Los Angeles police had repeatedly Tasered the cousin of a Black Lives Matter co-founder in the hours before his death.
Lawyers for the five-year-old son of a man who died in the United States after Los Angeles police repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun have filed a $50m claim for damages against the city.
The claim is required before Keenan Anderson’s son can sue the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for civil rights violations after officers Tasered his father six times in less than a minute to subdue him on January 3.
“He was a flower just beginning to bloom, but the LAPD unfortunately was a hammer,” the family’s lawyer, Carl Douglas, said at a news conference announcing the case. “They treated that flower like it was a nail.”
The claim was filed on Friday on behalf of Anderson’s son, Syncere Kai Anderson, who stood with his mother, Gabrielle Hansell, alongside their lawyers.
Anderson – a 31-year-old high school English teacher in Washington, DC, and cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement – was a suspect in a hit-and-run traffic collision in Venice, California, on the US west coast. Police said he ran from officers and resisted arrest.
Anderson screamed for help after he was pinned to the street by officers, according to a video released by the LAPD.
“They’re trying to kill me,” Anderson yelled.
Footage showed an officer pressing his forearm onto Anderson’s chest and an elbow into his neck.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson said in reference to the Black man killed by officers in Minnesota.
Police Chief Michel Moore said Anderson initially complied with officers as they investigated whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But he was subdued after he ran into the middle of the street and resisted arrest.
An LAPD toxicology test found cocaine and cannabis in Anderson’s body, although those results are separate from the coroner’s independent report, the chief said.
The officers involved have not been named yet but their union issued a statement saying the family and its lawyers were “trying to shamelessly profit” from a “tragic incident”.
After he was subdued, Anderson went into cardiac arrest and died at a hospital about four hours later.
A Marine who said he was waiting for “Civil war 2” and two other active-duty members of the military have been charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said in newly filed court papers.
Micah Coomer, Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested this week on misdemeanor charges after their fellow Marines helped investigators identify them in footage among the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court papers.
Dozens of people charged in the riot have military backgrounds, but these three are among only a handful on active duty. A Marine Corps officer seen on camera scuffling with police and helping other members of the mob force their way into the Capitol was charged in 2021.
No defense lawyers for the men were listed in the court docket, so it was not immediately clear whether they have attorneys to comment on their behalf.
Their service records show they are all active-duty Marines. Maj. Kevin Stephensen, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, said it is aware of the allegations and “is fully cooperating with appropriate authorities in support of the investigation.”
Coomer, of Indiana, is stationed in Southern California’s Camp Pendleton; Abate, of Virginia, is at Fort Meade in Maryland; and Hellonen, of Michigan, is stationed at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, according to the Marines.
The men spent about 52 minutes inside the Capitol, authorities say. At one point while in the rotunda, they put a red “Make American Great Again” hat on a statue to take pictures with it, according to court papers. Hellonen was carrying a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, authorities said.
Coomer posted photos on Instagram that appeared to be taken inside the Capitol with the caption “Glad to be apart of history,” according to court documents. Days after the 2020 election, he and another person discussed over Instagram message how he believed the election was rigged.
And in late January 2021, he told another person in a message that “everything in this country is corrupt.”
“We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo,” Coomer wrote in a message detailed in court documents. When asked by the person what’s “a boogaloo,” Coomer responded “Civil war 2,” authorities said.
The boogaloo is an anti-government, pro-gun extremist movement. Its name is a reference to a slang term for a sequel — in this case, a second U.S. civil war. The movement is named after “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” a 1984 sequel to a movie about breakdancing.
Supporters have shown up at protests over COVID-19 lockdown orders and protests over racial injustice, carrying rifles and wearing tactical gear over Hawaiian shirts. The shirts are a reference to “big luau,” a riff on the term “boogaloo” sometimes favored by group members.
During an interview related to his security clearance in June, Abate acknowledged walking through the Capitol with two “buddies,” investigators said. Abate said they “walked around and tried not to get hit with tear gas.”
The trio face charges including illegal entry and disorderly conduct.
Among Jan. 6 defendants with military backgrounds are members of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers, accused of plotting to violently keep President Donald Trump in power. The group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November.
A Navy reservist from Virginia accused of storming the Capitol was convicted this week on charges that he illegally possessed silencers disguised to look like innocuous cleaning supplies. Hatchet Speed is scheduled to go on trial in his Jan. 6 case later this year.
And a former U.S. Army reservist described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was convicted of storming the Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who was employed as a security contractor at a Navy base, was sentenced to four years in prison in September.
Nearly 1,000 people have been charged so far in the riot and the tally increases by the week. Almost 500 people have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges and more than three dozen have been convicted at trial.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporters Tara Copp, Michael Kunzelman and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report from Washington.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Capitol riot at: https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege
Jakarta, Indonesia – Five-year-old Shena has been in hospital since September. Her eyes move slowly when her mother calls her name but she is otherwise almost completely unresponsive.
Her mother, Desi Permata Sari, says Shena’s problems started when she fell ill with a fever. Concerned, she took her daughter to the emergency department of a Jakarta hospital. Doctors conducted blood tests and sent them home with paracetamol syrup.
“I gave her the medicine for two days, then she threw up and also said that she couldn’t urinate. I initially thought she might be dehydrated,” Desi said.
“She was a healthy, smart girl. Suddenly this all happened just because of medicine. I am devastated.”
Shena was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit. Her mother said she was a happy, talkative child who liked swimming and reading, and had even learned to recite the Quran at the age of four.
Shena has been fighting for her life in hospital since September [Courtesy of Desi Permata Sari]
Now, she is fighting for her life.
“Earlier on, she had heavy internal bleeding. She was having seizures, and blood was coming out from her nose and mouth, and sores all over her scalp. She was in a coma for one-and-a-half months. She was bleeding nonstop for three weeks and she was just skin-and-bone,” Desi said.
“Which mother’s heart wouldn’t break…to see my healthy girl who used to run around… now she can only lie down and she needs a breathing aid. They had to make a hole in her throat. She drinks through a tube.”
This week, Shena cried during a physiotherapy appointment. It was the first time in months her mother had heard her make any sound.
“I was so grateful that she can cry. It made me so happy because otherwise her condition is unresponsive.”
The medical emergency has had a devastating effect on the whole family.
With Desi caring for Shena in hospital and her husband working long hours as a security guard, and also spending most of his spare time by his daughter’s bedside, their son has had to move in with a relative.
The family has drained their savings to pay for Shena’s medical care and the cost of travelling to and from the hospital.
“My husband doesn’t rest. He goes back and forth to work, then he comes here to look after Shena. Our savings are gone. She needs so many things which are not covered by public health insurance,” she said.
“In the beginning, I just wished to be hit by a car because I’m so devastated. But I will fight for her, no matter how long it takes. I have to fight for my daughter.”
