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      FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents investigation

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      FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents investigationThe justice department is looking into how classified documents came to be found in Joe Biden’s home and former office The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by Joe Biden.The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.Why prosecutors might get Trump – and not Biden – for classified documentsRead moreA justice department special counsel is investigating how classified documents from Biden’s time as vice-president and senator came to end up in his home and former office – and whether any mishandling involved criminal intent or was unintentional. Biden’s personal lawyers disclosed in January that a small batch of documents with classified markings had been found weeks earlier in his former Washington office, and they have since allowed FBI searches of multiple properties.The university is Biden’s alma mater. In 2011, Biden donated his records from his 36 years serving in the US Senate to the school. The documents arrived on 6 June 2012, according to the university, which released photos of the numbered boxes being unloaded at the university alongside blue and gold balloons.Under the terms of Biden’s gift, the records are to remain sealed until two years after he retires from public life.Biden’s Senate records would not be covered by the Presidential Records Act, though prohibitions on mishandling classified information would still apply.The White House referred questions to the justice department, which declined to comment. The University of Delaware also referred questions to the justice department.The university is the fourth known entity to be searched by the FBI following inspections of Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington DC, where records with classified markings were initially found in a locked closet by Biden’s personal lawyers in November, and more recently of his Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.Those searches were all done voluntarily and with the consent of Biden’s legal team.The FBI took six items that contained documents with classified markings during its January search of the Wilmington home, Biden’s personal lawyer said. Agents did not find classified documents at the Rehoboth Beach property but did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice-president for review.The justice department is separately investigating the retention by former president Donald Trump of roughly 300 documents marked as classified at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The FBI served a search warrant at the home last August after months of resistance by Trump and his representatives to returning the documents to the government.The FBI also searched the Indiana home of former vice-president Mike Pence last week after his lawyers came forward to say they had found a small number of documents with classified markings. A Pence adviser said one additional document with classified markings was found during that search.TopicsJoe BidenFBIUS politicsDelawareBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump appointee named special counsel in Biden papers investigation

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      Trump appointee named special counsel in Biden papers investigationRobert Hur chosen by US attorney general after classified materials discovered in Delaware and Washington 02:47The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed a special counsel on Thursday to investigate Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice-president.The documents were discovered to have been stored in his garage at his home in Delaware and in office space in Washington DC.White House confirms second set of classified documents found at Biden Delaware property – liveRead moreThe move to name Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed federal prosecutor and former top justice department official, was a rapid decision from Garland to insulate the department from possible accusations of political conflicts or interference.Hur will be responsible for investigating the potential unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents at Biden’s home and his former thinktank, and will have the authority to prosecute any crimes resulting from the investigation, the order signed by Garland said.“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial and dispassionate judgement. I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service,” Hur said in a statement released by the justice department.The decision to appoint a special counsel comes at a fraught moment for Garland, who only just named Jack Smith in November to serve as special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s unauthorized retention of national security material and his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.Speaking at justice department headquarters in Washington, Garland said “extraordinary circumstances” – namely that the president, to whom he and the department reports, could yet become ensnared in the investigation – necessitated an independent prosecutor to oversee the inquiry.The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of whether Biden was involved in taking the documents to either his Delaware home or the office space at the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy in Washington, where he was an honorary professor until 2019.Special counsels are prosecutors with more independence than other federal prosecutors, who can be installed for high-profile investigations when there are conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts, though they ultimately answer to the attorney general.The Biden special counsel will examine approximately 10 classified documents found at the thinkthank, which included US intelligence memos and some materials marked as Top Secret/Secret Compartmented Information, and an unconfirmed additional number of classified documents that were in the garage and a storage space nearby.02:47From the information released so far, there are major differences between the Biden case and that involving Trump, who retained hundreds of classified documents and only partially complied with a grand jury subpoena that led to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago last August.By contrast, Biden and his lawyers proactively returned the classified documents dating back to the Obama administration when he was vice-president to the government as soon as they were discovered. Biden was also not responding to a grand jury subpoena.Biden’s personal lawyers found the first set of documents at the Penn Biden Center on 2 November and alerted the National Archives and the justice department. The archives then issued a formal referral, leading Garland to task the Trump-appointed US attorney John Lausch to conduct a review.Biden’s lawyers then found additional classified documents in Delaware on 20 December. On 5 January, Lausch recommended that Garland appoint a special counsel to conduct an investigation. Lausch added it could not be him, since he was due to return to private practice, according to a source familiar with the matter.The revelation about the new documents came hours after the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the White House was committed to handling the matter in the “right way”, pointing to Biden’s personal attorneys’ immediate notification of the National Archives.“As my colleagues in the counsel have stated and said to all of you yesterday, this is an ongoing process under the review of the Department of Justice. So we are going to be limited on what we can say here,” Jean-Pierre said.Before the special counsel appointment, Biden told reporters: “I’m going to get a chance to speak on all this, God willing, soon. People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the justice department’s review.”The top Republican on the House intelligence committee has since requested that the US intelligence community conduct a “damage assessment” to assess the impact of their storage in an unauthorized location.In a statement on his Truth Social platform shortly before Garland spoke on Thursday, Trump said Garland should “immediately end special counsel investigation into anything related to me because I did everything right, and appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden who hates Biden as much as Jack Smith hates me”.According to a justice department biography, Hur’s prosecutorial career has included cases including gang violence, drug trafficking and domestic terrorism, as well as white-collar crime such as fraud, tax offenses, intellectual property theft and public corruption.Hur graduated from Harvard College and received his law degree from Stanford. He clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist before working for the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, when he ran the justice department’s criminal division during the George W Bush administration.Most recently, he was a partner at the highly esteemed law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher after he left the justice department at the end of the Trump administration, where he served as the principal associate deputy attorney general, the top adviser role to the deputy attorney general.TopicsJoe BidenDelawareUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Who Won and Lost in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware

