Missouri has escalated its attempt to seize Chinese government-owned property across the United States, asking the Trump administration for help collecting on a roughly $25 billion court judgment related to the COVID-19 pandemic that Beijing has flatly rejected. Missouri is asking the U.S. State Department to formally notify China that the state intends to pursue assets with full or partial Chinese government ownership to satisfy the judgment, state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said. The move stems from a lawsuit alleging China hoarded personal protective equipment during the early months of the pandemic, harming Missouri and its residents. A federal judge ruled for Missouri earlier this year after China declined to participate in the trial, calling the lawsuit “ very absurd ” when it was filed in 2020. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier this year that its actions during the pandemic aren’t subject to U.S. jurisdiction and it doesn’t recognize the ruling. Some legal experts have cast doubt on whether Missouri can collect on the judgment, because federal law generally shields foreign nations from lawsuits in U.S. courts. Hanaway said she expects a long process. “We think the state was damaged. We want to recover,” Hanaway said. “It costs money to provide health care and other benefits to people as a result of the epidemic.” As a first step, Hanaway's office sent a letter on Nov. 19 to federal court asking it to forward copies of the judgment to the Secretary of State's Office to be served on China. She said her office is still assembling a list of Chinese properties that could be targeted. She said Missouri is focusing on properties wholly owned by the Chinese government, as well as those owned by companies in which the Chinese government has a stake. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement on Nov. 19 that China's policies and measures during the pandemic were “acts of national sovereignty and are not subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.” “The so-called pandemic compensation lawsuits fabricated by certain forces in the U.S. ignore basic objective facts and violate fundamental legal principles; they are purely malicious frivolous lawsuits and political manipulation, with extremely sinister intentions,” Pengyu said. “China firmly opposes them and will not accept any so-called default judgments.” The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case has taken an unusual path. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh initially dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, saying Missouri couldn’t sue China or the other defendants. But an appeals court allowed one part of the lawsuit to proceed: the allegation that China hoarded personal protective equipment, such as respirator masks, medical gowns and gloves. After Chinese officials didn’t respond, Limbaugh accepted Missouri’s estimate of past and potential future damages of more than $8 billion, tripled it as federal law allows, and added 3.91% interest until it’s collected. The lawsuit was originally filed by state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Trump ally who subsequently won election to the U.S. Senate. It was carried on by Attorney General Andrew Bailey, another Trump ally who resigned in September to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Hanaway, a former U.S. attorney and Missouri House speaker, inherited the case when she was appointed AG by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.

Harvard University is reinvestigating connections between its former President Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein, a university spokesperson said on Nov. 19. The university didn't mention Summers by name, but the decision to reopen a probe follows the release of emails showing that Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, maintained a friendly relationship with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008. “The University is conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted,” spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement first reported by The Boston Globe and The Harvard Crimson. An earlier review completed in 2020 found that Epstein visited Harvard’s campus more than 40 times after his 2008 sex crimes conviction and was given his own office and unfettered access to a research center he helped establish. The professor who provided the office was later barred from starting new research or advising students for at least two years. Summers said on Nov. 18 that he’s stepping back from public commitments. His office said that includes resigning from the board of directors of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress,” he said in a statement. The board of OpenAI said it appreciated Summers’ contributions and perspective. Summers joined the OpenAI board in November 2023, part of an effort to restore stability at the nonprofit and bring back its CEO Sam Altman after its previous board members fired Altman days earlier. Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, was a convicted sex offender infamous for his connections to wealthy and powerful people, making him a fixture of outrage and conspiracy theories about wrongdoing among American elites. Summers served as Treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under President Clinton. He was Harvard’s president for five years from 2001 to 2006. When asked about the emails recently, Summers issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgement.”

