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Tag: law and legal system

  • EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden lawyers to meet with Justice Department officials next week as scrutiny of investigation intensifies | CNN Politics

    EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden lawyers to meet with Justice Department officials next week as scrutiny of investigation intensifies | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Lawyers for Hunter Biden are scheduled to meet next week with US attorney David Weiss and at least one senior career official from Justice Department headquarters to discuss the long-running investigation into the president’s son, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

    The Hunter Biden legal team had reached out to Justice officials in recent weeks, asking for an update on the case. As is routine when lawyers request a status update, they were invited to meet next week, according to one source familiar with the meeting.

    Weiss, the US Attorney in Delaware who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, is overseeing an ongoing criminal case into President Joe Biden’s son.

    After prosecutors narrowed down the possible charges Hunter Biden could face last year, there haven’t been any public developments. According to sources familiar with the investigation, prosecutors are still weighing whether to bring two misdemeanor charges for failure to file taxes, one count of felony tax evasion related to the overreporting of expenses, and a false statement charge regarding a gun purchase.

    The Justice Department did not comment. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Delaware declined to comment.

    Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crimes and has previously denied any wrongdoing.

    The scheduled meeting comes as the Hunter Biden legal probe is back in the spotlight after an IRS supervisory special agent reached out to Congress, claiming to have information about alleged mishandling and political interference in the case. While a letter from the agent’s lawyer to Congress does not name Hunter Biden, as that could be a violation of the tax code, a source familiar with the matter previously told CNN that the case is the one involving the president’s son.

    The agent is seeking whistleblower protections to share the information with Congress, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

    The special agent also claims to have information that contradicts Attorney General Merrick Garland’s testimony before Congress, the source familiar with the matter told CNN. “I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation, and I have carried through on my pledge,” Garland testified in March.

    The IRS agent worked on Hunter Biden’s criminal case and contends that the president’s son is being treated differently than other individuals would be in terms of violations of the tax code, sources familiar with the agent’s allegations said. The agent reported up the chain of command about his concerns of the treatment of Hunter Biden’s returns and tax filings, one of the sources added.

    Congressional committees are in active conversations about when and how to interview the whistleblower. The IRS agent’s team wants him to do one interview with the committees, and have Democrats and Republicans present for it, the source said.

    In recent months, as Republicans took control of the House and the federal case appeared to stall, Hunter Biden’s legal team decided to pursue a more aggressive and litigious approach to his defense, despite what one source described as objections from top White House advisers. For instance, one of Hunter Biden’s lawyers recently sued former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler, accusing him of harassment. Hunter Biden’s team also has accused in court a Delaware computer repair shop owner of trying to invade Hunter Biden’s privacy and wrongfully sharing his personal data for political purposes.

    CNN has reached out to Ziegler for comment.

    Sources close to Hunter Biden have attacked the IRS agent’s motives and note that even if the whistleblower has evidence of the investigation being mishandled, it would be about government conduct and not about Hunter Biden.

    The IRS agent’s allegations are primarily focused on improper politicization of the case at the Justice Department and FBI instead of at the Treasury Department or IRS, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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  • Washington state eliminates death penalty from law | CNN Politics

    Washington state eliminates death penalty from law | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The death penalty was abolished in Washington state Thursday after Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law eliminating the state-sanctioned punishment.

    Besides the death penalty, Senate Bill 5087 also eliminated other laws, including a measure that allowed sterilization as criminal punishment. The Democratic-controlled legislature passed the bill earlier this month.

    “I initiated a moratorium against the death penalty in Washington State in 2014, and our rationale for that decision was affirmed by our (state) Supreme Court decision in 2018, when they invalidated the death penalty statute,” Inslee said during the bill signing Thursday. “They made clear, and we know this to be true, that the penalty has been applied unequally and in a racially insensitive manner.”

    Advocates for abolishing the death penalty, including the state’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, praised the move.

    “Racial bias plays a role in death penalty decisions here in Washington and across the United States,” M. Lorena González, the group’s legislative director said in a statement to CNN on Friday. “We are pleased that the Washington state Legislature has finally finished the work of ending this arbitrary and discriminatory practice.”

    The bill has faced criticism from Republicans, including state Rep. Jim Walsh, who called it “another sad example of the interests of criminals being put ahead of the interests of victims and their families” in a Facebook post earlier this month.

    In 2018, Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was inconsistently applied. Use of the death penalty varied depending on the location of the crime or the race of the accused, which is a violation of the state’s constitution, the court said at the time. County of residence and budgetary resources were also contributing factors, the ruling also stated.

