Closing summary
Senate Democrats feuded with their Republican counterparts over the practice of “judge shopping”, which critics say a conservative group used to get their challenge to abortion medication mifepristone before the supreme court – though the justices sounded skeptical. In a letter sent today to the body overseeing federal courts, Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer and eight colleagues urged them to stand firm against Republican attacks on a new policy to cut down on the practice. But there is one thing the top lawmakers in Congress agree on: Russia’s imperative to free jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested one year ago today. Joe Biden joined the calls for his release, while the Journal made a renewed push to raise public awareness of his plight.
Here’s what else happened:
Biden raised big bucks at a fundraiser in New York City last night, but faced familiar disruptions from pro-Palestine protesters.
Donald Trump also has plans to rake in money, with an event scheduled for next week in Florida.
The Biden administration has reportedly approved another shipment of weapons to Israel despite growing protests over the death toll in Gaza.
A proposal to free jailed Americans, Gershkovich included, and Alexei Navalny fell apart after the Russian dissident’s death last month, the Journal reports.
Trump and eight co-defendants reportedly appealed a judge’s ruling allowing Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the Georgia election subversion case.
This year’s presidential election is set to be like no other, because one of the two major candidates is facing criminal charges in two states and at the federal level.
But whether any of Donald Trump’s cases will be resolved before election day remains a major unanswered question. One of the indictments got its trial date set this week, but the rest are mired in pre-trial motions. Have a look at our explainer for an idea of where things stand:
Trump, co-defendants appeal ruling allowing Fani Willis to prosecute Georgia election subversion case – report
Donald Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the Georgia election subversion case have appealed a judge’s ruling allowing Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
Breaking: Trump and eight other defendants in the Fulton election interference case appeal ruling that allowed DA Fani Willis to stay on case.
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) March 29, 2024
They argue, among other things, that Judge McAfee erred when he determined Willis didn't have a personal stake in the case
The appeal isn't a surprise -- defendants had asked McAfee for permission to appeal, which he granted earlier this month.
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) March 29, 2024
It's not up to the Georgia Court of Appeals to decide whether to take up the appeal https://t.co/NIn7yUGXmk
Earlier this month, the group argued that Willis should be removed from the case because she had a conflict of interest in hiring as a special counsel Nathan Wade, who she had had a romantic relationship with.
Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could stay as prosecutor, but only if Wade quit, which he did. However, McAfee also allowed Trump and the others to appeal his ruling, which they have now done.
Needless to say, the appeal could further delay the trial of one of the four criminal indictments Trump is facing, potentially leaving it to be settled after the November presidential election. Here’s more on that:
Updated
The Biden administration’s decision to supply Israel with more weapons comes as the state department said famine conditions “quite possibly” are present in parts of northern Gaza. Here’s more about that, from the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont:
Famine is already probably present in at least some areas of northern Gaza, while other areas are in danger of falling into conditions of starvation, the US state department said on Friday a day after the world’s top court ordered Israel to admit food aid into the territory.
“While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and centre but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas,” a state department official told Reuters.
The US comments add to a growing and powerful consensus that Israel’s military offensive in the Palestinian coastal territory has triggered a famine.
The number of trucks distributing aid in south and central Gaza had nearly reached 200 a day, an increase on a month ago, but more were needed, the state department official said.
“You need to address the full nutrition needs of the population of Gaza of all ages. That means more than just that minimal survival level feeding,” the official said, adding that malnutrition, and infant and young-child mortality was a significant, growing problem.
“It has to be addressed by additional assistance coming and the right kind of assistance coming in,” he said.
Biden administration approves another shipment of bombs, military jets to Israel despite concerns over death toll – report
Joe Biden signed off on another transfer to Israel of military jets and bombs, including 2,000-pound munitions linked to devastating strikes in Gaza, despite growing concerns among Democrats of the civilian toll in the country’s campaign against Hamas, the Washington Post reports.
The Biden administration has repeatedly sent arms to Israel following Hamas’s 7 October attack, and continues to press Congress to approve legislation authorizing $14bn in military aid. The support has sparked a backlash towards the president from protesters concerned over the death toll in Gaza, where 32,000 people have died following Israel’s invasion.
