Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case

Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case
Donald Trump has lost his latest bid for a new judge in his New York hush money criminal case as it heads toward a key ruling and potential sentencing next month. (Reuters/File)
Short Url
Updated 14 August 2024
Follow

Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case

Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case
  • Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to step aside and said Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims”
  • It is the third that the judge has rejected such a request from lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee

NEW YORK: Donald Trump has lost his latest bid for a new judge in his New York hush money criminal case as it heads toward a key ruling and potential sentencing next month.
In a decision posted Wednesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to step aside and said Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about the political ties of Mercan’s daughter and his ability to judge the historic case fairly and impartially.
It is the third that the judge has rejected such a request from lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee.
All three times, they argued that Merchan, a state court judge in Manhattan, has a conflict of interest because of his daughter’s work as a political consultant for prominent Democrats and campaigns. Among them was Vice President Kamala Harris when she ran for president in 2020. She is now her party’s 2024 White House nominee.
A state court ethics panel said last year that Merchan could continue on the case, writing that a relative’s independent political activities are not “a reasonable basis to question the judge’s impartiality.”
Merchan has repeatedly said he is certain he will continue to base his rulings “on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence.”
“With these fundamental principles in mind, this Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” Merchan wrote in his three-page ruling. “Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”
But with Harris now Trump’s Democratic opponent in this year’s White House election, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote in a letter to the judge last month that the defense’s concerns have become “even more concrete.”
Prosecutors called the claims “a vexatious and frivolous attempt to relitigate” the issue.
Messages seeking comment on the ruling were left with Blanche. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying his business’ records to conceal a 2016 deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with him. Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first campaign.
Trump says all the stories were false, the business records were not and the case was a political maneuver meant to damage his current campaign. The prosecutor who brought the charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is a Democrat.
Trump has pledged to appeal. Legally, that cannot happen before a defendant is sentenced.
In the meantime, his lawyers took other steps to try to derail the case. Besides the recusal request, they have asked Merchan to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case altogether because of the US Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity.
That decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal. Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.
Earlier this month, Merchan set a Sept. 16 date to rule on the immunity claim, and Sept. 18 for “the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate.”
The hush money case is one of four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump last year.
One federal case, accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was dismissed last month. The Justice Department is appealing.
The others — federal and Georgia state cases concerning Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss — are not positioned to go to trial before the November election.


Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya Muslims

Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya Muslims
Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya Muslims

Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya Muslims
  • Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh as fighting intensifies between Myanmar’s ruling junta, Arakan Army
  • The new arrivals add to the more than one million Rohingya refugees already living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district

DHAKA: The head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, on Sunday called for a fast-tracked third-country resettlement of Rohingya Muslims living in the south Asian country, as a new wave of refugees flee escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh in recent months as fighting intensifies between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia drawn from the country’s Buddhist majority.
The new arrivals add to the more than one million Rohingya refugees already living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, most of whom fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. The Rohingya refugees have little hope of returning to their homeland, where they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.
The call to expedite resettlement efforts was made during a meeting with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in which Yunus, Chief Adviser to the interim government, said the “resettlement process should be easy, regular, and smooth.”
Abdusattor Esoev, head of the IOM in Bangladesh, said the resettlement of Rohingya to third countries resumed in 2022 after a gap of 12 years, but has only gathered pace this year, a statement from the Chief Adviser’s office said.
Washington has reaffirmed its commitment to resettle thousands of Rohingya in the United States, but the process has not yet been accelerated, the statement said.
The recent surge in violence is the worst the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent.
Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, told Reuters last month that Bangladesh cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and called on India and other countries to take in more of those fleeing violence.
He also urged the international community to apply more pressure on the Arakan Army to cease its attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.


