The Latest: Trump to announce VP pick Friday morning in NYC

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign ahead of the Republican and Democratic national conventions (all times EDT):

9:20 p.m.

Donald Trump says he will announce his choice for running mate at 11 a.m. Friday in Manhattan.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee posted the news on Twitter Wednesday night, adding, “Details to follow.”

Trump, his adult children and key staffers have been meeting with vice-presidential prospects all week. The top names under consideration include Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

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6:25 p.m.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says the unusually charged delivery of his speech introducing Donald Trump this week was a preview of what’s to come if he is chosen as Trump’s running mate.

He says that, “continuing to lay out this choice to the American people is part of what campaigns are all about.”

Pence says Trump did not extend an offer to him.

He added that his breakfast meeting with Trump and his family was also unexpected. Trump was supposed to fly out of Indianapolis, but had mechanical troubles with his plane, presaging the series of meetings Trump held in Indianapolis.

He says he was “hauling dishes out of the cupboard at midnight” the night before to prepare for the Trump family’s arrival the next morning.

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5:47 p.m.

Bernie Sanders has opted against picking a fight over the party platform at the Democratic National Convention.

A spokesman for the Vermont senator said Wednesday that Sanders will not seek more platform changes in Philadelphia, after winning significant concessions during a meeting in Orlando over the weekend.

Sanders succeeded in pushing the Democratic platform in a more liberal direction. The draft, which will be voted on at the convention, includes a $15 federal minimum wage, steps to break up large Wall Street banks and support for an end to the death penalty. Sanders failed to add language explicitly opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, but that issue is thorny because even though Clinton has also come out against it, President Barack Obama favours the deal.

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3:33 p.m.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s public criticism of Donald Trump is dividing legal experts over whether the leader of the court’s liberal wing should recuse herself in any future case involving him.

In an interview with the Associated Press last week Ginsburg said she doesn’t want to think about the possibility of a Trump presidency. In subsequent interviews with other media outlets Ginsburg said Trump is a “faker” who “really has an ego.”

Trump fired back on Twitter, saying the 83-year-old justice’s “mind is shot” and she should resign.

Ethics experts told AP that Ginsburg likely ran afoul of rules barring federal judges from endorsing or opposing political candidates. But those rules aren’t binding on Supreme Court justices, who are the final arbiters of their own legal ethics.

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3:03 p.m.

The Republican Party chairman is suggesting that GOP rebels support Donald Trump.

Wednesday’s remarks by GOP Chairman Reince Priebus came as the 168-member Republican National Committee gathered for the first time in Cleveland. Some dissidents are organizing an uphill effort to try heading off Trump’s nomination.

Priebus did not address the rebellion directly, but he said that that if the party remained divided, it would open the door to a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Either back Trump, Priebus is suggesting to delegates, or “get comfortable with the phrase, ‘President Hillary Clinton.’”

Priebus spoke at a preliminary meeting of the GOP national convention, a day before members of the rules committee are expected to consider changing the nomination process so delegates can back any candidate they wish.

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2:44 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seeking $10 million in damages from a former senior campaign consultant, Sam Nunberg, alleging that Nunberg leaked confidential information to reporters in violation of a nondisclosure agreement.

In a court filing obtained by The Associated Press, Nunberg accuses Trump of trying to silence him “in a misguided attempt to cover up media coverage of an apparent affair” between senior campaign staffers. The document cited a New York Post story about a public quarrel between the staffers published last month.

The legal dispute reflects Trump’s efforts to aggressively protect the secrecy of his campaign’s inner workings. The case is spelled out in court documents that sought to block private arbitration proceedings that Trump initiated in May.

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2:39 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is holed up in a downtown Indianapolis hotel meeting with several of his potential running mates as he finalizes his choice.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of Trump’s finalists, travelled to Indiana Wednesday and was spotted with Trump’s entourage.

Sen. Jeff Sessions was also spotted arriving at the hotel not long after Gingrich left.

Trump, his eldest children and aides also met with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence at the governor’s mansion Wednesday morning.

Trump tells Fox News channel he’s getting closer to his decision.

He says, “I’m narrowing it down. I mean I’m at three, potentially four. But in my own mind, I probably am thinking about two.”

Trump met Tuesday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family.

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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Ginsburg’s name in short headline.

The Associated Press