Congress
Espaillat sues Manhattan Dem leader over attempted expulsion
NEW YORK — In a serious escalation of a long-running political feud, Manhattan Democratic Party Chair Keith Wright scheduled a vote on whether to expel Rep. Adriano Espaillat and three allies from their roles as district leaders.
The move toward an expulsion vote comes after an ethics report found the member of Congress tried to cheat in an election for a party position in 2023.
Now Espaillat has filed a lawsuit to block the Thursday vote, saying the report was politically motivated and invalid since the Manhattan Democrats’ ethics committee chair actually lives in Westchester County.
“The Ethics Committee has operated as an arm of a factional political agenda,” Espaillat’s attorney Ali Najmi wrote in the suit filed Monday. “County Leader Keith Wright has demonstrated a long-standing hostility towards Congressman Adriano Espaillat.”
The situation is inflaming longstanding tensions between Espaillat and Wright — and threatens to weaken Espaillat’s hold on his local base of power.
Wright’s side is downplaying the controversy, saying the party is just following a process and Espaillat is overplaying his hand.
“It’s just another ridiculous thing in a long history of Adriano not paying attention to the bigger things in life,” Manhattan Dems Executive Director Kyle Ishmael said in an interview. “He’s paying attention to whatever small fight he can pick with Keith [Wright] or some proxy battle. It’s ridiculous and unnecessary.”
Espaillat and Wright have been locked in a heated rivalry for more than a decade. In 2012, and again in 2014, then-Assemblymember Wright stood with former Rep. Charlie Rangel when Espaillat challenged the veteran congressmember’s reelection. When Rangel retired and picked Wright as his successor, Espaillat ran against Wright and won. The battle turned ugly, with accusations of racist voter suppression, and became a referendum on the Upper Manhattan district’s African-American population in Harlem, represented by Wright, versus the growing Dominican population centered in Washington Heights, represented by Espaillat. The tensions have continued, with Espaillat and Wright regularly finding themselves backing candidates on the opposite sides of elections big and small.
It was a small election that kicked off the saga resulting in the lawsuit. Espaillat and three aligned district leaders backed Assemblymember Harvey Epstein for county chair over Wright’s pick, Nico Minerva in October 2023. County chair is the number two position in the party, behind the leader. But Manhattan is a reform party organization, where the leadership holds relatively little power over the party.
Minerva ended up narrowly winning the vote, but accusations flew that Espaillat and his fellow district leaders — Assemblymember Manny De Los Santos, Maria Morillo and Mariel De La Cruz — had tried to cheat by reporting that Minerva didn’t get a single vote from their district’s county committee members when he had actually received 23 votes. Espaillat and others denied wrongdoing, blaming the mixup on procedural issues caused by Wright’s party leaders.
The county party’s ethics committee opened an investigation last year and released a report Feb. 10, 2025 finding that Espaillat and his allies “intentionally misreported votes” which “constituted a deliberate attempt to suppress votes for Minerva.” The report also found Espaillat and allies violated other party rules at the meeting and “engaged in obstruction and intimidation.” The ethics committee offered three options for the party’s district leaders: permanently expelling Espaillat, De Los Santos, Morillo and De La Cruz as district leaders; suspending them for ten years; or adding two additional district leader seats in Espaillat’s home Assembly district that could not be held by members of his political club.
The roughly 70 district leaders are volunteers with limited formal powers, but expulsion could limit Espaillat’s influence in the party — and would keep him from ever becoming county leader, a job that some suspect he would like to take away from Wright.
After Wright announced the report would be discussed at the party meeting Thursday, Espaillat filed the suit, asking a judge to block the party from taking action on the report.
The suit notes that two of the five members of the ethics committee have publicly dissented with the report, and that a third, Chair Denny Salas, actually lives in Westchester County, which would make him ineligible for a party position in Manhattan.
“It is inherently problematic — and unethical — for someone who no longer is legally qualified to be registered as a voter in New York County to deceive members of the (county party) and then attempt to oversee ethical standards and compliance within the Manhattan Democratic Party,” Najmi, the attorney, wrote in the suit.
Najmi provided video of Salas, who works as a lobbyist with Gotham Government Relations, answering the door at his home in the village of Ossining and saying he had not lived at his previous address in Manhattan for two years.
Salas declined to immediately comment on the suit and his residency. Wright’s spokesperson denied the party leader was using the report to hurt Espaillat.
“It’s not a Keith Wright report, it’s not a Keith Wright ethics committee. Because the whole party had to vote on the ethics committee,” Ishmael said. “We’re going to continue following the process, which includes at least discussing the report on Thursday.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) declined to respond directly Wednesday to Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to denounce his former son-in-law Rep. Max Miller over abuse accusations leveled by Moreno’s daughter: “These aren’t accusations in my world,” he said.
“In my world, this is the reality,” Moreno told reporters at the Capitol. “This is not something that is theoretical to me. This is my lived reality of my daughter and my family every single solitary day.”
In an interview with Dasha Burns for Blue Light News’s The Conversation, Johnson declined to take sides in the dispute between Miller (R-Ohio) and Emily Moreno. He called for a House Ethics probe to “play out.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s expected choice for Army chief of staff faces resistance that could imperil his confirmation, according to the chair of the panel that needs to approve it.
Senate Armed Services head Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Wednesday that he was aware of “some opposition within the committee” to acting Army chief of staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve taking the job on a permanent basis.
LaNeve, previously Hegseth’s senior military aide, was confirmed as Army vice chief of staff in January. But he has also served as acting chief of staff since April when Hegseth forced out popular Gen. Randy George, a move that drew widespread criticism from lawmakers in both parties.
Wicker said he was “not able to predict right now” if lawmakers could address concerns about LaNeve. He did not specify whether the concerns were raised by Republicans, but GOP resistance is likely given that nominees could advance through the committee on a party-line vote.
LaNeve has only held the position of four-star general for six months, an anomaly for the the senior most Army officer.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about Republican opposition to LaNeve, citing Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) concerns about his lack of experience at the four-star rank.
Ernst, in an interview, did not dispute that she was the source of the holdup. But she called it a moot point as President Donald Trump has not yet formally nominated LaNeve to the position. And she disputed reports that LaNeve’s lack of experience was the sticking point.
“I don’t think that time and grade has anything to do with leadership ability, so I don’t know how that came about, honestly.” she said. “That’s not what I’ve told anyone.”
If the opposition continues, Trump could decide to leave LeNeve in the acting position indefinitely.
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship11 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words