Washington
Two lawsuits challenge Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads, alleging they violate propaganda law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two lawsuits filed Wednesday challenged President Donald Trump’s recent series of federally funded television advertisements, which promote his political message while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
The Democratic National Committee was first to sue the Republican administration, alleging the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accusing Trump of personally directing them. Later Wednesday, a coalition including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause filed a separate lawsuit, also alleging an illegal misuse of funds.
Both complaints asked federal judges to stop the use of federal funds to pay for the ads. The lawsuits represented the first legal challenges to the TV spots, which have faced bipartisan backlash for glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign message with November’s midterm elections less than a month away.
The ads, which began airing in September, already have cost more than $12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $20 million contract for the campaign.
Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended them as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d start paying for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.
But on Tuesday, a fifth ad began airing with a notice it was paid for by the U.S. government. It promoted Trump’s military actions to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”
DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”
A person familiar with the ad campaign who was not authorized to speak publicly said the ad buys placed prior to Trump’s pledge to start paying for them with his super PAC will end this week. Outside groups will begin to pay at that point, the person said.
The second lawsuit was filed by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward on behalf of Common Cause, a New York public employee union and a Democratic state legislative candidate in Alabama.
Taxpayers “shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the president’s politics,” said Skye Perryman, who leads Democracy Forward.
Omar Noureldin, senior vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, said his organization doesn’t trust that Trump will stick to outside money for future ads. He cited Tuesday’s new ad as proof that the government-sponsored ads were still being scheduled.
Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a $175 million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. But the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren’t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs. One of the ads is a near replica of a 2024 ad that Trump ran during his presidential reelection campaign.
Mississippi
Curtis Flowers, a Black man whose death sentence was tossed by Supreme Court, dies at 56
Curtis Flowers, a Black man who spent more than 22 years in prison and was on death row in Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence, has died. He was 56.
Flowers’ family confirmed that he died Wednesday at his home in Mississippi, attorney Rob McDuff told The Associated Press Thursday.
No cause of death was given, said McDuff, who was part of Flowers’ legal team.
Flowers was 26 when he was arrested several months after the July 1996 shooting deaths of four people inside a Winona, Mississippi, furniture store.
At the time, prosecutors described him as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store’s owner because she fired him and withheld most of his pay to cover the cost of merchandise he damaged. Nearly $300 was found missing after the killings.
Flowers was tried in the killings six times. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the high court’s 7-2 decision in 2019 that the removal of Black prospective jurors deprived Flowers of a fair trial.
During the sixth trial in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death. There were 11 white jurors and one Black juror who considered the case after District Attorney Doug Evans struck five Black prospective jurors.
Flowers remained in prison for six months after the Supreme Court ruling because he was still under indictment. He finally was released in December 2019 after a judge set bond.
Mississippi dropped charges against Flowers in September 2020.
The legal team that represented Flowers for more than two decades said Thursday in a statement that each member feels “privileged to have called him a client.”
The trials stretched back more than 20 years. The records showed Evans’ “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals,” with the goal of an all-white jury, Kavanaugh wrote.
In the earlier trials, three convictions were tossed out, including one when the prosecutor improperly excluded African Americans from the jury. In the second trial, the judge chided Evans for striking a juror based on race. Two other trials ended when jurors couldn’t reach unanimous verdicts.
Kavanaugh noted that Evans had removed 41 of the 42 prospective black jurors over the six trials.
Flowers filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Evans and three investigators who worked with the district attorney. The suit claimed Evans and the investigators engaged in misconduct, including “pressuring witnesses to fabricate claims about seeing Mr. Flowers in particular locations on the day of the murders” and ignoring other possible suspects.
Earlier that year, a judge ordered the state of Mississippi to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment — the maximum under a state law that allows up to $50,000 a year for 10 years.
Evans retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as district attorney. His jury selection tactics had been scrutinized for years.
Flowers’ name is “etched into U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence — about what it means to fight for a fair trial free from racial bias in the selection of jurors,” Flowers’ legal team said.
