List of All Articles with Tag 'erica'

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, are at loggerheads and appear to have scrapped a deal for the lawyer and lobbyist turned artist to plead guilty to tax misdemeanour charges and enter into a diversion programme on a gun-related charge after the judge overseeing a plea hearing questioned whether the deal would preclude the government from pursuing other charges against him. US District Judge Maryellen Noreika ordered Mr Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors to confer further after Mr Biden said he would not accept the agreement if it did not provide that the government could not charge him for any crimes currently known to prosecutors if he successfully completes the terms of the deal. Prosecutors had agreed to ask Judge Noreika to impose a term of probation on Mr Biden for not having paid taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. Mr Biden was also expected to enter into a diversion deal under which he’d plead guilty to charges that he’d lied on a gun background check form when he said he wasn’t a user of drugs when he bought a pistol during that same time period, but would withdraw the plea after completing the terms of the diversion agreement, which often requires community service and continued sobriety verified by drug tests. During the court hearing, he told Judge Noreika that he’d been sober since 2019 but had been in and out of drug treatment for roughly two decades. The sticking point in the proceedings appeared when the judge asked prosecutors and defence counsel whether they understood the hearing to conclude any criminal proceedings against Mr Biden, and when prosecutors said that was not their understanding, she ordered prosecutors and defence counsel for the president’s son to confer on whether they still have an agreement. More follows... Read More Is Donald Trump going to prison? Trump begs Congress to help with legal troubles as possible Jan 6 charges loom – live Congressman asks UFO whistleblower if anyone has been ‘murdered’ to maintain coverup

President Joe Biden on Tuesday responded to a reporter’s query about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s claim that the GOP could soon open an impeachment inquiry into the president by laughing as he exited a White House event. Mr Biden was caught cracking a smile and chucking on his way out of the East Room after delivering remarks on his administration’s efforts to increase the availability of mental health treatment. Earlier in the day, Mr McCarthy had said that an impeachment probe would provide the House with “the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed” before they can attempt to oust Mr Biden, which many in his conference have been pushing to do since before he took office. It’s not known whether the House will actually initiate an impeachment inquiry into Mr Biden, but multiple prominent Republicans have become increasingly vocal in their promotion of conspiracy theories and false claims about alleged criminality on the part of the president. Mr McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity late Tuesday that the House Oversight Committee’s widely panned probe into Mr Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was “rising to the level of an impeachment inquiry” even though the younger Mr Biden does not hold and has never held public office. Republicans have spent years alleging that Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, was the reason Mr Biden carried out Obama administration policy as vice president when he pushed Ukraine’s then-president, Petro Poroshenko, to oust a prosecutor whose firing had been demanded by the US, EU, IMF and other entities that were backing financial aid for Ukraine. The false allegations were what motivated then-president Donald Trump to attempt to blackmail Mr Poroshenko’s successor, Volodymyr Zelensky, into announcing sham investigations into the Bidens, leading to Mr Trump’s first of two impeachment trials. Read More Trump begs Congress to help save him from his legal troubles Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his presidency?

Rudy Giuliani will not contest claims from two Georgia election workers who have accused the former attorney to Donald Trump of smearing them with false and defamatory statements surrounding the 2020 presidential election. A late-night federal court filing from Mr Giuliani’s attorneys on 25 July states that he “concedes solely for the purposes of this litigation” that he made false statements about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss that “carry meaning that is defamatory”. He also conceded that his statements meet the “factual elements of liability” for their claims that amounted to “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. The two women were subject to relentless abuse fuelled by false claims that they manipulated votes, damage that Mr Giuliani has refused to concede stemmed from his statements. “Giuliani’s stipulation concedes what we have always known to be true,” attorney Michael J Gottlieb Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP said in a statement. “Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law; and the allegations of election fraud he and former-President Trump made against them have been false since day one.” “While certain issues, including damages, remain to be decided by the court, our clients are pleased with this major milestone in their fight for justice, and look forward to presenting what remains of this case at trial,” he added. The two-page filing from Mr Giuliani’s attorneys indicates he will continue to argue that spurious claims about voter fraud in the state were protected speech. A spokesperson for the former New York City mayor indicated that the concession was in an effort to bypass a fact-finding portion of the case, which would involve the public disclosures of emails, text messages and other communications involving his claims. US District Court Judge Beryl Howell had threatened Mr Giuliani with sanctions and put him on the hook for $90,000 in legal fees following claims that he failed to preserve evidence related to the case. His latest filing came as a response to an order from the judge demanding an explanation. Ted Goodman, political adviser to Mr Giuliani, said in a statement shared with The Independent that he “did not acknowledge that the statements were false but did not contest it in order to move on to the portion of the case that will permit a motion to dismiss.” “This is a legal issue, not a factual issue. Those out to smear the mayor are ignoring the fact that this stipulation is designed to get to the legal issues of the case,” he added. In their testimony to the House select committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Ms Freeman and Ms Moss revealed the depth of abuse they endured, forcing them from their jobs and making them feel unsafe after the former president and Mr Giuliani promoted debunked conspiracy theories involving them. They later filed a defamation suit against Mr Giuliani as well