Tag: Kamala Harris

  • US Elections 2024: What caused Kamala Harris to lose?

    US Elections 2024: What caused Kamala Harris to lose?

    The Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has lost the US presidential elections 2024.

    While many political pundits had already predicted her loss, they are shocked by how badly she was defeated, with Donald Trump surpassing the requisite 270 electoral college numbers in no time. Not only that, he also won the progressive vote. 


    BBC reports that Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in an email to campaign staff on Wednesday, “This will take a long time to process.”


    Political pundits are attributing the defeat to a number of factors:

    Stance on Gaza genocide 

    First thing first, it’s the baggage of Joe Biden’s murky legacy that Harris carried and then owned. In an op-ed for The Guardian back in August, Mehdi Hassan wrote, “Biden’s Gaza policy is a liability for Kamala Harris. She must break with Biden now.”


    Israel’s carnage in Gaza alienated more Dem voters than the party believed. 


    Media reports suggest that a large number of Arab-American voters, young voters and Muslims generally did not vote for Kamala Harris because of her commitment to sustaining the flow of US weapons to Israel and her rhetoric of “Israel has the right to defend herself.”


    While she tried to redeem herself by saying that she will end the “war in Gaza” during her last speech in the swing state of Michigan with a large population of Arab-American citizens, the erstwhile state still voted for Trump’s Republican party, and more importantly, for the anti-Israel Jill Stein. 


    Biden’s approval ratings has consistently plummeted in the last four years and this impacted Kamala badly as two thirds of voters believed that the country is on the wrong track and that Kamala will continue Joe Biden’s policies. 


    America’s support of Ukraine, both militarily and financially, was enabled by Biden’s administration of which Harris was a part and also a key factor as well. As per the recent numbers, the Democratic administration provided more than $64.1 billion in military assistance alone. 


    Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly reminded his supporters that he never started a war in his tenure. 


    Policies on Climate


    Kamala’s change of stance on climate also paved the way for her loss. While she opposed “fracking”-the artificial matter of extracting gas- during her campaign, she confirmed that she will not seek to ban fracking if elected.


    Climate activists also alleged that her tone towards climate changed over time.


    Flaws in campaigning style


    Kamala got endorsements from all the big shots of Hollywood like Taylor Swift and Beyonce while Trump was seen attending rallies, meeting voters and serving fries at a McDonalds drive-thru.


    Quoting the Democrat campaign misjudgments, analyst Leigh Sales said, “The Democrats also had a tin ear when it came to the gap between rich and poor and how politically potent it is. Why was Harris constantly campaigning with squillionaire celebrities?”


    Illegal immigration


    Trump’s “America First” slogan gained traction from many quarters all around the country as he targeted the issue of Illegal immigration. Kamala, on the other hand, has shown leniency as she advocated for strict border security and reforms.


    Economic policies


    Last but not least, ever-growing inflation in Biden’s four-year-tenure contributed in steering voters away from Kamala’s side. Reportedly, the inflation rate was the highest after the 1970’s.

  • Pro Palestine singer who spoke up against Kamala Harris gets number one spot

    Pro Palestine singer who spoke up against Kamala Harris gets number one spot

    Chappell Roan, a rising singer known for her support of Palestine, recently hit the number one spot on the Artist 100 and Top Album Sales charts for the first time. The success follows her outspoken stance against Vice President and Democrat candidate for President Kamala Harris, and her decision to reject an invitation to perform at the White House Pride event earlier this year.

    In a candid interview with The Guardian, Roan explained why she doesn’t feel pressured to endorse any political candidate, including Kamala Harris, in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. “There’s problems on both sides,” she said. “I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change.”

    Roan encouraged her fans to think critically about their votes. “Use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city,” she advised.

    Her decision to decline the White House Pride event invitation came during her performance at New York City’s Governors Ball music festival in June, where she told the crowd, “We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”

    In a more recent Rolling Stone interview, Roan elaborated on her reasoning for rejecting the invite, pointing to the U.S. government’s support for Israel in the ongoing Gaza conflict. She even considered using her potential performance at the White House to protest by reciting poems from Palestinian women but ultimately decided against it after discussions with her publicist.

    “I was trying to do it as tastefully as I could because all I wanted to do was yell,” she explained. “I had to find something that’s tasteful and to the point, meaningful, and not make it about me and how I feel.”

    Despite her firm stance on U.S. government policies, Roan clarified that her decision not to attend the White House event should not be seen as support for former President Donald Trump. “It’s not so black and white that you hate one and you like the other,” she said, addressing misunderstandings among some fans.

