Tag: ally

Democratic mayor becomes unlikely GOP ally in battle over Southern border

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“This administration has been asleep at the wheel on border security, and it has had a tremendous, negative impact on New York City,” Lawler said in a statement to POLITICO. “I would be more than happy to work in a bipartisan way with the mayor to force President Biden to secure our borders and reform the immigration system.”
Since spring 2022, more than 57,000 migrants — largely from Latin America — arrived in New York after crossing the southern border. Some were sent from conservative states like Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott chartered as many as eight buses a day to carry migrants to Manhattan. Others arrived on their own.
The influx has strained the resources of one of the biggest cities in the world.
Services tied to housing, feeding, educating and providing health care to the newcomers are projected to cost $2.9 billion next year alone, an amount that exceeds the New York City Fire Department’s entire operating budget. So far, Adams has mostly failed to get the White House to respond to his pleas for additional funds, easing of work requirements and better coordination at the border to resettle asylum seekers around the U.S.
Adams’ new rhetoric, which drew praise from the conservative editorial page of the New York Post and mirrored remarks by Fox News contributor Sean Duffy, was even more eyebrow-raising given the moderate Democrat is a national surrogate for Biden.
The mayor’s comments came just days before the president announced his reelection bid and at a time when Republicans are gearing up to use voter discontent around immigration in their fight for the White House, the Senate and a larger majority in the House.
This is the second time in less than a year that Adams’ message on a highly contentious political issue has overlapped with Republican talking points. In 2022, he joined GOP calls for reforms to New York’s bail laws and only changed his tune as the midterms neared and it became clear his party would take a beating over crime at the ballot box.
Though Adams’ words on immigration could now hurt fellow Democrats running for national office, particularly in New York’s swing congressional districts where Lawler is facing a competitive race, Adams may be thinking more about protecting his own reelection bid in 2025.

One mayoral adviser, granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s internal mood, noted most New Yorkers would rather see investments in schools, libraries and other city services than billions more spent to help the newcomers. Indeed, a February poll by Quinnipiac University found that 63 percent of voters — including 53 percent of Democrats — don’t think New York City can accommodate the sanctuary-seekers.
Spokespeople for Adams strongly rejected criticism that he’s parroting Republican talking points, saying he’s done more to care for tens of thousands of migrants than any other Democrat in the country.
“To personally show his support for asylum seekers, Mayor Adams has organized haircuts for migrants, book donations for kids, and clothing drives, as well as slept besides migrants at a humanitarian relief center while spending hours hearing their personal stories,” mayoral press secretary Fabien Levy said in a statement.
“Anyone falsely accusing Mayor Adams of using Republican rhetoric should stop criticizing the one person doing more than anyone else in this city for migrants and start pushing for more aid from Washington, DC and Albany,” Levy said.

Adams visits a food and clothing distribution center for asylum seekers at PS 20 in Manhattan, on Feb. 11.
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
But his language around the issue — saying the migrant crisis has “destroyed” the city, directly blaming Biden for the situation and saying it has prevented New York’s economic comeback — is still jarring to many members of his party.
“It’s extremely disappointing and dangerous to hear anyone feed into anti-immigrant rhetoric, particularly the highest-ranking elected city official of one of the most diverse cities that is fueled by the contributions of the immigrant community,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez, a first-term Democrat from Illinois who says her progressive stance is key to stemming GOP gains in the Latino community.
“At the federal level, we need to utilize executive authority to ensure cities like Chicago and New York have the support they need to continue providing shelter with maximal flexibility,” she said.
Added Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a leading critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ immigration policies: “We should tone down the rhetoric and focus on solutions.”
Both Republican and Democratic strategists say Adams’ decision to amplify the right’s messaging around immigration could be a gift to the GOP.
“I think echoing Republican attacks when Biden is going to need every single resource from Democrats to back him up is not what good Democrats do,” said Bill Neidhardt, a progressive political consultant.
Republican strategist Bob Heckman said it’s surprising that other Democratic mayors of places like Chicago, D.C. and Denver, which have also faced an influx of migrants, aren’t speaking out like Adams.
“If you are the mayor of a city who’s receiving the huge influx of migrants that are pouring across the southern border, it’s hard not to talk like that,” Heckman said. “The administration needs to get serious about it. They can’t just ignore it and run on, ‘We can’t let Donald Trump get reelected.’”
A spokesperson for Biden declined to respond directly to Adams’ criticism but pointed to the president’s announcement in January about new border enforcement actions when he said “extreme Republicans” have always tried to use immigration to score political points but don’t help solve the problem.
One of those so-called extreme Republicans, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas who has advocated for conservative immigration measures, wasn’t quite ready to embrace the New York mayor.
“Eric Adams is right to blame the Biden Administration for the border crisis, but this is the same guy who campaigned on his city’s sanctuary status and extended childcare, colleague classes and other taxpayer-funded programs to illegal migrants,” Roy said in a statement.
“Texas has been bearing the brunt of this crisis for over two years — now New York is getting a taste of their own medicine.”
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#Democratic #mayor #GOP #ally #battle #Southern #border
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 29, 2023
Nagaland: NCP declares support to CM Rio, makes no reference to his ally BJP