as right-wing outlet One American News Network, which settled with the women last year. A report from Georgia’s State Election Board following a year-long investigation also dismissed bogus claims of election fraud and cleared the allegations against the women. The fraud claims were “unsubstantiated and found to have no merit,” the investigation concluded, reporting on the work of the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and investigators from the Secretary of State’s office vetting the alleged fraud Earlier this month, Bernie Kerik – a former New York City Police Department commissioner who worked with Mr Giuliani to support bogus voter fraud claims – was directed by the judge to provide “a document-by-document privilege log of any withheld record that provides sufficient information to ‘enable other parties to assess the claim’ that ‘the information is privileged or subject to protection as trial preparation material.’” He also was ordered to show why those records and other statements should be withheld. But a joint filing on 24 July from attorneys for Mr Kerik and the two election workers reveals that the parties reached an agreement to receive those documents – which were also sought in the unrelated federal investigation surrounding Mr Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The former president’s campaign withdrew its claim of privilege over those documents, and Mr Kerik’s legal team has handed over thousands of documents to prosecutors investigating the former president’s mindset and decision making as he baselessly stated that the 2020 election was “stolen” and “rigged” against him despite a lack of evidence. Read More Giuliani team that tried to find evidence of 2020 fraud hands over hundreds of documents to January 6 probe Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Trump news – live: Trump begs Congress to help save him from legal troubles as Jan 6 indictment decision looms All the lawsuits and criminal charges involving Trump and where they stand

Donald Trump is leading the field to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee once again in 2024, his supporters apparently undeterred by his mounting legal problems – or the 24-hour circus of his first-term – and keen to give him another shot at the White House, such is their animosity to incumbent Joe Biden. None of Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Tim Scott or any of the other GOP stragglers are polling close to the former commander-in-chief as of summer 2023, despite the fact that Mr Trump has already been indicted twice this year and is staring down the barrel of a potential third and fourth. Having already stepped out to appeal not guilty at two arraignment hearings in New York and Miami over the alleged misrepresentation of his business records to conceal hush money payments and the alleged hoarding of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago bathroom, the former reality TV star could now face charges over his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021 and, potentially, for attempting to influence the 2020 vote count in Georgia by pressuring state officials. None of which appears to discourage his loyal fanbase, who have been prepared to overlook the myriad disappointments of Mr Trump’s first tenure in the Oval Office, his historic double impeachment and his disastrous midterms picks last November to cheer him on at rallies, splash out on merchandise and generously donate to his campaign. While more traditional conservatives are ready to move on, the MAGA movement remains significant and its members are all too ready to cheerily swallow their idol’s baseless claims that the Biden administration has “weaponised” the US justice system against an innocent man in order to thwart the “American comeback” he has promised. Just in case you feel tempted to look back on the years 2017 to 2021 through rose-tinted spectacles, here is a refresher on precisely what happened during that angry whirlwind of a presidency, which began with government-by-Twitter and ended with the unprecedented and disgraceful spectacle of a president impeached not once but twice. House speaker Nancy Pelosi first announced she was launching an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump on 24 September 2019 in response to a complaint raised against him by an anonymous CIA whistleblower. The issue related to a call the 45th US president had placed with Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelensky (a great deal more famous now than he was then) on 25 July that year, in which the American appeared to proposition his counterpart in Eastern Europe with a quid pro quo. Mr Trump hinted that $400m in congressionally-approved US military aid to Kyiv to help fend off Russian aggression in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine would be withheld unless Mr Zelensky’s government launched a politically embarrassing anti-corruption probe into Mr Trump’s own domestic rival, one Joseph R Biden, who was then leading the Democratic field to challenge him in 2020. “I would like you to do us a favour though…” was how the president introduced his condition on the call, pressuring Mr Zelensky to pursue a conspiracy theory alleging that Mr Biden, while serving as US vice president to Barack Obama, had sought the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a local gas company, Burisma, on whose board his troubled son Hunter Biden sat, a matter already pursued by Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Following Ms Pelosi’s bombshell announcement, the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees began interviewing State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council (NSC) officials behind closed doors throughout October, peacing the truth together from their depositions before summoning several back to testify in public across a series of dramatic mid-November hearings. The inquiry’s public phase introduced a memorable cast of characters, including former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Ukraine charge d’affaires Bill Taylor, displaced Durhamite and Russia expert Dr Fiona Hill, the nattily bowtied George Kent, vice presidential aide Jennifer Williams, decorated NSC director Lt Col Alexander Vindman in full dress uniform and ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, a smirking ex-hotelier who had donated $1m to the Trump campaign for the privilege of ending up in the mess. By and large, the witnesses proved themselves to be impressive and principled experts in their fields and made fools of the MAGA Republicans attempting to pick holes in their testimony – Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Elise Stefanik and Louie Gohmert among them. Mr Trump, predictably, spent his time denouncing the proceedings on Twitter as a “scam” and a second “witch hunt” following on from Robert Mueller’s investigation of his alleged ties to Russia, even engaging in some live witness intimidation when he tweeted nastily about Ms Yovanovitch as she gave evidence. The House went on to formally