AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Barr: Trump has removed top federal prosecutor in Manhattan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr on Saturday told the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan that President Donald Trump had removed him from the job, deepening tensions between the country's chief law enforcement officer and a high-profile U.S. attorney who had been overseeing investigations of Trump's allies.
Adding to the confusion, Trump distanced himself from the move to oust U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, telling reporters the decision “was all up to the attorney general." Nevertheless, Berman said he continues to fight his removal.
The whirlwind chain of events began Friday night, when Barr announced that Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had resigned. Hours later, the prosecutor issued a statement denying that he had resigned and saying that his office's "investigations would move forward without delay or interruption."
On Saturday morning, he showed up to work, telling reporters, “I’m just here to do my job."
The administration’s push to cast aside Berman set up an extraordinary political and constitutional clash between the Justice Department and one of the nation’s top districts, which has tried major mob and terrorism cases over the years and is investigating Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. It also deepened tensions between the department and congressional Democrats, who have accused Barr of politicizing the agency and acting more like Trump’s personal lawyer than the country’s chief law enforcement officer.
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6 staffers setting up for Trump rally positive for COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's campaign says six staff members helping set up for his Saturday night rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have tested positive for coronavirus.
The campaign's communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said in a statement that “quarantine procedures” were immediately initiated and no staff member who tested positive would attend the event. He said no one who had immediate contact with those staffers would attend, either.
Murtaugh said campaign staff members are tested for COVID-19 as part of the campaign's safety protocols.
Campaign officials say everyone who is attending the rally will be given temperature checks before they pass through security. They will also be given masks to wear, if they want, and hand sanitizer at the 19,000-seat BOK Center.
The rally was expected to be the largest indoor gathering in the world during the pandemic.
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Judge: Bolton can publish book despite efforts to block it
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book, a federal judge ruled Saturday, despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security issues, even as the White House pledged to keep pursuing the onetime top aide. And the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had taken it upon himself to publish his memoir without formal clearance from a White House that says it was still reviewing it for classified information.
“Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability," Lamberth wrote. “But these facts do not control the motion before the Court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”
The White House signaled the legal fight would continue, saying it would try to prevent Bolton from profiting off the book.
President Donald Trump tweeted that Bolton “broke the law by releasing Classified Information (in massive amounts). He must pay a very big price for this, as others have before him. This should never to happen again!!!”
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Metal barriers, Trump gear: Crowd readies for Tulsa rally
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Supporters of President Donald Trump filled the streets Saturday around the Tulsa stadium where the president will hold his first rally in months, ready to welcome him back to the campaign trail despite warnings from health officials about the coronavirus.
The crowd filtered into the 19,000-seat BOK Center for what is expected to be the biggest indoor event the country has seen since restrictions to prevent the COVID-19 virus began in March. Trump also will speak at an outdoor event to be held inside a perimeter of tall metal barriers that were put up around the BOK Center.
At both locations, many of the president's supporters weren't wearing masks, despite the recommendation of public health officials to keep the coronavirus from spreading. Some of the attendees have been camped near the venue since early in the week.
Brian Bernard, 54, a retired information technology worker from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sported a Trump 2020 hat as he took a break from riding his bicycle around downtown Tulsa. Next to him was a woman selling Trump T-shirts and hats, flying a “Keep America Great Again” flag. Her shirt said, “Impeach this," with an image of Trump extending his middle fingers.
“Since the media won’t do it, it’s up to us to show our support,” said Bernard, who drove nine hours to Tulsa for his second Trump rally. “Before I went to a Trump rally in 2015, I was pretty much on the fence. That really hooked me. I really felt he was genuine."
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Latest US monuments toppled: Grant, national anthem writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters tore down more statues across the United States, expanding the razing in a San Francisco park to the writer of America’s national anthem and the general who won the country’s Civil War which ended widespread slavery.
In Seattle, pre-dawn violence erupted Saturday in a protest zone largely abandoned by police, where one person was fatally shot and another critically injured.
