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Greene Attracts Rebuke for Evaluating Vaccine Mandate to Nazi Acts

Greene Draws Rebuke for Comparing Vaccine Mandate to Nazi Acts

Georgian Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was convicted Tuesday by the House of Representatives Republican chief for a series of comments she made comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the treatment of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust.

In a number of posts on Twitter, Ms. Greene, A right-wing provocateur, who previously advocated a number of violent and racist conspiracy theories, has opposed decisions by private companies to issue vaccine mandates or to issue mask requirements only for vaccinated individuals. Their comments came amid an increase in anti-Semitic attacks on Jews across the country.

“Vaccinated employees receive a vaccination logo, just like the Nazi Jewish people were forced to wear a gold star,” she wrote in a post Tuesday.

In another, relating to a university that banned unvaccinated students from attending classes in person, she wrote, “It appears that the Nazi practices have already begun in our youth. Show your VAX papers or any personal class for you. That’s exactly what I said about the golden star. “

After encountering a swift wave of public criticism, Ms. Greene refused to apologize, arguing that she never specifically compared mask mandates to the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews, “just the discrimination against Jews in the first years “.

Republican Kevin McCarthy, California Republican and minority leader, who largely did not criticize Ms. Greene despite controversial discussion, issued a statement condemning her language.

“Marjorie is wrong and her deliberate choice to liken the horrors of the Holocaust to wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity in human history. The fact that this needs to be ascertained today is deeply worrying. “

His reprimand came after one of the Republican Jewish Coalition, a prominent organization whose political action committee generously contributes to the GOP

Matt Brooks, the group’s executive director, pissed off Ms. Greene on Twitter, describing her as “an embarrassment to herself and the GOP”.

“Please educate yourself so you can see how utterly wrong and inappropriate it is to compare vaccination records with the 6 million Jews exterminated by Nazis,” Brooks wrote.

Greene’s comments created another problem for the House Republican leaders who recently sought to take control of their political message by removing Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her post as conference chair, citing their refusal to ignore former President Donald J. Trump’s lie of a stolen election. And they messed up an issue that Republicans have been trying to highlight in recent days when they have tried to label Democrats as inadequate supportive of Israel and the American Jewish community.

Mr McCarthy declined to take action against Ms. Greene on her previous fire testimony earlier this year, including one advocating the killing of spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, although he denied the statements himself.

“Previous comments by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene do not reflect the values ​​or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” McCarthy said in February.

Some Republicans have argued that it would be unfair to blame Ms. Greene for comments she made prior to serving in Congress. But after it was discovered that the newcomer to Georgia had also suggested that a devastating wildfire devastating California was triggered by a “laser” broadcast from space and controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family, the Republican Jewish Coalition entered and said she was “working closely with the Republican leadership of the House on the next steps. “

Mrs. Greene was never disciplined.

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Biden doubles FEMA spending on excessive climate preparedness

Biden doubles FEMA spending on extreme weather preparedness

U.S. President Joe Biden visits Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters to receive a briefing on the Atlantic hurricane season, in Washington, U.S., May 24, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would double the funding available to help cities and states prepare for extreme weather disasters, to $1 billion this year from $500 million in 2020.

Biden also announced the launch of a new NASA initiative to more closely track how the climate is changing, and the impact of these changes on local communities, both in the near term and farther into the future.

The president revealed the additional funding during a visit to FEMA headquarters, where he received a briefing on the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season and delivered remarks to agency employees.

“Now is the time to get ready for the busiest time of the year for disasters in America,” Biden said following the briefing. “Hurricane season in the South and East, and the fire season out West.”

“We all know that the storms are coming, and we’re going to be prepared,” he added. “We have to be ready.”

The United States endured last year 22 separate weather and climate-related disasters that each caused more than $1 billion in damages, according to a White House fact sheet. Taken together, the damages from these 22 disasters — primarily wildfires, hurricanes and snowstorms — amounted to nearly $100 billion.

The newly announced funds will be distributed through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. Created in 2018, BRIC awards grants to states, local communities and tribes to undertake pre-disaster hazard mitigation projects.

Monday’s actions are the latest in a series of initiatives launched by the Biden administration to help measure and prepare for extreme weather events, which have increased in both frequency and severity as the climate has warmed over the past few decades.

Last week, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to conduct a broad assessment of the financial risks posed by climate change to both government and the private sector

The order gives Biden’s top economic and climate advisors four months to produce an estimate of how much it would cost to achieve a U.S. economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

From the start of his presidency, Biden has made tackling climate change an integral part of his governing strategy.

