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I try to like people, but John Kasich represents a real challenge. The guy really rubs me the wrong way. Somehow, in the midst of all the Tillerson-Pompeo talk, Kasich turned up on MSNBC this morning. Speaking of the special election in Pennsylvania today, Kasich bragged about having been elected to Congress at age 30. That, according to Kasich, makes 33-year old Dem candidate Conor Lamb “a little old.” Kasich made his 2020 strategy pretty clear, saying that the emergence of third parties “is more realistic than it’s ever been.” When host Stephanie Ruhle asked him flat out if he...

"Today, in the interests of justice and based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week, the Office moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique with the May 2001 murder of Chandra Levy," the office’s public information officer, Bill Miller, said in a statement. In the statement, the office said it can no longer prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ingmar killed Levy.

Another woman has come forward to accuse Al Franken of sexual harassment: A former Democratic congressional aide said Al Franken tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, three years before he became a U.S. senator. The aide, whose name POLITICO is withholding to protect her identity, said Franken (D-Minn.) pursued her after her boss had left the studio. She said she was gathering her belongings to follow her boss out of the room. When she turned around, Franken was in her face. The former staffer ducked to avoid Franken’s lips. As she hastily...

A woman accused who accused former Rep. John Conyers (R-Mich.) of sexual misconduct said Conyers brought up slain Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy after she rejected advances from him when she was an intern. Courtney Morse told The Washington Post Conyers told her one night he was interested in a sexual relationship and held her hand in her lap after driving her home. Morse said when she rejected his advances, Conyers brought up Levy's case. “He said he had insider information on the case. I don’t know if he meant it to be threatening, but I took it...

A former congressional intern reportedly says she too was a victim of inappropriate sexual contact by now-retired Rep. John Conyers, saying Conyers even claimed during that encounter to have “inside information” on then-missing federal intern Chandra Levy. Courtney Morse, 36, described the incident from 16 years ago to The Washington Post. She said Conyers, D-Mich., mentioned the Levy case when Morse was a college intern for him and the congressman drove her home one night. Morse said Conyers wrapped his hand around hers while it was in her lap and said he was interested in a sexual relationship, the newspaper...

One of the issues in the recent Virginia election was the Salvadoran MS-13 gang which thrives in the state, practically outnumbering the police in some counties. MS-13 is not a new arrival in the region, and one of its members, Ingmar Guandique, is the only person ever convicted for the murder of Chandra Levy of Modesto, California. In 2001, the University of Southern California graduate, 24, was living in Washington and working as an intern at the federal Bureau of Prisons. On May 1, 2001, Levy disappeared without a trace. Fingers quickly pointed at congressman Gary Condit, 53, a Modesto...

Armando Morales was a gang leader, drug dealer and a jailhouse snitch. But he was also a commanding, dynamic presence on the witness stand when he told jurors that his cellmate, Ingmar Guandique, confessed to the murder of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Jurors believed Morales, and prosecutors obtained a conviction against Guandique at his 2010 trial despite lacking a confession, witnesses or DNA evidence. They obtained a conviction even though everyone knew that police had initially suspected another man, former California congressman Gary Condit. But for the last five years, while Guandique was imprisoned on what was to have been...

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, DC on Thursday moved to dismiss the case -- and a retrial -- against Ingmar Guandique, the illegal immigrant previously convicted of murdering intern Chandra Levy in May 2001, citing "unforeseen developments." Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, is set to be released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal proceedings. The 2010 conviction of Guandique -- and the 60-year prison sentenced imposed on him at the time -- was vacated and a new trial was ordered in 2015 based on what Guandique's defense team said was new evidence. "Today, in the...

Defense attorneys for a man convicted of killing former Washington intern Chandra Levy are making clear that at his second trial, they plan to offer jurors evidence pointing to former California Congressman Gary Condit. Levy’s 2001 disappearance created a national sensation after the 24-year-old was romantically linked with Condit, a Democrat

Gary Condit accused of lying during trial for man convicted of murdering his former lover Chandra Levy A lawyer for a man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy said on Friday that former California Congressman Gary Condit, who was romantically linked to Levy, misled the jury when he testified during the man's trial. Ingmar Guandique's attorney Eugene Ohm made the allegation during a court hearing ahead of Guandique's scheduled March re-trial. Ohm said that notes of an interview that authorities did with Condit after Levy's disappearance show that Condit, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1989 to 2003,...

