Top federal prosecutor in Alaska says criminal probe underway over would-be spoiler Senate candidate

🔮 It is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber.

🔮 He said he regarded it as a “huge distraction” from his other work and appreciated that the investigation could be seen as political.

🔮 The Justice Department has historically sought to avoid major action before an election The law enforcement agency has a long-accepted practice of avoiding overt investigative actions against candidates in the weeks before an election, or other public steps that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome.

🔮 Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if provided by a parent or by someone else with the parent’s consent.

🔮 Both officials said the death toll was preliminary and could change.

🔮 Rodríguez deported Saab to the U.S. in May.

🔮 Emily Covington, a spokesperson for the department, said group boycotts among business competitors might violate U.S. law.

🔮 One judge at the center of the report, Patrick Schiltz, accused the government in January of ignoring roughly 100 court orders, stating in a ruling that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within DHS, "is not a law unto itself." Schiltz, nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, told the newspaper that the situation in Minnesota's federal court last winter "created a grave threat to the rule of law." In a Wednesday statement, Schiltz insisted he was "acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times." He noted a February advisory opinion from the Committee on Codes of Conduct reaffirming that federal judges may speak or write "on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence,'" stating: "That is exactly what I did." The complaint was delivered to the chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which supervises Minnesota federal courts. The Republican administration frequently attacks what it calls "activist judges" supposedly intent on thwarting Trump’s agenda. Yet some of the most critical and unfavorable court rulings have originated from jurists nominated by Trump and other Republican presidents.

🔮 WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, will tell lawmakers on Tuesday that he “will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.

🔮 Justice Department officials are pressing forward despite diGenova’s departure, with a flurry of subpoenas to former law enforcement and intelligence officials expected to yield grand jury testimony in the weeks ahead at the Fort Pierce, Florida, home court of a favored Trump-appointed federal judge.

🔮 Flint gave $500 over the summer to what he regarded as a long-shot campaign, saying he knew Dan J. Sullivan would have expenses and respected him for “throwing his hat in the ring.”

🔮 Rodríguez deported Saab to the U.S. in May.

🔮 David Rivera, a Republican, has remained behind bars since a jury convicted him in May on every count, which encompassed failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering through his efforts on behalf of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

🔮 "More fundamentally, the United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified "investigation" of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy," she wrote.

🔮 It added there would be no way to do that without violating voter privacy.

🔮 It is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber.

🔮 There’s also cynicism about whether participating in elections will make a difference.

🔮 Trump will travel to Wasilla, about 45 miles north of Anchorage, on Tuesday to rally support for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, whose unexpectedly competitive reelection race against Democrat Mary Peltola has become a GOP concern ahead of the November 3 midterms.

🔮 He said he will not be beholden to a “party boss” or party line, and he rankled some voters earlier in the campaign by not explicitly saying which party he would caucus with in the House if he were elected.

🔮 It’s a central theme of the Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, one of a handful expected to determine control of the chamber in the November elections.

🔮 California Democrats earlier this year worried they might get shut out of the state’s top-two primary for governor out of fears they were running too many candidates.