NRLPA:OLIT – Michmutters

Tag: NRLPA:OLIT

Categories
US

Trump solicits donations after FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home

Trump solicits donations after FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to turn the news that the FBI had searched his Florida estate to his benefit, citing the investigation in text messages and emails soliciting political donations from his supporters.

The unprecedented search marked a significant escalation of the federal investigation continues into whether Trump illegally removed records from the White House as he was leaving office in January 2021. Trump to publicly flirt with running again for president in 2024 but has not said clearly whether he will do so

Trump tried to paint the search of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach as a politically motivated move by President Joe Biden’s administration even as the former president plays a key role in Republican primaries ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of the US Congress.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

“They are trying to stop the Republican Party and me once more,” Trump said in a fundraising email on Tuesday. “The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt, must be exposed and stopped.”

Trump launched his Save America political action committee days after losing the 2020 election to Biden. It has more than $100 million in the bank, a formidable war chest. read more

His Republican allies in Congress vowed to launch an investigation of the search itself if they recapture control of the House or Senate in November. House Republicans including Representative Jim Banks were set to meet with Trump at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday. read more

The Justice Department and FBI have declined to comment on or even confirm the search, which Trump disclosed in a statement on Monday.

‘WITHERING SCRUTINY’

The FBI could not have conducted the search without the approval of a judge who confirmed there was probable cause. The request almost certainly also would be approved by FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, and his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was appointed by Biden.

A White House official said Biden was not given advance notice of the search.

“This search warrant in my estimation probably underwent more withering scrutiny than any search warrant in the history of the Department of Justice,” said David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who oversaw prosecutions of national security offenses.

A view of former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home after Trump said that FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Florida, US August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello

The FBI earlier this year visited Trump’s property to investigate boxes in a locked storage room, according to a person familiar with the visit. FBI agents and a Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, spent a day reviewing materials, the source said.

Corcoran did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The search is only an investigative step and does not mean that Trump will face automatically criminal charges, or that he would be found guilty of any wrongdoing.

It is a criminal offense to conceal or destroy government records. Any person convicted of violating a US law called the Government Records Act would be barred from holding federal office and would face a prison term of up to three years.

Legal experts said it is unclear if the disqualification provision is constitutional. The US Constitution sets forth the qualifications for being a president, senator or US representative. Previous Supreme Court rulings have held that Congress cannot limit the list of eligible officeholders.

That means if Trump were to be convicted, he would likely challenge any attempt to disqualify him from serving in office again, perhaps to a US Supreme Court whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices he appointed.

“It is not certain that the bar set forth in the Government Records Act is constitutional,” said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer at the firm Rottenberg Lipman Rich and former federal prosecutor. “It is absolutely there and it would be in all likelihood something that would end up being litigated.”

The documents probe is one of several investigations that have focused on Trump since he left office, weeks after his supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful bid to overturn his election loss. Trump continues to falsely claim that the election was stolen through widespread voting fraud. read more

Trump remains the Republican Party’s most influential voice, though recent polling shows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rising in stature as a potential 2024 candidate.

But Trump has weathered many political scandals and observers said this FBI search could bolster his standing with Republican voters.

“The Biden administration is only adding rocket fuel to Trump’s campaign prospects and energizing his supporters who want him to run again,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington. “There should be more transparency around the decision to have this FBI raid because it looks overly political and allows Trump to say he’s being unfairly attacked.”

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and Karen Freifeld in New York, additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth, Jim Oliphant, Luc Cohen, David Morgan and Steve Holland; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Alistair Bell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

Categories
US

Jury in Alex Jones defamation case begins hearing testimony on punitive damages

Jury in Alex Jones defamation case begins hearing testimony on punitive damages

Aug 5 (Reuters) – Lawyers for parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting began presenting evidence on Alex Jones’s wealth as they seek punitive damages on top of $4.1 million awarded by a Texas jury for the US conspiracy theorist’s false claims that the massacre was a hoax.

Forensic economist Bernard Pettingill on Friday testified on behalf of the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who say they suffered years of harassment after Jones spread falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012.

“He promulgated some hate speech and some misinformation but he made a lot of money and he monetized that,” Pettingill said, describing Jones as a “very successful man.”

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

A 12-person jury on Thursday said Jones must pay the parents $4.1 million in compensatory damages for spreading conspiracy theories about the massacre. That verdict followed a two-week trial in Austin, Texas, where Jones’ radio show and webcast Infowars are based.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis testified that Jones’ followers harassed them for years in the false belief that the parents lied about their son’s death.