‘I will never move on’
Four-year-old Azqiara loved to skate and sing. She died days after taking the toxic medicine [Courtesy of Solihah]
Desi and her husband are part of a class action suit launched by 25 families, suing government agencies and pharmaceutical companies after their children became seriously ill from taking contaminated medicines.
Almost 200 children have died from acute kidney injury since last year and more than 100 have been injured.
Authorities later found two ingredients typically found in antifreeze and brake fluids – ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol – were linked to the children’s conditions. The scandal in Indonesia came as dozens of children in The Gambia were reported to have died after taking similarly contaminated products.
The families are suing the health and finance ministries, the drugs regulator, and several pharmaceutical companies and suppliers.
One of the lawyers for the parents, Tegar Putuhena, told Al Jazeera they also want the Ministry of Health to classify the acute kidney injury outbreak caused by the syrups as an “extraordinary event”, so all treatment expenses would be covered by the government.
“For those children still being treated now, there are many treatments that are not covered by public health insurance. The government is turning a blind eye to it as if they have provided everything,” he said.
At the first hearing on Tuesday, a procedural step where administrative documentation was checked, Desi sat in the packed courtroom with three other mothers.
Panghegar had recently turned eight years old when he died [Courtesy of Safitri Pusparani]
They held hands and wept together as they waited for proceedings to begin.
Among them was Siti Suhardiyati, the mother of Umar Abu Bakar who died two months before his third birthday and Solihah, the mother of four-year-old Azqiara who loved to skate and sing. She died just days after ingesting the toxic medicine.
And Safitri Pusparani, 42, wearing a yellow shirt with the words “my son is my hero” printed on it.
Panghegar died in October.
She showed Al Jazeera a video of him, taken a month before his death. It was Panghegar’s eighth birthday.
“It’s my birthday, yippee!” he squealed, grinning at the camera.
“I don’t want my son to just be a statistic without action. He is my hero. We need to make changes so this doesn’t happen again,” Safitri said.
“As a mother, you can’t ask, when will you stop being sad? When will you move on? I will never move on. With time, I don’t think it will hurt any less but I will learn to adapt to the reality, that I am a mother who lost her son.”
Several of the parents initially expressed doubts about the class action. Many are still deep in their grief or caring for children who now have debilitating injuries.
Desi Permata Sari cries as she attends the court hearing for the class-action lawsuit earlier this week [Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters]
But Safitri is convinced it is the right path and the parents hope other affected families will join them.
“This is probably going to be a long road and it probably won’t be an easy one. Whatever the risk, we have to be strong and we have to see it through,” she said.
“It is not just about my child. If we keep quiet, other children may be victims in the future.”
INDIANAPOLIS — A lawsuit challenging an Indiana law that prohibits transgender students from competing in girls school sports was dropped Wednesday just weeks before it was to be heard by a federal appeals court.
A federal judge in Indianapolis ruled against the law in August and granted a preliminary injunction allowing a 10-year-old transgender girl to rejoin her school’s all-girls softball team in the Indianapolis Public Schools district.
But the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which represented the girl, and the state attorney general’s office filed court documents Wednesday to dismiss the lawsuit because the girl recently enrolled in a charter school not operated by the district.
“The parties acknowledge that as this case is now moot and must be dismissed, this Court’s preliminary injunction, upon dismissal of this action, will be vacated and will be of no effect,” the court filing said.
There’s an ongoing national debate about the rights of transgender athletes . More than a dozen states have passed laws banning or restricting their participation in sports based on arguments that they have an unfair, competitive advantage.
A federal judge earlier this month ruled that West Virginia can keep its ban on transgender athletes competing in female school sports. A federal appeals court in New York, however, dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls sports.
The ACLU said it stands by its arguments that the Indiana law violates federal Title IX protections against discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities — and indicated that it could file future legal challenges on behalf of other transgender students.
“We filed to dismiss our case on behalf of a trans athlete in IPS schools solely due to individual circumstances regarding our client’s recent transfer,” the ACLU said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson had ruled that the fifth-grade girl had “a strong likelihood” of prevailing in arguments that the Indiana law violated federal Title IX protections. The federal appeals court in Chicago was scheduled to hear arguments in the case on Feb. 15.
Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature approved the law last year over the veto of GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb as opponents argued it was a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist.
The state attorney general’s office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Wednesday. It had argued in filings with the appeals court that upholding the judge’s ruling “would throw open girls’ sports to members of the male sex with all the advantages being born male confers, depriving women of equal opportunities to compete fairly and safely in sports.”
TOPEKA, Kan. — A criminal trial was set to start Tuesday for a northeastern Kansas man who federal prosecutors say developed a fixation on U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner and threatened to kill him, at a time when authorities have seen a sharp increase in threats to the nation’s lawmakers and their families.
Prosecutors say Chase Neill, 32, threatened to kill LaTurner in a June 5 voicemail message left at the Republican congressman’s office, then continued to make threatening calls the following day.
His federal trial on one count of threatening a public official was scheduled to begin Tuesday with jury selection, weeks after a judge concluded evidence of mental illness doesn’t mean Neill can’t help his attorney or follow what happens in court.
A pretrial report said Neill believes he is “the Messiah.” Prosecutors have said in court documents that Neill believes he was “obligated by God” to warn “certain public figures” and detail the results of not heeding his warnings.
U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter concluded during a hearing last month that “a preponderance of the evidence” showed Neill was mentally competent to stand trial. The official notes from the hearing showed Teeter relied on a psychological evaluation of Neill, but that document is sealed and closed to the public.
A magistrate who ordered Neill to remain in custody in June 2022 said he also had threatened other members of Congress. The others have not been named and Neill is charged only with threatening LaTurner.
LaTurner was a Kansas state senator and state treasurer before winning his U.S. House seat in 2020. Until the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature redrew political boundaries last year, LaTurner’s eastern Kansas district included Neill’s hometown of Lawrence, which includes the main University of Kansas campus and is among Kansas’ most liberal communities.
Members of Congress have seen a sharp rise in threats in the two years since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In October, an intruder attacked and severely beat then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in their San Francisco home.
Local school board members and election workers across the U.S. also have endured harassment, intimidation and threats of violence. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday arrested a former Republican candidate for a state House seat in a series of shootings targeting the homes or offices of elected Democratic officials, though none were injured.
In the Kansas case, Neill’s attorney and prosecutors declined to comment ahead of the trial.
LaTurner’s office also did not comment. The congressman and four of his staffers are potential prosecution witnesses.
The pretrial report on Neill, describing his “Messiah” belief, also said police in Lawrence had reports in March 2018 that Neill was delusional and paranoid and had accused one officer of trying to steal his “unicorn business idea.” Neill was sentenced to six months in jail in February 2019 on a domestic battery charge, the report said.