    Roan added, “No matter how you say it, people are still going to be pissed for some reason. I’m not going to go to the White House because I am not going to be a monkey for Pride. And thank God I didn’t go because they just made a huge statement about trans kids a couple weeks ago.”

    Her refusal to stay silent on controversial issues has not hindered her rise to the top of the charts. Roan’s success reflects a growing trend of artists using their platforms to speak up for social justice and political issues, making her not only a musical force but also a voice for change.

  • He’s predicted (almost) every US Election — and says Harris will win

    He’s predicted (almost) every US Election — and says Harris will win

    Forget the polls, ditch the data and stop sending journalists to swing-state diners to interview undecided voters: historian Allan Lichtman already knows who is going to win the US presidential election.

    “Harris will win,” Lichtman confidently announced to AFP.

    He was speaking at his home in the leafy Washington suburb of Bethesda shortly after unveiling his much-discussed, once-every-four-years White House prediction, based on what he calls the “13 keys” method.

    It can be easy to dismiss Lichtman’s signature methodology as just another gimmick in the endless, drawn-out “horse race” style coverage of US elections — where journalists, pollsters and pundits are constantly trying to see who is up and who is down.

    But the American University history professor has answers for his critics — and a track record that’s hard to beat, having correctly called all but one election since 1984.

    Lichtman pays no attention to opinion polls.

    Instead, his predictions are based on a series of true-or-false propositions applied to the current presidential administration. If six or more of these “keys” are false, the election will go to the out-of-power challenger — in this case, Republican candidate Donald Trump.

    One of the keys, for example, posits that the president’s party won seats in the most recent midterm elections. The Democrats actually lost control of the House in the 2022 midterms, meaning this particular key is termed “false,” tipping the scales toward Trump.

    A few more keys break Trump’s way: President Joe Biden stepped down, meaning Democrats lost the key which determines the “incumbency,” a vital advantage.

    Biden’s vice president and replacement as nominee, Kamala Harris, is surging on optimism among party faithful. But Lichtman rules that she does not qualify for another of the keys, which is being a charismatic, “once-in-a-generation” candidate in the style of Ronald Reagan or Franklin Roosevelt.

    More points to Trump, yes. But after that the keys start breaking in rapid succession for Harris.

    For example, the Biden administration’s massive environment and infrastructure legislation ticks the box for the key requiring a “major policy change” by the current White House.

    Another key for Harris is the exit of fringe independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    She also satisfies the key demanding lack of major scandal.

    Do the math and it turns out that only three keys are falling for Trump. But to be declared the presumptive winner, he would have needed six.

    And there’s another key which could go Harris’s way, if the administration reaches a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.

    It’s a move that would likely require Democrats to push harder against the Israeli government — sure to cause strain among poll-obsessed advisors in a party trying to straddle a base that is heavily divided over the issue. Yet, a ceasefire would mean the Democrats actually delivered a policy achievement, Lichtman argues, and deliver one of the keys on foreign policy.

    “I don’t like to speculate, because the devil is in the details, but that could be seen as a big success,” he said.

    Critics of the “13 keys” home in on the speculative nature of some of the true-false propositions. What is a charismatic leader, for example?

    Yet the sage of Bethesda, as some have dubbed him, is well-versed in arguing his case.

    “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I think I’ve heard every conceivable question,” he said. “‘Aren’t your keys subjective?’ I obviously have an answer to that — they’re not subjective, they’re judgmental.

    “We’re dealing with human beings. Historians make judgments all the time, and the judgments are very tightly constrained.”

    Amid the “noise” of national political punditry, Lichtman argues, presidential elections are a simple “vote up or down on the strength and performance of the White House party.”

    In that way, his method is anti-horse race — focused on good governance rather than campaigns, since in reality “we forget virtually anything a candidate has to say.”

  • Explosive Trump biopic to hit US theaters before election: reports

    Explosive Trump biopic to hit US theaters before election: reports

    A controversial biopic of Donald Trump that depicts the former president raping his wife and which has drawn legal threats from his attorneys will hit US theaters this October, it was reported Friday.

    Tiny indie studio Briarcliff Entertainment plans to release “The Apprentice” for US audiences less than a month before Trump takes on Kamala Harris in the country’s razor-tight presidential election, the Hollywood Reporter said.

    Representatives for Briarcliff did not immediately respond to AFP queries.

    The explosive film about Trump’s younger years caused shockwaves at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

    Its most talked about scene shows Trump raping his first wife, Ivana, after she belittles him for growing fat and bald.

    In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings but later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.

    The movie also shows Trump suffering erectile dysfunction, and undergoing liposuction and surgery for hair loss.

