Raskin passes on Senate bid

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) officially passed Friday on a bid for a Senate seat in deep-blue Maryland.

The Maryland lawmaker has become a powerful entity in the House, rocketing to national fame as the lead manager of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment and as a member of the Jan. 6 select committee. He’s now the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee.

Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-Md.) retirement announcement in May immediately fueled speculation that Raskin would run. But he delayed his decision after a recent bout with cancer that is now in remission and has cited his work on the Oversight panel as a top reason to stay in the House.

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Appeals court upholds but narrows sex-trafficking statute

A federal appeals court has upheld key portions of a federal law Congress passed to combat sex trafficking online, but the court rejected broad readings of the statute that critics warned could intrude on First Amendment-protected speech.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that language in the 2018 Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act — better known as FOSTA — is not unconstitutionally vague and doesn’t violate free-speech rights.

However, the court said it would interpret the threat of criminal punishment for the use of computer services in a manner “facilitating” or “assisting” prostitution to apply as longer-standing statutes traditionally do, to people “aiding and abetting” such crimes.

“We therefore hold that [FOSTA’s] mental state requirement does not reach the intent to engage in general advocacy about prostitution, or to give advice to sex workers generally to protect them from abuse,” Judge Patricia Millett wrote, joined by Judges Harry Edwards and Justin Walker. “Nor would it cover the intent to preserve for historical purposes webpages that discuss prostitution. Instead, it reaches a person’s intent to aid or abet the prostitution of another person.”

Millett conceded that the language could be seen as encompassing all sorts of conduct that arguably promotes or encourages prostitution. But she said the more limited reading was justified in this instance.

“Undoubtedly, the term ‘facilitate’ could be read more broadly,” the judge wrote. “But nothing in [FOSTA] compels us to read ‘facilitate’ that way. Doubly so when a more expansive reading could raise grave constitutional concerns.”

Advocates for legalizing prostitution, the operators of the Internet Archive website, Human Rights Watch and a massage therapist who said he lost business when Craigslist pulled many categories of ads after passage of FOSTA in 2018 sued to block enforcement of the law.

In the arguments at the D.C. Circuit earlier this year, the Justice Department urged a narrow construction of the law in order to avoid a ruling that the statute is unconstitutional.

During the arguments, Millett and Edwards seemed to view the law as constitutionally flawed, particularly its reference to conduct promoting prostitution.

However, a 7-2 Supreme Court decision last month narrowing a similar law against promoting illegal immigration may have prompted the D.C. Circuit judges to reassess their positions. Millett’s 34-page opinion makes nine references to the high court’s ruling two weeks ago in U.S. v. Hansen.

A First Amendment lawyer who argued the case against FOSTA, Robert Corn-Revere, said Friday he was disappointed in the decision. However, he welcomed the appeals court’s strong signal that the law should not be used to discourage various advocacy and other activities not linked to specific acts of prostitution.

“It’s not a bad thing that they did say applying a broad interpretation of the law would raise grave constitutional concerns and as a result construed it really rather narrowly,” said Corn-Revere, who recently became general counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “I think the court cleaned up after Congress and made the statute more precise than the original drafters may have intended.”

Corn-Revere said the Supreme Court’s ruling in the immigration case “obviously influenced” the D.C. Circuit's opinion. A separate high court decision limiting social media firms’ liability in terrorism-related civil lawsuits is likely to further constrain the use of FOSTA, he said.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Friday.

It’s unclear whether the D.C. Circuit ruling will provide any benefit to several founders and employees of the former classified-ad website Backpage fighting criminal sex-trafficking charges in Arizona. Their defense lawyers say the Justice Department has taken an inconsistent position there, arguing that the defendants could in fact be found guilty in the criminal prosecution based on evidence that did not meet the threshold of aiding and abetting. The judge handling that case turned down those arguments last month.

The first trial in the Backpage case ended with an abrupt mistrial two years ago. A new trial is set to open Aug. 8 in Phoenix.

