MIAMI — When deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro makes his first appearance in a New York courtroom Monday to face U.S. drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by another Latin American strongman toppled by U.S. forces: Panama’s Manuel Noriega.

Maduro was captured Saturday, 36 years to the day after Noriega was removed by American forces. And as was the case with the Panamanian leader, lawyers for Maduro are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of foreign state, which is a bedrock principle of international and U.S. law.

It’s an argument that is unlikely to succeed and was largely settled as a matter of law in Noriega’s trial, legal experts said. Although Trump’s ordering of the operation in Venezuela raises constitutional concerns because it wasn’t authorized by Congress, now that Maduro is in the U.S., courts will likely bless his prosecution because, like Noriega, the U.S. doesn’t recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

“There’s no claim to sovereign immunity if we don’t recognize him as head of state,” said Dick Gregorie, a retired federal prosecutor who indicted Noriega and later went on to investigate corruption inside Maduro’s government. “Several U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have called his election fraudulent and withheld U.S. recognition. Sadly, for Maduro, it means he’s stuck with it.”

Noriega died in 2017 after nearly three decades in prison, first in the U.S., then France and finally Panama. In his first trial, his lawyers argued that his arrest as a result of a U.S. invasion was so “shocking to the conscience” that it rendered the government’s case an illegal violation of his due process rights.

In ordering Noriega’s removal, the White House relied on a 1989 legal opinion by then-Assistant Attorney General Bill Barr, issued six months before the invasion. That opinion said the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force in international relations does not bar the U.S. from carrying out “forcible abductions” abroad to enforce domestic laws.

Supreme Court decisions dating to the 1800s also have upheld America’s jurisdiction to prosecute foreigners regardless of whether their presence in the United States was lawfully secured.

Barr’s opinion is likely to feature in Maduro’s prosecution as well, experts said.

Drawing parallels to the Noriega case, Barr on Sunday pushed aside criticisms that the U.S. was pursuing a change of government in Venezuela instead of enforcing domestic laws. As attorney general during the first Trump administration, Barr oversaw Maduro’s indictment.

“Going after them and dismantling them inherently involves regime change,” Barr said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview. “The object here is not just to get Maduro. We indicted a whole slew of his lieutenants. It’s to clean that place out of this criminal organization.”

There are differences between the two cases.

Noriega never held the title of president during his six-year de facto rule, leaving a string of puppets to fill that role. By contrast, Maduro claims to have won a popular mandate three times. Although the results of his 2024 reelection are disputed, a number of governments — China, Russia and Egypt among them — recognized his victory.

“Before you ever get to guilt or innocence, there are serious questions about whether a U.S. court can proceed at all,” said David Oscar Markus, a defense lawyer in Miami who has handled several high-profile criminal cases, including some involving Venezuela. “Maduro has a much stronger sovereign immunity defense than did Noriega, who was not actually the sitting president of Panama at the time.”

For U.S. courts, however, the only opinion that matters is that of the State Department, which considers Maduro a fugitive and has for months been offering a $50 million reward for his arrest.

The first Trump administration closed the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and broke diplomatic relations with Maduro’s government in 2019 after he cruised to reelection by outlawing most rival candidates. The administration then recognized the opposition head of the National Assembly as the country’s legitimate leader.

The Biden administration mostly stuck to that policy, allowing an opposition-appointed board to run Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, even as the U.S. engaged in direct talks with Maduro’s government that were aimed at paving the way for free elections.

“Courts are so deferential to the executive in matters of foreign policy that I find it difficult for the judiciary to engage in this sort of hairsplitting,” said Clark Neily, a senior vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute in Washington.

Another challenge that Maduro faces is hiring a lawyer. He and his wife, Cilia Flores, who also was captured, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.

The government in Caracas now led by Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, may want to foot the bill, but it is similarly restricted from doing business in the United States.

The U.S. has indicted other foreign leaders on corruption and drug trafficking charges allegedly committed while in office. Among the most noteworthy is Juan Orlando Hernández, former president of Honduras, who was convicted in 2024 for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Trump in November announced plans to pardon Hernández, a move that drew criticism from even some Republicans who viewed it as undercutting the White House’s aggressive counternarcotics strategy centered against Maduro.