    Washington state has carried out five executions since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. All defendants were White.

    But studies have suggested that race does play a role when it comes to jury decisions to sentence a defendant to death. A 2014 report by the University of Washington found that jurors in the state were “more than four times more likely to impose a death sentence if the defendant is black.”

    As of April 1, 2022, there were 2,414 people on death row in the United States, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. Capital punishment is legal in 27 states, the center also says.

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  • Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business

    Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business



    CNN
     — 

    A coalition of attorneys general for 17 states and the District of Columbia on Thursday called for a federal recall of Hyundai and Kia vehicles that they say are unsafe and too easy to steal.

    The attorneys general called for the recall “following the companies’ continued failure to take adequate steps to address the alarming rate of theft of their vehicles,” a release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the coalition, said.

    In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the coalition requested a recall of “unsafe” Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured between 2011 and 2022 “whose easily bypassed ignition switches and lack of engine immobilizers make them particularly vulnerable to theft.”

    The vehicles in question, 2015-2019 Hyundai and Kia models, such as the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson and the Kia Forte and Sportage, when equipped with turn-key ignitions — as opposed to cars that only require a button to be pushed to start — are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of a similar age. Many of these vehicles lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles, even in those years, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an industry group that tracks insurance statistics.

    These models became the subject of a viral social media trend in which thieves filmed themselves and others stealing Hyundai and Kia vehicles and taking them for a drive. In some parts of the country, the problem became so bad that some insurance companies refused to write new policies on these Hyundai and Kia models in places where the thefts had become extremely common.

    The models in question don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key belongs with that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that — stop the car from moving.

    “Hyundai and Kia announced that they will initiate voluntary service campaigns to offer software updates for certain vehicles with this starting-system vulnerability. Unfortunately, however, this is an insufficient response to the problem and does not adequately remedy the safety concerns facing vehicle owners and the public,” the letter to the NHSTA said.

    Hyundai and Kia did not immediately respond to CNN’s request comment.

    The two South Korean automakers have created a software patch to fix the problem, the automakers have said. Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia, and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.

    The patch will be installed free of charge on models that need it, with software that requires an actual key in the ignition to turn the vehicle on. The software will also block the car from being started after the doors have been locked using the key fob remote control. The vehicle will need to be unlocked before it can be started.

    The software also extends the length of the alarm sound from 30 seconds to a full minute. Hyundai dealers will also affix window stickers stating that the vehicle has anti-theft software installed.

    “The bottom line is, Kia’s and Hyundai’s failure to install standard safety features on many of their vehicles have put vehicle owners and the public at risk,” Attorney General Bonta said. “We now ask the federal government to require these companies to correct their mistake through a nationwide recall and help us in our continued efforts to protect the public from these unsafe vehicles.”

    Recalls are ordered by NHTSA or, much more commonly, undertaken by automakers to correct safety-related defects. The attorneys general’s letter asserts that the ease of theft of these Hyundai and Kia vehicles constitutes a safety hazard and the vehicles fail to meet federal standards for theft prevention.

    “Moreover, thieves have driven these vehicles recklessly, speeding and performing wild stunts and causing numerous crashes, at least eight deaths, and significant injuries,” the letter said.

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  • My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data | CNN Politics

    My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data | CNN Politics


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by the arbitration panel obtained by CNN.

    Lindell, a purveyor of election conspiracies, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum.

    CNN has obtained arbitration documents and video depositions, including a deposition of Lindell, related to the dispute.

    “Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract,” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision. “He proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover.”

    The decision marks yet another blow to the MyPillow CEO’s credibility after he publicly touted unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Lindell has also faced defamation suits related to his election claims.

    “The lawsuit and verdict mark another important moment in the ongoing proof that the 2020 election was legal and valid, and the role of cybersecurity in ensuring that integrity,” said Brian Glasser, founder of Bailey & Glasser, LLP, who represented Zeidman. “Lindell’s claim to have 2020 election data has been definitively disproved.”

    In a brief phone interview with CNN, Lindell said “this will end up in court” and slammed the media and professed the need to get rid of electronic voting machines.

    Zeidman told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” Thursday he was relieved by the judgment, adding that he sued not for the money, but to disprove election lies.

    “I have some friends who I hope will still be friends because I am a conservative Republican,” Zeidman said. “But I thought the truth needed to come out.”

    Lindell convened a so-called “cyber symposium” in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2021, designed to showcase the data he claimed to have obtained related to the 2020 election. He invited journalists, politicians and cybersecurity experts to attend.