Backpage, which grew out of the Village Voice newspaper’s classified section and eventually grew to be far more profitable than the remainder of the enterprise, shut down in 2018 after the Justice Department accused the company of being a front for prostitution and obtained court orders seizing the firm’s assets.

Millett, the author of the court’s opinion Friday, was appointed by President Barack Obama. Edwards is an appointee of President Jimmy Carter. Walker was appointed by President Donald Trump.

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Trump attacks DeSantis in Iowa over ethanol stance

Donald Trump criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for opposing a federal program supporting the ethanol industry, but the tactic could open up the former president's mixed record on biofuels to scrutiny.

Trump in a campaign speech from Council Bluffs, Iowa, said Friday the state "needs to know" that DeSantis, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, "totally despises" ethanol and has been fighting it "for years."

"Don't forget, he was a congressman, and he was voting against it and fighting for years to kill every single job supported by this very important industry,” Trump said. "Ending the Renewable Fuel Standard was one of his top priorities as a member of Congress. He wanted to end it. And if he had his way, the entire economy of Iowa would absolutely collapse."

The remarks seek to tie DeSantis to his previous support of efforts to eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refiners to blend a minimum volume of renewable fuel into the nation's transportation fuel each year.

It's a reoccurring political playbook in the influential corn state — one that resurfaced between Trump and President Joe Biden on the campaign trail in 2020 and emerged with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucus in 2016.

“I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history and ethanol, period, like no president,” Trump said Friday.

The remarks put a microscope on Trump's own record during his time in the Oval Office. Trump earned praise from biofuels advocates over his move to extend the year-round sale of fuel blends with 15 percent ethanol, known as E15, which he highlighted in remarks Friday, although the effort was eventually struck down by a federal appeals court. 

Despite several meetings on the issue, Trump left the White House without crafting a deal on politically fraught decisions on biofuels policy.

"Now [DeSantis] is going to come on here and probably say, 'I'm actually quite in favor of ethanol. I think it's wonderful,'" Trump said. "One thing about a politician, ... when they have their initial thoughts, that's what they go back to."

DeSantis' press secretary Bryan Griffin said the former president's remarks Friday aren't the first and likely won't be the last "distorting" the governor's record, but said DeSantis is the candidate who shares Iowans' values.

"As president, Ron DeSantis will be a champion for farmers and use every tool available to open new markets," Griffin said in a statement.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said DeSantis’ previous attempts to undo the Renewable Fuel Standard are not an automatic disqualifier in the state, where ethanol policy is often seen as a “differentiator” during the GOP primary caucuses. Iowa voters have “open minds” — as evidenced by Cruz’s success in the campaign despite his opposition to the ethanol mandate, which was "nuanced," Shaw said.

“I don't find a lot of Iowans that care what a then-congressman did 10 years ago representing a district in another state,” he said, adding voters are more interested to hear about his national energy policy now.

He noted DeSantis has taken steps Iowa farmers could appreciate, pointing to his recent veto of a bill that would be “a de facto mandate” for electric vehicles.

The former president launched a “Farmers for Trump” coalition Friday in a statement that touted his support of access to new markets for ethanol and promised to reverse “the disastrous policies” of the Biden administration on Day 1. He told the crowd in long-running remarks that he would cancel every Biden policy "brutalizing" farmers — adding Biden is trying to "kill" Iowa ethanol and replace it with electric cars.

Trump also promised to allow export of ethanol across the globe.

“President Trump has proven himself to be the most pro-farmer president in our nation’s history,” said Iowa state Rep. Mike Sexton in a statement accompanying the launch of Farmers for Trump, which Sexton co-chairs.

But during his time in the Oval Office, Trump EPA’s actions on setting the blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard were sometimes condemned by corn state lawmakers, farmers and biofuels producers, including issuing waivers that benefitted oil refineries, furthering the divide between the oil and biofuel industries.

Ahead of his remarks, Shaw called Trump’s record on ethanol a mixed bag, with the former president's support for the expansion of tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration a positive development that prompted new multibillion-dollar projects in Iowa, but noting that his approval of the refinery exemptions slashed demand for biofuels.

