Tag: Stone

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Politics

Capitol Law enforcement officials sue Trump, Roger Stone, Proud Boys over Jan. 6 invasion

Capitol Police officers sue Trump, Roger Stone, Proud Boys over Jan. 6 invasion

Clashes with Capitol police at a rally to challenge the certification of the results of the 2020 US presidential election by the US Congress on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, tear gas is released into a crowd of protesters.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Seven US Capitol police officers filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday accusing former President Donald Trump, far-right “violent extremist groups” and others of direct responsibility for the deadly January 6 invasion of the Capitol.

The lawsuit was filed against more than two dozen people and organizations, including Republican agent Roger Stone and far-right group Proud Boys. It claims the defendants conspired to prevent Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory “through the use of force, intimidation and threats”.

Their actions violated the Ku Klux Klan Act and other laws, the lawsuit said.

“The defendants’ unlawful efforts culminated in the mass attack on the Capitol on Jan.

“Many of the defendants in this case planned, supported and actively participated in this attack. All of the defendants are responsible, ”the lawsuit said.

This is the latest news. Please check again for updates.

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Health

Ganga Stone, Who Gave Sustenance to AIDS Sufferers, Dies at 79

Ganga Stone, Who Gave Sustenance to AIDS Patients, Dies at 79

Ganga Stone, who survived on odd jobs in Manhattan until she discovered that her life’s mission was to bring free homemade meals to bedridden AIDS patients on her bicycle, then expanded her volunteer corps of cooks and couriers into an enduring organization called God’s Love We Deliver, died on Wednesday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She was 79.

Her death, at a health care facility, was confirmed by her daughter, Hedley Stone. She said a cause had not been determined.

In 1985, Ms. Stone was selling coffee from a cart on Wall Street and feeling unfulfilled. She came to the conclusion, she later told The New York Times, that “if my life were not useful to God in some direct way, I didn’t see the point in living it.”

But while volunteering at the Cabrini Hospice on the Lower East Side, she had an epiphany. She was asked to deliver a bag of groceries to Richard Sale, a 32-year-old actor who was dying of AIDS. When she realized that he was too weak to cook, she rounded up friends, who agreed to bring him hot meals.

“I had never seen anyone look that bad,” she recalled. “He was starving, and he was terrified.”

Legend has it that when she returned to the neighborhood with food tailored to Mr. Sale’s nutritional needs, she ran into a minister, who recognized her. When she told him what she was doing, he replied: “You’re not just delivering food. You’re delivering God’s love.” (In another version of the origin story, Ms. Stone said she was brushing her teeth when she envisioned “We Deliver” signs on restaurant storefronts.)

“It’s the perfect thing — it’s so nonsectarian it’s impossible to misunderstand,” she told The New Yorker in 1991.

The fledgling organization — made up of Ms. Stone and a few friends, including her roommate, Jane Ellen Best, with whom she founded the organization — began by delivering meals, home-cooked or donated by restaurants, to mostly gay men who were too incapacitated by a then-mysterious disease to shop or cook. They left their orders on her answering machine.

Not everyone wanted a gourmet meal.

“One guy wanted a can of Cheez Whiz and saltines,” Ms. Stone said.

In the first year alone, 400 of their clients died.

As the epidemic spread, the group attracted publicity and support from religious groups, government agencies and celebrities. (Blaine Trump, the former wife of former President Donald J. Trump’s brother Robert, is the vice-chairwoman.)

This year, God’s Love We Deliver, with a budget of $23 million, hopes to distribute 2.5 million meals to 10,000 people in the New York metropolitan area who are homebound with various diseases.

Ingrid Hedley Stone was born on Oct. 30, 1941, in Manhattan and raised in Long Island City, Queens, and the Bronx. Her father, M. Hedley Stone, a Jewish immigrant from Warsaw who was born Moishe Stein, was a Marxist who was an organizer for the National Maritime Union and later its treasurer.

Her mother, Winifred (Carlson) Stone, a daughter of Norwegian immigrants, was a librarian (she established the library for the National Council on Aging), who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease when Ms. Stone was in her mid 20s.

A graduate of the Fieldston School in the Bronx, Ms. Stone studied comparative literature at Carleton College in Minnesota and attended Columbia University’s School of General Studies, but never graduated.

Her eclectic résumé of jobs included driving a cab and working as a morgue technician. She was hired as a waitress at the Manhattan nightclub Max’s Kansas City, where she met Gerard Hill, an Australian busboy. They married in 1970, but she left the marriage after 13 months, and the couple divorced in 1973.

