Morning Headlines
- Boris Johnson announced he is stepping down as the leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday morning. He will continue to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom until the party selects his replacement. In an impassioned speech in front of 10 Downing Street, Johnson stated that a timetable for his departure and an election for the new leader will be announced next week. More than 50 conservative ministers and senior government aides have resigned from his government, including a record-setting 36 on Wednesday. The news comes less than a month after Johnson narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence from within his party. Anger against Johnson primarily stemmed from the Downing Street parties he hosted during the height of COVID, breaking his own restrictions. Johnson became the first Prime Minister officially found to break the law, and a series of further ethics scandals ultimately led to his demise.
- Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) allegedly used money from his campaign to cover legal expenses for a lawsuit concerning his time as a church minister, a Politico report says. The lawsuit was first filed in 2009 by Atlanta resident Melvin Robertson and included several baseless accusations against Warnock dating back to 2005. A federal district court judge in Georgia dismissed the case almost immediately. Robertson then refiled a similar lawsuit in 2021, and Warnock hired his campaign attorneys to represent him- raising questions over whether this was an improper use of campaign funds. The FEC states that campaign money can be used on “litigation expenses where the candidate/officeholder was the defendant and the litigation arose directly from campaign activity or the candidate’s status as a candidate.” According to Politico, “Warnock’s campaign maintains that the use of campaign funds was permissible because the second lawsuit, despite making the same allegations as in 2019, was filed while Warnock was in office.” Warnock won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Georgia in May and will face controversial Republican nominee Herschel Walker, who is navigating through several of his own campaign finance scandals, in the general election this November.
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