accuse the president on two counts, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on 10 December. Eight days later, representatives backed both articles, casting their votes largely along party lines and pushing the matter forward to a trial in the Republican-held Senate. The Democrats, led by California congressman Adam Schiff, made their case admirably but, in the end, only Mitt Romney dared to break ranks and vote for Mr Trump’s conviction in the upper chamber, despite some heavy signalling from “rebel” GOP senators Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins that they might join him, before hopelessly bottling it. Impeached but not convicted, Mr Trump was free to carry on regardless. Ms Collins’ excuse that she believed he had “learned his lesson” from the Zelensky affair would later prove to be an even more laughable contention than it had sounded when she first uttered it. The other side of his disastrous mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, a summer of Black Lives Matter demonstrations over the police murder of George Floyd and his comprehensive defeat in the 2020 presidential election to Mr Biden, Mr Trump was impeached for a history-making second time on 13 January 2021 when the House found that he had incited the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol a week earlier by leading his disappointed supporters on with the “Big Lie” that only (non-existent) mass voter fraud had stopped him securing a second term. The tragic events of 6 January – on which a mob of QAnon zealots, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers stormed the legislative complex to try to stop the certification of the election results, five people were killed, a gallows was erected to hang Mr Pence and Congress was attacked for the first time since it was set alight by British soldiers in 1814 – are well documented. In its aftermath, Mr Trump, who declined to call off his supporters, preferring instead to watch the “American carnage” he had predicted at his inauguration finally unfold on live TV, was booted off social media and the House moved quickly to impeach him for an unheard-of second time, passing an article accusing him of incitement to insurrection. Speaker Pelosi said as she cast her vote to impeach that the president represented “a clear and present danger” so long as he remained in the Oval Office and accused him of trying to “repeal reality” in challenging the election result. The vote passed 232-197 in the lower chamber but, again, the Senate granted him an acquittal on 13 February, with only seven Republicans crossing the aisle to join the 50 Democrats in demanding accountability – not enough to land the two-thirds majority needed. Had just 10 more listened to their consciences and joined the rebellion, the US Constitution would have barred Mr Trump from ever running for high office again, ruling as it does that “judgement in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust or profit under the United States”. Twice impeached but convicted on neither occasion, Mr Trump was entirely free to announce a fresh bid for the White House, as he did last November, seemingly as untroubled by burning shame as ever. Read More Trump news – live: Georgia grand jury could weigh conspiracy charge as ex-NYPD boss hands docs to Jan 6 probe Mark Meadows laughed off Trump’s claims of election fraud in text to White House attorney, says report Unanswered questions about Trump’s looming January 6 indictment What is an indictment? Donald Trump facing third of 2023 over Capitol riot Donald Trump is the first former president arrested on federal charges. Can he still run in 2024?

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called on Republican donors to force candidates who have little to no chance to win the Republican nomination for president out of the race to prevent Donald Trump from winning. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee-turned-chief critic of the former president within the GOP wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that any candidate had a shot of beating Mr Trump if the contest became a two-person race. “For that to happen, Republican megadonors and influencers – large and small – are going to have to do something they didn’t do in 2016: get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when their paths to the nomination are effectively closed,” he said. Mr Romney set the deadline of 26 February, which would be after the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, the Nevada caucus and the South Carolina primary. He said plenty of Republican candidates with no chance of winning benefit greatly from their candidacies. “Left to their own inclinations, expect several of the contenders to stay in the race for a long time,” Mr Romney noted. “They will split the non-Trump vote, giving him the prize. A plurality is all that is needed for winner-take-all primaries.” Mr Romney also cited the presidential candidacy of his father, the late George Romney, when he ran in 1968 and how many moderate Republicans got behind him before the elder Romney dropped out and they pledged their support to Nelson Rockefeller to stop Richard Nixon. But Mr Romney said such circumstances don’t exist today because of the rise of super PACs, which allow for unlimited fundraising. “A few billionaires have already committed tens of millions of dollars,” he said. “They have a responsibility to give their funds with clear eyes about their candidate’s prospects.” Mr Romney is the only Republican Senator who voted to convict Mr Trump for both of the former president’s impeachments in 2020 and 2021. The former Massachusetts governor said donors who back a candidate with a slim chance should receive a hard pledge that they will drop out and back the candidate with the best chance of beating Mr Trump by 26 February. “Donors may think that party leaders can narrow the field,” he wrote. “Not so. Candidates don’t listen to party officials, because voters don’t listen to them either. And the last people who would ever encourage a candidate to withdraw are the campaign staff and consultants who want to keep their jobs for as long as possible.” Polling in early states showed Mr Trump continues to hold a commanding lead in many of the early states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “Our party and our country need a nominee with character, driven by something greater than revenge and ego, preferably from the next generation,” he said. “Family, friends and campaign donors are the only people who can get a lost-cause candidate to exit the race. After Feb. 26, they should start doing just that.” Read More Trump news – live: Trump shares QAnon post on Truth Social as ex-NYPD boss hands evidence to Jan 6 probe Watch: Jill Biden meets France’s first lady to celebrate US rejoining Unesco Hunter Biden's guilty plea is on the horizon, and so are a fresh set of challenges Judge vacates desertion conviction for former US soldier captured in Afghanistan Putting a floating barrier in the Rio Grande to stop migrants is new. The idea isn't.

