Jim Jordan defends Kushner after Hunter Biden raises Saudi deals

 House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) defended former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Thursday after Hunter Biden, during testimony with House lawmakers, raised questions about his foreign dealings.

Jordan said the scrutiny of Kushner, who was also an adviser to Trump, was “ridiculous.”

“The idea that Jared Kushner did something wrong is ridiculous,” Jordan told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling during a Wednesday night appearance on “The Balance.”

“I mean, the Trump family has been investigated more than any family on the planet, and what they’ve attempted to do to President Trump and been doing to President Trump over the last seven years is unbelievable,” Jordan said.

Hunter Biden appeared for a closed-door deposition Wednesday, where he was grilled by Republicans about his foreign business deals. During the process, the president’s son flipped the question back on the GOP interrogators.

“He drew the distinction between what he has done in a business world with independent businessmen, versus foreign governments, which he did not do any business with — unlike Jared Kushner,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday during a break in the testimony.

During his time in the Trump White House, Kushner oversaw Middle East policy. He secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia six months after leaving his Oval Office post, a deal that raised questions.

The scrutiny intensified after a 2022 New York Times report detailed how the Saudi sovereign’s advisory panel was not supportive of investing in Kushner’s private equity firm, pointing to “the inexperience of the … management.” The doubts were quashed by a bigger advisory board led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an ally of the Trump administration.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), the other House Republican spearheading the probe into Hunter Biden, said in August that Kushner “crossed the line of ethics” by accepting a $2 billion investment.

However, Comer drew a distinction at the time between the two cases, saying Kushner secured the funds after leaving office, while Hunter Biden’s deals came through while his father was the vice president.

Democrats opened a probe into Kushner when they held the majority in the lower chamber. The investigation was dropped when the GOP took back the majority.

France will order 100 drones for Ukraine

 France will order 100 drones from the French company Delair that will arrive in Ukraine this summer, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu announced on Feb. 29.

"Through an innovative program, France is ordering 100 remotely operated munitions from Delair, which will arrive in Ukraine this summer," Lecornu stated on X. "In total, 2,000 remotely operated munitions will be ordered from our defense industry. For the needs of our armies and the needs of Ukraine."

Drones have been a key tool in Ukraine's defense against Russia's war. In his nightly address on Jan. 29, President (Volodymyr) Zelensky noted that one of Ukraine's top priorities for 2024 is the production of drones.

Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov previously said the intensity of drone use and minefields "made it impossible" for both Russia and Ukraine to conduct offensive operations.

Budanov also highlighted the importance of electronic warfare systems to counter enemy drones, which Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi had called “the key to victory in the drone war.”

Lecornu's announcement comes after French President Emmanuel Macron held a summit on Ukraine in Paris, convening 20 European heads of state and other Western officials. The meeting included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda as well as leaders from the Baltic states.

Navalny's family is laying the opposition leader to rest after his death in prison

 Relatives and supporters of Alexei Navalny are bidding farewell to the opposition leader at a funeral Friday in southeastern Moscow, following a battle with authorities over the release of his body after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

His supporters say several churches in Moscow refused to hold the service before Navalny’s team got permission from one in the capital’s Maryino district, where he once lived before his 2020 poisoning, treatment in Germany and subsequent arrest on his return to Russia.

The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which agreed to hold the service, did not mention it on its social media page. Police on Thursday were seen putting crowd-control barriers at the church.

Burial was to follow in the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, where police also were seen Thursday.

His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days trying to get authorities to release the body following his Feb. 16 death at Penal Colony No. 3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Authorities originally said they couldn't turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests. Navalnaya, 69, made a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin to release the body so she could bury her son with dignity.

Once it was released, at least one funeral director said he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, the spokeswoman for Navalny's team, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media. They also were unable to find a hearse for the funeral.

“Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh said Thursday.

Russian authorities haven’t announced the cause of death for Navalny, 47, who crusaded against official corruption and organized big protests as Putin’s fiercest political foe. Many Western leaders blamed the death on the Russian leader, which the Kremlin rejected.

It was not immediately clear who among Navalny’s family or allies would attend the funeral, with many of his associates in exile abroad due to fear of prosecution in Russia. Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated as “extremist organizations” by the Russian government in 2021.

The politician’s team said the funeral would be streamed live on Navalny’s YouTube channel.

His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to block a public funeral.

“We don’t want any special treatment — just to give people the opportunity to say farewell to Alexei in a normal way,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on X. In a speech to European lawmakern Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, she also expressed fears that police might interfere with the gathering or would "arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband.”

