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 )
Telangana Education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy.
Hyderabad: Telangana’s education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy is seeking relief from illegal mining charges brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
While contesting the orders of the Special CBI Court in Hyderabad, Sabitha filed a criminal revision petition in the Telangana High Court on Tuesday.
The CBI court had rejected discharge applications submitted by Sabitha, AP IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, and former AP Mines and Geology director VD Rajagopal in October 2022.
The defendants claimed that they were only doing their jobs and had not committed any crime.
The CBI charged them with assisting mining baron G Janardhan Reddy in illegally extracting iron ore on the AP-Karnataka border and exporting it.
Sabitha, in undivided AP, was the mining minister while Krupanandam and Srilakshmi were working as secretaries in the industries and mines department respectively when they were charged with conspiring with Janardhan Reddy and his OMC.
SRINAGAR: The Government on Monday constituted a Committee to enquire into the matter relating to the appointment of faculty members in Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (JKIMPARD) in “violation of rules”.
Headed by Financial Commissioner Chairman (Additional Chief Secretary), Home Department, the members of the committee include Director General, J&K Institute of Public Management, Administration and Rural Development, Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department, Secretary, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Director General (Codes), Finance Department, news agency GNS quoted an government order as saying.
‘The Committee shall also enquire into the reasons for not previously reporting to the Government the irregular appointments of the faculty members in the Institute, which pre-date the term of the current Director General.’
Besides, it has been asked to enquire the number of meetings of the Governing Council required to be held under norms vis-à-vis the actual number of meetings held over the last five years and whether the matter involving “irregular appointments” was ever brought to the notice of the members of the Governing Council.
“The Committee shall also evaluate overall functioning of the IMPARD Over the last five years and submit its recommendations for improving work/academic environment, management efficiencies and institutional integrity on sustainable basis,” the order reads, adding, “The Committee shall be serviced by the J&K IMPARD.” It has been asked to submit its report within one (01) month.
Srinagar, Jan 23: The Government on Monday constituted a Committee to enquire into the matter relating to the appointment of faculty members in Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (JKIMPARD) in “violation of rules”.
Headed by Financial Commissioner Chairman (Additional Chief Secretary), Home Department, the members of the committee include Director General, J&K Institute of Public Management, Administration and Rural Development, Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department, Secretary, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Director General (Codes), Finance Department, according to an order, a copy of which lies with GNS.
‘The Committee shall also enquire into the reasons for not previously reporting to the Government the irregular appointments of the faculty members in the Institute, which pre-date the term of the current Director General.’
Besides, it has been asked to enquire the number of meetings of the Governing Council required to be held under norms vis-à-vis the actual number of meetings held over the last five years and whether the matter involving “irregular appointments” was ever brought to the notice of the members of the Governing Council.
“The Committee shall also evaluate overall functioning of the IMPARD Over the last five years and submit its recommendations for improving work/academic environment, management efficiencies and institutional integrity on sustainable basis,” the order reads, the copy of which is with Global News Service, adding, “The Committee shall be serviced by the J&K IMPARD.” It has been asked to submit its report within one (01) month. (GNS)
Pune: Various Hindutva bodies under the aegis of Sakal Hindu Samaj on Sunday took out a protest march in Maharashtra’s Pune city against “love jihad”, illegal conversions and cow slaughter.
The ‘Hindu Jan Akrosh Morcha’ started at the historical Lal Mahal and culminated at the statue of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Deccan area, a distance of about 5 km.
The morcha organisers demanded the death anniversary of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, eldest son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, be declared as ‘Balidan Din’ (Martyr’s Day).
Sambhaji Maharaj was tortured to death on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangazeb in 1689.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Shivendra Raje Bhosale, his counterpart from Hyderabad, T Raja Singh, and several political leaders joined the rally.
“Cases of love jihad, illegal conversions, cow slaughter etc have increased in the country. I demand the state government, as well as the Centre, bring a law against love Jihad,” Singh said.
“Love jihad” is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.
Singh said he is a follower of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
“Politicians should stop doing politics over Sambhaji Maharaj. Those who are doing politics on this topic, I ask people to boycott such leaders,” he said without taking any names.
Earlier this month, the BJP held protests across Maharashtra against Opposition leader Ajit Pawar, who belongs to NCP, over his remark on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
Pawar had told the Legislative Assembly that Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was a “swarajya rakshak” and it is incorrect on part of some people to call him “dharmaveer”.
Shivendra Raje Bhosale, who represents the Satara assembly constituency, said, “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the pioneer of the Swarajya movement which also included protecting the religion. So far what we have read in the history is Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was a dharmaveer”.
Fatehpur: A case has been registered against 10 named people, including a Vice Chancellor, and 50 others unidentified people for alleged illegal religious conversion of a man, police said on Saturday.
Police filed the case responding to a complaint filed by one Sarvendra Vikram Singh, a resident of Sultanpur district, who said he had come to Fatehpur for some work on January 25, 2021, Circle officer (City) Veer Singh said.
He later met a man named Ramchandra in Sujrahi village, who told him that the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), Prayagraj, was giving money on adopting Christianity, and it will also bear the running expenses for his family.
Ramchandra took Sarvendra to the Indian Press Church in Deviganj, where he met a priest, who told him about the money offer and also a job upon conversion.
After this, Sarvendra went with the priest to Naini in Prayagraj where underwent the conversion, the CO said.
SHUATS Vice Chancellor RB Lal is among the 10 people named in the FIR, he said.
