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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Friday in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump before this week's presidential election. A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. If the man, identified as Farjad Shakeri, was unable to create a plan by then, the complaint said, the official told him Iran would p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week's election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect. Investigators were told of the plan to kill Trump by Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and m...
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors say lawyers for Sean 'Diddy' Combs are trying to "hijack" the music mogul's criminal case from them by asking a judge to force early disclosure of evidence, including his accusers' identities. The prosecutors urged a judge in papers filed late Wednesday to reject the requests, saying the effort to reveal the identities of prospective witnesses, in particular, was "blatantly improper." They said it was inappropriate for defense lawyers to seek the disclosure of victim identities and details about other e...
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to stay in office Thursday after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of letting Turkish officials and businesspeople buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips. Adams, a Democrat, faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment outlining a decade-long trail of corruption that began when he served as an elected official in Brooklyn and continued through his mayoral administration. Among other things, p...
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean "Diddy" Combs is staying locked up after a judge Wednesday rejected the hip-hop mogul's proposal that he await his sex trafficking trial in the luxury of his Florida mansion instead of a grim Brooklyn federal jail. U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter ruled that Combs' plan — which included a $50 million bail offer, GPS monitoring and strict limitations on visitors — was "insufficient" to ensure the safety of the community and the integrity of his case. Carter, agreeing with prosecutors who fought to keep Combs in jail,...
NEW YORK (AP) — Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese business tycoon whose criticism of the Communist Party won him legions of online followers and powerful friends in the American conservative movement, was convicted by a U.S. jury Tuesday of engaging in a massive multiyear fraud that ripped off some of his most devoted fans. Once believed to be among the richest people in China, Guo was arrested in New York in March of 2023 and accused of operating a racketeering enterprise that stretched from 2018 through 2023. Over a seven-week trial, he w...
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted of all charges Tuesday in a sweeping corruption trial in which he was accused of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government. A jury in Manhattan deliberated for parts of three days before finding the Democrat guilty of 16 crimes, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Prosecutor said he abused the power of his office to protect allies from criminal investigations a...
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez rested their case on Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks, enabling lawyers for the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support their claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid. On their final day of direct questioning, prosecutors elicited details about the senator's financial records by questioning an FBI forensic accountant. Judge Sidney H. Stein then dismissed jurors for the weekend. D...
NEW YORK (AP) — Sen Bob Menendez, a Democrat, went on trial in Manhattan federal court Monday, accused of accepting bribes of gold and cash to use his influence to deliver favors that would help three New Jersey businessmen. Menendez, 70, sat with his lawyers and listened as Judge Sidney H. Stein told several dozen prospective jurors about the charges against Menendez and two of the businessmen. The judge told them the "sitting U.S. senator from the state of New Jersey" had been charged in a conspiracy in which he allegedly "agreed to accept b...
NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report on where potential jurors have worked and to be careful about revealing information about those who will sit in judgment of the former president. Judge Juan Merchan acted after one juror was dismissed when she expressed concerns about being "outed" for her role in the case after details about her became publicly known. The actions pointed to the difficulties involved in trying to maintain anonymity for jurors in a case that has sparked w...
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury awarded $83.3 million in huge additional damages on Friday to longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll from former President Donald Trump, who she says shattered her reputation and opened her to threats by calling her a liar who only accused him of sexual assault to sell a memoir. The award, when coupled with a $5 million sexual assault and defamation verdict last year from another jury in a case brought by Carroll, raised to $88.3 million what Trump must pay her. Protesting vigorously, he said he would appeal. C...
NEW YORK (AP) — British billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, pleaded guilty Wednesday to insider trading and conspiracy charges in New York, saying he knew that sharing nonpublic information about publicly traded companies was wrong and that his crimes have left him "so embarrassed." The 86-year-old businessman entered the plea in Manhattan federal court six months after he was charged in the case. He had been free on $300 million bail, with a yacht and private plane serving as collateral. He told J...
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump shook his head in disgust Tuesday as the judge in his New York defamation trial told would-be jurors that an earlier jury had already decided the former president sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Trump left court before opening statements, jetting to a New Hampshire political rally as Carroll's lawyer accused the Republican presidential frontrunner of using "the world's biggest microphone" to destroy her reputation and turn his supporters against her. Trump's lawyer contended that Carroll h...