U.S. Magistrate Rachel Schwartz cited the pretrial report in refusing a request from Neill in August to be released from custody. Schwartz said in her order that he had $150,000 in student loan debt but no income.
Schwartz also said in her order that Neill suffered a head injury four or five years ago “characterized as a head fracture.”
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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his government plans to charge ahead with an overhaul of the country’s judicial system, despite fierce criticism from top legal officials and protests against the changes that drew tens of thousands of people.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, has made the legal changes the centerpiece of his new government’s agenda and the surging opposition to them is presenting an early challenge for the Israeli leader. Opponents say the changes could help Netanyahu evade conviction in his corruption trial, or make the court case disappear altogether.
The overhaul would weaken the power of the Supreme Court, granting legislators the ability to pass laws the court has struck down with a simple majority, as well as give the government greater power over the appointment of judges and limit the independence of government legal advisers.
The proposed changes have sparked an outcry from the Supreme Court’s top justice, who in rare criticism called the overhaul an “unbridled attack on the justice system.” The country’s attorney general has also spoken out against the plan, as have many of her predecessors, and tens of thousands protested the proposed changes in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
Despite the opposition, Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet that voters cast their ballots in November elections in support of his campaign promise to overhaul the justice system.
“We will complete legislating the reforms in a way that will correct what needs correcting, will totally protect individual rights and will restore the public’s faith in the justice system that so much requires this reform,” Netanyahu said.
There have been calls in the past to reform Israel’s justice system, which was given greater clout in the 1990s and has been seen since by critics as being too interventionist in the process of lawmaking. But the sweeping changes sought by Netanyahu’s justice minister have raised an alarm among opponents who see them as a death knell to Israel’s system of checks and balances and in turn, its democratic fundamentals.
Netanyahu and his allies see the changes as a way to ease the process of governance and recalibrate what they say is an imbalance between the country’s executive and judicial branches.
The proposed changes, tabled weeks after the government was sworn in, have exposed how deeply polarized Israeli society is, torn between preserving the country’s liberal and democratic ideals or shifting away from them. They have also shown how quickly the country’s government, its most right-wing ever, is intent on advancing its policies, many of which have sparked criticism, including from unexpected quarters.
Netanyahu heads a government of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties who at times in the past have seen their agendas thwarted by Supreme Court decisions or unfavorable counsel by government legal advisers. That prompted them to make sure the legal changes were a top priority during negotiations to form the government. Netanyahu, eager to return to power under the shadow of his corruption trial, appeared to be generous to his partners in the talks.
Among those concessions was a promise to make Avi Maoz, head of a small, radical, religious ultranationalist party who has repeatedly spouted anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, in charge of certain educational programs. The Cabinet approved the pledge Sunday, despite an outcry from mayors and Israeli parents when it was initially discussed.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who normally wields a largely symbolic role, has stepped in to bridge the divide over the judicial changes. In a statement, Herzog said he was working to avert “a historic constitutional crisis” in a series of meetings with political figures. Hundreds of people protested outside his residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.
Netanyahu has claimed the overhaul will be carried out cautiously and with parliamentary oversight.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government to overhaul the legal system and weaken the Supreme Court — a step that critics say will destroy the country’s democratic system of checks and balances.
The protest presented an early challenge to Netanyahu and his ultranationalist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has ordered police to take tough action if protesters block roads or display Palestinian flags.
Israeli media, citing police, said the crowd at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square swelled to at least 80,000 people, despite cool, rainy weather. Protesters, many covered by umbrellas, held Israeli flags and signs saying “Criminal Government,” “The End of Democracy” and other slogans.
“They are trying to destroy the checks and balances of the Israeli democracy. This will not work,” said Asaf Steinberg, a protester from the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. “And we will fight until the very last minute to save the Israeli democracy.”
No major unrest was reported, though Israeli media said small crowds scuffled with police as they tried to block a Tel Aviv highway.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has made overhauling the country’s legal system a centerpiece of his agenda.
In office for just over two weeks, his government, which is comprised by ultra-Orthodox and far-right nationalist parties, has launched proposals to weaken the Supreme Court by giving parliament the power to overturn court decisions with a simple majority vote. It also wants to give parliament control over the appointment of judges and reduce the independence of legal advisers.
Netanyahu’s justice minister says unelected judges have too much power. But opponents to the plans say the proposed changes will rob the judiciary of its independence and undermine Israeli democracy. Israeli opposition leaders, former attorney generals and the president of Israel’s Supreme Court have all spoken out against the plan.
The legal changes could help Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, evade conviction, or even make his trial disappear entirely. Since being indicted in 2019, Netanyahu has said the justice system is biased against him.
Police beefed up their presence ahead of the march. Israeli media quoted police as saying officers had been instructed to be “very sensitive” and allow the protest to proceed peacefully. But they also vowed a tough response to any vandalism or violent behavior.
Smaller protests also took place in the cities of Jerusalem and Haifa.
The case involves a postal carrier who says he cannot work on Sunday due to his religious beliefs.
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by a former mail carrier in Pennsylvania who accused the US Postal Service of religious bias after being reprimanded for refusing to deliver packages on Sundays.
The justices took up Gerald Groff’s case on Friday after lower courts dismissed his claim that the Postal Service violated federal anti-discrimination law by refusing to exempt him from working on Sundays, when the evangelical Christian observes the Sabbath. Those courts found Groff’s demands placed too much hardship on his co-workers and employer.
The case gives the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, another opportunity to back a plaintiff who has made a claim of anti-religion discrimination. The case is expected to be argued in the coming months and decided by the end of June.
Groff’s job as a “rural carrier associate” in Holtwood, Pennsylvania, required him to fill in as needed for absent career carriers. But Groff repeatedly did not show up for Sunday shifts assigned as part of the Postal Service’s contract to deliver Amazon.com packages.
Postal officials sought to accommodate Groff by attempting to facilitate Sunday shift swaps but the effort was not always successful.
His absences caused resentment among others carriers who had to cover his shifts and ultimately led one to leave the Holtwood station and another to quit the Postal Service altogether, according to court papers. Groff received several disciplinary letters for his attendance and resigned in 2019.
The case tests the allowances companies must offer employees for religious reasons to comply with a federal anti-discrimination law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex and national origin.
Under the law, employers must reasonably accommodate a worker’s religious observance or practices unless that would cause the business “undue hardship”.
A 1977 Supreme Court case called Trans World Airlines v Hardison determined that “undue hardship” could be anything that imposes more than a minor, or “de minimis”, cost.
The court has turned similar cases away over the past three years but in doing so, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch have cast doubt on the 1977 ruling.
The Supreme Court has also taken an expansive view of religious liberties in several important cases in recent years.
