(WASHINGTON) — The House Ways and Means Committee has received access to former President Donald Trump’s tax returns after the Supreme Court last week rejected his final objection on the issue.
“Treasury has complied with last week’s court decision,” said a spokesperson for the department that includes the Internal Revenue Service in possession of Trump’s confidential tax returns, which he has long resisted disclosing, unlike past presidents.
The chairman of the House committee, Richard Neal, declined to comment earlier Wednesday when asked if the panel had officially received the documents. But he said the committee intended to see the investigation through, despite the ticking clock before the new Congress begins in early January.
Neal, D-Mass., will surrender chairmanship of his committee to a Republican in January after the GOP won majority control of the House in the midterm elections.
He said the next step would be to have a meeting of the Democratic caucus. He wouldn’t say whether the committee planned to release the tax documents publicly.
The committee had requested six years’ worth of Trump’s returns as part of an investigation into IRS audit practices of presidents and vice presidents.
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Trump accused the committee of seeking his taxes under false pretenses.
Court cleared the way for Trump to turn over taxes
The Supreme Court on Nov. 22 denied Trump’s request to block an appeals court order that he surrender his tax returns and other financial records to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The court offered no explanation for its decision and there was no noted dissent or vote breakdown. It marked the fourth time Trump has lost a high court appeal related to requests for his taxes.
The move was the end of the road for Trump in the yearslong saga of congressional subpoenas for his tax records in the stated interest of drafting oversight legislation.
The Democratic-controlled committee argued that — by the Supreme Court’s own guidelines laid out in a 2020 ruling in the same ongoing dispute — judges must defer to the legitimate legislative purpose behind a request for information. They said that standard was plainly met in this case.
“We knew the strength of our case, we stayed the course, followed the advice of counsel, and finally, our case has been affirmed by the highest court in the land,” Neal said last week. “Since the Magna Carta, the principle of oversight has been upheld, and today is no different. This rises above politics, and the Committee will now conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last three and a half years.”
While Trump has claimed the subpoena is a politically motivated fishing expedition, the committee said the documents were critical for drafting “legislation on equitable tax administration, including legislation on the President’s tax compliance.”
On Nov. 1, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted a temporary administrative stay of a lower court order regarding Trump’s tax returns and other financial records. On Nov. 22, Roberts officially lifted that stay.
(WASHINGTON) — The Luzerne County Board of Elections in Pennsylvania on Wednesday voted to certify the county’s results from the 2022 midterm election — two days after an unusual delay caused by two Republicans and one Democrat on the board.
All three Democrats on the board voted to certify the result while the board’s two Republicans, Alyssa Fusaro and James Mangan, again voted against certifying.
Speaking at a special public meeting convened in order to hold a second certification vote, Daniel Schramm, the Democratic board member who initially abstained, said that there were no concrete numbers on how many people may have had difficulties voting in the midterm elections and did not try to come back.
“If you can’t make the effort, you must come back and extend your right that you want. It can’t be just — snap your fingers saying, ‘Well, I couldn’t do it, so therefore we have to do it all over.’ No, there isn’t [sic] do-overs,” Schramm said.
“It costs too much money, way too much money. So that is one of the justifications why I’ve changed my mind because I can find no reason why it should not be certified … there was no close calls on the race. People won by hundreds of votes, not two or three,” he said.
Before the vote at Wednesday’s meeting, area residents were able to give comment in person, by phone or via videoconference.
Many spoke out against certifying the results, citing issues with paper ballot shortages in Luzerne County on Election Night — a a judge had issued an order extending in-person voting hours at the polls — as well as other alleged incidents where voters faced difficulties.
“This last election was a repeat of previous elections where the people’s trust has been crushed,” Greg Griffin told the board during the comment period.
Others spoke in favor of certifying the results, arguing that while there may have been issues that should be investigated, it would be costlier and worse for voters to not certify or to try to do over the election.
“I would like to see our elections run as smoothly as possible without a hitch,” Claudia Glennan said. “I think people, though, are confusing their upset in how the elections are run with what is to take place during the certification process.”
