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Former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez charged with bribery

Former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez charged with bribery

San Juan Puerto Rico — Form Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was arrested Thursday on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 campaign, the latest hit to an island with a long history of corruption that brought fresh political upheaval to the US territory.

Vázquez is accused of engaging in a bribery scheme from December 2019 through June 2020 — while she was governor — with several people, including a Venezuelan-Italian bank owner, a former FBI agent, a bank president and a political consultant.

“I am innocent. I have not committed any crime,” she told reporters. “I assure you that they have committed a great injustice against me.”

The arrest embarrassed and angered many in Puerto Rico who believe the island’s already shaky image has been further tarnished, leaving a growing number of people who have lost faith in their local officials to wonder whether federal authorities are their only hope to root out entrenched government corruption . Concern over previous corruption cases led to a delay in federal aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria as the US government implemented more safeguards.

Thursday’s arrest also was a blow to Vázquez’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which is pushing to hold a referendum next year in a bid to become the 51st US state.

Vázquez was the second woman to serve as Puerto Rico’s governor and the first former governor to face federal charges. Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the opposing Popular Democratic Party was charged with campaign finance violations while in office and was found not guilty in 2009. He had been the first Puerto Rico governor to be charged with a crime in recent history.

“For the second time in our history, political power and public office are used to finance an electoral campaign,” said José Luis Dalmau, president of Acevedo’s party. “Using the power of the government to advance political agendas is unacceptable and an affront to democracy in Puerto Rico.”

Vázquez’s consultant, identified as John Blakeman, and the bank president, identified as Frances Díaz, have pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme, according to the US Department of Justice.

In early 2019, the international bank owned by Julio Martín Herrera Velutini was being scrutinized by Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions because of transactions authorities believed were suspicious and had not been reported by the bank.

Authorities said Herrera and Mark Rossini, the former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, allegedly promised to financially support Vázquez’s 2020 campaign for governor in exchange for Vázquez dismissing the commissioner and appointing a new one of Herrera’s choosing.

Authorities said Vázquez accepted the bribery offer and in February 2020 demanded the commissioner’s resignation. She then was accused of appointing a former consultant for Herrera’s bank as the new commissioner in May 2020. After the move, officials said Herrera and Rossini paid more than $300,000 to political consultants to support Vázquez’s campaign.

A flurry of messages exchanged during that time between people involved in the case included a heart emoji attached to the commissioner’s resignation letter and three sealed lips emojis when someone provided Rossi’s name to Vázquez, who requested the name of “the guy from the FBI.” In addition, Herrera texted Rossini about the need for a campaign manager and said he didn’t want “a monkey from Puerto Rico.”

After Vázquez lost the primary to current Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, authorities said Herrera then allegedly sought to bribe Pierluisi to end an audit into his bank with favorable terms. Herrera is accused of using intermediaries from April 2021 to August 2021 to offer a bribe to Pierluisi’s representative, who was actually acting under FBI orders, according to the indictment.

Officials said Herrera then ordered a $25,000 payment to a political action committee in hopes of trying to bribe Pierluisi.

Stephen Muldrow, US Attorney for Puerto Rico, said Pierluisi is not involved in the case.

Vázquez, Herrera and Rossini are each charged with conspiracy, federal bribery programs and honest services wire fraud. If they are found guilty on all counts, they could face up to 20 years in prison, officials said.

Meanwhile, Díaz and Blakeman could face up to five years in prison, officials said.

Muldrow said officials believe Herrera is in the United Kingdom and Rossini in Spain. It wasn’t clear if the US would seek to extradite them.

Juan Rosado-Reynés, a spokesman for Vázquez, told the AP he did not have an immediate comment.

Attorneys for the other suspects charged in the case could not be immediately reached for comment.

In mid-May, Vázquez’s attorney told reporters that he and his client were preparing for possible charges as the former governor at the time denied any wrongdoing: “I can tell the people of Puerto Rico that I have not committed any crime, that I have not engaged in any illegal or incorrect conduct, as I have always said.”

Vázquez was sworn in as governor in August 2019 after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló stepped down following massive protests. She served until 2021, after losing the primaries of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party to Pierluisi.

In a statement Thursday, Pierluisi said his administration will work with federal authorities to help fight corruption.

“No one is above the law in Puerto Rico,” he said. “Faced with this news that certainly affects and lacerates the confidence of our people, I reiterate that in my administration, we will continue to have a common front with federal authorities against anyone who commits an improper act, no matter where it comes from or who it may implicate.”

