MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to South Carolina on Friday to make a last-minute appeal for Sen. Darline Graham, his chosen candidate to replace her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, ahead of a Republican runoff next week.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether Graham or Rep. Ralph Norman will be Republicans’ nominee on the November ballot.

The Myrtle Beach rally is an opportunity for the president to wade into friendly territory ahead of the midterm elections that leave his party’s control of Congress hanging in the balance. South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in decades, its House delegation has only one Democrat and Mr. Trump’s own victory in the 2016 presidential primary here helped propel him toward the nomination and ultimately the White House.

NEW YORK (AP) — Black nonprofit fundraisers are turning to their own communities for support this month, stressing everyday donors’ power at a time when philanthropy is growing more concentrated among the affluent and some major funders have de-prioritized diversity in their grantmaking.

The BackBlack initiative has directed more than $12 million toward Black-led nonprofits over the past three years, according to founder Floyd Jones. A GivingTuesday -style campaign that runs in August, the appeal invites online donation platforms to center typically underfunded, Black-led nonprofits. Last year’s efforts drew more than 130,000 unique donors, according to Jones, with the majority of their gifts falling under $100.

This year, for the first time, organizers are also leveraging content creators to reach a new audience: Black Gen Zers. The goal is to show that philanthropy belongs to them, too — not just the historically wealthier and predominantly white charitable institutions that tend to dominate narratives about philanthropy.

“Our people have always taken care of our people,” Jones said. “I want people to feel empowered.”

The campaign could bring a boost for smaller, Black-led organizations that, according to research released earlier this year, saw no significant changes to their funding after the racial reckoning of 2020. Only a subset of larger nonprofits got temporary increases in the years that followed, according to an analysis by Candid and ABFE.

BackBlack aims to flip that narrative from one of “deficit” to one of abundance. Jones is heartened by the example of Madam C.J. Walker, a Black beauty entrepreneur widely considered America’s first female self-made millionaire. She supported Black educational efforts such as Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and African American branches of the YMCA. She also contributed to the NAACP ‘s anti-lynching fund shortly before her death in 1919.

Jones doesn’t care if today’s donors have millions in their bank accounts, though. “It’s about doing your best,” he said.

One of BackBlack’s partnering creators pointed to the Free African Society. The nondenominational Philadelphia group, founded in 1787 by Black leaders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, was one of the country’s first mutual aid organizations.

“We’ve always had to pool our money and resources to help each other,” said Ernest Crim III, a former schoolteacher who posts Black history videos for his 118,000 Instagram followers.

But, he added, allies must also pitch in — especially in communities that “might not have the sustainable market or income to consistently give.”

Crim is asking followers to support Black nonprofits that work on issues of youth employment. Other participating pages are focused on nonprofits providing sports access, improving health outcomes and ensuring civil rights.

Matching up to $6,000 in donations is For Good, a charitable giving platform that helps move money from more than 20,000 donor-advised funds to over a million nonprofits filtered by ZIP code. GivingTuesday manages BackBlack’s data, Jones said. Other partners include online fundraising platforms GiveButter, Every.org, Bonterra and Fundraise Up.

For Good provides back end infrastructure for consumer-based campaigns including YouTube’s fundraising pages and Patagonia’s point-of-sale donations. The creator-driven donation strategy stemmed from the platform’s success with YouTubers who launch fundraisers for the issues they discuss in their videos.

Grassroots fundraisers face competing headwinds, according to For Good interim president Tamara Mahal. The concentration of wealth has increased the share of high net worth individuals in the donor pool. But, she said, there are more ways than ever to give locally from the bottom up.

She welcomes the BackBlack campaign’s efforts to include more small-dollar givers so that nonprofits aren’t overly beholden to any one individual benefactor.

“The cause is important in and of itself. Find a nonprofit that’s doing work in your community,” she said. “And that will actually help us to diversify.”

Kaci Patterson is the founder of Social Good Solutions, a social impact consulting firm that works with funders to build support for Black-led organizations outside of “trend funding.” She finds that Black Philanthropy Month, celebrated in August, is a reminder that philanthropy is more than just “institutional” giving “held within the walls of wealth and power.”

It was fish fries and chicken dinners, she noted, that funded alternative transportation systems during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Growing up, her own family received groceries from their community during times of hardship.