    “The symposium was to get the big audience and have all the media there and then they – the cyber guys – saying yes this data is from the 2020 election and you better look at how they intruded into our machines, our computers, and that was the whole purpose,” Lindell said in a deposition obtained by CNN.

    He also announced a “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” – in which anyone who could prove his data was unrelated to the 2020 election could win the multimillion payout – to get more traction in the media for his election fraud claims.

    “I thought, well what if I put up a $5 million challenge out there, then it would get news, which it did,” Lindell said in the deposition. “So, then you got some attention.”

    Zeidman signed up for the challenge, agreed to its contractual terms and discovered Lindell’s data to be largely nonsensical.

    “Normally data analysis could take weeks or months and I had three days,” Zeidman told CNN. “But the data was so obviously fake that I spent a few hours before I could show it was fake.”

    While Lindell has made a variety of outlandish and unproven claims about the 2020 election, such as insisting foreign governments infiltrated voting machines, the arbitration panel made clear its judgment was solely focused on whether the data Lindell provided to experts was related to the 2020 election.

    “The Contest did not require participants to disprove election interference. Thus, the contestants’ task was to prove the data presented to them was not valid data from the November 2020 election,” the arbitration panel wrote.

    “The Panel was not asked to decide whether China interfered in the 2020 election. Nor was the Panel asked to decide whether Lindell LLC possessed data that proved such interference, or even whether Lindell LLC had election data in its possession,” according to the arbitration panel. “The focus of the decision is on the 11 files provided to Mr. Zeidman in the context of the Contest rules.”

    The panel’s decision ticked through each of the data files provided Zeidman, determining repeatedly that the data was unrelated to the 2020 election.

    It’s unclear when or if Zeidman will ever be able to collect his payout. Lindell recently told right-wing podcaster and former Trump administration official Steve Bannon that his company took out nearly $10 million in loans as he battles defamation suits related to his false election claims.

    “I’m afraid he’s going to be out of money before I ever see my five million,” Zeidman told Burnett.

    During his deposition, Lindell said he was never concerned someone might actually win the challenge.

    “No, because they have to show it wasn’t from 2020 and it was,” Lindell said, chuckling.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN

    Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN


    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi – formerly Rita Carpenter, the former wife of Republican US Rep. John Jenrette – has been evicted from the home she once shared with the late Prince Nicolo Boncompagni, after an inheritance dispute with his children.

    Princess Rita confirmed her eviction from the historic Casino dell’Aurora in central Rome to CNN on Wednesday. The home features an original Caravaggio ceiling painting—the only known ceiling work from the master—and a Michelangelo statue recently unearthed in the garden.

    Rita was escorted from the home along with her dogs on Thursday. “I’ve been up for 72 hours, I’m being brutally evicted from a home [in] which I’ve lovingly taken care of for the past 20 years,” she tweeted early Thursday morning.

    The eviction was ordered by Rome Judge Miriam Iappelli, and carried out by Roman law enforcement, who also changed the locks per standard procedure for court-ordered evictions.

    A general view shows a room, with frescoes on the ceiling by Italian artists including Guercino and Domenichino, inside Villa Aurora.

    A view of the

    Italian courts have previously ruled that the home must be sold to resolve an inheritance dispute between the Texan and the prince’s children. Prince Nicolo Boncompagni died in 2018.

    The Casino dell’Aurora was put up for auction by state authorities four times in 2022 – its estimated value declining precipitously as bidders proved elusive.

    The first auction on January 18, 2022, estimated the home’s value at €471 million. A second auction April 30 set the price at €376 million, a third auction reduced the price to €301 million on June 30, and a final auction October 18 set the price at €180 million.

    No one bid on any of the auctions, and Princess Rita told CNN she believed that the Italian state auction house did not adequately advertise it.

    A statue of Pan by Michelangelo is seen outside Villa Aurora.

    Before becoming a princess, Rita Carpenter was married to John Jenrette, the former US lawmaker who was enmeshed in the Abscam corruption scandal, resigned in 1980 and subsequently went to prison.

    In 1981, she gave an much-publicized interview to Playboy magazine that detailed having sex with Jenrette on the steps of the US Capitol building. The episode led to a not-so-best selling memoir “My Capitol Secrets” published that year.

    She appeared in plays and movies, including Zombie Island Massacre, according to her official biography.

    Princess Rita told reporters at the Casino dell’Aurora as she left on Thursday that she is writing a new book about her latest ordeal.