While the proceedings remained mostly civil, one commenter was asked to leave when he would not share his municipality and claimed to be under the “jurisdiction of the press.” Another commenter claimed to be serving the board with affidavits.
According to ABC affiliate WNEP, the two Republican members of the board voted at a Monday meeting against certifying the results while two Democrats voted to certify and Schramm abstained, leading to the delay.
Local paper The Times Leader reported that the board members who voted not to certify cited paper ballot issues on Election Day, and many who attended the initial public meeting spoke against certifying the results.
On Election Day in Luzerne County, numerous polling places ran out of ballot paper. In-person voting hours were extended by the court.
“We went over everything meticulously as far as the reconciliations, that’s any anomalies were pretty much explained. And it was due to the confusion at the polls because of the paper shortage,” Democratic member Audrey Serniak said at Monday’s meeting.
Schramm initially told WNEP that “I wanted more information so I could make a sure decision on that it’s right to certify it.”
WNEP later reported that Schramm said Monday, after the vote to delay, that his concerns about the election had been addressed and he was ready to vote to certify.
According to The Times Leader, County Assistant Solicitor Paula Radick said at the Monday meeting that the state or candidates could take legal action against the county for not certifying the results.
The Pennsylvania Department of State told ABC News in a statement on Monday that it had contacted Luzerne County officials “to inquire about the board’s decision and their intended next steps.”
In Pennsylvania’s key statewide races, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz received more votes in Luzerne County in the Senate race, while Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro received more votes by a slimmer margin in Luzerne County in the gubernatorial race.
Shapiro went on to win statewide, defeating Republican Doug Mastriano; Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
The delay in certifying the election results in Luzerne County comes at the same time that a county in Arizona, Cochise County, has also delayed certifying its results, prompting a lawsuit from the Arizona secretary of state.
In Cochise, two Republicans voted on Monday to delay certification over the objections over the board’s lone Democrat, who said in a statement that “the other board members accept[ed] unsubstantiated ideas and unverified claims as facts instead of relying on the Arizona State Elections Office.”
ABC News’ Tal Axelrod and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats on Wednesday elected a historic new generation of leaders.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York will succeed Nancy Pelosi as leader of the Democratic Caucus.
The 52-year-old Jeffries will be the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.
The whip will be a woman — Katherine Clark of Massachusetts — and the No. 3, Pete Aguilar of California, will become the highest-ranking Latino in Congress after rising in prominence from his perch on the high-profile Jan. 6 committee.
Elections took place behind closed doors, where members voted by secret ballot. All three ran unopposed.
In a statement following his election, Jeffries said he and his newly elected colleagues will inherit their roles from “iconic” predecessors and work with the “seriousness and solemnity” of the present political moment.
“I am particularly humbled to be accepting this honor alongside my friends and partners in leadership, incoming Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and incoming Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. Katherine represents another important crack in the glass ceiling, a trailblazer in the tradition of Speaker Pelosi,” he said. “She makes all of us feel seen and heard and will work tirelessly to support our Democratic Caucus. I have watched how Pete brings people together to get things done, rolling up his sleeves as only a former Mayor can do. Katherine, Pete and I will work closely together fighting hard for everyday Americans.”
Pelosi issued a statement congratulating her successor, as well as Clark and Aguilar.
“Congratulations to Leader-designate Hakeem Jeffries, Whip-designate Katherine Clark and Chairman-designate Pete Aguilar! Together, this new generation of leaders reflects the vibrancy and diversity of our great nation — and they will reinvigorate our Caucus with their new energy, ideas and perspective. Now, with the fullest confidence of our Members, our new Leaders are well-prepared to carry on Democrats’ fight for working families and defense of Democracy,” she said.
On the Senate floor ahead of the elections, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the “momentous” and historic nature of the newly elected leadership: the advancement of the first Black American to lead a chamber of Congress, the first Latino American to occupy a No. 3 slot.
“Hakeem Jeffries’ elevation as House Democratic Leader is a turning point in the history of the United States Congress. Never before has an African American leader – or any leader of color – held the top position for either party in either chamber,” he said.