The U.S. had requested Hernández’s extradition from Honduras a few weeks after he left office. After the arrest of Noriega, who had been a CIA asset before becoming a drug-running dictator, the Justice Department implemented a new policy requiring the attorney general to personally sign off on charging of any sitting foreign president, due to its implications for U.S. foreign policy.

Maduro may have a slightly stronger argument that he is entitled to a more limited form of immunity for official acts he undertook as at least a de facto leader since that question would not turn on whether he is a recognized head of state by the U.S.

But even that defense faces significant challenges, said Curtis Bradley, a University of Chicago Law School professor who previously served as a counselor of international law at the State Department.

The indictment accuses Maduro of facilitating the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by providing law enforcement cover, logistical support and partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world.”

“The government will argue that running a big narco-trafficking operation … should not count as an official act,” Bradley said.

___

Tucker reported from Washington.

DALTON, Ga. — President Donald Trump says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a traitor. But for Jackie Harling, who chairs the local Republican Party in Greene’s northwestern corner of Georgia, she’s still “mama bear.”

“Every thought that we had in our minds, she seemed to be very good at verbalizing,” Harling said.

Saying things that no one else would say may be Greene’s most durable legacy as she steps down on Monday, resigning halfway through her third term in Congress. First, it was her embrace of conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric, turning her into a national symbol of a political culture without guardrails. Then it was her willingness to criticize Trump, a schism that made her position in Washington untenable.

In interviews in Greene’s district, constituents described her over and over as a “fighter.” For Republicans like Harling, that was enough.

“We got a lot of satisfaction,” Harling said. “She was our voice.”

It was less satisfying for an independent like Heath Patterson, who struggled to think of ways that Greene’s fame and notoriety made a difference for her district during her time in the U.S. Capitol.

“I don’t know of anything that she did do here except, certainly, got her voice heard. But where did we, how did we benefit from that?” he said. “I don’t think we did.”

Greene began clashing with Trump last year, criticizing his focus on foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. The president eventually had enough, saying he would support a primary challenge against her. Greene announced a week later that she would resign.

She has kept up the criticism since then, including over Trump’s decision to strike Venezuela this weekend.

“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Greene wrote on social media on Saturday. “Boy were we wrong.”

The split was surprising because, until that point, Greene’s trajectory had mirrored Trump’s own rise to power. She didn’t become politically involved until his presidential campaign in 2016 and first ran for Congress in 2020. Greene considered trying to represent Georgia’s 6th congressional district, which includes the Atlanta suburbs, before relocating to the 14th, where the Republican incumbent was retiring.

She remained loyal to Trump after he lost to President Joe Biden, promoting his falsehoods about a stolen election. When Trump ran again in 2024, she toured the country with him and spoke at his rallies while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.

Her Georgia district is one of the most Republican-leaning in the state, although it wasn’t always that way. The region once backed Democrats like Zell Miller, a governor and U.S. senator who spearheaded Georgia’s lottery program that still bankrolls college scholarships and early childhood education programs.

But residents have felt left behind by years of change, said Jan Pourquoi, a Belgian native who emigrated in 1987, became a U.S. citizen and later won local office in Whitfield County.

His county’s population has grown by roughly by 32% since 1990, which pales in comparison to statewide growth of 74%. As the U.S. becomes more urban, secular, and diverse, Pourquoi said residents believe they’re “culturally oppressed.”

“They see themselves as great Americans, proud Americans, Christian Americans, and that doesn’t fit the American model anymore as they see it,” said Pourquoi, who said he left the Republican Party because of Trump. Greene exemplified the political backlash, which he summarized as “stick it to them — any possible way you can.”

Georgia leaders, like those in many other states, have spent years drawing congressional districts to pack like-minded voters together. That means in red areas, whoever wins the Republican primary is virtually guaranteed to come out on top in the general election, incentivizing candidates like Greene with more hardline views.

The political landscape means former Republicans like Pourquoi or independents like Patterson say they have no shot at helping a centrist win.

“I’m kind of square in the middle,” said Patterson, adding that it sometimes feels like he’s “the only one around here who’s that way.”