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      The primary season ended on Tuesday with elections in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware.In the night’s marquee matchup, the Republican Senate primary to determine who will challenge Senator Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire this fall, the race had not been called as of Wednesday morning but Don Bolduc, a right-wing, Trump-aligned candidate, appeared poised for victory after Chuck Morse, his more moderate rival, wrote on Twitter that he had conceded.Here is a rundown of some of the most important wins and losses. New HampshireDon Bolduc, a retired Army general who ran on a hard-right platform and embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, appeared set to win the Republican primary to challenge Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat who is seeking a second term in the Senate. As of Wednesday morning, the race had not been called, but his opponent, Chuck Morse, the president of the State Senate, had said he had called Mr. Bolduc and “wished all the best.”Karoline Leavitt, a former press aide in Donald J. Trump’s White House, defeated Matt Mowers, a former State Department adviser, in a Republican primary that pitted two Trump administration alumni against each other. Ms. Leavitt — who recently turned 25, the minimum age to serve in the House — will face Representative Chris Pappas, a Democrat, in the First Congressional District. She could be one of the first two members of Generation Z to serve in Congress, alongside Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who won a Democratic House primary in Florida last month.Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican seeking a fourth two-year term, easily won his primary, in which he had only nominal competition. He will face Tom Sherman, a state senator who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.Rhode IslandGov. Dan McKee won a tight Democratic primary as he seeks his first full term after rising from the lieutenant governorship to replace former Gov. Gina Raimondo, who left to serve in the Biden administration. He defeated Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a businesswoman; Nellie Gorbea, the Rhode Island secretary of state; and two others. Mr. McKee will face Ashley Kalus, a businesswoman who won the Republican primary, in November.Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, who is seeking her first full term after being appointed by Mr. McKee, won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Her Republican opponent will be Aaron Guckian, a former development officer at the Rhode Island Foundation.Gregg Amore, a state representative, won the Democratic nomination for secretary of state and will face Pat Cortellessa, a security company supervisor who volunteered for the Trump campaign in 2016.Seth Magaziner, the state’s general treasurer, is the Democratic nominee to replace Representative Jim Langevin, a Democrat who is retiring. He topped a six-candidate field and will face former Mayor Allan Fung of Cranston in November.DelawareLydia York, a lawyer and former corporate accountant, won the Democratic primary for auditor of accounts, the office responsible for supervising Delaware’s use of taxpayer money. She defeated the incumbent, Kathleen K. McGuiness, who had been convicted of misdemeanors in a misconduct case related to hiring her daughter. More

