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      Angry Trump revisits escalator where it all began – but this time as a felon

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      Approximately six minutes after 11am on Friday, Donald Trump entered the atrium of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City, wearing a scarlet tie. Behind the former US president, now a felon, stood the same escalator he used in 2015 to announce his presidential bid, triggering eight years of political chaos.In a long-winded address in front of five American flags, golden walls and no teleprompters, Trump spoke for more than half an hour, kicking off his first public event following his guilty verdict in his hush-money criminal trial.It was a rambling, incoherent speech laden with falsehoods and conspiracy theories – trademark Trump, in fact. But it also carried a foreboding threat, aimed at riling his already furious base and reinforcing his own deep sense of victimhood.“This is a case where if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” he said before launching into a tirade against immigration. “They’re coming in from all over the world into our country, and we have a president and a group of fascists that don’t want to do anything about it.”Trump, making frequent hand gestures as he addressed a crowd of smiling Trump Tower employees, aides, reporters and his son Eric, went on to attack Joe Biden, baselessly saying that his fraud conviction had been “all done by Biden and his people”.“I don’t know if Biden knows too much about it, because I don’t know if he knows about anything, but he’s nevertheless the president, so we have to use his name, and this is done by Washington, and nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” he said.As Trump spoke, crowds of supporters gathered outside Trump Tower, which was heavily cordoned off by metal barricades and dozens of police officers. Loud cheers and honks could be heard from inside the building.“The level of support has been incredible,” Trump said before falsely claiming once again that his trial had been “rigged”, adding that he is under a “nasty gag order which nobody has ever been under”.In fact, in efforts to protect trial participants from Trump’s public attacks, judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, prohibited Trump from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors and staff members of the court and district attorney’s office.The former president, who has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, maintained his innocence. “I paid a lawyer, totally legal. I paid a lawyer a legal expense,” he said, referring to his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped facilitate the expenses to adult film star Stormy Daniels with whom Trump allegedly had a sexual affair.Calling himself “literally crucified”, Trump vowed to appeal the “scam” conviction, saying: “We’re going to be appealing it on many different things.”At one point, Trump made an elaborate claim, saying that his guilty verdict – a class E felony in New York, which is the least serious category and punishable by up to four years of jail time – is supposed to make him “go to jail for 187 years”.Trump went on to frame himself as a self-sacrificing martyr on a mission to save American democracy – an image in stark contrast with the many observers both home and abroad who see Trump as the real danger to US civic society.“It’s my honor to be doing this, it really is. It’s a very unpleasant thing, to be honest, but it’s a great, great honor. We are going to do what I have to do,” Trump said, adding vehemently: “I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and to save our constitution … We will continue the fight. We’re going to make America great again.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNaturally, Trump’s speech was also a campaign rally for a race in which he is still neck and neck with Biden – though what impact his new felon status will have on the race remains to be seen. “Remember, November 5 is the most important day in the history of our country,” Trump said at the end of his remarks.As he walked away from the podium, the onlooking crowd of Trump Tower employees broke into applause as reporters clamored for questions, which he left unanswered.Outside, crowds of supporters continued to gather across the street, many wearing red Maga hats and craning their necks in hopes of getting a view of the former president inside his 58-story skyscraper.One supporter waved a large flag, billowing in the wind with a print of Trump’s mugshot from his Georgia election-interference case and the words “Trump or death”. Another held a sign that read “Trump 2024. Save America again!”Across the street stood counter-protesters holding signs that read: “Tick tock, time’s up!” Others held signs saying “guilty” and “loser” in big, bold letters. In unison, the counter-protesters chanted: “No one is above the law! Trump is not above the law!”Behind them, someone waved a sign that read: “Caution: felon at large.” More

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      Donald Trump found guilty of hush-money plot to influence 2016 election