“That was philanthropy. That was someone else looking at us and investing in us and wanting us to be whole and wanting us to be well,” she said. “We’ve always had this kind of ‘we got us’ philanthropy. Let’s step into that role more confidently.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Donald Trump heads to South Carolina on Friday to campaign for Darline Graham, a political novice whose unexpected bid for a six-year U.S. Senate term will test the president’s influence in a heavily Republican state.

Trump will appear at an evening rally for Graham at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, days after the sitting senator tripped over a basic question about U.S. foreign policy in a debate this week with U.S. Representative Ralph Norman, her opponent in next Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff.

“I’m just going to be honest here. I’m not that informed on national security,” Graham replied to the astonishment of the debate audience, when asked if Taiwan and the South China Sea are national security issues for the United States. “National security is not my thing.”

Graham, 62, specialized in services for the disabled before Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed her to fill the seat of her late brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. The late senator had been a leading voice on U.S. foreign policy and a staunch Trump supporter before he died last month of a heart ailment. Darline Graham’s current term runs until early January. 

But Trump’s endorsement of her decision to seek a full six-year Senate term in November’s congressional elections rankled some South Carolina Republicans, who criticized the move as an attempted “coronation” of a candidate with no political experience.

“Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not. This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate,” former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Norman supporter, said on X.

Graham defended her debate response in a later Fox News interview. “I don’t speak politician. I was just honest. And I think that’s kind of a foreign concept,” she said, arguing that South Carolina voters are more concerned about the cost of living, transgender issues, gun rights and immigration. 

Norman, 73, a longtime real estate developer, is a leading conservative who has spent nearly a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives. He mounted an unsuccessful bid for governor, finishing third in the June primary.

Graham and Norman emerged from a Republican field of 10 candidates in a special August 11 Senate primary. With Trump’s endorsement, Graham bested Norman 32.8% to 24.6% but fell well short of the clear majority needed to win the contest outright. 

The winner of Tuesday’s runoff will face Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who had more than $4.1 million in her campaign war chest at the end of June. Control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate is up for grabs in November’s midterm elections.

The Republican nominee is favored to win the South Carolina Senate seat. Trump carried South Carolina by nearly 18 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

(Reporting by David Morgan; editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Alistair Bell)

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to South Carolina on Friday to make a last-minute appeal for Sen. Darline Graham, his chosen candidate to replace her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, ahead of a Republican runoff next week.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether Graham or Rep. Ralph Norman will be Republicans’ nominee on the November ballot.

The Myrtle Beach rally is the sort of campaign trail occasion that Trump hasn’t done as much of this year, compared with past midterms, making it a signal of the importance Trump is placing on a win for his pick.

It’s also an opportunity for the president to wade into friendly territory ahead of the midterm elections that leave his party’s control of Congress hanging in the balance. South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in decades, its House delegation has only one Democrat and Trump’s own victory in the 2016 presidential primary here helped propel him toward the nomination and ultimately the White House.

In the scramble of a special Republican primary election that was called after Lindsey Graham’s sudden death last month, Darline Graham was picked by Gov. Henry McMaster — also a Trump ally — to serve as interim senator and entered the special primary at Trump’s urging. The president had said he told McMaster that appointing her would be a “fabulous tribute to Lindsey,” although the governor pointed out that he asked Graham to serve “in the wee hours” after her brother’s death, adding that Trump “thought it was a great idea” when he later told him of his pick.

The president pressed “RUN DARLINE, RUN” on social media, and gave her his “Complete and Total Endorsement” before she’d officially announced her campaign. And at every turn on the campaign trail, she’s reminded voters of this anointing, as well as her commitment to advancing his priorities if elected. On the eve of the primary two weeks ago, he held a tele-rally for Graham.

Trump also considered Lindsey Graham a close ally and friend, though they ran against each other in 2016 and had their ups and downs, so part of the visit is personal for Trump. He eulogized his longtime golfing partner and wartime consigliere at Washington National Cathedral last month.

A political newcomer, Graham has stressed that she’s “not a politician,” as she’s hurriedly introduced herself to voters across the state. Regularly touting her support for Trump’s policies, as well as his endorsement, she has pointed to her years heading up a state agency, as well as her weeks on the job in the U.S. Senate, as evidence of her readiness.

Saying she’s “answering President Trump’s call to serve,” she has repeatedly said she wants “to fight for President Trump’s agenda” and cited his core goals of border security and passing the SAVE Act voting bill as among her top priorities.