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Mumbai: Bowing to the wishes of its elected legislators, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday announced support to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphu Rio, but stopped short of saying whether it would be part of the government.
After a meeting with Pawar and Baramati Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule on Tuesday, NCP general secretary Narendra Verma said the NCP chief had decided to accept the leadership of Chief Minister Rio “in the larger interest of the state of Nagaland”.
An NCP statement on Wednesday made no mention of the BJP, which is also a coalition partner of Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
“On Tuesday morning, after listening to the North East in-charge he took the decision to accept the leadership of Mr N. Rio, Chief Minister of Nagaland, in the larger interest of the state of Nagaland,” Verma said in the statement.
The NCP had the best performance among the opposition parties, winning seven of the 12 seats it contested in the recently held assembly elections.
At the first meeting of NCP’s Nagaland legislature party on March 4 in Kohima, there was a discussion on whether the party should be a part of the government or it will play the role of main opposition.
The NCP said the newly-elected MLAs and its local unit were of the opinion the party must be a part of the government in the larger interest of the state and the good relationship that its MLAs share with Rio.
Pawar also approved the proposal to appoint NCP MLA Picto Shohe as the leader of the NCP Legislature Party in Nagaland.

Shohe was elected as MLA in 2018 on the Naga Peoples Front ticket. He later joined Rio’s NDPP, but crossed over to NCP after being denied ticket to contest elections.
Nagaland appeared headed towards a government supported by all political parties as NPP, NPF, LJP (Ram Vilas), RPI (Athawale), JD (United) and Independents have backed Rio.
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#Nagaland #NCP #declares #support #Rio #reference #ally #BJP
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 8, 2023
BJP’s TN chief Annamalai hits out at ally AIADMK for admitting ex-party leaders

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Chennai: BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit President K. Annamalai, rattled by the back-to-back resignations of party functionaries who went on to join the AIADMK, on Tuesday lashed out at his ally.
Accusing the AIADMK of poaching BJP leaders, he tweeted: “If I decide to go shopping (poaching), my shopping list will be big. But the time and venue, I will decide”.
He also said that the presence of a former Chief Minister, while second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-level BJP leaders were joining the AIADMK was a message that the BJP has grown in Tamil Nadu.
Earlier the BJP used to poach from the Dravidian parties for it to grow, but presently Dravidian parties were poaching from the BJPA for their growth, he alleged.
In a hard-hitting statement on Twitter, he said: “Before the Kurukshetra war, people were allowed to change camps. The war which will start in a few months from now, let everyone take positions.”
The former IPS officer said that his aim was to bring his party to power in Tamil Nadu, adding that he was not a BJP manager but a BJP leader.
BJP’s Tamil Nadu IT cell President C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar quit the BJP on Sunday and joined the AIADMK in the presence of its interim General Secretary K. Palaniswami. On Monday, BJP IT cell state Secretary, Dilip Kannan also resigned from the saffron party only to join the AIADMK on Tuesday along with a few other state leaders.
BJP state leader and actor Gayathri Raghuram quit in December 2022, to protest the “dictatorial attitude” of Annamalai. BJP OBC Morcha leader Tiruchi Surya who is the son of DMK leader Tiruchi Siva, also quit the party.