    Just hours after “The Apprentice” premiered in May, Trump’s lawyers vowed to sue the producers, calling the film “garbage” and “pure malicious defamation.”

    Further complicating the film’s prospects for US release is that one of its early financial backers was pro-Trump billionaire Dan Snyder, who was reportedly displeased with its depiction of Trump and sought to block the movie.

    He has now been bought out of his financial stake in the movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film is set to be released in US theaters October 11, the Los Angeles Times said.

    Sebastian Stan’s lead performance as young New York property tycoon Trump received largely positive reviews at Cannes.

    The film’s screenplay was written by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered real estate for the New York Observer and regularly spoke to Trump.

    Far from a simple hatchet job, the film depicts Trump as an ambitious but naive social climber desperately trying to navigate the cutthroat world of Manhattan property deals and politics.

    The Times of London argued it would “make you feel sympathy for Trump.”

    But Trump’s decency is gradually eroded as he learns the dark arts of dealmaking and power from his mentor Roy Cohn, played by “Succession” star Jeremy Strong.

    Film director Ali Abbasi told AFP he included the rape scene to show how Trump distanced himself from “human relationships that define him and that hold him in check as a human being.”

    Stan, best known from the Marvel superhero movies, added that Trump’s early behavior “is much more relatable than we want to admit.”

    Briarcliff Entertainment launched in the late 2010s. Its founder Tom Ortenberg previously helped steer Oscar campaigns for best picture winners “Spotlight” and “Crash.”

    He is expected to promote “The Apprentice” in Hollywood’s upcoming award season.

    The news comes on the same day “Reagan,” another biopic of a former Republican president, Ronald Reagan, hits US theaters

  • Harris pledges to get Gaza ceasefire deal ‘done’ while promising support for Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’

    Harris pledges to get Gaza ceasefire deal ‘done’ while promising support for Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’

    Kamala Harris pledged Thursday to get a Gaza ceasefire and said as US president, she would stand with Ukraine and not “cosy up” to dictators like her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

    “Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done,” the vice president told supporters at the Democratic National Convention as she accepted the party’s presidential nomination.

    Harris said that she and President Joe Biden “are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

    US support for its ally Israel in the conflict against Hamas in Gaza has become one of the most divisive issues in the Democratic Party, and at times has threatened to overshadow the party’s attempt to unite against Trump.

    Harris said Hamas had caused “unspeakable” violence in its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the Israeli offensive. At the same time, she said the devastation in Gaza was “heartbreaking.”

    “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said.

    Attacking Trump for his frequent denigration of NATO and Ukraine, she said, “As president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”

    And she called out Trump’s public praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, saying, “I will not cosy up to tyrants and dictators.”

    Tyrants are “rooting for Trump because, you know, they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favours. They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself.”

  • Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America as she accepts nomination

    Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America as she accepts nomination

    Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago on Thursday before a rapturous crowd, pledging a “new way forward” and warning that Donald Trump will take America backwards if he wins November’s blockbuster election.

    The 59-year-old sought to strike a presidential tone as she delivered a message of unity and patriotism for Americans after one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in US political history.

    “With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past — a chance to chart a new way forward,” Harris said to huge cheers from tens of thousands of pumped-up supporters.

    “And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”

    The convention became a giant party to celebrate Harris’s astonishing ascent from something of a political afterthought to Democratic standard bearer upon President Joe Biden’s surprise decision to end his reelection bid.

    A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.

    She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.

    Country act The Chicks sang a version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.

    ‘President who unites us’

    But it was Harris’s time to shine on the biggest night of her political life, after becoming the first Black woman to be nominated by a major US party.

    She reached out to voters across America’s bitter political divide, promising to bring economic opportunity and protect their personal freedoms on key issues like abortion.

    “I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she vowed.

    Harris then launched a broadside at 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been upended by having to face a woman two decades younger, rather than the increasingly frail Biden, 81.

    “We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said, saying he wanted to “pull our country back to the past.”

    She laid out her personal story as a child of a single working mother, and her career as a prosecutor, saying she has the background and experience to serve the country in contrast to Trump who she said only works for himself and “his billionaire friends.”

    Turning to foreign policy, she accused Trump of trying to “cozy up” to foreign autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Harris pledged instead to “stand strong” with Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion and support NATO allies — again all in stark contrast to Trump’s isolationist stance.

    On the hugely divisive issue of Israel’s war in Gaza, Harris went further than the rhetoric of her boss Biden by calling the scale of suffering in the Palestinian enclave “heartbreaking”.

    She vowed to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and cheers erupted when she vowed “self-determination” for the Palestinian people.