Here’s more on the weapons transfer, from the Post:
The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000 pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.
The development underscores that while rifts have emerged between the United States and Israel over the war’s conduct, the Biden administration views weapons transfers as off-limits when considering how to influence the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We have continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself,” said a White House official. “Conditioning aid has not been our policy.”
Some Democrats, including allies of President Biden, say the U.S. government has a responsibility to withhold weapons in the absence of an Israeli commitment to limit civilian casualties during a planned operation in Rafah, a final Hamas stronghold, and ease restrictions on humanitarian aid into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine.
“The Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in an interview. “We need to back up what we say with what we do.”
The Israeli government declined to comment on the authorizations.
Updated
Georgia state legislators have changed laws that will make it easier to challenge a voter’s registration.
The Guardian’s George Chidi reports:
Georgia legislators changed state election laws in the midnight hours of Friday, widening the criteria to challenge a voter’s registration, removing bar codes from printed ballots and increasing the documentation local elections officials must produce to certify elections.
The proposals will take effect 1 July, assuming the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, signs the legislation into law.
Voting rights groups expressed their highest concern about how Senate Bill 189 potentially expands challenges to voter registrations. Conservative advocates have been issuing large-scale systematic challenges to voters – dozens or hundreds at a time in some districts, like Atlanta’s Fulton and DeKalb counties.
Each challenge under existing law has to be considered on its individual merits under current law, which can exhaust the resources of local election officials, voting rights advocates argue.
For the full story, click here:
Joe Biden to visit Baltimore following bridge collapse
Joe Biden said on Friday that he will visit Baltimore next week, Reuters reports.
Biden’s expected visit follows the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this week after the Singaporean-flagged cargo ship Dali crashed into it.
Six men, who were filling potholes on the bridge, are presumed dead. The bodies of two of the men who were trapped in their vehicle were recovered from the Patapsco River on Wednesday.
The authorities identified the men as Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, a 35-year-old originally from Mexico who was living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and was living in Dundalk, Maryland.
Updated
Democratic National Committee rapid response director Alex Floyd issued the following statement on Friday in response to Michael Whatley’s appointment as the new chair of the Republican National Committee:
Donald Trump hand picked Michael Whatley to take over the RNC because he parroted Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election, and Whatley is returning the favor by making election denialism a key litmus test to join the GOP.
Putting an election denying extremist like Whatley in charge of the RNC makes it clear that the future of our democracy is on the ballot in this election – and the American people will once again reject Trump and his MAGA allies this November.
Updated
The day so far
Senate Democrats are feuding with their Republican counterparts over the practice of “judge shopping”, which critics say a conservative group used to get their challenge to abortion medication mifepristone before the supreme court, which nonetheless sounded skeptical. In a letter sent today to the body overseeing federal courts, Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer and eight colleagues urged them to stand firm against Republican attacks on a new policy to cut down on the practice. But there is one thing the top lawmakers in Congress agree on: Russia’s imperative to free jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested one year ago today. Joe Biden joined the call for his release, while the Journal made a renewed push to raise public awareness of his plight.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Biden raised big bucks at a fundraiser in New York City last night, but faced familiar disruptions from pro-Palestine protesters.
Donald Trump also has plans to rake in money with an event scheduled for next week in Florida.
A proposal to free jailed Americans, Gershkovich included, and Alexei Navalny fell apart after the Russian dissident’s death last month, the Journal reports.
Updated
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell squabbles with Democrats over 'restoring trust' in federal judges
The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, is not happy with Democrats or the Judicial Conference for the attempt to limit “judge shopping”.
McConnell has been transformative when it comes to the federal courts. As Senate leader in 2016, he famously blocked Barack Obama from filling a supreme court vacancy, giving Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint three justices – all of whom have generally signed on to conservative decisions, including the overturning of Roe v Wade.
The Judicial Conference’s new rule does not specifically deal with the supreme court, but rather the path that lawsuits take to get there. But in a floor speech earlier this month, before the Senate departed for its ongoing recess, McConnell criticized Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer for supporting the new policy.
