Biden could be left off Ohio ballot, state says about deadline issue
TOLEDO, Ohio — President Joe Biden could be left off the ballot in Ohio this fall unless the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature creates an exception to the ballot deadline or the Democratic Party moves up its convention, according to the office that oversees the state’s elections.
Ohio’s deadline to certify presidential candidates for the general election is Aug. 7, nearly two weeks before the Democratic National Convention, at which Biden is expected to be nominated to run against Republican challenger Donald Trump.
Ohio law requires that presidential candidates be certified 90 days before the general election, which is on Nov. 5 this year, said a letter written last week by Paul DiSantis, chief legal counsel for Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
“Please contact me as soon as possible with any information that can assure this office of timely compliance with Ohio law,” the letter said.
The Biden campaign said it does not expect the snag to keep the president off the ballot. “We’re monitoring the situation in Ohio, and we’re confident that Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” the campaign said in a statement.
A similar situation came up before the 2020 presidential election. In that case, the Republican and Democratic conventions were scheduled outside the deadline window, so Ohio lawmakers approved changing the cutoff to 60 days — but only for that election.
The letter sent to Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters said the Legislature would need to act by May 9 to create an exception to the 90-day deadline or that Democrats would need to move up their convention, which would seem unlikely.
Messages seeking comment were left with
Walters and the state party.
Trump won Ohio in 2016 on his way to the White House and won it again in 2020, when he lost to Biden, becoming the first losing presidential candidate Ohio had supported since it sided with Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Biden documents case:
The Justice Department on Monday blasted Republicans’ effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt over his refusal to turn over unredacted materials related to the special counsel probe into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the Justice Department rejected the demand from House Republicans that the agency turn over the full audio of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s hourslong interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter. Republicans had given the Justice Department until Monday to provide the audio.
Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, Justice’s head of congressional affairs, said in the letter to Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan that despite GOP claims to the contrary, the department has complied with each of the four elements of the subpoena that House Republicans sent in February.
Nuclear plant dispute: Russia and Ukraine are trading accusations over renewed threats to Europe’s largest nuclear plant that has been caught up in the war, with Moscow alleging that Ukraine was behind drone attacks on the facility witnessed by U.N. inspectors and Kyiv accusing Russia of disinformation tactics.
On Mondy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine a “dangerous provocation.”
The U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency on Sunday confirmed drone strikes on one of the plant’s six reactors, which caused one casualty, but did not attribute responsibility to either side.
Associated Press was unable to verify either side’s claims in the area of heavy fighting where independent journalists are not allowed.
An official at Energoatom, Ukraine’s atomic energy company, blamed Russia for the attacks, saying they were “a provocation” orchestrated to malign Ukraine.
The official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.
The plant has been caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility shortly after. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. body, has frequently expressed alarm about the plant amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
The strikes did not compromise the nuclear facility, which the Kremlin’s forces have been occupying and running in southern Ukraine since shortly after the war began more than two years ago, the IAEA said. The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, and IAEA inspectors are stationed at the site.
No jail for assault: Actor Jonathan Majors has been ordered to complete a yearlong counseling program but avoided jail time Monday for assaulting ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari in a case that derailed the once-promising star’s career.
The star of “Creed III” and other films had faced up to a year behind bars; he was convicted in December of misdemeanor assault by a Manhattan jury.
In court Monday, Judge Michael Gaffey sentenced Majors, 34, to conditional discharge after noting that both sides in the case agreed that the charges did not warrant jail time, given that the actor was a first-time offender with no prior criminal record. ‘Panama Papers’ trial: The trial of 27 people charged in the worldwide “Panama Papers” money laundering started Monday in a Panamanian criminal court.
Those on trial include the owners of the Mossack-Fonseca law firm that was at the heart of the 2016 document leak. The Panama Papers include 11 million documents that illustrate how some of the world’s richest people hide their money.
The repercussions of the leaks have been far-ranging, prompting the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland and bringing scrutiny to Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.
The trial opened with lawyers Juergen Mossack, Ramón Fonseca and other former representatives, lawyers or ex-employees of the firm.
Prison sentence: A retired three-star Venezuelan army general who twice tried to mount coups against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sentenced Monday in the U.S. to 21 years and eight months in prison after he admitted providing weapons to drugfunded rebels.
Cliver Alcalá, 62, of Caracas was sentenced in Manhattan after pleading guilty last year to charges that he supported a terrorist group and gave weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — considered by the U.S. to be a foreign terrorist organization.
In a release after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Alcalá and his co-conspirators tried to weaponize cocaine by helping FARC with weapons as tons of drugs were shipped to the U.S.