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  • Boy Scouts of America will begin to compensate sexual abuse victims from a $2.4 billion trust after emerging from bankruptcy | CNN

    Boy Scouts of America will begin to compensate sexual abuse victims from a $2.4 billion trust after emerging from bankruptcy | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Boy Scouts of America will begin to distribute compensation to thousands of victims of sexual abuse after emerging from bankruptcy Wednesday, the organization announced.

    As part of a settlement with more than 82,000 survivors of abuse, the BSA will pay out $2.4 billion from a Victims Compensation Trust that was established by the court during its bankruptcy reorganization.

    “This is a significant milestone for the BSA as we emerge from a three-year financial restructuring process with a global resolution approved with overwhelming support of more than 85% of the survivors involved in the case,” Chief Scout Executive, President and CEO Roger Mosby said in a statement.

    “Our hope is that our Plan of Reorganization will bring some measure of peace to survivors of past abuse in Scouting, whose bravery, patience and willingness to share their experiences has moved us beyond words,” Mosby added.

    The youth organization filed for bankruptcy in February 2020, when it was facing hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits involving thousands of alleged abuse survivors. In September 2022, a judge in Delaware federal bankruptcy court granted final approval for the confirmation of a reorganization plan.

    “These boys – now men – seek and deserve compensation for the sexual abuse they suffered years ago,” Chief Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein wrote in an order last year. “Abuse which has had a profound effect on their lives and for which no compensation will ever be enough. They also seek to ensure that to the extent BSA survives, there is an environment where sexual abuse can never again thrive or be hidden from view.”

    The co-founder of the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice, a group including more than two dozen law firms representing more than 70,000 of the claimants, said it was the largest sexual abuse settlement fund in history.

    Coalition co-founder and attorney Adam Slater also commended the court for “bringing survivors one step closer to justice.”

    “After years of protracted bankruptcy proceedings and decades of suffering in silence, tens of thousands of survivors of childhood sexual assault will now receive some tangible measure of justice. With this decision, the Plan will now become effective, and the Trust will be able to begin distribution of the historic $2.45B settlement fund,” Slater said.

    “Even more important, it means that the safety measures and protections for current and future Scouts included in the Plan will also be put into place – and we know that for many survivors, this has been the highest priority,” Slater added.

    The Boy Scouts of America have since enacted a number of protocols to “act as barriers to abuse.”

    The protocols include mandatory youth protection training for volunteers and employees, a screening process that includes criminal background checks for new adult leaders and staff, and a policy requiring at least two youth-protection trained adults to be present with youth at all times during scouting activities.

    The policy also bans one-on-one situations where adults would have any interaction alone with children.

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  • 2 cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened the door to the wrong vehicle. A suspect is under arrest | CNN

    2 cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened the door to the wrong vehicle. A suspect is under arrest | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Two teenage cheerleaders were shot after one said she mistook the suspect’s vehicle for her own in a supermarket parking lot near Texas’ capital – making this at least the third incident this week in which young people who’d made an apparent mistake were met with gunfire.

    Authorities arrested Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, the man they say shot the two teens. He was taken into custody early Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release later that morning.

    According to a probable cause document, Tello is accused of deadly conduct with a firearm, a third-degree felony. He is being held on a $500,000 bond. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.

    Officers responding just after midnight Tuesday to an H-E-B supermarket parking lot found two people in a vehicle who’d been struck by bullets, police said, citing preliminary reports. One with serious injuries was rushed by helicopter to a hospital and was in critical condition, while the other was treated at the scene, the release said.

    The latter girl had gotten out of a friend’s car and opened the door to a vehicle she thought was hers, only to find a man sitting in the passenger seat, she said during a livestreamed prayer vigil Tuesday night at her cheer team’s gym, CNN affiliate KTRK reported.

    Heather Roth said she was trying to apologize to the man when he got out of the passenger door.

    “He just threw his hands up, and then he pulled out a gun and he just started shooting at all of us,” Roth said, fighting tears.

    Lynne Shearer, managing partner of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, told CNN the Roth and fellow cheerleader Payton Washington fled immediately in their car.

    “As soon as they saw the gun, they said go and they drove and they went about two miles down the road,” Shearer told CNN. “And that’s when they realized that Payton was seriously hurt and they pulled over once they realized that guy wasn’t following them because Payton was … throwing up blood at that point. So they, that’s when they called 911.”

    Washington was shot twice and badly injured, according to a GoFundMe spearheaded by her cheerleading team, the Woodlands Elite Generals. Washington is stable and recovering in the ICU, according to the team.