Whitfield County Republicans gathered at a local restaurant last month for their annual Christmas party, where seasonal decor and a visit from Santa Claus were intermingled with the red, white and blue regalia and a smattering of MAGA paraphernalia.

There was still deep affection for Greene and plenty of talk about the cultural issues she championed.

“I think it’s just the fact that she was unwavering in ‘America First,’” said Gavin Swafford, who worked on Greene’s initial campaign.

Swafford called her “an accountability representative” because of her clashes with Republican leaders.

Lisa Adams, a party volunteer, called Greene “our stand-up person.”

“Look at her stance on transgenderism. That’s a big one,” she said. “Abortion. That’s a big one.”

None of Greene’s inconsistencies — real or perceived — were a problem, they said.

For example, Greene has praised the Korean-owned solar panel factories in the district even after voting against Biden-era policies intended to boost production. She broke with Republicans, Trump included, and sided with Democrats who wanted to extend premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance customers.

None of the Republicans at the Christmas party expressed any interest in taking sides between Trump and Greene.

“I think it’s inevitable when you have two firebrands that are both stubborn,” Swafford said.

Asked whether the district missed having a more traditional lawmaker, the kind who might cut bipartisan deals and bring as much federal money as possible back home, Swafford was unconcerned.

“The biggest thing that Marjorie contributed wasn’t even in legislation,” he said.

Still, there was also a sense among some that Greene, for all her bare-knuckle politics, could have gone further.

Star Black, a Republican who is running to replace Greene, was already planning a primary challenge before she announced her resignation.

“You had a great representative who was a fighter. Well, you know what? I want to take it one step further,” Black said.

“Not only do you need a fighter,” Black said, “you need someone who is going to listen. You need someone who is going to represent you.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. immigration officials do not plan to detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia again as long as a judge’s order banning it stands, according to a Tuesday court filing.

The plans by President Donald Trump’s administration are the latest in the saga over the Salvadoran citizen’s case that has become a lightning rod for both sides of the immigration debate as he fights to remain in the U.S. after a mistaken deportation to his home country, where he was imprisoned.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did make clear they would detain Abrego Garcia if the order was lifted, Liana J. Castano, assistant director for field operations, wrote in the filing.

Trump officials have accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, but he has vehemently denied the accusations and has no criminal record. The administration brought him back to the U.S. in June under a court order, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis earlier this month questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Abrego Garcia back into immigration custody or deporting him.

Earlier Tuesday, a newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Abrego Garcia revealed that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority,” only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court to the human smuggling charges. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive, arguing the Trump administration is targeting him as punishment for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

To support that argument, he has asked the government to turn over documents that reveal how the decision was made to prosecute him in 2025 for an incident that occurred in 2022.

Abrego Garcia had recently been in immigration custody for three months before Xinis ordered his release on Dec. 11. In that time, the government said it planned to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia.

In her Dec. 11 order, Xinis found that immigration officials had no viable plan to remove Abrego Garcia from the U.S. and said he could not be held indefinitely. She issued a separate order barring ICE from re-detaining him, at least for the time being. After a hearing on the issue, Xinis ordered the government to file the brief they released Tuesday outlining whether they planned to detain Abrego Garcia again.

Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where he was pulled over for speeding with nine passengers in the car. State troopers discussed the possibility of human smuggling among themselves. However, he was ultimately allowed to leave with only a warning. The case was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations, but there is no record of any effort to charge him until April 2025, according to court records.

The newly unsealed Dec. 3 order from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw compelled the government to provide some documents to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys, although it does not give a lot of detail on their contents.

Earlier, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Abrego Garcia could be vindictive. He specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News program that seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he had won his wrongful deportation case.

Rob McGuire, who was the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to prosecute, and he has no animus against Abrego Garcia.

In the unsealed order, Crenshaw writes, “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he in fact reported to others in DOJ and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee released a statement saying: “The emails cited in Judge Crenshaw’s order, specifically Mr. McGuire’s email on May 15, 2025, confirm that the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute was made by career prosecutors based on the facts, evidence, and established DOJ practice. Communications with the Deputy Attorney General’s Office about a high-profile case are both required and routine.”

The email referenced was from McGuire to his staff saying Blanche “would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later,” according to Crenshaw’s order.

