Cory Booker

Senator from New Jersey
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Cory Booker dropped out of the presidential race on January 13, 2020. This page is no longer being updated.
Booker is running a campaign focused on love, unity and identity. He first gained national recognition as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, at times answering pleas to shovel residents out after major snowstorms. He was elected to the US Senate in a 2013 special election.
Stanford University, B.A., 1991; Stanford University, M.A, 1992; University of Oxford, Rhodes scholar, 1994; Yale Law School, J.D., 1997
April 27, 1969
Baptist
Mayor of Newark, 2006-2013;
Partner at the law firm Booker, Rabinowitz, Trenk, Lubetkin, Tully, DiPasquale and Webster, 2002-2006;
Newark City Council member, 1998-2002;
Staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center, 1997

BOOKER IN THE NEWS

Cory Booker Fast Facts
Updated 2:52 PM ET, Thu Apr 6, 2023
Here is a look at the life of Cory Booker, US senator from New Jersey and former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Personal Birth date: April 27, 1969 Birth place: Washington, DC Birth name: Cory Anthony Booker Father: Cary Booker, IBM executive Mother: Carolyn Booker, IBM executive Education: Stanford University, B.A., 1991; Stanford University, M.A, 1992; University of Oxford, Honors Degree, 1994 (Rhodes Scholar); Yale Law School, J.D., 1997 Religion: Baptist Other Facts Received a football scholarship to attend Stanford University. Became a vegetarian in 1992 and went vegan (no eggs or dairy) in 2014. Lived in a public housing complex in Newark called Brick Towers for eight years. The dilapidated building was demolished in 2007, the year after Booker moved out. While serving as mayor of Newark, Booker developed a reputation for engaging in personal acts of heroism like rescuing a neighbor from a house fire and chasing down a suspected bank robber. Using social media to connect with constituents, he shoveled snowbound driveways by request and invited nearby city residents to his home when Hurricane Sandy caused widespread power outages. Booker was elected mayor as a reformer with a vision to revitalize the struggling city yet high unemployment rates and violent crime continued to plague Newark while he was in office. Booker was criticized by the New Jersey state comptroller for failing to conduct oversight on the city's watershed management program, where corruption was rife. Timeline 1997 - Staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center in New York. 1998-2002 - Newark city councilman. 2002-2006 - Partner at the law firm, Booker, Rabinowitz, Trenk, Lubetkin, Tully, DiPasquale & Webster. 2006-2013 - Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. September 24, 2010 - Booker appears with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Mark Zuckerberg on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to announce the Facebook founder's $100 million donation to Newark schools. The school reform initiative, centered on promoting privately-run charter schools as an option for parents with children in failing public schools, yields mixed results. Researchers at Harvard University conclude that Newark students showed improvement in English but made no significant gains in math. December 4, 2012 - Booker begins a week of food rationing to raise awareness of poverty and hunger in America, for the campaign SNAP Challenge. October 31, 2013 - Sworn in to the US Senate after winning a special election earlier in the month to replace the late Frank Lautenberg. November 4, 2014 - Reelected to the Senate. February 16, 2016 - Booker's memoir, "United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good," is published. January 11, 2017 - Booker breaks with Senate precedent to deliver testimony against the appointment of Jeff Sessions as attorney general, becoming the first sitting senator to testify against a fellow sitting senator at a confirmation hearing for a cabinet position. August 1, 2017 - Booker introduces a bill to remove marijuana from the federal government's list of controlled substances. The Marijuana Justice Act would also expunge federal marijuana use and possession offenses from criminal records. The bill is referred to committee. August 3, 2017 - Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduces the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act. The measure, cosponsored by Booker, would shield Special Counsel Robert Mueller from actions taken by the executive branch to interfere with the probe of Russian interference during the 2016 election. The bill is sent to committee. September 6, 2018 - Republicans accuse Booker of grandstanding after he likens himself to Spartacus, a Roman slave who led a failed revolt, during Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. December 21, 2018 - President Donald Trump signs a criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act, into law. Booker endorsed the bipartisan legislation and added an amendment that limits the usage of solitary confinement for juveniles in federal custody. February 1, 2019 - Booker releases a video announcing his presidential candidacy. Later, he appears on the ABC talk show, "The View," participates in multiple radio interviews and holds a press conference in Newark. January 13, 2020 - Booker ends his 2020 presidential campaign after failing to qualify for the January 14, 2020, Democratic debate. March 9, 2020 - Booker endorses Joe Biden for president. November 3, 2020 - Reelected to the Senate. December 19, 2021 - Booker, who is vaccinated and boosted, says on Twitter that he tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing mild symptoms.
