CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African police were investigating Tuesday if former President Jacob Zuma's new political party forged supporters' signatures to register for national elections next month.
The MK Party, which has been highly critical of the ruling African National Congress he used to lead, has been embroiled in legal cases over whether it and Zuma are eligible to contest the May 29 national and provincial elections. They could be the most pivotal in South Africa in the last 30 years.
The MK Party had its registration last year rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission before a second attempt was successful. Zuma was ruled ineligible to stand as a candidate for Parliament because of his criminal conviction for contempt of court and prison sentence in 2021, but an appeal was successful and a final Constitutional Court ruling comes next month.
The new investigation into the MK Party came after a national newspaper reported Sunday that a former party official has told police there was an elaborate scheme to forge some of the 15,000 signatures required for parties to register for the elections.
The Independent Electoral Commission called for an investigation, and National Police Commissioner Gen. Fannie Masemola said Tuesday that an inquiry had been opened in Cape Town, where the forgery allegedly occurred. Masemola said the investigation would establish if there was a case for prosecutors.
Zuma rocked South African politics when he announced in December that he was joining the MK Party as its de facto leader and would be campaigning against the ANC, which he led from 2007-2017. Zuma was president of South Africa from 2009-2018 but was forced to step down by the ANC amid corruption allegations.
Zuma is accused of overseeing a period of rampant graft by some senior ANC and government officials in Africa’s most developed economy. He is currently on trial for corruption, although that case has been held up for three years by legal delays.
Since his resignation, he has been fiercely critical of President Cyril Ramaphosa, his successor as head of the country and the ANC.
Next month's election could be the most important since the ANC came to power at the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994. Numerous polls and analysts predict that the ANC could lose its parliamentary majority for the first time amid growing discontent and be forced into a coalition to stay in government.
Despite his legal troubles, Zuma remains popular in some parts of South Africa and his new MK Party is expected to take some of the ANC's vote if it's allowed to stand after the new allegations against it.
The MK Party is likely to be disqualified from the elections if it is found to have forged signatures.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - Former South African President Jacob Zuma addresses supporters of the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) in Durban, South Africa, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. South African police are investigating if former President Jacob Zuma’s new political party forged supporters’ signatures to register for national elections next month. (AP Photo, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A defense witness in Donald Trump's hush money case whom the judge threatened to remove from the trial over his behavior will return to the stand Tuesday as the trial nears its end.
Trump's lawyers are hoping Robert Costello's testimony will help undermine the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen.
But Costello angered Judge Juan Merchan on Monday by making comments under his breath, rolling his eyes and calling the whole exercise “ridiculous," prompting the judge to briefly kick reporters out of the courtroom to admonish him.
The judge told Costello, a former federal prosecutor, he was being “contemptuous," adding, “If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand," according to a court transcript.
Costello didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday from The Associated Press.
The chaotic scene unfolded after prosecutors rested their case accusing Trump of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign. The criminal trial, the first of a former U.S. president, is in the final stretch, with closing arguments expected the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
The charges stem from internal Trump Organization records in which payments to Cohen were marked as legal expenses. Prosecutors say they were really reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public before the 2016 election with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump. Trump says nothing sexual happened between them.
Trump has said he did nothing illegal and has slammed the case as an effort to hinder his 2024 bid to reclaim the White House. Trump, a Republican, called the judge a "tyrant" in remarks to reporters while leaving the courthouse Monday and called the trial a “disaster” for the country.
After jurors left for the day Monday, defense attorneys pressed the judge to throw out the charges before jurors even begin deliberating, arguing prosecutors have failed to prove their case. The defense has suggested that Trump was trying to protect his family, not his campaign, by squelching what he says were false, scurrilous claims.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that there was nothing illegal about soliciting a tabloid's help to run positive stories about Trump, run negative stories about his opponents and identify potentially damaging stories before they were published. No one involved “had any criminal intent,” Blanche said.
"How is keeping a false story from the voters criminal?” Blanche asked.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo shot back that “the trial evidence overwhelmingly supports each element” of the alleged offenses and said the case should proceed to the jury.
The judge didn't immediately rule on the defense's request. Such long-shot requests are often made in criminal cases but are rarely granted.
The defense called Costello because of his role as an antagonist to Cohen since their professional relationship splintered in spectacular fashion. Costello had offered to represent Cohen soon after the lawyer’s hotel room, office and home were raided and as Cohen faced a decision about whether to remain defiant in the face of a criminal investigation or to cooperate with authorities in hopes of securing more lenient treatment.
Costello in the years since has repeatedly maligned Cohen’s credibility and was even a witness before last year’s grand jury that indicted Trump, offering testimony designed to undermine Cohen's account. In a Fox News Channel interview last week, Costello accused Cohen of lying to the jury and using the case to “monetize” himself.
Costello contradicted Cohen's testimony describing Trump as intimately involved in all aspects of the hush money scheme. Costello told jurors Monday that Cohen told him Trump “knew nothing” about the hush money payment to Daniels.
“Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own, and he repeated that numerous times,” Costello testified.
Cohen, however, testified earlier Monday that he has “no doubt” that Trump gave him a final sign-off to make the payments to Daniels. In total, he said he spoke with Trump more than 20 times about the matter in October 2016.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove told the judge that the defense does not plan to call any other witnesses after Costello, though it may still call campaign finance expert Bradley A. Smith for limited testimony. It has not said definitively that Trump won’t testify, but that’s the clearest indication yet that he will waive his right to take the stand in his own defense.
Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michelle Price in New York; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C.; and Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
Members of the press and public stand outside the courtroom after being asked to leave by Judge Juan Merchan during former President Donald Trump's hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. Judge Juan Merchan briefly kicked reporters out of the courtroom after admonishing defense witness Robert Costello for his behavior on the stand. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Judge Juan Merchan, left, castigates witness Robert Costello about his "decorum" in the courtroom in Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Former President Donald Trump sits in Manhattan Criminal Court during his ongoing hush money trial, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)
Donald Trump, far left, watches as defense attorney Emil Bove questions Robert Costello, right, with Judge Juan Merchan presiding in Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
