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Politics

Trahan cleared by FEC regarding campaign finance complaints

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LOWELL — The Federal Election Commission has dismissed complaints against U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan’s use of campaign funds.

In a letter addressed to Trahan’s attorneys Jan. 26, the commission announced it had “no reason to believe” the Lori Trahan for Congress Committee violated campaign finance law when accepting loans from the representative’s husband David Trahan, nor when they failed to record when the loans were received, the source of those loans and the committee’s cash on hand in two quarterly reports.

The commission concluded its investigation Jan. 10.

Trahan, who represents the 3rd Congressional District, came under fire in 2019 when she admitted to using $300,000 of her husband’s earnings to fund her campaign the previous year during a contentious primary. While she, at first, denied the funds were not her own, she later revealed it was money shared by her and David Trahan through their joint bank account. She also reported to have borrowed $71,000 from a home equity loan.

The Democrat, who hails from Lowell, went on to beat challenger Dan Koh in the election by 145 votes.

The House Committee on Ethics cleared Trahan of such allegations in July 2020, when she was still a freshman in Congress.

Two additional complaints were filed with the FEC, which were left outstanding as the commission didn’t have a full quorum for long stretches of 2019 and 2020. There is now a quorum of six commissioners, composed of three Democrats and three Republicans, that requires a majority vote to dismiss.

In a statement, Trahan expressed her approval of the findings.

“I am pleased that bipartisan commissioners of the Federal Election Commission have confirmed – just as the bipartisan House Ethics Committee voted unanimously two years ago – that my campaign acted lawfully,” Trahan wrote. “Representing the district that I was born in, that I was raised in, and that I’m now raising my two young girls in is the honor of a lifetime, and I will continue to go to work every day to make our community and our Commonwealth a better place to call home.”

David Trahan is a local home builder and developer who disclosed, in a prenuptial agreement, 29 different assets, including several realty trusts, The Villages at Merrimac Landing LLC and Lowell Building Associates LLC. The prenup was used as evidence in the House Committee on Ethics’ ruling.

In 2018, spouses could not make more than $2,700 in donations, while candidates could — and still can — contribute an unlimited amount of their own funds.

More details on the findings will be available when related documents are publicly released within 30 days. Myles Martin, a public affairs specialist at the FEC, said that’s the commission’s policy when closing “an enforcement matter.”

Those documents, Martin said, could include commissioners’ reasoning behind their vote.

MassGOP picks Amy Carnevale to steer party’s future

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Massachusetts Republicans nearly stuck with party chairman Jim Lyons for another two-year term, despite disastrous election results over his four-year tenure, but instead narrowly decided Tuesday night to give Amy Carnevale a shot at running the shrinking party.

Members of the Republican State Committee voted 37-34 to pick Carnevale as the MassGOP’s next top leader, placing the job of restoring the Grand Old Party’s diminished influence on Beacon Hill and among voters in the hands of a longtime lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer.

Republicans needed two rounds of voting to make a final decision after no candidate earned the needed 37 votes on the first ballot, according to POLITICO, a reflection of the tense fight that had played out in the weeks and months leading up to the leadership shuffle.

“Congratulations are in order for the newest chair of the party, Amy @CarnevaleMHD!” the official MassGOP account tweeted Tuesday night. “Best of luck to Amy, a very capable leader, who will work to unite the MassGOP!”

The vote boots Lyons, a former state representative and conservative hard-liner, from the party chair role after a four-year stint during which he repeatedly clashed with popular moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and fellow state committee members.

In that span, the Republican super-minority in the House and Senate shrunk even smaller, the party’s finances fell into disarray, and Democrats seized back the corner office with the election of Gov. Maura Healey, giving them trifecta control atop Beacon Hill.

Carnevale spent a decade working for former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who entered office in 1995 after unseating House Speaker Tom Foley, eventually as his chief of staff.

Since 2005, she has worked in both state and federal government affairs for K&L Gates, an influential firm, according to her LinkedIn. Baker appointed Carnevale to the Governor’s Commission on Intellectual Disability in 2017.

The Boston Globe reported that Carnevale pitched fellow state committee members Tuesday on rebuilding and professionalizing the party’s operations.

“By every metric, we are failing,” Carnevale said, according to the Globe. “For the sake of the conservative policies we advocate, our remaining officeholders, members of our party, and future candidates, we need a fresh start.”

Like Lyons, who made his vocal and repeated support of former President Donald Trump a central theme of his chairmanship, Carnevale was a backer of the Republican president. She helped campaign for Trump in 2016 and praised him during his time in office.

She condemned the violent Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s election, calling the intrusion “a serious crime” and arguing that Trump “should have made absolutely clear that he was committed to the orderly transfer of power.”

