant to embrace a federal prohibition.

Republican-led states have ushered in a wave of new restrictions following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. More than a dozen GOP-controlled states have banned abortion outright, while others have outlawed the procedure on increasingly diminishing timelines.

Other reproductive-related procedures have faced restrictions, including in vitro fertilization, which quickly became a campaign flashpoint after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this year that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Trump said he strongly supports IVF availability. Alabama lawmakers and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey agreed to protect IVF providers from legal liability.

Democrats believe the fight over abortion rights helps them at the polls and have outperformed expectations in elections since. Voters in seven states have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures, and abortion is expected to be on the ballot in more states this year, including Florida, Maryland and New York.

Trump has tried to thread the needle on abortion throughout the campaign, calling himself the “most pro-life president in American history” but also blaming GOP candidates who did not allow for exceptions for the party’s 2022 losses.

In the video, Trump told Republicans that they must “follow your heart on this issue. But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.”

Instead, he has tried to paint Democrats as “the radical ones on this position.”

Democrats and Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, have been spotlighting the issue as they work to draw a contrast with Trump.

Polling has consistently shown that most Americans believe abortion should be legal through the initial stages of pregnancy. About half of U.S. adults said abortions should be permitted at the 15-week mark, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted last June.

Data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the vast majority of abortions from 2012 to 2021 were performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

___ Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Darlene Superville in Chicago contributed to this report.

The reported haul from the event with major donors at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor John Paulson sets a new single-event fundraising record and is almost double the $26 million that Biden’s campaign said it raised recently at a gathering with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

“It’s clearer than ever that we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President Trump to victory on November 5,” his campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

The event, billed as the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” sends a signal of a resurgence of Trump and the Republican Party’s fundraising, which has lagged behind Biden and the Democrats.

“This has been some incredible evening before it even starts because people — they wanted to contribute to a cause of making America great again, and that’s what’s happened,” Trump said briefly to reporters as he arrived at the event with his wife Melania Trump.

Trump and the GOP announced earlier in the week that they raised more than $65.6 million in March and closed out the month with $93.1 million. Biden and the Democrats announced Saturday that they took in more than $90 million last month and had $192 million-plus on hand.

“While Donald Trump has been busy awarding himself golf trophies at Mar-a-Lago and palling around with billionaires, Joe Biden has been crisscrossing the nation connecting with voters and outlining his vision to grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement, referring to Trump’s Florida residence.

Campaign fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission detailing donations from Saturday’s event are not expected until a mid-July filing date.

Trump initially struggled to attract big donors in particular when he launched his campaign and some lined up to support the other Republicans who challenged him in the presidential primary. But as Trump racked up easy wins, leveled the field and became the party’s presumptive nominee, the GOP has solidified behind him.

Saturday’s high-dollar event hosted about 100 guests, including more than a few billionaires. Contributions to the event will go toward the Trump 47 Committee, according to the invitation, a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties and Save America, a political action committee that pays the bulk of Trump’s legal bills. In an unusual arrangement, the fundraising agreement directs donations to first pay the maximum allowed under law to his campaign and Save America before the RNC or state parties get a cut.

Donors who gave the suggested $814,600 per person or $250,000 per person will only have $5,000 of their donation go to Save America, sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cash-strapped RNC.

As Trump prepared in March to install a new handpicked leadership team at the RNC, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, some members of the RNC worried that the committee’s money would go toward Trump’s sizable legal fees as he fights a number of court cases, including four criminal cases.

The fundraising arrangement doesn’t direct RNC funds to Trump’s legal bills. But when checks of any amount are written to the combined campaign, the campaign and Save America get paid first by default.

Co-chairs of the fundraiser include Robert Bigelow, a Las Vegas-based businessman who had supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign; New York grocery billionaire John Catsimatidis; Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment executive and head of the Small Business Administration while Trump was president; casino mogul Steve Wynn; and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, according to the invitation.

Guests were asked to contribute $814,600 per person as a “chairman” contributor, which came with seating at Trump’s table, or $250,000 per person as a “host committee” contributor. Both options come with a photo opportunity and a personalized copy of Trump’s coffee table book featuring photographs from his administration, ”Our Journey Together.”

Three of Trump’s former rivals for the GOP nomination — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — were expected to appear as “special guests.”

Hours before the fundraiser, Trump complained on his social media site about the judge in his upcoming New York hush-money trial and the former president once more compared himself to the late Nelson Mandela, who was jailed for years by South Africa’s longtime apartheid government before he became the country’s leader.

“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump wrote.

In response, Biden campaign official Jasmine Harris said: “Imagine being so self-centered that you compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela all within the span of little more than a week: that’s Donald Trump for you.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private letters, said Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet Monday with family members of some of the estimated 100 hostages who are believed to still be in Gaza.

The letters to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, come as Biden has deployed CIA Director Bill Burns to Cairo for talks this weekend about the hostage crisis.