A centerpiece of his climate strategy, a clean electricity standard, is part of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure package currently being negotiated by the White House and Senate Republicans.

The standard would require fossil fuel-burning power plants to gradually adopt carbon free methods of generating power, like wind and solar. Under the standard as currently written, the deadline for making electricity carbon free would be 2035.

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Democrats Quieter About Migrant Kids Detention

Democrats Quieter About Migrant Children Detention

“The good news is that they listened,” Representative Sylvia R. Garcia, Democrat of Texas, said of officials at Health and Human Services. Ms. Garcia, a former social worker, said she saw red flags at the Houston shelter, a repurposed warehouse, before it even opened. The plan was to house about 500 girls between the ages of 13 and 17. Ms. Garcia said the facility did not have enough bathrooms and there was no clear space for the children to eat or for recreation.

“They were concerned about the kids. They were concerned about their care — every single one of them,” Ms. Garcia said of the officials she spoke with. The shelter opened on April 1 and closed on April 17. “They were not going to put children at risk.”

Ms. Escobar, whose district includes the largest emergency shelter in the Health and Human Services network, at Fort Bliss, said she raised concerns about conditions early on. And on a visit there on Friday, she said she saw significant improvements over six weeks ago.

But, she said, “there are still things that are not acceptable to me.”

For one, the staff could not answer some of Ms. Escobar’s questions, such as how long children were staying there. She said children told her they had been there for 48 days. “That’s unacceptable,” she said.

Ms. Escobar also said the shelter was too big and should be broken into multiple shelters on the Fort Bliss campus. She said she raised this concern about “mega-sites” with Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, on a recent call with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Mr. Castro said he shared Ms. Escobar’s concerns, though he dismissed worries about the size of the shelter and said, during a call with reporters on Monday, there had to be a plan for how to house these children when they arrive at the border.

He also said that the conditions at the emergency facilities were not only better than those at the border facilities, “but it’s better than what these kids were experiencing before they were in the hands” of border agents.

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$100 million New Jersey deli gross sales elevated in early 2021

Hometown International, NJ deli owner, worth millions in stock

Sales at this mysterious $ 100 million deli in New Jersey rose nearly a whopping 50% in the first quarter of 2021 – but that was just measly sandwiches, sodas, and fries valued at $ 5,305, a new financial file revealed on Monday.

Losses at deli owner Hometown International also skyrocketed, rising to $ 173,658 in the first three months of this year. That’s about $ 97,000 more in losses than in the same period last year.

The recent filing from Hometown International also highlights a number of previously unreported developments at this strange company.

The moves, like others recently, appear to be designed to clean the house and make the company an attractive takeover candidate for a private company. This seems to be the real reason investors in Hong Kong and Macau have taken large stakes in Hometown International as opposed to the love of selling cheesesteaks.

These developments include the decision not to renew a $ 25,000 per month advisory contract with a Macau-based company that is a major investor in Hometown International. This was based on the company’s quarterly 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This includes the full repayment of two curious $ 150,000 loans to Shell companies made to Shell companies closely linked to the father of Hometown International Chairman and new President Peter Coker Jr.

Hometown International drew attention in mid-April when hedge fund manager David Einhorn stated in a customer letter that the company recently had a market capitalization of more than $ 100 million, despite sales of less in 2019 and 2020 combined than had made $ 37,000 at his Paulsboro restaurant.

CNBC has since detailed the criminal history and government penalties of a number of people linked to the company, as well as other strange details about the deli owner.

Following these articles, Hometown International’s controlling shareholders announced a $ 15,000 monthly advisory agreement with Tryon Capital, a North Carolina company controlled by Peter Coker Sr. who is a major investor in the deli owner.

Hometown International then fired its President Paul Morina, who is daytime principal and head wrestling coach at the nearby Paulsboro High School. The company has also canned its only other senior executive, Christine Lindenmuth, who is an administrator at the same high school.

Both Hometown International and an affiliate Shell company, E-Waste, have declined their sky-high market caps, claiming their stock prices in the over-the-counter market were unfounded on financial grounds.

The 10-Q, which like other filings from the deli owner was delayed by about a week, contains details that are inconsistent for most companies with nearly 8 million common shares outstanding.

The company’s stock closed at $ 12.10 per share on Monday, down 40 cents per share. Only 423 shares changed hands. On paper at least, Hometown International’s market capitalization based on common stock alone is more than $ 97 million, while its intrinsic value, including tens of millions of stocks available through stock warrants, is a whopping $ 1.8 billion .

