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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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Have you seen the pictures of him with Ted Cruz, Rubio, and Rand Paul? Hypocrisy is the only remaining plank in the Republican platform.
Quote: | (CNN)Former reality TV star Joshua Duggar has been arrested on federal charges related to the possession of child pornography, according to the US Attorney's Office in the Western District of Arkansas.
Duggar allegedly downloaded material that depicted the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, the US attorney's office said in a statement. Duggar allegedly possessed the material in May 2019.
Duggar, the oldest son of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, whose family was the subject of the TLC show "19 Kids and Counting," faces two charges, the indictment shows -- one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 if convicted, the statement said.
Duggar was arrested in Arkansas Thursday, according to the statement. He appeared in federal court Friday via video conference and pleaded not guilty to both charges. |
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real-human
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Joined: 02 Jul 2011 Posts: 14835 Location: on earth
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 6:26 am Post subject: |
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ted-cruz-s-threat-to-woke-ceos-was-the-most-openly-corrupt-thing-any-senator-has-said-ethics-expert-says/ar-BB1glrw7?ocid=msedgntp
Ted Cruz's threat to 'woke CEOs' was 'the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said,' ethics expert says
Quote: | A former head of the Office of Government Ethics called Ted Cruz's column on "woke CEOs" "corrupt."
In the column, Cruz expressed his anger at corporations objecting to Georgia's new voting laws.
"This time, we won't look the other way on Coca-Cola's $12 billion in back taxes owed," Cruz wrote.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
An expert in government ethics has described Ted Cruz's newspaper column on "woke CEOs" as the "most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said."
The Texas senator, in a Wall Street Journal column published last week, expressed his anger at the decision by a number of corporations, including Coca-Cola, to object to Georgia's controversial new voting law.
Cruz faced a backlash to the column for suggesting that, "this time," he and other Republican lawmakers would stop offering corporations potentially unethical tax breaks and other multibillion-dollar exemptions in return for financial contributions to their political causes.
"This is the point in the drama when Republicans usually shrug their shoulders, call these companies 'job creators,' and start to cut their taxes. Not this time," Cruz wrote in the op-ed.
"This time, we won't look the other way on Coca-Cola's $12 billion in back taxes owed."
"This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we'll say no thank you. This time, when Boeing asks for billions in corporate welfare, we'll simply let the Export-Import Bank expire."
Walter Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said on Twitter that Cruz had appeared to admit that he and others had sold "access" in exchange for funding.
"It's the part everyone knows: these crooks sell access. Others have the sense not to admit it. This is why our republic is broken. Immoral politicians selling power we've entrusted to them like it's theirs to sell," Shaub tweeted. |
_________________ when good people stay silent the right wing are the only ones heard. |
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real-human
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Joined: 02 Jul 2011 Posts: 14835 Location: on earth
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 7:50 am Post subject: |
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fire a marine because he noted workplace is unsafe.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-s-doug-lamborn-faces-dramatic-lawsuit-former-staffer-n1267344?cid=eml_mra_20210514&user_email=e73377d3e40790eecbf6a99203e1476ea2a23c644c2045abd739b8f9e629a73b
GOP's Doug Lamborn faces dramatic lawsuit from former staffer
Personnel troubles on Capitol Hill are not uncommon, and once in a while there will even be litigation, but the lawsuit filed by Brandon Pope is a doozy.
Quote: | As Republican members of Congress go, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) is generally not well known outside his district. The conservative Coloradan isn't a member of the leadership, he doesn't chair any committees, and his legislative record is largely limited to the Republican's efforts to cut off funding to NPR.
But Lamborn managed to make national news yesterday, thanks to a new lawsuit from one of his former aides. NBC News reported overnight:
A former staffer for U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn is suing the Colorado Republican for allegedly firing him for complaining about his "reckless and dangerous approach to Covid-19" in his congressional offices. The congressman's lackadaisical response wound up getting [Brandon Pope], Lamborn and numerous other employees infected with the virus, the lawsuit says.
