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      Democratic House Candidate Cleared in New York Harassment Inquiry

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      The findings may help the candidate, State Senator John Mannion, in his bid to unseat Representative Brandon Williams in a tossup race.For more than two months, the congressional campaign of John Mannion, perhaps Democrats’ best hope to flip a crucial House seat, has been shadowed by accusations that he created a hostile work environment and berated top aides in the New York State Senate.Now an outside investigation commissioned by the State Senate has ended quietly without reprimand, concluding that Mr. Mannion did not violate the chamber’s harassment and discrimination policy.The conclusion, which can still be appealed, would provide significant relief to Democrats. They are counting on Mr. Mannion, a moderate former teacher, to provide one of the four pickups they need nationwide to take back control of the House. He is facing Representative Brandon Williams, a first-term Republican, in November in a district where Democrats meaningfully outnumber Republicans.The investigation was conducted by Michael Murphy, an outside lawyer hired by the Senate, who completed “a detailed, confidential response” and transmitted his findings clearing the Democrat to the Senate on Aug. 16, according to a previously unreported letter addressed to Mr. Mannion and obtained by The New York Times.Still, the letter was terse and provided little detail about whether Mr. Murphy, a partner at the law firm Barclay Damon, found the accusations to be credible when he interviewed several of the state senator’s former staff members.Neither Mr. Mannion nor Mr. Murphy would comment on the investigation or share a copy of the report on Thursday. A spokesman for the State Senate Democrats declined to comment.The accusations first surfaced in June when a group of former aides published an anonymous letter on Medium accusing Mr. Mannion of a litany of abuses and mistreatment during his brief tenure in the State Senate. The authors wrote that they had been subjected to “out of control yelling” and, in one case, retaliation after reporting that they witnessed a co-worker sexually harass a constituent.“We have come together now to write this letter because there is still time to avoid elevating yet another abuser to high office,” they wrote.Mr. Mannion has denied any wrongdoing. His allies privately dismissed the letter, which was published before a Democratic primary, as a politically motivated smear. Mr. Mannion won the primary anyway. More

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      Letitia James Fights to Preserve Trump’s Over $450 Million Fraud Penalty

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      Ms. James, New York’s attorney general, argued that the civil fraud judgment, which the former president has appealed, should stand. It could wipe out his cash reserves.The New York attorney general’s office late Wednesday night urged a state appellate court to uphold a more than $450 million civil fraud judgment against Donald J. Trump, arguing that the punishment was needed to protect “the integrity of the marketplace.”In a legal filing, the attorney general, Letitia James, defended a judge’s February ruling that Mr. Trump had conspired to inflate the value of his properties to receive favorable loans and other financial benefits. Mr. Trump, the attorney general’s office has argued, exaggerated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in any given year.“Mr. Trump indisputably participated in the fraud,” Ms. James’s office wrote in response to an appeal filed last month by Mr. Trump, adding that he, his adult sons and his company had “used a variety of deceptive strategies.”The response marked the latest phase of a battle between Mr. Trump and Ms. James that has spanned the better part of five years. The appeals court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 26 and its decision could come by year-end, coinciding with the final stretch of a presidential campaign that has pitted Mr. Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris.Ms. James, a Democrat who campaigned for her office on the promise of bringing Mr. Trump to justice, began to investigate the former president in 2019 and filed the lawsuit in 2022. Since then, Mr. Trump has lost nearly every step of the way. Even before the trial, the judge overseeing the case, Arthur F. Engoron, ruled against Mr. Trump, finding that he had committed fraud by inflating his assets.The trial was held largely to determine how much Mr. Trump, his company and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would owe the state. Justice Engoron was the decider — there was no jury — and after 11 weeks and 40 witnesses, he ordered Mr. Trump to pay $355 million plus interest, a total of more than $450 million.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      George Santos Is Expected to Plead Guilty, People Close to Case Say