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      Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.The verdict came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours in the unprecedented first criminal trial against a US president, current or former. It marks a perilous political moment for Trump, the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination, whose poll numbers have remained unchanged throughout the trial but could tank at any moment.Trump was convicted by a jury of 12 New Yorkers of felony falsification of business records, which makes it a crime for a person to make or cause false entries in records with the intent to commit a second crime. He will be sentenced on 11 July at 10am ET.“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said at the courthouse after the verdict was read. “This was a rigged trial, a disgrace.”Joe Biden’s campaign hit back in an email sent soon after the verdict.“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law. Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” wrote communications director Michael Tyler.“But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.””In Trump’s case, the Manhattan district attorney’s office alleged Trump falsely recorded the reimbursements he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid the adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence about her affair with Trump, as “legal expenses”.The prosecution alleged the falsifications were made to conceal Trump’s violation of New York state election law, which makes it a crime to promote the election of any person to office through unlawful means.Prosecutors argued in part that those unlawful means were the $130,000 payment to Daniels, which was in effect an illegal campaign contribution, because it was done solely for the benefit of his 2016 campaign and exceeded the $2,700 individual contribution cap.The Manhattan district attorney’s office called 20 witnesses who, over the course of four weeks, gave evidence of how Trump plotted with the tabloid mogul David Pecker and Cohen to bury accounts of affairs with Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougal.The witnesses – some friendly to Trump, others openly hostile – said Trump’s worry over the Daniels story intensified after the October 2016 release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump was caught on a hot mic bragging about sexual assault.The recording featured Trump boasting about being able to grab women “by the pussy” without their consent because he was famous. Trial witnesses testified the Trump campaign worried that his efforts to dismiss the tape as “locker room talk” would fail if more boorish behavior came to light.When the Daniels story threatened to become widely known weeks before the 2016 election, Cohen moved into action and paid Daniels $130,000 to buy the exclusive rights to her story – in order to suppress its publication.After the 2016 election, prosecutors argued, Cohen worked out an illicit repayment plan in which he would be paid $420,000, an inflated sum that “grossed up” for tax reasons the $130,000 and other items Cohen billed.The trial saw prosecutors elicit testimony from Cohen, Daniels and a parade of Trump’s confidants and employees, as they sought to establish that Trump concealed the alleged payoff scheme in an effort to ensure he would not lose support from female voters.Cohen proved to be perhaps the most legally consequential witness for the prosecution, as he recounted how he used a home equity loan to raise the $130,000 he then wired to Daniels’ lawyer through a shell company. Cohen did so in the belief that Trump would reimburse him, he testified.In January 2017, Cohen said, he discussed with Trump and the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg about being repaid for the $130,000, an overdue bonus and other expenses he incurred doing work that benefited the Trump 2016 campaign.Cohen produced 11 invoices seeking payment pursuant to a legal “retainer” that did not exist, according to Cohen, which led to 11 checks being cut to Cohen and the Trump Organization recording 12 entries for “legal expense” on its general ledger – totaling 34 instances of alleged falsifications.Cohen, who was the final witness for the prosecution, said that Trump was furious when he learned that Daniels was on the verge of going public – not least because Cohen had previously worked with Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson, in 2011, to remove the affair story from a gossip website.“Just take care of it,” Cohen recalled Trump saying. “This was a disaster, a fucking disaster. Women will hate me.”“Would you have made that payment to Stormy Daniels without getting a sign-off from Mr Trump?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Cohen.“No, because everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off. And on top of that, I wanted the money back,” Cohen said.Cohen said that he filed bogus invoices for legal services to cover up the reimbursements, and repeatedly said that Trump was the force behind the Daniels plot. He carried out the payoff “to ensure that the story would not come out, would not affect Mr Trump’s chances of becoming president of the United States”.In a watershed moment, Cohen told jurors these repayments started not long after an 8 February 2017 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, where they talked about money. Cohen hadn’t been repaid anything for the payoff.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“So, I was sitting with President Trump and he asked me if I was OK, he asked me if I needed money, and I said: ‘No, all good’,” Cohen told jurors. “He said, ‘All right, just make sure you deal with Allen.’”“Allen” referenced Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer at the time, who was recently incarcerated for lying at Trump’s recent civil fraud trial. Weisselberg had previously pleaded guilty to tax crimes, for which he was also jailed.Cohen submitted $35,000 invoices for each month, listing the bill as for legal services. He said it was actually for “the reimbursement, to me, of the hush-money fee along with [another expense] and the bonus”.Hoffinger went through every invoice and pay document and asked Cohen whether it was for legal services – or false. Cohen repeatedly said that the descriptions of invoices and payments in emails and business documents were, in fact, false.“What I was doing was at the direction of and benefit of Mr Trump,” Cohen said at one point, among the many times he directly implicated Trump. “Everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off.”Daniels provided stunning testimony that undermined Trump’s denials that they had sex following a celebrity golf event in Lake Tahoe nearly two decades ago. After rejecting Trump’s invitation to dinner, Daniels decided to go at the advice of a colleague, who said: “It’ll make a great story.”Daniels said that she went to Trump’s hotel room, and they decided to chat before grabbing something to eat. He asked over and over about her work as an adult film actor, repeatedly asking her questions such as: “What about testing? Do you worry about STDs?” Had she been tested?“Yes, of course, and I volunteered it as well,” Daniels said. “He asked me, oh, well, have you ever had a bad test? I said: ‘Nope, I can show you my entire record.’”Trump started to show photos to Daniels at one point, including one of Melania, about which she commented that his wife was “very beautiful” – but allegedly added she should not worry about Melania because “we don’t even sleep in the same room”.They spoke about Trump’s show, The Apprentice, and Daniels remarked there would be no way she would make it on TV given her line of work.“You remind me of my daughter, she is smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well,” Daniels remembered Trump saying.Daniels excused herself for the restroom, which was through a bedroom. When she came out, Trump was on the bed, in his underwear and a T-shirt.“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare,” Daniels said. “I just thought: oh my God, what did I misread to get here? The intention is pretty clear if someone’s stripped down to their underwear and on the bed.”Daniels tried to leave but he stood between her and the door, albeit “not in a threatening manner”, she said.“He said, I thought we were getting somewhere. I thought you were serious about what you wanted, if you want to get out of that trailer park … ” Daniels testified. “I was offended, because I never lived in a trailer park.” Daniels said they had sex.The description of the hotel room encounter was uncomfortable and cringe-inducing testimony, one of the prosecutors suggested in closing arguments. But that was precisely why Trump was so desperate to suppress the story – and conceal that he had done so.“This scheme, cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got President Trump elected,” the prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said. More