Among the odd details in the new filing is the fact that the deli had a labor cost of $ 126 in the first quarter.

In the same period a year ago, no labor costs were reported at all.

Revenue, which was just $ 3,577 in the first quarter of 2020, rose to $ 5,305.

“The increase in sales is mainly due to an increase in customers [sic] Visits after our delicatessen reopened as a result of the easing of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, “the 10-Q file says.

This filing also shows that Hometown International’s advisory agreement with VCH Limited, an investor in the company, expired on April 30th and was “not renewed”.

That deal had paid VCH Limited $ 25,000 a month.

VCH Limited is one of four companies that are major shareholders of Hometown International and whose postal addresses are in Macau, a special administrative region in China.

The 10-Q announcement notes that $ 120,000 of the $ 178,963 in operating expenses for the first quarter was chewed through Hometown International’s advisory agreements with VCH Limited and Tryon Capital.

Filing indicates that by April 14, Hometown International had received full principal payments and over $ 1,000 accrued interest on a $ 150,000 loan to Shell company E-Waste, which works closely with Coker Sr. is connected November.

In a move that reflected Molina’s layoff, John Rollo, president of E-Waste, recently resigned from the company after CNBC published articles on E-Waste, which has no business operations but a market cap of over $ 112 million.

Hometown International loaned $ 150,000 in February to another company affiliated with Coker Sr. – Med Spa Vacations Inc. – which Rollo remains in charge of.

The deli owner’s 10-Q filing reveals that on May 12, “the full principal of the bond and related accrued interest claims of $ 2,250 were paid in full by the debtor,” Med Spa Vacations.

Both loans had an interest rate of 6%.

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Klobuchar to Suggest Ban on Prechecked Containers in Political Donations

Klobuchar to Propose Ban on Prechecked Boxes in Political Donations

Senate committee chairman Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will enact legislation Monday banning political campaigns from routing online donors to recurring donations by default. This practice has attracted criticism for tricking backers into giving inadvertent gifts, sometimes in the thousands of dollars in total.

The planned introduction of the law follows a non-partisan recommendation by the Bundestag Electoral Commission that Congress should restrict the practice of pre-checking boxes that automatically encourage donors to make repeated donations. The FEC unanimously voted 6-0 in favor of recommending the change after a New York Times investigation found that contributors’ refunds and fraud claims against former President Donald J. Trump rose.

Ms. Klobuchar, who heads the rule committee that oversees the administration of the federal elections, calls the draft law the RECUR law to “save every participant from unwanted repetitions”. She currently has only Democratic co-sponsors, including Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the second-largest Democrat in the Senate leadership and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But Ms. Klobuchar said she was confident she could attract Republican co-sponsors after the FEC’s three Republican commissioners joined the Democrats in recommending the ban on the practice – a rare moment of agreement at an agency, often driven by a party-political deadlock is defined.

“We have to make sure that we encourage people who can only make small contributions so that their voices are heard but not exploited,” said Ms. Klobuchar in an interview.

In a statement, Mr Durbin said he was “proud” to introduce the bill with Ms. Klobuchar. “In a bipartisan recommendation, the Bundestag Electoral Commission called on Congress to take action to stop the fundraising practices that were outrageously used by the Trump campaign and that led contributors to recurring payments,” he said.

The Times investigation found that Mr. Trump’s cash shortage political operation had his online employees become unintentional repeat donors by checking a box to withdraw additional donations every week last fall. Their inquiries also included a second pre-checked box labeled a “money bomb”. Over time, the campaign added text, sometimes in bold or capital letters, that obscured the opt-out language. Soon banks and credit card companies saw a flurry of fraud complaints.

Overall, the Trump operation with the Republican Party reimbursed donors who donated through the online processing site WinRed $ 122.7 million – more than 10 percent of each dollar raised. In contrast, the online reimbursement rate for President Biden’s campaign with the party at ActBlue, the corresponding Democratic processing agency, was 2.2 percent.

While the practice of pre-checking boxes is now far more common among Republicans, Democrats have previously used the tactic as well. Some prominent Democratic Party committees continue to use it. And Mr Trump continued the practice in his post-presidency period.

Ms. Klobuchar’s legislation would require all political committees to be given “consent” to receive donations, and it specifically states that pre-checked boxes do not meet this requirement.