Last month’s visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the nation’s capital has highlighted an ugly mess of Maryland Democrats’ intra-party squabbles that threatens to blunt the political ambitions of the state’s popular first-term governor. Over two months, The Independent spoke to more than two dozen individuals engaged in Democratic politics in the state, largely concentrated in Montgomery County — the wealthiest county in the state. Many were involved in the 2018 race to represent the state’s 6th congressional district, and described the primary for that seat as an all-out brawl where party insiders traded favours while treating their opponents with such toxicity that many felt strongly discouraged from further participation in the process — if they weren’t frozen out of it entirely. To be clear, foul play isn’t exactly a new concept in Maryland. There’s still well-known bad blood between two of the state’s sitting members of the House over a 2016 primary which was the most expensive in the nation’s history and resulted in the election of Democrat star Rep Jamie Raskin. His opponent, now-Congressman David Trone, was meanwhile forced to fire three staffers who posed surreptitiously as members of Mr Raskin’s campaign. But many of the more recent concerning allegations centre around Aruna Miller – the 58-year-old lieutenant governor who became the highest-ranking South Asian statewide elected official in the United States when she took office in January. She did so alongside Wes Moore, the first Black governor of Maryland. Ms Miller, who immigrated from India at the age of seven, has found herself accused of wide-reaching ties to donors affiliated with Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindutva movement — a Hindu nationalist ideology regarded by its critics as being on the extreme far-right. Ms Miller has worked to distance herself from the political baggage of those ties. The Moore-Miller campaign dedicated a page on their campaign website specifically to countering claims that Ms Miller was a supporter of Hindu nationalist ideologies, and more recently the lieutenant governor tweeted a statement in support of a letter drafted by Maryland Sen Chris Van Hollen to the president urging him to press Mr Modi on the issue of human rights during the Indian politician’s visit. Contacted by The Independent about the specific allegations detailed in this report, the lieutenant governor’s office dismissed them as hearsay and claimed that critics of her fundraising ties were attempting to mischaracterise her political record. “This unfounded gossip is completely false and beneath the Lieutenant Governor’s role in service to the people of Maryland. Throughout her entire career, Lt Gov Miller has taken the high road — she’s always advocated for freedom, inclusion, and respect across all faiths, races and identities, and would never condone anything else. Attempts to mischaracterise her character and her record are misguided at best, and sexist and discriminatory at worst,” spokeswoman Madeline Pawlak said in a statement. A Mercedes in the mirror When Andrew Messick climbed into his car last June in the parking lot of Kentlands Market Square in Gaithersburg, his mind wasn’t focused on the conversation he had just had with the woman who would make history later that year with her ascension to the state’s executive branch. Mr Messick, a grad student and military veteran, was working for a local county councilman’s re-election bid, and was around that time also set to join up as a volunteer with the campaign to reelect Congressman David Trone. He was undecided in his choice for the state’s gubernatorial primary, at that time in full swing, when he says he ran into then-Delegate Aruna Miller and her husband David at the annual Kentlands Under the Lights event. Striking up a conversation, he questioned the pair about fundraising reports filed with the state board of elections tying her to Americans associated with the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) in the States. Mr Messick’s new boss, a self-funded candidate, had beaten Ms Miller four years prior in her bid for Congress. “I just on the fly kind of decided to ask, and she immediately went from … the fake, bubbly persona to immediately pissed,” Mr Messick recalled. But he thought little of the talk, even, he says, after Ms Miller “started lecturing me basically … put a finger in my face, that whole thing.” Mr Messick says that changed a few minutes later, when after leaving he noticed a white Mercedes with one functional headlight appear to change lanes to follow closely behind him as he drove down a multi-lane highway through the suburbs. His military training kicking in, Mr Messick described as the car appeared to get close behind him at one point, almost like a police officer just before pulling someone over. “Every time I would change lanes, he would change lanes,” said Mr Messick. The car, with its one shining front light, would follow Mr Messick to a parking lot a short distance away from his actual residence. There, he says, it came to a halt — right behind him. In his rearview mirror, much to Mr Messick’s surprise, his follower came into view. “I pulled off and parked and I sat there. And he pulled in right behind me and stared right at my car,” recalled Mr Messick. Explaining that he wasn’t thinking clearly, Mr Messick said he called a friend — wishing later that he had instead contacted the police. “David Miller followed me home!” he exclaimed on the call. “And so at this point, I am sitting there, I’m on the phone with [a friend]. I should have called the police. I should have taken a picture. But I didn’t,” Mr Messick said, explaining that he relayed the details of the incident as it transpired to his friend. The Independent was provided contact info for the friend who Mr Messick called as the incident supposedly transpired. That individual verified the events as recounted by Mr Messick, and was independently able to provide the date