Articles written by Jennifer Peltz


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  • Veteran Daniel Penny is acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case over Jordan Neely's death

    JENNIFER PELTZ|Dec 6, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism. A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely 's 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count. Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. While celebrating later with his attorneys, h...

  • Prosecutor says veteran's subway chokehold went 'too far.' Defense says his 'courage' helped others

    JENNIFER PELTZ|Nov 1, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers agree on this about Marine veteran Daniel Penny's encounter last year with a distressed, angry man making ominous remarks on a New York subway: Penny didn't mean to kill him. But a prosecutor told jurors Friday that Penny "went way too far" in trying to neutralize someone he saw as a threat and not as a person. A defense attorney countered that Penny showed "courage" and put others' welfare ahead of his own when he placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold that ended with Neely limp on the floor. Both s...

  • Head of United Nations calls global situation 'unsustainable' as annual meeting of leaders opens

    EDITH M. LEDERER and JENNIFER PELTZ|Sep 25, 2024

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the United Nations warned gathered leaders Tuesday that impunity, inequality and uncertainty are driving modern civilization toward "a powder keg that risks engulfing the world" — the latest in an increasing number of clarion calls from Antonio Guterres in recent years that the global situation is becoming intolerable and unsustainable. "We can't go on like this," the secretary-general said in an alarming state-of-the-world address as he opened the annual high-level gathering of the U.N.'s 193 member nat...

  • At the UN, world leaders try to lay out a vision for the future - and actually make it happen

    JENNIFER PELTZ and EDITH M. LEDERER|Sep 20, 2024

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly adopted a "Pact for the Future" to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Now comes the hard part: uniting the world's divided nations to move quickly to implement the agreement's 56 actions. As Czech President Petr Pavel put it Monday at the summit meeting surrounding the pact: "Our work begins at home." The 193-member world body approved the pact Sunday. The document is meant to link nations in tackling challenges ranging from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating c...

  • Ex-NBA player Jontay Porter pleads guilty in case tied to gambling scandal that tanked his career

    JENNIFER PELTZ|Jul 10, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Former NBA player Jontay Porter admitted Wednesday that he schemed to take himself out of games for gambling's sake, pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy crime in the scandal that already got him banned from the league. "I know what I did was wrong, unlawful, and I am deeply sorry," the former Toronto Raptors center said as he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Echoing findings in an NBA investigation and allegations in an ongoing prosecution of four other men, Porter acknowledged that he agreed to withdraw e...

  • Judge delays Trump's hush money sentencing until at least September after high court immunity ruling

    JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JENNIFER PELTZ|Jul 3, 2024

    In a major reprieve for former President Donald Trump, sentencing for his hush money convictions was postponed Tuesday until at least September — if ever — as the judge agreed to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11, just before the Republicans' nominating convention, on his New York convictions on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing. The postponement sets the sentencing for Sept. 18 at the earliest — if it happe...

  • Family demands accountability for NY police killing of 13-year-old boy. Police said he aimed BB gun

    JENNIFER PELTZ|Jun 28, 2024

    On Wednesday, Nyah Mway finished middle school in the central New York city where his family moved about a decade ago as refugees from Myanmar, relatives said. By Friday night, the 13-year-old was fatally shot by police who'd tackled him to the ground after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them during a foot chase. Struggling to comprehend his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community called Sunday for justice for him and accountability for police. "We came to the United States,...

  • Lawsuit accuses Iran, Syria and North Korea of providing support for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel

    JENNIFER PELTZ and JON GAMBRELL|Jun 28, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Victims of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel sued Iran, Syria and North Korea on Monday, saying their governments supplied the militants with money, weapons and know-how needed to carry out the assault that precipitated Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks at least $4 billion in damages for "a coordination of extrajudicial killings, hostage takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources." Iran's mission to the United Nations declined t...

  • Long-vacant storefront that once housed part of the Stonewall Inn reclaims place in LGBTQ+ history

    JENNIFER PELTZ|Jun 26, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — It was half of the Stonewall Inn, the gay dive bar where a 1969 police raid became a landmark moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Yet for much of the 55 years since, there has been little outward indication that 51 Christopher St. was part of that history. It had housed the Stonewall's biggest bar and one of the two dance floors that drew its young, diverse crowd. But after raid sparked an uprising and the Stonewall shut down, 51 Christopher St. became a bagel shop, a gay bar briefly again, a clothing store, a nail salon, the...

  • Jurors in Trump hush money trial end 1st day of deliberations after asking to rehear testimony

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 29, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial ended its first day of deliberations without a verdict Wednesday but asked to rehear potentially crucial testimony about the alleged hush money scheme at the heart of the history-making case. The 12-person jury was sent home around 4 p.m. after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations. The process is to resume Thursday. Jurors also asked to rehear at least part of the judge's instructions meant to guide them on the law. The notes sent to the judge with the requests were the first burst of c...

  • Here's what every key witness said at Donald Trump's hush money trial. Closing arguments are coming

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 24, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — After 22 witnesses, including a porn actor, tabloid publisher and White House insiders, testimony is over at Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York. Prosecutors called 20 witnesses. The defense called just two. Trump decided not to testify on his own behalf. The trial now shifts to closing arguments, scheduled for Tuesday. After that, it will be up to 12 jurors to decide whether prosecutors have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified his company's business records as part of a broader effort to keep stories a...