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      Delaware Primary: How to Vote and Who’s on the Ballot

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      Tuesday will be the first test of several major changes to how Delaware administers its elections. Because of a bill signed into law this July, voters in the state can now vote by mail without an excuse, vote early in person and register any time until the end of Election Day. Here’s what else to know about voting in the state:How to voteVoter registration is open until polls close Tuesday evening in Delaware. You can register online here or at your polling location. Photo identification is not required to register, though new registrants will be asked to provide proof that they live in the area where they vote.If you can’t remember whether you are registered, check online here.In-person voting is open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. across the state.Voters who have mail ballots may return them to a county office, with a list available here. If you’ve already mailed your ballot, you can track it here.Where to voteYou can find the polling place closest to you by entering your home address here.Voters who plan to submit a mail ballot can find the address of the closest drop box here.Who’s on the ballotThere is one contested primary for a statewide office in Delaware. The state auditor, Kathleen K. McGuiness, is facing a challenge by Lydia York, a lawyer, in the Democratic primary. In July, a jury found Ms. McGuiness guilty of misdemeanors related to hiring her daughter and awarding a contract to a consulting firm that worked on one of her past political campaigns. Despite the conviction, Delaware’s House of Representatives opted not to oust Ms. McGuiness this summer, leaving the choice to voters.The state Democratic Party endorsed Ms. York. The winner will face Janice Lorrah, a Republican.You can view a full sample ballot online here. More

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      What to Watch in Tuesday’s (Final!) Primary Night