Graham has said she’s focused on kitchen table issues like gas prices and household spending rather than international affairs. Earlier this week, after stumbling on an elemental foreign policy question related to U.S. interests in Taiwan, Graham defended herself as “not a polished politician up here.”

Trump has made no comment on the gaffe, which garnered attention after Graham told moderators, “National security is not my thing.”

By meeting voters in Myrtle Beach, both Trump and Darline Graham are aiming to capitalize on a growing part of the state that’s known to be deeply conservative, loyal to Trump and full of new residents.

It’s also the home district of Rep. Russell Fry, the House ally whose name Trump had floated as an “outstanding” possible replacement for Graham after the senator’s death. Elected to the House in 2022 with Trump’s help, Fry ousted a five-term GOP congressman who had voted to impeach Trump a year earlier.

Running in the Senate primary, Fry touted his support for and previous backing from the president, but was hampered by the absence of it in this race. Finishing third, he swiftly endorsed Graham, a calculated move for the 41-year-old, two-term congressman, who, dating to the origins of his 2022 election, has seen the ramifications for some Republicans who have crossed Trump.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

MIDDLETOWN, OHIO (AP) — Vice President JD Vance will return to his hometown Friday to campaign for Republican candidates at the same steel plant where his grandfather used to work.

Vance is set to speak at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works facility, which was known as Armco Steel when his grandfather James Vance worked there for nearly 40 years.

Vance has highlighted his Rust Belt rootswhile trying to boost GOP candidates ahead of the November midterm elections and to promote the Trump administration’s economic policies and efforts to try to expand U.S. manufacturing. The Middleton event comes as he’s expected to ramp up his travel schedule with more public events and fundraisers, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly and discussed it on condition of anonymity.

In a radio interview Thursday on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” Vance said Friday’s stop will be “personally very meaningful” because of his family connection. He said it was “an amazing opportunity for me to go talk about, frankly, plants like this wouldn’t exist were it not for some of the Trump administration’s economic policies.”

Vance, who will be joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said he will also use the visit to stop by some Cincinnati chili restaurants.

In his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance described the steel plant as an economic savior for his family that brought his grandparents from Kentucky’s hills into the American middle class. He described how his grandfather, known to his grandchildren as Papaw, would boast when he saw an old Ford or Chevy that its steel was made by his company.

His grandson’s election as vice president of the United States spurred pride in the Midwestern city, though Vance has faced some pushback to his portrayal of it in the book. He said kids “derisively called it ‘Middletucky’” when he was a child because it had so many transplants like his family. He said they brought problems with them from Kentucky such as drug addiction, ”Mountain Dew mouth” and problematic fathers.

In the 2024 election, Trump and Vance won about 62% of the vote in the city’s precincts. His mother, Beverly Aikins, and his sister still live in Middletown.

Ohio has lost its political bellwether status and turned red during the Trump era, but Democrats see a chance to win both the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat from Republican hands this year as anti-Trump sentiment buoys their party.

Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to replace Vance in the Senate, is trying to hold on to his seat against a challenge from former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a longtime Ohio politician with a pro-working class message who lost his reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago.

Brown has capitalized on public opposition to data centers in the campaign and aired ads calling Husted the “face of data centers in Ohio.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, warned in a memo this week that backlash to the centers has left Husted vulnerable.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Vance ally, is the party’s nominee for governor in a race against Democrat Amy Acton. Democrats have not won the Ohio governor’s office in two decades.

Vance, whose family still keeps a home in Cincinnati where they sometimes spend weekends, is making his first public visit since his fourth child was born in July.

As part of his plans for ramping up his travel schedule, his office announced a trip Monday to Brewer, Maine, where former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is running against Democrat Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, in a competitive House district.

___

Price reported from Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Michigan Senate race is drawing attention not only because of the candidates involved, but because of the voters crossing party lines.

Republican candidate Mike Rogers recently held a press conference in Detroit with supporters who identify as Democrats. Their message was straightforward: They may still call themselves Democrats, but they no longer feel represented by today’s Democratic Party.

Among those speaking was Michigan state Representative Karen Whitsett, who said she was a lifelong Democrat until March, when she decided the party had moved too far away from her values.

Whitsett focused much of her criticism on Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his support for eliminating private health insurance in favor of a Medicare for All system.

Her warning was blunt.