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      in US Politics

      Man who allegedly rammed Trump sign at police on January 6 arrested by FBI

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      The FBI has arrested a South Dakota man on charges that he stood among the first participants in the January 6 insurrection, allegedly breaking police lines and ramming a large sign toward officers during the riot.William Knight, 37, of Rapid City, faces two felony charges of obstructing law enforcement and resisting or impeding officers, the justice department announced on Thursday. He also faces five misdemeanor charges, including engaging in violence on the day supporters of Donald Trump tried to derail certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.He was arrested by the FBI on Sunday and was expected to make his first appearance in court on Thursday.Knight was featured prominently in several videos that were taken during the riot, helping the FBI build its case against him. Investigators were able to match Knight’s appearance in his videos to his state driver’s license, which prominently shows tattoos on his neck.Prosecutors accuse Knight of being one of the first rioters to breach a restricted perimeter at the Capitol on January 6. Multiple times, he gestured aggressively and threateningly toward officers. He broke police lines and was sprayed with a chemical spray at one point, but he kept pursuing officers, prosecutors say.“We ain’t leaving! We ain’t going nowhere!” Knight could be heard yelling at police in one of the videos, according to court documents. “Here are the bitches. Here are the bitches.”At one point, documents say, Knight and a large group of rioters picked up a giant metal-frame “TRUMP” sign and rammed it toward officers. After, he allegedly shoved a police officer and removed barriers that police had put in front of the crowd.He allegedly continued to chant “Stop the steal!” with other protesters, referring to Trump’s lies that electoral fraudsters rigged Biden’s victory.Knight’s case is being prosecuted by the US attorney’s office in Washington DC and the justice department.Nearly 1,500 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection, according to the justice department. More than 100 of those people have been sent to prison for sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years, the length of the Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio’s sentence from last fall.The US supreme court is expected to rule soon on whether the justice department can prosecute rioters on an obstruction statute.A decision against the department could jeopardize the prosecution of hundreds of defendants who received obstruction charges. More

