Jury begins deliberating at Russell Brand's rape and sexual assault trial

LONDON (AP) — Jurors have begun considering their verdicts in the trial of Russell Brand on charges of rape and sexual assault.

After three weeks of argument and evidence, Judge Joel Bennathan told the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court that they must reach a unanimous decision.

“I can only accept a verdict that is the verdict of all 12 of you,” he said.

Brand, who is free on bail, has attended court every day, accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher.

Six women accuse the actor-comedian of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2009, a decade when Brand went from rising stand-up comedian to major celebrity in the U.K.

Prosecutors argued that during that time Brand was “a sexual predator” who attacked the women in a hotel room, the London offices of MTV, the toilet of a London bar, a radio station, a recording studio and his home.

Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Giving evidence, the entertainer acknowledged that he had been obsessed with sex as a younger man, but said his encounters were always consensual.

Brand’s lawyers argued that the claimants’ cases were undermined by the fact that they only went to police years after the alleged assaults, and following the broadcast of a 2023 documentary that contained anonymous allegations against Brand.

Brand’s lawyer, Ian Winter, said the “well of justice had been corrupted and contaminated” by the documentary.

In his closing statement on Monday, Winter said the jury must separate Brand’s treatment of women from the question of whether he committed crimes.

“It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex,” he said. “It is not, I am afraid, criminal to be disrespectful or rude or to act like a crazy idiot.”

He said Brand “had an immense amount of sex and none of it was unlawful.”

“Disgusting, distasteful, immoral, who cares?” the lawyer said. “It’s irrelevant to your consideration.”

Known for risqué stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.

In recent years he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.

Comedian and actor Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Comedian and actor Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Comedian and actor Russell Brand and his wife Laura Gallacher walk, at Southwark Crown Court in London, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Comedian and actor Russell Brand is reflected in a car window as he leaves Southwark Crown Court in London, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters struggling with high prices and angry over an unpopular war with Iran will decide Tuesday whether to drastically shift power in Washington in midterm elections that will serve as a referendum on President Donald Trump's second term.

Democrats were cautiously optimistic as they watched Republicans spend the campaign's final stretch pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and districts that Trump won handily two years ago. They're betting that discontent over Trump’s failure to deliver on his promise to tackle rising costs and perceptions that he has focused more on gilding the nation’s capital than their pain at the pump will depress Republican turnout and drive their own voters to the polls.

Republicans held out hope their money advantage would help stem the tide, but they were bracing to lose control of the U.S. House and fighting to hang onto the U.S. Senate — an outcome that seemed unlikely earlier this year, given a map widely seen as favoring their party.

Margins are tight in both chambers; one or two seats could tip the balance. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the 100-member Senate to win the majority, and most competitive races are in historically red states. In the 435-member House, they need three.

More than 57 million people had already cast ballots as of Monday, with turnout surpassing the early vote four years ago in many closely watched states.

Trump, whose party has struggled when he's not running to turn out the low-propensity voters who've fueled his victories, has told voters to act as though he's running, even as many Republican candidates have kept their distance.

On Tuesday, he declared in a Fox News Channel interview that “everything's going good” and “inflation is solved” — even though consumer prices rose 3.6% in September from a year earlier, up from 3.4% in August, the Commerce Department reported last week.

“I think the results are going to be better than you think,” Trump said of the elections.

On Tuesday, Mark Barker, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, said Trump was top of mind as he voted. “I’ve just been following Trump the whole time. I really think he’s doing an awesome job,” said Barker, noting the president's promise of $5,000 for every U.S. adult if Republicans retain control of Congress, border policy and war in the Middle East. “Everything he's done has been outstanding.”

In Raleigh, North Carolina, 57-year-old librarian James Moore said he voted for Democrats to push back on Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill. “I’m paying more taxes. I’m paying more for my healthcare. I’m paying more for everything,” he said. “We need more representatives in Congress that are going to stand up to Trump.”

Trump's aggressive schedule had stops in the reddest states, including Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, underscoring his party's challenges.

Trump has made false claims about voting fraud, such as insisting noncitizens are casting ballots en masse. His administration has filed lawsuits in Alaska and California. Democrats fear interference and voter intimidation as his Justice Department threatens to prosecute local election officials.

Polling sites opened early Tuesday along the East Coast, with few disruptions. In New York’s suburban Westchester County, officials said an issue with machines accepting paper ballots was requiring ballots to be placed in emergency bags for later counting but stressed that they would remain secure.