on which the conversation took place — though they wished to remain unnamed. The friend also instructed Mr Messick at the time to recount his story, in detail, in a lengthy series of text messages to a group chat with colleagues from work, which Mr Messick’s friend provided to The Independent in an interview. Mr Messick, who also detailed his experience that same June to a nonprofit news blog called Two Circles, said that this incident supposedly ended without serious escalation: After about 10 minutes, he claims, the lieutenant governor’s husband “blinks his lights at me. Kind of points at me and then drives away”. But the incident as a whole left him shocked and in disbelief at the conduct of Ms Miller’s inner circle. David Miller, through his wife’s office, issued a blanket denial of the incident as described by Mr Messick when contacted by The Independent. The lieutenant governor’s office also provided images and documentation proving that the Millers own a black Mercedes sedan, and claimed that the couple have never owned a white Mercedes. Mr Messick, in a second interview, maintained that he had seen a white Mercedes sedan during the incident, as the text messages sent immediately after his experience had originally described. Run out of the state completely For some, the cost of brushing up against the state political machine allegedly meant constant harassment from an army of online trolls whose actions had real-life consequences. That was the description given by Barnaby Yeh, a Maryland-born activist of Taiwanese descent who told The Independent that his founding of a group that questioned Ms Miller about her BJP ties provoked a wave of backlash on social media that cost him and others their jobs and personal livelihoods. “We asked her in a press release to clarify her stance [on Mr Modi’s party],” Mr Yeh, now living in Taiwan, said in an interview. This “unleashed a massive following of political insiders”, according to Mr Yeh, which saw activists’ social media pages flooded with negative comments. “I lost my job, as did another one of my fellow activists. One activist was barred from local political events,” said Mr Yeh. “Another was suddenly stripped of being a party precinct official. Two others believed that they had to leave politics altogether because of how many people harassed them regularly on social media. As for myself, I was out of a stable job for years, driving me to move abroad.” Only a fraction of Mr Yeh’s social media presence remains, but what does depicts both his longtime pro-Taiwanese activism as well as his participation in progressive Montgomery County politics throughout the 2018 race. The individual he claimed to have been “barred from local political events” confirmed Mr Yeh’s account of what they faced, speaking in an interview. A shadow of the backlash remains as well: A post from the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) from 2018 notes that Mr Yeh’s organisation was “unchartered” and linked to a statement on the MCDCC website that accused the group of pushing unfounded allegations about Ms Miller during her candidacy for Congress. In that same press release, the MCDCC disavowed the group formally and the central committee’s then-chair accused Mr Yeh and his group of “masquerade[ing] as legitimate Democratic organizations in order to inappropriately influence our elections.” Facebook posts from other critics remain, including one from a former state delegate complaining about the group’s “Trumpian” denouncement of Ms Miller’s ties to BJP-aligned figures. The Independent was also provided with a curt email to Mr Yeh from George Neighbors, a former MCDCC member and a current group vice president at Warner Bros, which simply read, “You’re a fraud”. Contacted about the email, Mr Neighbors denied sending it but refused to further comment when provided with a screenshot. The path to Annapolis Once a month, members of the central committee meet in an office building in Rockville, Maryland — the same building that houses the county executive’s office. In long evening sessions, typically attended by a dozen or so members of the public at most, members of the central committee plot the futures of the state’s power players, thanks to an oddity of Maryland’s constitution that puts the power to recommend appointments to the state legislature in the committee’s hands. The MCDCC (which is allowed, controversially, to nominate its own members for seats in the House of Delegates and state Senate that become vacant) was Ms Miller’s path to the legislature, a position she attained in late 2010 after winning an election to succeed a Democrat who had decided to run instead for the county council. Today, the council is led by Saman Ahmad, described by some sources familiar with the two Democratic politicians to be a close ally of Ms Miller’s — though that characterisation is contested by others. Under Ms Ahmad’s chairmanship, those who attend regularly describe the council as developing a toxic atmosphere where those who do not play along with the state party are threatened with political reprisal. Nathan Feldman, a current member of the central committee, alleged to The Independent that he had felt intimidated and as if he had been bullied by Ms Ahmad into voting against a local activist, Susan Kerin, for a seat on the MCDCC after the vote took place this February. Ms Kerin is an active member of Peace Action Montgomery, a local antiwar group, and had vocally criticised Ms Miller’s ties to the BJP. Mr Feldman explained how in a conversation that took place in February of this year, Ms Ahmad had claimed that “she had spoken with Lt Gov Aruna Miller, who opposed the nomination of Susan Kerin to the open seat” and further warned him that “Miller would be ‘taking names’ of individuals who voted for Susan Kerin to fill the seat”. “In politics, people have long memories,” Mr Feldman claims he was told directly. “She framed her threats in a manner such that they appeared to come directly from the lieutenant