Sources in the BJP told IANS that several leaders were antagonised by the style of functioning of Annamalai ever since he has become the state President.
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#BJPs #chief #Annamalai #hits #ally #AIADMK #admitting #exparty #leaders
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 7, 2023
Putin’s Russia summons Stalin from the grave as a wartime ally

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MOSCOW — As Russia enters the second year of its war against Ukraine, fans of Joseph Stalin are enjoying a renewed alignment with the Kremlin.
On Sunday, the hundreds of Stalinists who came to Red Square to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet dictator’s death were full of bravado and admiration for a man responsible for mass executions, a network of labor camps and forced starvation.
But that was not a side of the dictator that was at the forefront of the minds of those who showed up to commemorate him.

“Stalin stood up to Nazism,” Maxim, a 19-year-old medical student in a blue wooly hat, who like others interviewed for this article declined to give his last name, told POLITICO. “And now our current president has led the charge to take it on again.”
Irina, a 35-year-old marketer, brought a bouquet of red carnations to lay at Stalin’s grave at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. On February 24 last year when President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, a triumphant Irina posted a picture of a hammer and sickle on Instagram. “That symbol for me said it all.”
Standing in front of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square, longtime Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told journalists Putin could learn “lessons” from Stalin: “It’s time to take action and start fighting in a real way.”
But as Stalin’s reputation undergoes this rehabilitation, those dedicated to documenting Soviet-era mass repression have felt the full force of the state apparatus used against them.
Across town from Red Square, in Moscow’s north-eastern Basmanny district, about two dozen people gathered outside a faded yellow four-storey building on Sunday. They came to install a plaque commemorating the site as the last home of Vladimir Maslov, an economist accused of spying for Poland in a fabricated case and shot at the height of Stalin’s Great Purge. One of the attendees wore an olive-green jacket adorned with a Dove of Peace — a risky political statement in Putin’s Russia.
The “Last Address” campaign, which attaches the plaques to the former homes of the victims of Soviet repression, is one of very few such projects remaining after a merciless purge of Russia’s most established human rights groups — Memorial, the Sakharov Center and the Moscow Helsinki Group have all been forced to close.
For now, their loosely organized volunteers, armed with drills and step stools to attach the plaques on façades, have been spared. But they face increasing hurdles: The required unanimous consent of a particular building’s residents has become harder to come by; plaques have even been taken down.
“People have become more careful, they are scared that acknowledging the dark episodes of the past will be taken as a nod to what’s going on today,” said volunteer Mikhail Sheinker. “In times like these, past and present converge until they almost blend together.”
The day Stalin’s death was announced — March 6, 1953 — is seared into Sheinker’s memory: “I was four at the time and was making the usual ruckus, but my mother told me to be quiet out of respect.”
Russian Communist party supporters march to lay flowers to the tomb of late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin | Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
Today, in wartime Russia, the specter of Stalin could once again be used to further silence dissent.
On Sunday, state-run news agency RIA Novosti published an opinion piece headlined: “Stalin is a weapon in the battle between Russia and the West” arguing criticizing Stalin is “not just anti-Soviet but is also Russophobic, aimed at dividing and defeating Russia.”
But while World War II — which Russians refer to as “the Great Patriotic War” — continues to be a central trope of Putin’s rhetoric when it comes to his invasion of Ukraine, the president casts himself more as a successor to the czars than Soviet leaders. Accordingly, state media paid relatively little attention to the 70th anniversary of Stalin’s death.
Former Kremlin adviser Sergei Markov said that’s because Stalin is still too divisive and Russia’s ruling elite is loathe to commit to any specific ideology. But “if Russia is going to suffer further setbacks [in Ukraine], Stalin will become a main theme,” Markov wrote on Telegram.
Strange bedfellows
The alliance between Putin’s Kremlin and revanchist Communists is an uneasy one.
In Russia’s lower house, or the State Duma, the Communist Party closely toes the Kremlin line — but at a regional level, its members are at times less disciplined.
Last month, Mikhail Abdalkin, a Communist lawmaker in the region of Samara, posted a video of himself listening to Putin’s annual address to the entire ruling elite with noodles hanging from his ears. It was a nod to a Russian idiom “hang noodles on one’s ears” that refers to being taken for a ride or being fed nonsense.
A Russian Communist party supporter holds a portrait of late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
Last week, Abdalkin said he had been charged with discrediting Russia’s armed forces, with the case to be heard on March 7. If he’s convicted, Abdalkin could be fined.
On Red Square on Sunday, some Communist supporters volunteered criticism of Putin, too — but not of his war on Ukraine.
“Stalin gets criticized for having blood on his hands. But what about Putin’s policies? Outside big cities, people need to travel hundreds of kilometers on muddy roads to get health care,” said Alexander, a pensioner in his 60s.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 2, 2023
By-election results: Cong wins 3, BJP and ally 2; TMC suffers shock defeat in WB

