This is a very small subset of the stories that have come out in the past few days that I could have included. All of these were collected from the JoeMyGod site.
New Hampshire GOP Senator Arrested After Bar Fight
One of the Queen City’s state Senators has been arrested on assault and criminal threatening charges, according to police.
Keith Murphy, 47, of Chestnut Street in Manchester, was arrested Monday on two counts of simple assault and a criminal threatening charge on a warrant.
According to police, an employee at Murphy’s Taproom filed a complaint with police claiming Murphy, the restaurant’s owner, spat on and slapped him on April 30. Heather Hamel, the public information officer for the department, said the victim and Murphy “had gotten into an argument.” She added, “During the course of the argument, the victim said he was spat on and slapped.”
Police eyed surveillance video, Hamel said, which “was consistent with what the employee reported and also showed the suspect pick up a chair in an aggressive manner.”
Murphy was identified as the suspect, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was charged Monday. He was released on personal recognizance and will be arraigned in Manchester District Court on July 24.
Murphy is the state Senator for District 16, representing Candia, Goffstown, Hooksett, Manchester’s Ward 1, and Raymond. He is a Republican. Murphy easily beat Democrat June Trisciani in 2022 by more than 6 percent of the vote.
Texas Attorney General’s Wife Won’t Recuse From Impeachment Trial
“I have twice been elected to represent the nearly one million Texans who reside in Senate District 8, and it is a tremendous honor and privilege to be their voice in the Texas Legislature.
“Each time I was elected, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this great state, and Texas law compels each member of the Senate to attend when the Senate meets as a court of impeachment.
“As a member of the Senate, I hold these obligations sacred and I will carry out my duties, not because it is easy, but because the Constitution demands it and because my constituents deserve it.” – Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton.
NC House Speaker Accused Of Affair And Group Sex
A detailed lawsuit filed by a former Apex City Councilman claims that North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland County) started an affair with his wife and engaged in group sex with other people seeking political favor. Scott Riley Lassiter is suing Moore and an unnamed John Doe defendant for several claims, including alienation of affections and civil conspiracy.
Court documents allege that Moore “used his position as Speaker to initiate contact and develop a personal relationship with Mrs. Lassiter, despite knowing that she was married to Plaintiff.” The lawsuit says Lassiter heard rumors that his wife was having an affair with Moore. On Dec. 21, 2022, Lassiter surveilled his wife after she said she was going to see a movie with a friend, and he found that she went to dinner with Moore at a steakhouse.
GOP Seeks To Defund Pentagon’s Anti-Extremism Work
Provisions to defund the Pentagon’s anti-extremism efforts are on tap for potential inclusion in the fiscal 2024 defense policy bill when members of the House Armed Service Committee hold their marathon markup session on June 21.
Those amendments, along with a third to evaluate staffing levels within the Defense Department’s so-called diversity, equity and inclusion office, offer an early sign of some of the pending disputes as conservatives target what they call “woke” Pentagon policies.
Specifically, Rep. Mark Alford’s amendments, shared with CQ Roll Call ahead of their formal introduction, would bar DOD from using any fiscal 2024 dollars for its working group aiming to counter extremism or for the deputy inspector general post lawmakers previously created seeking to root out extremism in the military.
Florida “Don’t Say Gay” Author Seeks Sentencing Delay
Former Rep. Joe Harding, who pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements about COVID-19 relief funds he received, is asking for his sentencing date to be punted to September.
In a motion filed with the North District of Florida, Harding’s lawyers, Ronald Kozlowski and Peggy-Anne O’Connor, requested a continuation of his sentence hearing from July 25 to around two months later.
The reason for the request, they wrote, is they need longer to speak with witnesses and prepare a sentencing statement for the court. Harding, an Ocala Republican, faces up to 35 years in prison.
“George Santos” Loses Appeal, Must Say Who Paid His Bail
The identities of the people who guaranteed Rep. George Santos’ $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case will be revealed Thursday at noon ET, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.
Judge Joanna Seybert’s order in U.S. District Court in Long Island came less than two weeks after the Republican lawmaker’s attorney argued that the bail backers’ identities should be kept private because of the “media frenzy” surrounding the case.
Other sealed documents in the case, including Seybert’s full written order, are also scheduled to be unsealed Thursday, according to a docket entry in Santos’ case. Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the judge’s order.
Judge Strikes Down GOP’s Arkansas Ban On Trans Youth Care
A federal judge in Arkansas on Tuesday struck down the state’s law forbidding medical treatments for children and teenagers seeking gender transitions, blocking what had been the first in a wave of such measures championed by conservative lawmakers across the country.
The case had been closely watched as an important test of whether bans on transition care for minors, which have since been enacted by more than a dozen states, could withstand legal challenges being brought by activists and civil liberties groups.
In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
Judge: Missouri’s GOP Attorney General Can’t Stop Abortion Referendum
A Cole County judge Tuesday rejected an attempt by Missouri’s top lawyer to stop a constitutional amendment to restore abortion rights, and ordered him to approve the fiscal note summary within 24 hours of the ruling.
In a 28-page ruling, Circuit Judge Jon Beetem said Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has refused to sign off on the amendment’s potential cost estimate, has only a ministerial duty to approve the cost figure of a proposed ballot measure.
“(T)he attorney general has no authority to substitute his own judgment for that of the auditor regarding the estimated cost of a proposed measure,” Beetem wrote. Beetem said Bailey’s maneuvering put state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick in an “absurd” and “preposterous” legal position.
Texas Gov Signs Ban On Drag Shows In View Of Minors
Texas has become the latest in a growing number of states to pass legislation that LGBTQ rights groups say targets drag shows, banning “sexually oriented performances” that take place in the presence of minors. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) quietly signed the state’s Senate Bill 12 into law June 18. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The measure, slated to take effect September 1, prohibits businesses from hosting “sexually oriented” performances in which someone is nude or appeals to the “prurient interest in sex” in the presence of minors. Those who break the law are likely to face hefty fines — up to $10,000 per violation.
Performers face much harsher penalties, and those caught violating the law’s new restrictions on drag shows could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
CO Charges 6 With Forging Names For GOP Candidate
Six people are accused of forging signatures in attempt to get a Republican candidate on the primary ballot for the 7th Congressional District (CD7), according to the Colorado Attorney General’s office.
According to court documents, the charged individuals — Alex Joseph, Terris Kintchen, Patrick Rimpel, Jordahni Rimpel, Aliyah Moss, and Diana Watt — were paid circulators employed by the Oregon-based professional petitioning firm Grassfire, LLC.
The firm was hired by the Carl Andersen for Congress campaign to circulate a petition to gather the necessary 1,500 valid signatures for Andersen to be placed on the Republican primary ballot. All defendants are charged with one count of attempt to influence a public servant, a class four felony, and one count of perjury, a class two misdemeanor.