Personnel troubles on Capitol Hill are not uncommon, and once in a while there will even be litigation, but the lawsuit filed by former Lamborn staffer Brandon Pope is a doozy.
The former aide alleged that the Republican congressman and his chief of staff "often mocked safety protocols such as measures to distance employees from each other and the use of masks, and they minimized COVID-related concerns."
The suit added, "Worse, when Lamborn and other senior members of his staff became infected with COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, Lamborn refused to implement or follow reasonable and responsible COVID-19 protocols, resulting in the widespread transmission of the virus throughout both the District and Washington, D.C. offices."
At one point, according to the lawsuit, the congressman said, in reference to his team, "Well, I don't care about you guys getting it."
When his aides started getting infected, Lamborn also allegedly told them to keep their ailments secret, even from those they'd been in direct contact with.
The voting records the House GOP overlooked in choosing Stefanik
Pope, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan and who went to Capitol Hill as a Wounded Warrior fellow, was ultimately fired. The staffer was told his ouster was due to "an alleged lack of professionalism and abrasiveness," but Pope believes he was fired because he disagreed with Lamborn's alleged indifference to safeguards during a pandemic.
But wait, there's more. From the NBC News report:
The suit says Lamborn "consistently disregarded ethical rules and norms that apply to Members of Congress," including using staffers to do tasks for his wife and son, including moving furniture. The suit also says at one point, Lamborn "gave his son the necessary access to live in a storage area in the basement of the U.S. Capitol for a period of weeks" when the son was moving to Washington for work.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Republican denied the allegations raised in the lawsuit and said the congressman "looks forward to full vindication as all facts come to light."
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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Oregon Republican lets rioters into the state capitol. A rehearsal for January 6?
The GOP is dead as a real political party. |
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real-human
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Joined: 02 Jul 2011 Posts: 14835 Location: on earth
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pennsylvania-republicans-cut-a-lawmaker-s-mic-after-he-notes-the-state-gop-is-100-white/ar-AAKSPCG?ocid=msedgntp
Pennsylvania Republicans cut a lawmaker's mic after he notes the state GOP is '100% white'Pennsylvania's Republican House leadership cut the microphone of a state Democrat on Wednesday.
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Rep. Brian Sims, a Democrat from Philadelphia, had noted the GOP delegation "is 100% white."
Sims accused the Pennsylvania GOP of pursuing a "grossly, predictably misogynistic agenda."
See more stories on Insider's business page.
A Pennsylvania Democrat had his speech cut short on Wednesday after he noted the state's Republican lawmakers are "100% white."
The heated moment came during a debate over a Republican proposal to regulate the disposal of fetal remains, one that Democratic lawmakers argued would force women to bury or cremate a miscarried fetus. As USA Today reported, a number of Democratic women spoke against the measure - which Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has promised to veto - by highlighting their own traumatic experiences with miscarriages.
Rep. Brian Sims, a Democrat from Philadelphia, lamented the fact his colleagues were forced to share such testimony in the state's Republican-controlled House.
"This is just another act in a political theater that has plagued this chamber for far too long," Sims said. "We are a legislature that has met more to remove mask mandates, strip executive emergency powers, and overturn free and fair elections than we have to make strategic investments in Pennsylvania's women, children, and families." |
_________________ when good people stay silent the right wing are the only ones heard. |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:19 am Post subject: |
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No longer the Grand old party:
Quote: | Oregon's Legislature has expelled a lawmaker who let rioters into the state Capitol in December. Video shows Republican Rep. Mike Nearman coaching the rioters ahead of time on what he called "Operation Hall Pass" before swinging open a locked door to let the mob inside. |
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real-human
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Joined: 02 Jul 2011 Posts: 14835 Location: on earth
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:36 am Post subject: |
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read this one... such deplorables...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/in-secret-recording-florida-republican-threatens-to-send-russia-ukraine-hit-squad-after-primary-rival/ar-AAL8uEG?ocid=msedgntp
In secret recording, Florida Republican threatens to send Russia-Ukraine ‘hit squad’ after primary rival
Quote: |
MIAMI — A little-known GOP candidate in one of Florida’s most competitive congressional seats was secretly recorded threatening to send “a Russian and Ukrainian hit squad” to a fellow Republican opponent to make her “disappear.”
