Scandal

The New York Times reports: Lt. Gov. Brian A. Benjamin of New York, the state’s second-in-command to Gov. Kathy Hochul, surrendered early Tuesday morning to face a federal bribery conspiracy indictment in connection with a scheme to funnel fraudulent donations to a previous campaign, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The indictment, the result of an investigation by …

Deadline Hollywood reports: With their options rather limited, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors have just decided that Will Smith will not be able to attend the Oscars for 10 years for slapping Chris Rock on-stage at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27. Aside from not giving the Best Actress award at the 95th …

The Chattanooga Times-Free Press reports: The allegations, from women either employed by or connected to the ministry, included groping, unwanted kissing, showing women he was aroused while fully clothed and rubbing himself, as well as asking women in his ministry about their breasts. Stone said the allegations could not be made public. He told ministry leaders he would kill himself …

The Daily Beast reports: More than a year and a half after he ran down and killed a man, South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg may be done with facing any consequences. A special investigative committee of the South Dakota House of Representatives emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday to recommend against impeaching Ravnsborg. It would have been the first …

The Hill reports: Justice Clarence Thomas participated remotely in oral arguments on Monday, three days after the Supreme Court said he was released from the hospital following treatment for an infection and as he faces ongoing ethical scrutiny. An analysis by The Hill determined that, between November 2020 and February 2022, Thomas participated in at least 10 rulings related to …

The Nebraska Examiner reports: U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry announced his resignation on Saturday, stating that due to his conviction on three federal felonies, “I can no longer serve you effectively.” The resignation announcement comes two days after a jury in Los Angeles found the 61-year-old Republican guilty of two counts of lying to federal investigators probing illegal “conduit” campaign contributions …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Two-time former Maine gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler was arrested Friday afternoon on felony charges related to possession of child pornography. Hancock County District Attorney Matthew Foster said Cutler, 75, will be charged with four Class C counts of possessing sexually explicit material involving a child under age 12. He was taken to the Hancock County …

The Christian Post reports: Less than two weeks after Reed Bogard abruptly resigned as lead pastor of the now-defunct Hillsong Dallas church in January 2021, an internal investigation commissioned by Hillsong Global showed that the married father of three was accused of rape by a junior female staff member with whom he had a monthslong sexual affair while serving at …

Nashville’s CBS News affiliate reports: Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton has been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury as part of an ongoing FBI investigation into Capitol Hill corruption. Legislative sources said they believe that as many as 10-12 other House Republicans were also served Tuesday with grand jury subpoenas. This dramatic development follows the recent guilty plea …

The Insider reports: Brian Houston, the founder of the Australia-based Hillsong megachurch and also one of its pastors, has resigned following the church’s revelations that he behaved inappropriately with two women. “Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation,” said the church’s board. The first incident in 2013 involved …

The Christian Post reports: Bruxy Cavey, the primary teaching pastor of one of Canada’s largest megachurches, The Meeting House, has resigned after an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct commissioned by the church last December concluded that he abused his power. “The investigator determined that Bruxy had maintained a sexual relationship with the victim, an adult woman, in violation …

The Texas Tribune reports: U.S. Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has decided to end his reelection campaign after he was forced into a primary runoff amid 11th-hour allegations of infidelity. Taylor made the stunning announcement late Wednesday, hours after he finished his five-way primary with 49% of the vote, just missing the cutoff for winning the primary outright. The day before …

The Associated Press reports: A prominent Roman Catholic archbishop who faced strong criticism for his handling of the church’s sexual abuse scandal in Germany said Wednesday that he has offered his resignation to Pope Francis following a “spiritual timeout” granted by the pontiff. Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, marked his return to work with a lengthy letter …

The New York Daily News reports: He’s coming back to your TV. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been creeping back into the public spotlight recently, will feature in a new round of advertisements beginning on Monday, his spokesman said. The ad campaign appears to be focused on rehabilitating Cuomo’s tarnished image after a torrent of sexual harassment allegations drove …

Louisville’s ABC News affiliate reports: For the second time in the 147-year history of the Kentucky Derby, a winner was disqualified for a drug infraction. Bob Baffert’s Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first on May 1, 2021, but later tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid banned on race days in Kentucky, was disqualified after a second race day …

The Nebraska Examiner reports: State Sen. Mike Groene announced that he was resigning Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours after denying accusations that he took sexually inappropriate photographs of a female legislative aide. The development came quickly after an Omaha-based website reported, and legislative leaders confirmed, that a legislative aide of the senator had filed a complaint that Groene …

The Guardian reports: Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into cash-for-honours allegations linked to the Prince of Wales’s charity the Prince’s Foundation. In a brief statement, the Metropolitan police said it had launched the investigation after media reports alleging offers of help were made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national. In September last year, the Sunday Times …

The Washington Post reports: A real estate broker was leaving the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant in Fort Myers, Fla., when a sheriff’s deputy pulled him over for an alleged traffic violation. The Dec. 16 stop escalated when Deputy Niko Irizarry, with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, said he suspected there were illegal substances in the car. With the …

The New York Times reports: Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew’s friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday. The amount that …

The New York Daily News reports: Disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawyers who represented Nike when he tried to extort $25 million from the sportswear giant, a judge ruled Monday. Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Gardephe ordered Avenatti to pay $259,800 to Nike in restitution ― about a third of the $856,162 …