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Tag: Indictments

  • A Veteran Defense Lawyer Turned Judge Will Oversee the Case Against Ex-FBI Director James Comey

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    ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Michael Nachmanoff has built a quiet reputation in the federal courthouse in northern Virginia — a onetime public defender turned judge known for methodical preparation and a cool temperament. On Wednesday, he’ll find himself at the center of a political storm: presiding over the Justice Department’s prosecution of former FBI director James Comey.

    Confirmed to the bench by President Joe Biden in 2021, Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to the case after a Virginia grand jury indicted Comey last month on charges including obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The assignment instantly drew Donald Trump’s attention. The president, long fixated on Comey, blasted him as a “Dirty Cop” and derided Nachmanoff as a “Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge” while celebrating the charges as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!”

    Despite the political noise, lawyers who know Nachmanoff say he is unlikely to be swayed.

    “Whatever his personal politics are, I do not think that they will enter the courtroom,” said longtime Virginia defense attorney Nina Ginsberg, who has tried cases before him. “He’s confident enough in his ability to judge fairly that I don’t think he’s going to be influenced by politics or the media coverage.”

    Nachmanoff, 57, came to the bench after more than a decade as the Eastern District of Virginia’s top federal public defender, where he argued and won a Supreme Court case that helped reduce racial disparities in crack cocaine sentencing. He served six years as a magistrate judge, handling some politically tinged cases. In 2019 he oversaw the first appearances of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, releasing them on $1 million bonds. More recently, he refused to block the CIA from firing Dr. Terry Adirim, a Pentagon physician targeted by Trump allies over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

    “He was an aggressive advocate, the kind of lawyer who left no stones unturned,” Ginsberg said of the judge. She said he conducts his courtroom in an even-handed, respectful manner.

    Timothy Belevetz, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, said Nachmanoff was “always a worthy adversary.”

    “He’s been around the courthouse for years and years and years,” Belevetz said. “He’s very well-respected. He’s very smart, he’ll give parties a fair shake, he listens to the arguments.”

    Comey was charged late last month with lying to Congress. Days earlier, Trump appeared to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute the former FBI director and other political enemies.

    Comey himself has acknowledged the political backdrop but expressed confidence in the court system. In a video after his indictment, he said: “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial.”

    The clash between Trump and Comey has been building for years. Trump fired the FBI director in 2017, just months into his first term, as the bureau investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election. Since then, the former president has repeatedly called for Comey’s prosecution and, in the days before the indictment, publicly pressed Bondi to act.

    For lawyers who’ve worked with Nachmanoff, that kind of political noise is unlikely to matter. They point to his long record of independence and constitutional rigor. “Federal public defenders are renowned for their fidelity to the Constitution and due process,” said Lisa Wayne, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

    She said the White House should welcome Nachmanoff’s involvement as a safeguard “against the appearance of partisan political attacks.”

    Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Eric Tucker and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Argentine Court Approves Extradition to US of Businessman Linked to Milei Ally

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    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s top court on Tuesday approved the extradition of an Argentine businessman to face drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States, the latest development in a politically explosive case that has tainted a key ally of President Javier Milei.

    The Argentine Supreme Court ruled that the businessman, Fred Machado, should be handed over to American authorities in Texas, where a Justice Department indictment for drug trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and other financial misdeeds stands against him. Machado denies the charges.

    Since Milei took office in 2023, he has imposed a sweeping austerity program aimed at balancing Argentina’s budget for the first time in decades, but recent political scandals have threatened his political agenda.

    Machado, who has been in custody in Argentina since 2021, is the center of the latest controversy. His long-running case sparked a media firestorm last week when documents surfaced showing that Machado had sent a $200,000 payment in 2020 to a member of Milei’s Libertad Avanza party, José Luis Espert.

    Espert, one of Milei’s top candidates for upcoming Oct. 26 midterm elections, admitted accepting the money in a social media video posted Thursday, claiming it was for consulting work to help a mining company linked to Machado. He denied knowledge of Machado’s allegedly illicit activities.

    Espert, a current lawmaker and economist, withdrew his candidacy Sunday for Milei’s libertarian party in Buenos Aires Province.

    “I have nothing to hide and I will prove my innocence before the courts,” Espert said in announcing his resignation, acknowledging that he took over a dozen trips on Machado’s planes, which U.S. authorities say were registered illegally. “Time will show that all of this was a big lie to taint this electoral process.”

    Milei seeks to expand his party’s tiny congressional minority in upcoming midterm elections as he struggles to push through his radical overhaul of Argentina’s long-troubled economy and reassure jittery investors.

    Milei, who is set to visit Trump at the White House on Oct. 14, told local media last week that he was “working on the details.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • 3 Former New York Prison Guards Charged in Beating Death of Handcuffed Inmate Go on Trial

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    UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A prosecutor told a jury Tuesday that three former upstate New York prison guards on trial in the fatal beating of a Black handcuffed inmate took part in an act of “sheer, unimaginable brutality.”

    Mathew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley are charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, whose beating by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9 was captured in part on body-camera footage. The trio were among 10 corrections officers indicted in February on murder charges or for lesser crimes.

    Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement that they would view sickening videos of Brooks’ treatment by a group of guards, and that each of the defendants was involved.

    “They no longer were corrections officers. They were a gang,” Fitzpatrick said in his opening statement. “They took turns — collectively and individually — of punching him, kneeing him, pepper spraying him, choking him, pinning him down, cuffing his legs.”

    Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup that night. The videos, which triggered widespread outrage, show officers striking him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.

    Defense attorneys told jurors that prosecutors will not be able to prove their clients acted with malice or depraved indifference to human life, as the charges allege. The attorneys asked jurors to take careful note of their clients’ specific actions that night.

    “The prosecution is attempting to tie Nicholas Kieffer to the actions of others, suggesting to you that he is somehow responsible via association,” said his attorney, David Longeretta.

    Galliher’s attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said his client has been charged with murder, in large part, for shackling Brooks’ legs to keep him from kicking.

    “Mathew Galliher didn’t harm Robert Brooks. He didn’t hit him, he didn’t strike him, he didn’t encourage others to strike him, he didn’t deny him medical care,” Luibrand said. “He didn’t do anything that contributed to the death of Robert Brooks.”

    Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, says Brooks died of a massive beating that broke a bone in his neck, ripped his thyroid cartilage and bruised several internal organs. He also died as a result of repeated restrictions to his airways, which caused brain damage, and choking on his own blood.

    Fitzpatrick said Brooks was beaten three separate times as soon as he arrived at the prison, the last being the fatal beating in the infirmary caught on the silent body-camera footage.