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      in Elections

      Virginia home of mother of January 6 police officer swatted

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      The home of the mother of Michael Fanone, a Washington DC police officer who nearly died in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was “swatted” on Tuesday night.An unnamed person who had written a manifesto seen by NBC falsely claimed they had killed Fanone’s mother and would go to Fanone’s old high school on Wednesday and shoot people. The manifesto listed Fanone’s mother’s address in Virginia.Fanone’s father was also targeted in the manifesto but was out of the country at the time. He called swatting calls like the one aimed at his parents “incredibly fucking dangerous”.Fanone told NBC News: “How dangerous is it to send law enforcement to an address in which you essentially are describing an active shooter, in which the only person present is a 78-year-old fucking woman.”Fanone spoke of how horrified his mother was that night to open the door and be met with Swat team officers while in her nightgown.Fairfax county police assisted in an investigation into the swatting call.Fanone said the swatting incident likely happened as a “direct result” of the public appearances he makes speaking out against Donald Trump.Speaking at a Biden campaign event earlier on Tuesday outside the courthouse where Trump’s hush-money trial was taking place alongside the Capitol police officer Harry Dunn and the actor Robert De Niro, Fanone said Trump was an “authoritarian who answers to and serves only himself”.Fanone voted for Trump in 2016 but has since thrown his support behind Biden, and blames the Capitol attack on “Trump’s lies”.At the Tuesday press conference, Fanone said: “These supporters were fueled by Trump’s lies and the lies of his surrogates, lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Those same lies have been spewed by Donald Trump and his surrogates about what happened to me and so many other police officers on January 6, 2021 – that day, I was brutally assaulted.”Recounting the attack on the Capitol during which he was on duty, Fanone said he was pulled by the “violent mob” and beaten, almost stripped of his firearm and tasered on his neck.He was assigned a desk job for his safety after leaving the Metropolitan police department later in 2021.The swatting incident involving Fanone’s mother is one of several targeted at high-profile individuals in politics. Others have been aimed at the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Florida senator Rick Scott, the Maine secretary of state Shenna Bellows, and the former House Republican from Wisconsin Mike Gallagher, who stepped down because of the threats against him and his family.Amid the spike in these types of threats, Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, said in January: “These threats of violence are unacceptable. They threaten the fabric of our democracy.” More

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      Bob Menendez corruption trial to begin: ‘I look forward to proving my innocence’

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      The criminal corruption trial of Democratic US senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is scheduled to get under way in a Manhattan federal court Monday, with prosecutors preparing a colorful tale of a greedy politician with a fondness for gold bullion, fast cars, and almost half a million dollars in cash found hidden around his home.Menendez, 70, insists he is innocent of the 16 felony charges brought against him by the US attorney’s office of the southern district of New York, including bribery, extortion, obstruction, and acting as a foreign agent.But prosecutors allege he used his considerable power and influence as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee to illegally smooth over lucrative business deals for several associates with the governments of Egypt and Qatar.And they say the 13 gold bars – and money found stuffed into jacket pockets, closets and a safe during a summer 2022 raid on his house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, as well as a gleaming new Mercedes-Benz in the garage – were his rewards.Menendez resigned his committee post but refused to stand down as a senator, even after a superseding indictment in January leveled new allegations, including that he took gifts of more cash and gold, as well as Formula 1 tickets and high-end wristwatches, for promoting Qatari interests.The charges are wide-ranging. Prosecutors say he also divulged secret information to Egyptian officials about the number and nationalities of US embassy staff in Cairo – and that he tried to disrupt a New Jersey criminal case against another businessman friend.“What the government really has going for it in this case is the picture of a powerful senator renting his office to a foreign power,” Daniel Richman, an expert on federal bribery law at Columbia Law School, told the Washington Post.Politicians in his own party have been critical of Menendez, who will stand trial alongside his wife Nadine and three New Jersey businessmen, including Wael Hana, an Egyptian government representative alleged to have set up shell companies to transfer the money and some of the gifts.The Pennsylvania Democratic senator John Fetterman is among those demanding Menendez’s resignation and has repeatedly called the New Jersey senator “a sleazebag”. Fetterman told CNN last week: “He won’t be around much longer – that would be my bet.”Menendez has declared he will not be running as a Democrat in November for re-election to the New Jersey Senate seat he has held since 2006. But he has not ruled out a campaign as an independent.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAt a press conference last September, Menendez remained defiant, claiming the $480,000 found in the raid was for his personal use and insisting that he would not quit. Asked last week by CNN if he would resign from the senate if convicted, he replied: “I am looking forward to proving my innocence”.The trial, to begin Monday with jury selection, is expected to last several weeks.It is the second time in a decade that Menendez has faced bribery charges after a 2017 mistrial into separate corruption claims, including that he misused campaign donations from a Florida eye doctor and cavorted with prostitutes at the doctor’s home in the Dominican Republic.A jury was unable to reach a verdict after an 11-week trial, and prosecutors announced in February 2018 that they would not seek to retry him. Menendez was elected to the Senate for his fourth term later that year. More