Vázquez previously served as the island’s justice secretary and a district attorney for more than 30 years.

She became governor after Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court ruled that the swearing in of Pierluisi — who was secretary of state in 2019 — as governor was unconstitutional. Vázquez at the time said she was not interested in running for office and would only finish the nearly two years left in Rosselló’s term.

Rosselló had resigned after tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the street, angry over corruption, mismanagement of public funds and an obscenity-laced chat in which he and 11 other men including public officials made fun of women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria, among others.

Shortly after she was sworn in, Vázquez told the AP that her priorities were to fight corruption, secure federal hurricane recovery funds and help lift Puerto Rico out of a deep economic crisis as the government struggled to emerge from bankruptcy.

During the interview, she told the AP that she had long wanted to be in public service: as a girl, she would stand on her balcony and hold imaginary trials, always finding the supposed defendants guilty.

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You DA Chesa Boudin says he won’t run for re-election

You DA Chesa Boudin says he won't run for re-election

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin — the progressive prosecutor who was ousted by voters in June — said Thursday he won’t be running in the special election this year.

Boudin explained his choice not to seek re-election in a Twitter threadsaying he is putting his “family first.”

“Over the past weeks, I’ve spoken to family, friends and every day San Franciscans about how we can best continue to make our criminal justice system fairer and more effective. I have devoted my public life to this effort because it makes our communities stronger & safer,” he wrote.

“I’ve also taken stock of the burden of more than three years of nearly non-stop campaigning placed on my family,” Boudin said, adding, “I’m committed to criminal justice reform; I’m also committed to my family.”

Fed-up San Francisco voters recalled the progressive DA during a June 7 election over what many said were Boudin’s soft-on-crime policies that contributed to the city’s surge in crime, open-air drug dealing and robberies.

Mayor London Breed appointed Brooke Jenkins as the new DA in July.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Jenkins announced a new office policy that would revoke open drug plea cases and promise to hold dealers accountable.

Chesa Boudin waves at cars as he canvasses in San Francisco prior to his ouster in June.
AP
Boudin looks distracted during election night on June 7.
Boudin looks distracted during election night on June 7.
Getty Images

“We cannot stand by while these neighborhoods continue to suffer with violence and drug dealing happening openly on their streets, and we also cannot continue to stand by while people continue to die on our streets,” Jenkins said. “We have to make changes now to save lives.”

Boudin told the San Francisco Chronicle last month that he was still considering running for the top prosecutor position.

On Thursday, however, Boudin said focusing on his family will come first, including taking care of his elderly father, who “just came home from prison after more than 40 years.”

As DA, Boudin came under fire for his soft-on-crime policies in the face of rising crime in the city.
As DA, Boudin came under fire for his soft-on-crime policies in the face of rising crime in the city.
Getty Images

His father, David, who received parole last year, was part of the left-wing group Weather Underground. David Boudin and his wife, Kathy, served prison time for a botched 1981 robbery in New York that left two police officers and a Brinks truck guard dead.

Boudin’s mother died of cancer in May.

The embattled DA stood by his policies, including his resentencing work that “offered second chances to those who had caused harm and supported victims,” according to his tweet.

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Kentucky’s Floods Took Appalachian History With Them

Kentucky's Floods Took Appalachian History With Them

Appalshop has been a cornerstone of Whitesburg, Ky., since 1969, working to tell stories about Appalachian people through art, film, music and more with a focus on their voices. Its theater usually hums with actors portraying the experiences of the region; the community radio broadcasts music and local news; and its rich archive provides a huge repository of central Appalachian history.

But on Wednesday, as Alex Gibson, the organization’s executive director, stood inside the building that has housed Appalshop for four decades, all he could see was mud.

Water damage covered the walls of the radio station. Every chair in the newly renovated 150-seat theater was caked in sludge. Filing cabinets, tables, CDs and loose film strips were tangled together. And possibly worst of all, many of the contents of Appalshop’s archives were covered in mud and debris after devastating floods in the region last week left the building submerged in water.

Mr. Gibson said he was most struck by the “indiscriminate nature with which the water destroyed things.”

“I’m seeing things that shouldn’t be together,” Mr. Gibson said. “There’s a banjo constructed by a master banjo maker covered in mud next to one of our first LP releases in 1970.”

I added, “We used to have an organized archive.”

The floods killed more than three dozen people across Eastern Kentucky and displaced hundreds more. Many are still without power. Even amid the loss of life and property, members of the Appalachian community were also mourning the loss of the region’s cultural heritage.