    A fourth corrections officer is scheduled to go on trial for second-degree manslaughter in January.

    Six guards indicted in February have since pleaded guilty. Three more employees have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and are cooperating with the special prosecutor.

    Fitzpatrick also is prosecuting guards in the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April, including two who are charged with murder, in Nantwi’s death.

    Both prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York City.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Judge denies request by ex-detective convicted in Breonna Taylor raid to delay prison

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police detective convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid is expected to report to prison this week, after a judge denied his bid to remain free while he appeals the sentence.

    Brett Hankison became the first officer involved in the raid to be convicted on criminal charges when a jury found him guilty of using excessive force in November. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison in July but quickly filed an appeal asking a judge to let him remain free on bond.

    U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings on Monday denied Hankison’s bond request. He is scheduled to report to prison on Thursday. Jennings wrote in her ruling that Hankison “failed to demonstrate a substantial question of law or fact material to his appeal justifying bond.”

    Hankison drew his handgun and fired 10 shots into the windows of Taylor’s apartment the night of the deadly raid, but didn’t hit anyone. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, nearly striking two people inside.

    Jennings said during Hankison’s sentencing that she was “startled” that no one was injured by Hankison’s shots. Hankison’s first federal trial on excessive force charges ended in a mistrial in 2023, and he was acquitted of state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.

    Ahead of his sentencing, the U.S. Justice Department asked that Hankison be given no prison time.

    Jennings expressed disappointment with the request, saying the Justice Department was treating Hankison’s actions as “an inconsequential crime.”

    Two other officers shot Taylor as they returned fire, after Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire when police broke down the door. Hankison was behind the officers and when the shooting started, he ran to the side of the apartment and fired through the windows.

    Hankison said at trial he was trying to protect his fellow officers, who he believed were coming under fire from someone inside with a rifle.

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  • Georgia man indicted after fishing tournament boat crash killed 3 in Alabama

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    CULLMAN, Ala. — CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — A Georgia man has been indicted on manslaughter charges in Alabama after an April boat wreck during a professional fishing tournament killed three people and injured two others.

    Flint Andrew Davis, 22, was indicted Thursday in Cullman County on three counts of reckless manslaughter and two counts of first degree assault, all felonies. Davis, a Leesburg, Georgia, resident, was also indicted on three misdemeanors, including reckless operation of a vessel, failing to follow boating rules and boating without a boater safety certification.

    Video shows Davis’ boat speeding across Lewis Smith Lake, a popular recreational destination about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Birmingham, striking another boat, and launching into the air. Officials say Joey M. Broom, 58, of Snead, Alabama, was fatally injured in the collision. John K. Clark, 44, of Cullman, Alabama, and Jeffrey C. Little, 62, of Brandon, Mississippi, were thrown overboard and drowned, officials have said. Two other men were seriously injured, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said at a Friday news conference.

    The crash happened while Davis was fishing in the second day of the Tackle Warehouse Invitational, a bass fishing tournament put on by Major League Fishing. The others weren’t part of the tournament, but taking part in a company-sponsored fishing trip.

    Although investigators determined Davis’ boat was traveling at 67 mph (108 kph) at the time of the crash, Alabama Marine Patrol Chief Matt Brooks said at the news conference that speed was not a factor in the crash. Instead, he said the wreck was caused by “operator inattention, distraction, not paying attention, failing to keep a proper lookout.”

    Brooks said investigators found that “Mr. Davis clearly did not see” the other boat. He also said that Davis didn’t have the required license to operate a motorized boat in either Georgia or Alabama.

    Attorney Tommy Spina, representing Davis, said Davis expresses “his deepest remorse and contrition” to the families of those who died, as well as to those who were injured.

    Spina said that Davis wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was not otherwise distracted.

    “He simply did not see the other boat until the moment of impact,” Spina said. “There are many possible explanations for why this tragic collision occurred, but those matters will be fully addressed, in due course, in the courtroom and not in the press.”

    Davis is free on bail after his arrest.

    Multiple wrongful death lawsuits have been filed seeking civil damages. The accident has also sparked calls for legislation to more closely regulate boating and fishing tournaments in Alabama. Clark said grand jurors recommended that all fishing tournaments require proof-of-boating licenses and that fishing tournaments do more to promote safety.

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  • Pop star turned militant Fadel Shaker surrenders to Lebanese military

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    BEIRUT — BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese pop star turned wanted Islamic militant handed himself over to the country’s military intelligence service Saturday 12 years after going on the run, judicial and security officials said.

    Fadel Shaker, had been on the run since the bloody street clashes between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in June 2013 in the coastal city of Sidon. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020 for providing support to a “terrorist group.”

    On Saturday night, a Lebanese military intelligence force reached one of the entrances of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near Sidon and took Shaker, who had been hiding inside the camp for more than 12 years, into custody, two security and two judicial officials said.

    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the handover came after coordination between mediators and officials at the Lebanese Defense Ministry.

    The officials said that now that Shaker is being held by Lebanese authorities, the sentences that he received while on the run will be dropped and he will be questioned in preparation to stand trial on new charges of committing crimes against the military.

    Shaker had denied in the past playing any role in the clashes in Sidon and said he never advocated bloodshed.

    The 2013 shootout, which pitted followers of hard-line Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir against the Lebanese army, killed at least 18 soldiers and deepened sectarian tensions in Lebanon between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

    In a video uploaded to YouTube on the second day of the street fighting in Sidon, a bearded Shaker called his enemies pigs and dogs, and taunted the military, saying “we have two rotting corpses that we snatched from you yesterday” — apparently referring to two slain soldiers.

    Shaker became a pop star throughout the Arab world in 2002 with a smash hit. Almost 10 years later, he fell under the influence of al-Assir and shocked fans by turning up next to the hard-line cleric at rallies and later saying that he was giving up singing to become closer to God.

    In July, Shaker, along with his son Mohammed, released a new song that went viral throughout the Arab world and got over 113 million views of YouTube.

    Shaker’s handover comes as the Lebanese army began the process to collect weapons from Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps that have been off-limits to Lebanese authorities.

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  • Georgia Man Indicted After Fishing Tournament Boat Crash Killed 3 in Alabama

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    CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — A Georgia man has been indicted on manslaughter charges in Alabama after an April boat wreck during a professional fishing tournament killed three people and injured two others.

    Flint Andrew Davis, 22, was indicted Thursday in Cullman County on three counts of reckless manslaughter and two counts of first degree assault, all felonies. Davis, a Leesburg, Georgia, resident, was also indicted on three misdemeanors, including reckless operation of a vessel, failing to follow boating rules and boating without a boater safety certification.