For instance, the Supreme Court last year further reduced the separation of church and state in a ruling endorsing more public funding for religious entities. That case involved two Christian families who challenged a Maine tuition assistance program that excluded private religious schools.
Groff sued the Postal Service in 2019. The Philadelphia-based US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last year threw out the case, finding that exempting Groff caused “undue hardship” because it strained co-workers and disrupted workflow.
Groff’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to take up the case and revisit the 1977 ruling, under which courts “virtually always side with employers whenever an accommodation would impose any burden”.
First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious rights legal organisation, is part of Groff’s legal team in the case.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with seditious conspiracy in the Capitol attack “took aim at the heart” of United States democracy on January 6, 2021, a federal prosecutor told jurors as their high-profile trial opened in Washington.
Jurors began hearing opening statements on Thursday, more than two years after members of the far-right group joined a pro-Donald Trump mob in attacking the Capitol.
Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough said the Proud Boys knew that the prospects of a second term in office for Trump were quickly fading as January 6 approached. So the group leaders assembled a “fighting force” to stop the transfer of power to Joe Biden, McCullough said.
Tarrio saw a Biden presidency as a “threat to the Proud Boys’ existence”, the prosecutor said.
“These men did not stand back. They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilised,” McCullough told jurors, invoking the words of Trump when he infamously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate with Joe Biden.
The trial came on the heels of the seditious conspiracy convictions of two leaders of the Oath Keepers, another US far-right group. Several other Oath Keepers members were charged with plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden.
The case against Tarrio and his four associates is one of the most consequential to emerge from the January 6 riot at the Capitol. The trial will provide an in-depth look at a group that has become an influential force in mainstream Republican politics.
Defence lawyers have said there was never any plan to go into the Capitol or stop Congress’s certification of the electoral vote won by Biden.
“Over and over and over and over the government has been told by witnesses there was no plan for January 6,” said Nicholas Smith, lawyer for Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boys chapter president from Auburn, Washington. Nordean went into the Capitol looking for friends and did not damage anything or hurt anyone there, he said.
The defence has also accused prosecutors of trying to silence potential defense witnesses. Tarrio’s lawyers have not said whether he will take the stand in his defence.
Tarrio’s other co-defendants are Joseph Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organiser; Zachary Rehl, who was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy member from Rochester, New York.
The Department of Justice has charged nearly 1,000 people across the US in relation to the deadly January 6 riot, and its investigation has continued to grow.
The Proud Boys’ trial is the first major trial to begin since the House committee investigating the insurrection urged the department to bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who were behind his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
While the criminal referral has no real legal standing, it added to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and the special counsel he appointed, Jack Smith, who was conducting an investigation into January 6 and Trump’s actions.
Jury selection in the case took two weeks as a slew of potential jurors said they associated the Proud Boys with hate groups or white nationalism.
The Capitol could be seen in the distance from parts of the court, where a second group of Oath Keepers were also on trial for seditious conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years behind bars upon conviction.
Tensions bubbled over at times as jury selection slowed to a crawl and defence lawyers complained that too many potential jurors were biased against the Proud Boys.
Defence lawyers challenged jurors who expressed support for causes such as Black Lives Matter, saying that could indicate prejudice against the Proud Boys.
Lawyers and the judge clashed during sometimes chaotic pretrial legal wrangling to the point where two defence lawyers threatened to withdraw from the case. US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, lashed out after defence lawyers repeatedly interrupted and talked over him on Wednesday, warning that he would find them in contempt if it continued.
Tarrio, who is from Miami, was not in Washington on January 6 because he was arrested two days before the riot and charged with vandalising a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. He was ordered to leave the capital, but prosecutors said he remained engaged in the far-right group’s planning for January 6.
Prosecutors were expected to tell jurors that as the Proud Boys’ anger about the election grew, they also began to turn against police over Tarrio’s arrest and over the failure to bring charges in the stabbing of another Proud Boy during clashes the month before the riot.
Communications cited in court papers show the Proud Boys discussing storming the Capitol in the days before the riot. On January 3, someone suggested in a group chat that the “main operating theater” be in front of the Capitol. “I didn’t hear this voice note until now, you want to storm the Capitol,” Tarrio said the next day in the same chat.
Tarrio’s lieutenants were part of the first wave of rioters to push onto Capitol grounds and charge past police barricades towards the building, according to prosecutors. Pezzola used a riot shield he stole from a Capitol Police officer to break a window, allowing the first rioters to enter the building, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors said Tarrio cheered on the actions of the Proud Boys on the ground as he watched from afar. “Do what must be done. #WeThePeople.” he wrote on social media as the riot unfolded. “Don’t [expletive] leave,” Tarrio wrote in another post.
Flyers referring to former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, August 5, 2022 [File: Shelby Tauber/Reuters]
WASHINGTON — New York can for now continue to enforce a sweeping new law that bans guns from “sensitive places” including schools, playgrounds and Times Square, the Supreme Court said Wednesday, allowing the law to be in force while a lawsuit over it plays out.
The justices turned away an emergency request by New York gun owners challenging the law. The gun owners wanted the high court to lift a federal appeals court order that had permitted the law to be in effect.
The appeals court hasn’t finished its review of the case, and justices are often reluctant to weigh in under those circumstances. The justices could still consider the case and the law more generally in the future.
In a two-paragraph statement that accompanied the court’s order, two of the court’s conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said the New York law at issue in the case “presents novel and serious questions.” But they said they understood the court’s decision not to intervene now “to reflect respect” for the appeals court’s “procedures in managing its own docket, rather than expressing any view on the merits of the case.”
In a statement, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul cheered the court’s action.
“I’m pleased that this Supreme Court order will allow us to continue enforcing the gun laws we put in place to do just that. We believe that these thoughtful, sensible regulations will help to prevent gun violence,” she said.
Lawyers for those challenging the law didn’t immediately respond to email and phone messages requesting comment.
New York lawmakers rewrote the state’s handgun laws over the summer after a June Supreme Court ruling invalidated New York’s old system for granting permits to carry handguns outside the home. The ruling said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, invalidating the New York law, which required people to show a specific need to get a license to carry a gun outside the home. The ruling was a major expansion of gun rights nationwide and resulted in challenges to other, similar state laws.
The new law New York passed in the wake of the ruling broadly expanded who can get a license to carry a handgun, but it increased training requirements for applicants and required people seeking a license to provide more information including a list of their social media accounts. Applicants for a license must also demonstrate “good moral character.” Beyond that, the law included a long list of “sensitive places” where firearms are banned, among them: schools, playgrounds, places of worship, entertainment venues, places that serve alcohol and Times Square.
