[Breitbart] The COVID-19 pandemic has come back to haunt Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke as a grand jury has indicted the Democrat on bribery charges for allegedly securing funding for virus testing sites in exchange for campaign contributions.
The alleged pay-to-play scheme took place when Luke was a state lawmaker. Someone wore a wire. This will not end well.
Friday’s indictment follows state and federal investigations into the campaign finance scandal that also resulted in the indictment of a lobbyist and four other officials.
Prosecutors accused Luke of accepting campaign finance contributions in 2022 while she was a state lawmaker in exchange for securing funding for COVID-19 testing sites.
The Hawaii grand jury returned a 12-count indictment that includes charging Luke with "criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports among other charges," the Hill reported per the state’s Department of the Attorney General.
It’s alleged Luke accepted at least $35,000 in campaign contributions from lobbyist and businessman Tobi Solidum in exchange for supporting testing sites operated by the National Kidney Foundation.
Solidum, who was also indicted by the grand jury, was a lobbyist and consultant for the foundation.
According to court filings, Solidum forked two $5,000 campaign checks to Luke during a meeting at a Morton’s Steakhouse in January 2022 as they allegedly talked about state funding for COVID-19 testing sites.
Democratic Attorney General Anne Lopez said the indictments followed an investigation launched in January that followed a federal public corruption probe, according to news reports.
"From the outset of this investigation, I have repeated that we have a commitment to following the facts to where they lead, no matter how long it takes to get there," Lopez told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) suggested Luke should resign.
"The Attorney General announced significant developments in her department’s corruption investigation and has provided an update on their findings," he said in a statement to Politico on Saturday. "The Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward."
Five other people were indicted on Friday. They are Solidum, former state Rep. Ryan Yamane (D), Hawaii Department of Transportation official Ford Fuchigami and former state Public Utilities Commission official Leo Asunción.
Voters elected Luke to serve as Green’s deputy in 2022. She took office in April when the campaign finance investigation first made headlines. She also ended her campaign for reelection at that time.
Governor Josh Green appointed Keith Regan, comptroller of the Department of Accounting and General Services, to serve as acting lieutenant governor in Luke’s absence.
The lieutenant governor has yet to comment on the charges.
[IsraelTimes] Trump in March ordered DHS to compile list of eligible voters in each state, USPS to only send ballots to approved addresses; judge says president lacks authority in matter
A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to allow US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s administration to implement in 23 states his executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.
The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s request to lift an injunction several Democratic-led states secured on June 25 from a lower-court judge who concluded that key parts of the Republican president’s order were unconstitutional.
In asking the court to pause US District Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling while it pursues an appeal, the US Department of Justice had argued that because government agencies had yet to finalize actions and policies to implement Trump’s directive, any lawsuit challenging his order was premature.
The appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, rejected that argument.
"As the district court reasoned, the (executive order) lays out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures — all while the states must also ensure that their officials and the public understand the evolving set of rules that would govern the upcoming September and November elections," the judges wrote. "The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the (order) now."
Before Talwani ruled, a federal judge in Washington, DC, rejected a related effort by Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... to block Trump’s order on similar grounds. The Justice Department warned that absent a ruling in its favor from the 1st Circuit, it may be forced to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene.
TRUMP’S MARCH EXECUTIVE ORDER
Trump signed the executive order in March after years of calling for tighter rules on voting by mail and pushing the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud. Under the US Constitution, states are assigned the role of administering federal elections.
That order came on top of other efforts by Trump to overhaul elections. He has made winning approval in Congress of a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... package of voting restrictions called the SAVE America Act a priority. Judges have blocked an earlier executive order he signed requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and restricting the counting of mail ballots.
The March order directed the US Department of Homeland Security to compile and transmit to the states a list of confirmed US citizens eligible to vote in each state, derived from citizenship and naturalization records and other federal databases.
Trump’s order also required the US Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. USPS recently moved to implement Trump’s directive by issuing new proposed rules requiring states to provide the names and barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots.
It also directed the US Department of Justice to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of state and local election officials who issue federal ballots to people deemed "not eligible" to vote.
But Talwani, in siding with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia that was led by Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington state, said the president lacked any authority to direct DHS to compile voter eligibility lists for each state to use and that USPS had no statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.
The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama teachable moment... , said Trump also could not attempt through his order "to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution."
#1
Investigate the judge's finances with a fine tooth comb. I bet there are irregular payments coming in. Then arrest them and put them in the worst fed pen you can. They won't last long.
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[Breitbart] The COVID-19 pandemic has come back to haunt Hawaii Lt. Gov. 
...every time you hear the phrase 