    Video shows Davis’ boat speeding across Lewis Smith Lake, a popular recreational destination about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Birmingham, striking another boat, and launching into the air. Officials say Joey M. Broom, 58, of Snead, Alabama, was fatally injured in the collision. John K. Clark, 44, of Cullman, Alabama, and Jeffrey C. Little, 62, of Brandon, Mississippi, were thrown overboard and drowned, officials have said. Two other men were seriously injured, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said at a Friday news conference.

    The crash happened while Davis was fishing in the second day of the Tackle Warehouse Invitational, a bass fishing tournament put on by Major League Fishing. The others weren’t part of the tournament, but taking part in a company-sponsored fishing trip.

    Although investigators determined Davis’ boat was traveling at 67 mph (108 kph) at the time of the crash, Alabama Marine Patrol Chief Matt Brooks said at the news conference that speed was not a factor in the crash. Instead, he said the wreck was caused by “operator inattention, distraction, not paying attention, failing to keep a proper lookout.”

    Brooks said investigators found that “Mr. Davis clearly did not see” the other boat. He also said that Davis didn’t have the required license to operate a motorized boat in either Georgia or Alabama.

    Attorney Tommy Spina, representing Davis, said Davis expresses “his deepest remorse and contrition” to the families of those who died, as well as to those who were injured.

    Spina said that Davis wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was not otherwise distracted.

    “He simply did not see the other boat until the moment of impact,” Spina said. “There are many possible explanations for why this tragic collision occurred, but those matters will be fully addressed, in due course, in the courtroom and not in the press.”

    Davis is free on bail after his arrest.

    Multiple wrongful death lawsuits have been filed seeking civil damages. The accident has also sparked calls for legislation to more closely regulate boating and fishing tournaments in Alabama. Clark said grand jurors recommended that all fishing tournaments require proof-of-boating licenses and that fishing tournaments do more to promote safety.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Abrego Garcia wins request for hearing on whether smuggling charges are illegally ‘vindictive’

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. — HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice’s prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.

    The case of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.

    U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw late Friday granted a request by lawyers for Abrego Garcia and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing in Abrego Garcia’s effort to show that the federal human smuggling case against him in Tennessee is illegally retaliatory.

    Crenshaw said Abrego Garcia had shown that there is “some evidence that the prosecution against him may be indictive.” That evidence included statements by various Trump administration officials and the timeline of the charges being filed.

    The departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case Saturday.

    In his 16-page ruling, Crenshaw said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern,” but one stood out.

    That statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on a Fox News program after Abrego Garcia was charged in June, seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful deportation case, Crenshaw wrote.

    Blanche’s ”remarkable statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego’s criminal charges stem from his exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights” to sue over his deportation “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct,” Crenshaw wrote.

    Likewise, Crenshaw noted that the Department of Homeland Security reopened an investigation into Abrego Garcia days after the U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia.

    Abrego Garcia was indicted on May 21 and charged June 6, the day the U.S. brought him from a prison in El Salvador back to the U.S. He pleaded not guilty and is now being held in Pennsylvania.

    If convicted in the Tennessee case, Abrego Garcia will be deported, federal officials have said. A U.S. immigration judge has denied Abrego Garcia’s bid for asylum, although he can appeal.

    The Salvadoran national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the United States illegally as a teenager.

    In 2019, he was arrested by immigration agents. He requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the U.S. for more than a year. But the judge ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.

    The human smuggling charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop. He was not charged at the time.

    Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact he has not been convicted of any crimes.

    Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denounced the criminal charges and the deportation efforts, saying they are an attempt to punish him for standing up to the administration.

    Abrego Garcia contends that, while imprisoned in El Salvador, he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

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  • Abrego Garcia Wins Request for Hearing on Whether Smuggling Charges Are Illegally ‘Vindictive’

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice’s prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.

    The case of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.

    U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw late Friday granted a request by lawyers for Abrego Garcia and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing in Abrego Garcia’s effort to show that the federal human smuggling case against him in Tennessee is illegally retaliatory.

    Crenshaw said Abrego Garcia had shown that there is “some evidence that the prosecution against him may be indictive.” That evidence included statements by various Trump administration officials and the timeline of the charges being filed.

    The departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case Saturday.

    In his 16-page ruling, Crenshaw said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern,” but one stood out.

    That statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on a Fox News program after Abrego Garcia was charged in June, seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful deportation case, Crenshaw wrote.

    Blanche’s ”remarkable statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego’s criminal charges stem from his exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights” to sue over his deportation “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct,” Crenshaw wrote.

    Likewise, Crenshaw noted that the Department of Homeland Security reopened an investigation into Abrego Garcia days after the U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia.

    If convicted in the Tennessee case, Abrego Garcia will be deported, federal officials have said. A U.S. immigration judge has denied Abrego Garcia’s bid for asylum, although he can appeal.

    In 2019, he was arrested by immigration agents. He requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the U.S. for more than a year. But the judge ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.

    The human smuggling charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop. He was not charged at the time.

    Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact he has not been convicted of any crimes.

    Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denounced the criminal charges and the deportation efforts, saying they are an attempt to punish him for standing up to the administration.

    Abrego Garcia contends that, while imprisoned in El Salvador, he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • 23-year-old Dead Sea hotel employee arrested under suspicion of spying for Iran

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    Additionally, indictments were filed against two others who were reportingly working with the Islamic Republic.

    A 23-year-old Israeli who works at a hotel at the Dead Sea was arrested this week on suspicion of spying for Iran, Israel Police announced on Friday.

    Lahav 433 and the Shin Bet conducted the investigation, and revealed that he had been in contact with Iranian intelligence officials for some time and had carried out missions under their direction.

    According to the police statement, the Israeli citizen carried out “collection missions” for the Islamic Republic at the hotel where he worked.

    He had also reportedly taken photographs of the hotel and its surroundings for Iranian intelligence.

    Two others indicted the same day for spying for Iran

    KAN additionally reported on Friday that another civilian, Tal Amram, 26, and an IDF reservist, Maor Kringel, 27, had indictments filed against them.

    THE EROSION of the Dead Sea. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

    Both of them are residents of Holon, Walla reported.

    Kringel is accused of aiding enemy forces during wartime by providing them with key information. He provided Iranian agents with documentation and locations of ports, stores, shopping malls, private homes, public centers, municipal buildings, and government and judicial bodies, according to KAN.

    The indictment filed by the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office said that he maintained contact with Iranian agents from mid-2024 until his arrest last August.