    Roth was struck by a bullet but was treated and released at the scene, Shearer said.

    Washington is “doing well today” after suffering from a ruptured spleen, which was removed, and she has damage to her pancreas and diaphragm, Shearer said Wednesday.

    “Her stomach is not closed up yet and they are keeping her on heavy antibiotics for at least 48 hours to hopefully fight off infection,” she said. “Once they are sure there is no infection, they will go back in and finish up any issues and close her up.”

    In another interview with CNN, Shearer said Washington should make a full recovery and has been FaceTiming with her friends.

    Roth and Washington are from the Austin and Round Rock area and were commuting in a carpool to a cheerleading gym in Oak Ridge North, a Houston suburb, three times a week.

    The commute is about 300 miles round trip – a commute Washington has been doing for eight years, Shearer said.

    Roth is in college, while the other three girls in the vehicle, including Washington, are in high school.

    Washington, a senior who had committed to Baylor University’s Acrobatics and Tumbling team, was born with only one lung and “has surpassed many obstacles to rise to the very top of her sport,” Shearer said.

    “Payton is a strong young lady; if you know her, you know that about her,” Baylor head acrobatics and tumbling coach Felecia Mulkey told CNN. “I have no doubt she’s going to get through this.”

    After visiting Roth on Tuesday, Mulkey said all things considered, she looked great and is making good progress – but acknowledged there’s still a long way to go on her path to recovery.

    Mulkey described Roth as an “amazing athlete but a better human.”

    “I know mental wounds also leave scars,” she said. “We want to lift up the athletes and their families during this difficult time. We love Payton and we wish her well as she recovers.”

    Shearer said her team is busy still trying to prepare for the World Championships this weekend in Orlando, which Roth still plans to compete in.

    Tuesday’s shooting was yet another case this week in which young people were shot after apparently going to the wrong place, including a 16-year-old struck in the head after ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City and a 20-year-old killed by the owner of a home whose driveway she’d inadvertently turned into.

    The United States is the only nation with more civilian guns than people, with about 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the Small Arms Survey. Elgin is a city of some 10,000 people about a half-hour drive east of Austin.

    Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr arrested after two Texas cheerleaders were shot after one of them said they had mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle in a parking lot early Tuesday morning.

    A supermarket manager witnessed the incident, and police have surveillance footage from the parking lot that shows the license plate on the suspect’s car, police said, according to the probable cause affidavit.

    “Elgin Detectives contacted Pedro Tello at the residence. Pedro Tello was still wearing the clothing that was observed by Elgin Detectives in the surveillance footage,” the affidavit states.

    Four Woodland Elite Cheer athletes were “involved in a horrific incident” on their way home from practice Monday night, the cheerleading and tumbling company said in a Facebook post.

    “We are asking for your prayers,” it said.

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  • Fulton County DA says fake Trump electors are incriminating one another and wants lawyer disqualified | CNN Politics

    Fulton County DA says fake Trump electors are incriminating one another and wants lawyer disqualified | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said some fake electors for Donald Trump have implicated each other in potential criminal activity and is seeking to disqualify their lawyer, according to a new court filing.

    The district attorney’s office is requesting that attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow be disqualified from representing a group of 10 Republicans who served as electors for the former president in Georgia – a state Trump lost to President Joe Biden. The DA’s office also accused the lawyer of failing to present an immunity deal to her clients last year, according to the filing.

    The new filing offers the latest indication that immunity offers could still be in the works months after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested charging decisions were “imminent.”

    It notes that investigators interviewed some of the fake GOP electors this month and there is jockeying behind the scenes ahead of the announcement on who, if anyone, will face charges in the long-running probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

    “The statement of some of her clients that directly implicate another client in additional crimes shows that Ms. Debrow’s continued participation in this matter is fraught with conflicts of interest that rise to the level of her being disqualified from this case in its entirety,” the district attorney’s office wrote in the filing.

    During the April 2023 interviews, “some of the electors stated that another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to these additional acts,” according to the filing.

    Amid a fight last year to compel the fake electors to testify, the court instructed two attorneys, including Debrow, to inform their clients with potential immunity deals. The attorneys told the court that they spoke to their clients and none of the clients were interested, according to filing. Now the DA’s office is claiming those offers were never presented to the clients.

    “Additionally, in these interviews, some of the electors represented by Ms. Debrow told members of the investigation team that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought to them in 2022,” the filing states.

    Debrow slammed the latest motion in a statement.