“There’s a lot of ethanol supporters and farmers I talk to that definitely have mixed emotions on his track record when it comes to biofuels,” Shaw said. “There were some very good things. There were some things that caused a lot of economic hardship for our industry. So if he's going to come out and focus on renewable fuels, we'd really like him to have a clear message on looking forward, not just talking about the past.”

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Top Dems break with Biden over sending cluster bombs to Ukraine

Key Democratic lawmakers are breaking with President Joe Biden over the controversial decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine, arguing that providing the weapons, which are banned by more than 120 countries, cedes the moral high ground and will end up indiscriminately killing civilians.

Top Democrats on the House Rules Committee and the panels that fund the Pentagon and State Department lashed out in rare public statements broadcasting their break with their party’s president.

“The decision by the Biden administration to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is unnecessary and a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Mo.), the ranking member of the House’s defense appropriations subcommittee. “The legacy of cluster bombs is misery, death and expensive cleanup generations after their use.”

“These weapons should be eliminated from our stockpiles, not dumped in Ukraine,” she added.

Cluster bombs, officially called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, are designed to take out multiple military targets by scattering large numbers of small “bomblets” over a wide area. They are banned by most NATO countries because the ordnance that fails to explode can end up killing civilians, even long after conflict has ended.

The Democratic lawmakers noted that Congress has barred the transfer of any cluster munition with a “dud rate” of greater than 1 percent, though Biden can waive the rule.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday that officials will “carefully” select only the rounds with lower dud rates, for which there is recent testing, to send to Ukraine. The U.S. has large numbers of cluster bombs sitting in storage, which officials argue will help Ukraine break through dug-in Russian lines as Kyiv is rapidly running out of conventional ammunition.

Still, lawmakers joined with arms control advocates this week in saying the administration was making an unacceptable ethical trade-off that would kill civilians, alienate allies and damage the moral case to back Ukraine.

Progressive Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House panel that funds the State Department, tweeted she was “alarmed” at the move, while House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern said that while he supports helping Ukraine, sending cluster bombs represents a break with NATO allies such as the U.K., France, Germany and Spain.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday defended the administration’s decision, saying, “Russia has been using cluster munitions since the start of this war to attack Ukraine.”

“Ukraine has committed to post-conflict demining efforts to mitigate any potential harm to civilians. And this will be necessary regardless of whether the United States provides these munitions or not,” he said. 

Still, even some more hawkish Democrats ripped the administration. Air Force veteran and House Armed Services member Chrissy Houlahan, in a statement Friday, challenged the assessment that cluster bombs would be the most effective means to back Kyiv.

“I challenge the notion that we should employ the same tactics Russia is using, blurring the lines of moral high ground,” said Houlahan, who co-chairs the bipartisan Unexploded Ordinance (UXO)/Demining Caucus. “And I challenge all of us to remember that this war will end, and the broken pieces of Ukraine will need to be rebuilt. History remembers not only who wins a war but also how a war is won.”

Humanitarian and civil rights groups also criticized the decision. Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official and military adviser at PAX Protection of Civilians, a Dutch NGO, noted that the actual dud rates in the field are much higher than those recorded during tests “conducted under perfect and unrealistic conditions.”

Comments from U.S. officials defending the decision do not allay the fears of many in the community, Garlasco said, expressing skepticism about the Pentagon’s latest test data showing lower dud rates.

Arms control advocates who were on a call with administration officials on Friday said that despite claims the cluster munitions being sent would have lower dud rates, there were no details about the types and sources of the cluster munitions the U.S. plans to send.

A Defense Department official, who was granted anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement, said the Pentagon had provided test results, which are classified, to members of Congress upon request. However, the official acknowledged that variables in the field can significantly affect the dud rate.

“Shoot this in the desert, dry, flat ground, you might get a totally different result than if you shot this in a mountain jungle,” the official said.

Still, there are also powerful members of Congress who support sending cluster munitions. House Foreign Affairs Chair Mike McCaul (R-Texas), House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and their Republican counterparts in the Senate have urged the move for months. The Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee last month advanced its version of the annual Pentagon policy bill with language backing it, too.