“If you enjoy going to the ER now and sitting for six hours,” Whitsett said, “get ready to enjoy that a whole lot longer, because you may be sitting there for six weeks.”

She argued that a government-run system could give officials greater control over where patients receive care, what services are available, and how medical decisions are made.

“You say you don’t want government in your business,” Whitsett said. “Well, the government will be controlling your healthcare. They will control everything.”

From the perspective of Rogers supporters, that is the central issue in this election: whether Michigan families should keep choices in their own hands or place more authority with the government.

Democrats have promised major healthcare fixes before. Obamacare was presented as a solution that would make coverage more affordable and improve access. But many Americans still face high premiums, expensive deductibles, and long waits for care.

So when Democrats now promise that another government-led healthcare plan will solve those problems, skepticism is understandable.

Why should voters believe the latest promise when previous promises failed to deliver?

That concern could be especially important among working-class and Black voters, groups Abdul El-Sayed reportedly struggled to win during the Democratic primary. Whitsett’s appearance with Rogers suggests that some voters are looking beyond traditional party labels and focusing instead on issues such as healthcare, government control, and personal choice.

And Whitsett is not the only Democrat supporting Rogers.

Fox 2 Detroit anchor Roop Raj recently observed that Rogers is actively courting Black voters and Democrats who remain undecided about the November election. Raj noted that signs reading “Democrats for Rogers” are appearing online and in neighborhoods across the state.

Of course, lawn signs do not determine election results. But in a close race, they can reveal energy, organization, and enthusiasm.

For Rogers supporters—including many Republicans and former Democrats—the message is that this election is not simply about party loyalty. It is about common sense, individual freedom, and resisting the expansion of government into everyday life.

And if Democrats continue losing voters who once supported them for generations, those voters could become decisive when Michigan goes to the polls.

By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump had a warm public reunion on Thursday with Michael Cohen, his former fixer turned foe whose court testimony contributed to Trump’s 2024 conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial.

Cohen, who is seeking a pardon, interviewed Trump on his New York radio program. He called Trump “boss” and gave a six-minute monologue on friendship and forgiveness.

In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison — and served more than a year — for a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — as well as for other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress.

Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsification of business records to conceal the Daniels payment, in part due to Cohen’s testimony. He has denied the encounter with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, and is appealing the ruling.

Trump was represented in the hush-money trial by Todd Blanche, now the U.S. attorney general. In court, Blanche called Cohen the “GLOAT,” meaning the “greatest liar of all time.”

“How do two men who spent years in an all-out public war hurling verbal and legal missiles across a massive canyon ever come back to the same room?” Cohen said. “We forgave.”

Trump, who is seeking political allies ahead of the November midterm elections, then greeted his former fixer of 15 years with a convivial: “Hello Michael. How are you, Michael?”

“I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” said Trump, who spoke to Cohen from the White House.

Cohen aired excerpts from a pre-recorded interview that focused on Trump’s favorite themes, including his campaign against immigrants and his disdain for unfavorable polls. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the interview, more of which is to be aired on Sunday. 

After Trump won re-election later in 2024, a federal appeals court ordered the Manhattan judge in the hush-money trial to review more closely how the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in July 2024 giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution affected the New York case.

Cohen ended the interview segment in song, crooning a lyric from the 1978 R&B song by Peaches & Herb: “Reunited, and it feels so good…”

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Donna Bryson and Edwina Gibbs)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California state Sen. Aisha Wahab will serve out the rest of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term after securing victory Thursday in a special election.

Swalwell, a Democrat who was running for California governor, ended his campaign and resigned from Congress in April after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment, which he denies. Wahab will represent the state’s 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Alameda County on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, through Swalwell’s term ending in January.

She will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress. The progressive Democrat defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez even after a swell of spending by outside groups opposing Wahab in the race’s final stretch. She said her victory shows her district “cannot be bought.”

“I will fight for this district that raised me,” Wahab said in a statement. “From foster care to Congress, this journey shows the possibility of the American Dream.”

The conclusion of the race to replace Swalwell comes as criminal investigations continue into the sexual assault allegations he faces. Over the weekend, federal agents seized electronic devices from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport and later searched his home in Washington, D.C., according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Swalwell’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.

Wahab became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the U.S. when she won a Hayward City Council seat in 2018.

She has championed housing affordability and access in her time in the Legislature and throughout her campaign. She also wrote a bill in 2023 to ban caste-based discrimination, which garnered national attention. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, saying such discrimination is already outlawed by civil rights protections.