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New Delhi: The assembly by-election results on Thursday brought some solace for the Congress as it wrested one seat each from the BJP and the TMC in Maharashtra and West Bengal respectively and retained a seat in Tamil Nadu with DMK’s support, while the BJP and its ally AJSU bagged one seat each in the western state and Jharkhand.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal suffered a shock defeat in Sagardighi which was won by Congress’ Bayron Biswas by 22,986 votes. It is the only seat held by the Congress in the state assembly.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged the Congress and the CPI(M) had entered into an understanding with the BJP to defeat the Trinamool Congress with their “immoral” alliance.
Banerjee also said that her party will go it alone in the 2024 elections, “with the support of common people” and the Congress should refrain from calling itself anti-BJP.
“For the Sagardighi loss, I do not blame anyone… But, there is an immoral alliance, which we strongly condemn. The BJP transferred its votes to the Congress…. everyone played the communal card. The BJP, of course, played the communal card. The Congress, CPI(M), however, turned out to be bigger players in this regard,” she told
reporters
By-election to the constituency, seen as a prestige fight for state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury in his home district of Murshidabad, was necessitated following the death of state minister Subrata Saha in December last year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to hold on to Chinchwad seat in Maharashtra’s Pune but suffered a setback as it failed to Kasba Peth Assembly seat, its stronghold in the district, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane.
The BJP held the seat for 28 years. Girish Bapat, the current BJP MP from Pune, represented the seat five times till 2019.

Dhangekar, who was supported by Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), polled 73,194 votes while Rasane received 62,244 votes, as per figures on the Election Commission’s website after the final round of counting.
While the party’s performance was dismal in the assembly poll in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya , Congress general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh said the bypoll results were “very encouraging”.
“We are building the Congress for the future and those who thought they will make it big by breaking the Congress have not achieved any success,” Ramesh said in an apparent dig at TMC.
The bypolls saw the first direct contest between the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the opposing MVA after the change of government in Maharashtra in June last year.
As the bypolls had become an issue of prestige for the MVA as well as the ruling Shinde-BJP coalition in the state, senior leaders like NCP president Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis campaigned for their respective candidates.
In Chinchwad seat, BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap was ahead with 1.12 lakh votes against NCP’s Nana Kate who had bagged around 84,000 votes. The election commission
was yet to formally declare the result at 8 pm.
The
byelection was necessitated due to the death of incumbent BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak (Kasba) and Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad).
Ruling DMK-backed Congress nominee EVKS Elangovan won in the Erode East byelection, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin terming it a public endorsement of the “Dravidian model of governance” of his 22-month-old government.
Elangovan won more than one lakh of 1.7lakh votes polled on February 27.
With the “historic and grand win”, the ground was being prepared for an even iggervictory of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Stalin told reporters.
BJP state president K Annamalai said he did not see it as an endorsement of the government’s performance and indicated factors like “sympathy” were also there, apparently referring to Elangovan being the father of E Thirumahan Everaa, the Congress MLA whose demise in January necessitated the byelection.
AJSU Party candidate Sunita Choudhary won from Jharkhand’s Ramgarh defeating UPA-backed Congress’ Bajrang Mahto by a margin of 21,970 votes, the Election Commission said.
The AJSU Party, which tied up with the BJP for the by-poll, secured 1,15,669 votes, while the Congress, an ally of the ruling JMM-led coalition, bagged 93,699 votes after the completion of counting, it said.
The by-election was necessitated due to the disqualification of Congress legislator Mamta Devi, following her conviction in a criminal case.
The EC had in January announced that bypolls to the Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat, along with six Assembly seats spread over five states – Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu – would be held on February 27.
The Lakshadweep seat was vacated following the disqualification of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member Mohammed Faizal after his conviction in a criminal case.
However, on January 30, the EC withheld the Lakshadweep Lok Sabha byelection l after the Kerala High Court suspended the conviction and sentence of Faizal.
On January 25, the poll panel “revised” the date of polling, from February 27 to February 26, for bypolls in two assembly seats of Maharashtra’s Pune district after it was informed about the dates clashing with scheduled class 12 and graduation exams there.
In Arunachal Pradesh’s Lumla seat, BJP candidate Tsering Lhamu has declared elected the MLA without a contest on February 10.
Lhamu, the wife of former MLA Jambey Tashi, was the only candidate who filed her nomination for the by-election which was necessitated due to the death of her husband in November last year.
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#Byelection #results #Cong #wins #BJP #ally #TMC #suffers #shock #defeat
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 2, 2023
Belarusian leader, a key Putin ally, to pay state visit to China next week