    “The DA’s Motion is baseless, false, and offensive,” Debrow said. “None of my clients have committed any crimes, and they necessarily have not implicated themselves or each other in any crimes.”

    No one has been charged yet in the Georgia case, though several people – including the 16 fake electors and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – were informed they were potential targets of Willis’s probe.

    A special grand jury investigating the matter concluded its work late last year and recommended more than a dozen people should face charges, the foreperson for the panel said in interviews.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court cleared the way on Wednesday for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to seek post-conviction DNA evidence to try to prove his innocence.

    Reed claims an all-White jury wrongly convicted him of killing of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old White woman, in Texas in 1998.

    Texas had argued that he had waited too long to bring his challenge to the state’s DNA procedures in federal court, but the Supreme Court disagreed. Now, he can go to a federal court to make his claim.

    The ruling was 6-3. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the court and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

    Since Reed’s conviction, Texas courts had rejected his various appeals. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Rihanna have expressed support, signing a petition asking the state to halt his eventual execution.

    The case puts a new focus on the testing of DNA crime-scene evidence and when an inmate can make a claim to access the technology in a plea of innocence. To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row, according to the Innocence Project, a group that represents Reed and other clients seeking post-conviction DNA testing to prove their innocence.

    Kavanaugh, in his opinion Wednesday, said that the court agreed to hear the case because federal appeals courts have disagreed about when inmates can make such claims without running afoul of the statute of limitations. Kavanaugh said Reed could make the claim after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately denied his request for rehearing, rejecting an earlier date set out by the appeals court.

    “Significant systemic benefits ensue from starting the statute of limitations clock when the state litigation in DNA testing cases like Reed’s has concluded,” Kavanaugh said.

    He noted that if any problems with a defendant’s right to due process “lurk in the DNA testing law” the case can proceed through the appellate process, which could ultimately render a federal lawsuit unnecessary.

    Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

    Alito, joined by Gorsuch in his dissent, said Reed should have acted more quickly to bring his appeal. “Instead,” Alito wrote, “he waited until an execution date was set.”

    Alito charged Reed with making the “basic mistake of missing a statute of limitations.”

    Reed has been on death row for the murder of Stites.

    A passerby found Stites’ body near a shirt and a torn piece of belt. Investigators targeted Reed because his sperm was found inside her. Reed acknowledged the two were having an affair, but says that her fiancé, a local police officer named Jimmy Fennell, was the last to see her alive.

    Reed claims that over the last two decades he has discovered a “considerable body of evidence” demonstrating his innocence. Reed claims that the DNA testing would point to Fennell as the murder suspect. Fennell was later jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody and Reed claims that numerous witnesses said he had threatened to strangle Stites with a belt if he ever caught her cheating on him. Reed seeks to test the belt found at the scene that was used to strangle Stites.

    The Texas law at issue allows a convicted person to obtain post-conviction DNA testing of biological material if the court finds that certain conditions are met. Reed was denied. He came to the Supreme Court in 2018 and was denied again. Now he is challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law arguing that the denial of the DNA testing violates his due process rights. 

    But the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals held that he waited too long to bring the claim. “An injury accrues when a plaintiff first becomes aware, or should have become aware, that his right had been violated.” The court said that he became aware of that in 2014 and that his current claim is “time barred.” 

    Reed’s lawyers argued that he could only bring the claim once the state appeals court had ruled, at the end of state court litigation. In court, Parker Rider-Longmaid said that the “clock doesn’t start ticking” until state court proceedings come to an end. He said Texas’ reading of the law would mean that other procedures in the appellate process are “irrelevant.”

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • A man has been arrested in the killings of 4 people found in a Maine home. Authorities are also investigating highway shootings they say are connected | CNN

    A man has been arrested in the killings of 4 people found in a Maine home. Authorities are also investigating highway shootings they say are connected | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A 34-year-old man was arrested Tuesday evening in connection with the killings of four people who were found dead earlier in the day at a Bowdoin, Maine, home, authorities said.

    The killings appeared to be connected to a series of nearby highway shootings that left three drivers injured – including one critically – shortly after the four bodies were discovered, state police have said.

    The man arrested was identified by Maine State Police as Joseph Eaton.

    Eaton was taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail and will make an initial court appearance later in the week, state police said in a Tuesday evening news release. State police did not say as of late Tuesday night that he was being held in connection with the highway shootings.

    CNN has not yet been able to identify an attorney for Eaton.

    “Investigators will be working throughout the night processing multiple scenes and continuing to interview people involved with this incident,” state police said in the news release.