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      Outside money has poured into New Hampshire heading into Tuesday’s primary as Republicans eye three opportunities to pick up Democratic-held seats, above all that of Senator Maggie Hassan, one of her party’s most vulnerable incumbents.But the leading G.O.P. candidate for Senate, Don Bolduc, is an election denier with a history of outlandish statements. His closest rival, Chuck Morse, the State Senate president, is playing on fears that nominating Mr. Bolduc could mean squandering a major opening.Ms. Hassan, a Democrat, narrowly won the seat in 2016. In a 50-50 U.S. Senate, every competitive race has the potential to tip the balance of power.New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware are all holding primaries on Tuesday. It’s not a big night, but it’s the last round of voting before the November midterm elections.Here are the races to watch.Don Bolduc, a retired Army general, center, during a campaign appearance at the American Legion in Laconia, N.H., on Saturday.John Tully for The New York TimesA competitive Senate primaryPresident Biden carried New Hampshire by seven percentage points in 2020, and successful statewide Republican politicians have tended to hew to the center, appealing to independents and conservative Democrats. But Mr. Bolduc, a retired Army general, has not only embraced Mr. Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 presidential election, he has also called Gov. Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer” and questioned whether the United States still needs the F.B.I. (Mr. Sununu has called Mr. Bolduc a conspiracy theorist.) Money from super PACs with ties to both Republican and Democratic Senate leadership has flowed in to try to tip the scales, with the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group, spending millions to attack Mr. Morse, the establishment-backed candidate — a gambit that could aid Mr. Bolduc. Mr. Morse, who has the backing of Mr. Sununu and establishment Republicans but is trailing Mr. Bolduc by double digits in polls, met with Mr. Trump at the former president’s New Jersey golf club on Sept. 2, but no endorsement has materialized.Then again, Mr. Trump hasn’t endorsed Mr. Bolduc, either.A scramble for House seats Republicans in New Hampshire are wrangling over the chance to square off against U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas and Ann McLane Kuster, two Democrats whom Republicans see as vulnerable. Matt Mowers, who worked in the State Department during the Trump administration, and Karoline Leavitt, who worked in the White House communications office, are the leading candidates in a 10-person field in Mr. Pappas’s First District, which zigzags across much of eastern and southern New Hampshire..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-ok2gjs{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-ok2gjs a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.Mr. Mowers, who lost to Mr. Pappas in 2020, earned the endorsements of the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and the minority whip, Steve Scalise. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the third-ranking House Republican, is supporting Ms. Leavitt, who once worked for her. Ms. Leavitt and other Republican contenders have portrayed Mr. Mowers as an establishment tool and criticized him for voting in 2016 in both the New Jersey and New Hampshire primaries. (He voted in New Jersey before moving to New Hampshire to work on Chris Christie’s presidential campaign.) Mr. Mowers has defended himself by channeling Mr. Trump, saying he was being attacked because he had planned to “shake up the status quo.”In New Hampshire’s Second District, encompassing the rest of the state, seven Republicans are competing to face Ms. Kuster, a longtime adoption lawyer who is seeking her sixth term.George Hansel, the two-term Republican mayor of the liberal town of Keene, has the endorsement of Mr. Sununu. Other contenders include Bob Burns, the former Hillsborough county treasurer, and Lily Tang Williams, who ran for the Senate in Colorado as a Libertarian in 2016. In Rhode Island, six contenders are vying in the Democratic primary for the seat held by Representative Jim Langevin, who is retiring after 11 terms. Seth Magaziner, the state’s general treasurer, held a sizable lead in early polling. On the Republican side, Allan Fung, the former mayor of Cranston, is running uncontested.Odds and endsThat’s about it for what constitutes the excitement in Tuesday’s voting.In the New Hampshire governor’s race, Mr. Sununu, who declined to run for the Senate, is considered virtually untouchable in his drive for a fourth term. He faces negligible opposition in his primary and is heavily favored in November against Tom Sherman, a state senator who is uncontested in the Democratic primary for governor.In Rhode Island, Gov. Daniel McKee, the state’s former lieutenant governor, is seeking his first full term after replacing former Gov. Gina Raimondo, who left to serve in the Biden administration as commerce secretary. He faces four challengers in the Democratic primary, including Nellie Gorbea, the Rhode Island secretary of state.Republican hopes of recapturing the governor’s office rest on Ashley Kalus, a first-time candidate who moved to Rhode Island in 2021, and Jonathan Riccitelli, the owner of a hotel and building maintenance company, whose criminal record — much of it under another name — was reported by The Boston Globe. A college freshman, Zachary Hurwitz, also collected enough signatures to run as an independent.In Delaware, which has neither a Senate nor a governor’s race this year, the biggest contest is for state auditor, after the incumbent Democrat, Kathleen K. McGuiness, was convicted of official misconduct, conflict of interest and structuring a contract to avoid a procurement policy, all misdemeanors. In response, the state Democratic Party threw its support behind a challenger, Lydia York, a lawyer and accountant. More

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      States Turn to Tax Cuts as Inflation Stays Hot