“If you have experience and look at this, you know that it is just pure fraud,” said Ms. Klobuchar of the pre-examination practice, “and it is not something that should be allowed in the future.”

Ms. Klobuchar said the FEC’s unanimous vote was “very helpful” in providing impetus for their legislation. This is a stand-alone bilateral bill, but it could be incorporated into other election-related laws. The Democrats are pushing for legislation that would result in a major overhaul of the elections, but the bill’s prospects remain bleak.

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Blinken to go to Center East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

Blinken to go to Middle East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference following meetings at the Danish Foreign Ministry, Eigtved’s Warehouse, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 17, 2021.

Saul Loeb | Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East this week on the heels of nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the White House said Monday.

“Following up on our quiet, intensive diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, I have asked my Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to travel to the Middle East this week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, emphasizing that part of the trip will involve Blinken meeting with Israeli leaders “about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”

Blinken will also focus on the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, which the Biden statement described as “our Administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders, after years of neglect.”

Israel’s security Cabinet voted Thursday to approve a tentative cease-fire after 11 days of fighting with Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the worst violence the area has seen since 2014. Negotiations leading to the cease-fire were led by Egypt, the only country with open communication lines with Israel and Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes and internecine fighting killed more than 220 Palestinians in Gaza over 11 days, including more than 100 women and children. During that time Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, killing 12 people, including two children.

Biden came under fire from human rights groups and progressive Democrats for perceived inaction as the conflict escalated and for his administration’s continued financial and military support for Israel. His administration has revived some support for Palestinians, restoring $235 million in U.S. aid — most of which will go to the UN’s refugee program for Palestinians — which was completely cut under the Trump administration.

The U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. In early May before the fighting began, the Biden administration approved selling $735 million in precision-guided munitions to Israel — a sale that several progressive Democrats are now trying to halt.

A Palestinian woman carries her child amid the rubble of their houses which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza May 23, 2021.

Mohammed Salem | Reuters

The violence in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and several places in Israel was triggered by protests surrounding the threat of evictions of some Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem by the Israeli government.

The demonstrations, largely peaceful but including rock throwing, brought on a harsh Israeli response, such as firing stun grenades into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex during prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. In response, Hamas fired rocket barrages from Gaza into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.

Israel then launched airstrikes that the military said was targeted at Hamas, but in the process bombed multiple civilian homes as well as a building housing foreign media outlets including The Associated Press.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 war, building Jewish settlements that the majority of the international community considers illegal under international law. Israel rejects this.

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Why Arkansas Is a Check Case for a Submit-Trump Republican Get together

Why Arkansas Is a Test Case for a Post-Trump Republican Party

When asked about Ms. Rutledge’s criticism, Ms. Sanders ignored her rival and trumpeted her own record-breaking early fundraising. “I don’t take anything for granted,” she said via text message.

Should Ms. Sanders emerge as the Republican standard-bearer, she could face a third-party opponent from far outside of pro-Trump orbit. Senator Jim Hendren, who left the GOP after the January 6 riot, and Davy Carter, a former State House spokesman, are both considering offers.

In separate interviews, they said that they would not compete with each other in the same race. “I am convinced that Trump and Trumpism is a slowly sinking ship even in Arkansas,” said Carter, spokesman who helped drive Medicaid’s expansion. He said that a successful challenge to Trumpism would only come if Liberals, moderates, and anti-Trump Republicans “organize on a track”.

When asked who he would ultimately have back in the governor’s race, Hutchinson said, “I expect to support the Republican candidate.”

But he admitted that he had spoken extensively with his nephew, Mr Hendren, and said that they share “the same frustrations” about the party, except that Mr Hutchinson is determined to fight out of the tent. He gave Mrs. Sanders barely disguised advice and said, “Leadership is about bringing people with you and not giving in to a lie.”

The governor and most observers are deeply skeptical that an independent could win nationwide. In fact, more than a year and a half before Mrs. Sanders took office, many insiders debated what kind of governor she would be.

Would she re-use Mr. Trump’s anti-media and complaint-oriented policies to stay in national headlines and perhaps promote her own presidential election, or would she reflect her father’s more pragmatic approach to the office? While now known for his own Fox News and social media profile, Mr. Huckabee ruled the political center and even aroused the ire of the far right, whom he described as “Shiite Conservatives.”

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Senators attain bipartisan settlement on $300 billion for highways, roads and bridges

Senators reach bipartisan agreement on $300 billion for highways, roads and bridges

Traffic flows through a construction area near the Bay Bridge in Annapolis, Maryland on May 21, 2021.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

A group of Republican and Democratic senators unveiled a transportation package over the weekend that would increase funding for highways, roads and bridges as Congress searches for bipartisan paths to repair the nation’s infrastructure.