Moscow authorities refused permission for a separate memorial event for Navalny and slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday, citing COVID-19 restrictions, politician Yekaterina Duntsova said Thursday. Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, was shot to death as he walked on a bridge adjacent to the Kremlin on the night of Feb. 27, 2015.

Yarmysh also urged Navalny's supporters around the world to lay flowers in his honor Friday.

“Everyone who knew Alexei says what a cheerful, courageous and honest person he was,” Yarmysh said Thursday. “But the greater truth is that even if you never met Alexei, you knew what he was like, too. You shared his investigations, you went to rallies with him, you read his posts from prison. His example showed many people what to do when even when things were scary and difficult.”

Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that his funeral had initially been planned for Thursday — the day of Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation address — but no venue agreed to hold it then.

In an interview with the independent Russian news site Meduza, Zhdanov said authorities had pressured Navalny’s relatives to “have a quiet family funeral.”

Google India may remove apps including Matrimony.com for not paying fee

 BENGALURU (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's Google has warned it may remove the apps of 10 companies in India, including of Matrimony.com and Info Edge, for not paying a service fee for the use of its app store platform in India, two sources said.

Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani said it had received a notice from Google and was compliant with Play Store policies.

"There are no pending invoices of Google with us. All have been paid in a timely manner," he said.

Google, which said it is removing apps of 10 companies, did not name any in a blog post where it detailed the move.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Matrimony.com was one of the companies. Matrimony.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matrimony.com shares fell as much as 2.7% after the news before paring some losses, while Info Edge dropped 1.5%.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by Jamie Freed and Tom Hogue)

'No, No, No, Absolutely Not': Mitt Romney Has Crystal Clear Message For Trump

 Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Wednesday night that there’s no chance he’d vote for Donald Trump in November’s election.

“No, no, no, absolutely not,” he said when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he could cast a ballot for the former president.

He said he considers both policy and character when choosing “the person who is the example of the president for my kids and my grandkids.”

Trump’s a mixed bag on policy: Though Romney agrees with much of the former president’s domestic agenda, he said he disagrees with him on foreign policy.

“But there’s another dimension besides policy, and that’s character,” Romney said. “And I think what America is as a nation, what has allowed us to be the most powerful nation on Earth and the leader of the Earth, is the character of the people who have been our leaders, past presidents, but also mothers, fathers, church leaders, university presidents and so forth.”

That’s where Trump falls well short of the mark, he said.

“Having a president who is so defaulted of character would have an enormous impact on the character of America. And for me, that’s the primary consideration.”

Romney didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and he said last year he would likely make the same decision at the polls in November should Trump be the nominee.

“It’s pretty straightforward. It’s the same thing I’ve done in the past. I’ll vote for Ann Romney, who’ll be a terrific president,” he said on CNBC, referring to his wife.

Collins: Would you vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden?

Romney: No, absolutely not. pic.twitter.com/76cNW4hkzb

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 29, 2024

Romney and Trump have had a contentious relationship for years. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, delivered a speech in 2016 urging his party to reject Trump, whom he slammed as a “phony” and a “fraud.”

“He’s playing the American public for suckers,” he said at the time.

When Trump won, however, Romney infamously sat for an awkward dinner with him, reportedly in hopes of being named secretary of state. When that didn’t pan out, he ran for Senate. Since winning that election, he has consistently criticized Trump and was one of just seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.

Romney is retiring from the Senate rather than run for reelection this year.

Reporter Asks Hunter Biden Offensive Question After Hearing

 Hunter Biden was asked by a reporter Wednesday if cocaine found at the White House in July was his ― just after his lawyer complained that House Republicans were more interested in Biden’s drug issues than asking pertinent questions in their impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. (Watch the video shared by Mediaite below.)

The president’s son had just finished closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill when his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told the media: “It seems to me that the Republican members wanted to spend more time talking about my client’s addiction than they could ask any question that had anything to do with what they call their impeachment inquiry,” Lowell said.

As the attorney and the president’s son exited, a journalist blurted out, “Mr. Biden, was the cocaine at the White House yours?!” Hunter did not reply.

A bag of cocaine was discovered in July at the White House, triggering speculation about the source. Donald Trump accused both Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden of using the stash. But the Secret Service said it could not finger the culprit.

On Wednesday, Hunter Biden gave a deposition in the House GOP’s inquiry tied to questionable corruption allegations against the president. Republicans accuse the president of benefiting from his son’s business deals when he was vice president but have not come up with solid evidence.

Trump loses bid to pause $454.2 million judgment in NY civil fraud case

 NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump on Wednesday lost a bid to pause a $454.2 million civil fraud judgment against him for overstating his net worth and real estate values to dupe lenders, meaning he must soon find the cash or post a bond to prevent New York authorities from seizing his property while he appeals.