Wahab and Hernandez will face off again in a separate November election determining who will serve the next full two-year term.

Wahab won the June primary decisively, but outside spending in favor of her rival poured into the race ahead of the general election.. Groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent millions into supporting Hernandez, and thousands into opposing Wahab.

At a candidate forum in April, Wahab answered “yes” when asked if she considered “what is happening to the Palestinian people” to be a genocide.

Hernandez did not give a straight yes or no answer. She said Israel had a right to defend itself following the October 2023 attack by Hamas but that “the destruction into Gaza has gone too far.”

Hernandez, a moderate Democrat, said she was proud to put up a competitive fight after Wahab’s success in the primary.

“I’ve been a fighter my whole life, and when I promised the residents of CA-14 I would fight for them, I never gave up,” she said in a statement.

___

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.

By Richard Cowan and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Democrat Aisha Wahab, a member of the California state Senate, was projected on Thursday to win a special election to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to multiple U.S. media outlets.

Wahab defeated Democrat Melissa Hernandez, an official with the San Francisco Bay Area mass transit system.

Once sworn in, Wahab, an Afghan American, will fill the seat that was held by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. That will give Democrats 213 seats in the House, while Republicans will hold 218.

The solidly Democratic district is near San Francisco and San Jose. Wahab will be the first Afghan American member of the U.S. Congress. The progressive Democrat was also the first Muslim woman and Afghan American elected to the state legislature.

Wahab had over 53% of the votes while Hernandez secured about 47% with 95% of the votes tallied, according to NBC News.

United Democracy Project, a super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, spent nearly $2.5 million since early August to boost Hernandez, according to the Washington Post and multiple other media reports.

The lobbying group has become a focus of criticism in some Democratic primary contests this year during intra-party tensions over candidates’ positions on Israel.

Prominent ​progressive Democrats have opposed U.S. support for ‌Israel ⁠over the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close ties to Republicans, and particularly over Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, leading to an erosion of Democratic backing for Washington’s ally.

Wahab and Hernandez will again face each other in November. The winner of that election will hold the congressional seat for a full two-year term.

Wahab, who has positioned herself as a state lawmaker aiming to reduce inequality, had authored a bill that would have made California the first U.S. state to explicitly ban caste discrimination. It was vetoed in 2023 by Governor Gavin Newsom, who said existing laws already banned ancestry discrimination.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Stephen Coates)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department investigators have sought to interview law enforcement officials related to the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a Florida-based inquiry aiming to establish a conspiracy against the Republican president, multiple people familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The requests for interviews, made in recent weeks, suggest that a conspiracy investigation that had mostly appeared focused on the decade-old question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is also examining a more contemporary event — the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago that resulted in the FBI seizing top secret documents from the president’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate.

The requests were for voluntary interviews and not made through subpoenas, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation with The Associated Press.

It is not clear when or if prosecutors might seek to bring charges, or for what, but investigating conduct that occurred in Florida might give the Justice Department the legal hook it needs to try to anchor a prosecution in the state.

Joe diGenova, the prosecutor brought back to the Justice Department in April to oversee the investigation, declined to comment when contacted by AP on Thursday. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump was indicted in 2023 on charges of unlawfully retaining classified documents and of obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. But the case was dismissed the following year after a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, ruled that the prosecutor who brought the indictment, Jack Smith, had been illegally appointed.

Trump has long maintained that law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against him over the last decade, drawing a straight line between an investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign and the more recent investigations related to his retention of classified documents and his efforts to undo the 2020 election.

The Justice Department has for months conducted an investigation in Florida in hopes of proving wrongdoing by the officials involved in scrutinizing Trump.

Much of the questioning known to have occurred so far has centered on the government response to Russian interference in the 2016 election and the creation of an intelligence community assessment that documented the extent of the meddling.

It was not immediately clear why investigators want to question FBI officials in connection with the Mar-a-Lago search, but the act has long infuriated Trump, who decried it as an invasion of privacy.

In addition, congressional Republicans have long seized on accounts of tension between FBI officials and senior Justice Department leaders before the search to raise questions about whether there was an adequate justification for it, though the law enforcement dispute centered not on whether investigators had gathered sufficient evidence for a search but rather on whether there was a less dramatic and intrusive way to recover the records.