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  • Sen. Bob Menendez decides not to delay May trial with appeal of judge’s ruling
    on March 28, 2024 at 8:19 pm

    NEW YORK (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez will not appeal a judge’s ruling on Constitutional grounds that would have delayed his May trial, his lawyers said Thursday. The Democrat’s lawyers notified the Manhattan federal judge who will preside over the May 6 trial in a letter that the senator’s decision was “principally motivated by his desire to proceed to trial and establish his innocence without further delay.” He has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges filed after investigators discovered gold bars and cash at his New Jersey home. Prosecutors say the gold and cash resulted from bribes that he and his wife received in exchange for favors Menendez carried out for three New Jersey businessmen. Earlier this month, Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled that multiple warrants used to conduct 2022 searches of the Democrat’s email accounts and his home were properly sought and carried out. The warrants had been contested by Menendez under provisions of the Constitution that would have allowed an appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prior to a trial if the senator chose to go that route. The senator’s lawyers had claimed the warrants were “riddled with material misrepresentation and omissions that deceived the authorizing magistrate judge.” Stein said any omissions in the warrants were not intentional or material for searches of his home in June 2022 that resulted in the discovery of over $100,000 worth of gold bars and more than $480,000 in cash. Prosecutors said much of the gold and cash was hidden in closets, clothing and a safe. Menendez, 70, said the cash found in the house was personal savings he had put away for emergencies. After his fall arrest, Menendez was forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but said he would not resign from Congress. Besides Menendez, his wife, Nadine, and two businessmen also have pleaded not guilty to charges. A third businessman facing charges has pled guilty in a cooperation deal with prosecutors that calls for him to testify at trial. According to an indictment, Menendez and his wife accepted gold bars and cash from a real estate developer in return for the senator using his clout to get that businessman a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund. Menendez also was charged with helping another New Jersey business associate get a lucrative deal with the government of Egypt. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • House Republicans invite President Biden to testify at public hearing as impeachment inquiry stalls
    on March 28, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday invited President Joe Biden to testify before Congress as part of their impeachment inquiry into him and his family’s business affairs. Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the Democratic president, inviting him to sit for a public hearing to “explain, under oath,” what involvement he had in the Biden family businesses. “In light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White House’s obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so,” the Kentucky Republican wrote. While it is highly unlikely that Biden would agree to appear before lawmakers in such a setting, Comer pointed to previous examples of presidents’ testifying before Congress. “As you are aware, presidents before you have provided testimony to congressional committees, including President Ford’s testimony before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974,” Comer continued. The bold invitation comes as the monthslong inquiry into Biden is all but winding down as Republicans face the stark reality that it lacks the political appetite from within the conference to go forward with an actual impeachment. Nonetheless, leaders of the effort, including Comer are facing growing political pressure to deliver something after months of work investigating the Biden family and its web of international business transactions. After a hearing earlier this month, the White House scoffed at the idea of Biden appearing for a public hearing, telling Republicans to “move on” and focus on “real issues” Americans want addressed. “This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment,” spokesman Ian Sams said last week. “Call it a day, pal.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers want to make public statements about stolen money. FBI says Murdaugh lied
    on March 28, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh want to release to the public statements he made to the FBI about what happened to million of dollars he stole from clients and his South Carolina law firm and who might have helped him steal the money. Murdaugh’s attorneys made the request in a court filing Thursday after federal prosecutors asked a judge earlier this week to keep the statements secret. They argued that Murdaugh wasn’t telling the truth and that his plea deal on theft and other charges should be thrown out at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Monday. Prosecutors think Murdaugh is trying to protect an attorney who helped him steal and that his assertion that more than $6 million in the stolen money went to his drug habit is not true. Releasing the statements could damage an ongoing investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. But Murdaugh’s attorneys said FBI agents can just black out any information they don’t want to make public while leaving the bulk of the statements available so people can judge the allegations themselves. “To allow the Government to publicly accuse Murdaugh of breaching his plea agreement while also allowing the Government to hide all purported evidence supporting that accusation from the public would violate the public’s right to the truth,” attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian wrote. Murdaugh, 55, is already serving life without parole in state prison after a jury found him guilty of murder in the shootings of his wife and younger son. He later pleaded guilty to stealing money from clients and his law firm in state court and was sentenced to 27 years, which South Carolina prosecutors said is an insurance policy to keep him behind bars in case his murder conviction was ever overturned. The federal case was supposed to be even more insurance, with Murdaugh agreeing to a plea deal so his federal sentence would run at the same time as his state sentences. Murdaugh’s lawyers said if prosecutors can keep the FBI statements secret, Monday’s court hearing in Charleston would have to be held behind closed doors, denying Murdaugh’s rights to have his case heard in public. The FBI said it interviewed Murdaugh three times last year. After agents concluded he wasn’t telling the whole truth about his schemes to steal from clients and his law partners, they gave him a polygraph in October. Agents said Murdaugh failed the test and federal prosecutors said that voided the plea deal reached in September where he promised to fully cooperate with investigators. Prosecutors now want Murdaugh to face the stiffest sentence possible since the plea agreement was breached and serve his federal sentence at the end of any state sentences. Each of the 22 counts Murdaugh pleaded guilty to in federal court carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Some carry a 30-year maximum. State prosecutors estimated Murdaugh stole more than $12 million from clients by diverting settlement money into his own accounts or stealing from his family law firm. Federal investigators estimate at least $6 million of that has not been accounted for, although Murdaugh has said he spent extravagantly on illegal drugs after becoming hooked on opioids. Investigators said that as Murdaugh’s financial schemes were about to be exposed in June 2021, he decided to kill his wife and son in hopes it would make him a sympathetic figure and draw attention away from the missing money. Paul Murdaugh was shot several times with a shotgun and Maggie Murdaugh was shot several times with a rifle outside the family’s home in Colleton County. Murdaugh has adamantly denied killing them, even testifying in his own defense against his lawyers’ advice. Federal prosecutors said Murdaugh did appear to tell the truth about the roles banker Russell Laffitte and attorney and old college friend Cory Fleming played in helping him steal. Laffitte was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, while Fleming is serving nearly four years behind bars after pleading guilty. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • Republican states file lawsuit challenging Biden’s student loan repayment plan