U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby, however, declared multiple portions of the law unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction barring certain provisions’ enforcement. For example, Suddaby blocked portions of the law requiring applicants for a concealed carry license to show “good moral character” and to hand over information about their social media accounts. He also blocked parts of the law barring guns from theaters, parks, zoos and places where alcohol is served.
His decision kept in place, however, provisions barring guns at schools and playgrounds, among other things, because of historical support for those restrictions. He also kept in place the ban on guns in Times Square.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had put Suddaby’s ruling on hold while it considers the case. Challengers to the law had asked the high court to step in and allow Suddaby’s ruling to go into effect while the case continues. It was that request the justices declined.
BUCHAREST, Romania — The divisive social media personality Andrew Tate arrived at a court in Romania in handcuffs on Tuesday morning to appeal a judge’s earlier decision to extend his arrest period from 24 hours to 30 days on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.
Tate, a 36-year-old British-U.S. citizen who has amassed 4.4 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained on Dec. 29 in an area of north of the capital Bucharest along with his brother Tristan, who is charged in the same case. Two Romanian women are also in custody.
All four of them immediately challenged the arrest extension that was granted to prosecutors on Dec. 30. A document explaining the judge’s motivation for the extension says “the possibility of them evading investigations cannot be ignored,” and that they could “leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition.”
A verdict from Bucharest’s Court of Appeal is expected to come later Tuesday, Eugen Vidineac, the Romanian lawyer representing Tate, told The Associated Press.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT said after the late December raids that it had identified six victims in the case who were subjected by the group to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and were sexually exploited by group members.
The agency said victims were lured by pretenses of love, and later intimidated, surveilled, and subjected to other control tactics into performing pornographic acts intended to reap substantial financial gains.
Prosecutors investigating the case have so far seized a total of 15 luxury cars — at least seven of which are owned by the Tate brothers — and more than 10 properties or land owned by companies registered to them, said Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for DIICOT.
Bolla said that if prosecutors can prove they gained money through human trafficking, the property “will be taken by the state and (will) cover the expenses of the investigation and damages to the victims.”
If the court rules to uphold the arrest warrant extension on Tuesday prosecutors could request detention for a maximum of 180 days. If the court overturns the extension, the defendants could be put under house arrest or similar conditions such as being banned from leaving Romania.
Since Tate’s arrest, a series of ambiguous posts have appeared on his Twitter account, each of which garners widespread media attention.
One, posted on Sunday and accompanied by a local report suggesting he or his brother have required medical care since their detention, reads: “The Matrix has attacked me. But they misunderstand, you cannot kill an idea. Hard to Kill.”
Another post, that appeared Saturday, reads: “Going to jail when guilty of a crime is the life story of a criminal … going to jail when completely innocent is the story of a hero.”
Tate, who is reported to have lived in Romania since 2017, has previously been banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
Israeli firm NSO Group’s spyware has been linked to state surveillance of human rights activists and dissidents.
The United States Supreme Court has allowed the WhatsApp messaging platform to pursue a lawsuit against Israel’s NSO Group, which makes the Pegasus spyware linked to state surveillance of journalists, human rights advocates and dissidents around the world.
The top court’s justices on Monday left in place lower court rulings against the Israeli company, which had argued it should be recognised as a foreign government agent and, therefore, be entitled to immunity under US law limiting lawsuits against foreign countries.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta and is among a number of tech companies and individuals pursuing legal action against the Israeli firm, has alleged that NSO Group surveilled about 1,400 people through the messaging platform.
The company’s 2019 lawsuit seeks to block the NSO Group from Meta platforms and servers and recover unspecified damages.
Meta, which owns both WhatsApp and Facebook, on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to deny what it called a “baseless” appeal.
“NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Meta said in a statement. “We firmly believe that their operations violate US law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations.”
The administration of President Joe Biden had previously recommended that the court turn away the appeal, with the Department of Justice arguing that “NSO plainly is not entitled to immunity here”.
The US Department of Commerce in 2021 blacklisted the Israeli firm for complicity in “transnational repression”, a move that limited NSO Group’s access to US technology.
WhatsApp has alleged that at least 100 of the targeted users connected to its lawsuit were journalists, rights activists and civil society members.
An investigation published in 2021 by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, found that the spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.
“Today’s decision clears the path for lawsuits brought by the tech companies as well as for suits brought by journalists and human rights advocates who have been victims of spyware attacks,” Carrie DeCell, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute who is representing journalists in a separate lawsuit against NSO Group, said on Monday.
For its part, the NSO Group has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security. It has said the technology is intended to help catch “terrorists”, paedophiles and criminals.
The firm, which does not disclose its clients, has maintained that only law enforcement agencies can purchase the product and all sales are approved by Israel’s Ministry of Defense. It has said it does not have control of how the technology is used after it is sold.
After Monday’s ruling, the Israeli company said in a statement: “We are confident that the court will determine that the use of Pegasus by its customers was legal.”
The NSO Group also is being sued by iPhone maker Apple, which has accused the firm of violating its user terms and services agreement by breaking into its products.
Apple has previously called NSO’s employees “amoral 21st century mercenaries”.
PRAGUE — A Prague court on Monday acquitted former Prime Minister Andrej Babis of fraud charges in a $2 million case involving European Union subsidies.
A prosecutor requested a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 10 million Czech koruna ($440,000) for the populist billionaire. The prosecution still can appeal.
Babis pleaded not guilty and repeatedly said the charges against him were politically motivated.
He wasn’t present at Prague’s Municipal Court on Monday. His former associate, Jana Nagyova, who signed the subsidy request, was also acquitted.
The ruling is a boost for Babis just days before the first round of the Czech presidential election.
Babis is considered a front-runner in Friday’s election, along with retired army Gen. Petr Pavel, former chairman of NATO’s military committee, and former university rector Danuse Nerudova.
NORFOLK, Va. — A U.S. Army lieutenant who was pepper sprayed, struck and handcuffed by police in rural Virginia, but never arrested, will argue to a jury that he was assaulted and falsely imprisoned and that his vehicle was illegally searched.
Video of the 2020 traffic stop got millions of views the next year after Caron Nazario filed the federal lawsuit that is now being heard, highlighting fears of mistreatment among Black drivers and intensifying the scrutiny of the boundaries of reasonable, and legal, police conduct.
The episode also served as a grim signal to many Black Americans that military uniforms don’t necessarily protect against abuse of authority by law enforcement.
The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Richmond.
Video shows Windsor police officers Daniel Crocker and Joe Gutierrez pointing handguns at a uniformed Nazario behind the wheel of his Chevy Tahoe at a gas station. The officers repeatedly commanded Nazario to exit his SUV, with Gutierrez warning at one point that Nazario was “fixing to ride the lightning” when he didn’t get out.
Nazario held his hands in the air outside the driver’s side window and continually asked why he was being stopped.