“We’re going to try our best to save everything we can save,” Mr. Gibson said. “It’s obviously emotionally devastating to see such precious materials just sitting in water and whatever chemical combination is on my boots right now.”

Mr. Gibson and Caroline Rubens, Appalshop’s archivist, are working against the clock alongside some 50 volunteers. Their goal is to recover what Appalshop estimated to be hundreds of thousands of archival pieces from across mediums: film, photographs, artisan crafts, woodworking, musical instruments, magazines, newspapers, posters and personal family archives that have been donated to the group — all depicting life in the Appalachian Mountains.

Water tore through the first floor of Appalshop’s building, which it has occupied since 1982. That included the radio station, theater, climate-controlled vault for archives and some gallery space used for art shows.

When Appalshop first got word of potential flooding last week, the priority was making sure the staff was safe. Then they mobilized to use their resources — social media, their website and the radio station — to get information to the Whitesburg community.

Now the organization’s highest priority is making sure the archives are rescued quickly, before mold can be set in. It’s still too soon to tell how many of the items are salvageable, damaged or destroyed, but the rescue has been aided by visiting archivists from nearby colleges and universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and the greater Appalachia region.

A piece that is likely gone is “Sun Quilt,” a stained glass sculpture by a local artist, Dan Neil Barnes, made up of five interlocking squares that mimic the quilts common through the region. It stood outside the Appalshop building and was a popular gathering spot for visitors.

“That was a particular ache,” said Meredith Scalos, Appalshop’s communications director. “It became an iconic piece of the building. We’re not sure if there are pieces of it, but it was glass, so probably not.”

Ms. Scalos said that Appalshop has had a history of documenting floods and climate change, and that she could “see a future where we will be telling this story, too.”

In the aftermath of the floods, Appalshop wants to prioritize the community, Ms. Scalos said, and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for various mutual aid groups. The outpouring of support from archivists and volunteers is a true mark of the mountain community, she added. She said there was a similar sense of camaraderie after tornadoes killed 74 people in the region in December.

“Kentuckians show up for each other, we do,” she said.

Ms. Scalos, who grew up in rural Kentucky, said she joined the organization in part to “reconnect with my own heritage.” “Appalshop has always been more of an idea in making people feel it’s OK to be proud to be Appalachian,” she added.

But the building itself has become central to the work the group does throughout the community, hosting art openings, concerts and regular radio programming. Appalshop started as a film workshop in 1969 but expanded to include photography and literary programs, a theater company, recording studio and community organizer, all centered around the mission of documenting and celebrating Appalachian culture. Appalshop had just finished its annual summer documentary program for young people and was set to show their films the week of the floods.

Steve Ruth, a volunteer DJ on WMMT 88.7 FM, the Appalshop’s community radio station, was looking forward to hosting a bluegrass event on July 28, but the floodwaters had other ideas.

“Walking into the radio air room and seeing the situation will about bring you to your knees,” he said. “There was about five feet of water in that space, I’m sure it looked like an aquarium at one point.”

Mr. Ruth said the Whitesburg community was in shock but was “rising to the challenge.” He and Appalshop hope to have the radio station back up and running at a temporary location in town soon.

“It’s been a place where folks interested in mountain history and the region’s history have gathered,” he said. “It’s been a place that’s just not one little thing for one little group, folks from all walks of life can come in and feel good and safe.”

While a full recovery of Appalshop may take months and the fate of many of the building’s contents remains unknown, a sign of hope brought Mr. Gibson, the center’s director, some joy: despite floodwaters of more than 20 feet, a young apple tree remained standing with some 30 apples attached.

“This tree was clearly totally submerged in the rapids, and it still has so many apples and leaves on it,” he said. “I didn’t know an apple was that hard to pluck.”

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Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones’ phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says

Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones' phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says

“I am under request from various federal agencies and law enforcement to provide (the records),” Mark Bankston, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. “Absent a ruling from you saying you cannot do that … I intend to do so immediately following this hearing.”

“I believe that there is absolutely nothing, nothing, that Mr. Reynal has done to fulfill his obligations to protect his client and prevent me from doing that,” he said, referring to Jones’ attorney, Andino Reynal.

Sandy Hook family attorney exposes Alex Jones' dishonesty during brutal cross-examination

“I’ve been asked by the January 6 committee to turn the documents over,” Bankston added later.