The legislation, released by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would increase funding by 34% to a baseline of about $300 billion over five years. The previous authorization expired in 2020 and Congress passed a one-year extension which is up in September.

“Not only will this comprehensive, bipartisan legislation help us rebuild and repair America’s surface transportation system, but it will also help us build new transportation infrastructure,” the committee’s ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a press release Saturday.

The bipartisan proposal is backed by committee chair Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., as well as the chair and ranking members of the transportation subcommittee, Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Kevin Cramer, R-.N.D.

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House Republicans on Wednesday introduced their take on a reauthorization of the surface transportation funding program — a $400 billion bill directing funding to highways, bridges and transit systems.

The push on surface transportation comes as Washington struggles to strike a deal on a broader infrastructure package.

The White House on Friday trimmed its original $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to $1.7 trillion in a counteroffer to Republican senators, who outlined their own $568 billion infrastructure proposal in April.

However, Moore Capito’s office said the White House proposal is still “well above the range” of what Republicans in Congress would support.

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As Talks Bathroom Down, Hopes for Bipartisan Offers on Biden’s Priorities Dim

As Talks Bog Down, Hopes for Bipartisan Deals on Biden’s Priorities Dim

“We would like bipartisanship, but I don’t think we have a seriousness on the part of the Republican leadership to address the major crises facing this country,” Mr. Sanders said. “If they’re not coming forward, we’ve got to go forward alone.”

Negotiations have also stalled on policing reform, with three lawmakers still unable to reach an agreement on how or whether to alter the legal liability shield for individual police officers — known as qualified immunity — to make it easier to bring civil lawsuits against them for wrongdoing. Disagreement over whether to change that doctrine had doomed attempts to pass policing legislation last summer, amid a national outcry for reform.

Mr. Biden had hoped lawmakers would broker a deal before May 25, the anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer. But a breakthrough has remained elusive despite continued, closed-door negotiations between Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California, and Senators Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina.

“We want to eliminate qualified immunity, and that is where we’re starting,” Mr. Booker said in an interview broadcast on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Clearly, you’ve heard very publicly the red lines on the other side. And again, this is one of the big issues that we’re working very hard to see if we can bridge this wide gulf.”

Prospects to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol assault also dimmed last week, as Republican leaders dug in against the commission in an attempt to doom its prospects in the Senate even though one of their own House members negotiated its details with Democrats.

The Republican leaders of both chambers, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, have opposed the creation of such a panel. Mr. McConnell warned that Democrats had partisan motives in moving to set up the commission and would try to use it as a cudgel against Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.

Several rank-and-file Republican senators who had publicly mulled backing the commission quickly fell in line, adopting the argument that the proposal was not truly bipartisan and that the investigation would take too long, underscoring a difficult path for Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold required for passage of the bill in the evenly divided Senate.

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Melinda Gates divorce lawyer joins Connecticut lawmaker struggle with Morgan Stanley exec

Melinda Gates divorce lawyer joins Connecticut lawmaker fight with Morgan Stanley exec

Senator Alex Bergstein

Source: ALEX for the Senate | Youtube

An already controversial divorce case between a Connecticut senator and her top Morgan Stanley husband has gotten even hotter with the arrival of a senior new attorney – who is also representing Melinda Gates in her mega-billion dollar bankruptcy with the Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The new divorce attorney, Robert Cohen, also restored former President Donald Trump’s first two wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.

Cohen is now working on the newly expanded legal team of Senator Alex Kasser, D-Greenwich, who this week fired a legal shot that threatens to drag other Morgan Stanley employees and the firm itself into divorce cases.

Kasser’s attorneys asked a judge to allow them to question three Morgan Stanley employees under oath, indicating the investment bank’s recent improper efforts to obtain personal financial information from her, even if her estranged husband, Seth Bergstein, remains there as a senior Managing Director and is Head of Global Services.

“Plaintiff [Kasser] is in possession of evidence suggesting that the accused [Bergstein] abused his authority at Morgan Stanley … against these subordinates, “reads a new file drawn up by Cohen’s legal partner, John Farley.

“He also appears to have encouraged MS staff to use false and coercive communications to the plaintiff to induce her to disclose personal financial information to which he was not entitled and appear to have taken an undue advantage in ongoing controversial divorce proceedings in this court attain “said the filing says.

Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management and risk management staff at the end of April gave Kasser “false information” about FINRA regulations, court orders, and Connecticut law as part of that effort.

The investigation referred to a joint report at Morgan Stanley that Kasser has shared with Bergstein for two decades. Permanent employees claim it has been “marked in red” and excluded from Kasser’s tax refund check “until we can confirm the account holder’s total net worth.”

Kasser’s attorneys also suggest that Bergstein may have acted illegally in July 2016 by asking a Morgan Stanley notary to certify a document executed for him for one of his trusts without him or his brother actually signing that document.

“As a result, the accused appears to have committed a crime by giving a knowing instruction to a subordinate to commit an illegal act,” Farley wrote on the file.

This request to the notary is documented in an email attached to a new Stamford, Connecticut, Superior Court motion to begin divorce proceedings against Bergstein and Kasser in August.

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Other emails filed by Kasser’s attorneys in court point to the changing explanations Morgan Stanley employees have given her for inquiries about her assets and the lack of direct responses to questions Kasser asked them about them Has made inquiries.

In one of those emails from Howard Gofstein, Executive Director of Private Wealth, Kasser was told that the query of her net worth was based on FINRA’s anti-money laundering regulations and for the knowledge of your clients. The message added that “we need to update when we know, but at least every three years.[sic]””

Farley’s court record states, “There is also no regulatory requirement that a bank ‘update … at least every three years’.”

“The Court should also be aware that misapplication of securities laws can have serious regulatory consequences for financial institutions and their employees,” wrote Farley.

A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley and Bergstein’s attorney Janet Battey declined to speak to CNBC.

Kasser, who previously worked as a lawyer for the white shoe company Skadden Arps, also declined to comment.

A bitter breakup

The new allegations have reinforced what was a bitter case from the start, filed more than two years ago when Kasser split up with Bergstein, with whom she has three children.

After that, she began a romantic relationship with another woman – Nichola Samponaro – who also happened to be the campaign manager for her 2018 Senate race.

CNBC detailed in 2019 how court records showed Bergstein, before his wife left him, proposed in 2018 that Samponaro, as a member of Kasser’s legislative staff, be paid with money he was willing to provide. Bergstein suggested channeling the money through a private company, which at one point belonged to Kasser’s mother, or through a Shell company, records show.

Bergstein never paid the money, the files say.

Samponaro left Kasser’s employees in her Senate office shortly after the Senator took her seat when questions were asked about Samponaro’s salary, which was paid directly by Kasser.

Kasser has since changed her last name, which used to be Bergstein, and continued her relationship with Samponaro.

Kasser also made headlines for citing a bill in Connecticut legislation known as Jennifer’s Law to add the concept of “coercive control” to the legal definition of domestic violence.

Obsessional control is defined as a partner who does things like withholding money or engaging in threatening behavior to prevent the other partner from leaving the relationship.

Kasser’s bill was passed almost unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday.

Last autumn, Kasser completed the re-election for her seat with a lead of only 0.8%. Their borough includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan. Before she won for the first time in 2018, that seat hadn’t been occupied by a Democrat in nearly 90 years.

Great background

Meanwhile, Kasser’s divorce case has flown largely under the media’s radar for the past two years.

That could change, however, with the recent unreported arrival of New York marriage lawyers Cohen and Farley as new members of Kasser’s legal team. The group included veteran Connecticut divorce attorneys.

Cohen’s marriage clients included Trump’s first wife, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, KKR & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis, and supermodel Christie Brinkley. He is currently representing Melinda Gates, who jointly announced their split from Bill Gates earlier this month after 27 years of marriage. Bill Gates’ net worth is estimated at north of $ 134 billion.

Central Islip, NY: Christie Brinkley and Attorney Robert Cohen speak to the media following a divorce settlement settlement with Peter Cook during the press conference at the Courthouse in Central Islip, New York on July 10, 2008.

Alan Raia | Newsday LLC | Newsday | Getty Images

Cohen declined to comment on this article.

However, another well-known New York City divorce attorney suggested Kasser made a wise decision to hire Cohen.

“He’s a fantastic lawyer,” said Marilyn Chinitz, whose celebrity married clients included actors Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas. “He’s talented, he’s aggressive.”

Chinitz is currently involved in four marriage cases in which Cohen is representing the other party.

“A case with Bob can be challenging, but it’s good to have a case with someone who knows the law and he’s a good trial attorney,” said Chinitz.

“He’s creative in solving a case.”