    He had also informed the foreign agents of his reserve service, and provided addresses of the various IDF bases where he had served, Israeli media reported. Other reports in Israeli media said that Kringel was asked by the foreign agents to kill his commander in exchange for NIS 100,000, and that he was invited to attend meetings with Iranian agents in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

    Last January, at the request of the foreign agents, he began recruiting additional Israeli citizens to carry out the missions, including Tal Amram. Amram contacted one of the foreign agents the following month, knowing that he was acting on behalf of an operative hostile to Israel.

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  • Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris pleads guilty to child sex abuse charges

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    The founder of a Texas megachurch who resigned last year after a woman in Oklahoma accused the pastor of sexually abusing her in the 1980s pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child, authorities said.

    Robert Preston Morris, 64, entered the pleas before a judge in Oklahoma’s Osage County as part of a plea agreement, according to the state attorney general’s office.

    The abuse began in 1982 when the victim was 12 and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to the statement by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. The abuse continued over the next four years, the statement said.

    Morris was the senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, where he led one of the nation’s largest megachurches until his resignation. He was indicted earlier this year by an Oklahoma grand jury. Under the plea agreement, Morris received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.

    Morris was handcuffed and wearing a suit as he was escorted out of court on Thursday by two sheriff’s deputies.

    The victim, Cindy Clemishire, who is now 55, said in a statement that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars.” The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire has done.

    “My hope is that many victims hear my story, and it can help lift their shame and allow them to speak up,” she said. “I hope that laws continue to change and new ones are written so children and victims’ rights are better protected. I hope that people understand the only way to stop child sexual abuse is to speak up when it happens or is suspected.”

    Morris must register as a sex offender and will be supervised by Texas authorities via interstate compact. He also was ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and restitution to the victim.

    One of Morris’ attorneys, Bill Mateja, said Morris wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct, and wanted to bring the legal matter to an end for the sake of him and his family and Clemishire and her family.

    “While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance, he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law,” Mateja said.

    Mateja said Morris wanted to apologize to Clemishire and her family for his conduct and asked for forgiveness.

    When asked about the allegations last year by The Christian Post, Morris said in a statement to the publication that when he was in his early 20s he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.” He said it was “kissing and petting, not intercourse, but it was wrong.”

    Gateway Church was founded by Morris in 2000. He has been politically active and formerly served on President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.

    Gateway Church declined to comment Thursday.

    The pleas were entered before Osage County District Special Judge Cindy Pickerill.

    “There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Drummond said. “This case is all the more despicable because the perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position of trust and authority. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for this day.”

    ____

    This story has been corrected to say that Robert Morris was indicted earlier this year, not last year.

    ____

    Associated Press journalist John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

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  • Captain of oil tanker linked to Russia’s shadow fleet will face trial in France

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    PARIS — The captain of an oil tanker immobilized off the country’s Atlantic coast which President Emmanuel Macron linked to Russia will go on trial in February over the crew’s alleged refusal to cooperate, a French prosecutor said Thursday.

    Macron has alleged that the tanker belongs to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers of uncertain ownership that are avoiding Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine and didn’t rule out that it could have been involved in drone flights over Denmark as it was sailing last week off the coast of the Nordic country.

    Asked about whether the tanker could be linked to drones flights, Macron said that “I’m very cautious because our services and our justice are still working … I don’t exclude it at all, but I cannot here attribute very clearly and establish a clear link between these two phenomenon.”

    Speaking at a European summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Macron said that the French navy faced “inappropriate and extremely aggressive behavior” towards the French frigate and helicopters that had been deployed to board the taker, which justified the opening of a judicial investigation.

    Stéphane Kellenberger, prosecutor of the western port city of Brest, said that two Chinese crew members, the captain and the chief mate, who had been detained since Tuesday, were released from police custody. The chief mate has been released without charge.

    A preliminary investigation was opened into the crew’s “refusal to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel” after the Atlantic Maritime Prefect alerted justice authorities Monday, Kellenberger said. The inquiry showed the captain couldn’t be directly considered responsible for the second offense, he added.

    Kellenberger said that members of the French navy intervened and boarded the ship on Saturday off France’s Atlantic coast in line with international law when there appeared to be a discrepancy between its apparent nationality and real nationality.

    An investigation led by the French navy concluded that the ship, coming from Russia and heading to India with a “large oil shipment,” was flying no flag, he said.

    The captain was summoned for trial in Brest on Feb. 23. He faces up to one year in prison and a 150,000-euro ($176,000) fine.

    French military spokesman Col. Guillaume Vernet said that the ship was ordered to stay in place in a safe area.

    In comments earlier Thursday in Copenhagen, Macron praised the work of the French navy to “identify the presence of a shadow fleet.”

    “You kill the business model by detaining even for days or weeks these vessels and forcing them to organize themselves differently,” he said.

    Macron said “30 to 40%” of Russia’s war effort is “financed through the revenues of the shadow fleet.”

    “It represents more than 30 billion euros. So it’s extremely important to increase the pressure on this shadow fleet, because it will clearly reduce the capacity to finance this war effort for Russia,” he said.

    Macron said the ship was “exactly the same” one which was detained by Estonia earlier this year for the same flag issue.

    In April, Estonian public broadcaster EE reported that the ship, then identified under the name “Kiwala,” was stopped outside Tallinn Bay on way to the Russian port of Ust-Luga. At the time, Prime Minister Kristen Michal posted on social media that Estonia’s navy had “detained a sanctioned vessel with no flag state” and authorities had boarded the ship — without specifying.

    The ship, now known as “Pushpa” or “Boracay,” left the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk near St. Petersburg on Sept. 20, and sailed off the coast of Denmark. It has stayed off the coast of the French western port of Saint-Nazaire since Sunday, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring website.

    The tanker, whose name has changed several times, was sailing under the flag of Benin and appears on a list of ships targeted by European Union sanctions against Russia.

    Asked by journalists about it, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that he had “no information” on the ship. He also said that many countries were carrying out “provocative actions” against Russia.

    The shadow fleet is made up of used, aging tankers that were often bought by nontransparent entities with addresses from countries that haven’t sanctioned Russia. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

    ___

    Angela Charlton in Paris, Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Lorne Cook in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to the story.

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  • Authorities identify those killed in weekend North Carolina bar shooting

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    SOUTHPORT, N.C. — The three people killed during a mass shooting last weekend at a waterfront bar in a southeastern North Carolina community have been identified as two out-of-state residents and a third who had recently moved to the coastal town.

    City government released the names of the victims who died from Saturday night’s shootings at the American Fish Company in Southport, located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Wilmington. Five others were injured. City spokesperson ChyAnn Ketchum said late Wednesday it was her understanding that the five remained hospitalized.