The circumstances surrounding Levy's death were unclear for eight years. On March 3, 2009, D.C. authorities obtained a warrant to arrest Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Levy's disappearance. Prosecutors alleged that Guandique had attacked and tied up Levy in a remote area of the park and left her to die of dehydration or exposure.

A D.C. judge on Thursday granted a new trial to the man convicted of killing federal intern Chandra Levy in 2001, but prosecutors face steep challenges after acceding to the defense request to retry the case, attorneys and legal experts said. D.C. Superior Court Judge Gerald I. Fisher, who presided over the 2010 trial that sentenced Ingmar Guandique, 34, to 60 years in prison, set aside the verdict and agreed to bring the case before a new judge and jury. “Unless there is something else to be said, I would grant the motion for a new trial,” Fisher said in...

A man convicted of killing Washington DC intern Chandra Levy fourteen years ago is expected to get a new trial after government attorneys on Friday said the 'interests of justice' would best be served by one. On Friday, after more than a year of sporadic hearings and legal wrangling, government attorneys made a stunning legal decision and withdrew their opposition to a new trial for El Salvador native Ingmar Guandique, 33. In a four-page motion, they told a judge they were preparing to retry him after doubts have emerged about the testimony of his one-time cellmate. Guandique's attorneys had previously...

Conservatives in the Ohio House this week blocked a move widely viewed as an attempt by Governor John Kasich to set aside money he could later spend on Medicaid expansion without legislative approval. The version of House Bill 483 (HB 483) passed by the Ohio Senate included a last-minute change to move as much as $300 million in surplus state revenue to the state Medicaid Reserve Fund. Legislators feared this was an effort by the Kasich Administration to circumvent the General Assembly for spending on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion when an existing appropriation expires in mid-2015. ... Kasich, a Republican,...

The November 2010 testimony of Morales helped convict Ingmar Guandique, the man charged with killing Levy in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park in May 2001. Levy’s death occurred shortly before she was to return to her family’s Modesto, Calif., home, and her disappearance drew national attention following speculation and then revelations that she had been having an affair with then-Rep. Gary Condit. A former cellmate of Guandique, Morales testified that the younger inmate had confessed to him that he had killed Levy. Guandique was sentenced to 60 years following his conviction in 2010 on first-degree murder charges Guandique’s defense attorneys,...

WASHINGTON -- A judge has been holding secret hearings in the case of the man convicted in the 2001 killing of Chandra Levy, the latest twist in a high-profile murder that went unsolved for years and captivated the public because of the intern's romantic relationship with a California congressman. The meetings, held sporadically behind closed doors at the courthouse over the last several weeks, raise questions about what comes next in a criminal case that appeared resolved by the 2010 conviction of Ingmar Guandique. The illegal immigrant from El Salvador is now serving a 60-year prison sentence in Levy's death,...

A judge is holding secret hearings in the case of the man convicted in the 2001 killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers have revealed the purpose of the hearings, which have been taking place in Washington behind closed doors. Several media organizations, including The Associated Press, are petitioning to open the proceedings. The next hearing takes place on February 7. Ingmar Guandique was convicted in 2010 of killing Levy, whose body was found in Washington's Rock Creek Park. The case captured the nation's attention because of Levy's relationship with California congressman Gary Condit. Condit was...

The conservative blogger who first broke the Anthony Weiner scandal revealed today he has an X-rated picture of the shamed congressman - and will release it if the Democrat attempts reprisals against him. Andrew Breitbart admitted he considers the image an 'insurance policy' against any future 'jihad' from the congressman, and claimed he could have ended Mr Weiner's career if he had chosen to publish it previously. The political commentator dramatically stole the show at Mr Weiner's press conference yesterday, hijacking it just before the disgraced politician was due to appear. Insurance policy: In an appearance on the Today show...

... and thus began a whirlwind of sensationalist media coverage the likes of which we had never seen before. R.I.P., Chandra.