President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows, and others accused of backing the Republican's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The “full, complete, and unconditional" pardon for dozens of Trump allies are largely symbolic. It applies only to federal crimes, and none of the people named in the proclamation was ever charged federally over the bid to subvert the election won by Democrat Joe Biden. It doesn't affect state charges, though state prosecutions stemming from the 2020 election have hit a dead end or are just limping along. The move, however, underscores Trump’s continued efforts to promote the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him even though courts around the country and Trump's own attorney general at the time found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome. Reviews, recounts and audits of the election in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss also affirmed Biden's victory. Trump's recent action follows the sweeping pardons of the hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of attacking law enforcement. Ed Martin, the Department of Justice's point-man on pardons and a former lawyer for Jan. 6 defendants, linked his announcement of the pardons to a post on X that read “No MAGA left behind.” Dozens of Trump allies received pardons Among those also pardoned were Sidney Powell, an attorney who promoted baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election, John Eastman, another lawyer who pushed a plan to keep Trump in power, and Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official who championed Trump’s efforts to challenge his election loss. Also named were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump and were charged in state cases accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden's victory in those states. The proclamation explicitly says the pardon does not apply to the president himself, who has continued to repeat the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, used that falsehood to argue for sweeping changes in the way the country votes, and demanded his DOJ investigate the vote count that led to his loss. The pardon described efforts to prosecute the Trump allies as "a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation.” Giuliani and others have denied any wrongdoing, arguing they were simply challenging an election they believed was tainted by fraud. “These great Americans were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden Administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement. Those pardoned were not prosecuted by the Biden administration, however. They were charged only by state prosecutors who operate separately from the DOJ. An Associated Press investigation after the 2020 election found 475 cases of potential voter fraud across the six battleground states, far too few to change the outcome. Impact of pardons is limited Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, was one of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud after the 2020 election. He also is an example of the limited impact of the pardons. Giuliani has been disbarred in Washington, D.C., and New York over his advocacy of Trump’s bogus election claims and lost a $148 million defamation case brought by two former Georgia election workers whose lives were upended by conspiracy theories he pushed. Since pardons only absolve people from legal responsibility for federal crimes, they're unlikely to ease Giuliani's legal woes. Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, said the former mayor “never sought a pardon but is deeply grateful for President Trump’s decision.” “Mayor Rudy Giuliani stands by his work following the 2020 presidential election, when he responded to the legitimate concerns of thousands of everyday Americans,” Goodman said in an emailed statement. While the pardons may have no immediate legal impact, experts warned they send a dangerous message for future elections. “It is a complete abdication of the responsibility of the federal government to ensure we don’t have future attempts to overturn elections,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor. “Ultimately, the message it sends is, ‘We'll take care of you when the time comes.’” Some pardoned were co-conspirators in Trump's federal case Trump himself was indicted on federal felony charges accusing him of working to overturn his 2020 election defeat, but the case brought by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith was abandoned in November after Trump's victory over Democrat Kamala Harris because of the department's policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Clark were alleged co-conspirators in the federal case brought against Trump but were never charged with federal crimes. Giuliani, Meadows and others named in the proclamation had been charged by prosecutors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin over the 2020 election, but the cases have repeatedly hit roadblocks or have been dismissed. A judge in September dismissed the Michigan case against 15 Republicans accused of attempting to falsely certify Trump as the winner of the election in that battleground state. Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University Law School in Southern California, was a close adviser to Trump in the wake of the 2020 election and wrote a memo laying out steps Vice President Mike Pence could take to stop the counting of electoral votes while presiding over Congress’ joint session on Jan. 6 to keep Trump in office. Clark, who is now overseeing a federal regulatory office, also is facing possible disbarment in Washington over his advocacy of Trump's claims. Clark clashed with DOJ superiors over a letter he drafted after the 2020 election that said the department was investigating “various irregularities” and had identified “significant concerns” that may have affected the election in Georgia and other states. Clark said in a social media post on Nov. 10 that he “did nothing wrong” and “shouldn't have had to battle this witch hunt for 4+ years.”