Carnevale criticized Lyons’s approach as chair, telling talk show personality Howie Carr in December that he was “a distraction to Republicans running for office and a hindrance to raising money.”

New video shows hammer attack on Paul Pelosi and suspect breaking into San Francisco home

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Video released Friday morning shows the seconds leading up to an alleged hammer attack by a Richmond man on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, providing a chilling new look at the savage, politically-driven assault that shook the nation.

David DePape, of Richmond, is accused of bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer in late October after allegedly breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home seeking to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who was second in the line of presidential succession at the time. A recording of DePape describing the attack during a police interrogation and a recording of a 911 call were also released Friday under orders from a state judge.

Pelosi on Friday told reporters that her husband “is making progress but it will take more time.” Referring to the released material, she said, “I have not heard the 911 call. I have not heard the confession. I have not seen the break-in, and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband’s life.”

Police body-camera video shows officers — responding to a 911 call from Paul Pelosi made from a bathroom after DePape allegedly broke in — arriving at the Pelosi home and knocking on the front door, calling for someone to answer.

The door opens to reveal Paul Pelosi in a collared shirt and underwear, and a man later identified as DePape in blue sweatshirt and shorts, both holding onto a hammer with their right hands. DePape appears to be pulling the hammer away from Pelosi.

“What’s going on?” an officer asks.

“Everything’s good,” DePape replies.

An officer commands, “Drop the hammer,” DePape responds: “Um, nope.”

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: Video contains graphic content.

DePape then yanks the hammer away from Paul Pelosi, who abruptly lurches backward. DePape swings the hammer back and then launches a savage overhand swing; the impact takes place outside the camera’s view.

In a chaotic scene, the officers rush through the door and wrestle DePape to the ground in an attempt to subdue him. Paul Pelosi lies on the floor unconscious, snoring, with his feet bare, as the officers and DePape struggle just inches away.

Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery to repair multiple skull fractures and was hospitalized for nearly a week after the attack.

Authorities have said they believe DePape broke into the Pelosi household shortly after 2 a.m. on Oct. 28 seeking to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, the then-Speaker of the House and the second person in line for the presidency. He told investigators that he planned to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps and wheel her in front of Congress to deliver a message to lawmakers that their actions carried “consequences” for their actions, prosecutors said at a December preliminary hearing.

But Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, and Paul Pelosi was sleeping in the couple’s bedroom in San Francisco.

In the newly-released recording of DePape’s interrogation five hours after the attack, he tells a San Francisco Police sergeant, “It originates with Hillary,” referring to former secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. However, he adds: “Day in and day out, the person that was on the TV lying every day was Pelosi.”

He claimed that Democrats had been on a four-year “crime spree” against former President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. “They go from one crime to another crime to another crime and it’s like the whole (expletive) four years until they were finally able to steal the election,” DePape said. “It’s unacceptable.”

A video from outside the couple’s house in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood shows DePape arriving onto the back patio. He wanders the yard, peering into windows, before disappearing around a corner, then returning, wearing a very large backpack and carrying a smaller bag.

He begins digging into the smaller bag, pulling out a hammer and taking other items from the backpack.

Eventually, he strikes the patio door of the house with the hammer, pushing it through the glass in an attempt to make a hole big enough to reach through. After the door won’t open, he begins swinging the hammer aggressively at the door, using two-handed overhead chops for about 30 seconds, before he steps through the door, into the house, and disappears from view.

The attack shook the nation ahead of the November midterm elections, fueled fears of politically motivated violence and led to the spread of misinformation, including by Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

DePape, court heard in December, said he planned to target President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and actor Tom Hanks in a suicide mission, according to testimony aired by prosecutors in a San Francisco court.

Court records already have detailed how Paul Pelosi called 911 and alerted authorities before abruptly ending the call as his attacker stood nearby, telling dispatchers that “he wants me to get the hell off the phone.”

DePape faces charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, and other state felonies, as well as federal charges of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official. A status conference for the case in U.S. District Court in San Francisco is scheduled for Feb. 8. His next hearing in the state case is set for Feb. 23.

Lori Trahan named co-chair of Congressional Cambodia Caucus

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LOWELL — In an exciting development for the 3rd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan was named co-chair of the Congressional Cambodia Caucus.

Trahan, who was re-elected to her third term in November, has been a member of the bipartisan caucus since she was first sworn in as a representative in 2019.

“Growing up in Lowell, I’ve seen firsthand just how much Cambodian families have contributed to our city and our region,” Trahan said in a statement. “Lowell is a better place because of their cultural, educational, electoral, and economic successes.”

Lowell is home to the second largest Cambodian community, and the largest Cambodian population per capita of any city or town in the nation. It is a place of many firsts for Cambodian Americans.