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      WASHINGTON — In Kansas, the Democratic governor has been pushing to slash the state’s grocery sales tax. Last month, New Mexico lawmakers provided $1,000 tax rebates to households hobbled by high gas prices. Legislatures in Iowa, Indiana and Idaho have all cut state income taxes this year.A combination of flush state budget coffers and rapid inflation has lawmakers across the country looking for ways to ease the pain of rising prices, with nearly three dozen states enacting or considering some form of tax relief, according to the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank.The efforts are blurring typical party lines when it comes to tax policy. In many cases, Democrats are joining Republicans in supporting permanently lower taxes or temporary cuts, including for high earners.But while the policies are aimed at helping Americans weather the fastest pace of inflation in 40 years, economists warn that, paradoxically, cutting taxes could exacerbate the very problem lawmakers are trying to address. By putting more money in people’s pockets, policymakers risk further stimulating already rampant consumer demand, pushing prices higher nationally.Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University who was an economic adviser under the Obama administration, said that the United States economy was producing at full capacity right now and that any additional spending power would only drive up demand and prices. But when it comes to cutting taxes, he acknowledged, the incentives for states do not always appear to be aligned with what is best for the national economy.“I think all these tax cuts in states are adding to inflation,” Mr. Furman said. “The problem is, from any governor’s perspective, a lot of the inflation it is adding is nationwide and a lot of the benefits of the tax cuts are to the states.”States are awash in cash after a faster-than-expected economic rebound in 2021 and a $350 billion infusion of stimulus funds that Congress allocated to states and cities last year. While the Biden administration has restricted states from using relief money to directly subsidize tax cuts, many governments have been able to find budgetary workarounds to do just that without violating the rules.Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a $1.2 billion tax cut that was made possible by budget surpluses. The state’s coffers were bolstered by $8.8 billion in federal pandemic relief money. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, hailed the tax cuts as the largest in the state’s history.“Florida’s economy has consistently outpaced the nation, but we are still fighting against inflationary policies imposed on us by the Biden administration,” he said.Adding to the urgency is the political calendar: Many governors and state legislators face elections in November, and voters have made clear they are concerned about rising prices for gas, food and rent.“It’s very difficult for policymakers to see the inflationary pressures that taxpayers are burdened by right now while sitting on significant cash reserves without some desire to return that,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. “The challenge for policymakers is that simply cutting checks to taxpayers can feed the inflationary environment rather than offsetting it.”The tax cuts are coming in a variety of forms and sizes. According to the Tax Foundation, which has been tracking proposals this year, some would be phased in, some would be permanent and others would be temporary “holidays.”Next month, New York will suspend some of its state gas taxes through the end of the year, a move that Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said would save families and businesses an estimated $585 million.In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has called for gradually lowering the state’s corporate tax rate to 5 percent from 10 percent — taking a decidedly different stance from many of his political peers in Congress, who have called for raising corporate taxes. Mr. Wolf said in April that the proposal was intended to make Pennsylvania more business friendly.States are acting on a fresh appetite for tax cuts as inflation is running at a 40-year high.OK McCausland for The New York TimesMr. Furman pointed to the budget surpluses as evidence that the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package handed too much money to local governments. “The problem was there was just too much money for states and localities.”A new report from the Tax Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank, said total state revenues rose by about 17.6 percent last year. State rainy day funds — money that is set aside to cover unexpected costs — have reached “new record levels,” according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.Yet those rosy budget balances may not last if the economy slows, as expected. The Federal Reserve has begun raising interest rates in an attempt to cool economic growth, and there are growing concerns about the potential for another recession. Stocks fell for another session on Monday, with the S&P 500 down 3.2 percent, as investors fretted about a slowdown in global growth, high inflation and other economic woes.Cutting taxes too deeply now could put states on weaker financial footing.The Tax Policy Center said its state tax revenue forecasts for the rest of this year and next year were “alarmingly weak” as states enacted tax cuts and spending plans. Fitch, the credit rating agency, said recently that immediate and permanent tax cuts could be risky in light of evolving economic conditions.“Substantial tax policy changes can negatively affect revenues and lead to long-term structural budget challenges, especially when enacted all at once in an uncertain economic environment,” Fitch said.The state tax cuts are taking place as the Biden administration struggles to respond to rising prices. So far, the White House has resisted calls for a gas tax holiday, though Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in April that President Biden was open to the idea. The administration has responded by primarily trying to ease supply chain logjams that have created shortages of goods and cracking down on price gouging, but taming inflation falls largely to the Fed.The White House declined to assess the merits of states’ cutting taxes but pointed to the administration’s measures to expand fuel supplies and proposals for strengthening supply chains and lowering health and child care costs as evidence that Mr. Biden was taking inflation seriously.“President Biden is taking aggressive action to lower costs for American families and address inflation,” Emilie Simons, a White House spokeswoman, said.The degree to which state tax relief fuels inflation depends in large part on how quickly the moves go into effect.Gov. Laura Kelly backed a bill last month that would phase out the 6.5 percent grocery sales tax in Kansas, lowering it next January and bringing it to zero by 2025. Republicans in the state pushed for the gradual reduction despite calls from Democrats to cut the tax to zero by July.Inflation F.A.Q.Card 1 of 6What is inflation? More