The ushering in of new leadership follows Pelosi’s pre-Thanksgiving announcement of her intention to step away from her role after 20 years. In her remarks before declaring her decision, the 82-year-old leader said she wanted to pave a way for a “new generation” of oversight in the Democratic party.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 83, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, 82, also announced they would step aside from their leadership posts shortly after Pelosi’s declaration.
“The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” she said.
Jeffries, along with Clark, 59; and Aguilar, 43, mark a generational shift to House Democrats’ top spots.
Schumer on Wednesday sentimentally noted the changing of the guards before taking a moment to praise his fellow Brooklynite, whom he’s known for years.
“Today’s gathering is unlike anything we’ve seen before. For one, it signals the end of a magnificent era. As my dear friend Speaker Nancy Pelosi has chosen to step down from leadership. We’ll never see someone like Speaker Pelosi ever again in our lifetime. But her potential successor will be history making in its own right,” he began.
“Now I’ve known Hakeem Jeffries for a long time, since before the days he was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2006. When I first met him, I thought the same thing I thought when I first met Speaker Pelosi, here’s someone who has it all.”
The 118th Congress won’t be sworn in until January. Republicans have been projected to regain control of the House, with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy at its helm after clinching the Republican nomination for speaker in the next Congress.
Jeffries in his statement following his election noted his willingness to work with Republicans as the leader of House Democrats while continuing to fight for his party’s priorities.
“We are going to continue to put People Over Politics and fight for all our values. House Democrats will lift up working families, the middle class and those who aspire to be part of it, young people and senior citizens, veterans, the poor, the sick and the afflicted and the least, the lost and the left behind,” he said in a statement.
“We will look for common ground with Republicans whenever and wherever possible, but oppose extremism on the other side of the aisle whenever necessary.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Luzerne County Board of Elections in Pennsylvania is set to meet on Wednesday to vote again on certifying the county’s results from the 2022 midterm election — two days after an unusual delay caused by two Republicans and one Democrat on the board.
According to ABC affiliate WNEP-TV, two Republican members of the board voted at a Monday meeting against certifying the results while two Democrats voted to certify and one Democratic member abstained.
Local paper The Times Leader reported that the board members who voted not to certify cited paper ballot issues on Election Day, and many who attended the public meeting spoke against certifying the results.
On Election Day in Luzerne County, numerous polling places ran out of ballot paper, but a judge issued an order extending in-person voting hours at the polls.
“We went over everything meticulously as far as the reconciliations, that’s any anomalies were pretty much explained. And it was due to the confusion at the polls because of the paper shortage,” Democratic member Audrey Serniak said at Monday’s meeting.
The board member who abstained, Daniel Schramm, initially told WNEP that “I wanted more information so I could make a sure decision on that it’s right to certify it.”
WNEP later reported that Schramm said Monday, after the vote to delay, that his concerns about the election had been addressed and he was ready to vote to certify.
According to The Times Leader, County Assistant Solicitor Paula Radick said at the Monday meeting that the state or candidates could take legal action against the county for not certifying the results.
The Pennsylvania Department of State told ABC News in a statement on Monday that it had contacted Luzerne County officials “to inquire about the board’s decision and their intended next steps.”
In Pennsylvania’s key statewide races, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz received more votes in Luzerne County in the Senate race, while Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro received more votes by a slimmer margin in Luzerne County in the gubernatorial race.
Shapiro went on to win statewide, defeating Republican Doug Mastriano; Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
The delay in certifying the election results in Luzerne County comes at the same time that a county in Arizona, Cochise County, has also delayed certifying its results, prompting a lawsuit from the Arizona secretary of state.
In Cochise, two Republicans voted on Monday to delay certification over the objections over the board’s lone Democrat, who said in a statement that “the other board members accept[ed] unsubstantiated ideas and unverified claims as facts instead of relying on the Arizona State Elections Office.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, marking a historic win for Democrats anxious to secure the rights amid growing concern that a conservative Supreme Court majority could take them away.
The final vote was 61 to 36.
“What a great day,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said soon after passage. The bill sparked rare applause on the floor.