“Democrats are salivating at the possibility of shutting down access to justice in the venues favored by conservatives,” he said. McConnell went on:
If Republicans see a federal judiciary that is using its procedural independence to wade into political disputes, any incentive we may have to defend that procedural independence will vanish, as well.
This was an unforced error by the Judicial Conference. I hope they will reconsider. And I hope district courts throughout the country will instead weigh what is best for their jurisdictions, not half-baked “guidance” that just does Washington Democrats’ bidding.
While Democrats are upset over how a conservative group used “judge shopping” to pursue a lawsuit against abortion medication mifepristone, the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports that most supreme court justices did not appear ready to decide the case in their favor during arguments earlier this week:
The supreme court on Tuesday seemed skeptical of arguments made by anti-abortion doctors asking it to roll back the availability of mifepristone, a drug typically used in US medication abortion. The arguments were part of the first major abortion case to reach the justices since a 6-3 majority ruled in 2022 to overturn Roe v Wade and end the national right to abortion.
The rightwing groups that brought the case argued that the justices should roll back measures taken since 2016 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the drug’s availability. A decision in the anti-abortion doctors’ favor would apply nationwide, including in states that protect abortion access, and would probably make the drug more difficult to acquire.
Medication abortion now accounts for almost two-thirds of abortions performed in the US.
Much of Tuesday’s arguments focused on whether the anti-abortion doctors who sued the FDA, a coalition known as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, have standing, or the right to bring the case in the first place. The doctors claim they will suffer harm if they have to treat women who experience complications from mifepristone, an argument the Biden administration, which appealed the case to the court, has rejected as too speculative.
Senate Democrats demand end to rightwing 'judge shopping'
Senate Democrats including majority leader Chuck Schumer have today called for the federal courts’ policymaking body to stand firm against conservative attacks on its new rule intended to curb the practice of “judge shopping”.
The term is a reference to the practice of litigants suing over government policies in certain jurisdictions where federal judges may be sympathetic to their cause. An example of this may be seen in the lawsuit by a conservative group attempting to remove the abortion medication mifepristone from pharmacies, which was first filed before a Donald Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas who previously worked for a rightwing Christian law firm.
Earlier this month, the Judicial Conference of the United States announced a new policy that “addresses all civil actions that seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions, ‘whether by declaratory judgment and/or any form of injunctive relief.’ In such cases, judges would be assigned through a district-wide random selection process.”
The policy drew attacks from Republicans including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who described it as “half-baked”.
In a letter sent today to the Judicial Conference’s secretary, Schumer and eight other Democratic senators specifically singled out the mifepristone case, and wrote:
This judge-shopping tactic is more pernicious than it might appear. Even though there are only a few courts subject to this issue, single district judges can issue rulings that thwart congressional statutes and stymie agency actions on a nationwide basis. That means certain plaintiffs are motivated to file their cases in divisions where they know the judge hearing the case is aligned with their goals.
…
The anti-democratic practice of judge shopping erodes the rule of law and the public’s trust in the judiciary. Your new policy rebalances our court system and will help to restore Americans’ confidence in judicial rulings. We encourage you to defend it as courts across the country implement it.
Updated
Joe Biden may have had a big night of fundraising in New York yesterday, but Donald Trump is looking to outdo him next week, the Guardian’s Joanna Walters and Martin Pengelly report:
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are in a new phase of a heavyweight fundraising smackdown as the US president raised a record $25m at a glitzy event with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton on Thursday night, while Trump’s Republican campaign claimed it would outdo Biden next week with a $33m event in Florida, according to reports.
Biden and his Democratic predecessor headlined a star-studded fundraiser with Clinton at the Radio City Music Hall event, hosted by Mindy Kaling and featuring Lizzo, Queen Latifah and Stephen Colbert.
Obama and Biden flew to the city on Air Force One together in a show of unity and Democratic campaign heft as the 2024 election enters an important phase between the main primary season and the summer nominating conventions, which are expected to anoint Biden and Trump as their parties’ candidates.
The glittering Democratic fundraiser was punctuated by protests not just outside but also inside the auditorium, as attendees rose at several different moments to shout over the discussion, referencing Biden’s backing of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Shame on you, Joe Biden,” one yelled, according to Reuters.