The order also shows that Aakash Singh, who works under Blanche in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, contacted McGuire about Abrego Garcia’s case on April 27, the same day that McGuire received a file on the case from Homeland Security Investigations. That was several days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Abrego Garcia’s favor on April 10.

On April 30, Singh said in an email to McGuire that the prosecution was a “top priority” for the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, according to the order. Singh and McGuire continued to communicate about the prosecution. On May 18, Singh wrote to McGuire and others to hold the draft indictment until they got “clearance” to file it. “The implication is that ‘clearance’ would come from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General,” Crenshaw writes.

A hearing on the motion to dismiss the human smuggling case on the basis of vindictive prosecution is scheduled for Jan. 28.

___

Associated Press journalist Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Salt Lake City.

PHOENIX — Former Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona on Tuesday announced his withdrawal from public life following a dementia diagnosis.

Kyl, 83, represented Arizona in both chambers of Congress for nearly three decades. Most of those years were in the Senate including a term as minority whip.

“My family and I now head down a path filled with moments of joy and increasing difficulties,” Kyl said in a statement. “I am grateful beyond expression for their love and support, in these coming days as in all the days of my life. Despite this diagnosis, I remain a very fortunate man.”

Kyl left the Senate in 2013 and joined the lobbying firm Covington and Burling. In 2018 he was appointed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a fellow Republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of former Sen. John McCain. Kyl served several months before rejoining the lobbying firm.

Kyl leveraged his expertise on water policy in Congress to gain approval of tribal water rights settlements, said Sarah Porter of Arizona State University. He was an “important participant” in negotiations that created the state’s water rules, said Porter, director of the university’s Kyl Center for Water Policy that is named after the former senator.

As a lobbyist, Kyl helped guide the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

DENVER — Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the former senator and U.S. representative of Colorado known for his passionate advocacy of Native American issues, died Tuesday. He was 92.

Campbell died of natural causes surrounded by his family, his daughter, Shanan Campbell, confirmed to The Associated Press.

Campbell, a Democrat who stunned his party by joining the Republican Party, stood out in Congress as much for his unconventional dress — cowboy boots, bolo ties and ponytail — as his defense of children’s rights, organized labor and fiscal conservatism.

A member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, Campbell said his ancestors were among more than 150 Native Americans, mostly women, children and elderly men, killed by U.S. soldiers while camped under a flag of truce on Nov. 29, 1864.

He served three terms in the House, starting in 1987. He then served two terms in the Senate, from 1993 to 2005.

Among his accomplishments was helping sponsor legislation upgrading the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in southern Colorado to a national park.

“He was a master jeweler with a reputation far beyond the boundaries of Colorado,” said Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper on X. “I will not forget his acts of kindness. He will be sorely missed.”

The motorcycle-riding lawmaker and cattle rancher was considered a maverick even before he abruptly switched to the Republican Party in March 1995, angry with Democrats for killing a balanced-budget amendment in the Senate. His switch outraged Democratic leaders and was considered a coup for the GOP.

“I get hammered from the extremes,” he said shortly afterward. “I’m always willing to listen … but I just don’t think you can be all things to all people, no matter which party you’re in.”

Considered a shoo-in for a third Senate term, Campbell stunned supporters when he dropped out of the race in 2004 after a health scare.

“I thought it was a heart attack. It wasn’t,” said Campbell. “But when I was lying on that table in the hospital looking up at all those doctors’ faces, I decided then, ‘Do I really need to do this six more years after I’ve been gone so much from home?’ I have two children I didn’t get to see grow up, quite frankly.”

He retired to focus on the Native American jewelry that helped make him wealthy and was put on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. He also worked on a line of outdoor gear with a California-based company, Kiva Designs, and became a senior policy adviser with the powerhouse law firm of Holland & Knight in Washington.

Campbell founded Ben Nighthorse Consultants which focused on federal policy, including Native American affairs and natural resources. The former senator also drove the Capitol Christmas Tree across the country to Washington, D.C., on several occasions.

“He was truly one of a kind, and I am thinking of his family in the wake of his loss,” said Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on X.