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez introduced a member of the Qatari royal family and principal in a company with ties to the government of Qatar to a New Jersey businessman before the company invested millions of dollars in the businessman's real estate project, a rewritten indictment alleged Tuesday. The latest version of the indictment against the Democrat in Manhattan federal court did not identify the member of the Qatari royal family, but it said the individual was a principal of the Qatari Investment Co. The indictment said the Q...
NEW YORK (AP) — An Indian government official directed a plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday as they announced charges against a man they said was part of the thwarted murder conspiracy. U.S. officials became aware last spring of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who advocated for the creation of a sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration interceded and set up a sting, with an u...
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York federal judge cited former President Donald Trump's "repeated public statements" Friday among reasons why a jury will be anonymous when it considers damages stemming from a defamation lawsuit by a writer who says Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order establishing that the jury to be chosen for the January trial in Manhattan will be transported by the U.S. Marshals Service. "In view of Mr. Trump's repeated public statements with respect to the plaintiff and court in this case a...
NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's spectacular rise and fall in the cryptocurrency industry — a journey that included his testimony before Congress, a Super Bowl advertisement and dreams of a future run for president — hit rock bottom Thursday when a New York jury convicted him of fraud in a scheme that cheated customers and investors of at least $10 billion. After the monthlong trial, jurors rejected Bankman-Fried's claim during four days on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court that he never committed fraud or meant to ch...
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried, testifying at his fraud trial Friday, cast himself as a bumbling cryptocurrency visionary who knew nothing about the industry when he started FTX or about marketing when he became the face of his company and not enough about his businesses to see they were $10 billion in the hole until shortly before they collapsed. In Manhattan federal court, the onetime cryptocurrency golden boy denied defrauding anyone. Bankman-Fried, 31, acknowledged some failures, saying he made mistakes, large and small, but he also c...
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump's claim that a jury sided with him when it agreed he didn't rape an advice columnist in a luxury Manhattan department store in the 1990s was an erroneous interpretation of the jury's $5 million award and its finding that he sexually abused her, her lawyers said Thursday. The lawyers urged a federal judge to reject a request by Trump's attorneys that he lower the amount for sexual abuse and defamation awarded to the writer, E. Jean Carroll, to less than $1 million or let another jury hear evidence a...
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. faces the start of a civil trial Tuesday on accusations that he raped a woman in a New York City hotel a decade ago, an encounter that he contends was consensual after the two met at a nearby restaurant. The trial was scheduled to begin with jury selection in Manhattan federal court as the Oscar-winning "Jerry Maguire" star confronts allegations that he met the woman in Manhattan, persuaded her to join him at a hotel, and convinced her to stop at his room so he could change clothing. The woman, who has p...
NEW YORK (AP) — E. Jean Carroll, the columnist who won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation award against former President Donald Trump, is seeking at least $10 million more in a new court filing Monday that seeks to hold him liable for remarks he made after the verdict. An amended lawsuit seeking the $10 million in compensatory damages — and more in punitive damages — was filed in Manhattan by lawyers for Carroll, who say remarks by Trump in response to her rape allegations so spoiled her reputation that she lost her longtime job as an El...
NEW YORK (AP) — A magazine columnist who says Donald Trump raped her in a department store's dressing room two decades before he became president acknowledged Monday that she never followed her own advice to readers that they report sexual attacks to police. E. Jean Carroll told a federal civil court jury that the reason was generational. The 79-year-old said that as "a member of the Silent Generation," she was conditioned to keep her chin up and not to complain. "The fact that I never went to the police is not surprising for somebody my age,"...
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury of six men and three women was chosen Tuesday to hear a former advice columnist's lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s. Opening statements were expected later in the day. The federal civil trial stands to tests Trump's "Teflon Don" reputation for shaking off serious legal problems and to reprise accounts of the type of sexual misconduct that rocked his 2016 presidential campaign as he seeks office again. He denies E. Jean Carroll's claim and all the others, saying they were f...
NEW YORK (AP) — Two men were arrested Monday on charges that they helped establish a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government, and about three dozen officers with China's national police force were charged with using social media to harass dissidents inside the United States, authorities said Monday. The cases are part of a series of Justice Department prosecutions in recent years aimed at disrupting Chinese government efforts to locate in America pro-democracy activists and others who are openly critical of B...
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge wants to know if ex-President Donald Trump plans to attend a New York trial this month resulting from a columnist's claims that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order Monday directing parties in the case to notify him by April 20 whether they will be present throughout the trial, scheduled to start April 25 in Manhattan federal court. And later in the day, he rejected a request that names of anonymous jurors be released to lawyers, saying Trump's l...