    Pro-Palestinian protesters have demonstrated throughout the Democratic convention, with several thousands rallying outside it again on Thursday.

    ‘Ready on day one’

    The Democrats have been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm since Harris stepped up. She has wiped out former president Trump’s lead in the polls, drawn enormous crowds and raised record funds.

    The torch having well and truly been passed, Biden gave a farewell speech on the first day of the convention and said he had called Harris to wish her luck.

    “I am proud to watch my partner Kamala Harris accept our nomination for president. She will be an outstanding president because she is fighting for our future,” Biden, who is on holiday in California, said on X.

    Barack Obama, who along with his wife Michelle delivered rousing support for Harris at the convention on Tuesday, said Harris had “showed the world what I have known to be true.

    “She is ready on day one to be President and represents the best of America. Let’s get to work.”

    Yet Democrats will also be trying to temper their hopes.

    Harris told reporters after her speech that the Democrats were the “underdogs” in the election, with a nail-biting sprint to November against a combative opponent.

    As he struggles to recalibrate his own campaign, Trump is increasingly resorting to personal insults, racially charged attacks, and dark rhetoric.

    He gave a play-by-play commentary on Harris’s speech on his Truth social platform, accusing her of making the United States a “failing nation” while part of the Biden administration.

    “She’s done nothing for three and a half years but talk, and that’s what she’s doing tonight, she’s complaining about everything but doing nothing!” he wrote.

  • Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    United States Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now running for candidacy in the upcoming presidential election, has asserted that she will not remain “silent” on the suffering in Gaza.

    “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said while speaking to reporters following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.

    At the same time, she maintained that “Israel has a right to defend itself”, deeming Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organisation” that led to the “war” and had carried out ‘“horrific acts of sexual violence”.

    Harris later added that “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies [in Gaza]. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

    She also urged the creation of a Palestinian state, further calling for Netanyahu and Hamas to accord a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end a war that has killed “far too many” civilians.

    “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” she said.

  • ‘kamala IS brat’: Pop world backs Harris

    ‘kamala IS brat’: Pop world backs Harris

    The pop world has coalesced rapidly around Kamala Harris’s last-minute candidacy, as the US vice president gets a boost from an online explosion of videos mixing her speeches with hit songs.

    Janelle Monae, John Legend and Charli XCX are among the star musicians who have publicly backed Harris, along with myriad Hollywood endorsements including from George Clooney, Viola Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Robert De Niro.

    Even Beyonce — who is known to strictly guard clearance of her music — reportedly has approved the Harris campaign to use her song “Freedom” on the trail.

    The megastar’s mother, Tina Knowles, quickly backed the now-presumptive Democratic nominee Harris after President Joe Biden’s late-stage election exit.

    Fans have been posting remixes of Harris speeches and interviews — her idiosyncratic phrasings frequently catch meme fire and the past week have been aflame — with music by pop artists of the moment, including star of the summer Charli XCX, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan.

    It helps that Harris is eminently memeable; plenty of videos show her dancing with physical comedy bordering on slapstick.

    The internet used to mash up those kooky moments to diss the 59-year-old VP — but since Biden’s campaign plummeted following his disastrous debate, the videos appear to be bolstering her presence, notably among chronically online young voters.

    Celebrities have also gotten on board, capturing the marketing moment in the inextricably linked worlds of music and social media while also leaning into Harris’s candidacy.

    British artist Charli XCX in particular has seen her smash album “brat” become core to the early online Harris campaign.

    The “brat summer” meme was already alive and well before Harris became associated with it.

    The trend emphasizes an aesthetic and lifestyle inspired by Charli’s club album that offers a heavy dose of party-girl energy with undertones of youthful anxiety.

    When fans began applying the inescapable lime-green “brat” filter to Kamala Harris images, Charli XCX voiced approval.

    “kamala IS brat,” the 31-year-old pop star posted, a sign-off the Harris campaign quickly embraced.

    In its transition from Biden to Harris, the campaign’s official X account also rebranded as brat-coded, with its cover photo mimicking the album’s neon-green — “Shrek-colored,” as the internet likes to call it — and lo-resolution JPEG vibe.

    Katy Perry, whose anthemic “Roar” was frequently played on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, also pushed her latest single “Woman’s World” while backing Harris.

    She posted a montage clip of Harris with a remix of her song and the now famous “coconut tree” quote that’s also made the presidential hopeful an internet star.

    “It’s a woman’s world, and you’re lucky to be living in it,” sings Perry.

    Cardi B reminded fans she had already said Harris should replace Biden, whom she supported in 2020 after initially backing the socialist-leaning Senator Bernie Sanders.

    Shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal, the Bronx rapper reposted a video she’d made prior in which she says Harris should be the Democratic flag-bearer.

    “STOP PLAYING WIT ME!!!!” she wrote in her caption accompanying the clip, emphasizing her self-proclaimed prescience.

    “Told y’all Kamala should’ve been the 2024 candidate. Y’all be trying to play the Bronx education, baby this what I do!!! Been my passion.. don’t let my accent fool y’all.”

    Cardi B had previously indicated that she wasn’t planning to vote when Biden was the nominee — she did not make clear whether her stance had changed now that Harris was the presumed candidate.

  • After Rupi Kaur, several prominent South Asian celebrities chose to boycott White House Diwali event

    After Rupi Kaur, several prominent South Asian celebrities chose to boycott White House Diwali event

    South-Asian poet Rupi Kaur went viral on social media on Tuesday when she announced that she had refused o attend a Diwali celebration being held at the White House. In an open letter, the poetess condemned President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over their complicity in the on-going Gaza genocide, adding she will not be used as a token to white-wash their crimes. She further urged her fellow South Asian colleagues to also refuse to participate in the White House event.

    READ MORE: Poet Rupi Kaur rejects White House invitation for Diwali citing ‘genocide’ of Palestinians

    Wall Street Journal has reported that more South Asian celebrities have boycotted the White House event. This includes ‘Never Have I Ever’ actress Richa Moorjani, who also signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire along with fellow actor Poorna Jagannathan. Journalist Sabrina Siddiqui shared screenshots of the article on her Instagram account.

    TikTok influencer Payal Desai, who has more than 293K followers on the platform, as well as prominent desi magazine Brown Girl Magazine, were among those who rejected the invite.

    Speaking to Siddiqui, tech entrepreneur and investor Anjula Acharia revealed she had declined the invite to Vice President Kamala Haris’ Diwali party, as had filmmaker Shruti Ganguly.

    “At this very moment, at a time of war, I find that their specifically one-sided stance is creating even more devastation,” Shruti responded. “The fact that there is little or no support or acknowledgement of the pain that Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims are facing at this moment, it’s really been disappointing.”

  • Pakistani-American lobbyist, who donated for Trump and Kamala Harris, jailed for 12 years

    The American Federal Court in California has convicted a Pakistani-American political donor for violation of the Foreign Act, awarding him twelve years in prison along with a hefty penalty of $15.705 million in restitution and $1.75 million in criminal fine.

    According to The News, 50-year-old Imaad Shah Zuberi of Arcadia was sentenced by US District Judge Virginia A Phillips for forging records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US officials, evading the payment of millions of dollars in taxes, making illegal campaign contributions, and obstructing a federal investigation into the source of donations to a presidential inauguration committee.

    Zuberi was born in Pakistan and migrated to the US with his parents when he was just three-years-old. Eventually, he secured US citizenship.

    In 1996, Zuberi served in the US Army for about six months and was honourably discharged after sustaining a knee injury. He received a BSc in 1997 from the University of Southern California and an MBA in 2006 from Stanford University.

    The Pakistani-origin man was facing charges of donating $900,000 to the Trump inaugural committee. He was also a top fundraiser for former president Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, Dawn reported.

    He donated at least $100,000 for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and also raised funds for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in 2014, and then-California attorney general Kamala Harris, now vice president, in 2015.

    In November 2019, Zuberi pleaded guilty to a three-count information charging him with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by making false statements on a FARA filing, tax evasion, and making illegal campaign contributions.

    In June 2020, Zuberi pleaded guilty in a separate case to one count of obstruction of justice. His sentence today pertains to both cases.

    “The violations were part of a larger surreptitious effort to route foreign money into US elections and to use it to corrupt the US policy-making processes,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

    They also pleaded the court to reject Zuberi’s claim that funnelling money to influence US policy-making and elections was the “way America works”.

    “Zuberi turned acting as an unregistered foreign agent into a business enterprise,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers, adding, “He used foreign money to fund illegal campaign contributions that bought him political influence, and used that influence to lobby US officials for policy changes on behalf of numerous foreign principals.”

    “Zuberi flouted federal laws that restrict foreign influences upon our government and prohibit injecting foreign money into our political campaigns. He enriched himself by defrauding his clients and evading the payment of taxes,” said Acting US Attorney Tracy L Wilkison for the Central District of California.

    “Today’s sentence, which also accounts for Zuberi’s attempt to obstruct an investigation into his felonious conduct, underscores the importance of our ongoing efforts to maintain transparency in U.S. elections and policy-making processes.”