    Police have not shared details about a possible motive in the two incidents and did not share details about the four people found dead in the home.

    In a statement on Twitter, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said, “Like people across Maine, I am shocked and deeply saddened – acts of violence like we experienced today shake our state and our communities to the core.”

    Maine State Police responded Tuesday morning to the Bowdoin home, where they found the four deceased victims inside, state police Lt. Randall Keaten said in a news conference earlier Tuesday.

    Shortly after, authorities received reports of several vehicles getting hit by gunfire on I-295 in the area of Yarmouth, which is about 40 minutes from Bowdoin.

    Three people were shot while driving and were taken to the hospital, state police said. At least one of those three was in critical condition Tuesday, authorities added.

    “We’ve got vehicles that have been hit by straight gunfire all across that we’re getting reports on, so if anybody has holes in their vehicles, please contact us so that we can follow up with that,” Keaten said.

    The victims found in the Bowdoin home and the highway shootings are connected, Keaten said, adding there is no threat to the public.

    The four bodies were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta where autopsies will determine the manner and cause of death state police said.

    Authorities have asked anyone who may have witnessed something or has any information about the Tuesday morning incidents to reach out.

    “A lot happened this morning between those two scenes and those are the people that we want to talk to, those people that were impacted by this,” Keaten said, adding authorities were continuing to work on several impacted scenes and gather more information.

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  • ‘Difficult to say with a straight face’: Tapper reacts to Fox News’ statement on settlement | CNN Politics

    ‘Difficult to say with a straight face’: Tapper reacts to Fox News’ statement on settlement | CNN Politics

    ‘Difficult to say with a straight face’: Tapper reacts to Fox News’ statement on settlement

    A settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News, the judge for the case announced. The network will pay more than $787 million to Dominion, a lawyer for the company said.

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  • Murder charge dropped against co-defendant in case of killer accused of faking his own death in South Africa | CNN

    Murder charge dropped against co-defendant in case of killer accused of faking his own death in South Africa | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    South African prosecutors have dropped a murder charge against Zolile Sekeleni, the father of the girlfriend of high-profile convicted murderer Thabo Bester, who is accused of escaping from a South African prison after faking his own death in a fire, officials told CNN Monday.

    Sekeleni’s daughter, Nandipha Magudumana, a prominent medical doctor and personality in South Africa was arrested on April 7 while on the run in Tanzania with Bester.

    Dubbed “The Facebook rapist” in South Africa, Bester was serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of a model in 2012.

    Bester, 35, allegedly faked his death by placing the charred remains of another man in his prison cell, officials said.

    The couple were arrested with a Mozambican national by Tanzanian authorities last week in the border town of Arusha after fleeing South Africa and was subsequently deported to South Africa.

    Magudumana’s father Sekeleni, 65, was arrested on April 8 alongside a former prison warden and a former security camera technician, with the trio accused of being accomplices in Bester’s escape, according to the police and prosecutors.

    He had initially been charged with “defeating the ends of justice, fraud, murder, and arson,” but that has now been dropped, a spokesperson for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Phaladi Shuping, told CNN.

    A murder investigation by authorities had earlier concluded that the burned body found in Bester’s cell had died before the fire began.

    An autopsy report also found that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.

    Shuping said the murder charge was dropped in light of new evidence, but added Sekeleni, a former educator, would face other charges.

    “The state will no longer be proceeding with a charge of murder against Zolile Sekeleni because new evidence came forth, which made us take this decision. He will still face charges of assisting an inmate to escape, defeating the ends of justice and fraud,” NPA spokesperson Shuping said.

    He added that “Sekeleni was released on bail of R10,000 ($550) due to compelling circumstances that were considered by the prosecution, relating to his health.”

    Sekeleni will make another appearance in court on May 16, while a bail hearing for his daughter Magudumana as well as other accused will be held early next month.

    CNN has reached out to his and Magudumana’s lawyer for comment.

    Magudumana was charged with murder and fraud, including aiding and abetting Bester’s escape.

    According to police, he faces new charges of escaping from lawful custody, defeating the ends of justice, violation of a dead body and fraud.

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  • Two Russians claiming to be former Wagner commanders admit killing children and civilians in Ukraine | CNN

    Two Russians claiming to be former Wagner commanders admit killing children and civilians in Ukraine | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Two Russian men who claim to be former Wagner Group commanders have told a human rights activist that they killed children and civilians during their time in Ukraine.

    The claims were made in video interviews with Gulagu.net, a human rights organization targeting corruption and torture in Russia.