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      in Elections

      Former US town clerk and her lawyer charged for allegedly accessing 2020 voter data in hunt for fraud

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      Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, announced felony charges Tuesday against Stefanie Lambert, an election-denying attorney, and Stephanie Scott, a former small-town election clerk , over an alleged 2020 voter data breach.Nessel’s office alleges Lambert and Scott allowed an “unauthorized computer examiner” to access private voter data from the 2020 general US election and that Scott illegally withheld voting equipment amid an order from the Michigan secretary of state to submit it for regular maintenance. According to a statement from Nessel’s office, Lambert transmitted voter data at Scott’s direction.“When elected officials and their proxies use their positions to promote baseless conspiracies, show blatant disregard for voter privacy, and break the law in the process, it undermines the very essence of the democratic process,” Nessel said in a statement. “Those who engage in such reckless conduct must be held accountable for their actions.”Lambert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Lambert faces separate felony charges in Oakland county, Michigan for her role in allegedly tampering with election equipment. In March, Lambert was arrested for failing to comply with court orders in that case, including refusing to submit fingerprints.In the wake of the 2020 election, Lambert took on numerous cases challenging the election results and worked with the attorney Sidney Powell on a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in Michigan. Since then, Lambert has used her platform to promote baseless conspiracy theories about elections, fundraising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support her work. She is currently representing former Overstock CEO and prominent election denier Patrick Byrne in his defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.Last month, Lambert faced a hearing for possible sanctions after she handed over Dominion documents apparently obtained in discovery to the rightwing sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry county, Michigan.Meanwhile Scott, who faces five felony charges in connection with the alleged voter data breach, was recalled in May 2023 from her position overseeing elections in the rural Michigan community of Adams Township. But she has stayed active in local politics since then – even filing paperwork last month to run for the office of Hillsdale county clerk.“When I saw [the charges] I think my jaw dropped,” said Abe Dane, who is the current elections director for Hillsdale county and is running against Scott. “I’m pleased that they’re looking into it further, because I’ve wanted them to for a very long time.”Lambert’s attorney, Daniel Hartman, said in a statement that his client did not violate the law and that she “remains steadfast in her efforts to bring transparency to the people’s election data, processes and procedures”Joe Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes over Donald Trump, a result confirmed by a Republican-led state Senate investigation in 2021. More

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      in US Politics

      Georgia will allow Trump to challenge order keeping Fani Willis on election interference case