White House officials say negotiating a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to facilitate the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel is the only way to put a temporary cease-fire into effect and boost the flow of badly humanitarian aid into the territory.

Biden, in his conversation with Netanyahu, “made clear that everything must be done to secure the release of hostages, including American citizens,” and discussed “the importance of fully empowering Israeli negotiators to reach a deal,” according to the official. The first phase of the proposed deal would secure the release of women and elderly, sick and wounded hostages.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said earlier Friday that Biden underscored the need to get a hostage deal done during the Thursday conversation with Netanyahu that largely focused on Israeli airstrikes that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen.

“We are coming up on six months — six months that these people have been held hostage. And what we have to consider is just the abhorrent conditions” the hostages are being held in, Kirby said. “They need to be home with their families.”

Biden had expressed optimism for a temporary cease-fire and a hostage deal during the runup to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but an agreement never materialized.

The White House said in a statement Thursday following Biden’s call with Netanyahu that the U.S. president said reaching an “immediate cease-fire” in exchange for hostages was “essential” and urged Israel to reach such an accord “without delay.”

White House officials acknowledge that Biden has become increasingly frustrated with Israel’s prosecution of a grinding war that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive already has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.

Judge Dolly Gee wrote that US Customs and Border Protection does maintain legal custody over the minors in the open-air detention sites and has “decision-making authority over the health and welfare” of the children at those sites.

Thousands of asylum seekers — from countries ranging from Mexico and Venezuela to China and India — have made their way to makeshift camps in remote sections of the California desert since last spring. That includes dozens of children.

In a court document filed in late February, children’s rights attorneys argued that federal immigration officials directed migrants to those camps but failed to provide adequate food, water, shelter, and medical services.

The Biden administration, however, argued that the minors had not been arrested by CBP and were therefore not in the legal custody of the agency.

But the attorneys said in filings that Border Patrol’s actions demonstrate that the agency has assumed authority over the migrants, pointing to agents regularly patrolling the camps, watching them with surveillance cameras and transporting migrants to the tents. Attorneys added that agents placed wrist bands on migrants, conducted body searches, told them where to stand and threatened them with losing their chance at asylum if they leave.

Gee concluded Wednesday that CBP should not hold minors in or direct them to “open-air sites, except for the amount of time DHS reasonably requires to prepare the minor and/or actively arrange for transport of the minor to a more suitable facility, as this behavior constitutes unnecessary delay.”

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reviewing the court’s order. CBP will continue to transport vulnerable individuals and children encountered on the border to its facilities as quickly as possible,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement.

Gee also ordered the CBP Juvenile Coordinator to file an interim report by May 10 with an update on the number of minors held in open-air sites and how the agency has complied with the order. The attorneys will then have six days to respond to the interim report.

One of the attendees told the president that the decision to participate in the gathering had been a cause of concern for his wife, given the fierce backlash Joe Biden has drawn for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to two attendees present at the meeting.

Those attendees tell CNN that Biden brought up his own wife and closest confidant.

“It’s got to stop,” he recounted the first lady had said to him recently, according to the recollection of Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, who was in the room.

Another participant, who declined to be named, told CNN they remembered the president saying that the first lady had used these words: “Stop it. Stop it now.”

While that attendee said they believed the suggestion was that the first lady was calling for the war to end, Ahmed said it was unclear to her whether the first lady’s comment was directed at the Israel-Hamas war at large, or the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza.

Asked about the president’s remarks, a White House official said there is “no daylight” between the couple on the issue,with both sharing in outrage over civilian deaths. The official added that Dr. Biden was not calling for Israel to end its efforts against Hamas.

The New York Times first reported on the president’s comments referencing the first lady.

A top adviser to the first lady said she’s been “heartbroken” over the loss of civilian lives, including aid workers, and shares in her husband’s belief Israel needs to take greater care to ensure civilian safety.

“Just like the President, the First Lady is heartbroken over the attacks on aid workers and the on-going loss of innocent lives in Gaza,” said Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for the first lady. “They both want Israel to do more to protect civilians.”

The president’s recounting of his wife’s message came the same evening he expressed outrage over an Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including one dual US-Canadian citizen, in Gaza.

The aid organization was founded by chef Jose Andres, a personal friend of the Bidens. The president and first lady have both appeared with Andres on trips abroad and highlighted World Central Kitchen’s work.

The first lady has only publicly referenced the conflict between Israel and Hamas on a few occasions.

“When Hamas attacked Israel, Joe knew what to do,” she told donors at event in Atherton, California, in November. The first lady said she “wouldn’t wish the tragic events of this last month on any American president, but I’m so grateful that Joe is our president during these uncertain, unpredictable and tumultuous times.”

She also has heard frustrations from protesters over her husband’s handling of the conflict. The first lady was interrupted at least four times by pro-Palestinian protesters during a speech in Tucson, Arizona, last month, and people advocating for a ceasefire have gathered outside some of her campaign events.

The selloff has erased nearly $2 billion from the value of former President Donald Trump’s stake in the company this week.