The results will shape the final two years of Trump’s second term after the Republican-controlled Congress acted as a rubber stamp to much of his agenda. While Trump has proven adept at steamrolling efforts to rein him in, Democrats taking control of even one chamber of Congress would open the floodgates to investigations and possible impeachments. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and tech titan Elon Musk, a former top Trump adviser, are among possible targets.

An especially strong showing for Democrats would also boost potential presidential candidates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. It could also complicate the paths of Vice President JD Vance and other Republicans who may be looking to turn their loyalty to Trump into momentum.

Republicans tried to buck historical precedent — a president’s party almost always loses seats during the midterms — with an aggressive redistricting effort aimed at creating a more favorable congressional map. But the plan may fall short as districts drawn in Florida and other states to be safely red may not vote that way.

Other Trump choices could prove costly. In Texas, Trump worked to oust longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in favor of scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton, setting the stage for an expensive race against Democratic nominee James Talarico, who Democrats hope may help them finally flip the state.

In North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tillis retired after clashing with Trump. The president's chosen replacement, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, has struggled to gain traction against the Democrats' candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper.

“Everything depends on turnout. If we turn out our voters, we win," said Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters.

The vast majority of Republican television ad spending in the general election, 88.1%, was spent in states and districts Trump won in 2024, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from media tracking firm AdImpact. That included more than $850 million on ad reservations in states and districts Trump won by 10 percentage points or more.

Only 35% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's performance as president, according to the most recent polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most blame him for high prices as they struggle to afford gas and groceries.

What was once his strongest issue is no longer: 25% of U.S. adults say they approve of Trump's handling of the economy. Overall, about 7 in 10 say the country is heading in the wrong direction.

“The American people are angry. They want change,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who said momentum was on her party’s side.

In the Senate, Democrats have been most confident about picking up North Carolina and holding Georgia, where Sen. Jon Ossoff faces Republican Rep. Mike Collins. Other key battlegrounds include Ohio, where Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted, and Alaska, where the Trump administration filed a lawsuit to block certification of Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race, citing the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

Republicans hope they can hold seats in Iowa, Kansas and Maine and pick up Michigan, where Mike Rogers faces progressive Abdul El-Sayed — one of a crop of left-wing candidates who prevailed in Democratic primaries. El-Sayed's former primary opponent, Haley Stevens, upended the race by endorsing Rogers, renewing focus on tensions over Israel and the party's direction.

In the House, Republicans try to hang on to their narrow majority, as Democrats aim to flip seats in states Trump repeatedly carried, from Florida to Texas to Iowa.

Beyond Washington, 36 states are electing governors. Democrats hope to take over a majority of statehouses for the first time in two decades. Competitive races include those in heavily populated states such as Texas and Florida, plus reliably red states such as Iowa.

In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign faced backlash for an ad featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother, who lost custody of Acton decades ago after her husband, Acton’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.

Trump’s final two years in office will likely be defined in part by who controls Congress.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in line to make history as the nation’s first Black speaker of the House if his party sweeps to power, has outlined a 100-day agenda focused on lowering the cost of living and aggressively overseeing the Trump administration.

The Senate could emerge as a key backstop for Trump’s priorities if Republicans retain control or as a new power center for Democrats who could use it to halt presidential nominees and challenge the White House agenda.

The 2026 elections will likely go down as the most expensive in history. Republican committees have dramatically outraised and outspent their Democratic counterparts thanks, in large part, to money from Trump-affiliated groups and Musk. But at the candidate level, Democrats outraised Republican opponents.

Associated Press journalists Aaron Kessler and Ali Swenson in Washington; Cody Jackson in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and Allen Breed in Raleigh, N.C., contributed.

Voters cast their ballots at Public School 321 elementary school in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A volunteer places a "Vote Here" sign at the Brooklyn Museum in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Voters cast their ballots at the Brooklyn Museum in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A volunteer sorts "I Voted" stickers at the Brooklyn Museum in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A person walks to the City of Arlington South Service Center ahead of the polling place opening on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Josh Turek speaks during a campaign rally, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

People listen to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is running for reelection, outside an agricultural business as she makes a campaign stop, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Van Buren, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduces Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during a campaign rally at Eastern Michigan University, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Ypsilanti, Mich. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks to members of the media before sign-waving with supporters at the edge of Midtown Mall, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

People wait in line to cast their ballot at a polling location open for early voting at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)