Harris campaign plans for aggressive outreach in swing states after Tuesday’s debate with Trump

Harris campaign plans for aggressive outreach in swing states after Tuesday’s debate with Trump
Updated 08 September 2024
Follow

Harris campaign plans for aggressive outreach in swing states after Tuesday’s debate with Trump

Harris campaign plans for aggressive outreach in swing states after Tuesday’s debate with Trump
  • After the debate, political leaders on Wednesday are set to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks

PITTSBURGH: Vice President Kamala Harris plans a four-day campaign trip through major swing states after the Democrat’s debate Tuesday with Republican Donald Trump.
Her “New Way Forward” tour will include a new television spot, rallies, canvassing events and programs designed to target important voting groups, the campaign said Sunday, adding that the tour will culminate at the start of Hispanic Heritage Month on Sept. 15.
In a tight race against the former president, the Harris campaign sees itself as having the room to persuade voters before focusing more intently on turnout with the beginning of early voting before the Nov. 5 election. Trump has also stepped up his outreach with rallies and interviews in seemingly friendly forums.
The period after the debate in Philadelphia marks the start of the aggressive sprint toward the end of what has been a dramatic race.
“Our campaign will take the vice president’s message directly to the voters wherever they are -– on the airwaves, on the doors, and online,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director. “With so much at stake in this election, we are blitzing the battlegrounds and leaving it all out on the field.”
Trump, who campaigned Saturday in Wisconsin, posted on social media that “when” he wins, anyone who he deems as having been “involved in unscrupulous behavior” tied to the election “will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
After the debate, political leaders on Wednesday are set to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Harris kicks off her tour Thursday in North Carolina and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be in Michigan. On Friday, Harris will return to Pennsylvania while Walz is in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The candidates’ spouses will also be part of the tour. Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband, will go to Nevada, Arizona and Florida. Gwen Walz is scheduled to be in Georgia, New Hampshire and Maine.
More details are to come.
Harris’ campaign will start running a new television ad that will speak to her plans for middle-class tax cuts, limiting prescription drug prices and addressing the housing shortage. The ads are part of a broader $370 million media investment and will be tailored state by state for voters in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nebraska.


Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya

Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017.
Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017.
Updated 08 September 2024
Follow

Bangladesh calls for faster resettlement process for Rohingya

Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017.
  • Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across border to Bangladesh in recent months as fighting intensifies between Myanmar’s ruling junta and Arakan Army

DHAKA: The head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, on Sunday called for a fast-tracked third-country resettlement of Rohingya Muslims living in the south Asian country, as a new wave of refugees flee escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh in recent months as fighting intensifies between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia drawn from the country’s Buddhist majority.
The new arrivals add to the more than one million Rohingya refugees already living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, most of whom fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. The Rohingya refugees have little hope of returning to their homeland, where they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.
The call to expedite resettlement efforts was made during a meeting with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in which Yunus, Chief Adviser to the interim government, said the “resettlement process should be easy, regular, and smooth.”
Abdusattor Esoev, head of the IOM in Bangladesh, said the resettlement of Rohingya to third countries resumed in 2022 after a gap of 12 years, but has only gathered pace this year, a statement from the Chief Adviser’s office said.
Washington has reaffirmed its commitment to resettle thousands of Rohingya in the United States, but the process has not yet been accelerated, the statement said.
The recent surge in violence is the worst the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent.
Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, told Reuters last month that Bangladesh cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and called on India and other countries to take in more of those fleeing violence.
He also urged the international community to apply more pressure on the Arakan Army to cease its attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.


Starmer says US ‘understands’ UK decision to partly suspend Israeli arms sales

Britain’s PM Keir Starmer can be seen during a recording inside 10 Downing Street.
Britain’s PM Keir Starmer can be seen during a recording inside 10 Downing Street.
Updated 08 September 2024
Follow

Starmer says US ‘understands’ UK decision to partly suspend Israeli arms sales

Britain’s PM Keir Starmer can be seen during a recording inside 10 Downing Street.
  • Prime minister denies reports move sparked anger in Washington
  • UK leader will meet President Biden next week to discuss Middle East, Ukraine

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the US “understands” his government’s decision to partly suspend arms sales to Israel.

His comments to the BBC followed reports that Washington had been angered by the move, according to The Independent.

However, Starmer said that the Biden administration “understands the decision we have taken” and was forewarned about the suspension.

The UK suspended about 30 of its 350 arms export licenses to Israel earlier this week after a review that warned of a “clear risk” of British weapons or parts being used by Israel to breach international humanitarian law in its war in Gaza.

After the suspension was announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he described as a “shameful decision.”

Starmer told the BBC: “We have been talking to the US. We have been talking to the US beforehand and afterward, and they’re very clear that they’ve got a different legal system, and they understand the decision that we’ve taken.

“So, that’s very clear.”

Starmer will make his second visit to the US next week.