Trump Media shared surged to as high as $79.38 on March 26, the day trading began on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DJT.”

Since then, the Truth Social owner’s share price has plunged by as much as 47% to as low as $41.90 on Friday.

Trump Media’s shares have lost about a quarter of their value this week.

Trump’s personal stake in the company is now valued at about $3.3 billion. That’s down from $4.9 billion at the end of last week.

Trump Media recently disclosed losing $58 million last year on very light revenue of just $4.1 million. The financial results underscore concerns raised by some experts that the company is being vastly overvalued by Wall Street.

Barry Diller, the billionaire chairman of Expedia and People Magazine owner IAC, told CNBC on Thursday that Trump Media is a “scam” and people buying the stock are “dopes.”

“I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Diller said on CNBC. “The company has no revenue.”

A Trump Media spokesperson denounced critics of the company.

“It is unsurprising to see die-hard Trump haters and leftwing flacks blow a gasket now that Truth Social has become a public company that, still today, refuses to suppress political expression that contradicts the narratives they want to enforce,” Shannon Devine, a Trump Media spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN

The fundraiser for the conservative LGBTQ group will be held on April 20 at Mar-a-Lago. The former first lady has taken part in events with the Log Cabin Republicans since leaving the White House. In 2021, she was the guest of honor at the group’s annual Spirit of Lincoln Gala.

Melania Trump has largely remained absent from the campaign trail, making only two formal public appearances for her husband’s White House bid – the November 2022 kickoff for former President Donald Trump’s campaign and an appearance with him in March to vote in the Florida presidential primary.

Asked by a reporter in Palm Beach after casting her ballot if she would be returning to the campaign trail, Melanie Trump said, “Stay tuned.”

The event with the Log Cabin Republicans, though, is expected to be largely behind closed doors and will likely still keep her out of the public eye.

Politico was first to report on Trump’s involvement with the fundraiser for the Log Cabin Republicans.

As CNN previously reported, how frequently the former first lady will hit the campaign trail this year is entirely in her hands.

“She is very selective and methodical in what she wants to do and how she presents herself,” a source close to the former president said in late March. “She is very decisive with these things and knows they have a lot of intended and unintended consequences.”

Donald Trump has teased before that there is some allure to the intrigue over his wife’s whereabouts on the trail.

“I think part of the beauty is that mystery,” the former president told Megyn Kelly on her podcast last year. “She’s introspective and she’s confident, she doesn’t need to be interviewed by you to get ripped apart for no reason. She doesn’t need to be out there. She’s got confidence, she has a lot of self-confidence.”

Biden will detail the plan Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, where the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin is located. The actual federal regulations — outlining who would qualify to get their student loan debt reduced or eliminated — are not expected to be released then, said the people, who were granted anonymity to detail a proposal not yet made public.

Much of the specifics that Biden will discuss Monday have long been telegraphed through a negotiated rulemaking process at the Department of Education, which has worked for months to hash out the new categories of borrowers. The president announced immediately after the Supreme Court decision that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona would undertake the process because he would have the power, under the Higher Education Act, to waive or compromise student loan debt in specific cases.

Still, the effort seeks to make good on Biden’s promise after the Supreme Court struck down his initial plan in June, a $400 billion proposal to cancel or reduce federal student loan debt that a majority of justices insisted needed congressional approval. Biden called that decision a “mistake” and “wrong.”

And the fresh announcement on student loan relief, a vital issue for younger voters, could help energize parts of Biden’s political coalition who have become disillusioned over his job performance — people whose support the president will need to defeat presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump this year.

The plan that Biden will detail would expand federal student loan relief to new yet-targeted categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials believe puts it on a stronger legal footing than the sweeping proposal that was killed by a 6-3 court majority last year. The planned announcement from Biden was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

One of the categories of people who are expected to qualify under the new proposal is those with financial hardship, the people said. Another category is likely to include borrowers whose student loan balances have ballooned significantly because of accrued interest and they now owe more than they initially borrowed. Another potential category would relieve debt for borrowers who attended college programs that are considered “low-value.”

“This new path is legally sound,” Biden said then. “It’s going to take longer, but, in my view, it’s the best path that remains to providing for as many borrowers as possible with debt relief.”

Biden’s latest attempt at cancellation is expected to be smaller and more targeted than his original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers. Details of the new plan have come into focus in recent months as the Education Department brought its ideas to a panel of outside negotiators with an interest in higher education, ranging from students to loan servicers.

Through that process, the agency laid out five categories of borrowers who would be eligible to get some or all of their federal loans canceled. The plan is focused on helping those with the greatest need for relief, including many who might otherwise never repay their loans.

Among those targeted for help are those whose unpaid interest has snowballed beyond the size of the original loan. The proposal would reset their balances back to the initial balance by erasing up to $10,000 or $20,000 in interest, depending on a borrower’s income.