Nazario also said: “I’m honestly afraid to get out.”
“You should be,” Gutierrez responded.
Nazario stayed in the vehicle. Gutierrez went on to pepper spray him through the open window. Once Nazario exited the SUV, the officers commanded him to get on the ground, with Gutierrez using his knees to strike Nazario’s legs, the lawsuit states.
Since the traffic stop, Nazario has developed anxiety, depression and PTSD, according to his lawsuit. He has been unable to leave home at times due to “hypervigilance regarding the potential for harassment by law enforcement,” court filings state.
A psychologist found that Nazario, who is Black and Latino, suffers from race-based trauma associated with violent police encounters, which can exacerbate injuries “in ways that do not commonly affect the white populations.”
“The officers involved not only assaulted Mr. Nazario, but pointed their weapons directly at him and, at some point during the encounter, threatened to kill him,” the suit alleges. “Mr. Nazario recalls that he thought he was going to die that evening.”
Nazario is suing Crocker and Gutierrez. Crocker is still on the force, but Gutierrez was fired in April 2021, the same month Nazario filed his lawsuit.
The men deny ever threatening to kill Nazario. They contend that Nazario misconstrued Gutierrez’s statement that Nazario was “fixing to ride the lightning.” Gutierrez spoke those words while holstering his gun and drawing his Taser and was referencing his stun gun, not an execution, according to court filings.
Crocker and Gutierrez argue that they performed their duties within the law after Nazario failed to immediately pull over and refused to exit his vehicle. Plus, a federal judge already found they had probable cause to stop Nazario for an improperly displayed license plate, and to charge him with eluding police, as well as obstruction of justice and failure to obey.
“To the extent Mr. Nazario claims mental anguish or other psychological injuries, Mr. Nazario is still in the Virginia National Guard — there is no evidence he has been medically retired or otherwise discharged in connection with this incident,” according to a trial brief filed by Gutierrez in late November. “In fact, shortly after the traffic stop, Mr. Nazario deployed to Washington, D.C. in support of the January 6, 2021 disturbance.”
Nazario, a medical officer, said he arrived after the insurrection occurred, according to a deposition.
Besides Nazario’s lawsuit, fallout from the traffic stop includes a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general that alleges Windsor discriminated against Black Americans. The small town is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Richmond.
In August, a special prosecutor determined that Gutierrez should not be criminally charged but should be investigated for potential civil rights violations.
“Although I find the video very disturbing and frankly unsettling, Gutierrez’s use of force to remove Nazario did not violate state law as he had given multiple commands for Nazario to exit the vehicle,” special prosecutor Anton Bell said in his report.
U.S. District Judge Roderick C. Young also narrowed the scope of Nazario’s lawsuit. In August, Young ruled that federal immunity laws shield Crocker and Gutierrez from Nazario’s claims that they violated his constitutional protections against excessive force and unreasonable seizure, as well as Nazario’s right to free speech by threatening him with arrest if he complained about their behavior.
Nazario can present claims under state law of false imprisonment and assault and battery to a jury, the judge ruled. The judge also found Crocker liable for illegally searching for a gun in Nazario’s SUV, leaving the question of damages on that point to a jury. Nazario had a concealed-carry permit for the weapon.
The jury will also consider whether Gutierrez is liable for the illegal search. The former officer denies he knew Crocker was conducting the search.
Nazario’s attorneys are expected to present evidence regarding Gutierrez’s professional history, including an unrelated suspension without pay for excessive force.
That episode happened during a 2019 traffic stop while Gutierrez served as a sheriff’s deputy in Isle of Wight County. Gutierrez drew his weapon on the driver during the two times the man exited his vehicle and held him at gunpoint for nearly four minutes until another officer arrived, according to court filings.
While trying to handcuff the man, Gutierrez grabbed him by his neck and “forced his face into the pavement while attempting to place him on his stomach,” the findings stated. The man suffered a facial injury that required medical attention.
PHOENIX — Former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s border barrier of shipping containers has been largely dismantled in time for a new Democratic administration, costing tens of millions of dollars over just a few months as they were set up and taken down again.
Removal of the hulking red, gold and blue steel boxes is creating a stark visual shift in affected sections of Arizona’s southern landscape as a new governor takes power and another $76 million in state funds is spent to remove the containers on top of the $95 million it cost to put them there.
Ducey had said the containers placed at an opening along the border near the western community of Yuma and across a grassland valley in eastern Arizona’s Cochise County were intended as a temporary measure until the Biden administration undertook permanent construction to secure the border.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, who was sworn in this week, was among Democrats who called it a political stunt.
Border security was a key issue of Donald Trump’s presidency and remains a focus for many Republicans. Hobbs’ GOP rival, Kari Lake, campaigned on a promise to dispatch the National Guard to the border on her first day in office.
The issue wound up in federal court after Ducey sued, asking that Arizona be recognized as having the sole or shared jurisdiction for the strip of federal land the containers were placed on. He also argued Arizona had the right to protect its residents from illegal immigration he termed a humanitarian crisis.
An agreement between Ducey’s administration and the federal agencies named in his lawsuit called for the containers to come down by Wednesday, the day before Hobbs’s inauguration. But the court later stayed all deadlines in the case by 30 days to give Hobbs and new Attorney General Kris Mayes time to review the situation.
In Yuma, all 130 of the containers covering about 3,800 feet (about 1,160 meters) were removed by Tuesday.
Workers continue to dismantle the container wall in Cochise County, said Russ McSpadden, who has regularly visited the site in remote San Rafael Valley as a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
About a third of some 3,000 containers were erected there, raising concerns about possible harm to local wildlife and natural water systems before protesters halted the work in early December. Environmentalists said the work in the Coronado National Forest imperiled endangered or threatened species like the western yellow-billed cuckoo and the Mexican spotted owl.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said this week that although the U.S. government plans permanent construction to close the big gap around the Morelos Dam section that immigrants often wade through, he worries about gaps not scheduled for construction.
The U.S. Border Patrol announced Friday that construction to close the gap near the Morelos Dam will begin next week, noting that the swift-moving Colorado River poses potential hazards for drowning and other injuries for migrants and the agency’s own personnel.
“The containers were never going to totally stop people from crossing, but it was a way to better control it,” said Nicholls, a Republican who is in regular contact with the White House and U.S. agencies about hundreds of asylum seekers arriving in his small city daily.
Nicholls said he is already in talks with the Hobbs administration about border security and wants the governor to visit the area.
“I’m hoping she makes her way here sooner rather than later,” he said. “We still feel like it’s an emergency.”
Under Ducey, Arizona was busing hundreds of migrants from the Yuma area to the U.S. capital.
Nicholls said the regular bus trips to Washington continue despite the change in governors, with the nonprofit Regional Center for Border Health assuming the contract.
