Month: April 2023

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday, stemming from an investigation into an alleged hush money payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels while he was a presidential candidate in 2016. The indictment against the 76-year-old former president was unsealed and the charges against the former president were read to him in court before he himself made the plea to a judge. Trump, who is campaigning for another term in the White House, is the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said that Trump would not be placed in handcuffs or have his mug shot taken when he surrendered to authorities, as that is only reserved for flight risks or threats to the district attorney or court personnel. He was fingerprinted upon arrival at the courthouse.

The investigation that led to unprecedented charges against the former president traces back to an alleged affair Trump had with Daniels, and the allegation that Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels a month before the 2016 election to ensure she’d keep quiet about the alleged affair they’d had years earlier.

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump last week after investigating the payment that prosecutors allege was falsely documented as “legal expenses” in the financial records of the Trump Organization. Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, however Cohen later admitted that there was a payment made to Daniels. Cohen told The New York Times that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket in 2016, calling it “a private transaction.”  He said Trump had not reimbursed him. Trump since admitted he authorized the $130,000 payment, but has continued to deny the underlying claims that the two had an affair or that the payment was in any way connected to his campaign.

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Roy McGrath, the former chief of staff to ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, died after he was captured in Tennessee. McGrath was Hogan’s deputy chief of staff in 2015 before Hogan appointed him to lead the Maryland Environmental Service in December 2016. He briefly returned as Hogan’s chief of staff in 2020, before resigning amid backlash over a large severance payout from the service.

Lawyer Joseph Murtha said in an email that McGrath, 53, suffered a gunshot wound and succumbed to injuries. Murtha said it was unclear whether the injury was self-inflicted or whether it occurred in an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents. “The loss of Roy’s life is an absolute tragedy,” Murtha said. “I think it is important for me to say that Roy never wavered about his innocence.” FBI spokesman Shayne Buchwald said an “agent-involved shooting” is under review but declined to comment further on who fired the fatal shot, adding that McGrath suffered the injury during his arrest in Knoxville at 6:30 p.m.

The incident occurred nearly three weeks after he failed to appear for trial on federal wire fraud, theft and falsification charges on March 13. Two weeks later, the FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, saying he was a fugitive and an international flight risk.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland had accused McGrath of using his position at the nonprofit public corporation to enrich himself by fraudulently claiming Hogan had approved the payout. Federal prosecutors in Maryland also accused McGrath of illegally recording private conversations with officials, falsifying time sheets and directing service funds to a museum where he was a member and to pay for tuition benefits.

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On Monday, NASA named the team of four astronauts who will launch on a critical test flight next year to slingshot around the moon. At an event held in Houston, the agency announced NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, as the crew for its upcoming Artemis II flight, slated to launch in 2024. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the ceremony: “The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew. This is our crew This is humanity’s crew.”

The astronauts will be the first humans to fly in the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years, and will also be the first to launch aboard NASA’s next-generation megarocket and Orion space capsule. The crew will not land on the moon but will swing around the celestial body, testing the performance of the Orion spacecraft, before returning to Earth. If their mission is successful, NASA has said that the subsequent Artemis III flight will touch down on the moon with a crew that will include the first woman and the first person of color to step foot on the lunar surface.

Artemis II will be the first fully crewed test flight as part of NASA’s efforts to return to the moon.

• Wiseman will act as the commander of the Artemis II flight. A former naval aviator test pilot, he was selected to become a NASA astronaut in 2009. In 2014, he launched to the International Space Station on a 165-day mission as part of the Expedition 41 crew.
• Glover, a former captain in the U.S. Navy, will be the mission’s pilot. He was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and previously flew on the second crewed flight of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the space station.
• Koch and Hansen will serve as mission specialists on the Artemis II flight. Koch, who became an astronaut in 2013, set a record in 2020 for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, after spending a total of 328 days in space aboard the space station. During that mission, she also participated in the first all-female spacewalk.​Hansen was selected by the Canadian Space Agency to become an astronaut in 2009. The former fighter pilot will be the first Canadian to venture to the moon.

