Santos Announces That He Will Not Run for Re-election.

Today, representative George Santos has announced that he will not run for re-election after an ethics report ruled that Santos was involved in criminal schemes with the goal of personal financial enrichment. According to an article in the Washington Post, Santos has railed against the report, calling it a “disgusting politicized smear.” According to a report in the Guardian, the ethics committee found a clear pattern of behavior of fraud that emerged during Santos’s time in the house and that he should be removed one way or another. In recent weeks & months, the calls for Santos to be removed came from both sides of the aisle, with some Republicans publicly admitting that he had gone. Even though Santos will not run again for re-election, he still faces many legal issues.

Eric Adams and Turkish Money in New York Politics.

Last week, Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, got himself embroiled in a fundraising scandal. According to an article in Reuters, Adams’s chief campaign fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, had her home searched by FBI agents on November 2nd due to Adams’ possible involvement in a scheme to funnel foreign money from a Turkish donor to his mayoral campaign. On top of that, according to a report in the New York Times, Adams allegedly pressured the New York Fire Department (NYFD) to sign off on the Turkish government’s new consular building despite safety concerns. A follow-up article in the Times stated that Adams had cultivated close ties to the Turkish business community in New York. Many people this time of year are looking forward to turkey and all of the fixings; however, for Adams, the fixings surrounding Turkey could be bribery and corruption, not stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Trump Fraud Trial Update.

A few days ago, Donald Trump testified in his fraud trial in New York City. By all accounts, Trump made a spectacle of the proceedings and lashed out at everyone from the judge to the New York State Attorney General Letitia James. According to a report in the Washington Post, Trump, instead of mounting any credible defense, used the proceeding to try and score political points to bolster his election credentials. The Post article states that Trump may be using this trial as a dry run for his conduct in his upcoming criminal trials. The trial continues.

Former Albanian PM Ensnared in Corruption Probe.

The former Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, was recently charged with corruption offenses. According to a Reuters article, Berisha hopes to steer the privatization of land once owned by a local football club, FK Partizani, in such a way that it would benefit a company owned by his son-in-law. According to a report from the AP, Berisha believes these charges are politically motivated by the current PM, Edi Rama. Berisha has a checkered history involving corruption; according to ABC News, in 2021, Berisha was banned from entering the US due to numerous allegations of corruption during their tenure as PM from 2005 to 2013. It is unclear how this will play out, but I would assume that Berisha may well be facing a stretch behind bars.

Menendez Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Corruption Charges.

Yesterday, according to an article on NBC Bay Area, Robert Menendez was back in a federal courtroom in New York City after the indictment was rewritten to add a charge. Menendez pleaded not guilty to being a foreign agent for the government of Egypt. According to an article on CBS.com, Menendez’s wife and Wael Hama, an Egyptian-American businessmen, pleaded not guilty last week, while Menendez was allowed to delay his arraignment due to his senate commitments. Due to these allegations, Menendez has stepped down from chairing the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The trial continues.

Anti-Corruption Crusader Wins Guatemala Election.

On Sunday, in the Guatemalan presidential election, a candidate named Bernardo Arevalo ran on an anti-corruption platform. According to an article in the New York Times, Arevalo, the leader of the Movimento Semilla (Seed Movement), is a sociologist and won 58 percent of the vote. In comparison, his opponent Sandra Torres received 37 percent. Despite being a democracy, Guatemala has been plagued by political scandals and societal corruption for years. According to another piece in The Times 2019, Guatemala had a pioneering anti-corruption body backed by the UN called the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was shut down due to the efforts of high-ranking officials such as businessmen and politicians who were charged with corruption, but still had enough institutional power prevent prosecutors and other officials favorable to anti-corruption steps from staying in office. Despite the current positivity in Guatemala, an article from the AP suggests that corrupt judges and government officials could try and stop the certification, thus throwing the country back into turmoil. It would be a massive boost for Latin America and the USA if Arevalo could take power and stop the endemic corruption that plagues Latin America.

Trump Indicted on January 6th Charges.

On Tuesday, Former President Donald Trump was indicted concerning his actions around January 6th, 2021. He faces charges of defrauding the U.S. government, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The first charge details how Trump and his unindicted co-conspirators attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election by illegal means. The two counts of obstruction relate to Trump’s effort to impede the vote certification process of 2020 and his subsequent efforts to curb the certification investigation. The final charge relates to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in states that were close.

This indictment has numerous ramifications for Trump and his cronies. According to an article in the New York Times, close allies such as Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell were central to Trump’s plans. While they are (for now) unindicted co-conspirators, they will likely be expected to testify during any trial, and it is also possible that they will face legal jeopardy of their own. On top of all this is the ongoing legal jeopardy that Trump faces in New York and Florida and possible legal issues in Georgia regarding his efforts to overturn the count there. Despite these issues, Trump still has a commanding lead in the race for the Republican nomination. The million-dollar question is at what point (if ever) does Trump’s legal issues possibly become big enough to force him out of the race?