A federal judge sentenced a Massachusetts lawyer to 10 years in prison for paying a hitman to murder his ex-wife.

Allen Gessen, 49, was convicted of murder for hire after evidence revealed he tried to hire an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a contract killer, to murder his former partner and mother of his two children, Priscilla Chigariro.

He and Chigariro were embroiled in a long-running dispute that led to a contentious custody proceeding, federal prosecutors said.

Gessen’s murder plot began to take shape in the summer of 2022, when he began dating the undercover agent and sharing details of his failing co-parenting relationship. He thought the agent was an assassin with extensive government connections that he wanted to use to get rid of Chigariro and gain full custody of his children.

Gessen originally planned to illegally deport Chigariro from the U.S. and wanted to pay the agent $100,000 to arrange the deportation. He then realized that murder was a “cheaper way to get rid of her” and a more everlasting solution.

He admitted to the agent that he had already tried to hire someone to kill Chigariro once. Prosecutors said he paid a hit team from a foreign country to go to Massachusetts, conduct reconnaissance and surveil her. When the team told him it might cost one other $210,000 to commit the murder, Gessen called it off.

Gessen paid the secret agent a deposit of $25,000 in the form of a $2,000 gold coin and an amount of $23,000 by wire transfer to a checking account in San Francisco. He planned to pay one other $25,000 after carrying out the murder. He entered into a written agreement with the agent detailing false “advisory services” to mask the true nature of the funds, after which sent the agent details of his former partner’s whereabouts, schedule and lifestyle.

A federal grand jury indicted Gessen in July 2022. He was a licensed attorney in New York at the time. Chigariro said she was shocked when FBI agents arrived at her home after Gessen was charged.

“I can’t even describe how I felt in that moment,” Chigariro said in January 2023. a series of videos on YouTube tells the story of his marriage. “I just remember this feeling… I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like I stopped feeling anything. I was very confused. I couldn’t digest it. I couldn’t understand it. You didn’t want to sink into it.”

In the five-episode vlog series, Chigariro said that she and Gessen lived in Zimbabwe, where she was a model for a time, and in Russia after they were together. She indicated that there was violence on this relationship and recalled one time when Gessen hit her so hard that she “passed out.” There were also longer periods when Gessen kept her son away from her.

After a week-long trial in May 2023, a federal jury found Gessen guilty. After serving his sentence, he’ll spend three years on supervised release.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Without wielding a gavel and holding a proper role outlined in the Constitution, Republican Hakeem Jeffries could be the most powerful person in Congress today.

Jeffries, the Democratic House Minority Leader, secured the votes needed to maintain the government running despite opposition from House Republicans to avert a federal government shutdown.

Jeffries, who made sure Democrats honored their commitments and sent $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and other U.S. allies.

And Jeffries, who, with the entire House Democratic leadership behind him, decided this week that his party would help Speaker Mike Johnson stay in office quite than be forced from office by far-right Republicans led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“How powerful is Jeffries now?” said Jeffery Jenkins, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California who has written extensively about Congress. “That’s significant power.”

The decision by Jeffries and a team of House Democratic leaders to forged votes to stop Johnson’s ouster marks a powerful turning point in a protracted political season of dysfunction, gridlock and chaos in Congress.

By declaring that it’s enough that it’s time to “turn the page” on the Republican confusion, the Democratic leader is flexing his power in a really public and timely way, trying to point out lawmakers and everybody else who watches in horror at a broken Congress that there can be alternative approach to governance.

“From the very beginning of this Congress, House Republicans have witnessed chaos, dysfunction and extremism among the American people,” Jeffries said Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Jeffries said that since House Republicans are “unwilling or unable” to take control of “extreme MAGA Republicans,” “a bipartisan coalition and partnership will be necessary to achieve this goal. We need more common sense in Washington and less chaos.”

In the House, the minority leader is commonly viewed as the speaker in waiting, the highest-ranking official of a celebration out of power, biding his time in hopes of regaining the majority — and with it the speaker’s gavel — in the next election. Elected by his own party, it’s a job without much formal basis.

But in Jeffries’ case, the position of minority leader has gained enormous strength, filling the political void left by the real speaker, Johnson, who governs a fragile, thread-thin Republican majority and is under constant threat from far-right provocateurs that the GOP Speaker cannot fully control.

“He serves as shadow speaker on all important votes,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

While Johnson still wields the powerful tools of the Speaker’s office, a constitutionally mandated job that’s second in line of succession to the presidency, the Republican-led House has endured a tumultuous session of infighting and upheaval that has left its goals and priorities stalled.

In a fit of discontent just months after winning the majority, far-right Republicans ousted the previous speaker, now-retired Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., last fall in a never-before-seen act of partisan defiance. He refused to specifically ask Democrats for help.

