National Roundup

Alabama
FBI arrests garage owner in Capitol insurrection

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama garage owner was arrested on charges of entering the U.S. Capitol during the riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump after showing FBI agents photos and video he took while inside the building, court documents show.

Russell Dean Alford, 60, of Hokes Bluff was freed on $5,500 bond following an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gray Borden in Birmingham on Monday, records showed. He was charged with entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and unlawfully demonstrating inside the Capitol.

Alford, the seventh Alabama man charged in the insurrection, posted videos from inside the Capitol that remain visible on his Facebook page. The man didn’t seem surprised when agents investigating the attack visited his business, Alford’s Paint and Body shop, on Jan. 20, according to a sworn statement by an officer.

“I wondered when y’all were going to show up. Guess you’ve seen the videos on my Facebook page,” the document quoted Alford saying.

Alford showed investigators videos and photos that were still on his phone from Jan. 6 and even attempted to email items to agents upon their request, the statement said. Alford told officers he attended the Trump rally before walking to the Capitol and entering through an open door, the agent wrote.

A public defender who was appointed to represent Alford did not immediately return an email seeking comment Tuesday.


New York
Court lets woman’s defamation suit vs. Trump proceed again

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump could face questioning under oath about a former “Apprentice” contestant’s sexual assault allegations against him, following a ruling from New York’s highest court Tuesday.

Evidence-gathering has been on hold in Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit since Trump asked the high court last year to declare the that the presidency protected him from being sued in state courts. In a one-sentence ruling, the Court of Appeals tossed Trump’s appeal as moot now that he’s out of the White House.

Lawyers for the woman, Summer Zervos, had asked the high court to nix the appeal  and return her defamation suit to a trial court for both sides to continue pretrial evidence-seeking that could eventually enable Zervos’ lawyers to quiz Trump under oath, and his to question her. Deadlines for such questioning, known as a deposition, had been set for last year before Trump appealed to the high court.

“Now a private citizen, the defendant has no further excuse to delay justice for Ms. Zervos, and we are eager to get back to the trial court and prove her claims,” lawyers Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza said in a statement Tuesday.

A request for comment was sent to Trump’s lawyers. Zervos’ attorneys said in a court filing last month that Trump’s lawyers didn’t oppose dismissing the appeal.

Zervos is suing Trump for calling her a liar after she went public during his 2016 campaign with allegations that he subjected her to unwanted kissing and groping twice in 2007. She had appeared on his reality show “The Apprentice” in 2006 and said she was looking only for career advice when she contacted him afterward.

She sued after he retweeted a message calling her claims “a hoax” and described women who accused him of sexual assault and harassment as “liars” trying to hurt his presidential chances.

Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz has said that the former president’s statements were true and protected by free speech rights and that Zervos’ claims are meritless.

Zervos is seeking a retraction, an apology and damages.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they come forward publicly.


Massachusetts
Lawyers clash over $1B hydropower transmission corridor

BOSTON (AP) — Attorneys for conservation organizations and an electric utility clashed Tuesday before a federal appeals court over the adequacy of environmental reviews of a key portion of a power transmission project in western Maine.

An attorney for three conservation groups disputed the thoroughness of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and suggested its review was handled differently from those of other projects. But Central Maine Power said the federal agency properly found there was no significant impact.

The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Appalachian Mountain Club are seeking to stop the New England Clean Energy Connect while they pursue a lawsuit seeking a more comprehensive environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The $1 billion project would provide a conduit for up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to reach the New England power grid.

Three judges for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at times expressed exasperation over complexities of the arguments relating to he review process and separate environmental assessments by the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps focused on waters and wetlands while the DOE focused on the big picture. This week, the conservation groups sought to add the DOE to its lawsuit, saying it rushed its approval for the cross-border connection in the final days of the Trump administration.

Kevin Cassidy, a lawyer with Earthrise Law Center, argued that both reviews were flawed. The Army Corps’ review was inadequate and its review was relied upon by the DOE for its assessment, he said.

The Army Corps gave its approval in November and the DOE awarded a presidential permit in January. The project also has approvals from the Maine
Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Land Use Planning Commission and Maine Public Utilities Commission.

Much of the 145-mile project (233-kilometer) project calls for widening existing corridors, but the litigation focuses on a new swath to be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of remote woods in western Maine.

Supporters say the power lines would reduce carbon pollution and stabilize electricity prices in New England, but critics say it would forever damage a stretch of wild forests in western Maine.

All of the land except for a one-mile stretch is owned by Central Maine Power, which is behind the project. A judge has ordered the state to reassess 1-mile portion that would utilize leased land.

Critics have collected enough signatures to force a statewide referendum this November if lawmakers decline to intervene.