The Respect for Marriage Act would not require any state to issue a marriage license contrary to its laws but would mandate that states recognize lawfully granted marriages performed in other states, including same-sex and interracial unions.
The bill had been largely expected to pass after it earned essential support from 12 Republicans during a key test vote just before Thanksgiving, putting it on a glide path to President Joe Biden’s desk later this month. The bill next heads to the House, which is expected to vote on it next week — as early as Tuesday — before Biden signs it. In a statement Tuesday night, he said he would “promptly and proudly” do so.
“The United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” he said.
Codifying same-sex marriage into federal law became a top priority for Democrats in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overrule its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
In floor remarks Tuesday afternoon, Schumer celebrated the bill, which he said ensures rights of LGBTQ people won’t be “trampled.”
“In many ways, the story of America has been a difficult, but inexorable march toward greater equality. Sometimes we’ve taken steps forward, other times, unfortunately, we’ve taken disturbing steps backward, but today, after months of hard work, after many rounds of bipartisan talks, and after many doubts that we could even reach this point, wea re taking the momentous step forward for greater justice for LGBTQ Americans,” Schumer said.
Schumer and other Democrats have argued that a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in the June decision, in which he said the court “should reconsider” granting a nationwide right to gay marriage, put the rights of LGBTQ Americans in question.
For Schumer, and other senators with loved ones who are a part of the LGBTQ community, the matter is personal. Schumer’s daughter is married to her wife. On Tuesday, he appeared on the Senate floor wearing a tie that he said he wore at his daughter’s wedding.
Schumer said that after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died two years ago, his daughter was concerned her marriage could be in jeopardy. Now, two years later, and with the Congress poised to act, his daughter is expecting a child.
“I want them to raise their child with all the love and security that every child deserves,” Schumer said. “And the bill we are passing today will ensure their rights won’t be trample upon simply because they’re in a same-sex marriage.”
The original 12 Republicans from the first procedural vote stuck with their decision on Tuesday, despite pressure to reverse course from conservative groups and other lawmakers.
Those 12 were: Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Todd Young of Indiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
“I know that it’s not been easy but they’ve done the right thing,” Collins, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said Tuesday of her GOP colleagues ahead of the final vote.
Lummis, largely seen as one of the bill’s most surprising supporters, described the days since her initial yes vote as a “painful exercise in accepting admonishment and fairly brutal self soul searching.” She took pains to explain that while her personal religious beliefs preclude same-sex marriage, but said she still intends to support the bill.
“For the sake of our nation’s today and its survival, we do well by taking this step, not embracing or validating each other’s devoutly held views but by the simple act of tolerating them,” Lummis said.
GLAAD celebrated the passage, with its president and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, saying in a statement that it “sends a message of equal protection, dignity, and respect for all same-sex and interracial couples who want to share in the love and commitment of marriage.”
The Respect for Marriage Act would “require the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed,” according to a summary from the bill’s sponsors, including Congress’ first openly bisexual woman in the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., along with Collins, Portman and Tillis.
The legislation comes after months of behind the scenes coalition-building between Democrats and a group of Republican negotiators. Despite the crucial GOP support, the legislation was opposed by a large contingent of Republicans, some who have deemed it unnecessary.
“I think it’s pretty telling that Sen. Schumer puts a bill on the floor to reaffirm what is already a constitutional right of same-sex marriage, which is not under any imminent threat, and continues to ignore national security and not take up the defense authorization bill,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said earlier this month.
During the pre-Thanksgiving test vote, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell voted with the majority of his party to oppose the bill — and vote no again on Tuesday.
The House passed a similar version of this legislation earlier this year, with 47 Republicans supporting it. The Senate version includes new language to ease some GOP concerns about religious freedom.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Robert Zepeda contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next House speaker, defended former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, a week after Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago resort with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who has made antisemitic remarks.
“I don’t think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes,” McCarthy told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce after meeting with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders.
