COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has agreed to pay $74,000 in fines to resolve dozens of charges that he violated state ethics laws with his campaign spending and travel, including a taxpayer-funded rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, the State Ethics Commission said Thursday.
The commission brought the 37 civil charges against the Republican last year. Sanford, who is term-limited and will leave office in January, still could face criminal charges.
Sanford said in a statement he thinks he would have been vindicated if the commission had heard the case, but didn’t want to continue what he called "an endless media circus."
Scrutiny of Sanford’s travel started over the summer, when the then-married governor vanished for five days after telling some staff he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail. He was actually in Argentina, and he returned to tearfully confess a yearlong affair with a woman he later told The Associated Press was his soul mate.
Clinton, Russian envoy clash
MOSCOW — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Russian counterpart clashed openly Thursday over the planned launch this summer of Iran’s first, Russian-built nuclear power plant, highlighting a split in views over how to steer Iran away from nuclear weapons.
Clinton did not criticize the long-delayed project directly but said the Obama administration is opposed to the timing of the nuclear plant’s startup. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the summer startup plans on Thursday, shortly after Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.
The nuclear plant is an example of Russian-Iranian economic ties and technical cooperation, on terms that have long made the United States uncomfortable. It was a background issue during a difficult period in U.S.-Russian relations last year and in the ongoing U.S.-led effort to bring new United Nations economic penalties against Iran over suspicions that part of its nuclear program is aimed at building a bomb.
Dent: ‘Jihad Jane’ helped in probe
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania congressman says the U.S. terrorism suspect known as “Jihad Jane” cooperated in an international probe of radical Muslims.
Republican Rep. Charles Dent says his information about Colleen LaRose is based on meetings with the FBI and other briefings.
The 46-year-old LaRose lives in Dent’s district in Pennsburg in eastern Pennsylvania and is accused of conspiring with jihadist fighters and pledging to murder a Swedish artist.
Colleen LaRose pleaded not guilty Thursday to the four-count indictment in federal court in Philadelphia. The judge set a May 3 trial date on charges in the indictment, unsealed last week.
LaRose, 46, was accused of conspiring with fighters overseas and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war, or jihad. She was arrested Oct. 15 returning to Philadelphia from Europe and was swiftly jailed.
— From wire reports