In addition to her daughter, her survivors include a son from that marriage, Clement Hill, and a sister, Dr. Elsa Stone.

A self-described radical feminist, Ms. Stone was steered by her yoga instructor to the spiritual teachings of Swami Muktananda. In the mid-1970s, after sending her 6-year-old son to live with his father, she embarked on a two-year retreat to the swami’s ashram in Ganeshpuri, India. She cleaned laundry, washed floors and went nine months without speaking. The swami named her Ganga, for the Ganges River.

When she returned to New York, Ms. Stone resumed her composite career until the mid-1980s, when she was inspired to start God’s Love.

She retired as the organization’s executive director in 1995 and was succeeded by Kathy Spahn. The next year, Ms. Stone, who taught courses about dying, published “Start the Conversation: The Book About Death You Were Hoping to Find.” She lived in Saratoga Springs.

“I’ve always been attracted to working with dying people, since it seems to me that there’s no more important moment in a human life than that one,” Ms. Stone told The New Yorker. “Everything else can go badly, but if that moment goes well, it seems to make a difference, and I wanted to make a difference in those moments for people.”

She added, “My sense of my own role in life was to share with people what I know about the deathless nature of the human self, but you can’t comfort people who haven’t eaten.”

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Business

Barbara Stone, Modeling Agent to American Beauties, Dies at 87

Barbara Stone, Modeling Agent to American Beauties, Dies at 87

In 1968, Cybill Shepherd, then only 18, won the pageant.

Cheryl Tiegs, the California girl who later became a household name for Cover Girl’s makeup, was in college when she met Ms. Stone. Ford courted her too, but she picked Stewart Models because Ms. Stone reassured her:

“I was painfully shy and she was warm and took me under her wing. There were certain photographers that she said about, “No, I don’t want you to go there.” She would speak to my parents. That was helpful for the mothers, because back then we seldom picked up the phone and called home.

“Barbara let me be who I was,” continued Ms. Tiegs, “which I found uncomfortable and shy. Much later, when I went to Ford because Barbara was turning away from her business, I sent her a letter to let her know. I knew if I saw her in person she would talk me out of it, and I wasn’t strong enough to beat Barbara Stone. “

Barbara Sue Thorbahn was born in Philadelphia on November 20, 1933. Her father Stewart was a newspaper reporter and editor; Her mother Alice (McGinley) Thorbahn was a housewife.

Barbara grew up in Swarthmore and graduated from Swarthmore High School, where she was most likely voted for success, before attending Gettysburg College. An early marriage to George Frederic Pelham III ended in divorce. In 1964 she married Richard Stone, who was then an illustrator and later a commercial director and painter. He survived her along with her daughter and a son, Lucas.

Ms. Stone left the modeling business in the mid-1970s. She ran a production company for a while, doing short beauty spots for television. She also worked for Maybelline and was a brief real estate agent. From 1996 to 2003 she published a literary magazine, Hampton Shorts, which included short stories by writers such as Bruce Jay Friedman, Judith Rossner, Joseph Heller, and Spalding Gray.

In her modeling days – when she was “the vice president” of her agency, as a male reporter for The Daily News once described her – she and her husband lived in El Dorado in Central Park West and without exception one or more of them would be their models stay, an in-loco Parentis arrangement that was beginning to affect Ms. Stone’s real family.

Categories
Politics

DOJ sues Trump ally Roger Stone, spouse over alleged unpaid taxes

DOJ sues Trump ally Roger Stone, wife over alleged unpaid taxes

Roger Stone, longtime political ally of US President Donald Trump, is leaving after a status hearing in the criminal proceedings initiated against him by special adviser Robert Mueller on March 14, 2019 at the US District Court in Washington.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

The Justice Department on Friday sued Roger Stone, the loyal former advisor to ex-President Donald Trump, claiming he and his wife owe nearly $ 2 million in unpaid federal taxes and other fees.

The lawsuit accuses Stone and Nydia Stone of using an “alter ego” business to “protect their personal income from forced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle.”

The civil lawsuit also accuses the Stones of “trying to defraud the United States” by fraudulently transferring money used to buy their home.

Stone, 68, a longtime Republican politician, was pardoned by Trump in December after being convicted of lying by Congress.