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Johnson faces the same threat of removal, but Jeffries sees Johnson as a more honest broker and potential partner he’s willing to support not less than temporarily — although Johnson also hasn’t openly asked for any help from the other side of the aisle. A vote on Greene’s motion to fireplace the speaker is anticipated next week.

While Johnson approaches Donald Trump and receives the nod of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Jeffries has what Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a retired speaker, called the “currency of the realm” – that’s, votes – which might be required in the House to bring about any order. session until the end.

Pelosi said in an interview that Jeffries has “always had influence” as minority leader due to his slim majority in the House.

“But it’s a matter of whether he shows that he wants to take advantage of it,” she said.

Jeffries said she “masterfully” secured Democratic priorities, especially humanitarian aid in a foreign aid package that was initially opposed by Republicans.

However, Pelosi disagreed with the concept that Democrats would support Johnson at this point, creating some recent era of coalitions in American politics.

“Our House functions because we want things to function in a bipartisan way,” she said. “He doesn’t necessarily save Speaker Johnson – he upholds the dignity of the institution.”

Jeffries is a quiet, confident operator who’s positioning himself and his party as purveyors of democratic norms amid the Republican thunderstorm of Trump-era disruption.

Jeffries, the first Black American to guide a political party in Congress, is already a historic figure whose stature will only increase if he’s elected first to wield the gavel as Speaker of the House.

Born in Brooklyn, Jeffries, 53, has steadily risen through the New York state political ranks after which onto the national stage as a charismatic next-generation leader, elected to Congress in 2012 from districts once represented by one other historic legislator, Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to Congress.

Jeffries, a former corporate lawyer, can be known for his sharp oratory, drawing on his upbringing at the historic Black Cornerstone Baptist Church, a spiritual home for a lot of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of enslaved African Americans who fled to Brooklyn from the American South. But he also gives his speeches and remarks a contemporary sensitivity and rhythm, connecting generations.

Last yr, when Republicans did not muster votes on the procedural stage of a budget and debt agreement, it was Jeffries who stood intently at his desk in the House chamber and held up his ballot to signal to Democrats that it was time to step up motion and deliver.

Jeffries has repeatedly asserted that Democratic votes would prevent a federal government shutdown. And last month, when Johnson faced an all-out right-wing Republican revolt over Ukraine aid, Jeffries stepped in again, asserting that Democrats had more votes than Republicans to get the bill through.

Heading into the November elections, each parties are battling for political survival and control in the narrowly divided House, and Jeffries would definitely face his own challenges leading Democrats in the event that they were to win a divided majority on many key issues.

But each Jeffries and Johnson have gone across the country raising money and enthusiasm for his or her party’s candidates ahead of November, with the GOP speaker attempting to keep his job and the Democratic leader waiting to take it.

Members of the West Augustine community are unhappy with Central Florida Rep. Bruce Antone’s online comments about St. Augustine and town’s proposed location for the statewide Florida Black History Museum.

Part of the post read: “They decided that a former slave plantation, a constant reminder of slavery, poverty and suffering, was an appropriate site for a museum to commemorate the achievements and achievements of Black people and Caribbean immigrants.”

West Augustine Redevelopment Agency President Robert Nimmons expressed disappointment with Antone’s statement on Facebook, which said Northeast Florida politicians were trying to “steal and cooperate with my project and vision for my Black History museum.”

According to Central Florida Rep. posted his thoughts a day after a gathering in Tallahassee to evaluate the 4 finalist cities where the museum is positioned.

“When I saw the Facebook post, it took me back,” Nimmons said. “It was very disappointing when I saw it.”

Antone said that “political leaders in Northeast Florida” want to “build a small $20 million slavery museum on a former slave plantation (i.e. Kingsley Plantation) in St. Augustine, Florida,” which he says is “not easily accessible.” Antone criticized Black leaders who support what he described as a “silly, whitewashed” museum and stated that their $20 million project devalues ​​Black History compared to his concept of constructing a $75-100 million world-class museum in Orlando , which showcases and celebrates Black and Caribbean communities.

The place proposed by St. Augustine is owned by Florida Memorial University and, according to Antone, was previously a slave plantation, a fact confirmed by local historian David Nolan, who revealed that the plantation was owned by Colonel John Hanson before the Civil War.

“The disturbing truth about the property’s past supports the case for moving the museum to St. Johns,” said Regina Gayle Philips of the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force:

The task force placed St. Augustine among the many 4 most incessantly chosen museum locations, together with Eatonville, where Antone serves as a state representative. Exhibition concepts will include Black achievements in science, engineering, technology, African civilizations and architecture.

West Augustine’s response resulted in Antone’s post being faraway from Facebook. A gathering is scheduled for May 24 to determine the ultimate location of the museum.