Tag: Criminal charge

— The mayor of a South Texas border city was arrested Thursday on charges that he orchestrated an illegal voting scheme in which he asked residents of nearby towns to change their addresses so that they could cast votes for him. The arrests of Richard Molina, the mayor of Edinburg, and his wife, Dalia Molina, came amid a bitter political fight in Texas over election fraud, and were made in a region with a long history of voting improprieties and public corruption scandals. Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general, whose office oversaw the investigation of Mr. Molina, has aggressively prosecuted voter fraud cases, even as a recent attempt by the state to purge noncitizens from the voter rolls was plagued by problems and inaccuracies. According to court documents, Mr. Molina and his wife were both registered as volunteer voter registrars in the 2017 election and were authorized to help people fill out voter registration applications. “The mayor is innocent of what he’s being accused of,” said Mr. Molina’s lawyer, Carlos A. Garcia. There’s a power struggle in Hidalgo County, specifically in Edinburg.” Cary Zayas, the spokeswoman for the City of Edinburg, said in a statement defending the mayor that the arrests “have no impact on the city’s day to day operations.” Mr. Molina and his wife were arraigned late Thursday morning in Edinburg, a city of 90,000 residents that is next door to McAllen and home to a University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus. In January, the Texas Secretary of State’s office said it had discovered that about 95,000 people identified as noncitizens had matching voter registration records in the state, and that about 58,000 of them had voted in one or more Texas elections. Mr. Molina was arrested in the Democratic stronghold of the Rio Grande Valley, the result of an investigation led by a Republican attorney general. The Rio Grande Valley, which borders Mexico, has a long history of voter fraud. In January, Mr. Paxton’s Election Fraud Unit arrested a woman in Starr County for using a dead person’s identity to vote illegally in a 2016 Democratic primary.

Courson and Rick Quinn are among four lawmakers to resign from office after guilty pleas in the probe. As part of his deal, Richard Quinn, who represented some of South Carolina’s most influential politicians, businesses and state agencies, agreed to testify before a state grand jury. Then he helped draft a letter that Wilson sent to Pascoe suggesting that the attorney general take back control of the probe. The other perjury allegations against Quinn came from cases involving Statehouse lawmakers. Quinn said Harrison worked on campaigns, including having a “major role” in McCain’s presidential runs in 2000 and 2008, along with doing some legal work, according to the indictment. But other grand jury witnesses said Harrison did not perform legal or campaign work. Courson said the money covered personal payments made for campaign expenses over his three decades in office. According to the indictment, Quinn contradicted his daughter in his own testimony, saying allegations that his firm pocketed some of the money from Courson’s Senate account were not accurate “at least from our perspective.” Quinn also said he had did not know about the payments to Courson at first and did not know why Courson was not reimbursing himself directly. While he was in office, Rick Quinn received pay from his own firm Mail Marketing Strategies, Richard Quinn testified. And Rick Quinn discussed happenings at the Statehouse with his father’s clients and helped in RQ&A’s political consulting work, the indictment said.

By A federal grand jury has indicted North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes and a major GOP campaign donor on conspiracy and bribery charges for their attempts to influence N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. That was in 2017, according to the indictment. In August 2017, the indictment says Hayes texted Causey and suggested “I think u should consider a face to face (with Lindberg).” In November 2017, Gray told Causey that Lindberg had contributed $500,000 to the NC GOP and earmarked $110,000 for Causey’s campaign, according to the indictment. Lindberg and Gray suggested that Causey hire Palermo to replace or supervise the senior deputy commissioner, the indictment says In a March 5 meeting in Statesville, Causey confirmed his ability to hire Palermo. During that meeting, Lindberg told Causey that he’d support him with up to $2 million in campaign contributions, according to the indictment. Palermo then quoted “Public Official A,” saying that Causey “needs to man-up and do what he agreed to.” The indictment says the public official then contacted Causey and said Lindberg, Gray and Palermo “seemed anxious to find out” if Causey had made staffing changes. The indictment says FBI agents interviewed Hayes in August 2018 and specifically asked whether Hayes was aware of “expectations” Lindberg might have had for a $500,000 donation he made to the party. “Thanks to the voluntary reporting of the North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance, we have uncovered an alleged scheme to violate our federal public corruption laws,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray said in a news release Tuesday. We will work with our law enforcement partners to investigate allegations of public corruption, safeguard the integrity of the democratic process, and prosecute those who compromise it.” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski referred to the group’s alleged actions as “a brazen bribery scheme in which Greg Lindberg and his coconspirators allegedly offered hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for official action that would benefit Lindberg’s business interests.” Lindberg donations Lindberg was the biggest political donor in North Carolina over the last few years, the News & Observer has previously reported. Bob Hall, the former head of government watchdog group Democracy NC, told the News & Observer he has identified roughly $5.5 million in political contributions from Lindberg to North Carolina politicians, political parties and Super PACs since 2016, and another $500,000 from Lindberg’s businesses and employees.

The New York Times reports that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday morning to plead guilty to a new criminal charge in relation to the Russia investigation. NYTimes journalist Michael Schmidt…

The Trump administration has announced criminal charges and sanctions against nine Iranians accused of participating in a government-sponsored hacking scheme to steal sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and US government agencies. The nine defendants, accused of working at the behest of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hacked the computer systems of about 320 universities in the United States and abroad to steal expensive research that was then used or sold for profit, prosecutors said. 'It's become a monster': is Iran's revolutionary guard a terror group? The Department of Justice said the hackers were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute, which prosecutors say contracted since at least 2013 with the Iranian government to steal scientific research from other countries. Also on Friday, the treasury department targeted the Mabna Institute and 10 Iranians – the nine defendants and one charged in a separate case last year – for sanctions. But the grand jury indictment – filed in federal court in Manhattan – is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from traveling without risk of arrest and put their countries on notice. “People travel. “Having your name, face and description on a ‘wanted’ poster makes moving freely much more difficult.” According to the indictment, the Iranians broke into universities through relatively simple, but common means: tricking professors to click on compromised links. “Just in case you’re wondering, they’re not admiring our work,” Bowdich said. “They’re stealing it, and they’re taking credit for it, and they’re selling it to others.”