The DOJ’s complaint filed in federal court in South Florida alleges Stone and his wife underpaid their income taxes for five consecutive years in 2007 and 2011. The Stones owe $ 1,590,361.89, including interest and penalties for late payments, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit also alleges Stone failed to pay his full tax bill in 2018 when he filed separately from his spouse. He owes income taxes, interest and penalties of $ 407,036.84 for that year, the complaint said.

“Despite the termination and demand for payment, Roger and Nydia Stone failed and refused to pay the full amount of the debt they owed,” claims the DOJ.

Stone did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment on the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that by using a Delaware limited liability company called Drake Ventures, the Stones “escaped and thwarted the collection efforts of the IRS.” The company is so dominated and controlled “by the family” that it does not exist as an independent entity, “claims the DOJ.

Drake Ventures has no website or phone number, all members are part of Stone’s family, and its address is the same as the Stone’s home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the complaint states.

“The Stones used Drake Ventures’ bank accounts to pay a significant portion of their personal expenses, including groceries, dental bills, spas, salons, clothing and restaurant expenses,” the complaint said.

They paid more than $ 500,000 of their personal tax liabilities through Drake Ventures’ bank accounts in 2018 and 2019 and used the company to pay Stone employees and relatives without providing proper documentation, the DOJ claims.

“The Stones used Drake Ventures for an improper purpose and harmed the United States,” the complaint read. “They used Drake Ventures to receive payments to be made to Roger Stone personally, pay their personal expenses, shield their assets and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS.”

Categories
Entertainment

Pregnant Emma Stone and Dave McCary Noticed on LA Outing

Pregnant Emma Stone and Dave McCary Spotted on LA Outing

Emma Stone and Dave McCary have a lot to celebrate these days. The parents-to-be are newly married, expecting their first child together and preparing for the highly anticipated release of Emma’s film Cruella in May. Though they usually keep their relationship low-key, Emma and Dave recently went on a rare shame outing in LA on February 27th. We love it when they look happy together!

Emma and Dave first dated in 2017, and after a two-year relationship, Dave asked the question in 2019. They took their love story out of the spotlight for most of their relationship, including when they quietly married last year. In January, they announced Emma’s pregnancy. We don’t know when the actress is due, but we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new family member. Check out photos from Emma and Dave’s day in LA.

Categories
Politics

Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner

Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued 26 pardons on Wednesday night, including one to his son-in-law’s father, Jared Kushner, as well as to campaign manager Paul Manafort and Republican politician Roger Stone.

Trump’s recent pardon requests came a day after the president issued an initial wave of 15 pardons, a week after the electoral college confirmed he had lost the presidential election to Joe Biden.

“This is rotten to the core,” said Senator Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, of the pardons announced Wednesday after Trump left the White House for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida would have.

In his six-word statement, Sasse’s office said Trump had “exercised his constitutional power to grant pardons to another tranche of offenders such as Manafort and Stone who have openly and repeatedly violated the law and harmed Americans.”

The 70-year-old Manafort was among the first in Trump’s inner circle to bring charges brought by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Trump campaign.

Manafort, convicted of counseling crimes in Ukraine, thanked Trump on Twitter for the pardon that came months after his early release from more than seven years’ imprisonment over concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

“Words cannot fully convey how grateful we are,” wrote the longtime Republican.

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, a close ally of Trump, said in March 2019 that “the Manafort pardon would be seen as a political disaster for the president.”

“It may come a day later after the policy changes that you might want to consider a motion from him like everyone else, but now it would be a disaster,” Graham said at the time.

Manhattan prosecutors are still trying to prosecute Manafort for New York State crimes of mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and forgery of business records.

A judge last December prevented DA Cyrus Vance Jr. from bringing this case to court because it would violate the double risk rules, which protect people from being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.

Vance is appealing this decision.

Speaking of Trump’s pardon on Wednesday night, his spokesman Danny Frost said: “This action underscores the urgent need to hold Mr Manafort accountable for his alleged crimes against the New York people in our indictment, and we will pursue our appeals.”

Stone was convicted in November 2019 for lying under oath to Congress that he was pre-informed about the WikiLeaks disclosure of emails posted by Russians during the 2016 campaign by then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and the Democratic National Committee had been hacked.

Earlier this year, Trump commuted his longtime friend Stone’s three-year and four-month sentences, less than a week before the Republican agent was due to begin his prison sentence.

In July, the White House named Stone “a victim of the Russian joke” and someone who “would be at medical risk” if he were detained.