Two lawsuits challenge Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads, alleging they violate propaganda law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two lawsuits filed Wednesday challenged President Donald Trump’s recent series of federally funded television advertisements, which promote his political message while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
The Democratic National Committee was first to sue the Republican administration, alleging the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accusing Trump of personally directing them. Later Wednesday, a coalition including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause filed a separate lawsuit, also alleging an illegal misuse of funds.
Both complaints asked federal judges to stop the use of federal funds to pay for the ads. The lawsuits represented the first legal challenges to the TV spots, which have faced bipartisan backlash for glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign message with November’s midterm elections less than a month away.
The ads, which began airing in September, already have cost more than $12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $20 million contract for the campaign.
Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended them as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d start paying for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.
But on Tuesday, a fifth ad began airing with a notice it was paid for by the U.S. government. It promoted Trump’s military actions to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”
DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”
A person familiar with the ad campaign who was not authorized to speak publicly said the ad buys placed prior to Trump’s pledge to start paying for them with his super PAC will end this week. Outside groups will begin to pay at that point, the person said.
The second lawsuit was filed by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward on behalf of Common Cause, a New York public employee union and a Democratic state legislative candidate in Alabama.
Taxpayers “shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the president’s politics,” said Skye Perryman, who leads Democracy Forward.
Omar Noureldin, senior vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, said his organization doesn’t trust that Trump will stick to outside money for future ads. He cited Tuesday’s new ad as proof that the government-sponsored ads were still being scheduled.
Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a $175 million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. But the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren’t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs. One of the ads is a near replica of a 2024 ad that Trump ran during his presidential reelection campaign.
Mississippi
Curtis Flowers, a Black man whose death sentence was tossed by Supreme Court, dies at 56
Curtis Flowers, a Black man who spent more than 22 years in prison and was on death row in Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence, has died. He was 56.
Flowers’ family confirmed that he died Wednesday at his home in Mississippi, attorney Rob McDuff told The Associated Press Thursday.
No cause of death was given, said McDuff, who was part of Flowers’ legal team.
Flowers was 26 when he was arrested several months after the July 1996 shooting deaths of four people inside a Winona, Mississippi, furniture store.
At the time, prosecutors described him as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store’s owner because she fired him and withheld most of his pay to cover the cost of merchandise he damaged. Nearly $300 was found missing after the killings.
Flowers was tried in the killings six times. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the high court’s 7-2 decision in 2019 that the removal of Black prospective jurors deprived Flowers of a fair trial.
During the sixth trial in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death. There were 11 white jurors and one Black juror who considered the case after District Attorney Doug Evans struck five Black prospective jurors.
Flowers remained in prison for six months after the Supreme Court ruling because he was still under indictment. He finally was released in December 2019 after a judge set bond.
Mississippi dropped charges against Flowers in September 2020.
The legal team that represented Flowers for more than two decades said Thursday in a statement that each member feels “privileged to have called him a client.”
The trials stretched back more than 20 years. The records showed Evans’ “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals,” with the goal of an all-white jury, Kavanaugh wrote.
In the earlier trials, three convictions were tossed out, including one when the prosecutor improperly excluded African Americans from the jury. In the second trial, the judge chided Evans for striking a juror based on race. Two other trials ended when jurors couldn’t reach unanimous verdicts.
Kavanaugh noted that Evans had removed 41 of the 42 prospective black jurors over the six trials.
Flowers filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Evans and three investigators who worked with the district attorney. The suit claimed Evans and the investigators engaged in misconduct, including “pressuring witnesses to fabricate claims about seeing Mr. Flowers in particular locations on the day of the murders” and ignoring other possible suspects.
Earlier that year, a judge ordered the state of Mississippi to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment — the maximum under a state law that allows up to $50,000 a year for 10 years.
Evans retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as district attorney. His jury selection tactics had been scrutinized for years.
Flowers’ name is “etched into U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence — about what it means to fight for a fair trial free from racial bias in the selection of jurors,” Flowers’ legal team said.