In 1982, he was planning to deliver his jewelry to California, but bad weather grounded his plane. He was killing time in the southern Colorado city of Durango when he went to a county Democratic meeting and wound up giving a speech for a friend running for sheriff.

Democrats were looking for someone to challenge a GOP legislative candidate and sounded out Campbell during the meeting. “Like a fish, I was hooked,” he said.

His opponent, Don Whalen, was a popular former college president who “looked like he was out of a Brooks Brothers catalog,” Campbell recalled. “I don’t think anybody gave me any kind of a chance. … I just think I expended a whole lot of energy to prove them wrong.”

Campbell hit the streets, ripping town maps out of the Yellow Pages and walking door to door to talk with people. He recalled leaving a note at a house in Cortez where no one was home when he heard a car roar into the driveway, gravel flying and brakes squealing.

The driver jumped out, tire iron in hand, and screamed that Campbell couldn’t have his furniture. “Aren’t you the repossession company?” the man asked.

“And I said, ‘No man, I’m just running for office.’ We got to talking, and I think the guy voted for me.”

Campbell went on to win and he never lost an election thereafter, moving from the Colorado House to the U.S. House and then the Senate.

Born April 13, 1933, in Auburn, California, Campbell served in the Air Force in Korea from 1951 to 1953 and received a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State University in 1957. He attended Meiji University in Tokyo from 1960 to 1964, was captain of the U.S. judo team in the 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal in the Pan American Games.

Campbell once called then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt a “forked-tongued snake” for opposing a water project near the southern Colorado town of Ignacio, which Campbell promoted as a way to honor the water rights of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes.

He clashed with environmentalists on everything from mining law and grazing reforms to setting aside land for national monuments.

Despite all this — or perhaps because of it — voters loved him. In 1998, Campbell won reelection to the Senate by routing Democrat Dottie Lamm, the wife of former Gov. Dick Lamm, despite his switch to the GOP. He was the only Native American in the Senate at the time.

He said he was criticized as a Democrat for voting with Republicans, and then pilloried by some newspapers for his stances after the switch.

“It didn’t change me. I didn’t change my voting record. For instance, I had a sterling voting record as a Democrat on labor. I still do as a Republican. And on minorities and women’s issues,” he said.

Campbell said his values — liberal on social issues, conservative on fiscal ones — were shaped by his life. Children’s causes were dear to him because he and his sister spent time in an orphanage when his father was in jail and his mother had tuberculosis.

Organized labor won his backing because hooking up with the Teamsters and learning to drive a truck got him out of the California tomato fields. His time as a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy in California in the late 1960s and early ’70s made him a law enforcement advocate.

His decision to retire from politics, Campbell said, had nothing to do with allegations that Ginnie Kontnik, his former chief of staff, solicited kickbacks from another staffer and that his office lobbied for a contract for a technology company with ties to the former senator.

He referred both matters to the Senate Ethics Committee. In 2007, Kontnik pleaded guilty to a federal charge of not reporting $2,000 in income.

“I guess there was some disappointment” with those charges, Campbell said. “But a lot of things happen in Washington that disappoint you. You just have to get over them because every day there’s a new crisis to deal with.”
___ This story has been corrected to remove a reference to a massacre occurring at Great Sand Dunes National Monument. The massacre that was referenced took place at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back on X, saying fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O’Neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation by going to unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

There have been years of investigations that included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program schemes are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants,” he said in a video posted on X. “Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

Adams said he spoke Monday with the director of Minnesota’s child care services office and she wasn’t able to say “with confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there’s fraud stretching statewide.”

Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somalia diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York City as the clock ticks over into 2026 — but the celebrations are set to last through New Year’s Day.

The Democrat’s team is planning two separate swearing-in ceremonies Thursday — a small, private one with his family in an old subway station around midnight, followed by a large event in the afternoon that will include a public block party outside City Hall.

As a new mayor’s term begins immediately with the new year, it has been customary for the city’s incoming leaders to hold two events. Outgoing mayor Eric Adams held his initial swearing-in at Times Square shortly after the famous ball drop, while Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, took his first oath at home in Brooklyn.

For his part, Mamdani will take his initial oath at the former City Hall subway station in Manhattan — one of the city’s original stops on its subterranean transit system, known for its tiled arches and vaulted ceilings.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political ally and notable foe of President Donald Trump, will administer the oath of office.