    on March 28, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A group of Republican-led states is suing the Biden administration to block a new student loan repayment plan that provides a faster path to cancellation and lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers. In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, 11 states led by Kansas argue that Biden overstepped his authority in creating the SAVE Plan, which was made available to borrowers last year and has already canceled loans for more than 150,000. It argues that the new plan is no different from Biden’s first attempt at student loan cancellation, which the Supreme Court rejected last year. “Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal. Nothing since then has changed,” according to the lawsuit. Biden announced the SAVE repayment plan in 2022, alongside a separate plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for more than 40 million Americans. The Supreme Court blocked the cancellation plan after Republican states sued, but the court didn’t examine SAVE, which was still being hashed out. The new lawsuit was filed a day after the White House hosted a “day of action” to promote the SAVE Plan. The Biden administration says more than 7.7 million borrowers have enrolled in the plan, including more than 5 million who have had their monthly payments reduced to $100 or less because they have lower yearly incomes. The challenge was filed in federal court in Topeka, Kansas, by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. It asks a judge to halt the plan immediately. Along with Kansas, the suit is backed by Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. “In a completely brazen fashion, the president pressed ahead anyway,” Kobach said during a news conference at the Kansas Statehouse. “The law simply does not allow President Biden to do what he wants to do.” Biden’s new repayment plan is a modified version of other income-based repayment plans that the Education Department has offered since the ’90s. The earliest versions were created by Congress to help struggling borrowers, capping payments at a portion of their income and canceling any remaining debt after 20 or 25 years. The new plan offers more generous terms than ever, offering to reduce monthly payments for more borrowers and canceling loans in as little as 10 years. Unlike other plans, it prevents interest from snowballing as long as borrowers make their monthly payments. The plan’s provisions are being phased in this year, and the quicker path to cancellation was originally scheduled to take effect later this summer. But the Biden administration accelerated that benefit and started canceling loans for some borrowers in February. Biden said it was meant “to give more borrowers breathing room so they can get out from under the burden of student loan debt.” Instead of creating a new plan from scratch, the Education Department amended existing plans through federal regulation. Supporters saw it as a legal maneuver that put the plan on firmer grounding, anticipating a challenge from Republicans. But in the new lawsuit, Kobach argues that Biden needed to go through Congress to make such significant changes. The states argue that Biden’s plan will harm them in many ways. With such a generous repayment plan, fewer borrowers will have an incentive to go into public service and pursue the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the states argue. They predict more state employees will leave their jobs, and it will worsen public schools’ struggles to recruit and retain teachers. They argue the plan will inject hundreds of billions of dollars in loan relief into the U.S. economy, which would require states to increase fraud protection efforts. The plan “will create enormous opportunities for fraudsters to exploit student debt borrowers that would not otherwise exist,” according to the suit. If successful, it would effectively kill the last remnant of Biden’s first attempt at widespread student loan relief. After the Supreme Court blocked his wider plan last year, Biden ordered the Education Department to craft a new plan using a different legal justification. The agency is now pursuing a more limited plan for mass cancellation. ___ Binkley reported from Washington ___ The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson will send Mayorkas impeachment to the Senate next month
    on March 28, 2024 at 7:19 pm

    WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday indicated he will send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate shortly after Congress returns to Washington next month. The Republican speaker said he would send the two articles on April 10. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to swear in senators as jurors in the trial the next day, according to his office. The House impeached Mayorkas on a razor-thin party-line vote in February, but Johnson had delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate while Congress addressed funding for the government. Impeachment for Mayorkas, who would be the first Cabinet secretary to receive the punishment in nearly 150 years, is expected to quickly fizzle in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans took the action against Mayorkas to rebuke his handling of the nation’s southern border, but critics, including a few Republicans, say the House did not demonstrate that the Cabinet secretary’s actions reached the Constitution’s bar of high crimes and misdemeanors. “House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense,” Schumer said after the House acted. But Johnson argued in a statement that Mayorkas has “violated the public trust and willfully refused to follow federal immigration laws.” “He deserves to be impeached and the American people demand that those responsible for the border crisis be held accountable,” Johnson said. Still, some GOP senators have expressed skepticism about the House argument, and a conviction is highly unlikely. Two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to convict as opposed to the simple majority needed to impeach in the House. That means all Republicans as well as a substantial number of Democrats would have to vote to convict Mayorkas. However, a comprehensive trial would allow Republicans to continue to hammer on the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Johnson urged Schumer to hold “a full public trial” to show he cared about “ending the devastation caused by Biden’s border catastrophe.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com