Borrowers who have been paying down their student loans for decades would get all remaining debt erased under the department’s plan. Loans used for a borrower’s undergraduate education would be canceled if they have been in repayment for at least 20 years. For other types of federal loans, it’s 25 years.

The plan would automatically cancel loans for those who went to for-profit college programs deemed “low-value.” Borrowers would be eligible for cancellation if, while they attended the program, the average federal student loan payment among graduates was too high compared to their average salary.

Those who are eligible for other types of cancellation but haven’t applied would automatically get relief. It would apply to Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Borrower Defense to Repayment, programs that have been around for years but require infamously difficult paperwork.

Under pressure from advocates, the department also added a category for those facing “hardship.” It would offer cancellation to borrowers considered highly likely to be in default within two years. Additional borrowers would be eligible for relief under a wide-ranging definition of financial hardship.

A series of hearings to craft the rule wrapped up in February, and the draft is now under review. Before it can be finalized, the Education Department would need to issue a formal proposal and open it to a public comment period.

The latest attempt at cancellation joins other targeted initiatives, including those aimed at public service workers and low-income borrowers. Through those efforts, the Biden administration says it has canceled $144 billion in student loans for almost 4 million Americans.

Aboard Marine One, circling the warped metal remains and the mass of construction and salvage equipment trying to clear the wreckage of last week’s collapse, Biden got his first up close view of the devastation. On the ground, he received a briefing from local officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers on the situation in the water and its impacts on the region.

Biden also greeted police officers who helped block traffic to the bridge in the moments before it was hit by the ship, which helped avert an even larger loss of life.

“I’m here to say your nation has your back and I mean it,” Biden said from the shoreline overlooking the collapsed bridge. “Your nation has your back.”

Eight workers — immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — were filling potholes on the bridge when it was hit by a huge cargo ship and collapsed in the middle of the night of March 26. Two men were rescued, but the bodies of only two of the six who died have been recovered. The president met Friday with the families of the victims near the bridge, the White House said.

“The damage is devastating and our hearts are still breaking,” Biden said.

Officials have established a temporary, alternate channel for vessels involved in clearing debris. The Army Corps of Engineers hopes to open a limited-access channel for barge container ships and some vessels moving cars and farm equipment by the end of this month and to restore normal capacity to Baltimore’s port by May 31, the White House says.

That’s important since longer delays in reopening shipping lanes could send shockwaves through the economy. As much as $200 million in cargo normally moves through Baltimore’s port per day, and it is the leading hub for importing and exporting vehicles.

More than 50 salvage divers and 12 cranes are on site to help cut out sections of the bridge and remove them from the key waterway. Officials told Biden they had all the resources they need to meet the targets for opening the channel into the Baltimore port.

Biden also announced that some of the largest employers affected by the collapse, including Amazon, Home Depot and Domino Sugar, have committed to keeping their employees on payroll until the port is reopened. That news followed days of outreach by state and federal officials to try to mitigate the economic impact of the incident.

“From the air I saw the bridge that has been ripped apart,” Biden said, “but here on the ground I see a community that’s pulled together.”

But it is still unclear how the costs of cleanup and building a new bridge will be covered.

The Federal Highway Administration has provided $60 million in “quick release” emergency relief funds to get started. Exactly how much the collapse will cost is unclear, though some experts estimate recovery will take at least $400 million and 18 months.

Biden said within hours of the collapse that “the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell likened the bridge collapse to assistance that flows after natural disasters and saying ”the federal government will step up and do the lion’s share” of funding. But authorization is likely no slam-dunk in Congress.

The White House announced Friday it is asking Congress to authorize the federal government to cover 100% of the collapsed bridge cleanup and reconstruction costs, rather than seeking funding through a separate, emergency supplemental funding request.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young noted similar techniques were used for recovery and rebuilding efforts that received bipartisan congressional support in 2007, when a highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed during evening rush hour, killing 13 people.

“We are asking the Congress to join us in demonstrating our commitment to aid in recovery efforts,” Young wrote, though it is still unclear exactly how much money the administration will need to cover the costs.

But some hard-line congressional Republicans are already lining up to demand politically controversial offsets for the funding. The conservative House Freedom Caucus issued a Friday statement saying, “If it proves necessary to appropriate taxpayer money to get one of America’s busiest ports back online, Congress should ensure it is fully offset and that burdensome regulations” are waved. It was referring to potential federal spending cuts elsewhere and to regulations like the Endangered Species Act.

The caucus’s letter also suggested that approval for bridge recovery funds be tied to the Biden administration agreeing to lift a pause it has imposed on exportation of liquified natural gas.

The funding questions only serve to heighten the collapse’s political implications as Biden squares off with former President Donald Trump in November’s election.

It’s the second major disaster along the country’s busy northeastern hub in as many years. Last summer, an overpass along Interstate 95 in Philadelphia caught fire and collapsed after a tanker truck slammed into it. Federal and state officials moved quickly on temporary repairs and ultimately reopened that section of the highway faster than expected.