Why did Russia arrest Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and what might they want in return for his release? The Guardian’s Julian Borger looks into the question, one year into the American journalist’s detention:
Friday marks the grim first anniversary of the day when masked Russian officers grabbed Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg where he was waiting to eat on a reporting trip.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has not seen a day of freedom since. He has been held in the infamous Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow, where the Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once detained.
A half century later, Gershkovich is there on the grounds of spying charges that are entirely unsupported by evidence. Despite that glaring absence, a Moscow court held a closed hearing this week to grant the Federal Security Service (FSB) approval to hold the journalist another three months.
Here’s more of what we know about Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention in Russia, one year on:
Joe Biden on Friday said the US was working every day to secure the release of Evan Gershkovich on the first anniversary of the 32-year-old Wall Street journalist’s detention in Russia on charges of spying that he and the US government vehemently reject.
“Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter – risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement on Friday.
Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and he became the first American reporter to be detained in Russia accused of espionage since the cold war.
The Wall Street Journal, the New York-based, Murdoch-owned daily financial and news publication, published a dramatic front page on Friday, posting an image on X, formerly Twitter, featuring a large blank space under the headline “His story should be here”. Next to the stark space are articles about what the reporter has lost in the last year and a piece titled “Authoritarians Threaten Journalists Around Globe”.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleges Gershkovich was acting on US orders to collect state secrets – but provided no evidence to support the accusation, which he, the Journal and the US government deny. Washington has designated him as wrongfully detained and US officials are engaged on several fronts in efforts to free the reporter.
The last major prisoner swap the United States agreed to with Russia won the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in December 2022.
The US, in turn, sent to Russia jailed arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has since joined an ultranationalist party. Griner, meanwhile, is back on the court, playing for the Phoenix Mercury.
For more on how Griner’s release came about, and what we could expect from any exchange that frees Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, here’s our coverage:
Updated
During an Oval Office meeting with Olaf Scholz last month, Joe Biden proposed to the German chancellor that he authorize the release of a Russian hitman serving life in prison for murder, in hopes of coaxing Vladimir Putin to release three high-profile prisoners.
These included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, ex-Marine Paul Whelan and prominent Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
But as the Journal reports, the proposal went nowhere because Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony a week later. Now, it’s not clear what Putin wants in order to secure the release of the detained Americans.
Here’s more on the story, from the Journal:
It was the most shocking of a series of setbacks in secret prisoner talks between Washington and Moscow that have now bedeviled two U.S. presidencies.
America once had only one prisoner it considered wrongfully jailed in Russia, the 54-year-old Whelan. But through nearly six years of intense and combative negotiations, Putin has run up the score, stockpiling his prisons with Americans to swap for the very few Russians abroad he cares to bring back.
Both Presidents Biden and Trump found themselves facing the crude asymmetry between the U.S. and Russia, whose leader of a quarter-century can order foreigners plucked from their hotel rooms and sentenced to decades on spurious charges.
Putin, whom Biden called “a butcher,” hasn’t been a normal negotiating partner. After news of Navalny’s sudden death interrupted an annual lunch among chiefs of the leading Western security agencies, several attendees immediately wondered if the Russian ruler had ordered a hit. Weeks later, the U.S. hasn’t offered a public assessment of how he died, while Russia has cited only “natural causes.”
At the same time, America has been an easy mark, polarized by its culture wars and susceptible to the power of celebrity-driven campaigns that leveled a degree of pressure on the White House never felt by the Kremlin.
Biden condemns Evan Gershkovich's 'wrongful detention' in Russia on anniversary of arrest
Joe Biden has joined in on calling for Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested one year ago today.
“Today we mark a painful anniversary: one year of American journalist Evan Gershkovich’s wrongful detention in Russia,” the president said in a statement.
Here’s more:
Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter — risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine. Shortly after his wholly unjust and illegal detention, he drafted a letter to his family from prison, writing: “I am not losing hope.”
As I have told Evan’s parents, I will never give up hope either. We will continue working every day to secure his release. We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips. And we will continue to stand strong against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists — the pillars of free society.