The decision by Associate Justice Anil Singh of the New York Appellate Division must be affirmed by a full panel of the mid-level state appeals court. Singh granted Trump's request for a stay of a portion of Justice Arthur Engoron's Feb. 16 decision barring the former president from running any New York corporation or seeking loans from the state's banks for three years.

Trump's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Singh's decision.

In asking for the stay earlier on Wednesday, Trump's lawyers said he is unable to post a bond for the full amount of the judgment while he appeals and wants instead to secure a $100 million bond. A bonding company would be on the hook for any payout if Trump loses his appeal and proves unable to pay.

Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, the Trump Organization and other defendants in 2022 in state court in Manhattan, accusing them of falsifying the values of Trump's properties to obtain better terms from lenders and insurers. A three-month trial over the claims ended in January.

In their filing with the Appellate Division, Trump's lawyers said a stay of Engoron's decision was needed because Trump would suffer "irreparable harm" if James were free to sell his real estate assets to raise capital to pay the judgment.

The lawyers also said the "exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond."

They said a $100 million bond, together with Trump's "vast" real estate holdings and ongoing oversight by a court-designated monitor for the Trump Organization, would be more than sufficient to secure the judgment.

But Singh's decision means Trump may now apply for a loan to help post a bond.

In a separate filing on Wednesday, James opposed a stay, calling it "especially inappropriate" given the defendants "all but concede" that Trump does not have enough liquid assets to satisfy the judgment.

"These are precisely the circumstances for which a full bond or deposit is necessary, where defendants' approach would leave (the attorney general's office) with substantial shortfalls once this court affirms the judgment," James wrote.

Both sides are expected to submit more written arguments in the coming weeks, and a decision could come after March 18.

RISK OF EVASION

James also said there was "substantial risk" that Trump might not pay up, or might move assets beyond her reach, if he loses his appeal. She cited the defendants' having "surreptitiously" concealed from the monitor a $40 million transfer, and Trump's recent announcement that some of his businesses had moved to Florida.

Trump has estimated his net worth in the billions of dollars, but much of that is in real estate, not cash.

Engoron imposed a $354.9 million penalty against Trump, plus daily interest that began to accrue in 2019. The payout had grown to $454.2 million with interest by Feb. 22, and additional interest is tacked on each day.

Trump is also seeking to avoid posting a full bond during an expected appeal of last month's $83.3 million defamation verdict in favor of the writer E. Jean Carroll. He has asked the judge in that case to let him appeal without posting any security, or alternatively by posting at most a $24.5 million unsecured bond.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Will Dunham, Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis and Noeleen Walder)

Hunter Biden asks GOP: What about Jared Kushner?

 As Republicans grilled Hunter Biden on Wednesday about his business deals overseas, the president’s son turned the question back on his interrogators.

He asked GOP lawmakers about foreign investments secured by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Trump, shortly after he left the White House, according to Democrats participating in the closed-door deposition.

“He drew the distinction between what he has done in a business world with independent businessmen, versus foreign governments, which he did not do any business with — unlike Jared Kushner,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said during a break in the testimony.

Among other roles, Kushner oversaw Middle East policy in the Trump White House, and he raised plenty of eyebrows when he secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia six months after leaving public service.

The scrutiny mounted further when The New York Times reported that the advisory panel for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund had recommended against investing in Kushner’s newly launched private equity firm, citing “the inexperience of the … management.” The advice was overruled by a larger board led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a close ally of the Trump administration.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the questioning throughout the morning has been largely cordial, but Hunter Biden became “assertive” when invoking the Kushner episode.

“He may be a little bit frustrated by some of the double standards relating to Jared Kushner and money that’s just been openly pocketed by Donald Trump in office,” Raskin said. “And Jared Kushner of course brought back $2 billion from Saudi Arabia. And all of that has been a part of the conversation, and he was assertive about that.”

When Democrats controlled the House, they opened an investigation into Kushner’s deal with Saudi Arabia. It was dropped when Republicans flipped the chamber and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) took the reins of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is now leading the impeachment investigation into Biden.

Still, Democrats said there appeared to be agreement among at least some Republicans when Hunter Biden brought up Kushner’s Saudi deal.

“There’s no cameras in there, [so] Donald Trump ain’t watching, right?” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.). “For the first time Republicans said they do have a problem with that. But they should do something about it.”

Comer and the other Republicans in the room have largely declined to comment during breaks throughout Wednesday’s deposition, including on the topic of Kushner’s overseas business ventures.