governor herself.” If unseemly back-room behaviour seems out of place for such an organisation, one only needs to attend one of the central committee’s monthly meetings. At the group’s May gathering, The Independent witnessed baffling scenes of disarray for several hours as council members debated a fairly toothless resolution in support of a local teachers union’s bargaining efforts, leading to one council member screaming that another member was “bullying” her during the open session and others openly trading insults and taunts across the floor, in full view of a bemused audience. Another committee member, Liza Smith, corroborated Mr Feldman’s general characterisation of Ms Ahmad’s leadership and agreed that the toxicity was being encouraged from the chair. “When the press doesn’t show up, you know, that’s when Saman goes power-hungry,” claimed Ms Smith. “She becomes a dictator.” Ms Ahmad did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The toxicity at the central committee is far from Ms Ahmad’s only concern, as well. MCDCC has separately been reported to owe thousands to the IRS in unpaid taxes, thanks to the committee apparently spending money it was supposed to withhold as payroll taxes in 2018. The committee owes $14,000 to the IRS, according to local news blog Moderately MoCo, a hefty sum compared to MCDCC’s reported $15,000 cash-on-hand. A meet-and-greet turns into a shouting match For Ms Kerin, the door was shut on her candidacy before it even began. Describing the episode that first earned her a spot on Ms Miller’s radar, Ms Kerin explained that she knew even as she first jumped into activism against Hindutva and the BJP last year that it would get ugly. Rumours of the 2018 race had spread far and wide, and in particular, Ms Kerin said she expected pressure from Ms Miller’s camp. “We knew that going into this, that there was [going to be] intimidation, specifically by Aruna,” Ms Kerin explained of Peace Action’s efforts during the 2022 gubernatorial primary. “We walked into this knowing that people who had been in it longer than us had been intimidated and they wanted someone like us to be on the frontlines and take the hits.” The conflict materialised during an early primary candidate meet-and-greet last year, hosted by a local mosque in Montgomery County. Ms Kerin and another Peace Action volunteer, Gayatri Girirajan, showed up at the mosque with flyers in hand urging Ms Miller to return any and all donations from BJP-affiliated groups or donors. That led to what they both described as several Miller staffers crowding around them in the mosque, at least one growing visibly angry, and demanding that they cease their activities. A photo taken by an activist at the event shows the pair speaking with Ms Miller and two campaign aides, one of whom is staring directly at the photographer as the image was captured. At least one staffer was accused of attempting to have the pair thrown out of the mosque, an ask that was firmly rejected by their hosts. Ms Kerin describes walking inside the community centre and seeing Ms Miller and her team standing around her fellow volunteer, “and were yelling and screaming at her”. “I was pretty alarmed,” said Ms Kerin. The two aides with Ms Miller allegedly went on to threaten the Peace Action volunteers with lawsuits for supposedly not specifying the funding for their pamphlets on the documents themselves — which, as a non-campaign entity, Peace Action was not required to do. Ms Girirajan told The Independent that while she never felt endangered during the episode, the aides were “certainly very aggressive” towards her. That same characterisation of aggressive behaviour has been lobbed at the small group of Peace Action activists by the Moore-Miller team, which highlighted repeated emails to Moore campaign staff from another Peace Action activist that the lieutenant governor’s office argued depicted an obsession or fixation on Ms Miller personally. The emails, reviewed by The Independent, did not contain any threats or explicit language but did forcefully and incessantly press the recipients to disavow Hindutva ideology and encourage the lieutenant governor to do so as well. During the meet-and-greet, Ms Girirajan added, one member of Ms Miller’s team supposedly accused the pair of “singling [Aruna] out because of her ethnicity” with the criticism of her OFBJP donor ties. “I’m Aruna’s ethnicity as well, and also was raised Hindu. So that argument didn’t really hold water [with me],” Ms Girirajan noted. A former member of the Moore-Miller campaign who was present for that campaign event said that they couldn’t speak to the tone of the conversation between Ms Miller, Ms Girirajan and Ms Kerin, but recounted a separate moment during the same event wherein another Moore-Miller campaign staffer began a heated conversation with another Peace Action volunteer about the criticisms they were raising. Icing out her own future — and Wes Moore’s? The mayhem long rumoured to have followed Ms Miller’s career has now officially had a blunting effect on both the political futures of the lieutenant governor and, possibly more troubling, for the governor: Wes Moore. Mr Moore, 44, is an author, nonprofit executive and TV producer who swept into office easily this past year over a Trumpian challenger who beat out a likely more-challenging opponent for Mr Moore in the GOP primary. Now virtually every Maryland politico sees the upward-bound Moore as running his governorship as a jumping-off point for a presidential run, potentially as soon as 2028. But that puts his running mate, Ms Miller, in a precarious position where her baggage can affect not just one but two promising careers in politics. And that baggage is already beginning to weigh on Mr Moore’s political future. The Independent can report, based on two sources familiar with the event’s planning call, that Mr Moore and Ms Miller were both excluded from the guest list of a gathering of prominent Maryland progressives at Democratic mega-donor Frank