Bankston declined to specify to CNN which other investigators outside of the House committee expressed interest in obtaining Jones’ text records.

Bankston revealed in court on Wednesday that Reynal’s firm, in an apparent mishap, sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent.
Jones was a central player on January 6. He was at the rally before the riot though he did not storm the Capitol. The Infowars founder testified virtually before the January 6 committee earlier this year, but he said he repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during the interview.

The judge overseeing the case advised Reynal to take some time while they await a verdict to investigate a legal argument to stop Bankston from disclosing information to the January 6 committee and others.

The jury hearing the case is deliberating how much Jones will have to pay the parents of a victim of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School who sued him for defamation and infliction of emotional distress and won default judgments.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

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How 2022 midterms strategy could change after the Kansas abortion vote : NPR

How 2022 midterms strategy could change after the Kansas abortion vote : NPR

Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.

DAVE KAUP/AFP via Getty Images


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Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.

DAVE KAUP/AFP via Getty Images

On Tuesday, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative that would have opened the door to significant abortion restrictions in the state.

It was the first political test of voters’ appetite for state abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

The decisive vote against curbing abortion rights in a deeply conservative state has political strategists in both parties recalibrating their views on the upcoming midterm elections.

“Well, [Tuesday] night was a slap in the face to me, personally, as a consultant who’s done this for 32 years,” said Chuck Rocha, a senior Democratic operative. “When this decision came down from the Supreme Court, I was one of those folks who said that if this is your issue, you’ve already picked a team — you’re already team red or you’re team blue, and this will have some effect, but not a major effect.”

But after seeing the staggering number of voters who turned out in a state that former President Trump won by 15 points in 2020, Rocha thinks abortion rights will end up playing a larger role in the November elections.

“This proved there is energy here around this issue, and I think [Tuesday] was historic,” he said.

Republican strategist John Feehery said the Kansas outcome should be a “wake-up call” for Republicans.

“Republicans in the pro-life movement need to get their act together on the abortion issue post-dobbs, because they’re all over the place,” he said. “The problem is that you have people wanting to be the most conservative candidate in the primary, but they take positions that are not that popular with most voters. So they need to tread carefully, they need to calibrate, they need to understand where most voters are — and most voters are in the middle. They are not on either extreme.”

He said GOP candidates need to be explicit that their views on abortion have “nothing to do with same-sex marriage, and certainly not contraception,” two issues that Democrats have forced votes on in Congress to get their Republican colleagues on record for supporting or opposing, amid concerns that the Supreme Court’s ruling could jeopardize other rights. Last month, 195 House Republicans voted against legislation aimed at protecting access to birth control.

Feehery said although Tuesday’s outcome boosts enthusiasm among Democrats nationally, the “saving grace” for Republicans is that abortion is not the number one issue facing the country.

“Inflation and the economy are much more important for most voters, and I think that’s what they’ll vote on,” Feehery said.

According to a recent NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll, inflation is the No. 1 issue for Republicans and Independent voters as they think about the midterm elections; registered Democrats rank abortion first.

Voter registration among women in Kansas post-Dobbs was huge

Although the result of Kansas’ vote came as a surprise, it was the scope of voters who turned out in droves that stunned Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm.

“When you analyze data, you tend to get excited when you see movements from the norm, maybe five or six points — that’s telling you that something meaningful happened, something outside of the norm. And in this case, we saw something outside of the norm by 20 points,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything to that extent in terms of that intensity.”

Over 900,000 people in Kansas cast a ballot on Tuesday, a level of participation that blows past primary turnouts out of the water and approaches the high turnout rate in the state in the 2018 general election.

Republicans have a substantial voter registration advantage in the state.

“[The results] prove that Democrats can probably peel off some of these moderate Republican women, who take this issue very personally,” Rocha said.

Bonier analyzed voter registration numbers before and after June 24, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

“What we saw there was remarkable,” Bonier said. “Seventy percent of the new voter registrants in Kansas were women. If you look at the same period of time in the previous election cycle, new voter registrants were almost exactly evenly split between men and women.”

Bonier also points to the number of young people who registered to vote in the wake of the Supreme Court decision — over half are under the age of 25.

“In the 2018 general election, much of that so-called blue wave was driven by just a massive, unprecedented increase in youth turnout. So the question we’re asking ourselves at this point is, is what we saw in Kansas this week the first indicator of something similar happening in 2022, and will we see a huge increase in women participating in this election that could produce surprising results?”