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Beijing announced on Saturday that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will travel to China on a state visit from February 28 to March 2.
The announcement of the trip comes a day after Beijing, looking to play a role in mediating a resolution to the Russian war on Ukraine, published a 12-point “position paper” aimed at ending the conflict.
“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will pay a state visit to China from February 28 to March 2,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The Belarusian foreign ministry confirmed the planned visit, saying the Chinese and Belarusian foreign ministers discussed it in a telephone call on Friday.
Lukashenko has backed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and allowed its territory to be used in the Russian assault. Lukashenko said last week that his country was prepared to join Russia’s war against Ukraine, if attacked. That prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to warn the Belarusian leader not to get directly involved in the war.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said he will visit China in early April and seek Beijing’s help in ending the war in Ukraine. “The fact that China is engaging in peace efforts is a good thing,” Macron said, according to French media reports.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy also said he would like to engage with Beijing following the proposals unveiled on Friday toward resolving the conflict. Zelenskyy said he was open to considering some aspects of the Chinese “position paper” and would welcome the chance to discuss the proposals with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A meeting with Xi could be “useful” to both countries and for global security, Zelenskyy said.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

February 21, 2023
Imran Khan’s ally arrested for accusing Zardari of plotting to kill former premier

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Islamabad: Pakistani police on Thursday arrested former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed from his home for accusing ex-president Asif Ali Zardari of plotting to kill former prime minister Imran Khan.
An ally of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Ahmed is the chief of Awami Muslim League (AML).
His nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafique said that the AML chief was arrested from his home in a private housing society in Islamabad.
The former minister was arrested by Islamabad police in the early hours of Thursday in connection with remarks he made against former president Zardari, accusing him of hatching a “murder plot to eliminate PTI chief Imran Khan”.
Sheikh Rashid was later presented before the court of Judicial Magistrate Omar Shabbir who granted the police two-day physical remand of the AML chief.
The police had requested his eight-day remand for investigation.
Sheikh Rashid was arrested on a police complaint filed by Raja Inayat-ur-Rehman, a vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in a television interview on January 27, alleged that Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Zardari got the assistance of some terrorists to kill Khan.
Khan also in a television address on January 27 had alleged that Zardari was behind a fresh assassination plot a “plan C” and a terror group had been engaged for the purpose. He offered no evidence to back up his accusation.