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      Mr. Santos could change his mind, but witnesses in his campaign fraud case were told by federal prosecutors that he intends to plead guilty on Monday.George Santos, the former Republican congressman from New York undone by a mind-bending array of biographical lies and moneymaking schemes, has told prosecutors that he intends to plead guilty and avoid a federal trial that was expected to begin next month, according to two lawyers involved in the case and two other people with knowledge of the matter.The plea, which is expected to occur on Monday in Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., would spare Mr. Santos from a trial that almost certainly would have been a colorful spectacle. Mr. Santos, whose trial on 23 felony charges was scheduled to begin on Sept. 9, could still change his mind. But this week, two lawyers representing multiple witnesses in the case were told by federal prosecutors that Mr. Santos had decided to plead guilty.Two others with knowledge of the plans confirmed that he intends to plead guilty on Monday; one of the people said Mr. Santos is expected to give a statement in court acknowledging his crimes. The terms of his expected guilty plea and what sentence he might face were not clear.Lies, Charges and Questions Left in the George Santos ScandalGeorge Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023, has told so many stories they can be hard to keep straight. We cataloged them, including major questions about his personal finances and his campaign fund-raising and spending.Public court records show that an in-person hearing has been scheduled for Monday afternoon at the request of prosecutors and Mr. Santos’s lawyers. The records did not explain the purpose of the hearing. Mr. Santos and one of his lawyers, Joseph Murray, did not respond to requests for comment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      F.B.I. Searches $3.5 Million Home of Former Aide to Gov. Hochul

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      The early-morning raid took place on Long Island’s North Shore at the house of Ms. Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun.Before dawn on Tuesday, F.B.I. agents swept into a small cul-de-sac on Long Island’s North Shore to search a five-bedroom house where a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Kathy Hochul lives with her husband.The basis for the search at the $3.5 million home of Linda Sun, the former deputy chief of staff, and the crimes under investigation remain unclear. Neither Ms. Sun, 40, nor her husband, Chris Hu, 41, have been accused of wrongdoing. Neither could be reached for comment and they did not respond to voice mail and text messages.A spokesman for the F.B.I. confirmed that agents from the bureau’s New York office had “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the expansive red brick house in a gated community in Manhasset, but would not comment further. The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn obtained the warrant for the search, according to people with knowledge of the matter; a spokesman for that office also declined to comment.No arrests were made at the family’s home, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The property was owned by Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu until they transferred it to a trust early this year.Ms. Sun, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and government from Barnard College and a Master of Arts from Teachers College at Columbia University, has worked in state government for nearly 14 years, holding a variety of positions, according to her LinkedIn profile.She began her state career in the legislative branch as chief of staff to an assemblywoman, Grace Meng, who is now a congresswoman, and then worked in various positions in the administrations of both Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Ms. Hochul, according to the profile.Ms. Sun’s roles included business development; Asian American affairs; and diversity, equity and inclusion. She left the executive chamber after roughly 15 months, moving on to a position in the Labor Department in November 2022. Five months later, she left the state to serve as campaign manager for Austin Cheng, a Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress on Long Island.Avi Small, the press secretary for Ms. Hochul, declined to comment.Mr. Hu operates a liquor store in Flushing, Queens, Leivine Wine & Spirits, and has incorporated several other businesses over the last decade, including a company he created in 2020 during the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic called Medical Supplies USA LLC. He also created Golden Capital Group LLC in 2016 and LCA Holdings LLC in 2023, although the nature of those business could not be immediately determined.It is unclear when the F.B.I. agents first arrived at the gated community where Ms. Sun and Mr. Hu live, which is called Stone Hill, but a security guard there said that agents were there twice.Reporting was contributed by More

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      Trump Appeals $454 Million Judgment in N.Y. Civil Fraud Case

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      Lawyers for Donald J. Trump challenged the judgment handed down by Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who found that Mr. Trump had conspired to manipulate his net worth to receive favorable terms on loans.Lawyers for Donald J. Trump filed an appeal on Monday evening seeking to dismiss or drastically reduce the $454 million judgment levied against him this year in a New York civil fraud case, the latest maneuver in the former president’s multiple legal battles.The filing made a raft of arguments questioning the judgment handed down in February by Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who found that Mr. Trump had conspired to manipulate his net worth and lied about the value of his properties to receive more favorable terms on loans.The suit was brought by Attorney General Letitia James of New York, a Democrat, who hailed her victory over Mr. Trump as having demonstrated that “there cannot be different rules for different people in this country.”In their lengthy appeal to the First Department of the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, however, Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that many of the deals in question in Ms. James’s suit had occurred long ago and that the statute of limitations for violations it cited had run out.They also questioned the size of the judgment awarded by Justice Engoron, calling it disproportionate and suggesting that the judge had overcounted damages and miscalculated the profits from some of the properties named in Ms. James’s suit.Taken as a whole, the appeal — peppered with talking points from Mr. Trump’s campaign and his public criticism of the case — seeks to show that the former president’s dealings were business as usual, and that no harm was caused.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jamaal Bowman’s Election Loss: 5 Takeaways