    The city identified those killed as Joy Rogers, 64, of Southport; Solomon Banjo, 36, of Charlottesville, Virginia; and Michael Durbin, 56, of Galena, Ohio. The names of those wounded weren’t released.

    Soon after the shootings, authorities arrested Nigel Edge, a decorated Marine veteran, and charged him with three first-degree murder counts along with five attempted-murder and five weapons-related assault counts. Edge, 40, remained held Wednesday in the Brunswick County jail without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 13.

    Authorities have said Edge piloted a boat close to shore, stopped briefly and opened fire at a crowd of vacationers and other patrons in what Southport Police Chief Todd Coring previously called a “highly premeditated” targeted attack. An arrest warrant alleged that Edge used an AR-style rifle with a silencer and scope.

    Edge was arrested about a half an hour later after a U.S. Coast Guard crew spotted him pulling a boat from the water at a ramp on Oak Island, where he lives. The investigation remains active, and Southport police said Wednesday they were still seeking information from people who went to the bar Saturday or the day before.

    Edge has not entered a plea. The county’s top prosecutor described during Edge’s court hearing Monday the defendant as having “significant mental health issues” after experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Edge, who changed his name from Sean DeBevoise in 2023, told police he was injured in combat and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Coring said.

    District Attorney Jon David said his office would review whether seeking the death penalty is appropriate in his case.

    In a statement provided this week to television stations by her husband, Joy Rogers was described by her family as influenced deeply by her Christian faith. Rogers — who was born and raised in California — and her family had moved to Southport about a year ago to enjoy retirement, the statement read.

    “In that short time, she touched countless lives in her community,” the statement says. “She lived up to her name — her spirit radiated joy, light, and kindness everywhere she went.”

    Her husband, Lennie Rogers, says he was also at the bar Saturday night, but he was not injured, WECT-TV reported. Others who said they were at the bar described an evening of live music and fun obliterated by the gunfire.

    “Everyone was dancing, having a great time, it was just wonderful, it was a night on the water,” Alisa Noah told WWAY-TY. “Until it wasn’t.” Noah and a coworker were patronizing the bar with the coworker’s sister.

    Another bar patron, Phillip Bowen, said he heard a “pop pop” that he expected to be fireworks.

    “Instead I heard another pop and a white light come out just above the transom of the boat,” Bowen said. Music and crowd chatter gave way to screams and gunfire, WECT reported.

    Bowen said he met Edge several years earlier and heard about his military service and his struggles.

    At the time, “I just wanted to listen to him and thank him for his service and not have pity on him for the way he was, but just show him respect and show him love,” Bowen said. “And it’s obvious he didn’t get enough of that.”

    Records show Edge served in the military from 2003 to 2009, achieving the rank of sergeant. A 2017 story in the Wilmington Star-News described DeBevoise as a Marine sniper who said he had been left for dead after being shot four times, including in the head, during a raid on a warehouse in Iraq in May 2006.

    .

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  • Behind bars but not silenced: Veteran Turkish columnist perseveres through ‘prison journalism’

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    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish journalist Fatih Altayli has been imprisoned, but his reporting remains defiantly alive.

    From behind bars, the veteran journalist delivers news and sharp political commentary on his YouTube channel through letters relayed by his lawyers. The letters are read aloud by an assistant in an initiative Altayli’s peers have dubbed “prison journalism.”

    “Fatih Altayli has launched a new form of journalism: prison journalism,” fellow journalist Murat Yetkin, wrote on his news website, Yetkin Report. “Drawing on visits from legislators, letters, and his lawyers — he continues his journalism uninterrupted, conveying not only information from inside but also insights about the outside world.”

    Altayli, whose YouTube program attracts hundreds of thousands of views daily, was arrested in June on charges of threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an accusation he strongly denies. Critics say his arrest, which comes amid a deepening crackdown on the opposition, was aimed at silencing a government critic.

    Prosecutors accuse Altayli of issuing and publicly disseminating a threat, a criminal charge under Turkish penal law, and are seeking a minimum five-year prison sentence. The first hearing of the trial is set for Friday.

    The charges stem from a comment he made on his YouTube program, “Fatih Altayli Comments,” following a recent poll that reportedly showed more than 70% of the public opposed a lifetime presidency for Erdogan, who has been in power for more than two decades.

    On the show, Altayli said he wasn’t surprised by the results of the poll and that the Turkish people preferred checks on authority.

    “Look at the history of this nation,” he said. “This is a nation which strangled its sultan when they didn’t like him or want him. There are quite a few Ottoman sultans who were assassinated, strangled, or whose deaths were made to look like suicide.”

    The 63-year-old journalist, columnist and television presenter whose career spans decades, was detained from his home on June 21, a day after the comment was aired – and charged with threatening the president.

    The Istanbul Bar Association described the detention order against Altayli as unlawful, insisting that his comment did not constitute a “threat” and should be considered as freedom of expression.

    The government-run Department for Combating Disinformation has responded to criticism over Altayli’s arrest, insisting that issuing a threat is a criminal offense and denouncing what it described as a coordinated campaign to manipulate public opinion and present the alleged threat as freedom of expression.

    Altayli has since turned his cell in the notorious high-security Silivri prison near Istanbul — now renamed Marmara Prison Campus — into a newsroom of sorts. He often writes commentary critical of the political climate that led to his imprisonment and shares news he gathers from a steady stream of visitors, including politicians and legal advisers.

    The YouTube program, now rebranded as “Fatih Altayli Cannot Comment,” opens with the journalist’s empty chair. His assistant, Emre Acar, reads Altayli’s letter out loud before a guest commentator, which has included journalists, politicians, academicians, actors and musicians, temporarily occupies the seat and delivers his or her views in a show of support.

    Altayli’s written commentaries, meanwhile, continue to be published on his personal website.

    Yetkin said many had assumed that because of his privileged lifestyle, Altayli would bow to pressure.

    “But Fatih didn’t bow. I won’t say he’s maintained his line; he’s elevated it. In my view, he’s standing firmer than before,” Yetkin wrote.

    Altayli’s “prison journalism” has included an interview with fellow inmate Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, who was arrested in March on corruption charges. That interview was conducted through written questions and answers exchanged through their lawyers. Altayli also gives news of other prominent prisoners at Silivri.

    With a majority of mainstream media in Turkey owned by pro-government businesses or directly controlled by the government, many independent journalists have lost their jobs and have turned to YouTube for uncensored reporting.

    A total of 17 journalists and other media sector workers, including Altayli, are currently behind bars, according to the Turkish Journalists’ Syndicate. The government insists the journalists face prosecution for criminal acts, not for their journalistic work.