Jones sought to distance himself from the conspiracy theories during his testimony, apologizing to the parents and acknowledging that Sandy Hook was “100% real.”

Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

The bankruptcy declaration paused a similar defamation suit by Sandy Hook parents in Connecticut where, as in Texas, he has already been found liable.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller and Mark Porter

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

Categories
US

US charges four Kentucky police officers in Breonna Taylor killing

US charges four Kentucky police officers in Breonna Taylor killing

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – US prosecutors on Thursday charged four current and former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers for their roles in the botched 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was in her home, in a case that sparked nationwide protests.

The charges represented the Justice Department’s latest effort to crack down on abuses and racial disparities in policing, following a wave of controversial police killings of Black Americans.

Former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department Detective Joshua Jaynes and current Sergeant Kyle Meany were charged with civil rights violations and obstruction of justice for using false information to obtain the search warrant that authorized the botched March 13, 2020, raid that killed Taylor in her home, the Justice Department said. Current Detective Kelly Goodlett was charged with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant and then cover up the falsification.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

A fourth officer, former Detective Brett Hankison, was charged with civil rights violations for allegedly using excessive force, US Attorney Merrick Garland said.

“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Garland told a news conference. “The Justice Department is committed to defending and protecting the civil rights of every person in this country. That was this department’s founding purpose, and it remains our urgent mission.”

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was one in a trio of cases that fueled a summer of protests against racial injustice and police violence two years ago, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today was a huge step toward justice,” lawyers for the Taylor family said in a statement following the news.

Louisville police on Thursday began the process of firing Meany and Goodlett, the department said in a statement. Hankison and Jaynes were previously fired by the department.

The Justice Department is also conducting an investigation into whether the Louisville Metro Government and Louisville police engaged in a pattern or practice of abusing residents’ civil rights.

Protesters celebrate after the announcement that the FBI arrested and brought civil rights charges against four current and former Louisville police officers for their roles in the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, in Louisville, Kentucky, US, August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

NO KNOCK RAID

Louisville police were investigating alleged drug trafficking when they broke down the door of Taylor’s home in a “no-knock” raid, leading her boyfriend, who was carrying a legally owned firearm, to shoot at the officers, who then fired 22 shots into the apartment, killing Taylor, prosecutors said.

Hankison, prosecutors said, moved away from the door, firing 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment through a window and a glass door that were covered with blinds and curtains.

Hankison told a Kentucky grand jury that he opened fire once the shooting started. As he saw flashes light up the room, he said, he mistakenly believed one of the occupants was firing an assault-style rifle at his colleagues from him. Instead, mostly what he heard was other police firing their weapons. read more

Prosecutors said Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage days after the shooting to agree on a false story to cover for the false evidence they had submitted to justify the botched raid.

Lawyer Stew Mathews, who represented Hankison at a trial in Jefferson County Circuit Court where he was acquitted in March of wanton endangerment, said he had spoken Thursday morning with the former detective as he was on his way to surrender to the FBI.

Mathews said the federal charges looked similar to the previous state charges Hankison had faced. Until Thursday, Hankison had been the only officer to face charges in connection with the raid.

“I’m sure Brett will be contesting this just like he did the other indication,” Mathews said.

Lawyer Thomas Clay, who represents Jaynes, could not be immediately reached for comment. It was not immediately clear if Meany and Goodlett had attorneys.

The killing of Taylor, along with other high-profile 2020 killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, sparked nationwide protests.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Scott Malone in Washington and Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Marla Dickerson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

Categories
US

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Aug 4 (Reuters) – A Texas judge denied Alex Jones’s motion for a mistrial on Thursday as jury deliberations summarized in a defamation case over the US conspiracy theorist’s false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

The mistrial request followed the disclosure during the two-week-long trial that Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the US conspiracy theorist’s text messages to the plaintiffs.

Federico Andino Reynal, an attorney for Jones, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination on Wednesday.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial to determine the amount of damages he owes for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012 .

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, for what their lawyer has called a “vile campaign of defamation.”

Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that Jones’ falsehoods had made his life “hell” and led to a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death.

Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors.

Jones, who later acknowledged that the shooting took place, told the Austin jury on Wednesday that it was “100% real.”

Gamble issued a rare default judgment against Jones in the case in 2021.

Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

Jones faces a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable in a default judgment.

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.