On the East Coast, more statues honoring Confederates who tried to break away from the United States more than 150 years ago were toppled.
But several were removed at the order of North Carolina's Democratic governor, who said he was trying to avoid violent clashes or injuries from toppling the heavy monuments erected by white supremacists that he said do not belong in places like the state capitol grounds that are for all people.
The statues are falling amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the May 25 police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African American man who died after a white police officers pressed his knee on his neck and whose death galvanized protesters around the globe to rally against police brutality and racism.
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The Latest: Teen arrested for firing at officers during riot
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— Boy, 17, arrested for allegedly shooting at officers during South Dakota riots.
— Peaceful protester arrested outside Trump rally venue.
— Two Confederate statues taken down in North Carolina on governor's order.
— Two people shot, one fatally, in Seattle occupied protest zone.
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The Latest: Nevada has new daily high in cases for 2nd day
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada has 445 more COVID-19 cases, making Saturday the second straight day the state has reported a new 24-hour high since the start of the pandemic.
The state had reported 410 new cases Friday, surpassing the previous single-day jump of 379 four days earlier.
The state Department of Health and Human Services says there have been 12,931 cases and 486 deaths, including eight reported Saturday. Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County account for fourth-fifths of the cases and deaths.
The number of new cases has climbed as Nevada has expanded testing and reopened casinos, restaurants and other businesses. Gov. Steve Sisolak said Friday he will consider toughening rules on face masks. Nevada now requires business employees to use masks, but does not require customers to do so.
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Amid wave of cultural change, Trump tries to stir a backlash
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was June 2015, and Democrats felt the nation’s political and cultural winds blowing their way. The Supreme Court ruled in President Barack Obama’s favor on landmark gay marriage and health care cases. The White House was awash in rainbow light, a symbol of a liberal cultural takeover that seemed unstoppable.
The following year, Donald Trump was elected president, propelled by a revolt of voters who weren’t on board.
As he barrels toward the November election, Trump is again positioning himself as the spokesperson for voters resisting a new wave of cultural change, ready to ride any backlash from the protests calling for racial equality and police reform and this week’s Supreme Court rulings extending protections to gay workers and young immigrants.
“THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE,” Trump tweeted Friday, aligning himself with those who believe their voices are increasingly missing from the national dialogue.
In truth, Trump has never had support from a majority of Americans, nor has he seen a political imperative in trying to. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 but offset that by boosting turnout in crucial Midwestern battleground states among disaffected, largely white, voters. That’s the same narrow path he’s trying to replicate against Democrat Joe Biden.
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AP FACT CHECK: In time of trauma, Trumps congratulates self
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump prefaced the revival of his campaign rallies with days of self-congratulation, a familiar pattern that has not been disturbed by the traumas of this time.
He devoted attention to the Obama administration, trashing it even while claiming some of its achievements as his own. Perhaps most brazenly, he claimed credit for reducing suicides by veterans and offering them same-day emergency mental health counseling at Department of Veterans Affairs centers, achievements he inherited and did not build on.
Trump has been preparing for his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally on Saturday night, which shaped up to be the first indoor event of such a massive scale since the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Some public health officials implored him to move it outside or postpone it, fearing the event would spread sickness and death. Large crowds were expected both inside and outside.
A look at claims and the reality from the past week:
VIRUS THREAT
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Shooting in Seattle protest zone leaves 1 dead, 1 injured
SEATTLE (AP) — A pre-dawn shooting in a park in Seattle's protest zone killed a 19-year-old man and critically injured another person, authorities said Saturday.
The shooting happened at about 2:30 a.m. in the area near the city's downtown that is known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest," police said.
Officers responding to the shooting initially had trouble getting to the scene because they were "were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims,” police said on their blog.
Two males with gunshot wounds arrived in a private vehicle at Harborview Medical Center at about 3 a.m., said hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg. The 19-year-old man died and the other person was in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
The suspect or suspects fled and investigators had no description of the shooter or shooters as of Saturday morning, police said.