Hunter Biden’s appearance on Capitol Hill has been long anticipated and comes months into House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden. That multipronged probe has centered on the younger Biden’s business activities, alleging he used his father’s influence to orchestrate a web of shady overseas business ventures.

In his opening statement, Hunter Biden refuted the allegations.

“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business. Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never,” Biden said during his opening statement.

India begins replacing military personnel with civilians in response to Maldives' demand

 NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Thursday said it has begun replacing dozens of its military personnel in Maldives with civilian technical staff who will operate three aircraft given by India to provide humanitarian services.

The first batch of technicians to operate a helicopter has reached Maldives, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The decision comes after new Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu demanded that the Indian military personnel be withdrawn by March 15.

At least 75 Indian military personnel are believed to be in Maldives. Their known activities include transporting patients from remote islands and rescuing people at sea. India earlier gave Maldives a Dornier airplane and two helicopters.

Tensions between India and Maldives have grown since pro-China Muizzu came to power last year.

The Maldives Foreign Ministry said last month that officials from the two countries had agreed that India would complete the withdrawal of its troops by May 10.

After taking office, Muizzu visited China ahead of India and said Maldives’ small size is not a license for anyone to bully it. His comments were an apparent response to calls on social media in India for tourists to boycott Maldives after three Maldives deputy ministers made derogatory posts about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The dispute began in January when Modi posted pictures on X, formerly known as Twitter, of himself strolling on the beach and snorkeling in Lakshadweep, an Indian archipelago that his government believes has untapped tourism potential.

Some in Maldives saw it as an attempt to lure tourists away from its sandy white beaches and luxury island resorts.

Muizzu suspended the deputy ministers, saying their comments did not reflect government policy. However, Muizzu announced plans after returning from China to end Maldives’ dependence on India and find alternate places for Maldivians to obtain education and health services and import food and medicine.

Trump throws Truth Social tantrum demanding all cases against him "must be immediately halted"

 Donald Trump began his Monday raging about the slew of civil and criminal trials mounting against him, bemoaning specifically local trials like the New York criminal case set to start at the end of March. The former president recently attended a hearing in that case, which was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and charges him with 34 felony counts related to alleged hush-money payments he made to an adult film actress in 2016. The presiding judge denied Trump's request to dismiss the case and set a March 25 trial date.

Despite a triumphant Saturday following his win in South Carolina's GOP primary, Trump's slate of legal troubles seemed to take center stage for him Sunday. Just before midnight, he took to Truth Social to praise a Fox News show he was viewing about his New York state fraud case, in which he was ordered to pay $355 million in penalties — now $454 million with interest, and encouraged his followers to watch the rerun at 3 a.m. Eastern time. "Wow! The Mark Levin Show just showed how Unconstitutional and unfair the NYSAG CASE against me is," Trump said in the post. "A TOTAL HOAX — ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL!"

Trump hopped back on the app at 6:30 am Monday to demand all trials, including Bragg's, be "halted" and falsely saddle President Joe Biden with blame for his prosecution. "Why didn’t they bring these FAKE Charges THREE YEARS AGO? That would have solved all of their problems," the former president wrote in part. "(The answer is that they AIMED for the various trials to come up during my campaign for President, 2024!)."

"In other words, all of these FAKE POLITICAL PROSECUTIONS (PERSECUTIONS!) OF CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT MUST BE IMMEDIATELY HALTED!" he concluded. In addition to the nearly three dozen felony charges against him in New York, Trump faces 57 other criminal charges from two federal cases and a Georgia racketeering case.

NASCAR legend Richard Petty becomes seventh Republican to disavow endorsement

 NASCAR legend Richard Petty is not endorsing Christian Castelli’s 2024 campaign, his family announced over the weekend.

In doing so, the King becomes the seventh Republican to withdraw an endorsement in North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District race.

Throughout the 2024 election cycle, Castelli’s campaign has been circulating a video of Petty calling Castelli “a leader who will fight for North Carolina values” and offering his “support” of Castelli.

But eagle-eyed watchers might have noticed that the video was first posted on Castelli’s YouTube channel on Aug. 23, 2022, well before Castelli lost the 2022 election to Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro.

And Petty’s family told McClatchy Monday the video was created for the 2022 cycle.

Rumors of an endorsement amiss

Castelli’s opponent, former Rep. Mark Walker, questioned the validity of Petty’s endorsement to McClatchy as far back as Jan. 26, while defending himself against his own false endorsement allegations.

The Castelli campaign said Petty endorsed twice in two different cycles. Around the same time, McClatchy also started looking into rumors that the Petty family wasn’t happy with Castelli using the video this time around.

