Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 122
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new Justice Department leadership issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking access to abortion clinics and reproductive health centers, calling the cases an example of the "weaponization" of law enforcement. Prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or "FACE Act" will now be permitted only in "extraordinary circumstances" or in cases presenting "significant aggravating factors," attorney general chief of staff Chad M...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from entering Washington without the court's approval after President Donald Trump commuted the extremist group leader's 18-year prison sentence in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the seditious conspiracy trial of Rhodes and other Oath Keepers, issued the order two days after Rhodes visited Capitol Hill, where he met with at least one lawmaker, chatted with others and defended his actions the day of t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, saying they could face criminal charges, in an apparent warning to the dozens of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions across America. The memo, from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, signals a sharp turnabout in priorities from President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, with the Justice Department's civil division told to identify s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department can publicly release special counsel Jack Smith's investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case, a federal judge said Monday in the latest ruling in a court dispute over the highly anticipated document days before Trump is set to reclaim the White House. But a temporary injunction barring the immediate release of the report remains in effect until Tuesday, and it's unlikely U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's order will be the last word on the matter. Defense l...
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The highly decorated Army soldier inside a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks that exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas shot himself in the head just before detonation, authorities said Thursday. The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the hotel. Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret, likely planned a more damaging attack but the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force from the crudely built explosive. Damage from the b...
Investigators know that a highly decorated Army soldier shot himself in the head inside a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks just before it exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day, but authorities say there are questions about why he chose that car and location. "It's not lost on us that it's in front of the Trump building, that it's a Tesla vehicle, but we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology," Spencer Evans, the Las Vegas...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI should have done more to gather intelligence before the Capitol riot, according to a watchdog report Thursday that also said no undercover FBI employees were on the scene on Jan. 6, 2021, and none of the bureau's informants was authorized to participate. The report from the Justice Department inspector general's office knocks down a fringe conspiracy theory advanced by some Republicans in Congress that the FBI played a role in instigating the events that day, when rioters determined to overturn Republican Donald T...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department and the city of Louisville have reached an agreement to reform the city's police force after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor and police treatment of protesters, officials said Thursday. The consent decree, which must be approved by a judge, follows a federal investigation that found Louisville police have engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination against the Black community. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the c...
BOSTON (AP) — McKinsey & Company consulting firm has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work to help opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma boost the sales of the highly addictive drug OxyContin, according to court papers filed in Virginia on Friday. As part of the deal with the U.S. Justice Department, McKinsey will avoid prosecution on criminal charges if it pays the sum and follows certain conditions for five years, including ceasing any work on the sale, marketing or promotion of controlled substances. A forme...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith is evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases against Donald Trump before the president-elect takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Trump's election defeat of Kamala Harris means that the J...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday. Investigators believe the man who set the incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a "wealth of experience" in metal fabrication and welding, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Mike Benner said. Authorities described the suspect as a white man, age 30 to 40, who is balding or has very s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A child psychiatrist who altered a first-day-of-school photo he saw on Facebook to make a group of girls appear nude. A U.S. Army soldier accused of creating images depicting children he knew being sexually abused. A software engineer charged with generating hyper-realistic sexually explicit images of children. Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. are cracking down on a troubling spread of child sexual abuse imagery created through artificial intelligence technology — from manipulated photos of real children to gra...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and "resorted to crimes" in his failed bid to cling to power, according to a newly unsealed court filing from prosecutors that offers new evidence from the landmark criminal case against the former president. The filing from special counsel Jack Smith's team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn t...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday. Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming. The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo f...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Donald Trump was the target of "what appears to be an attempted assassination" at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. The former president said he was safe and well. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the U.S. Secret Service agents fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope as Trump was on the course. Bradshaw said the gunman also had two backpacks hanging on a fence and a GoPro c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inside Washington's federal courthouse, there's no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb the chilling sights and sounds from television screens of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers as democracy lay under siege. But as he seeks to reclaim the White House, Donald Trump continues to portray the defendants as patriots worthy of admiration, an assertion that has been undercut by the adjudicated truth in hundreds of criminal cases where judges and jur...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has failed to report some child sexual abuse allegations to local law enforcement or social service agencies even after changes prompted by its handling of the case against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, according to a Justice Department watchdog report released Thursday. In a review brought on by the FBI's failures to promptly investigate Nassar, the inspector general found serious problems persist that run the risk of child sexual abuse allegations falling through the cracks as overworked agents j...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment Tuesday against Donald Trump over his efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that keeps the same criminal charges but narrows the allegations against him following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. The new indictment removes a section of the indictment that had accused Trump of trying to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to overturn his election loss, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court, in a 6...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Missouri woman has been arrested on charges she orchestrated a brazen scheme to defraud Elvis Presley's family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale, the Justice Department said Friday. Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, falsely claimed Presley's daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a bogus private lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before her death last year, prosecutors said. She then threatened to sell G...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the chaotic aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month, a local police officer told a fellow officer he had warned the Secret Service days earlier that the building where the 20-year-old gunman opened fire needed to be secured. "I (expletive) told them they needed to post guys (expletive) over here," the officer said in police body camera footage released by the Butler Township Police Department. "I told them that (expletive) Tuesday." When another officer asked who he t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of another infamous cartel leader, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas on Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department said. A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Zambada was known for running the cartel's smuggling operations while keeping a lower profile. The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture. Zambada and Gu...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two local law enforcement officers stationed in the complex of buildings where a gunman opened fire at former President Donald Trump left to go search for the man before the shooting, the head of Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday, raising questions about whether a key post was left unattended as the shooter climbed onto a roof. Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee that two Butler County Emergency Services Unit officers were stationed at a second-floor window in the complex of b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Monday that her agency failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump, as lawmakers of both major political parties demanded during a highly contentious congressional hearing that she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally. Cheatle was berated for hours by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation during the first hearing over the July 13 a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 20-year-old nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a registered Republican who packed explosives in the vehicle he drove to the campaign rally an hour from his home. Law enforcement officials were working Sunday to learn more about Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to determine what motivated him to open fire on the rally from a nearby rooftop, killing one spectator, before he was shot dead by the Secret Service. The FBI said Sunday it h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court's ruling Monday in former President Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case makes it all but certain that the Republican will not face trial in Washington ahead of the November election. The Supreme Court did not dismiss — as Trump had wanted — the indictment alleging he illegally schemed to cling to power after he lost to President Joe Biden. But the ruling still amounts to a major victory for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose legal strategy has focused on delaying the proce...