“He has no place in this Republican Party. I think President Trump came out four times and condemned him and didn’t know who he was,” McCarthy said, although there is no evidence Trump condemned Fuentes.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday went further than McCarthy, condemning Trump’s meeting with Fuentes, opening his weekly press conference by rejecting not only “antisemitism” and “white supremacy” but saying Trump’s association with the ideologies could keep him from winning a second term in the White House.
“There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy,” McConnell said, flanked by Republican Senate leadership. “And anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States.”
McCarthy is a legislative ally of Trump’s while McConnell has broken with the former president a number of times, including criticizing him over the Jan. 6 insurrection. The GOP leaders’ comments came after a number of other high-profile Republicans condemned what Trump has insisted was an impromptu meal.
Beyond Washington, Trump faced criticism from his former vice president and potential 2024 primary opponent, Mike Pence.
“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I think he should apologize,” Pence told NewsNation in an interview.
Still, Pence said, “I don’t believe Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don’t believe he’s a racist or a bigot.”
Fuentes, a white nationalist who has made racist, sexist and antisemitic comments, has been banned on all major social media platforms. Ye recently lost major business deals over his own antisemitic comments.
Trump has said he did not know who Fuentes was when Fuentes came to Mar-a-Lago, initially posting about the meeting on his social media platform on Friday, claiming he didn’t know Ye would be bringing other guests, but not mentioning Fuentes.
In later statements, he said that he only sought to meet with Ye and that the rapper brought Fuentes to the two-hour dinner without his knowledge.
“Well, I condemn this ideology. It has no place in society,” McCarthy said, when pressed by ABC’s Bruce about Trump’s lack of comment on the white nationalist Fuentes.
“The president didn’t know who he was,” McCarthy repeated. “So, he knew who Kanye West is. He didn’t know who Fuentes is.”
Asked later if it was appropriate for or Trump to meet with West, McCarthy said “the president has meetings with who he wants. I don’t think anybody, though, should have a meeting with Nick Fuentes … I think Kanye West…I don’t think we should associate with them, as well. I’m very clear in my position.”
McCarthy last week clinched the Republican nomination for speaker in the next Congress, fending off a challenge from Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs as the GOP will regain the House majority next session.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled for more than two hours with a perennial Washington pickle: how to square immigration enforcement mandates in federal law with Congress’ failure to provide sufficient funding to do the job.
The justices also took on whether states like Texas and Louisiana, suffering alleged harm from illegal immigration, can sue the government to force it to crack down.
There appeared to be no clear answers to the politically charged questions.
“‘Shall’ means ‘shall,'” Chief Justice John Roberts suggested of federal law instructing the Department of Homeland Security to “take into custody” unlawful immigrants convicted of certain crimes.
But Roberts went on to observe “it’s impossible” for the executive branch to detain and deport all 11 million immigrants eligible for removal from the U.S. “Certainly, there are cases where we’ve said ‘shall’ means ‘may,'” he added. (The government has only 6,000 interior immigration enforcement officers, according to DHS.)
At the heart of the case are Department of Homeland Security guidelines established by the Biden administration in 2021 to prioritize arrest and deportation of unlawful immigrants deemed a danger to national security or public safety over those who are otherwise non-criminals.
The administration argues it has broad discretion in how it detains and deports immigrants — consistent with an approach long taken by governments of both parties.
“It’s about prioritizing limited resources to say go after person A instead of person B,” argued Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar. “There is no reason to conclude that that’s actually going to lead to less enforcement against individuals overall.”
Texas and Louisiana, which are challenging the guidelines, allege the White House approach to deportations is an abuse of discretion that has imposed costs on state taxpayers.
“States bear many of the consequences of federal immigration decisions,” said Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone. He claims up to 80,000 “criminal aliens” are living in Texas.
“We either pay the costs through detention or through recidivism,” Stone said.
A federal district court vacated the guidelines nationwide last year, and they are not currently in effect. The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate them.
Several conservative justices were highly skeptical that the guidelines were compliant with federal law.
“We have one set of priorities established by Congress and another set by the executive branch. Isn’t that correct?” Justice Samuel Alito asked of Prelogar.