In a statement Friday, the Republicans hailed the administration move as relieving pressure on stockpiles of unitary missiles but slammed what they called its delay in sending a range of weapons over a “misguided fear of escalation” that they say risks the success of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, has said Washington should give Kyiv what it says it needs to win the fight, including cluster munitions, longer-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets. “From moment one, my view has been: Give the Ukrainians what they want and need. Frankly I wish that the United States and the administration had moved faster on providing more weaponry,” he said on CNN earlier this week.

Progressives, some of whom called in a letter last year for the administration to ban the use of cluster munitions by the U.S. military, have been lobbying the administration to refrain from this move for months.

A House Democratic aide said he pointed to that letter multiple times with State Department officials over recent months, to wave the administration off when it seemed to be mulling cluster bombs for Ukraine.

“There are a number of progressives who are really hacked off. We thought the communication was clear,” said the aide, who was granted anonymity to discuss tensions with the executive branch. “They can’t say we weren’t emoting clear signals this was a momentous step. A 6-year-old doesn’t step on an F-16 and lose their leg.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee member Colin Allred (D-Texas) defended Biden’s decision on MSNBC on Friday morning, saying there’s “no chance” of Ukraine and its allies losing the moral high ground to Russian troops he accused of war crimes and strikes on civilian targets.

”What we're trying to do, I think, is consistent with our values, to help the brave Ukrainian resistance kick the Russians out of their territory, and I'm sure President Biden thought about this deeply, and his team, and they decided this would help them do that — and I'm sure they'll also try to have a plan to deal with any of the fallout,” Allred said.

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U.S. approves cluster bombs in latest Ukraine weapons transfer

The Biden administration on Friday approved an $800 million weapons package for Ukraine which includes controversial cluster bombs, armored vehicles and air defense missiles.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan responded to humanitarian concerns about the cluster bombs by emphasizing the need to provide Kyiv with artillery and that Ukraine has already been targeted by Russia’s cluster bombs.

“We recognize that cluster munitions created risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” Sullivan said during a White House press briefing. “This is why we deferred the decision for as long as we could, but there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery.”

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Texas gunman in Walmart shooting gets 90 consecutive life sentences but may still face death penalty

EL PASO, Texas — A white gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in a Texas border city was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences but could still face more punishment, including the death penalty.

Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the U.S. government’s largest hate crime cases.

Crusius, wearing a jumpsuit and shackles, did not speak during the hearing and showed no reaction as the verdict was read. The judge recommended that Crusius serve his sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.

Police say Crusius drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to target Hispanics with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store. Moments before the attack began, Crusius posted a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas.

In the years since the shooting, Republicans have described migrants crossing the southern U.S. border as an “invasion,” waving off critics who say the rhetoric fuels anti-immigrant views and violence.

Crusius pleaded guilty in February after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. But Texas prosecutors have said they will try to put Crusius on death row when he stands trial in state court. That trial date has not yet been set.

As he was led from the courtroom, a family member of one of the victims shouted at Crusius from the gallery.

“We’ll be seeing you again, coward. No apologies, no nothing.”

Joe Spencer, Crusius’ attorney, told the judge before the sentencing that his client had a “broken brain.”

“Patrick’s thinking is at odds with reality … resulting in delusional thinking,” Spencer told the court.

Crusius became alarmed by his own violent thoughts, including once leaving a job at a movie theater because of those thoughts, Spencer said. He said Crusius once searched online to look for ways to address his mental health and dropped out of a community college near Dallas because of his struggles.

Spencer said that Crusius had arrived in El Paso without a specific target in mind before winding up at the Walmart.

“Patrick acted with his broken brain cemented in delusions,” Spencer said.

The sentencing by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama in El Paso followed two days of impact statements from relatives of the victims, including citizens of Mexico. In addition to the dead, more than two dozen people were injured and numerous others were severely traumatized as they hid or fled.

One by one, family members used their first opportunity since the shooting to directly address Crusius, describing how their lives have been upended by grief and pain. Some forgave Crusius. One man displayed photographs of his slain father, insisting that the gunman look at them.

