Shady accounting tactics used by the former campaign treasurer for scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos (R-NY) are now raising questions about work she did for other clients, such as former New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.
A new report from CNN highlights that both Zeldin and Santos shared a striking set of unusual expenses in their campaign finance reports: 21 payments on a single day that each total exactly $199.99, which CNN notes is "just one penny below the dollar figure above which campaigns are required to keep receipts."
Both Santos and Zeldin employed Nancy Marks as their treasurer, although Marks ditched Santos earlier this year after he came under a cloud of other scandals that revolved around fabricating his entire life story and allegedly ripping off a disabled veteran by stealing money he'd raised to care for his dying service dog.
Paul Krieger, a former federal prosecutor, predicted to CNN that Marks would come under prosecutors' scrutiny as they probed Santos' campaign finances for potential criminal violations.
READ MORE: Trump now faces these four major criminal probes: Mueller prosecutor
“Given her apparent history and relationship with Mr. Santos, I have to assume that any investigation of him will focus intensely on her role and her knowledge of how the fundraising was organized, accomplished and carried out especially in light of the fact that she’s now resigned,” he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the subject of an interview by correspondent Lesley Stahl Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes”– and the show’s decision to give the Q-Anon-friendly agitator has provoked a firestorm of protest.
The network first promoted Greene’s interview late Saturday morning with a Tweet simply announcing it.
Then it stirred the pot with this Tweet stating: “Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are.
“She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes.”
That was all it took to provoke an avalanche of angry responses from a wide range of critics.
Here’s a smattering of the pushback that greeted the network:
Former West Wing Actor Bradley Whitford: “Reminds me of a guy we defeated in the 1940s who wasn’t afraid to share his opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they were. Too bad you couldn’t interview him, you could have asked about his vegetarianism and his love of dogs.”
Elie Mystal, correspondent for The Nation: “The way you guys say her ‘nickname’ is MTG... as if it’s a cute moniker bestowed by her besties… when her initials are just MTG and her ‘nicknames’ are ‘Marjorie Three Names’ and ‘Unfrozen Caveman Congresswoman’ just shows that you’re here to launder her rep and complicit.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “Wow. Insane that 60 min would do this.”
Atlantic contribute Jemele Hill: “There’s nothing wrong with interviewing and profiling controversial, even despicable people, but this framing is s---. There’s also a fine line between engaging provocative people and platforming stupid. This is platforming stupid.”
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan: “So brazen anti-Muslim, antisemitic, anti-trans bigotry, and insane conspiracies about Hillary Clinton torturing kids and murdering her opponents, are reduced by a storied American news brand merely to ‘intense and in-your-face’. This is equal parts embarrassing and reckless.”
Just to stir the pot more, Greene, who has promised to travel to New York City to protest on Trump’s behalf, praised Stahl with this Tweet, misspelling the interviewer’s first name:
“It was an honor to spend a few days with the legendary icon Leslie [sic] Stahl and talented crew [of 60 Minutes]. Leslie is a trailblazer for women in journalism. And while we may disagree on some issues, I respect her greatly.”
Rev. Al Sharpton celebrated the fact that Donald Trump will stand Tuesday in the same courtroom as the Central Park Five – the since exonerated men that Trump demanded be given the death penalty 34 years ago.
In a fiery address Saturday, Sharpton linked Trump’s impending indictment and the 1989 arrests of the Black youths who were wrongly convicted of rape.
“I know that Donald Trump, who said Barack Obama wasn’t born here. I know that Donald Trump, that took out ads calling for the death penalty of five black and brown boys from this community,” Sharpton said, according to the New York Daily News.
“I know on Tuesday morning he’s got to walk into that same building those five boys did.”
The Central Park Five received a $41 million settlement from the city in 2014, several years after they were imprisoned.
Trump paid for adverts to run in city newspapers during their trial demanding that they face the death penalty.
Yusef Salaam, one of the youths, on Friday gave his reaction to the indictment of Trump over allegations that he illegally paid a porn star hush money to hide an extramarital affair the ex-president had with her.
“Karma,” he said.
A large coalition of Catholic nuns has issued a public letter supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive individuals – and “implicitly rebuking recent statements from the U.S. Catholic hierarchy,” the Religious News Service reported Saturday.
The letter was issued by a wide range of Catholic communities representing more than 6,000 religious orders across 18 states, RNS reported.
As members of the body of Christ, we cannot be whole without the full inclusion of transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive individuals,” the letter reads.
It goes on to argue that “we will remain oppressors until we — as vowed Catholic religious — acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people in our own congregations. We seek to cultivate a faith community where all, especially our transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive siblings, experience a deep belonging.”
The letter had been in the works since a wave of bills targeting trans people swept across state legislatures, one of its authors –Sister Barbara Battista, congregation justice promoter for the Sisters of Providence, St. Mary-of-the-Woods – told RNS.
But she added that release of the letter was “jump-started” by an anti-trans statement by Catholic Church leaders.
“The nuns’ effort comes in the wake of a doctrinal statement published earlier this month by a committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which discouraged Catholic health care groups from performing various gender-affirming medical procedures, arguing doing so does not respect the “intrinsic unity of body and soul,” RNS reported.
The nuns were explicit about their disagreement with legislators and church leadership.“Battista noted that many of the bills working their way through state legislatures revolve around the health care needs of trans people, an issue that hits home for her as a licensed physician’s assistant in Indiana.
"She described her work as “participating in the healing ministry of Jesus,” rooted, she said, in a “sacred trust” between patients and providers.“ But Catholic leaders and government officials, she argued, have tried to “insert themselves into the private, very personal and intimate conversations and decisions made between the health care provider
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