Islam’s White House-replica mansion in Potomac just one month ago. The guest of honour at the event was none other than Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s largest opposition party and subsequently Mr Modi’s greatest rival, who visited Washington shortly ahead of the prime minister’s arrival. A request for comment from Mr Islam went unanswered. Mr Moore’s team also did not offer a separate comment regarding this invitation. While not a fundraising event specifically, the value lost from missing out on a networking opportunity with some of Maryland’s most generous Democratic supporters can hardly be overstated. That isn’t to say that either Mr Moore or Ms Miller’s political future look bleak in any way. Last month, the lieutenant governor attended a White House state dinner in honour of Mr Modi’s visit, a guest of the president and first lady. And she has active in touting her support for religious freedom and democratic norms, especially in the leadup to the prime minister’s visit — and as rumours of this article were said to have spread among her team. She also maintains powerful and valuable alliances in the statehouse. Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who worked in close proximity with Ms Miller for years when the two were office neighbours in the House of Delegates, described her friend as a rising blue-state star with an unimpeachable record in the legislature and a warm presence in person — though the two had never had the experience of coming down on opposite sides of an issue or candidate. Most who spoke to The Independent about their various years of experience running against the lieutenant governor characterised the behaviour of the lieutenant governor and her team as extraordinary in terms of the lasting impressions they made on their political rivals. In the end, the lieutenant governor may simply pick one statewide grudge too many. That seems to be the prediction of those who experienced what it was like to run against her, and learned that for Ms Miller and her team, the primary never seems to end — there’s no Kumbaya moment under the balloons onstage, just a procession of still-smouldering bridges. The campaign manager for David Trone’s campaign for US Senate, launched this spring with the news of Ben Cardin’s retirement, claimed that the two have a positive relationship despite their bruising primary battle. “Congressman Trone and Lieutenant Governor Miller have both worked to deliver results for working families across Maryland and look forward to continuing that work. Any implication to the contrary is inaccurate and grossly mischaracterizes their relationship,” said Dan Morrocco. But a top official with his 2018 campaign said that relationship, if now mended, represented a significant improvement from the aftermath of their race. “After he won the primary she did not endorse him, did not call him, did not stand behind them,” one senior Trone 2018 staffer noted of Ms Miller’s response to losing the primary that year. “She has enemies because she’s kind of like, very, very self-serving in a way that when you do this job when you’re a politician, you gotta play the game. And I don’t mean that in a negative connotation. I mean, like, you have to support other people. You have to support the party. When you lose, you have to not burn bridges,” they mused. “You’ve just got to, like, kind of be a good person.” Read More India's Parliament rocked by protests for a third day over ethnic violence in remote state Sri Lankan president's visit to India signals growing economic and energy ties Opposition parties disrupt India's Parliament for 2nd day to protest ethnic violence in northeast 11-year-old daughter of top Kashmiri rebel leader issues rare appeal to visit father jailed in India As another cheetah dies in India, authorities try to get ambitious conservation project on track India sets sights on home-mined minerals to boost its clean energy plans

A campaign staffer for Ron DeSantis who shared an online video using Nazi imagery with the Florida governor’s face has been fired. Nate Hochman, a 25-year-old campaign communications staff member who has written for The National Review and The New York Times, shared a video over the weekend to an anonymous pro-DeSantis Twitter account featuring a meme template that has been adopted by far-right and neo-fascist creators. The video shows a “wojack” character, unhappy with news footage of Donald Trump, watching the Florida seal turn into the Nazi-appropriated Sonnenrad symbol. Mr DeSantis is then seen superimposed on the icon in front of soldiers marching in formation. That video was then retweeted by Mr Hochman before it was deleted, according to posts reviewed by The Independent. Mr Hochman appears to have retweeted posts from the anonymous account at least six other times. “Nate Hochman is no longer with the campaign,” a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign said in a statement to NBC News. “And we will not be commenting on him further.” Another clip on the anonymous account included audio of a man calling Mr DeSantis a “fascist” and cut together footage of the Florida governor alongside clips of Nazis and Benito Mussolini. The account also has been retweeted by the DeSantis campaign’s War Room account and the DeSantis-linked Never Back Down super PAC account. His departure also follows another video promoted by the DeSantis campaign that relies on the familiar aesthetics of far-right and neo-fascist memes to celebrate Mr DeSantis’s “draconian” anti-LGBT+ agenda and threat to “trans existence”. That video also was created by a campaign staffer but was made to appear as if it was produced externally, according to The New York Times. The videos have underscored the growing influence of fringe far-right online communities within mainstream Republican spaces, from the emergence of explicitly violent authoritarian “dark MAGA” memes to the dominance of “fashwave” aesthetics on social media platforms. The DeSantis campaign has fired more than 40 per cent of its original staff since launching his bid for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. At least 38 staffers have been laid off since the campaign’s launch in May, including at least 26 people on 25 July. Read More Ron DeSantis is caught in a death spiral of his own making DeSantis lays off a third of his campaign staff as presidential bid sputters Four cars in Ron DeSantis motorcade crash into each other on way to Tennessee fundraisers