Bertha Benavides’ husband of 34 years, Arturo, was among those killed.

“You left children without their parents, you left spouses without their spouses, and we still need them,” she told Crusius.

During the initial statements from victims, Crusius occasionally swiveled in his seat or bobbed his head with little sign of emotion. On Thursday, his eyes appeared to well up as victims condemned the brutality of the shootings and demanded Crusius respond and account for his actions. At one point, Crusius consulted with a defense attorney at his side and gestured that he would not answer.

Crusius’ family did not appear in the courtroom during the sentencing phase.

The attack was the deadliest of a dozen mass shootings in the U.S. linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

Before the shooting, Crusius had appeared consumed by the nation’s immigration debate, tweeting #BuildtheWall and posts that praised then-President Donald Trump’s hardline border policies. He went further in his rant posted before the attack, sounding warnings that Hispanics were going to take over the government and economy.

As the sentencing phase got underway, some advocates for immigrant rights made new appeals for politicians to soften their rhetoric on immigration. Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have pushed for more aggressive actions to harden the southern U.S. border.

Amaris Vega’s aunt was killed in the attack and her mother narrowly survived a softball-sized wound to the chest. In court, Vega railed at Crusius’ “pathetic, sorry manifesto” that promised to rid Texas of Hispanics.

“But guess what? You didn’t. You failed,” she told him. “We are still here and we are not going anywhere. And for four years you have been stuck in a city full of Hispanics. ... So let that sink in.”

Margaret Juarez, whose 90-year-old father was slain in the attack and whose mother was wounded but survived, said she found it ironic that Crusius was set to spend his life in prison among inmates from racial and ethnic minorities. Other relatives and survivors in the courtroom applauded as she celebrated their liberty.

“Swim in the waters of prison,” she told Crusius. “Now we’re going to enjoy the sunshine. … We still have our freedom, in our country.”

The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, teachers, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.

Two teenage girls recounted their narrow escape from Crusius’ rampage as they participated in a fundraiser for their youth soccer team outside the store. Parents were wounded and the soccer coach, Guillermo Garcia, died months later from injuries in the attack.

Both youths said they still are haunted by their fear of another shooting when they are in public venues.

“He was shot at close range by a coward and there was his innocent blood, everywhere,” said Kathleen Johnson, whose husband David was among the victims. “I don’t know when I’ll be the same. … The pain you have caused is indescribable.”

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DeSantis campaign raised $20 million in first six weeks of campaign

The DeSantis campaign announced on Thursday that it had raised $20 million since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially entered the Republican presidential primary six weeks ago, a show of fundraising prowess as DeSantis tries to position himself as the main GOP rival to former President Donald Trump.

The fundraising figures, reported earlier by Fox News, were celebrated by DeSantis campaign officials as the “largest first-quarter filing from any non-incumbent Republican candidate in more than a decade.”

DeSantis campaign officials celebrated the fundraising figures on Thursday, framing them as a sign of momentum for his candidacy.

“We are grateful for the investment so many Americans have made to get this country back on track,” campaign manager Generra Peck said in a news release. “The fight to save it will be long and challenging, but we have built an operation to share the governor’s message and mobilize the millions of people who support it. We are ready to win.”

Never Back Down, a super PAC affiliated with DeSantis, also announced on Thursday that it had raised $130 million since launching in early March, adding to the resources behind DeSantis’ candidacy.

The announcements follow reports on Wednesday from the Trump campaign and his leadership political action committee, Save America, that they together raised $35 million during the second quarter of 2023, despite state and federal indictments of the former president. The second-quarter figures were more than double what the Trump campaign and Save America raised in the first quarter of 2023.

DeSantis, who is currently in second place in national polls of GOP voters, has lagged in recent weeks amid concerns about his public demeanor and hiccups with local groups in key primary states. DeSantis allies and officials, however, have voiced confidence that the campaign is trending in the right direction ahead of primary debates and early contests and remains the clearest alternative in the GOP field to the former president.

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