Headlines
Guilty As Charged! Trump Convicted in Hush-Money Case, Awaits Sentencing
A New York jury convicted Donald Trump on all charges in his hush-money case on Thursday in a seismic development barely five months ahead of the election where he seeks to recapture the White House.
The verdict makes Trump the first criminally convicted former US president but does not prevent him from campaigning for another term.
Addressing reporters outside minutes later, though, he branded the result a “disgrace” and “rigged,” vowing that the “real verdict” would come from voters in the November 5 presidential election.
The conviction thrusts the United States into uncharted political territory.
However, it does not bar Trump from his continuing his White House run, even in the unlikely event that Judge Juan Merchan sentences him to prison.
Sentencing was set for July 11 – right before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is due to receive the party’s formal nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the election.
Biden’s campaign issued a statement saying that the trial showed “no one is above the law.” It added that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater.”
The 12-member jury deliberated for more than 11 hours over two days before announcing the unanimous conclusion within a matter of minutes.
Merchan thanked the jurors for completing the “difficult and stressful task.”
Their identities had been kept secret throughout proceedings, a rare practice more often seen in cases involving mafia or other violent defendants.
– Election conspiracy –
Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, when her claim to have had sex with him could have proved fatal to his campaign.
The trial featured lengthy testimony from the adult performer, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who described to the court in graphic detail what she says was a 2006 sexual encounter with the married Trump.
Prosecutors successfully laid out a case alleging that the hush money and the illegal covering up of the payment was part of a broader crime to prevent voters from knowing about Trump’s behaviour.
Trump’s defence attorneys had countered that “trying to influence an election” was simply “democracy” and that the former president did nothing wrong.
– Campaigning in courthouse –
The trial has distracted Trump from his campaign to unseat Biden.
However, he milked the media attention throughout, with daily speeches in front of the cameras outside the courtroom in which he complained about being a political victim.
Yet after teasing the prospect for weeks, Trump — who denied ever having sex with Daniels at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament — opted not to testify.
Keith Gaddie, a political analyst and professor at Texas Christian University, said the political impact of the shocking events has yet to be determined.
“It probably doesn’t move a lot of votes, but in particular states with particular swing votes, it could matter around the margins. So in particularly tight races, it can tip things back from one direction to the other,” she said.
The Republican, who made his name as a brash real estate mogul before a stunning ascent to the nation’s highest office in the 2016 election, now faces prison or, more likely, probation.
In theory, he could face up to four years in jail for each count of falsifying business records but legal experts said as a first-time offender he is unlikely to go behind bars.
An appeal could take months to complete.
Should he win the presidency he will not be able to pardon himself, given that the case was not brought by the federal government but by the state of New York, where only the governor could clear his name.
Trump also faces federal and state charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Biden, and for hoarding secret documents after leaving the White House.
AFP
The Rivers State House of Assembly has accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy Ngozi Odu of gross misconduct.
Twenty-six members of the Assembly raised the allegation in a notice sent to the speaker Martin Amaewhule and obtained by Channels Television.
They said the action was “in compliance with Section 188 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and other extant laws”.
The lawmakers accused Fubara among other things of reckless and unconstitutional expenditure of public funds, hindering or obstructing the Rivers State House of Assembly which is another arm of the government, and the appointment of persons to occupy offices/positions in the Rivers State Government without allowing for the requirement of screening and confirmation.
Other accusations against the Rivers governor include the seizure of salaries, allowances, and funds standing to the credit of the legitimate Rivers State House of Assembly and the seizure of the salary of the Clerk of the Rivers State House of Assembly Emeka Amadi.
They also accused Odu of “conniving and supporting the illegal appointment of persons to occupy offices/positions in the Rivers State Government without allowing for the requirement of screening and confirmation”.
Upon receipt of the notice, Amaewhule forwarded the same to Governor Fubara and said the allegation was raised by “not less than one-third (1/3) of the membership of the Rivers State House of Assembly”.
Speaker Amaewhule asked Fubara to “reply to the allegations made against you in the said ‘Notice of Allegations of Gross Misconduct’ accordingly”.
“In doing this, your attention is drawn to the provisions of Section 188(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which provides thus: ‘Within 14 days of the presentation of the notice to the Speaker of the House of Assembly (whether or not any statement made by holder of the office in reply to the allegation contained in the notice) the House of Assembly shall resolve by motion, without any debate whether or not the allegation shall be investigated’,” the speaker said in a letter sent to Fubara.
Headlines
Again, El-Rufai Attacks Tinubu over Chicago Varsity Certificate Scandal, Calls President Ungrateful
A former Governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai, said he and his allies had hoped that President Bola Tinubu would replicate his achievements in Lagos at the national level but failed woefully.
El-Rufai explained that despite concerns about Tinubu’s alleged certificate forgery from Chicago State University during the 2023 presidential election they backed him, believing he could transform Nigeria as he did Lagos.
“What pains me is that the government we supported and had confidence in would do well, because we saw what Tinubu did in Lagos despite his challenges,” El-Rufai told BBC Hausa in an interview on Saturday.
“We all know about his issues in Chicago, but we thought if he could replicate his work in Lagos for Nigeria, let’s support him. However, he failed,”
El-Rufai called on opposition figures, including Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rauf Aregbesola, to unite under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to salvage the country.
“What I want and pray for is for all opposition leaders—Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rauf Aregbesola—to join the SDP,” he added.
El-Rufai also dismissed accusations that he betrayed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, stating that his past disagreements with Atiku during the Obasanjo administration were based on principle, not personal animosity.
“I never betrayed Atiku Abubakar because we didn’t meet in politics; we met at work. In work, if I see that he didn’t do well, whoever he is, I will tell him. I told Buhari, and I even took Buhari to court on the new naira issue,” he said.
“When Obasanjo and Atiku were having issues, those of us working with Obasanjo looked at the issues between them and said Obasanjo was more right. It was not about north and south; Obasanjo was right. Atiku and I are now together, and if I betrayed him, why are we together now.”
United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has announced that President Donald Trump’s administration is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington.
Rubio announced this on Friday, accusing the envoy of hating the country and President Trump.
“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio posted on X.
“Ebrahim Rasool is “a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS,” he said, referring to Trump by his White House X account handle.
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
The expulsion of the ambassador comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Pretoria.
Trump in February this year froze US aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers.
Trump further fueled tensions last week, when he said that South Africa’s farmers were welcome to settle in the United States after repeating his allegation that the government was “confiscating” land from white people.