“No, that’s wrong,” she replied, “because the guidelines govern only decisions about apprehension and removal, whether to charge a non-citizen in the first place.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested the government’s abuse of immigration enforcement discretion has forced some in Congress to consider “dramatic steps” to compensate.
“What are the tools Congress has to make sure its laws are enforced in the U.S.?” Kavanaugh asked Prelogar. “I think your position is, instead of judicial review, Congress has to resort to shutting down the government or impeachment or dramatic steps if it — if some administration comes in and says we’re not going to enforce laws.”
The court’s three liberal justices were more deferential to the administration.
“Immigration policy is supposed to be the zenith of executive power,” Justice Elena Kagan told Stone. “We’re just going to be in a situation where every administration is confronted by suits, by states that can bring a policy to a dead halt by just showing a dollar’s worth of costs?”
“It’s just not enough [to do that] with a set of speculative possibilities about your costs,” she said.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was “troubled” by the practical impact of forcing DHS to detain unlawful immigrants before a decision has been made on deportation. “You can’t just indefinitely hold people,” she said, noting the months-to-years-long backlog in cases.
The justices spent significant time grappling with two potential resolutions to the case that would not involve weighing in on the merits of the guidelines themselves.
One approach could be to decide that a lower court erred in vacating the guidelines since federal immigration law explicitly limits courts’ ability to intervene. Another option could be to find that Texas and Louisiana don’t have standing to bring the case or have not shown sufficient proof of being harmed.
“What will happen here if you prevail?” Kavanaugh asked the Texas Solicitor General Stone.
“Individual officers in ICE will go back to not believing that their enforcement discretion has been restrained,” Stone replied.
The Biden administration had a starkly different answer: “It would be incredibly destabilizing on the ground,” Prelogar insisted. “Bad for the executive branch, bad for the American public, and bad for Article 3 courts.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former White House deputy chief of staff for operations and top Secret Service official Tony Ornato was expected to meet with the the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Tuesday, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
This will be the first time the committee has spoken to Ornato since White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson recounted in dramatic testimony during a committee hearing in June how Ornato told her former President Donald Trump had a physical confrontation with his Secret Service detail in the president’s vehicle on Jan. 6.
Hutchinson told the committee in live testimony Ornato told her Trump was “irate” after being told he couldn’t join his supporters at the Capitol, going so far as to try to grab the steering wheel of the SUV and lunging towards Bobby Engel, who was the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail.
Hutchinson maintains that while she was not in the SUV at the time, she heard the account from Ornato when everyone was back at the White House after his rally at the Ellipse. Hutchinson told the committee Engel was in the room as Ornato told the story, and that Ornato motioned toward his clavicles as he was talking about the purported lunge toward Engel.
“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted this story to me, he motioned toward his clavicles,” Hutchinson testified she was told.
Hutchinson said that Engel didn’t deny the story as Ornato recounted it in her presence.
The committee has wanted to question Ornato since Hutchinson’s testimony this summer, sources said, and will do so on Tuesday behind closed doors. Ornato, who has since retired, could deny Trump lunged at the wheel, sources said.
The committee has been interviewing Secret Service officials over the past few weeks, according to sources. While officials may not be corroborating the lunge at the steering wheel, the agents the committee has interviewed have confirmed the main point — that Trump was irate and wanted to go to the Capitol.
Ornato’s interview is scheduled a day after the panel questioned Kellyanne Conway, a former senior adviser to Trump.
The New York Times was first to report on Ornato’s expected testimony.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican officials in two counties in Arizona and Pennsylvania declined on Monday to certify their midterm election results, with some citing concerns about the integrity of the voting system that have become commonplace among conservatives.
Republicans on the election boards of Cochise County in Arizona and Luzerne County in Pennsylvania voted against motions to certify the election results there.
Though Cochise County residents voted for GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters, both candidates ultimately lost their statewide races.
Luzerne County residents voted for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro and GOP Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, with Shapiro ultimately winning his bid and Oz falling short statewide.
Monday’s vote in Cochise could risk the certification of more than 47,000 votes and exposes the county to lawsuits.