Sheikh Rashid in fact had repeated what Imran Khan had said in his television address.
Zardari rejected the allegations and also sent a legal notice to Khan to apologize and take back the accusations or a case of damages would be filed against him.
According to a video clip of the arrested leader, he alleged that police ransacked his house and thrashed domestic staffers while attempting to arrest him. He also vowed to challenge his arrest in the high court.
He also alleged that some (personnel) used ladders to enter his house. He went on to say that he had been arrested despite getting relief from the Islamabad High Court.
He claimed that lawyer Mian Tahir had secured his bail and went on to allege that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was behind the incident.
Reacting to the arrest, Khan said: “Never in our history have we had such a biased, vindictive caretaker government appointed by totally discredited the ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan). The question is: can Pak afford a street movement which we are being pushed towards at a time when we have been bankrupted by imported government?”
The FIR filed against the AML leader claimed that Ahmed’s statement was made as part of a conspiracy to defame the former president and create a permanent threat to his family.
“He wants to create conflict and enmity between two groups PPP and PTI with this fabricated and baseless conspiracy so that the peace of the country can be disturbed,” it added.
Islamabad Police had on Wednesday summoned Ahmed to appear before it today in connection with the case. However, the Islamabad High Court suspended the notice.
The court also issued notices to the Islamabad police chief and asked him to nominate a senior officer who could apprise the high court of the facts related to the case. The former interior minister had claimed that he had “inside information of the murder conspiracy” and that the former president had allegedly hired “assassins to kill Imran Khan”.
In the petition, Sheikh Rashid challenged the notice issued to him by the local police and dubbed the notice as contradictory to different provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. Further hearing has been adjourned until February 6.
Sheikh Rashid served as interior minister when Khan was prime minister and claims that he has served 16 times as minister in various governments.
His arrest comes amid a raft of legal moves against PTI leaders and their allies.
Last week, PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry was arrested for allegedly making threats against election commission members’ families. He was later released on bail. A sedition case was filed against former PTI lawmaker Shandana Gulzar Khan.
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#Imran #Khans #ally #arrested #accusing #Zardari #plotting #kill #premier
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 2, 2023
Secret hold restricts DOJ’s bid to access phone of Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry

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The fight has intensified in recent weeks and drawn the House, newly led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, into the fray. On Friday, the chamber moved to intervene in the back-and-forth over letting DOJ access the phone of Perry, the House Freedom Caucus chair, reflecting the case’s potential to result in precedent-setting rulings about the extent to which lawmakers can be shielded from scrutiny in criminal investigations.
The House’s decision to intervene in legal cases is governed by the “Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group,” a five-member panel that includes McCarthy, his Democratic counterpart Hakeem Jeffries, and other members of House leadership. The panel voted unanimously to support the House’s intervention in the matter, seeking to protect the chamber’s prerogatives, according to one of the two people familiar with the proceedings.
After this story was first published Monday, McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar acknowledged the House has stepped into the legal fight about Perry’s communications. “The Speaker has long said that the House should protect the prerogatives of Article I. This action indicates new leadership is making it a priority to protect House equities,” Bednar said.
FBI agents seized Perry’s phone with a court-approved warrant in August but still lack a necessary second level of judicial permission to begin combing through the records. Perry has claimed his communications are barred from outside review because of constitutional protections afforded to members of Congress that were designed to let lawmakers better fulfill their official responsibilities.
Perry first challenged DOJ’s authority to access his communications in a public lawsuit in August, filed shortly after his phone was seized. He maintained that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause prohibited the government from accessing messages he might have sent in connection with his work as a member of Congress. Perry would soon drop the lawsuit, and the status of prosecutors’ efforts to access his records remained unclear.
More than four months after the government obtained Perry’s phone, Howell sided with DOJ. While Howell’s rulings in the dispute remain under seal, along with any rationale that appeals court judges may have offered for their actions, some spare details about the fight appear in that court’s public docket.
On Jan. 5, according to the docket, a three-judge appeals court panel put a temporary hold on Howell’s ruling. The appeals panel assigned to the case — which includes Trump appointees Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, as well as Karen Henderson, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush — rejected prosecutors’ immediate attempt to access Perry’s documents. Those judges instead set out a schedule for additional legal briefing and a Feb. 23 oral argument at the Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington.
Perry is a crucial figure in the ongoing investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden. House and Senate probes have described Perry as an important ally to Trump in the chaotic weeks between the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in a bid to disrupt the transfer of power.