Rithy Uong made history in 1999 when he became the first Cambodian American to win a City Council seat anywhere in the United States. In 2014, state Rep. Rady Mom became the first Cambodian American elected to the state Legislature. In 2020, state Rep. Vanna Howard became the first Cambodian-American woman elected to the state Legislature. And Lowell Mayor Sokhary Chau is the city’s and the country’s first Cambodian-American mayor.

“I welcome such good news for the Cambodian-American residents of Lowell,” Chau said in a written statement. “Congresswoman Trahan works tirelessly for the district and our concerns. She is fair and supportive for all our Khmer Diaspora in America. Her new position will give her a deeper perspective between the US and Cambodia.”

Trahan said she would use her position to continue to honor the Cambodian-American culture and recognize residents’ contributions to the Greater Lowell community.

“As their representative, I have always made it a top priority to ensure their voices are heard in the halls of Congress, and I’m honored to take on this new role as Co-Chair of the Congressional Cambodia Caucus to continue those efforts,” she said.

Those efforts will include following up on a letter the caucus sent to President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Weiss on Nov. 18, holding New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to a public accounting of their internal investigation into the allegations of looted Cambodian artifacts in the collection.

The Cambodian government started focusing on looted art in the past two years, a story that was reported in a New York Times article published in August. The museum says it launched an internal investigation, but to date has not shared its findings related to Cambodia’s claims.

The caucus letter requested that the Met provide an update on its ongoing internal investigation, a deadline for a determination about the pieces in question, whether the Met will commit to working with the Department of Justice to determine where the priceless artifacts belong and if the Met determines the treasures were originally looted, to returning them to the people of Cambodia.

Weiss’s December response flatly ignored the caucus’s specific demands, offering only that, “the Met will continue its discussion of these works with Cambodia and US authorities.”

Apparently, those authorities do not include the new co-chair of the caucus, who said that she expected better from the leadership of one of the largest and most prestigious art museums in the world.

“I am deeply disappointed in the Met’s response to our letter,” Trahan said. “Not only did the museum fail to address almost all of our questions, but it also declined to provide an update on when Cambodian Americans can expect the uncertainties surrounding the Met’s Cambodia collection to be resolved.”

Both Chau and Howard have previously said that the artifacts have spiritual and cultural significance to Cambodia, and if determined to have been looted, should be returned.

Weiss did not address the items in dispute, which include 13 items in the Met’s Southeast Asian Art Gallery 249 such as the Standing Female Deity. Chau called it Cambodia’s version of the “Mona Lisa.”

In his letter, Weiss acknowledged that past museum practices had included acquisitions of questionable origin, but wrote that “the norms of collecting have changed significantly over the past 20 years, and The Met’s procedures in this regard have been regularly updated in responses to new developments.”

Trahan pushed back against the narrative that congressional oversight isn’t required because the museum is conducting its own internal review of disputed practices.

“As stated in Mr. Weiss’s letter, the Met has returned stolen objects to Cambodia in the past following requests from the country’s cultural officials,” she said. “As the new co-chair of the Congressional Cambodia Caucus, I believe it’s time for the Met to follow their own precedent and move expeditiously to solve this situation and ensure these artifacts are returned to their rightful home.”

Cape Cod bridge project cost worth looking at, Healey says it’s a priority

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The governor is confident, despite twice being denied by the federal government, that funding to replace the busy bridges connecting Cape Cod with the rest of the state will come through.

“We have got to do everything we can — and I am committed as governor to doing just that — to make sure that we have those funds to fix those bridges,” Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday.

The Bourne and Sagamore bridges, which carry 5 million visitors to Cape Cod and the Islands annually, will require major rehabilitation in the near future in order to safely continue supporting that traffic, according to a Major Rehabilitation Study done in 2019.

In January, news broke that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which built and owns the bridges, had been denied for a second time the $1.8 billion they were seeking in grant funds to help cover the estimated $4 billion design and construction cost for two new bridges.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch recently said that price tag was part of the reason the funding request was denied.

“I think it’s far in excess of what would be necessary,” he said on local TV. “I think it’s closer to half that amount.”

Healey, speaking after a tour of an Analog Devices facility in Wilmington, said she knows how important the bridges are to the 263,000 residents of the Cape.

“We need those bridges fixed, they are just an incredibly important part of our lifeblood here in Massachusetts,” she said. “I’m really focused on being as aggressive as we can be as a state in making sure that we’re working closely with our delegation and the U.S. Department of Transportation so that we can compete and win that funding.”