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  • Morgan Wallen denied throwing chair off bar roof to police in 2024, footage shows

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country music star Morgan Wallen denied to police that he threw a chair off a Nashville honky-tonk bar roof before and after he was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment in 2024, police video obtained by The Associated Press shows.

    Roughly two weeks after his April 2024 arrest, Wallen commented on social media: “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility” and said he “made amends” with Nashville law enforcement and others. Then in December, he pleaded guilty to two counts.

    The Metro Nashville Police Department released the footage of Wallen’s arrest, captured by several officers’ body and cruiser cameras, in response to a public records request from the AP. A previously released arrest affidavit did not get into the details of what Wallen told officers.

    A police car camera shows two officers, who were standing outside, react to something apparently falling from above on a late Sunday night. And one officer’s body camera video begins with a shot of a broken chair in the road near his parked police cruiser, close to Chief’s on Broadway, in the city’s entertainment district.

    Then, as Wallen and his bodyguard team come down to the main entrance on Broadway, one of the men with Wallen is shouting, “He didn’t see anything. You don’t have witnesses, you are accusing!”

    “He didn’t throw nothing, he didn’t throw nothing,” the bodyguard continues, and accuses two bar workers of “being aggressive.”

    When an officer asks Wallen what happened, the musician replies, “I don’t know.”

    He later tells another officer, “We’ve not tried to cause no problems, man. I don’t know what they are — I don’t know why.”

    That officer said police were figuring out what happened after a chair came flying off the roof and landed by his patrol car. Wallen replied, “As you should.”

    At one point, Wallen is on his cellphone, then points it at the officer and says, “Eric Church is on the phone.” Church, another country star, co-owns Chief’s. During the call, Wallen had used an expletive to describe the officers he said were “trying to take me to jail outside of your (expletive) bar.”

    Church, who can’t be heard on the police recording, recommended to the officer that Wallen wait in a private space instead of standing on the public sidewalk, said a representative for Church.

    The officer responds: “It’s not really something we can do. Law enforcement have to enforce the laws. Figure out what happened. We’ve got a supervisor coming to the scene. Gotta treat it like we would with anybody else.”

    Representatives for Wallen did not respond to requests for comment.

    Back in the bar, police were in an office watching security footage from the roof, body camera footage shows. The security video was not clear from the officers’ body cameras and a police spokesperson said there was no security camera footage from the bar in the case files.

    The officers return outside and a sergeant, who says he watched security video of Wallen throwing a chair off the roof, handcuffs him.

    Another officer talks to two witnesses. One, referring to the chair, says she saw Wallen “lift it up and throw it off” and laugh.

    Throughout the hour-and-a-half ordeal, Wallen makes apologetic comments to officers without explicitly admitting to anything, including: “I truly didn’t mean no harm,” “Sorry to cause problems, I didn’t mean to,” and “God damn it, I am sorry man.”

    “He didn’t admit to it, but we got him on camera doing it,” one sergeant says after Wallen was cuffed, also noting police had witness statements.

    Some fans took notice as Wallen stood surrounded by police in Nashville’s busy tourist hub. One yells, “We love you Morgan!” Once Wallen is in the back of the police car, he says to the officer, “Get us out of here,” noting that people were videotaping him.

    Born and raised in Sneedville, Tennessee, the two-time Grammy nominee is one of the biggest names in contemporary popular music, loved for his earworm hooks and distinctive combination of bro country, dirt-rock and certain hallmarks of hip-hop. 2023’s “One Thing at a Time” broke Garth Brooks’ record for longest running No. 1 country album, and this year’s “I’m The Problem” spent 12 weeks at No. 1.

    Wallen’s career has been marked by several other controversies, including a 2020 arrest on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock’s bar in downtown Nashville. In 2021, after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his massively popular “Dangerous: The Double Album.”

    Wallen was talkative in the cruiser, the footage shows, saying, “I ain’t done nothing wrong,” and pressing the officer for his favorite country musicians.

    “I can tell you my top three right now,” the officer replies. “You’re honestly one of them.” One of Wallen’s songs with Thomas Rhett comes on from the officer’s playlist.

    “This is me and Thomas Rhett! Turn it up. That’s me and TR! That’s me right there,” Wallen says, before singing a couple of the words from the song.

    “TR is one of the best dudes in the world. He would definitely not be getting arrested,” Wallen adds.

    Wallen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to spend seven days in a DUI education center and be under supervised probation for two years.

    When the judge asked how he would plead, he said, “Conditionally guilty.” His attorney has said the charges will be eligible for dismissal and expungement after he completes probation.

    Wallen’s own Nashville honky tonk, not far from Chief’s, opened less than two months after his arrest.

    ___

    Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this story from New York.

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  • Morgan Wallen Denied Throwing Chair off Bar Roof to Police in 2024, Footage Shows

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    Roughly two weeks after his April 2024 arrest, Wallen commented on social media: “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility” and said he “made amends” with Nashville law enforcement and others. Then in December, he pleaded guilty to two counts.

    The Metro Nashville Police Department released the footage of Wallen’s arrest, captured by several officers’ body and cruiser cameras, in response to a public records request from the AP. A previously released arrest affidavit did not get into the details of what Wallen told officers.


    A broken chair by Chief’s

    A police car camera shows two officers, who were standing outside, react to something apparently falling from above on a late Sunday night. And one officer’s body camera video begins with a shot of a broken chair in the road near his parked police cruiser, close to Chief’s on Broadway, in the city’s entertainment district.

    Then, as Wallen and his bodyguard team come down to the main entrance on Broadway, one of the men with Wallen is shouting, “He didn’t see anything. You don’t have witnesses, you are accusing!”

    “He didn’t throw nothing, he didn’t throw nothing,” the bodyguard continues, and accuses two bar workers of “being aggressive.”

    When an officer asks Wallen what happened, the musician replies, “I don’t know.”

    He later tells another officer, “We’ve not tried to cause no problems, man. I don’t know what they are — I don’t know why.”

    That officer said police were figuring out what happened after a chair came flying off the roof and landed by his patrol car. Wallen replied, “As you should.”

    At one point, Wallen is on his cellphone, then points it at the officer and says, “Eric Church is on the phone.” Church, another country star, co-owns Chief’s. During the call, Wallen had used an expletive to describe the officers he said were “trying to take me to jail outside of your (expletive) bar.”

    Church, who can’t be heard on the police recording, recommended to the officer that Wallen wait in a private space instead of standing on the public sidewalk, said a representative for Church.

    The officer responds: “It’s not really something we can do. Law enforcement have to enforce the laws. Figure out what happened. We’ve got a supervisor coming to the scene. Gotta treat it like we would with anybody else.”

    Representatives for Wallen did not respond to requests for comment.