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STANCES ON THE ISSUES

climate crisis
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Booker in September 2019 unveiled a $3 trillion plan for combating the climate crisis that promises to invest in clean energy, phase out the use of fossil fuels and create a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. The plan would require fossil fuel producers to pay a carbon fee on coal, natural gas and oil production and would end tax subsidies to those industries. Booker would create a “progressive climate dividend” paid to Americans through the carbon fees on fossil fuel producers. He also would take executive action to reverse many of Trump’s actions undoing Obama-era environmental initiatives. During the first Democratic primary debate, in June 2019, Booker cited climate change as one of the biggest threats facing the US. He supports the Green New Deal and has pushed back against critics of the plan who have called it impractical. “If we used to govern our dreams that way, we would have never gone to the moon,” Booker has said on the campaign trail. He has said he would keep the US in the Paris climate accord, a landmark 2015 deal on global warming targets that Trump has pledged to abandon. More on Booker’s climate crisis policy
economy
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Booker has been known in the past as business-friendly, accepting $100 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for schools in Newark during his tenure as mayor. As a presidential candidate, Booker has called for more robust enforcement of antitrust laws, citing a “serious problem [in our country] with corporate consolidation.” During the first presidential debate, Booker said he would target companies like Amazon that pay low federal taxes or none at all. The senator has also discussed rolling back the 2017 Trump tax cuts. According to his campaign, Booker has stood by his opposition of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation deal negotiated under Obama that Trump withdrew from in one of his first acts as President. He has opposed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – the successor deal to the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiated by Trump – as it is written. More on Booker’s economic policy
education
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As Newark mayor, Booker revamped public schools, aided by a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Booker has drawn criticism for strengthening public charter schools as part of his efforts. He has pledged to raise teacher pay and commit more resources to public schools, including fully funding special education programs. Booker has proposed a “baby bonds” system that would create savings accounts for Americans when they are born; after the person turns 18, the money can be used for college tuition or homeownership or retirement. He has co-sponsored a bill that would establish a state-federal partnership aimed at helping higher education institutions provide assistance to students. More on Booker’s education policy
gun violence
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Booker has proposed federally mandated gun licenses, modeled after driver’s licenses. “If you need a license to drive a car,” he has said, “you need a license to own a gun.” His plan would also expand background checks and fund programs for communities beset by gun violence. It would ban so-called assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks. He has proposed regulation and oversight of gun manufacturers. He would also close the “boyfriend loophole,” preventing people who abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms. More on Booker’s gun violence policy
healthcare
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Booker has co-sponsored Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposal, legislation that would create a government-run health care plan and essentially eliminate the private insurance industry. Still, he is in favor of keeping private insurance plans. When asked in February 2019 if he would do away with private health care, he said, “Even countries that have vast access to publicly offered health care still have private health care, so no.” He is a co-sponsor of Medicare-X, which would let individuals and small businesses buy government-backed insurance policies, known as a public option, on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Additionally, he supports lowering the Medicare age to 50. Booker has pledged to work to drive down the price of prescription drugs, including co-sponsoring a measure that would annually review whether brand-name drugs are excessively priced relative to those in other countries. He has also come out in favor of importing drugs from Canada and other developed nations. More on Booker’s health care policy
immigration
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Booker has proposed a range of executive actions to immediately roll back Trump’s immigration policies, including ending immigrant detention and family separations, and decriminalizing crossing the border without documentation. He would expand Obama-era protections for some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and those who are parents of American citizens. He ridiculed Trump’s national emergency declaration on the border wall, and voted against a spending bill – which ultimately passed and was signed into law – that provided $1.357 billion for 55 miles of new barriers. Booker has also endorsed accepting a minimum of 110,000 refugees annually, a significant increase over the historically low levels of resettlement during the Trump administration. More on Booker’s immigration policy

LATEST POLITICAL NEWS

Trump's Georgia election subversion case faces key hearing