a woman standing in front of a crowd: A GOP candidate was secretly recorded threatening to send a "hit squad" after primary rival Anna Paulina Luna, who is running for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat.© Chris O'Meara/AP Photo A GOP candidate was secretly recorded threatening to send a "hit squad" after primary rival Anna Paulina Luna, who is running for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat.
During a 30-minute call with a conservative activist that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned the activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat because he had access to assassins. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who is running for governor.
“I really don't want to have to end anybody's life for the good of the people of the United States of America,” Braddock said at one point in the conversation last week, according to the recording exclusively obtained by POLITICO. “That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f---ing speed bump in the road. She's a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”
Reached by text message, Braddock refused to say whether he made any threats about Luna to the person who recorded him, Erin Olszewski.
Asked repeatedly via text if he mentioned Russian-Ukrainian hit squads, Braddock wouldn’t give a yes or no answer, saying he had not heard the recording and that it’s “allegedly me … there is no proof of that.” He also suggested the recording “may even be altered and edited.”
“This is a dirty political tactic that has caused a lot of people a lot of stress and is completely unnecessary,” he said.
Olszewski denied editing or altering the recording. She said she made it because she was concerned about Braddock’s “unhinged” dislike of Luna that he had previously expressed. After she made the recording just after midnight last Wednesday, she promptly turned it over to St. Petersburg, Fla., police and gave a heads-up to her friend Luna, who filed a petition for an injunction against Braddock. Luna received a temporary restraining order against him last Friday. Braddock filed to run Monday.
In the recording, Braddock early in the call brought up the alleged assassins. He also made rambling statements about getting financial help from fellow Freemasons or by somehow importing millions of dollars from Malta and Gibraltar.
“I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians,” he said about three minutes into the call, adding “don't get caught out in public supporting Luna. … Luna’s gonna go down and I hope it's by herself.”
Braddock went on to explain that he didn’t think Luna could win in the general election. Luna, an Air Force veteran and former model who went on to become a conservative activist, won a crowded GOP primary in the state’s 13th Congressional District last year but lost the general election to Crist.
It's unclear exactly why Braddock has such dislike toward Luna. The two do not appear to have any previous connection to one another, and Braddock is a lower-tier candidate in an increasingly crowded race for Crist’s seat. Already, two state lawmakers and a former Obama administration official have entered the race, with others expected to jump in.
The threats, claims of assassins and political backstabbing put an only-in-Florida stamp on what was already shaping up to be a wild midterm of congressional races. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz in the Panhandle is still batting back accusations in an ongoing federal sex trafficking probe.
Democratic Rep. Val Demings is leaving her Orlando seat to run for Senate, causing a mad scramble to replace her. And the state is getting an additional congressional seat that is certain to lead to another crush of candidates after redistricting before next year’s elections.
Olszewski, who initiated and recorded the call just after midnight on June 9, said she phoned Braddock at his insistence because he kept trying to get her to appear on a health care panel for an event he was organizing.
Olszewski, a nurse by training, became a conservative figure last year after penning a book called “Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital,” which some in the health care industry have called disinformation.
After having a few conversations with Braddock, however, Olszewski said she became concerned that he wanted to use her to advance his candidacy and that he left her “threatening” messages about Luna that sounded “unhinged.”
With such a closely divided Congress currently in Democratic control, Braddock said on the recorded call that the “pivotal” St. Petersburg-based district will take on outsized importance in 2022 to keep America from devolving into a “communist-socialist s---hole.” When Olszewski asked him why he had Russians at the ready, Braddock indicated they were to stop Luna.