“Sarvendra had adopted Christianity from Hinduism. Subsequently, he again converted back to Hinduism, and then lodged a police complaint, after realizing his mistake,” the CO said.
Truck horns blasted and red dust billowed beneath the blue Arizona sky as surplus army trucks sped up and down a road along the US-Mexico border, hauling shipping containers out of the Coronado national forest.
Piles of dirt and oak trees, bulldozed by construction crews, dotted the grassland of the San Rafael valley, south-east of Tucson, known as a vital wildlife corridor.
According to @DEMAArizona 1,700 shipping containers will be removed from the walls in Cochise County and Yuma that AZ Gov. @DougDucey built during his final months in office. The cost $76.5 million. I passed a few of them last week as I headed south to report on the removals. pic.twitter.com/AGeBxjFQwF
Former governor Doug Ducey had planned to build 10 miles of border “wall” made up of double-stacked old shipping containers through the federally protected forest.
But local residents and environmental groups occupied the construction site, running out the clock in December on Republican Ducey’s waning days in office.
Ducey, under threat of litigation from the Department of Justice, finally agreed to remove the rusty hulking barriers installed near Yuma in the west and Sierra Vista in the south-east of the state.
Environmentalists are now warning that the damage already done to the areas will require a huge recovery effort.
Erick Meza, borderlands coordinator for the environmental organization Sierra Club, said a lack of accountability over the project means more destruction.
“We just want to make sure that no further damage is done to the land due to the reckless operation of heavy machinery in a fragile desert ecosystem that will take decades to recuperate,” he told the Guardian this week.
Now two related lawsuits between Ducey and the federal government are on hold as Arizona’s new governor, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, negotiates the project’s end.
In early January, approximately 130 shipping containers near Yuma came down in less than a week.
But the nearly 3.5 miles of barrier running across Coronado national forest land could take at least another month to dismantle, according to environmentalists monitoring the removal and damage.
On 3 January, the US Forest Service closed off the area, citing concerns over public health and safety. It did so as AshBritt, the Florida-based company that installed the makeshift wall, worked to remove it, outside the gaze of the public or the press.
Only five designated monitors from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Wildlands Network and the Center for Biological Diversity, were allowed into the site, with permits issued by the US Forest Service.
The five set about documenting environmental damage and sharing videos, images and notes with Forest Service officials, who will be tasked with restoring the wildlife corridor.
It is one of the last on the Arizona border, where endangered jaguar, ocelots and other animals can migrate between Mexico and the US.
Late last week, however, the Forest Service canceled those permits, citing safety issues, according to monitors Erick Meza; Kate Scott, who runs the nonprofit Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center; and Russ McSpadden, of the Center for Biological Diversity. They said they were approached by a law enforcement officer from the Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, who said their permits were no longer authorized.
AshBritt continues to illegally damage Forest Service lands with new spur roads & damages to plants/wildlife during wall removal. The FS gave me a permit to document removal but earlier this week revoked it while I was in the field. A FS Ranger told me I was illegally on site… pic.twitter.com/CQxMP4QoiS
The day before, Scott said, an armed security guard working for AshBritt had told her to leave. She showed him her permit and the guard, Scott recounted, told her it “didn’t mean shit to him” and warned her that “the Forest Service is coming to kick you out”.
Robin Silver, cofounder of the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, said he believes the permits were canceled because of the environmental harm, and that the federal agency did nothing to stop the construction even though it was illegal.
“It’s highly embarrassing for the US Forest Service because of all of the damage that’s now being exposed,” he said.
The center filed two lawsuits against Ducey and AshBritt, citing violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The latter is now moot because the barrier is being removed, but the Clean Water Act lawsuit is still active, so ongoing monitoring is needed, Silver explained.
He added that damage done by excavators and trucks is “going to take a huge restoration effort”.
In August, Ducey cited an “invasion” at the border by migrants seeking haven in the US as the reason for granting AshBritt an emergency no-bid contract to install the containers.
Judy Kioski, public information officer for Arizona’s department of emergency and military affairs, said 1,700 shipping containers will now be removed at a cost of $76.5m. “The containers are being transported to state facilities in Yuma and Tucson until a plan for them is determined,” she said via email.
AshBritt’s original contract with the state included $123.6m to install the shipping container walls in Yuma and the Coronado national forest, and the company is now being paid to take them down.
The Florida-based disaster remediation firm has given millions to both Democratic and Republican campaigns. The company’s founder and director, Randal Perkins, paid a $125,000 fine in August 2021 for illegally donating $500,000 to the America First Action Super Pac, one of many fundraising political action committees supporting Donald Trump or Trump-like candidates.
At the time of the donation AshBritt had a $40m contract with the Department of Defense, and under federal law government contractors are prohibited from donating to political committees. Trump’s Super Pac refunded the money.
Meanwhile, sheriff David Hathaway of Santa Cruz county had refused to allow the shipping container barrier in his county, so Ducey turned to nextdoor – and sympathetic – Cochise county instead.
“They were violating the law by building on national forest land, they were tearing apart the hillsides,” Hathaway told the Guardian. “And it’s surprising to me that the federal government wasn’t willing to do anything about it. I told them if they entered my county to build it, I’d arrest them for illegal dumping.”
It’s unclear how much the federal government will have to spend to repair the environmental damage, or even if it will.
“What good are they [the Forest Service] if they’re not going to protect it? It’s still just us out here. We shut down the construction, and now we’re documenting the damage because no one else is,” said Scott.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
