Former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon cleared in embezzlement probe that saw her ex-husband charged

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Former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon cleared in embezzlement probe that saw her ex-husband charged

2025-03-21 00:19 Last Updated At：00:21

LONDON (AP) — Nicola Sturgeon, the former leader of Scotland, has been cleared of wrongdoing over the finances of the governing Scottish National Party, police said Thursday. Her ex-husband, the party’s former chief executive, has been charged with embezzlement.

Police Scotland said Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie are no longer under investigation as part of a probe into how more than 600,000 pounds ($780,000) designated for a Scottish independence campaign was spent.

Both were arrested and questioned almost two years ago, and had been released on bail since then.

Sturgeon said it had been difficult to have "this cloud of investigation hanging over me" for almost two years.

“I have done nothing wrong and I don’t think there was a scrap of evidence that I had done anything wrong,” she told reporters outside her Glasgow home. “I’ve been trying to get on with my life and I now intend to do that.”

Former party chief Peter Murrell appeared in an Edinburgh court on Thursday on one count of embezzlement, after being charged in April 2024. Murrell, 60, did not enter a plea and was released on bail while the legal process continues.

Murrell and Sturgeon married in 2010, and announced in January they were divorcing.

Sturgeon, 54, dominated Scottish politics for almost a decade before she unexpectedly resigned in 2023 after eight years as first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government.

Sturgeon led her party to dominance in Scottish politics and refashioned the SNP from a largely one-issue party into a dominant governing force with liberal social positions. She guided her party during three U.K.-wide elections and two Scottish elections, and led Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic, winning praise for her clear, measured communication style.

But Sturgeon left office amid divisions in the SNP without meeting her main goal — independence from the United Kingdom for the nation of 5.5 million people.

Since then, the party has seen its membership fall and its popularity slump. It remains in control of Scotland’s government, but lost most of its seats in the British Parliament in July’s U.K. election, going from 48 lawmakers to just nine.

It is highly unusual for a leader or former leader of a U.K. political party to be arrested, and Sturgeon's arrest shocked the country. The last such case also involved an SNP leader — Sturgeon’s predecessor as first minister, Alex Salmond, was arrested in 2019 and charged with a series of sexual offenses, including attempted rape.

Salmond was acquitted on all 13 charges after a trial in January 2020 and died later that year, in October, aged 69.

In 1979, former Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe went on trial, accused of conspiracy and incitement to murder former model Norman Scott. Scott claimed they had a sexual relationship in the early 1960s, when homosexuality was illegal.

Years later, in 1975, Scott and his dog were attacked on a remote moor, and the Great Dane was shot dead. Thorpe denied involvement and was acquitted. He died in 2014.

Trump makes NCAA men's wrestling championships his latest sports-focused trip

2025-03-23 08:48 Last Updated At：08:50

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump attended the NCAA wrestling championships on Saturday night for the second time in three years, the latest example of how he has mostly limited travel early in his new term to trips built around sports events.

Trump arrived at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to loud cheers and a standing ovation. He pumped his fists amid USA chants.

Penn State was looking to close out its fourth straight men’s team title and Trump stood just off the ring, personally congratulating wrestlers that won their matches.

The Republican president spent Friday night at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, about 70 miles northeast of Philadelphia, on what was his first visit there of his second term.

“We’re going to the big fight. The reason I’m going is in Philadelphia. They have the NCAA, world, wrestling for college. And I’ve always supported the wrestlers,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday evening. “I want to support them. These are the great college wrestlers from the various schools.”

Trump traveled with billionaire and top adviser Elon Musk. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin greeted the president as he arrived at the Philadelphia airport. Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan were also at the arena sitting in the same section as Musk and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

In the two-plus months since returning to the White House, Trump attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida, where his motorcade drove a portion of the track. While president-elect he went to a UFC fight in New York.

That’s more travel for sports than for policy announcements or official duties, though a long January swing took Trump to tour damage from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and wildfires in Los Angeles. He then gave a speech and visited the floor of Las Vegas’ Circa Resort & Casino before heading to Doral, Florida, to address a House Republican policy conference.

Trump has long built his public and political persona around sporting events, and relishes turning up at live events to hear cheers from the crowd, even if some in attendance boo him. He also has signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports — an action which he points to frequently to fire up his core supporters.

The president played football as a student at the New York Military Academy. As a New York businessman in the early 1980s, he owned the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League.

Trump had sued to force a merger of the USFL and the NFL. The USFL eventually folded.

The president has used most Saturdays and Sundays to play golf at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, though he also sometimes remained in Washington to give weekend speeches.

Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Philadelphia and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.