“My polling people are going to charge me $20,000 to do a poll right before the primary. And if the poll says Luna’s gonna win, she’s gonna be gone. She's gonna disappear,” Braddock said in the recorded call, pledging Olszewski to secrecy. “For the good of our country, we have to sacrifice the few. … For the better or the good of the majority of the people, we've got to sacrifice the few.”
Later in the call, Olszewski asked what would happen if “Luna is gonna win” and Braddock assured her that wouldn’t happen.
“She’s gonna be gone. Period. That's the end of the discussion. Luna is not an issue,” he said.
Olszewski pushed him, asking “how do we make her go, though? I just don’t understand that.”
“I call up my Russian and Ukrainian hit squad, and within 24 hours, they're sending me pictures of her disappearing,” he replied. “No, I'm not joking. Like, this is beyond my control this point.”
Asked if the killers were snipers, Braddock described them as, “Russian mafia. Close-battle combat, Tech 9s, Mack 10s, silencers kind of thing. No snipers. Up close and personal. So they know that the target has gone.”
Olszewski said that threats like the ones Braddock made “you can’t take lightly. Normal people don’t say these things.”
Olszewski called Braddock on one smartphone and recorded video of the call with another, occasionally displaying his name and number on the video to show it was him on the call. POLITICO also obtained a separate recording, a voicemail message, Braddock left with a consultant in which his phone number was identical and voice seemed to match the information Olszewski shot in her video.
In Florida, it’s a third-degree felony to record another person without their knowledge. But Olszewski said that St. Petersburg police told her she had nothing to worry about in recording the conversation and turning it over to authorities. A spokesperson for the St. Petersburg police declined to comment on the recording or whether it was legally recorded.
Braddock, though, indicated he was ready to sue Olszewski.
“The folks in possession of whatever recording they think they have of myself or someone else (which may even be altered and edited) will be facing civil damages suit(s) when the paperwork is file [sic] with the county and felony charges after I file with the local police department,” Braddock said in his text message to POLITICO. “I strongly advise not to get involved because the civil suits will continue to be filed until people stop sharing them because whomever is on the recording did not consent to be recorded in my humble opinion.”
In her filing for an injunction, Luna also mentioned how Braddock claimed in the call with Olszewski that two other potential Republican candidates in the race, Amanda Makki and Matt Tito, had formed an alliance with him to stop Luna. Braddock briefly posted the petition for the injunction on his Facebook page Friday but then took them down.
Both Makki and Tito denied the claims of an alliance with Braddock and each of them criticized Luna for mentioning their names in the injunction she filed against Braddock.
“The fact she dragged me through the mud, after not seeing or talking to me after 11 months, it really calls into question her judgment,” said Makki, who ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary against Luna in 2020, despite earning the endorsement of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Tito, also, was displeased with the fact that he was named in the injunction.
“This is a total political hit job. I wasn’t served. I’m not in legal trouble,” he said. “Luna doesn’t want me to get in the Republican race because she knows I’ll beat her. I’m a better candidate. She’s trying to wipe me out of the race, trying to embarrass me, intimidate me, smear my name so she has a wider path to the nomination.”
In the call, Braddock mentioned that he offered Tito a job on his campaign to keep him on the sidelines, but Tito said he had no intention to work for Braddock.
James Blair, a spokesperson for Luna, said she wouldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation. But he suggested Makki had “sour grapes” for losing the primary last year to Luna. And he faulted Tito because he “immediately blamed the woman” by accusing Luna of a political hit job.
“The content of the protective order filed is based upon Mr. Braddock’s own threats, actions, and statements,” Blair said. “I understand that Mr. Braddock is the one who stated he is working with Mr. Tito and Ms. Makki, so perhaps they should take it up with him instead of attacking the person he said he was going to kill if that’s what it took to keep her from winning.”