The state has already spent “considerable time, energy and funds to support replacing the bridges, including working with the Legislature to pass significant funding to replace the approaches to the bridges and authorization for Massachusetts to compete for federal grants,” according to MassDOT.

Both four lane approaches to the Cape were constructed and opened in the 1930s. In 2019, USACE determined that replacing the bridges “with two new bridges built to modern-day standards” would be more cost effective than upgrading them, providing “the best long-term investment for safe access to Cape Cod for the traveling public over the next 50 plus years,” according to USACE’s project page.

Healey said that she thinks, in the end, and despite the U.S. Army Corps’ plans twice being rejected, the project will come to fruition.

“I’ve talked to Congressman Lynch, I’ve talked to other members of the delegation, I’m very interested in looking at the numbers and looking at what’s possible and certainly want to put our best foot forward so that we’re doing everything we can to secure the federal funding and assistance that we need for an incredibly important infrastructure in this state,” she said.

Methuen billboard targets Lori Trahan after she recalled her support for term-limit pledge

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LOWELL — U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan is in the spotlight for having “reneged on her promise” to support term limits, according to one political advocacy group.

The organization, U.S. Term Limits, recently contracted a billboard in Methuen on Interstate 93 at 55 Hampshire Road that reads, “Rep. Lori Trahan is breaking her U.S. term limits pledge.”

That pledge, which the group sends out to candidates for Congress, is a commitment to support an amendment that would limit House terms to three terms and Senate terms to two, according to their website.

About 133 federal legislators have signed the pledge, including 113 in the House and 20 in the Senate, said Nick Tomboulides, executive director of U.S. Term Limits.

Trahan, who recently began her third term representing the 3rd Congressional District, signed the pledge in 2018, while she was first running for Congress in the Democratic primary, but now views that support as somewhat of a mistake.

“I ran for Congress because I thought Washington wasn’t working and wanted to make things better,” Trahan wrote in a statement. “I honored my pledge in my first term and cosponsored this legislation. Now that I’ve learned more, I have chosen not to continue cosponsoring a bad bill.”

The current proposed legislation, reintroduced this term by U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-South Carolina, states that representatives should be limited to three two-year terms, or six years, and senators to two six-year terms, or 12 years, and no longer limits.

Instituting congressional term limits requires an amendment to the Constitution, meaning it needs two-thirds support in the House and Senate.

The potential amendment has attracted 58 co-sponsors, all but one of whom are Republicans.

The goal of the billboard is to inform voters that Trahan is “not keeping her word” and is an effort toward “public accountability,” Tomboulides said.

Tomboulides, who describes himself as an independent, said he’s “puzzled” by that party divide, since the vast majority of Americans, both Democrat and Republican, support term limits.

“I think perhaps what they don’t realize is this is a super unique issue,” Tomboulides said. “It’s the most popular bipartisan issue in the country, so it should be viewed differently, I think, than everything else up there on the hill.”

About 82% of Americans support term limits for senators and representatives, according to a 2016 Quinnipiac University poll.

Tomboulides said U.S. Term Limits is “totally nonpartisan,” but its superPAC counterpart does not appear to be. In the 2018 and 2022 election season, Term Limits SuperPAC spent a total of $555,855 against Democratic candidates and $202,353 in support of Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The PAC spent no money for Democrats or against Republicans, according to that data.

The PAC is “a separate entity” from the advocacy organization, Tomboulides said, and he could not speak to those decisions. He said the PAC had endorsed a progressive Democrat in Texas, but The Sun could not find evidence to confirm that claim.

While she is not against term limits, Trahan stated that efforts to call her out lack context.

“I think term limits of some length make sense, but I will not be bullied by a partisan group to continue supporting a proposal that is too rigid and would make it harder to get results for working families like the one I grew up in,” she wrote. “I remain committed to enacting reforms that will finally make government work better.”

U.S. Term Limits also recently put up a similar billboard in San Francisco against U.S. Rep. Young Kim, R-California, who apparently broke the pledge as well.

Philip Blumel, president of the organization, wrote in a statement that he hopes “Rep. Trahan has a change of heart and decides to keep her promise.”

“Lori Trahan made a promise to the voters of her district to support the U.S. Term Limits amendment,” Blumel stated. “Yet, once she was elected, she decided to ignore the promise she made to her constituents.”

Term limits allow underrepresented groups, including women, to be elected, Tomboulides said, bringing “new ideas, new faces” to the table. It also allows constituents to establish stronger connections with their representatives, who will not be tied to lobbyists and special interests, he added.

“Ordinary people can run for office and win when a seat is open. Nobody really has a shot at challenging an incumbent who’s been there for 20 or 30 years, that person is just too powerful and has too much money,” Tomboulides said. “Term limits, it brings down the barriers to entry and allows more people to run for office.”