The now-Freedom Caucus chair helped orchestrate a plan for Trump to replace DOJ leadership with figures likelier to support his groundless efforts to pressure states to override the election results. In addition, Perry was a frequent participant in strategy sessions and calls with Trump and other top aides, and the Jan. 6 select committee recovered several text messages between Perry and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows discussing plans for department leadership, as well as other matters connected to the 2020 election.
As chief judge of the U.S. District Court, Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, oversees all grand jury matters, including those associated with the investigation into Trump’s election-overturning push. While grand juries and the associated legal fights typically occur under a tight veil of secrecy, aspects of the Trump probe have lately been unsealed or leaked out. Howell herself unsealed details in December that revealed prosecutors had prioritized obtaining Perry’s emails with several Trump-world attorneys as early as last spring.
Several other secret grand jury battles have lined the appeals court docket in recent months. In September, Howell supported DOJ’s effort to pierce executive privilege claims related to testimony from aides to former Vice President Mike Pence, and reports suggest Howell issued a similar ruling late last year related to former White House attorneys.
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#Secret #hold #restricts #DOJs #bid #access #phone #Trump #ally #Rep #Scott #Perry
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 31, 2023
Meadows ally set to plead guilty for illegal campaign finance contribution

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Bennett did not respond to messages seeking comment, but her attorney said in a statement that the case “involves a technical violation of campaign-finance regulations, based on a loan from a family member.”
“Lynda looks forward to putting it behind her,” Kearns Davis, Bennett’s attorney, said.
An attorney for Mark Meadows also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bennett’s campaign finance records don’t immediately make clear which contributions prosecutors believe to have been unlawful. Bennett’s reports indicate she loaned herself $80,000 at the end of 2019 and paid a portion of it back. Her report terminating her political committee did not list any outstanding balance.
Campaign finance laws limited individual campaign contributions for the 2020 election cycle to $2,800 in the primary and $2,800 in the general for an aggregate total of $5,600 in that campaign cycle. However, candidates can make unlimited donations or loans to their own campaigns.
Meadows backed Bennett to replace him in Congress after he resigned his seat to join the Trump White House, until she lost the primary to Cawthorn. Then-President Donald Trump also endorsed Bennett in the primary, and Republicans in North Carolina worried that Meadows’ aggressive effort to steer his seat to an ally might backfire.
Meadows’ wife Debbie was active in support of Bennett on the campaign trail and Meadows pointed to his wife’s closeness with Bennett to underscore her support for Trump.
Mark Meadows is facing intense legal scrutiny for his role in Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. Prosecutors in Washington and Georgia are investigating the effort, as well as the role that some of Trump’s close allies played.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 30, 2023
Israeli PM dismisses key minister, ally after court order

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Jerusalem: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed a senior cabinet ally to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that disqualified the minister from serving.
Netanyahu on Sunday announced he is firing Aryeh Deri, the minister of health and minister of interior affairs, during his weekly cabinet meeting, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by the Prime Minister’s office.
The move follows a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that Deri, an influential and veteran leader of the ultra-Orthodox party Shas, cannot serve as a minister due to a conviction in February 2022 over tax fraud.
“I am forced, with a heavy heart, great sorrow and a very difficult feeling, to remove you from your position as a minister in the government,” Netanyahu wrote in a dismissal letter to Deri.
The Supreme Court’s decision “ignores the people’s will,” Netanyahu told Deri. “I intend to find any legal way for you to continue to contribute to the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Deri said in a statement after the meeting that he would continue to serve as the leader of the Shas party and help the government to advance its agenda, including a controversial judiciary reform to weaken the Supreme Court.
Deri’s Shas became the third-largest party in the parliament after winning 11 seats in parliamentary elections in November. If Netanyahu loses its support, he might lose his majority in the parliament as his far-right coalition only has 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
The legal decision deepens an already unprecedented rift between the new hard-right government and the judiciary over the government’s reform plan to weaken the Supreme Court.

On Saturday, at least 120,000 Israelis, as estimated by police, protested in Tel Aviv and other cities against the legal overhaul which they claim will undermine the autonomy of the courts and threaten Israel’s democracy.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023