But the cleanup and repairs in Baltimore will take far longer and be far more costly, making the chances it is a net political positive for Biden — especially in time for Election Day — far murkier.

That hasn’t stopped the Biden administration from championing anew a $1 trillion-plus public works package that cleared Congress in 2021.

The bridge collapse also has thrust into the national spotlight Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, 45, a leading voice in Biden’s reelection campaign’s effort to energize young voters on the 81-year-old president’s behalf. He accompanied Biden on the helicopter tour and during his briefings, and introduced the president before his speech.

The president himself has traveled the country showcasing construction projects on highways, bridges and tunnels. In 2022, he arrived for an event in Pittsburgh just hours after a bridge nearby collapsed. Promoting the public works package also has allowed the president to lean into his love of train travel and many years commuting to and from Washington on Amtrak as a Delaware senator.

Biden himself noted he’d been over the bridge “about a thousand times” commuting from Washington to his home in Delaware, prompting the state Department of Transportation chief to quip, “thank you for the tolls, sir.”

Lawyers for Trump had cited a 1978 statute known as the Presidential Records Act in arguing that he was permitted to designate records from his time in office as personal and take them with him when he left the White House.

Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team vigorously opposed that argument, saying the statute had no relevance in a case concerning classified documents.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with the government in a three-page order, writing that the indictment makes “no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense.”

“No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House,” Nancy Jacobson, the group’s CEO, said in a statement. “No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”

The decision caps months of discussions for No Labels, which has raised tens of millions of dollars from a donor list it has kept secret. While its decision will disappoint people seeking a potentially viable third-party option, it will come as a relief to Democrats who long accused the group of effectively helping Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

It also further cements a general election rematch this fall between the Democratic incumbent and the former president. Many voters do not have favorable views of Biden and Trump, a dynamic that No Labels had sought to address.

The Wall Street Journal first reported No Labels’ decision.

No Labels delegates voted overwhelmingly in March to launch the process of creating a bipartisan presidential and vice presidential ticket. But by then, No Labels had been rejected, publicly and privately, by many Democratic or Republican candidates.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination last month, had said she would not consider running on the No Labels ticket. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., ruled out running and former Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., decided to run for U.S. Senate.

Last month, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, said he wouldn’t run under the No Label banner, either.

The group had been weighing the nomination of a “unity ticket,” with a presidential candidate from one major party and a vice presidential candidate from the other, to appeal to voters unhappy with Biden and Trump.

Biden supporters had worried No Labels would pull votes away from the president in battleground states and had been critical of how the group would not disclose its donors or much about its decision-making. No Labels never named all of its delegates and most of its deliberations took place in secret.

In a phone interview with CNN, the Georgia firebrand said GOP voters were “furious” at Johnson over his recent deal-cutting to keep the government open and suggested that she wouldn’t accept any package that included more funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia, even if it included some border security provisions.

The congresswoman, who plans to speak with Johnson on Friday, warned against moving any Ukraine bill with significant Democratic support under a process known in the House as “suspension of the rules” – a practice Johnson has employed repeatedly for must-pass bills amid deep divisions within the GOP ranks.

“Let me tell you, when he forces that vote, again, under suspension with no amendments, and funds Ukraine and people find out how angry their constituents are about it, that’s going to move the needle even more,” said Greene.

Asked if that meant moving any Ukraine aid package would lead to a vote seeking his ouster, Greene added: “I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger. And I think that’s just where I’m at right now. But I’m going to tell you right now: Funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.”

Greene’s comments underscore the power of any individual member in Johnson’s razor-thin GOP majority where any single lawmaker can force a vote seeking his ouster and where governing has proven to be near-impossible at times.

And it comes at a precarious time – as Ukraine is clamoring for US support and as Johnson has sidelined a bipartisan Senate package while trying to cobble together a new House plan amid deep GOP divisions on the issue.

Johnson, presumably, could be helped by Democrats who want Ukraine aid as a price for helping the Louisiana Republican keep his job. But if he moves forward with a more conservative Ukraine package to woo House Republicans, he risks turning off Democrats while angering hardliners like Greene who don’t want another penny going towards US assistance in the war against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Johnson has tried to ease tensions, telling CNN in a statement, “I respect Marjorie. She will always have an open door to the speaker’s office. We do have honest differences on strategy sometimes but share the same conservative beliefs.”

But Johnson also cautioned that triggering a vote over the gavel would not be in the best interest of House Republicans, as he defended his handling of the government funding fight. “A shutdown would not serve our party or assist us in our mission of saving the republic by growing our majority, nor will another motion to vacate,” he said.

In the interview, Greene said she was undeterred over warnings from her GOP colleagues that a vote to oust Johnson could end up electing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, calling that a “stupid lie” since she doubted any Republican would help elect a Democrat to the post. She also made clear that other members were on her target list, including Virginia Rep. Bob Good, a GOP hardliner whom she has sparred with as she indicated she planned to campaign against him later this month in his primary.