Rocha points out that demographic shifts will play a role in November as well.

“For the first time in American political history, voters of color will have a bigger impact on who controls Congress. This particular issue of choice over-indexes and impacts people with less income, mainly young women of color,” he said, pointing to key Senate races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

“If [abortion] is a motivational factor, and that was proven on Tuesday, to motivate young Black and brown voters, especially young Black and brown women, it could be the sleeping giant of this year, and will be a story that will be told for a long time .”

A Democratic pollster sees what happened in Kansas as ‘a sea change’

This year, a record number of abortion measures are on state ballots and the issue will be a factor in other races in November up and down the ballot, including for governor, Senate, House, state supreme courts and state attorneys general.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, said in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, anti-abortion rights voters “think they’ve won, so they’re not as energized.”

“We’re seeing the pro-choice voters and women in particular, younger women and baby boomer women who remember what it was like before Roe v. Wadegetting very energized and being 10 to 20 points more energized than the anti-choice voters,” she said. “That is a sea change.”

She’s heard in focus groups from voters who are concerned about a “slippery slope” — the idea that curtailing abortion rights could lead to other rights being rolled back.

“They worry about marriage equality, they worry about voting rights protections, they worry about birth control, they worry about abortion,” Lake described. “Voters in our focus groups ask, ‘What’s next?'”

Mallory Carroll, vice president of communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the results from Kansas are a “devastating loss” to the anti-abortion rights movement.

“The question now is, what lesson will pro-life Republicans learn from this disappointing loss?”

She said Republican candidates should be “very explicit” about their stances, including whether there are instances in which they think abortion should be allowed, and not shy away from tackling the topic head on.

“Republicans need to quit what they’re doing right now, which in many cases is to pretend like this issue [of abortion] doesn’t exist and focus instead on inflation, gas prices, crime, etc., to carry them over the finish line,” she said. “There’s no doubt those are very salient issues that voters care about. But if pro-life Republicans fail to define themselves and what their policy positions are, then pro-abortion Democrats will do that for them.”

The White House responds — and credits ‘power of American women’

“The court practically dared women in this country to go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose,” President Biden said Wednesday as he met virtually with the White House’s Task Force on Reproductive Health Care.

Republicans and the high court “don’t have a clue about the power of American women,” Biden said. “Last night in Kansas, they found out.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images


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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

During that meeting, Biden signed his second executive order aimed at preserving abortion access. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to “consider action to advance access to reproductive healthcare services, including through Medicaid for patients who travel out of state for reproductive healthcare services.”

The order directs HHS to “consider all appropriate actions” to ensure health care providers comply with non-discrimination laws in order for people to receive “medically necessary care without delay,” noting that providers may be “confused or unsure of their obligations in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision.”

But Biden himself has acknowledged the limits of what he and his administration can to do fully protect abortion rights. He’s repeatedly issued the message of “vote, vote, vote” in November to increase Democrats’ numbers in Congress in order to codify abortion rights into federal law and bring the legislation to his desk for signature.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspends state attorney Andrew Warren

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, for pledging not to enforce the state's new 15-week abortion ban and for supporting gender transition treatments for minors. (Lauren Witte/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren, the chief prosecutor for the 13th Judicial Circuit covering Hillsborough County, after calling him “woke” and accusing him of refusing to properly enforce certain laws.

The governor cited positions Warren has taken on abortion laws, transgender medical treatment and other issues.

Warren is a Democrat who has been out front on criminal justice reform issues. He chairs the Florida Democratic Party’s Safety & Justice Task Force.

Republicans have pushed back against these reforms, arguing they are leading to an increase in crime.

Who is Andrew Warren?:Hillsborough prosecutor ousted by Gov. Ron DeSantis

Much of the focus nationally has been on liberal cities such as San Francisco, where the district attorney was recently recalled. Now Tampa is squarely at the center of that debate.

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Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ana Navarro named permanent co-hosts on ‘The View’

Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ana Navarro named permanent co-hosts on 'The View'


New York
CNN Business
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Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro, two conservatives who have been extraordinarily critical of former President Donald Trump, were officially announced on Thursday as a permanent co-hosts of “The View.”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg made the announcements during two live segments on the ABC daytime talk show.

Griffin said she was “honored” to become a co-host and Navarro described it as an “enormous, incomparable privilege.”

The appointment of Griffin and Navarro to permanent seats on the show is not entirely surprising. Both have regularly co-hosted the show and several news organizations reported recently that Griffin would soon be announced as an official co-host.