At Monday’s meeting, Supervisor Tom Crosby proposed leaving the certification tabled until Friday, a motion that fellow Supervisor Peggy Judd seconded.
“This meeting agenda should have provided for interaction between subject matter experts on voter machines and representatives of the secretary of state’s office,” he said.
Ann English, the board’s chair and a Democrat, disagreed, insisting there was “no reason for us to delay” and that “we have heard from every person more than once how they feel about the certification of machines.”
“I feel that you both have the information necessary in order to make this decision that’s nondiscretionary on our part to certify the election for Cochise County, no matter how you feel about what happened in Maricopa or Pima or Mohave or Apache. We’re here to talk about Cochise County and our election,” she said.
In a follow-up statement to ABC News, English said that she believes “it was unlawful for the Board to not certify the election as stated in the statutes.”
“It is especially troubling to me when the other board members accept unsubstantiated ideas and unverified claims as facts instead of relying on the Arizona State Elections Office who told us the machines had been certified,” she said. “Cochise County had an election without problems and our machine count and hand count matched 100%. We had no problems and all these claims are just grandstanding.”
Arizona emerged as an epicenter of election misconduct claims in the midterm cycle, with Republican candidates seizing on printer issues in Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and about 60% of Arizona’s population. Local officials have insisted that the issues did not prevent any voters’ ballot from being counted, though Lake has continued to claim the issues cost her support.
Maricopa County officials unanimously voted on Monday to certify their county’s results.
Neither Crosby nor Judd immediately responded to requests for comment regarding their votes.
In Luzerne County, two Republican members of the elections board voted against certifying the midterm results, two Democrats voted to certify and one Democratic member abstained.
Luzerne County faced a paper ballot shortage on Election Day, but voting hours were extended to ensure that all ballots could be cast.
The Luzerne County manager announced plans to resign the day after the election.
“There have been enough irregularities and enough discrepancies and enough disenfranchisement of disenfranchised voters in this county that I don’t understand how we could possibly proceed without seriously considering a re-vote,” Board of Elections Vice Chair James Magna, a Republican, said, according to ABC affiliate WNEP-TV.
“We went over everything meticulously as far as the reconciliations, that’s any anomalies were pretty much explained. And it was due to the confusion at the polls because of the paper shortage,” added Democratic member Audrey Serniak.
Daniel Schramm, the Democrat who abstained, said, “My feeling is I needed a little more information.”
It is unclear how the county will proceed, though the state could get involved. The Pennsylvania Department of State told ABC News in a statement that it has contacted Luzerne County officials “to inquire about the board’s decision and their intended next steps.”
Schramm said later Monday that he will next vote to certify the results after he got answers to his specific questions, according to WNEP.
It is traditionally rare for a county to decline to certify elections, though speculation had bubbled prior to the midterms that local Republican officials could push to do so as the belief of widespread voter fraud and election malpractice grows within the GOP, spurred on by former President Donald Trump’s baseless attacks on the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.
The issues are not anticipated to stop any election victors from being seated, though the moves do open the counties up to litigation, with prominent attorney Marc Elias warning of upcoming lawsuits.
On Monday, his firm said in a statement that they had filed suit against the Cochise County Board of Supervisors.
Officials with the Arizona secretary of state’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — Early voting in Georgia’s Senate runoff race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican opponent Herschel Walker opened statewide to all registered voters on Monday, following record-breaking turnout this weekend in the 34 counties that offered early voting on Saturday or Sunday.
Voting locations for the Dec. 6 runoff are now open in all 159 of the state’s counties through Friday, with more than 181,000 Georgians having cast their ballots either in-person or absentee through Sunday, according to state election data.
Of those, more than 166,000 people have voted early in person.
Black Georgians are outpacing other demographic groups, according to the data, with 46.3% of the total turnout as of Sunday. That is 8 points above white voters’ share of total turnout so far, though white people make up nearly double the share of the overall state population.
Among various age groups, the highest turnout through Sunday was for 55-60-year-olds followed very closely by 60-65, 50-55, 65-70 and 18-24-year-olds.
While total numbers weren’t yet available for Monday, as voting continues, state officials said the daily turnout was on track to grow even higher — an indication that local interest in the race has not waned.