He said that without any kind of migrant shelter, Yuma is ill-prepared to help newcomers who need a place to stay, and that offering bus rides to Washington allows many to travel free to the East Coast where they may have family.
Unlike busloads of migrants being sent to East Coast cities from Texas, nonprofit groups in Washington have said the buses from Arizona come with detailed manifests of passengers and their nationalities, coordination on arrival times and medical personnel aboard each trip. Ducey’s administration had sent more than 2,500 migrants on some 70 trips to Washington beginning in May.
Ducey’s administration earlier estimated each bus trip cost about $80,000 in state funds, which would put the total cost so far well over $5.6 million.
A spokesperson for the Regional Center for Border Health in Somerton, Arizona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the contract is now being handled.
Nicholls said the center will be reimbursed for the cost of the trips by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The homes or offices of five elected Democratic officials in New Mexico, including the new attorney general, have been hit by gunfire over the past month, and authorities are working to determine if the attacks are connected.
Nobody was injured in the shootings, which are being investigated by local and federal authorities, said Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina. He called the investigation a top priority.
Police initially reported four shooting incidents but then disclosed late Thursday that a shooting at the former campaign office of newly elected New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez is being reexamined.
The attacks come amid a sharp rise in threats to members of Congress and two years after supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol and sent lawmakers running for their lives. Local school board members and election workers across the country have also endured harassment, intimidation and threats of violence.
In New Mexico, the attacks began on Dec. 4, when someone shot eight rounds at the Albuquerque home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, police said. Seven days later, someone fired more than a dozen times at the Albuquerque house of then-Bernalillo Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.
ShotSpotter technology detected several gunshots in the area of Torrez’s former office on Dec. 10, police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. But he said the attorney general and his staff had already moved out following his November election.
Just this week, on Tuesday night and Thursday morning, respectively, multiple shots were fired at the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez and the office of state Sen. Moe Maestas.
“It is traumatizing to have several bullets shot directly through my front door when my family and I were getting ready to celebrate Christmas,” Barboa, who has been a county commissioner since January 2021, told Albuquerque TV station KRQE. “No one deserves threatening and dangerous attacks like this.”
O’Malley, who left her position as commissioner after serving a maximum of two terms, said in an email that she and her husband were asleep before the gunfire struck the adobe wall surrounding their home.
“To say I am angry about this attack on my home—on my family, is the least of it,” O’Malley said in an email. “I remember thinking how grateful I was that my grandchildren were not spending the night, and that those bullets did not go through my house.”
Lopez, who has been a state senator since 1997, said three of the bullets shot at her home passed through her 10-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
“I am asking the public to provide any information they may have that will assist the police in bringing about the arrest of the perpetrators,” Lopez said in a statement.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller called the shootings disturbing. He said they are serious crimes regardless of whether anyone was hurt.
Republican leaders in the New Mexico Senate expressed sympathy for their fellow lawmakers in a joint statement.
“We are incredibly grateful that our Senate colleagues, their families, and the other victims are uninjured,” the statement said. “The Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police, and the FBI have launched an investigation and we eagerly await the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator.”
Federal officials have warned about the potential for violence and attacks on government officials and buildings, and the Department of Homeland Security has said domestic extremism remains a top terrorism threat in the U.S.
Local officials have also faced an increasing number of threats in recent years.
In October, an assailant looking for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke into her San Francisco home and used a hammer to attack her husband, Paul, who suffered blunt-force injuries and was hospitalized. Rioters who swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory roamed the halls and shouted menacingly, demanding “Where’s Nancy?”
Members of a paramilitary group were convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor. And in August, a gunman opened fire on an FBI office in Ohio after posting online that federal agents should be killed “on sight” after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Across the U.S., election workers have been harassed and hounded, sending some into hiding. There have also been threats to judges, school board officials and armed protests at state capitols around the nation.
In June, a man was arrested outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland and said he was there to kill the justice after a leaked court opinion suggested the court was likely to overturn Roe v. Wade.
But the escalation of threats and violence against lawmakers and other government officials isn’t new. In 2017, Rep. Steve Scalise was shot in Virginia during a congressional baseball practice.
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Lee reported from Santa Fe. Associated Press reporters Terry Tang in Phoenix and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s justice minister on Wednesday unveiled the new government’s long-promised overhaul of the judicial system that aims to weaken the country’s Supreme Court.
Critics accused the government of declaring war against the legal system, saying the plan will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances and undermine its democratic institutions by giving absolute power to the most right-wing coalition in the country’s history.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a confidant of Netanyahu’s and longtime critic of the Supreme Court, presented his plan a day before the justices are to debate a controversial new law passed by the government allowing a politician convicted of tax offenses to serve as a Cabinet minister.
“The time has come to act,” Levin said.
The proposals call for a series of sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, including by allowing lawmakers to pass laws that the high court has struck down and effectively deemed unconstitutional.
Levin laid out a law that would empower the country’s 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, to override Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes. Levin also proposed that politicians play a greater role in the appointment of Supreme Court judges and that ministers appoint their own legal advisers, instead of using independent professionals.
Levin argued that the public’s faith in the judicial system has plummeted to a historic low, and said he plans to restore power to elected officials that now lies in the hands of what he and his supporters consider to be overly interventionist judges.
“We go to the polls and vote, choose, but time after time, people who we didn’t elect decide for us,” he said. “That’s not democracy.”
The planned overhaul has already drawn fierce criticism from Israel’s attorney general and the Israeli opposition, though it is unclear whether they will be able to prevent the far-right government from racing forward.
Yair Lapid, former Prime Minister and head of the opposition, said he will fight the changes “in every possible way” and vowed to cancel them if he returns to power. “Those who carry out a unilateral coup in Israel need to know that we are not obligated to it in any way whatsoever,” he said.
If Levin’s proposed “override” law is passed, Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies have said they hope to scrap Supreme Court rulings outlawing Israeli outposts on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. They would also seek to allow for the protracted detention of African asylum-seekers and make official the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox from the country’s mandatory military service.
In Israel, Supreme Court judges are appointed and dismissed by a committee made up of professionals, lawmakers and some justices. Levin wants to give lawmakers a majority in the committee, with most coming from the right-wing and religiously conservative ruling coalition.
“It will be a hollow democracy,” said Amir Fuchs, senior researcher at Jerusalem’s Israel Democracy Institute think tank. “When the government has ultimate power, it will use this power not only for issues of LGBTQ rights and asylum-seekers but elections and free speech and anything it wants.”
Recent opinion polls by the Israel Democracy Institute found a majority of respondents believe the Supreme Court should have the power to strike down laws that conflict with Israel’s Basic Laws, which serve as a sort of constitution.