Ana Navarro (L) and Alyssa Farah Griffin

Griffin resigned in December 2020 from the Trump administration, in which she’d held several positions, including White House communications director. Griffin has since leveled searing criticism at her former boss and colleagues who have covered for him.

Navarro, a longtime Republican strategist and commentator who has been a contributor on “The View” since 2019, has for years spoken in no-holds-barred terms against Trump and his allies.

Both Griffin and Navarro are CNN political commentators. A CNN spokesperson said they will both continue in their role with the cable news network while also hosting “The View.”

“The View” has been in search of a conservative co-host since Meghan McCain left the program last summer.

“We promised to take a little time to fill the seat and we have found the right match and a welcome addition to the show with Alyssa,” executive producer Brian Teta said in a statement. “She is willing to share her unique political experience and brings a strong conservative perspective while holding her own de ella in tough debates with her co-hosts and guests on both sides of the aisle.”

“Ana has made an indelible impact on ‘The View’ since the first time she joined us at the table,” Teta added. “She is a strong independent thinker with savvy insight, not to mention that she is whip-smart and fiercely funny. We are very happy to officially welcome her as a co-host.”

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‘View’ announces Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ana Navarro as permanent hosts

New "view" co-host, Ana Navarro

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Nancy Pelosi visited Korean Demilitarized Zone with congressional delegation

Nancy Pelosi visited Korean Demilitarized Zone with congressional delegation

“It was a privilege to engage with American heroes in uniform on the ground in Korea, led by General Paul LaCamera, Commander, US Forces Korea. During visits to the Demilitarized Zone/Joint Security Area (DMZ/JSA) and Osan Air Base, we conveyed the gratitude of the Congress and the Country for the patriotic service of our Servicemembers, who stand as sentinels of Democracy on the Korean peninsula,” Pelosi said in the statement.

The DMZ is a 160-mile-long no-man’s land about 30 miles north of Seoul that was established in the 1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement. It is often described as the world’s most heavily armed border.

Pelosi said the delegation also visited Seoul and praised what she described as “a strong bond” between the US and South Korea.

“The United States and South Korea share a strong bond formed for security and forged by decades of warm friendship. Our Congressional delegation traveled to Seoul to reaffirm our treasured ties and our shared commitment to advancing security and stability, economic growth and democratic governance,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said the delegation was “honored to be hosted” at a parliamentary meeting “where we reaffirmed our commitment to the US-Korea alliance” and “was pleased to engage in a phone meeting with Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol.”

Providing a readout of the call, Pelosi said, “We thank the President for Korea’s hospitality of 28,000 US Servicemembers and their families. Each Member engaged in conversation with the President, highlighting areas of continued cooperation to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific. ”

The announcement comes after Pelosi recently visited Taiwan amid threats of Chinese retaliation.

Pelosi landed in Taipei on Tuesday, marking a significant show of support for Taiwan. Pelosi’s stop in Taipei is the first time that a US House speaker has visited Taiwan in 25 years. Her trip by Ella comes at a low point in US-China relations and despite warnings from the Biden administration against a stop in Taiwan.

This story has been updated with additional developments Thursday.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Sol Han contributed to this report.

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DeSantis Suspends Tampa Prosecutor Who Vowed Not to Criminalize Abortion

DeSantis Suspends Tampa Prosecutor Who Vowed Not to Criminalize Abortion

MIAMI—Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top prosecutor in Tampa on Thursday, accusing him of incompetence and neglect of duty for vowing not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions.

Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, suspended Andrew H. Warren, the elected state attorney of Hillsborough County. In June, Mr. Warren, a Democrat, joined 83 elected prosecutors across the country who vowed not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Florida imposed a 15-week abortion ban in April.

Mr. DeSantis said that the statement and other actions by Mr. Warren — including a policy of not prosecuting crimes that begin with an encounter between police officers and someone riding a bicycle or on foot and engaging in a noncriminal violation — amounted to “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties,” and that the prosecutor’s approach to the job left him with no choice but to suspend him.

Mr. DeSantis appeared at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, where he was flanked by a gaggle of uniformed sheriffs and police officials. The law enforcement officials expressed frustration with Mr. Warren for not prosecuting certain crimes. “Andrew Warren is a fraud,” said Brian Dugan, a former chief of the Tampa Police Department.

The starting decision by the governor immediately raised concerns among Democrats who say that he has become increasingly heavy-handed.

Mr. Warren did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This developing story will be updated.