Ron DeSantis was in a car crash while on his way to a fundraiser in Tennessee. The Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate was uninjured in the Tuesday morning incident. “We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail,” spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement. Mr DeSantis was set to attend fundraisers in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville on Tuesday as his campaign is reported to be floundering both in terms of funding and poll numbers. Meanwhile, the governor’s presidential campaign continues to suffer internal turmoil. A staffer was recently fired for posting a video using Nazi imagery superimposed on Mr DeSantis’s face. Read More Ron DeSantis in car crash as he heads to Tennessee campaign event DeSantis campaign fires aide behind neo-Nazi meme video Ron DeSantis is caught in a death spiral of his own making Ron DeSantis has already blown 40 per cent of his campaign donations – on private jets and fancy campaign dinners

Joe Lewis, the UK billionaire and owner of the Tottenham Hotspur football club, has been indicted in the US for what officials called a “brazen” set of insider trading schemes. “He used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement on Tuesday. “That’s classic corporate corruption,” he added. “It’s cheating, and it’s against the law.” The Independent has contacted Tottenham for comment, as well as Tavistock Group, the investment office founded by Mr Lewis. This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.

Biff Poggi was not happy at AAC media day.

Donald Trump has shared a QAnon post on his Truth Social platform as he continues to lash out at President Joe Biden, special counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland ahead of his third potential looming criminal indictment. The former president reTruthed a post from a QAnon supporter which showed an image of Mr Trump along with the ominous message: “Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing.” Mr Trump has gone on the attack in recent days over the grand jury investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In one of the clearest signs Mr Trump could face federal charges in the case, the former president said last week that he had received a letter saying he is a target of a grand jury investigation. Court documents revealed on Monday that former New York City Police Department commissioner Bernie Kerik, who collected spurious evidence of alleged voter fraud and manipulation for Mr Trump’s campaign, has agreed to turn over hundreds of documents to the DOJ as part of its probe. Mr Kerik was working for Rudy Giuliani and had previously refused to share the evidence. Read More What Donald Trump’s trial date means for the 2024 election Trump demands cameras in courtroom for potential election fraud case Trump legal team tries again to block Georgia election interference grand jury probe Is Donald Trump a legal unicorn?

President Joe Biden’s German shepherd Commander reportedly bit seven people in a four-month span last year, making him the second White House dog to exhibit aggressive behaviour after former first dog Major was removed from the residence due to similar conduct. The report of Commander’s aggressiveness comes from internal Secret Service communications obtained by the New York Post. On 3 November, the White House physician’s office referred a bitten Secret Service officer to a local hospital for treatment after the dog bit down on the officer’s arm and thigh, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch. A second incident took place on 10 November, when Commander allegedly bit an officer’s thigh while on a walk with first lady Jill Biden in the Kennedy Garden. Days later, another officer described having to fend off the pet with a chair. Weeks later, Commander tore the skin of another Secret Service officer’s hand and arm, according to the Post. One month later, Commander bit the back of a security technician at the president’s Wilmington, Delaware residence. A Christmas Eve email from a Secret Service inspector suggested issues with Commander were widespread. “Nearly every official in the room with me today spoke about specific incidents surrounding the First Family’s dog,” the email read. Commander’s behaviour resembles Major’s, a rescue adopted by the Bidens in 2018, who was rehomed in 2021 after a number of incidents in which the dog bit Secret Service agents. “As as you all know, the White House complex can be unique and very stressful. And that is something I’m sure you all can understand,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. “The first family is working through ways to make the situation better for everyone.” The White House press secretary also relayed a message from Elizabeth Alexander for communications director for First Lady Jill Biden. Ms Alexander said, “They have been partnering with the Secret Service and Executive Residence staff on additional leashing protocols and training, as well as establishing designated areas for Commander to run and exercise,” Alexander said. She added, that the president and first lady are “incredibly grateful to the secret service and executive resident staff for all they do to keep them and their family and the country safe.” Read More Israel's government has passed the first part of its legal overhaul. The law's ripples are dramatic DeSantis cuts a third of his presidential campaign staff as he mounts urgent reset Biden signs proclamation creating Emmett Till national monument