But as she targets Johnson, Greene predicted her support would “continue to grow” and had “gained momentum”– though she declined to comment when asked which Republicans and how many were behind her effort.

Greene also wouldn’t say whether she spoke to former President Donald Trump on the matter, even as she plans to speak to Johnson on Friday. (The speaker tried to call her last Thursday and left a voicemail, she said, but the two haven’t connected yet other than through text messages.)

But despite warnings from conservative members of her conference, Greene attacked the idea that removing Johnson could lead to a more moderate speaker.

“We cannot get anyone more moderate than Mike Johnson,” Greene said. “I would argue Mike Johnson, we can’t get any further left than Mike Johnson. I think the Democrats might be happier with him than they are with Hakeem Jeffries.”

When Johnson was elected as speaker, he was embraced by hardline conservatives given that his ideology is further to the right than former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But as he has been elevated to run the House, Johnson has had to work with Democrats, including in the Senate and the White House, to pass government funding bills and authorize national security programs, efforts that have enraged his right flank.

Any one member can throw the House into chaos and call for a vote seeking the ouster of a sitting speaker, as Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz did last fall in the unprecedented removal of McCarthy, leading to a paralyzed House for three weeks and the ultimate election of Johnson as speaker. Gaetz now is backing Johnson and opposed to Greene’s effort.

In the aftermath of Johnson’s deal-cutting with Democrats to keep the government open, Greene announced she had drafted a resolution to kick Johnson out of the speakership. But she has not yet said when she would call for such a vote, which she can force within two legislative days after declaring her intentions on the floor. She could move as soon as next week when the House returns from its two-week Easter recess, though the congresswoman wouldn’t reveal her plans.

In the interview, Greene continued to harshly criticizeJohnson over the provisions in the final government funding bill and the fact that the $1.2 trillion bill was put on the floor less than 36 hours after its release, a violation of a GOP pledge to give members three days to review legislation. She said voters are “furious that our so-called Christian conservative, Republican Speaker of the House did this to them.”

“People are fed up with Republicans that say one thing and turn around and literally join the flock and just continue the same old crap everybody’s tired of,” Greene said, comparing Johnson to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “And here, Mike Johnson, he’s literally turned into Mitch McConnell’s twin and worse. He’s a Democrat.”

Greene added: “There’s not even any daylight between him and Nancy Pelosi at this point.”

On Ukraine, Johnson has moved behind the scenes to piece together a new House plan – which includes empowering the US to seize frozen Russian assets and give it to Ukraine, adding new restrictions at the US border and turning aid to Ukraine into a loan for the country.

And despite Trump’s support for turning Ukraine aid into a loan, Greene said “the loan idea is the biggest bunch of heaping, steaming pile of bullsh*t. … That is so insulting to the American people.”

Addressing the potential for Ukraine aid, Johnson said in the statement to CNN, “national security starts at our southern border. Any funding of the President’s supplemental request should be premised on meaningful policy to help the American people and finally address the invasion at our southern border.”

Good faces Greene’s fire

In the interview, Greene also took aim at a fellow GOP hardliner: Good, a Virginia Republican who is battling to hang onto his seat ahead of a June primary. Greene has endorsed Good’s Republican opponent, John McGuire, in the race.

Last week, Good attacked Greene, telling CNN: “Nobody cares what Marjorie Taylor Greene says or thinks. And she’s a one-man show, she’s grandstanding and she wants attention.”

Greene responded on Wednesday, saying she planned to campaign in Good’s district as she attacked him for backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary over Trump, noting he backed the Florida governor as Trump was facing criminal charges but later endorsed Trump after DeSantis dropped out of the race. She said she has relayed her concerns about Good directly to Trump.

“You can’t even bring up another example of a backstabber like that, that I can even think of,” Greene said. “He is strictly only supporting Donald Trump because he has to. He’s such a liar.”

Asked about Good’s contention that her criticism doesn’t matter to his voters, Greene said she will be campaigning with McGuire “very soon.” And she added: “We’ll see what his constituents actually think about what I have to say. And I’m pretty sure I’m going to move the needle in that race in favor of John McGuire.”

“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in his order.

McAfee’s ruling is the latest step inching the state racketeering case against Trump forward. But while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested she would be ready to go to trial as soon as August, the judge has still not set a trial date for Trump or his remaining 14 co-defendants in the Peach State.

McAfee’s refusal to scrap the indictment comes as the free speech defense has repeatedly fallen short in pretrial wrangling in election meddling cases.

“After interpreting the indictment’s language liberally in favor of the State as required at this pretrial stage, the Court finds that the Defendants’ expressions and speech are alleged to have been made in furtherance of criminal activity and constitute false statements knowingly and willfully made in matters within a government agency’s jurisdiction which threaten to deceive and harm the government,” McAfee wrote in his order issued Thursday.

McAfee previously rejected similar First Amendment challenges from other defendants in the Georgia case. In the federal election interference case, Judge Tanya Chutkan also heard – and rejected – the argument that Trump’s actions should be considered protected political speech.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Thursday’s order from McAfee.