Roger Stone, former campaign advisor to US President Donald Trump, arrives at federal court on February 20, 2020 in Washington, USA, where he is to be sentenced.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Real estate mogul Charles Kushner, whose son Jared Kushner is a senior White House adviser, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to 18 cases of tax evasion, witness manipulation and illegal campaign donations.

Among other things, Kushner had hired a prostitute to lure his own brother-in-law William Schulder into a sexual tryst that was secretly videotaped and then sent to the husband’s wife, Charles Kushner’s sister. The stunt was supposed to prevent Schulder from witnessing an investigation into Kushner for illegal campaign contributions.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a key ally of Trump’s persecution of Charles Kushner, said in an interview last year that Kushner committed “one of the most heinous, disgusting crimes I’ve prosecuted as a US attorney.”

Christie and Jared Kushner, who are married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, had a cool relationship at best because of Christie’s law enforcement.

Christie was abruptly sacked as manager of Trump’s transition efforts after Trump won the 2016 election, a move widely viewed by Jared Kushner as lagging behind.

Charles Kushner and Jared Kushner attend an event at Lord & Taylor in New York City on March 28, 2012.

Patrick McMullan | Patrick McMullan | Getty Images

Announcing Kushner’s pardon, the White House said, “Since his conviction in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been serving important philanthropic organizations and causes such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy.”

“These record of reform and charity overshadow Mr. Kushner’s conviction and two-year prison sentence for filing false tax returns, retaliating with witnesses and giving false testimony to the FEC,” the White House said.

Trump also pardoned Margaret Hunter, the estranged wife of former MP Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., Who pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds for personal expenses.

Duncan Hunter, convicted of the same crimes in the same case, had been pardoned by Trump the night before in a first wave of pardons from the president, who refuses to admit that he lost the presidential election to Biden.

Trump also commuted all or part of the criminal convictions of three people.

Two of them were Mark Shapiro and Irving Stitsky, who were each sentenced to 85 years in prison for their key roles in a real estate-related Ponzi program that defrauded more than 250 people of $ 23 million. The judge in Stitsky’s case called him a “die-hard cheater”.

A statement from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announcing the conversion of the remaining prison term for Shapiro and Stitsky stated that their sentences were more than ten times the imprisonment years offered to Shapiro in a plea he rejected , and nearly ten times the prison sentence, pleading for Stitsky.

McEnany’s testimony downplayed the gravity of their crimes, saying, “Messrs. Shapiro and Stitsky started a real estate investment company but hid their previous criminal convictions and installed a straw CEO. The company lost millions to its investors due to the 2008 financial crisis.”

Trump on Tuesday apologized to 15 people, including two men convicted as part of Special Envoy Robert Mueller’s investigation, 2016 campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, and Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, as well as four former Blackwater USA guards who The US convicted the killing of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

Others who received pardons that evening included former GOP MP Chris Collins from Buffalo, New York, who illegally alerted his son to a failed drug trial in a pharmaceutical company and made the son and others share shares in the company prior to that information throwing became public.

Another pardon on Tuesday was Philip Esformes, owner of a health facility in South Florida, who was in the first few years of a 20-year prison sentence for prosecutors saying it was “the biggest healthcare fraud ever charged by the Justice Department.” “”

Prior to Tuesday, Trump had issued just 28 pardons – 13 less than his Tuesday and Wednesday total – making him the stingiest U.S. president of modern times in terms of executive mercy.

However, after losing the national referendum to Biden, Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, the retired Army Lieutenant General who served as his first national security adviser. Flynn pleaded guilty three years ago to lying to FBI agents about the nature of his talks with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, weeks before Trump was told in January 2017.

Flynn had been trying to reverse his admission of guilt since last year, and this year he received support for those efforts from the Justice Department, which in an extremely rare move called a federal judge to dismiss the case despite Flynn’s admission of his crime.

Trump’s other previous pardons included financial fraudster Michael Milken; Press Baron Conrad Black; former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapaio, convicted of contempt of court; Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former advisor to ex-Vice President Dick Cheney on obstruction of justice; Conservative Gadfly Dinesh D’Souza for Campaign Submission Fraud; and Ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik for Tax and Other Crimes.

Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Wrote in a tweet Wednesday night: “Once a party allows pardon power to become a tool of criminal enterprise, its threat to democracy outweighs its usefulness as an instrument of justice.”

“It is time to remove the pardon power from the constitution,” added Murphy.

– Dan Mangan reported from New York.