    Back in the bar, police were in an office watching security footage from the roof, body camera footage shows. The security video was not clear from the officers’ body cameras and a police spokesperson said there was no security camera footage from the bar in the case files.

    The officers return outside and a sergeant, who says he watched security video of Wallen throwing a chair off the roof, handcuffs him.

    Another officer talks to two witnesses. One, referring to the chair, says she saw Wallen “lift it up and throw it off” and laugh.

    Throughout the hour-and-a-half ordeal, Wallen makes apologetic comments to officers without explicitly admitting to anything, including: “I truly didn’t mean no harm,” “Sorry to cause problems, I didn’t mean to,” and “God damn it, I am sorry man.”

    “He didn’t admit to it, but we got him on camera doing it,” one sergeant says after Wallen was cuffed, also noting police had witness statements.

    Some fans took notice as Wallen stood surrounded by police in Nashville’s busy tourist hub. One yells, “We love you Morgan!” Once Wallen is in the back of the police car, he says to the officer, “Get us out of here,” noting that people were videotaping him.

    Born and raised in Sneedville, Tennessee, the two-time Grammy nominee is one of the biggest names in contemporary popular music, loved for his earworm hooks and distinctive combination of bro country, dirt-rock and certain hallmarks of hip-hop. 2023’s “One Thing at a Time” broke Garth Brooks’ record for longest running No. 1 country album, and this year’s “I’m The Problem” spent 12 weeks at No. 1.

    Wallen’s career has been marked by several other controversies, including a 2020 arrest on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock’s bar in downtown Nashville. In 2021, after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his massively popular “Dangerous: The Double Album.”


    A Thomas Rhett sing-along

    Wallen was talkative in the cruiser, the footage shows, saying, “I ain’t done nothing wrong,” and pressing the officer for his favorite country musicians.

    “I can tell you my top three right now,” the officer replies. “You’re honestly one of them.” One of Wallen’s songs with Thomas Rhett comes on from the officer’s playlist.

    “This is me and Thomas Rhett! Turn it up. That’s me and TR! That’s me right there,” Wallen says, before singing a couple of the words from the song.

    “TR is one of the best dudes in the world. He would definitely not be getting arrested,” Wallen adds.

    Wallen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to spend seven days in a DUI education center and be under supervised probation for two years.

    When the judge asked how he would plead, he said, “Conditionally guilty.” His attorney has said the charges will be eligible for dismissal and expungement after he completes probation.

    Wallen’s own Nashville honky tonk, not far from Chief’s, opened less than two months after his arrest.

    Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this story from New York.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • South Carolina prosecutor seeks death penalty in murder case after Biden reduced sentence to life

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    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A local prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday he will seek the death penalty against a man whose federal death sentence for killing two bank employees in a robbery was commuted to life in prison by President Joe Biden at the end of his term.

    Brandon Council, 40, did not appear in state court in Horry County as prosecutors formally let the court know that if he is convicted of murder they will ask a jury to sentence him to death.

    State murder, armed robbery and other state charges against Council were dropped in 2019 after a federal jury found him guilty of similar charges and sentenced him to death.

    But in December, Biden reduced the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, including Council, to life in prison, saying he felt the federal use of the death penalty had to stop and he did not want the next administration to resume executions he had halted.

    That led Solicitor Jimmy Richardson to obtain new indictments against Council in Horry County in August which open the door to a state death penalty trial.

    Council walked into the CresCom Bank in Conway in August 2017, waiting for a minute before shooting Donna Major as the stunned teller held papers in front of her face trying to protect herself. He then followed manager Katie Skeen into her office and shot her in the forehead as she hid under her desk, authorities said.

    Council left the bank with $15,000. He was arrested in North Carolina several days later after buying a Mercedes with the stolen money, according to his confession read in court.

    Families and law enforcement angry at Biden’s decision urged local officials to review cases. In Louisiana, prosecutors in Catahoula Parish were able to get a first-degree murder charge refiled against Thomas Steven Sanders in the 2010 death of a 12-year-old girl. That would allow the state to seek the death penalty against him.

    Richardson said prosecutors had dropped the state charges in case anything ever happened to change the outcome of the federal case, including commuting his sentence.

    “If there was a bump, we could always come in and try our case. And that’s why we dismissed them. So our powder could be dry,” Richardson told reporters after the hearing.

    The other inmates who had their sentences reduced are being moved to Supermax prisons “where they will spend the rest of their lives in conditions that match their egregious crimes,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media last week.

    Bondi called the commutations a betrayal of the families of victims and a stain on the justice system, comments that Richardson echoed when Biden’s decision was announced.

    The bank teller’s daughter, Heather Turner, said the victims of the crimes weren’t considered.

    “The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.”

    “Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. “Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.”

    Attorneys for Council argued at his federal trial his life should be spared because of a troubled childhood, especially after the grandmother who raised him died. They said he showed remorse and cooperated with investigators.

    After his arrest, Council asked investigators if the women at the bank were still alive and cried when he found out they were dead, investigators said.

    “I’m a doofus. I’m an idiot,” Council told police. “I don’t deserve to live.”

    Horry County had a second inmate have a federal death sentence commuted. Chadrick Fulks was convicted of kidnapping a woman from the parking lot of a Conway Walmart and killing her during a series of crimes across several states. His state charges were dismissed and court records indicate they have not been reinstated.

    Biden did leave three men on federal death row.

    They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist killings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

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  • South Carolina Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty in Murder Case After Biden Reduced Sentence to Life

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    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A local prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday he will seek the death penalty against a man whose federal death sentence for killing two bank employees in a robbery was commuted to life in prison by President Joe Biden at the end of his term.

    Brandon Council, 40, did not appear in state court in Horry County as prosecutors formally let the court know that if he is convicted of murder they will ask a jury to sentence him to death.

    State murder, armed robbery and other state charges against Council were dropped in 2019 after a federal jury found him guilty of similar charges and sentenced him to death.

    But in December, Biden reduced the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, including Council, to life in prison, saying he felt the federal use of the death penalty had to stop and he did not want the next administration to resume executions he had halted.

    That led Solicitor Jimmy Richardson to obtain new indictments against Council in Horry County in August which open the door to a state death penalty trial.


    A deadly bank robbery leads to a death sentence

    Council walked into the CresCom Bank in Conway in August 2017, waiting for a minute before shooting Donna Major as the stunned teller held papers in front of her face trying to protect herself. He then followed manager Katie Skeen into her office and shot her in the forehead as she hid under her desk, authorities said.

    Council left the bank with $15,000. He was arrested in North Carolina several days later after buying a Mercedes with the stolen money, according to his confession read in court.