The old City Hall stop was designed as the flagship station of the city’s first subway line, but was decommissioned in 1945. These days, outside of occasional guided historical tours, locals can usually only catch a glimpse of it by staying on the 6 train after its last stop downtown when it turns around to head north.

In a statement, Mamdani’s office said the choice to be sworn in at the station reflected his “commitment to the working people who keep our city running every day.”

“When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 — one of New York’s 28 original subway stations — it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives,” Mamdani said.

“That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: it will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Mamdani will be sworn in again, this time by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of his political heroes, on the steps of City Hall in a ceremony scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another political ally, will deliver opening remarks.

Mamdani’s transition formed an inaugural committee that includes actor John Turturro, playwright Cole Escola and writer Colson Whitehead, as well as advocates, small business owners and campaign workers who the incoming mayor’s office says have “provided perspective, guidance, and cultural sensibility” for the ceremony.

The public swearing-in will be accompanied by a block party along a stretch of Broadway leading up to City Hall. Mamdani’s office expects thousands of people to attend and says there will be performances, music and interfaith elements.

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City just after midnight Thursday, taking the oath of office at an historic, decommissioned subway station in Manhattan.

Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in as the first Muslim leader of America’s biggest city, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath.

“This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said in a brief speech.

The private ceremony, administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political ally, took place at the old City Hall station, one of the city’s original subway stops that is known for its stunning arched ceilings.

In Mamdani’s first remarks as mayor, he said the old subway station was a “testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, the health and the legacy of our city” as he announced the appointment of his new Department of Transportation commissioner, Mike Flynn.

The new mayor then closed: “Thank you all so much, now I will see you later,” he said with a smile before heading up a flight of stairs.

Mamdani will be sworn in again, in grander style, in a public ceremony at City Hall at 1 p.m. by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes. That will be followed by what his office is billing as a public block party on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.

Mamdani now begins one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics as one of the country’s most-watched politicians.

In addition to being the city’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.

In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, the democratic socialist promised to bring transformative change with policies intended to lower the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. His platform included free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households, and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.

But he will also have to face other responsibilities: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.

He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.

Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, will depart their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.

Mamdani inherits a city on the upswing, after years of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic lows. Tourists are back. Unemployment, which soared during the pandemic years, is also back to pre-COVID levels.

Yet deep concerns remain about high prices and rising rents in the city.

He’ll also have to deal with Republican President Donald Trump.

During the mayoral race, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city.

But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to the White House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.

“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.

Still, tensions between the two leaders are almost certain to resurface, given their deep policy disagreements, particularly over immigration.

Mamdani also faces skepticism and opposition from some members of the city’s Jewish community over his criticisms of Israel’s government.

The new mayor and his team have spent the weeks since his election victory preparing for the transition, surrounding Mamdani with seasoned hands who have worked inside or alongside city government.

That included persuading the city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to remain in her position — a move that helped calm fears in the business community that the administration might be planning radical changes in policing strategy.

CONCORD, N.H. — The Trump administration can continue to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and other health centers that provide abortions as a coalition of mostly Democratic states challenges the cuts, a federal appeals court ruled.

The decision on Tuesday is one of multiple lawsuits filed after President Donald Trump signed tax breaks and spending cuts legislation in July that eliminated Medicaid reimbursement for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers that received more than $800,000 in 2023. The lawsuits include two filed in Massachusetts by 21 states and the District of Columbia and Planned Parenthood itself, and a third filed in Maine by a network of medical clinics there.

In the Massachusetts cases, a federal judge issued separate preliminary injunctions siding with Planned Parenthood in July and the coalition of states in early December. But an appeals court overturned the first order on Dec. 12 and put the second on hold Tuesday.

“Although we are disappointed in the court’s decision, we remain committed to holding the federal administration accountable and ensuring vulnerable Californians can access the health care they need,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Maine lawsuit has been dismissed at the request of the clinics that challenged the cuts.

Maine Family Planning, which operates 18 clinics in many of the poor and rural areas of the state, shut down its primary care operations in October due to the loss of funding.