Trump’s Georgia lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement that Trump and other defendants “respectfully disagree” with the ruling and will explore their options.

“It is significant that the court’s ruling made clear that defendants were not foreclosed from again raising their ‘as-applied challenges at the appropriate time after the establishment of a factual record,’” Sadow’s statement read.

At a hearing on the First Amendment issue last month, Sadow argued that Trump’s attempts to upend the Georgia election results were “core political speech.”

“What do we have here?” Sadow asked. “We have election speech, which is ‘protected’ from government restriction.”

Donald Wakeford, a Fulton County prosecutor, said the First Amendment arguments should be heard by a jury rather than decided in pre-trial motions. He also insisted Trump was charged because his election lies were “employed as part of criminal activity with criminal intentions.”

Biden and Netanyahu ‘s roughly 30-minute call just days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza added a new layer of complication to the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship. Biden’s message marks a sharp change in his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts, with the U.S. leader for the first time threatening to rethink his backing if Israel doesn’t change its tactics and allow much more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The White House would not specify what could change about U.S. policy, but it could include altering military sales to Israel and America’s diplomatic backup on the world stage. Administration officials said they expected the Israelis to make announcements on next steps within hours or days and that the U.S. would then assess whether the Israeli moves go far enough.

Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders’ call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

Biden also told Netanyahu that an “immediate cease-fire is essential” and urged Israel to reach such an accord “without delay,” according to the White House, which described the conversation as “direct” and “honest.”

There was no immediate reaction to the call from the Israeli government.

The leaders’ conversation comes as the World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur José Andrés to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed the group’s staff members, including an American citizen.

The White House has said the U.S. has no plans to conduct its own investigation even as it called on Israel to do more to prevent the harming of innocent civilians and aid workers as it carries out its operations in Gaza.

Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be curtailed if Israel doesn’t make significant adjustments to how it’s carrying out the war. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed the call for “tangible” and “concrete” changes to be taken by the Israelis beyond reiterating long stated calls for allowing additional aid to get into Gaza.

“If there’s no changes to their policy in their approaches, then there’s going to have to be changes to ours,” Kirby said. “There are things that need to be done. There are too many civilians being killed.”

The demands for Israel to bring the conflict to a swift close were increasing across the political spectrum, with former President Donald Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee to face Biden this fall, saying Thursday that Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and calling for a resolution to the bloodshed.

“Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”

Biden and Netanyahu also discussed Iranian threats against Israel, Kirby said. Earlier this week, Iranian leaders vowed to hit back after an airstrike widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran’s Consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday the attack “will not remain without answer.”

Biden also renewed his concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan also joined the call.

Still, the Biden administration has proceeded apace with arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but had only been partially or not at all fulfilled. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s “Daily List” of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound (225-kilograms) bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bombs.

Officials said those transfers had been approved before the publication of the list on Monday — the day Israeli airstrikes hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven of the group’s employees — and that they fell below the threshold for new congressional notification. Also, they noted that the bombs are not for delivery to Israel until 2025.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Thursday said plans to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to help boost the flow of aid into the territory continue to move forward. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said the pier will be on line by the end of the month or early May. Biden announced plans to build the floating pier during his State of the Union address last month.

Ryder said Israel has agreed to provide security on the shore as aid is transferred and distributed, but details are still being worked out.

Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the strikes but said the convoy was not targeted and the workers’ deaths were not intentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.

Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli military for the strike, and his organization has paused its work in Gaza.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost.”

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive already has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.

During Thursday’s stop in Davie, DeSantis described how more money will be coming to Florida from the Seminole Indian Tribe after signing Senate Bill 1638 into law.

The money will be allocated into restoration programs for the Florida Everglades and the South Florida Water Management District. The agency is expected to receive millions of dollars each year.

“For necessary repairs and upgrades to both the Central and South Florida water management systems, so this is a really big deal,” said DeSantis.

The Seminole Indian Tribe fought hard to offer table games in a sports book. In 2021, the tribe entered an agreement with the state to offer sports book gambling through their app at their property in Hollywood.

As part of the agreement, the Seminole Indian Tribe will share upwards of $750 million a year with Florida.

“Historic day indeed, and as a native Floridian, this truly warms our hearts,” said Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr.

The breakdown of how those funds will be distributed includes the following:

• $150 million for South Florida Water Management District
• $100 million for the Resilient Florida Grant Program, which helps residents prepare their homes for storms
• $100 million for the Florida Everglades to assist with the removal of invasive species

Anything left over will go toward water quality improvement grant programs.

“You’re looking at about $450 million, probably in future years, every year, for quality improvement grant programs,” said DeSantis.

The governor said the signing of this bill will be a win-win for Florida and the programs that will be benefited.

“This bill is going to now dedicate the bulk of the Florida gaming revenue from the Seminole Tribe Compact to conservation efforts, and this is going to be done in ways that are going to be very beneficial,” he said.