    Families and law enforcement angry at Biden’s decision urged local officials to review cases. In Louisiana, prosecutors in Catahoula Parish were able to get a first-degree murder charge refiled against Thomas Steven Sanders in the 2010 death of a 12-year-old girl. That would allow the state to seek the death penalty against him.

    Richardson said prosecutors had dropped the state charges in case anything ever happened to change the outcome of the federal case, including commuting his sentence.

    “If there was a bump, we could always come in and try our case. And that’s why we dismissed them. So our powder could be dry,” Richardson told reporters after the hearing.


    Families and Bondi angry about the commu

    The other inmates who had their sentences reduced are being moved to Supermax prisons “where they will spend the rest of their lives in conditions that match their egregious crimes,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media last week.

    Bondi called the commutations a betrayal of the families of victims and a stain on the justice system, comments that Richardson echoed when Biden’s decision was announced.

    The bank teller’s daughter, Heather Turner, said the victims of the crimes weren’t considered.

    “The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.”

    “Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. “Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.”


    Council’s lawyers said he was remorseful

    Attorneys for Council argued at his federal trial his life should be spared because of a troubled childhood, especially after the grandmother who raised him died. They said he showed remorse and cooperated with investigators.

    After his arrest, Council asked investigators if the women at the bank were still alive and cried when he found out they were dead, investigators said.

    “I’m a doofus. I’m an idiot,” Council told police. “I don’t deserve to live.”

    Horry County had a second inmate have a federal death sentence commuted. Chadrick Fulks was convicted of kidnapping a woman from the parking lot of a Conway Walmart and killing her during a series of crimes across several states. His state charges were dismissed and court records indicate they have not been reinstated.

    Biden did leave three men on federal death row.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Groups Press for Release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Report on Trump’s Classified Documents Case

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A First Amendment group and watchdog organization pressed a federal appeals court on Tuesday to compel the release of a Justice Department special counsel’s report on the criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

    Even though the charges against the Republican president were dismissed last year, the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report related to the classified documents case has remained under wraps because of an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. The case accused Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them, but Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment was illegal and threw out the charges.

    The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and American Oversight are now pressing for the report’s release in separate filings Tuesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups argue there is no legitimate reason to keep secret the report stemming from what was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the prosecutions Trump confronted before his White House return.

    “Transparency isn’t optional in a democracy. The public has a right to know what Special Counsel Smith found, and the Justice Department cannot continue to withhold a report that should have been released nearly a year ago under federal law,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “By keeping this order in place, Judge Cannon is undermining both accountability and the rule of law.”

    The Knight Institute filed a motion in February urging Cannon to allow for the report’s release, but the judge has yet to rule. It’s asking the appeals court to force Cannon to issue a ruling, calling the delay “manifestly unreasonable.”

    “This report is of singular importance to the public because it addresses allegations of grave criminal conduct by the nation’s highest-ranking official,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Knight Institute, said in a statement. “There is no legitimate reason for the report’s continued suppression, and it should be posted on the court’s public docket without further delay.”

    The classified documents case had been seen as the most legally clear-cut of the four Trump had faced, given the breadth of evidence that prosecutors say they had accumulated, including the testimony of close aides and former lawyers, and because the conduct at issue occurred after Trump left the White House in 2021 and lost the powers of the presidency.

    Trump had denied any wrongdoing and criticized all the cases against him as a politically motivated attempt to thwart his bid to return to the White House.

    The first volume of Smith’s report — focused on Trump’s 2020 election interference case — was publicly released in January. In that portion of the report, Smith defended his decision to bring criminal charges over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and said he believed it would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Prosecutors seek over 11 years in prison for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

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    NEW YORK — Prosecutors urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to send Sean “Diddy” Combs to prison for over 11 years following his conviction on prostitution-related charges, citing one of his accusers who said she lives in fear of the music mogul’s release from detention.

    “His crimes of conviction are serious and have warranted sentences over ten years in multiple cases for defendants who, like Sean Combs, engaged in violence and put others in fear,” they wrote in a presentence submission requesting at least 11 years and three months in prison.

    They filed their sentencing recommendation shortly after midnight, including letters from some of his accusers describing how his violence and demands had impacted their lives.

    They called Combs “unrepentant” and said Combs had conceded his acts of violence and abuse throughout his trial but “incredibly, … he now argues that his victims should shoulder the blame.”

    Combs, 55, has remained jailed since his July conviction on charges related to arranging male sex workers to travel to hotels or residences where he directed them to have sex with his girlfriends.

    The elaborate dayslong, drug-fueled sexual events were often filmed by Combs. Defense attorneys have asked that he be sentenced to no more than 14 months in prison. Sentencing is set for Friday.

    In July, Combs was convicted of two charges for violating the Mann Act, which outlaws interstate commerce related to prostitution, for arranging the paid sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

    The same jury acquitted the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.

    Last week, the defense submitted its presentence arguments, saying Combs has suffered enough during his nearly 13 months behind bars that he should be freed soon.

    They wrote that he became a changed man in a Brooklyn federal lockup, where he has been under constant suicide watch and learned to react calmly to threats rather than violently, even when a fellow inmate confronted him with a shiv.

    They said Combs has realized that his overuse of drugs, including some prescribed by doctors, had contributed to violent acts he participated in.

    Prosecutors said Combs was now trying to cast himself as a victim.

    “He is not the victim,” they wrote. “The Court should focus on the very real effects that the defendant’s conduct had on the lives of the actual victims, his victims.”

    At trial, two of Combs’ former girlfriends testified that they felt forced to participate in the drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers as Combs watched and sometimes filmed.

    R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura described being beaten by Combs when she displeased him during their decadelong relationship. Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” said she felt pressured to perform sexually with male sex workers. She testified that an enraged Combs once put her in a chokehold and punched her in the face.

    In a letter accompanying the prosecutors’ submission, Cassie wrote that she testified while nine months pregnant during Combs’ trial “in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life. I testified that from age nineteen, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse.”

    Cassie wrote that Combs controlled her like a puppet.

    “These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces,” she said.

    Cassie said she still has nightmares and flashbacks on an everyday basis and requires psychological care to cope.

    “My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality. I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial,” Cassie said.

    The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

    In an indictment, prosecutors asserted that Combs used his fame, wealth and violence to force and manipulate Cassie and Jane, now-ex-girlfriends, into the sexual performances he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

    After Combs was convicted, Judge Arun Subramanian immediately refused a defense request to grant him bail.

    He denied it again in August as he rejected Combs’ $50 million bail proposal, saying the hip hop impresario hadn’t proven that he did not pose a flight risk or danger, nor shown an “exceptional circumstance” after a conviction that otherwise requires detention.

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