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      Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York became the first member of the House’s progressive “squad” to lose a seat in Congress on Tuesday, dealing a stinging defeat to the Democratic left after a brutal intraparty fight.The contest on the outskirts of New York City centered on Democrats’ disagreements over Israel’s war in Gaza. Progressive groups raced to try to save Mr. Bowman, a leading voice against the war. Pro-Israel political groups pumped record-shattering sums into defeating him.But by the end, it devolved into a broader spat over race and class that tested the Democratic coalition. Mr. Bowman’s opponent, the Westchester County executive, George Latimer, also benefited from old-fashioned local alliances and a series of embarrassing missteps by the incumbent.Here are five takeaways from the results.AIPAC notched its first big win.George Latimer capitalized on decades-old political alliances and an alliance with pro-Israel groups that spent more than $15 million on the race.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesAfter the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, political groups aligned with Israel issued a message to its critics like Mr. Bowman: Moderate your views or prepare for stiff political opposition.Tuesday’s result showed that was no idle threat.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Democratic Majority for Israel and other affiliated organizations ultimately spent more than $16 million to defeat Mr. Bowman, more than any outside group has ever put into a House race.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      John Avlon Defeats Nancy Goroff in Long Island Primary.

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      John Avlon, a former CNN political analyst who helped found the centrist political group No Labels, won the Democratic primary in a House district in eastern Long Island in New York on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.Mr. Avlon only entered the race in February but quickly built up support in the district, which he moved to in 2017.His critics, including his opponent, Nancy Goroff, used his recent move to the area to suggest that he was out of touch with locals, but he won more endorsements from party leaders and local elected officials than did Ms. Goroff, a retired chemistry professor who ran in 2020.Mr. Avlon will now face Representative Nick LaLota, the Republican incumbent, in November. While President Biden eked out a 0.2-point win in the district in 2020, Mr. LaLota cruised to an 11-point victory two years later. The Democratic House Majority PAC has characterized the First Congressional District as “one of the most competitive districts in the country,” while the Cook Political Report has called it “likely Republican.”“Anxieties and emotions hang around this election, but we know that action is the best antidote to anxiety, right?” Mr. Avlon said to his supporters on Tuesday. “The real work — you all know — it starts right now.”Ms. Goroff had seemed to be the presumptive Democratic candidate until Mr. Avlon announced his candidacy. Mr. Avlon said he felt compelled to enter the race because of the partisan division in the country, and referred to the district as a “majority maker.”In the waning weeks of the race, Ms. Goroff and PACs that supported her tried to emphasize Mr. Avlon’s past ties to the Republican Party, particularly Rudolph W. Giuliani, for whom Mr. Avlon worked as a speechwriter and adviser. Mr. Avlon has previously said he worked for Mr. Giuliani “when he was sane.”“We proved that the positive defeats the negative,” Mr. Avlon said in his speech on Tuesday. “We are fighting the good fight together, side by side and unafraid.” More

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      State Senator Wins Swing-District House Primary in Central New York

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      State Senator John W. Mannion won the Democratic primary in New York’s 22nd Congressional District in Central New York on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.Mr. Mannion defeated Sarah Klee Hood, an Air Force veteran and a town councilor in DeWitt. She had drawn upon her experiences as a working mother who has sought abortion care to make her case to voters.The district, currently held by Brandon Williams, a Republican, is widely considered one of the Democrats’ best opportunities for a pickup in the nation.In 2022, Mr. Williams, who has been a vocal champion of former President Donald J. Trump, was narrowly elected by just under one percentage point. Since then, the boundaries of the district have changed to favor Democrats, with the northern part of Herkimer County traded for more of the Finger Lakes region. Cook Political Report labels the seat “leans Democratic.”A former public-school teacher and union representative, Mr. Mannion was elected in 2020 to the State Legislature, where he leads the Senate Committee on Disabilities. His congressional bid was bolstered by the state teachers’ union and the AFL-CIO.The race was colored by 11th-hour accusations from former staff members of Mr. Mannion who claimed that he had created a hostile workplace. Mr. Mannion vehemently denied the claims, which are being investigated by the State Senate. More