The proposed change would move the state to a winner-take-all allocation system from the current system that splits electoral votes between statewide winners and winners of congressional districts. The proposal appeared to have little traction until a last minute push by prominent Republicans placed national attention on the change.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk kicked off the effort on Tuesday, sending a message on social media urging Nebraska Republicans to act. Hours later, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen voiced support for the change, after not making it a priority during his first 15 months in office.

Trump weighed in himself on Truth Social, saying that he too supported the change.

“Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a very smart and popular Governor, who has done some really great things, came out today with a very strong letter in support of returning Nebraska’s Electoral Votes to a Winner-Take-All System,” the former president wrote. “Most Nebraskans have wanted to go back to this system for a very long time, because it’s what 48 other States do – It’s what the Founders intended, and it’s right for Nebraska. Thank you Governor for your Bold leadership. Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing. Nebraskans, respectfully ask your Senators to support this Great Bill!”

The Nebraska law dividing the state’s electoral votes by congressional district has not been a subject of serious discussion during the legislative session this year and was not a priority of Pillen until Trump’s allies began mounting a pressure campaign on Tuesday.

The sudden move, which caught Nebraska Republicans off guard, comes only two weeks before the state legislative session is scheduled to end April 18.

The speaker of the Legislature, Sen. John Arch, a Republican, seemed to close the door to acting on the matter this year.

“In the Nebraska Unicameral, we have a process,” Arch said in a statement Wednesday. “It includes bill introduction, a committee hearing on every bill and the prioritization of the session’s agenda by the committees and individual members of the Legislature. LB 764 was not prioritized and remains in committee. I’m not able to schedule a bill that is still in committee.”

It remains an open question whether pressure – from the governor or the public – can change his view.

Lawmakers opened a spirited debate Wednesday evening in the State Capitol in Lincoln about whether they should formally consider the winner-take-all measure by attaching it to another piece of legislation, a procedural move that would open the door to a likely filibuster from critics.

“When you realize you can’t win with the current rules, you go back to the drawing board to change the rules so you can win?” said Sen. Jen Day, a Democrat from Omaha.

While the legislature is technically non-partisan, the political lines became clear Wednesday night as the debate stretched on. Several lawmakers who rose in opposition to the proposal said there was nothing preventing Trump from winning the Omaha district, saying he has the same opportunity to make his case to voters as Biden does.

“Come take the electoral vote from Omaha,” said Sen. Megan Hunt, an independent from Omaha. “Come and earn it.”

Nebraska and Maine are the only two states in the country that divide their electoral votes by congressional district – an unusual system that in 2020 allowed Biden to win one vote from Nebraska, a red state, and Trump to carry one from Maine, a blue state.

For all the last-minute bluster, it’s notoriously difficult to push legislation at the 11^th hour in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature, the nation’s only one-house body of government. A Democratic lawmaker told CNN that a filibuster would be mounted if Republicans pushed the electoral college bill.

“Nebraskans want to keep our fair electoral system in place which is why previous attempts by some Republicans over the last 30 years have failed to undo our split electoral votes,” said Nebraska Democratic chair Jane Kleeb on Wednesday. “We are proud of our unique electoral vote system and know all too well the economic benefits it generates with a national focus on our state.”

There are only two days left in the session for new bills to be introduced. The proposal’s sponsor, state Sen. Loren Lippincott, had previously suggested the necessary votes weren’t there for his proposal to pass.

“In essence, for right now, it’s probably stalled in committee,” Lippincolt told the Lincoln Journal Star on Tuesday. “I don’t like to report that, but that’s the facts.”

Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to repeal this law before. A current proposal has been stuck in committee since 2023, without sufficient votes for a full vote, and it was barely discussed this year until Trump’s allies began pushing for the change this week.

For weeks, the Biden campaign has had its eye on Omaha and its one electoral vote.

For all the talk of Biden’s blue wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, winning all three could still leave him short of 270 electoral votes. The 2020 census changed the map based on decreasing populations in Pennsylvania and Michigan, so one of Nebraska’s three electoral votes could become critical should there be a 269-269 tie with Trump.

Judge Juan Merchan denied the motion Wednesday calling it untimely and noting Trump’s lawyers had months to file a motion over the issue.

“This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024,” the order says. “After all, Defendant had already briefed the same issue in federal court and he was in possession of, and aware that, the People intended to offer the relevant evidence at trial that entire time. The circumstances, viewed as a whole, test this Court’s credulity.”

The criminal trial related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels is scheduled to begin with jury selection on April 15. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Merchan previously ruled that Trump’s lawyers can object when prosecutors introduce evidence at trial that they believe is tied to presidential acts but did not address the issue further in Wednesday’s ruling.

“The Court declines to consider whether the doctrine of presidential immunity precludes the introduction of evidence of purported official presidential acts in criminal proceeding,” the order says.

When Trump filed the motion on March 7, the trial was still set to begin on March 25. A week later the trial was delayed mid-April over a tranche of documents turned over by federal prosecutors.