In August, a federal judge ruled against restoring funding as the lawsuit proceeded, and the clinics appealed. But earlier this month, the network notified the court that it was ending the lawsuit.

“As the Trump administration has dismantled the nation’s health care system, we have remained focused on delivering high quality care to our patients, particularly those across rural Maine,” CEO George Hill said in a statement Wednesday. “Though our lawsuit will not continue, we are not wavering in our commitment to our patients and to advocating for the health care system that Mainers need and deserve.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented Maine Family Planning, said Wednesday that clinic leaders have decided to focus their resources on treating patients.

“The Trump administration on the other hand has no regard for patients or how the ‘big beautiful bill’ has made healthcare even harder to access in this country,” the center said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood, which did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, has said that nearly half its patients rely on Medicaid for health care aside from abortions, which were already not covered by the federal insurance program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. At least eight states have directed state funds to compensate Planned Parenthood for the lost funding, including Connecticut, where Gov. Ned Lamont recently announced $8.5 million for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

Tuesday’s court decision makes that kind of action even more important, said Connecticut Attorney General William Wong. He called the ruling a “disappointing setback,” but noted the legal process has a long way to go.

“This defunds essential, preventive healthcare, including cancer screenings, birth control, and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “We will keep fighting to protect access to essential healthcare and to keep partisan politics out of doctors’ offices.”

Health and Human Services press secretary Emily Hilliard said Wednesday the department doesn’t comment on litigation but added, “We remain committed to protecting the integrity of Medicaid programs to ensure full compliance with the law.”

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Associated Press writers David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Ed White in Detroit and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Democrat Renee Hardman was elected to the Iowa state Senate on Tuesday in a year-end special election, denying Republicans from reclaiming two-thirds control of the chamber.

Hardman bested Republican Lucas Loftin by an overwhelming margin to win a seat representing parts of the Des Moines suburbs. The seat became vacant after the Oct. 6 death of state Sen. Claire Celsi, a Democrat.

Hardman, the CEO of nonprofit Lutheran Services of Iowa and a member of the West Des Moines City Council, becomes the first Black woman elected to the 50-member Senate.

“I want to recognize that while my name was the one on the ballot, this race was never just about me,” Hardman told a room of supporters in West Des Moines after declaring victory.

With 99% of votes counted, Hardman led by about 43 percentage points.

Her win is the latest in a string of special election victories for Iowa Democrats, who flipped two Senate seats this year to break up a supermajority that had allowed Republicans to easily confirm GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds’ appointments to state agencies and commissions.

Democrat Mike Zimmer first flipped a seat in January, winning a district that had strongly favored Republican President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. In August, Democrat Catelin Drey handily defeated her GOP opponent in the Republican stronghold of northwestern Iowa, giving Democrats 17 seats to Republicans’ 33. Celsi’s death brought that down to 16.

Republicans would have regained two-thirds control with a Loftin victory Tuesday. Without a supermajority, the party will need to get support from at least one Democrat to approve Reynolds’ nominees. The GOP still has significant majorities in both legislative chambers.

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, called Hardman’s victory “a major check on Republican power.”

“With the last special election of the year now decided, one thing is clear: 2025 was the year of Democratic victories and overperformance, and Democrats are on track for big midterm elections,” Martin said.

In November the party dominated the first major Election Day since Trump returned to the White House, notably winning governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey. Democrats held onto a Kentucky state Senate seat this month in a special election. And while Republican Matt Van Epps won a Tennessee special election for a U.S. House seat, the relatively slim margin of victory gave Democrats hope for next year’s midterms. The party must net three House seats in 2026 to reclaim the majority and impede Trump’s agenda.

Loftin, a tree trimmer turned data manager, congratulated Hardman and told The Associated Press he’s praying for her as she embarks on this important chapter.

Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann applauded Loftin and his supporters for putting up a fight in what he described as “a very tough district.” Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 3,300 voters, or 37% to 30%.

“Although we fell short this time, the Republican Party of Iowa remains laser-focused on expanding our majorities in the Iowa Legislature and keeping Iowa ruby-red,” Kaufmann said.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee pledged Tuesday to help defend the party’s gains in Iowa and prevent the return of a GOP supermajority next year.

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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.