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      The Georgia state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from Donald Trump of an order allowing Fani Willis, the district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.In a one-page order, the appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge the decision not to disqualify Willis over her relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to lead the Trump case. Scott McAfee, the trial judge overseeing the case, ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned. Wade subsequently resigned the same day McAfee issued his decision.Trump now has 10 days to file a notice of appeal, the court said. His legal team had asked the court of appeals to consider the case in March and clarify the standard for when a prosecutor should be disqualified.“President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia court of appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton county DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney, said in a statement.The decision to hear the appeal is a significant win for Trump. It decreases the chances that the case will go to trial before the November election and allows Trump and his lawyers to continue to undermine Willis’s credibility and keep questions about her judgment in the public eye. McAfee has already excoriated Willis for her conduct, saying she had a “tremendous lapse in judgment”.Trump’s attorneys may petition the court to stay the trial pending the outcome of their appeal. Otherwise, the appeal will not immediately impede the prosecution as McAfee takes up pending motions. But if the appeals court decides that Willis must be removed, it would reset the years-long case back to square one while a new prosecutor can be appointed to oversee the case.Last month, prosecutors urged the appeals court not to hear the appeal. “The present application merely reflects the applicants’ dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts,” prosecutors wrote in a 19-page filing.Trump and more than a dozen of his allies were charged last year with racketeering over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump and his co-defendants tried to dismiss the case by alleging that Willis’s relationship, and statements she made at a Black church in Atlanta suggesting criticism of her was racist, meant she should be recused from the case.Wade defended his relationship with Willis in an interview with ABC News last weekend. “Workplace romances are as American as apple pie,” Wade said. “It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I regret that that private matter became the focal point of this very important prosecution,” Wade added. “This is a very important case.”The order comes one day after Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely delayed Trump’s trial in Florida for charges that he retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club. More

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      Unsuccessful Biden challenger is first Democrat to call for Henry Cuellar’s resignation

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      The Minnesota congressman who unsuccessfully challenged Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary became the first member of their party to call on fellow US House representative Henry Cuellar to resign after federal bribery charges were unveiled against the Texas politician on Friday.In a post on X, Dean Phillips urged Cuellar to step down, along with other politicians faced with pending criminal cases – including Biden’s presidential predecessor and Republican rival Donald Trump as well as Democratic US senator Bob Menendez.“While the bar for federal indictment is high, trust in our government is low,” Phillips’ post on X said. “That’s why office holders and candidates under indictment should resign or end their campaigns, including [senator] Bob Menendez, Donald Trump & [congressman] Henry Cuellar.”The remarks from Phillips came after federal prosecutors alleged on Friday that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, accepted about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan as well as a Mexican bank between December 2014 and November 2021.Imelda Cuellar used “sham consulting contracts”, front companies and intermediaries to launder the money, prosecutors contended. And in return for the bribes, Henry Cuellar – who has represented a swath of Texas’s border with Mexico in Congress since 2005 – steered US foreign policy to Azerbaijan’s advantage while pressuring unnamed “high-ranking” federal government executives to implement measures benefiting the bank.In a statement, Henry Cuellar maintained his and his wife’s innocence. “I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” the congressman’s statement said. “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of south Texas.”Friday’s announcement from prosecutors prompted the House Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to say that Cuellar would step down as the ranking member of a homeland security subcommittee while the case against him proceeded. Jeffries cited the party’s rules in the House.However, Jeffries made it a point to describe Cuellar as “a valued member of the House Democratic caucus” who was “entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process”.Phillips did not concur, in his estimation lumping in Cuellar with Menendez and Trump as politicians who did not deserve to hold elected office as they grappled with criminal charges.Menendez has pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges – he has said he doesn’t plan to run for re-election as a Democrat but hasn’t ruled out an independent candidacy.Trump has pleaded not guilty to nearly 90 felonies for trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Biden, improper retention of classified materials after his presidency and hush-money payments to an adult film actor that prosecutors allege were improperly covered up.The former president’s trial centering on the hush money concluded its third week on Friday. He is the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for November’s presidential race.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOne indicted politician who recently did not leave his position on his own terms was George Santos, who was expelled from the US House amid fraud-related charges.Phillips mounted a long-shot bid to deny Biden from winning a second consecutive Democratic nomination seemingly against the advice of most of his party colleagues.Biden dominated the contest, and Phillips dropped out after losing his home state.His cause was not helped when a political operative working for the Phillips campaign – without permission from the candidate or his advisers – admitted being behind a artificial intelligence-created robocall that spoofed Biden’s voice on the eve of the primary’s start and urged Democrats in New Hampshire to avoid voting.Phillips was first elected to Congress to represent a wealthier suburban area outside Minneapolis in 2019 but gave up seeking re-election to his seat in November to pursue his challenge to Biden. More