  • Michael Cohen pressed on his crimes and lies as defense attacks key Trump hush money trial witness

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 17, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — With prosecutors' hush money case against Donald Trump barreling toward its end, defense lawyers pressed former attorney Michael Cohen on his criminal history and past lies Thursday as they worked to convince jurors not to believe the star witness' pivotal testimony. As Trump looked on, defense attorney Todd Blanche peppered Cohen with questions about his own misdeeds, painting him to the jury as a serial fabulist who is bent on seeing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee behind bars. Whether the defense is successful...

  • Judge directs Michael Cohen to keep quiet about Trump ahead of his hush money trial testimony

    JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 10, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — With Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen expected to take the witness stand Monday, the judge in the former president's hush money case issued prosecutors a stern warning: Get Cohen to stop his taunting posts and jabs at Trump. Judge Juan M. Merchan's comments came as a dramatic and consequential week in the first criminal trial of a former American president drew to a close Friday. The prosecution could rest its case by the end of next week, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said. Prosecutors have been building up their c...

  • Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 8, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday at Donald Trump's hush money trial, describing for jurors a sexual encounter the porn actor says she had with him in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later. Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels, over the repeated objections of defense lawyers and occasional admonitions from the judge, offered a detailed and at times graphic account of an encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead as Daniels entered the c...

  • Judge raises threat of jail in hush money trial as he holds Trump in contempt, fines him $9,000

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|May 1, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. And if he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed. Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but New York Judge Juan M. Merchan found there were nine. Trump stared down at the table in front of him as the judge read the ruling, frowning slightly. It was a stinging rebuke of the R...

  • Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 26, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's defense team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign. Returning to the witness stand for a fourth day, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker was grilled about his memory and past statements as the defense tried to poke holes in potentially crucial testimony for prosecutors in the first criminal tria...

  • Tabloid publisher says he pledged to be Trump campaign's 'eyes and ears' during 2016 race

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 24, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran tabloid publisher testified Tuesday that he pledged to be Donald Trump 's "eyes and ears" during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress harmful stories and even arranged to purchase a doorman's silence. The testimony from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors' assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the candidate's lawyer a heads-up on n...

  • 12 jurors have been picked for Donald Trump's hush money trial. Selection of alternates ongoing

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 19, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A jury of 12 people was seated Thursday in former President Donald Trump's history-making hush money trial, propelling the proceedings closer to opening statements and the start of weeks of dramatic testimony. The court quickly turned to selecting alternate jurors, with the process on track to wrap up by the end of the week. Prosecutors could begin presenting their case early next week. The jury of New Yorkers includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, an English teacher, a speech therapist, m...

  • Trump tried to 'corrupt' the 2016 election, prosecutor alleges as hush money trial gets underway

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 19, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president's historic hush money trial. "This was a planned, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. "It was election fraud, pure and simple." A...

  • First six jurors are chosen for Trump's hush money criminal trial

    MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ|Apr 17, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The first six jurors for Donald Trump's hush money trial were chosen Tuesday after lawyers grilled members of the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide whether they can sit in fair judgment of the former president. The court began filling out the jury of 12 people, along with six alternates, who will decide whether to convict Trump of charges accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign. Possible jurors were quizzed f...

  • Potential jurors called into courtroom for start of Trump's historic hush-money trial

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Apr 12, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — The historic hush-money trial of Donald Trump got underway Monday as dozens of prospective jurors packed into a courtroom where the former president will answer to charges that he falsified business records in order to stifle stories about his sex life. The first criminal trial of any former U.S. president will unfold as Trump vies to reclaim the White House, creating a remarkable split-screen spectacle of the presumptive Republican nominee spending his days as a criminal defendant while simultaneously campaigning for office. H...

  • Court agrees to pause collection of Trump's massive civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175M

    JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK|Mar 22, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court on Monday agreed to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump's more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's assets while he appeals. The appeals court also halted other aspects of a trial judge's ruling that had barred Trump and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the family company's executive vice p...

  • Donald Trump testifies for less than 3 minutes in defamation trial and is rebuked by judge

    JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JENNIFER PELTZ|Jan 26, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — He testified for under three minutes. But former President Donald Trump still broke a judge's rules on what he could tell a jury about writer E. Jean Carroll's sexual assault and defamation allegations, and he left the courtroom Thursday bristling to the spectators: "This is not America." Testifying in his own defense in the defamation trial, Trump didn't look at the jury during his short, heavily negotiated stint on the witness stand. Because of the complex legal context of the case, the judge limited his lawyers to asking a h...

  • A weekend of ferocious winter weather could see low-temperature records set in the US heartland

    JIM SALTER and JENNIFER PELTZ|Jan 12, 2024

    O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Icy winter weather blanketed the U.S. on Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the heartland, spread cold and snow from coast to coast and cast a chill over everything from football playoffs to presidential campaigns. As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a crazy quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern Plains to high wind warnings in New Mexico. "It's, overall,...

  • Judge says Donald Trump won't give own closing argument at civil fraud trial after disputing rules

    JENNIFER PELTZ and JAKE OFFENHARTZ|Jan 10, 2024

    NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump won't make his own closing argument after all in his New York civil business fraud trial after his lawyers objected to the judge's insistence that the former president stick to "relevant" matters. Judge Arthur Engoron rescinded his conditional permission for the unusual plan on Wednesday, a day ahead of closing arguments. He had said that Trump would have to abide by the rules that apply to attorneys' closing arguments and couldn't assail the characters of his adversaries, the judge or others in the court system. T...

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