“This could be the biggest early voting day ever in Georgia election history,” interim Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling wrote in a tweet on Monday.
“Turnout so far is blowing doors … This is outpacing the turnout from the last day of early voting in the General Election,” he wrote in another tweet on Monday.
After Georgia saw unprecedented early voting ahead of the 2022 midterms earlier this month, Sunday’s turnout was 130% higher than the previous Sunday record of 37,785, set on Oct. 25, 2020, according to Sterling.
Early voting for the runoff began last Tuesday, though only in some counties, including those around Atlanta, where a majority of the state’s residents live.
Counties had not initially offered Saturday voting either, after the secretary of state’s office issued guidance that it conflicted with a law preventing voting within two days of a holiday like Thanksgiving last Thursday.
But Warnock and Democrats sued and a county judge ruled that Saturday voting was allowed. The state’s higher courts declined to reverse that decision when Republicans appealed.
In the wake of the court ruling, the state’s largest counties opened for Saturday early voting. Some other parts of the state, however, didn’t begin early voting until Monday.
Long wait times are not deterring voters
With tens of thousands of voters taking advantage of the additional voting opportunities, some lines at polling places stretched for hours over the weekend.
The secretary of state’s office sent a memo on Monday that highlighted short wait times statewide but warned of “longer wait times on higher turnout days such as the first day of Early Voting and the last few days of Early Voting” in the metro Atlanta area that includes Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, which so far encompass about 63% of the total early vote.
Wait times are often shorter at other locations in counties that offer several early voting spots, the office advised.
Despite questions about potential voter apathy in the runoff — when turnout is historically lower and there is less time for the media and candidates’ campaigns to inform voters — some residents told ABC News they were eager to cast another ballot.
The Dec. 6 Senate runoff will be the third in just two years and the sixth overall Senate race in the state since November 2020.
“I will go out as many times as I need to go out,” said Manuel Rodriguez, who waited for almost an hour before he was able to vote in Fulton County. “It makes me feel that I’m part of something, that I’m contributing to the society that I want to live in and to the country that I love.”
Warnock, Walker back on the trail
Warnock, a noted Atlanta reverend, was one of those Georgians taking advantage of weekend voting, casting his ballot on Sunday alongside faith and community leaders after waiting in line for about an hour in Fulton County, the fifth time he has voted for himself in just two years following two general elections and two ensuing runoff elections, along with primary challenges.
In the final days of the race, he has largely campaigned on the concept of character — contrasting his background with that of Walker, a businessman and local football legend with a controversial past. Before Warnock walked to cast his ballot, he hosted a “Souls to the Polls” rally.
“This is an important election. And it’s really about competence and character. That’s what this is about who’s ready and who’s fit to serve in the United States Senate. I’m proud of my record,” he said on Sunday.
He also continues to soar in fundraising, outpacing his Republican opponent by more than double.
Though the runoff won’t determine control of the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats have cautioned voters not to underestimate the consequences of December’s election.
Democrats have emphasized a 51-seat majority would create an easier pathway to accomplishing their legislative priorities. In contrast, Republicans have highlighted how a power-sharing agreement across the aisle works to their advantage, pointing to the ways in which a split chamber has allowed them to block Democratic legislation.
Warnock’s campaign announced this week that they were investing more than $1 million for an “out of home” advertising campaign. The campaign includes billboards in high-traffic areas, mobile signs deployed across the state, planes that tow messages above metro Atlanta, posters at college campuses and ads at transit stops.
Walker was publicly absent on the trail from last Tuesday through the Thanksgiving holiday, making his first appearance during a campaign stop on Monday. He drew his own contrast with Warnock.
“You either stand up or you get out, because too many people have sacrificed. Too many people have died for us to have the freedoms and liberties that we have today to have these people to disrespect what we got going on,” he said at a campaign stop in Toccoa on Monday.
“Raphael Warnock is just another hypocritical Washington politician,” said campaign spokesman Will Kiley. “Warnock says character counts but refuses to take a look in the mirror.”