Castelli told McClatchy Monday what seemed to set off the Petty family was that a social media post went viral Friday that included the video.

On Saturday afternoon, Rebecca Petty Moffitt, Petty’s daughter and the executive director of The Petty Family Foundation, sent a written statement to McClatchy.

“Richard Petty has not endorsed any candidate for the 2024 Republican Primary,” Moffitt said. “Richard is a life-long conservative and has always been heavily involved in Republican politics but he has not made any primary endorsements in this election.”

Castelli was clearly frustrated by the situation when reached by phone Monday morning.

“This has only become an issue in the last two weeks when people started paying attention to the primary,” Castelli told McClatchy. “And this happens to be a very contentious primary here in NC06. I don’t want to be mischaracterized or anybody to make implications that I have lied or I’m presenting endorsements that I don’t have. That’s not what I do. That’s what Mark Walker does.”

Walker’s involvement?

Walker, who served as a music minister before representing the 6th district for three terms beginning in 2015, has also been accused of faking endorsements. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Markwayne Mullin and Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Matt Gaetz have either pulled their endorsements of Walker, or said they never gave him one in the first place.

Asked if he wanted to respond to Castelli’s comments, Walker said in a text message to McClatchy, “I love Richard Petty and NASCAR. Yesterday’s race in Atlanta was an incredible photo finish. We don’t anticipate the same for the 6th District.”

Walker’s comments could be taken as a bit tongue-in-cheek, as many believe Walker could be the race’s front-runner, but also wonder if he can secure enough votes to avoid a runoff election.

“Richard Petty has a lot of handlers,” Castelli said. “They’re probably feeling pressure from the Mark Walker camp. They probably supported him in the past. This was not an issue when I was the Republican nominee.”

Walker knows Petty. His social media accounts includes many photos with the King. But it’s unclear whether Walker has that kind of influence.

And Moffitt said she’s unaware of any pressure from Walker.

Regardless, Castelli lashed out after hearing about Moffitt’s statement over the weekend. North State Journal, who first reported on it Saturday, quoted Castelli saying that the Pettys “don’t know much about politics.”

Richard Petty’s influence

Petty is influential in Republican politics, especially in North Carolina. He served on the Randolph County Board of Commissioners, supports Republicans through a political action committee, has given over $40,000 to federal candidates outside the PAC, ran for North Carolina secretary of state and stumped for former President Donald Trump. He is not someone a Republican candidate wants to upset.

Castelli said Petty was the first person he asked during the 2024 cycle to renew his 2022 endorsement. He said they met at an event organized by Victory Junction, a charity founded by Petty’s family.

“He was the first person that I asked to renew his endorsement and the answer I got was yes, but it was many months ago, and I don’t think quite honestly that they realized we were in primary season,” Castelli said. “As soon as the last general was over we were in primary season again, and I asked them very early on at that event.”

Castelli provided McClatchy an email Monday from December, in which he said he was reminding Moffitt that her father agreed to renew his endorsement and that he had recirculated the endorsement video. She wrote back “Good News. Good Luck and Merry Christmas.”

Castelli said it wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when he asked for Petty to do a 30-second voice message robocall, that he knew something changed.

“The response I got was, ‘This close to the primary, Richard would prefer not to do it,’” Castelli said. “And I thought, ‘OK, what’s going on here?’”

His campaign continued using Petty’s endorsement in literature they posted online and did not remove him from their online endorsement list.

First Freedoms Fund

A Greensboro-based political action committee, First Freedoms Foundation, posted Petty’s endorsement Friday.

This isn’t the first time the super PAC has landed Castelli in a situation where he’s had to answer for his endorsements.

In late January, the PAC circulated a video Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson recorded in 2022 endorsing Castelli’s congressional campaign against Manning, which he lost when the district favored a Democrat to win. The way the video was posted made it appear as if it were from 2024.

Robinson immediately put out a statement that he did not endorse Castelli in the 2024 cycle and threatened legal action.

Castelli said he is not behind the super PAC.

He added that he thinks a lot of the confusion regarding endorsements has happened because initially Walker planned to run for governor, but when he saw there wasn’t a viable path forward, he switched to a congressional race.

He said that has left some of their mutual supporters conflicted on who to endorse, and others confused on who is running against whom.

Castelli and Walker are two of six Republicans vying for the party’s nomination on March 5. The other four include former lobbyist Addison McDowell, former N.C. State football player Bo Hines, former High Point Mayor Jay Wagner and plastic surgeon Mary Ann Contogiannis. No Democrat is running in this district.