Updated 12:35 PM ET, Thu Mar 28, 2024
The Fulton County hearing today in the Georgia election supervision case is only one of the many legal developments former President Donald Trump has faced this week. On Monday, Trump received both a lifeline from the courts and a trial date for the first criminal trial of a former president in US history. The twin rulings, which came roughly within an hour of each other, hit the intersection of challenges to Trump’s image and his famed business empire as he seeks a second term in the White House. Trump’s historic criminal trial in the New York hush money case against him will begin with jury selection on April 15, Judge Juan Merchan said Monday, after a dispute over the late production of documents caused the judge initially to push back the start date. Trump attended the hearing. For Trump, however, the more significant ruling Monday may have been a New York appeals court allowing him to post a reduced $175 million bond as he appeals the $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him, his adult sons and his company. Trump told reporters he will cover the bond using cash as a collateral. Read more about those rulings. CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said he believes that Donald Trump's attempt to have the Georgia election subversion indictment dismissed on First Amendment grounds will fail given how another judge in Washington, DC, ruled regarding a similar argument. "Trump’s legal team argues that his charged conduct here is political speech, protected by the First Amendment (even if the speech was false or unpopular). But prosecutors allege that Trump’s speech was part of a larger criminal plan to steal the election and hence not covered by the First Amendment," he said. "Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding on the other, federal election subversion case, had already rejected a similar defense argument. Judge McAfee is not bound by that decision, but he likely will reach a similar conclusion," Honig added. McAfee did not rule from the bench during Thursday's hearing, nor did he say when he would rule. The hearing in Fulton County, Georgia, over efforts to dismiss the case against Donald Trump and his co-defendant David Shafer has concluded. The judge did not rule from the bench, nor did he say when he would rule. Fulton County prosecutor Donald Wakeford pushed back on Donald Trump’s argument that his false claims were protected under the First Amendment, saying that his lies furthered a criminal conspiracy. “He’s never been prosecuted for lying,” Wakeford said. “He’s been prosecuted for lying to the government.” Trump’s attorneys are arguing that his false speech is protected by the First Amendment, Wakeford said. “That’s not what the indictment says,” Wakeford argued. “It’s not just that he lied over and over and over again, as counsel for the defendant points out by listing all of the instances in the indictment.” Instead, the Indictment alleges that “each of those was employed as part of criminal activity with criminal intentions.” “In the end, no matter how much we hear about the noble protections afforded by the First Amendment, all of this is an effort to get your honor not to look at the basic fact that this speech, this expression, all this activity, is employed as part of a pattern of criminal conduct,” Wakeford said. Fulton County prosecutors and a defense attorney for Donald Trump co-defendant David Shafer bickered Thursday over whether it was appropriate to refer to “fake electors” as part of the 2020 election interference case. Craig Gillen, an attorney for Shafer, asked the judge to strike the term “fake elector” from the case, saying that the term was “pejorative,” a “legal conclusion” and “really nasty.” Shafer served as one of the so-called “alternate electors” for Trump in Georgia. “They want to have [the term] ingrained in the minds of the community and of jurors — a concept that if you are not a Democratic elector … then you are a ‘fake’ elector.” Prosecutor Will Wooten shot back, saying that “nowhere in the indictment is the term ‘fake elector.’ It does not exist.” An attorney for one of the alleged fake electors in Georgia made several arguments in an effort to get charges in the election subversion case dismissed, including over who was a "duly" appointed elector for Georgia after the 2020 election. Craig Gillen, an attorney for David Shafer, the former chair of the Georgia Republican Party who allegedly acted as a 2020 fake elector in the state, disputed the allegation in the indictment that Shafer was not a “duly” appointed elector. In December, when Shafer and others allegedly submitted a false document claiming to be Georgia electors, declaring Trump had won Georgia, “there were no duly elected and qualified presidential electors from the state of Georgia,” Gillen argued Thursday. Gillen also put forth an argument that other co-conspirators have also raised in the case: that they were merely following legal advice. In his court filing on the matter, Gillen wrote that Shafer was “attempting to comply with the advice of legal counsel” and trying to follow the law that governs the electoral count when he submitted the allegedly fake document declaring Trump had won the state. Gillen also has argued that, under the law, Shafer never acted as a “public officer,” as the indictment alleges and pushed back on the notion that Shafer committed forgery in signing the elector document. During today's hearing, Trump attorney Steve Sadow has repeatedly cited a 2012 Supreme Court case dealing with free speech to bolster his argument that the charges against the former president should be dismissed. The court, in US v. Alvarez, struck down a law that had made it a crime to falsely claim that military medals were earned. Writing for a majority, then-Justice Anthony Kennedy said that the law violated free speech protections.  “The nation well knows that one of the costs of the First Amendment is that it protects the speech we detest as well as the speech we embrace,” he wrote.  Then-Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a concurrence that the government could find "less restrictive ways" to "achieve its legitimate objectives."  Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented, saying that the law did not go too far. Alito, writing for the three justices, said that the court’s ruling “breaks sharply from a long line of cases recognizing that the right to free speech does not protect false factual statements that inflict real harm and serve no legitimate interest.” Sadow on Thursday invoked both Alito and Breyer. “Essentially, the state's position is, ‘because, as alleged what President Trump said, speech-wise, or expressed either through his speech or conduct, which is still freedom of expression, because that's false in the eyes of the state it’s lost all protection of the First Amendment.’ And the concurring opinion and the dissenting opinion in Alvarez suggests just the opposite. If anything, under the circumstances, it needs more protection, not less protection,” he said. In a hearing this morning, Donald Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia is arguing that the indictment should be dismissed because the former president’s political speech is protected by the First Amendment.  Previous First Amendment challenges by former Trump co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell were unsuccessful. Chesebro and Powell were two of the former president’s lawyers who later pleaded guilty in exchange for their testimony and cooperation. They had attempted to have the indictment dismissed under the US Constitution’s supremacy clause but failed. In his denial at the time, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that various case law pointed to facts and evidence needing to be established in a courtroom before a First Amendment challenge can even be considered. Responding to Donald Trump’s argument that the indictment against him in Georgia should be dismissed because his actions were protected by the First Amendment, a prosecutor for Fulton County’s District Attorney pointed to a federal judge’s decision on the same issue in Trump’s parallel election subversion case in Washington, DC. “To address the first elephant in this courtroom,” prosecutor Donald Wakeford said during Thursday’s hearing, Judge Tanya Chutkan “has evaluated all these questions” under Supreme Court precedent. Chutkan is overseeing the election subversion case against Trump brought by special counsel Jack Smith in DC. The case has been on pause for several months as the Supreme Court is set to take up Trump’s arguments of immunity in the case. In denying Trump’s effort to dismiss the election subversion charges against him in Washington, DC – arguing he had absolute immunity as president – Chutkan wrote in December that the First Amendment “does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime.” Wakeford argued that Trump’s lies were in furtherance of criminal activity, seeking to overturn election results in the state. Donald Trump’s attorney argued Thursday that Fulton County prosecutors cannot prosecute the former president only on the basis that his allegations were “false.” Prosecutors allege that what Trump said is “false in the eyes of the state” so it has “lost all protection to the First Amendment,” Steve Sadow said. But, Trump’s lawyer argued, comments that aren’t factually accurate are still protected under the First Amendment. “What this court has to decide is the state’s position that fraud or false statements, under these circumstances … is that enough?” Sadow said of the charges. “The mere fact that it’s false is all that they have,” Sadow said, adding that “there’s no allegation beyond the fact that those statements are made.” Donald Trump’s attorney argued Thursday that the former president's statements about the 2020 presidential election in Georgia are “core political speech” and therefore he cannot be prosecuted.  “I don’t think there’s any question that says statements, comment, speech, expressive conduct that deals with campaigning or elections has always been found to be at the zenith of protected speech,” Steve Sadow said. The attorney is arguing that the charges against Trump should be dropped because his actions alleged in the indictment were protected under the First Amendment. “What do we have here?” Sadow asked. “We have election speech, which is 'protected' from government restriction." During Thursday’s hearing on Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the indictment against him in Georgia over alleged election interference on First Amendment grounds, prosecutors argued that it was premature to address free speech arguments. Donald Wakeford, a prosecutor with the Fulton County district attorney’s office, argued that it was “premature to consider” First Amendment arguments and that such arguments should be put before a jury during trial. Wakeford added that all the communication from Trump in the indictment related to charges in the case are not protected by the First Amendment.  