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Under a bill Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Monday, residents will be able to carry concealed guns without a permit.  The governor signed the bill in a private ceremony in his office.  The new law, which takes effect July 1st, will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without a permit. It means training and a background check will not be required to carry concealed guns in public.

The arguments over the legislation were divided along political lines, with Republicans saying law-abiding citizens have a right to carry guns and protect themselves, and that most people will still want to get a permit because it will allow them to carry concealed weapons in states with reciprocal agreements and to be able to purchase guns without a waiting period.

On the opposite side of the argument, Democrats and gun safety advocates point to mass shootings in Florida like the massacre at the 2016 Pulse nightclub in Orlando and the deadly 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and say the new law will only make the state more dangerous. Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, told reporters during an online news conference:  “I will chase him down across the state as well as possibly across the country … because Ron DeSantis today put his signature to a bill that guarantees there will be more Jaimes … Somebody in Florida may die … because of this legislation. That will be because of you, Ron DeSantis. I understand why you hid today … You are a weak, pathetic, small-minded individual.”

Nearly 3 million Floridians have a concealed weapons permit. While a background check and three-day waiting period will still be required to purchase a gun from a licensed dealer, they are not required for private transactions or exchanges of weapons. The bill signing comes five years after then-Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, signed a bill creating gun restrictions after 17 students and faculty were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Under DeSantis, momentum has swung back toward expanding gun rights rather than placing limits on them, which has earned him praise from gun rights advocates.

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Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas announced on Sunday that he will run for president in the 2024 election. Hutchinson, 72, revealed that he would run for the office in an interview with ABC’s “This Week”, with a formal announcement to come later in April. Hutchinson said: “I have made a decision, and my decision is I’m going to run for president of the United States. The reason is, I’ve traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country. I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts.”

Hutchinson said the current political landscape in the United States “one of the most unpredictable political environments” he has seen in his lifetime, adding, “So my message of experience, of consistent conservatism and hope for our future in solving problems that face Americans, I think that that resonates.”

Hutchinson is adding his name to the growing list of Republican candidates going head-to-head with former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. Hutchinson said in his interview with This Week that Trump’s indictment in New York “adds to the unpredictability” and he believes the former president should drop out of the race: “The office is more important than any individual person … And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence.”

The former governor also clarified that he considers himself a member of the “non-Trump lane” rather than the “anti-Trump lane,” saying that he urged Republicans to “let the system work” as Trump defends himself from criminal prosecution.

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The major storm system that traveled through the South and the Midwest beginning on Friday has killed at least 32 people. The National Weather Service has confirmed at least 31 tornadoes across 9 states on Friday and Saturday, with more than 28 million people across the South and Midwest under a tornado watch going into Friday night.

According to the National Weather Service field office in Nashville, thirteen of the deaths occurred in Tennessee, where an EF-2 tornado struck Wayne and Lewis counties on Friday night, later also hitting McNairy and Hardin counties. Nine of the deaths were in buildings that were destroyed down to their foundations in McNairy County, according to McNairy County Sheriff Guy Buck, who added that a tornado crossed the entire county and stayed on the ground for over 30 miles causing “every kind of damage imaginable.”

The NWS confirmed that a “catastrophic” tornado moved through the metro area of Little Rock, Arkansas, in Pulaski County Friday afternoon. According to preliminary NWS information, the EF3 tornado had winds up to 165 mph and a path length spanning 20-25 miles. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. tweeted: “Property damage is extensive and we are still responding.” 

President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that he has been in touch with officials in affected states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Delaware, and that he had directed his administration “to help with immediate needs and long-term rebuilding.”  Biden said: “While we are still assessing the full extent of the damage, we know families across America are mourning the loss of loved ones, desperately waiting for news of others fighting for their lives, and sorting through the rubble of their homes and businesses. There’s nothing we can do to heal the hole left in the hearts of far too many families who lost loved ones this weekend, but we will be there every step of the way as they rebuild and recover.”

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