He is expected to meet President Joe Biden in Washington on Sept. 13 to discuss an “ever more pressing situation” in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“What I want to have the opportunity for is a more strategic discussion about the next few months in relation to Ukraine and in relation to the Middle East,” he said.


Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel

Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel
Updated 08 September 2024
Follow

Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel

Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel

CHICAGO: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot and killed on Friday in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus during a non-violent protest against the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements and escalating settler violence against Palestinian home and landowners.

Social media discourse was dominated by expressions of outrage over what was described as a double standard in US media, which did not hesitate to blame Arabs and Muslims when pro-Israel Americans were killed but was reluctant to point a finger at Israelis when pro-Palestinian Americans were killed.

Human rights attorney and author Qasim Rashid condemned American media’s double standard, writing on X: “Shame on these legacy media outlets. Not one is willing to state the fact that the Israeli military killed Aysenur Ezgi Eygi — a US citizen. Apparently, a magical bullet appeared out of thin air & killed her. This is how legacy media normalizes violence against people of color.”

When several Israelis, including one with American dual citizenship, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were killed in Gaza last week, mainstream news media featured an avalanche of condemnation from American politicians.

President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” over Polin’s death, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris invoked a Jewish prayer for the dead, saying, “May Hersh’s memory be a blessing.” Harris went on further to denounce Hamas as “an evil terrorist organization,” adding that “with these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.”

In contrast, both Biden and Harris were personally silent regarding the killing of Eygi, allowing the release of a generic media statement attributed to the White House, which said it was “deeply disturbed” by her death.

The White House called for Israel to investigate Eygi’s killing, a sentiment reiterated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who, during a press briefing in the Dominican Republic, expressed condolences to the victim’s family but said: “Let’s find out exactly what happened … and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing.”

Neither the White House nor Blinken, however, asked for an investigation into Polin’s death and immediately embraced Israel’s assertions that he was killed by Hamas. And while Blinken did not post any comments regarding Eygi’s killing on his official X account, he posted at length on Polin’s death, writing on social media: “Hersh Goldberg-Polin is an American hero who will be remembered for his kindness and selflessness. Our hearts break for Jon, Rachel, and their entire family, as well as the other families who found out today their loved ones won’t be coming home. May their memory be a blessing.”

US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller also spoke at length at a press briefing following news of Polin’s death but repeated Blinken’s statement saying the State Department is “urgently” gathering more information on Egyi’s death.

After graduating from university, Eygi volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, which monitors and protests the expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements on non-Jewish-owned lands in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

The ISM released a lengthy statement describing Eygi as “peacefully demonstrating alongside Palestinians” but criticized the hypocrisy of American politicians and news outlets’ response to her death.

“This is just another example of the decades of impunity granted to the Israeli government and army, bolstered by the support of the US and European governments, who are complicit in enabling genocide in Gaza. Palestinians have suffered far too long under the weight of colonization. We will continue to stand in solidarity and honor the martyrs until Palestine is free.”

The New York Times came under particularly harsh criticism when it reported that Eygi had “joined the rally in Beita, where residents have been protesting for years — sometimes violently — against a settler outpost on lands claimed by the village.”

The outlet later updated the story to remove the phrase “sometimes violently” from the original story authored by Ephrat Livni, an Israeli-American writer.

Family members and witnesses said Eygi had traveled to the West Bank to celebrate her graduation with relatives there when she observed a protest in Beita near Nablus against repeated acts of violence by Israelis and soldiers from a nearby settlement, which is being expanded onto Arab land.

According to the Associated Press, two doctors on the scene said Eygi was shot in the head, killing her instantly.

Israeli officials referred to Eygi as a “foreign national,” not referencing her citizenship as an American. She has dual citizenship and is of Turkish origin.

Eygi’s parents published a statement on Instagram calling for an immediate investigation into their daughter’s killing, describing her as a “fiercely passionate human rights activist” and “staunch advocate of justice” who “felt a deep responsibility to serve others.”

Eygi graduated from the University of Washington where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures.

Her parents said in the statement: “She was active on campus and (in) student-led protests advocating for an end to violence against the people of Palestine. Aysenur felt compelled to travel to the West Bank to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians who continue to endure ongoing repression and violence.”

They said Eygi “was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.”