Meanwhile, Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, has argued in a court filing that the charges should be dismissed because free speech in America expressly protects political speech. “President Trump enjoys the same robust First Amendment rights as every other American,” Sadow wrote in his filing in December. “The indictment here does not merely criminalize conduct with an incidental impact on protected speech; instead, it directly targets core protected political speech and activity. For this reason, it is categorically invalid under the First Amendment.” As the Fulton County hearing gets underway, here's a reminder of what the Georgia 2020 election case against Donald Trump is about: An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. Four people have pleaded guilty. The historic indictment was the fourth criminal case that Trump is facing. The charges, brought in a sweeping investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, cover some of the most overt efforts by the former president and his allies to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. Unlike the election subversion charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, Willis’ case will be insulated if Trump is reelected in 2024; he will not be able to pardon himself or his allies of any state law convictions, nor will he be able to order the state-level prosecutors to withdraw the charges. Trump pleaded not guilty via court filing, waiving an in-court appearance as allowed by Georgia law. On March 13, 2024, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the 41 counts from the indictment, including three that applied to Trump. The partial dismissal does not mean that the entire indictment has been dismissed. McAfee’s partial dismissal left most of the sprawling racketeering indictment intact. Read about the other three criminal cases against Trump. ##Catch Up## The hearing in Fulton County over whether the charges in the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump should be dismissed due to First Amendment protections has begun. Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, Stephen Sadow, is expected to argue that the former president’s political speech is protected by the First Amendment, and therefore he cannot be criminally prosecuted. The judge will also hear arguments over two additional motions to dismiss the charges from Trump’s codefendant, David Shafer. Shafer has argued that he was not part of a broader conspiracy but rather was “attempting to comply with the advice of legal counsel.” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is not in the courtroom where other members of the prosecution team are assembled. For the first time since a judge ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue to oversee the Georgia 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the focus will return to the details of the sprawling case. During a hearing this morning, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia is expected to argue that the indictment should be dismissed because the former president’s political speech is protected by the First Amendment. Trump is not expected to be in attendance for the hearing. In a motion filed in late 2023, before the unsuccessful efforts by defendants to disqualify Willis from the case emerged, Trump attorney Steve Sadow argued that the peddling of conspiracy theories and claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election were at their core political speech, and therefore Trump never should have been indicted. “The core political speech and expressive conduct alleged in this indictment against President Trump are protected from government regulation and thus criminal prosecution by the State,” Sadow wrote. “Criminalizing President Trump’s speech and advocacy disputing the outcome of the election—while speech endorsing the election’s outcome is viewed as unimpeachable—is thus blatant viewpoint discrimination,” he added. Willis recently told CNN she was ready to get the case back on track, after more than two months of disqualification hearings ensued over the romantic relationship she had with her lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Judge Scott McAfee ruled Willis should not be disqualified from spearheading the case if Wade stepped aside, which he has. Donald Trump is juggling a busy court and campaign schedule as he defends himself in several criminal cases while also vying for a second term in the White House. The former president’s criminal hush money trial is expected to start on April 15. He faces charges stemming from his alleged falsification of business records with the intent to conceal illegal conduct connected to his 2016 presidential campaign. By the time the Republican National Convention rolls around in mid-July, voters and Trump will already know the former president’s fate in at least one of his four criminal cases. Here's a look at his colliding calendar: ##Catch Up## Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face criminal charges, and with his third presidential bid under way for 2024, the stakes are high for both him and the country. Catch up on what you need to know about Trump’s four criminal cases ahead of today's hearing in the Georgia case: Hush money case: Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult-film star in 2016. Prosecutors allege Trump was a part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Classified documents: Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. Both Trump and his aide Walt Nauta have pleaded not guilty. On July 27, the special counsel charged Trump with three new counts, including one additional count of willful retention of national defense information. Election interference: Trump’s third indictment was a result of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into alleged efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The indictment alleges Trump and a co-conspirator "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them ... to delay the certification" of the election. It also alleges another co-conspirator pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to "violate the law" to delay President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four counts. Fulton County case: An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. Four people have pleaded guilty. The charges, brought in a sweeping investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, cover some of the most overt efforts by the former president and his allies to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty. On March 13, 2024, a judge dismissed six of the 41 counts from the indictment, including three that applied to Trump. ##Catch Up## Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told House Republicans that her office would turn over subpoenaed documents as they are able, but that she would not divert resources from her office’s “primary purpose” to prosecute crime, according to a letter obtained by CNN.  GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, complained earlier this month that Willis’ office had failed to adequately respond to the committee’s subpoena issued in February. “This office is in the process of producing relevant documents to you on a rolling basis,” Willis said in her March 25 letter to Jordan, writing that her office had already shared “substantial information” requested by House Republicans but that his “extensive document demands” in less than two months were unreasonable. “Let me be clear, while we are abiding by your subpoena in good faith and with due diligence, we will not divert resources that undermine our duty to the people of Fulton County to prosecute felonies committed in this jurisdiction” Willis wrote. Jordan had threatened to hold Willis in contempt of Congress for not fully complying with the subpoena for documents as part of the committee’s investigation into her office’s use of federal funds. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have long sought to undermine the credibility of Willis’s 2020 election case against former President Donald Trump and multiple co-defendants.  Judge Scott McAfee will also hear arguments this morning from one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the case, David Shafer, the former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. In the indictment, prosecutors allege Shafer acted as the point man for the fake electors scheme, coordinating with co-conspirators and reserving the room to illegitimately certify Trump as Georgia’s 2020 election winner. In their filing, Shafer’s attorneys argued that in nearly all of the conduct for which Shafer is charged, he was only “attempting to comply with the advice of legal counsel,” and was not part of a broader conspiracy. “Neither the emails or text messages, nor Mr. Shafer’s reservation of a room at the State Capitol, constitute ‘racketeering activity’ for the purposes of RICO,” Shafer’s attorneys wrote. Sometimes when a president needs a hand, only another president – or another two – will do. President Joe Biden’s bid for a second term and reelection campaign coffers will get a hefty boost on Thursday when he’s joined in New York by his two immediate predecessors as Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The lucrative fundraiser in New York will send a message of commitment from the 42nd and 44th presidents for the 46th’s bid to prevent the 45th president, Donald Trump, from returning as the 47th. Biden’s reelection campaign announced Thursday that this evening’s fundraiser has raised over $25 million – building on an already-impressive war chest as Biden heads into a general election rematch against Trump. Obama, especially, has become increasingly involved in Biden’s reelection campaign in recent weeks, motivated by alarm at the possibility that his friend and former vice president will be forced, like he was, to hand the Oval Office to Trump. CNN’s MJ Lee and Jeff Zeleny reported Wednesday that Obama was in the White House for a working visit just last week. Sources said Biden has also been in regular touch with Clinton, who was in the White House when the current president was a major Senate voice on foreign policy and judicial issues. The appearance of the three men together at Radio City Music Hall will conjure a moment of symbolism that will underscore the stakes of the election. Two Democratic presidents who won second terms are uniting to try to usher a successor, who is older than both of them, into the same rarified political air. It will also mark a rare occasion when four presidents are in one area, other than Washington, on the same day. Trump, who is permanently estranged from the ex-presidents’ club because of his extreme behavior, is due on Long Island on Thursday to attend a wake for slain New York City Police Office Jonathan Diller. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Saturday that “the train is coming,” referring to her team’s preparation for the case against former President Donald Trump and his 14 co-defendants and whether she was slowed down by attempts to remove her from the case. Willis, who avoided being disqualified from the election subversion case after more than two months of hearings and court action over her romantic relationship with her lead prosecutor, told CNN she was still working on the case during that time. “While that was going on, we were writing responsive briefs, we were still doing the case in a way that it needed to be done. I don’t feel like we’ve been slowed down at all. I do think there are efforts to slow down this train, but the train is coming,” she said while attending an Atlanta-area Easter basket giveaway. “We’re not going to miss or skip a beat because of all the noise or distraction on one case. We’re going to continue to do our work,” Willis said. But the DA’s office still faces legal hurdles in the case over alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. Last Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee granted requests from Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Willis to continue prosecuting the case. It is now up to the Georgia Court of Appeals to review the decision not to disqualify Willis.
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