In a speech Wednesday ahead of Levin’s announcement, Netanyahu appeared to back his justice minister by vowing to “implement reforms that will ensure the proper balance between the three branches of government.”
Since being indicted on corruption charges, Netanyahu has campaigned against the justice system. He denies all charges, saying he is the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media, police and prosecutors. Levin said his plan is “not connected in any way” to Netanyahu’s trial.
Just hours before Levin’s speech, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a prime target of the new government, declared her opposition to the ministerial appointment of one of Netanyahu’s key coalition partners who has been convicted of tax offenses. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is expected to hear petitions against Aryeh Deri serving as minister.
As part of negotiations to form the current government, Israel’s parliament last month changed a law to allow someone convicted on probation to serve as a Cabinet minister. That paved the way for Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve half a term as the minister of health and interior affairs, before becoming finance minister. He will also hold the post of deputy prime minister. Deri was convicted of tax fraud and given a suspended sentence last year.
Good governance groups saw the legal maneuver as a green light for corruption by a government cavalierly changing laws for political expediency.
Baharav-Miara made her standing clear in a note to the Supreme Court. She said the appointment “radically deviates from the sphere of reasonability.” She has said she will not be defending the state in court against the appeals, because of her opposition.
Levin’s proposed changes also include eliminating the test of “reasonability” when reviewing government decisions.
Baharav-Miara was appointed by the previous government, which vehemently opposes Netanyahu’s rule.
Netanyahu’s allies have floated the idea of splitting up the post of attorney general into three roles including two that would be political appointments. That would water down the current attorney-general’s authority while opening the door for Netanyahu to install someone favorable to throwing out the charges against him.
BOSTON — The mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal is set to be sentenced on Wednesday after helping authorities secure the convictions of a slew of wealthy parents involved in his scheme to rig the selection process at top-tier schools.
Federal prosecutors are asking for six years behind bars for Rick Singer, who for more than a decade helped deep-pocketed parents get their often undeserving kids get into some of the nation’s most selective schools with bogus test scores and athletic credentials.
The scandal embarrassed elite universities across the country, put a spotlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the rich and laid bare the measures some parents will take to get their kids into the school of their choice.
Singer, 62, began secretly cooperating with investigators and worked with the FBI to record hundreds of phone calls and meetings before the arrest of dozens of parents and athletic coaches in March 2019. More than 50 people — including popular TV actresses and prominent businessmen — were ultimately convicted in the case authorities dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
In the nearly four years since the scandal exploded into newspaper headlines, Singer remained out of jail and kept largely silent publicly. He was never called as a witness by prosecutors in the cases that went to trial, but will get a chance to address the court before the judge hands down his sentence in Boston federal court.
In a letter to the judge, Singer blamed his actions on his “winning at all costs” attitude, which he said was caused in part by suppressed childhood trauma. His lawyer is requesting three years of probation, or if the judge deems prison time necessary, six months behind bars.
“By ignoring what was morally, ethically, and legally right in favor of winning what I perceived was the college admissions ‘game,’ I have lost everything,” Singer wrote.
Singer pleaded guilty in 2019 — on the same day the massive case became public — to charges including racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Dozens of others ultimately pleaded guilty to charges, while two parents were convicted at trial.
Authorities in Boston began investigating the scheme after an executive under scrutiny for an unrelated securities fraud scheme told investigators that a Yale soccer coach had offered to help his daughter get into the school in exchange for cash. The Yale coach led authorities to Singer, whose cooperation unraveled the sprawling scandal.
For years, Singer paid off entrance exam administrators or proctors to inflate students’ test scores and bribed coaches to designate applicants as recruits for sports they sometimes didn’t even play, seeking to boost their chances of getting into the school. Singer took in more than $25 million from his clients, paid bribes totaling more than $7 million, and used more than $15 million of his clients’ money for his own benefit, according to prosecutors.
“He was the architect and mastermind of a criminal enterprise that massively corrupted the integrity of the college admissions process — which already favors those with wealth and privilege — to a degree never before seen in this country,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
If the judge agrees with prosecutors, it would be by far the longest sentence handed down in the case. So far, the toughest punishment has gone to former Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon Ernst, who got 2 1/2 years in prison for pocketing more than $3 million in bribes.
Others ensnared in the scandal included “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman. Punishments for the parents have ranged from probation to 15 months behind bars, although though the parent who received that prison sentence remains free while he appeals his conviction.
One parent, who wasn’t accused of working with Singer, was acquitted on all counts stemming from accusations that he bribed Ernst to get his daughter into the school. And a judge ordered a new trial for former University of Southern California water polo Jovan Vavic, who was convicted of accepting bribes.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has demolished homes, water tanks and olive orchards in two Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank where some residents are at risk of imminent expulsion, residents and activists said Wednesday.
One of the villages whose structures were demolished on Tuesday is part of an arid area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military has designated as a live-fire training zone. Some 1,000 residents of the eight hamlets that make up Masafer Yatta are slated for expulsion, an order Israel’s Supreme Court upheld in May after a two-decade legal battle.
According to images shared by local residents and activists, armored vehicles escorted construction equipment to the demolitions in the villages of Ma’in and Shaab al-Butum, which is part of Masafer Yatta.
Guy Butavia, an activist with the Israeli rights group Taayush, said the army razed five homes, animal pens and cisterns, spilling the contents of people’s lives out onto the cold desert.
“They come and demolish your house. It’s winter. It’s cold. What’s next? Where are they going to sleep that night?” he said.
Most residents of the area have remained in place since the ruling, even as Israeli security forces periodically roll in to demolish structures. But they could be forced out at any time.
Local officials and rights group said Israeli defense officials have informed them that they would soon forcibly remove more than 1,000 residents from the area.
“There is a genuine concern that a grave war crime will be committed,” said Roni Pelli, a lawyer working with ACRI.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, declined to comment.
Both villages are in the 60% of the occupied West Bank known as Area C, where the Israeli military exercises full control under interim peace agreements reached with the Palestinians in the 1990s. Palestinian structures built without military permits — which residents say are nearly impossible to obtain — are at risk of demolition.
Tuesday’s demolition comes against the backdrop of a new government in Israel, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where proponents of Israel’s West Bank settlement enterprise hold influential portfolios and are expected to both drive up settlement building and suppress construction for Palestinians in Area C.
The families living in Masafer Yatta say they’ve herded their sheep and goats across the area long before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
But Israel says the nomadic Arab Bedouin had no permanent structures when the military declared the area a firing and training zone in the early 1980s. In November 1999, security forces expelled some 700 villagers and destroyed homes and cisterns.
A twenty-year legal battle began the following year that ended in 2022 with the Israeli Supreme Court denying an additional hearing in October over the expulsion.
While previous Israeli governments have for decades demolished homes in the area, the current government is expected to step up demolitions in the area.