To Evan, to Paul Whelan, and to all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad: We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring you home.
Updated
To remind readers of Russia’s continued detention of their reporter Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal has left their front page today largely blank:
“His Story Should Be Here”
— WSJ Communications (@WSJPR) March 29, 2024
Today’s front page of The Wall Street Journal.
One year stolen. We will not rest until Evan Gershkovich is free.#IStandWithEvan pic.twitter.com/SVsezqwzS7
And sent users of their mobile app a push alert to where his journalism should be:
#IStandWithEvan pic.twitter.com/QoE8jBRIKD
— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) March 29, 2024
Congressional leaders demand Russia release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich
In a rare joint statement, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives have condemned Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and called for his release.
“Evan Gershkovich, an American citizen and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has now spent a year wrongfully detained by Putin’s government. We continue to condemn his baseless arrest, fabricated charges, and unjust imprisonment,” reads the statement from Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.
They continue:
Forty-five years ago, Evan’s parents, Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich, found refuge in the United States after fleeing the Soviet Union. Today, Putin is restoring Soviet-style control through repression at home and aggression abroad.
On the anniversary of Evan Gershkovich’s captivity, we reaffirm the importance of his work. Journalism is not a crime, and reporters are not bargaining chips. The Kremlin’s attempts to silence Evan and intimidate other Western reporters will not impede the pursuit of truth.
We repeat our call for the Russian government to release Evan, Paul Whelan, and others it has wrongfully detained without further delay.
Where Joe Biden goes, pro-Palestine protesters follow.
This has been increasingly the case after the Biden administration gave its (perhaps waning) support to Israel following its invasion of Gaza. During his fundraiser at New York’s Radio City Music Hall last night, Biden was interrupted five times by protesters, while more gathered outside:
Biden claimed many Republican lawmakers aren't with Trump, argued old age brings 'wisdom'
Sitting next to his former boss Barack Obama and Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton, Joe Biden talked about lots last night in a conversation moderated by comedian Stephen Colbert.
That included politically perilous topics such as his advanced age. At 81, he is the oldest president to have ever served, and polls indicate that voters are concerned about his fitness for the job.
Reverting to the carefree tone he took when discussing the subject at his State of the Union address earlier this month, Biden said, “one thing age does bring is a little bit of wisdom. And I know I don’t look much over forty, I know that.”
He also floated the theory that many Republicans don’t actually want to support the policies that his rival Donald Trump plans to put before them. “The thing that disturbs me most is I don’t know what it is that my predecessor has on these guys. Why they’re not stepping up more like Liz Cheney and others because, I know, I know that they don’t like a lot of what’s going on,” Biden said, accusing Trump of wanting to cut Social Security and tighten abortion access nationwide.
“This last guy that I ran against, and am running against again this time … his ideas are from the 18th, 19th century,” he said.
Updated
Biden needles Trump, faces protesters at New York fundraiser that netted campaign more than $26m
Good morning, US politics blog reader. Joe Biden went to New York City yesterday on a mission: raise a massive amount of money for his presidential campaign in a city that’s long been fertile territory for Democrats. The president accomplished his mission last night at Radio City Music Hall, bringing in what his campaign said was more than $26m in a moderated conversation alongside Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, where Biden said Donald Trump’s ideas “are from the 18th, 19th century”. The president aims to continue raking it in today, spending the morning holding another fundraiser in the city, before flying back to Washington DC. But as has happened repeatedly in recent months, Biden was interrupted during the event by protesters opposed to his support for Israel. Despite the fact that the Biden administration allowed passage earlier this week of a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and one of his top allies in Congress has broken with its government, the disruptions were a sign that he may have a ways to go in winning back voters disaffected over his policy towards what America considers its top Middle East ally.
Here’s what else we are watching today:
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. In a statement, Biden decried his “wholly unjust and illegal detention”.
Trump announced he would make a speech about “Biden’s Border Bloodbath” next Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where a man in the US illegally has been accused of murder, MLive reports.
Congress is out, meaning no progress is expected on thorny issues such as border security legislation, or aid to Israel and Ukraine.