In her petition for the restraining order, Luna made it clear that she took Braddock’s threats seriously.
“I do not feel safe and am currently in fear for my life,” Luna wrote, according to a copy of it.
Olszewski, too, said Braddock sounded dangerous. At one point, Braddock even said he was scared himself.
“Don’t be on the f---ing wrong side of supporting Luna because if you're near her when the time comes, I just don't want that to happen to you because you've got kids,” Braddock said on the call. “So don't be associated with Luna under any circumstances. Please. And do not repeat this anybody because both of us will be in jeopardy if you do. I'm not just blowing smoke here. I'm f---ing being dead ass serious and it scares the s--- out of me, too.” |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:47 am Post subject: |
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Turtle man is a fascist.
Quote: | By
Mike DeBonis
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By Mike DeBonis
Congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives
Email
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Vanessa Williams
June 17, 2021 at 4:43 p.m. PDT
4442
Senate Republicans vowed Thursday to block voting legislation from advancing later this month, rejecting a key Democratic senator’s compromise offer that adopted some GOP ideas in a bid to break partisan gridlock on the issue.
The pledge from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) all but guarantees that Republicans will filibuster a sweeping voting bill that Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is sending to the floor Tuesday.
Parts of the bill are meant to overrule provisions contained in a host of GOP-passed state laws that have placed restrictions on early voting, mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes and other policies that make it easier to cast a ballot, in response to former president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election.
“I’ve taken a look at all the new state laws — none of them are designed to suppress the vote,” McConnell said Thursday. “There is no rational basis for the federal government to take over all of American elections.” |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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The lets cook the planet party, completely captured by assorted buggy whips. From Morning Consult, on what it took to get ten Republican Senators to admit that bridges are corroding away.
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However, it comes with caveats. The plan omits many of the major climate-focused elements of the White House's American Jobs Plan and congressional Democrats' proposals, including a clean energy standard, federal investments and tax credits for renewable energy, a phaseout of subsidies for fossil fuels, research and development for climate solutions, significant funds for vehicle electrification and major energy efficiency provisions, among others. |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999 Posts: 17742 Location: Berkeley, California
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:02 am Post subject: |
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Which Republicans took the bribes?
Quote: | p.m.
CINCINNATI — The energy giant at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio admitted to riveting new details of its role in the conspiracy Thursday as part of a settlement agreement with federal prosecutors, including how it used secret dark money groups to fund the effort and paid a soon-to-be top utility regulator to write the legislation it got in exchange.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. is charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud through bribery or kickbacks under the deal, Acting U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel said at a press conference Thursday.
He called the settlement, which requires the company to pay $230 million penalty and continue to fully cooperate with investigators, the largest secured by his office that anyone can recall.
“If FirstEnergy complies with everything on its end, the charges will be dismissed,” Patel said, adding that if they don’t, the criminal case will resume.
Under the agreement, the firm must also make public any new payments it’s aware of that were intended to influence a public official and continue an internal makeover of its ethics practices. The company will have three years to comply with the settlement.
In a statement, Donald Misheff, FirstEnergy’s nonexecutive board chairman, said the agreement builds on steps the company already has under way, including to “significantly modify our approach to political engagement as we work to regain the trust of our stakeholders.”
The criminal monetary fine of $230 million will be divided up, with half of it going to the federal government and the other half going to a program that benefits Ohio’s regulated utility customers, Patel said. FirstEnergy also has to forfeit certain funds, totaling $6 million, seized from the accounts of a dark money group, Partners for Progress.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Hoffman said the charges resulted from a historic public corruption investigation that “deserves historic remedies.”
“I hope that today’s announcement serves as a stern warning to other corporations and corporate executives who would sell their integrity to a public official, a group of public officials,” he said.
The settlement does not preclude prosecutors from pursuing individuals and applies only to FirstEnergy, Patel said.
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You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
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