    In the video interviews posted online, former Russian convicts Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev – who were both pardoned by Russian presidential decrees last year, according to Gulagu.net – described their actions in Ukraine, during Russia’s invasion.

    CNN cannot independently verify their claims or identities in the videos but has obtained Russian penal documents showing they were released on presidential pardon in September and August of 2022.

    Uldarov, who appears to have been drinking, details how he shot and killed a five- or six-year-old girl.

    “(It was) a management decision. I wasn’t allowed to let anyone out alive, because my command was to kill anything in my way,” he said.

    According to Gulagu.net, the testimonies were given to founder and Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin over the span of a week. It said Uldarov and Savichev were in Russia when they spoke.

    “I want Russia and other nations to know the truth. I don’t want war and bloodshed. You see I’m holding a cigarette in this hand. I followed orders with this hand and killed children,” Uldarov said, describing his motivation for the interview.

    The Wagner Group is a Russian private mercenary organization fighting in Ukraine, headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

    It has recruited tens of thousands of fighters from Russian jails, offering freedom and cash after a six-month tour. It’s estimated by Western intelligence officials and prison advocacy groups that between 40,000 and 50,000 men were recruited.

    Uldarov said in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut – which have seen some of the fiercest fighting – Wagner mercenaries “were given the command to annihilate everyone.”

    “There is a superior over all the commanders – it’s Prigozhin, who told us not to let anyone get out of there and annihilate everyone,” he added. CNN has previously reported on former Wagner fighters making similar claims.

    Uldarov has since appeared to recant his account in a video call with Prigozhin-linked Russian news agency RIA-FAN.

    At one point in the interview, Savichev described how they “got the order to execute any men who were 15 years or older.”

    He also talked about getting orders to ‘sweep’ a house. “It doesn’t matter whether there is a civilian there or not. The house needs to be swept. I didn’t give a f**k who was inside,” he said.

    “Whether a hut or a house, the point was to make sure that there wasn’t a single living person left inside,” he said. “You can condemn me for this. I will not object. It’s your right. But I wanted to live, too.”

    Savichev said Wagner fighters who did not follow orders were killed.

    Wagner Group chief Prigozhin confirmed on his Telegram channel that he had watched parts of the video, and threatened retribution against the two former Wagner fighters. “As for what (Osechkin) filmed, I looked at the pieces of video I managed to see,” he said. “I can say the following: if at least one of these accusations against me is confirmed, I am ready to be held accountable according to any laws.”

    But Prigozhin said that “if none is confirmed, I will send a list of 30-40 people who are spitting at me like Osechkin (there is a whole list of them, including the scum that fled Russia) that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine is obligated to hand over to me for a ‘fair trial,’ so to speak.”

    “They will not be “civilians” for us, and especially not children, whom we have never touched and do not touch. This is a flagrant lie. These people (spreading the lies) are our enemies, and we will deal with them in a special way.”

    Earlier, Prigozhin said on Telegram: “Regarding the execution of children, of course, no one ever shoots civilians or children, absolutely no one needs this. We came there to save them from the regime they were under.”

    Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said in a tweet Monday that the group must be held accountable.

    “Russian terrorists confessed to numerous murders of Ukrainian children in Bakhmut and Soledar. Confession is not enough. There must be a punishment. Tough and fair. And it will definitely be. How many more crimes like these have been committed?” he said.

    In February, CNN spoke to two former Wagner fighters who described how recruited Wagner convicts are pushed to the front lines in a human wave, reminiscent of World War I charges. Deserters, or those who refuse orders are killed and there was no evacuation of the wounded, they said.

    In January, US Treasury Department designated Wagner Group as a significant transnational criminal organization, and imposed a slew of fresh sanctions on a transnational network that supports it.

    The US Department of State concurrently announced a number of sanctions meant to “target a range of Wagner’s key infrastructure – including an aviation firm used by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization, and Wagner front companies,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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  • Supreme Court seems sympathetic to postal worker who didn’t work Sundays in dispute over religious accommodations | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court seems sympathetic to postal worker who didn’t work Sundays in dispute over religious accommodations | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court seemed to side with a former mail carrier, an evangelical Christian, who says the US Postal Service failed to accommodate his request to not work on Sundays.

    A lower court had ruled against the worker, Gerald Groff, holding that his request would cause an “undue burden” on the USPS and lead to low morale at the workplace when other employees had to pick up his shifts.

    But during oral arguments on Tuesday, there appeared to be consensus, after almost two hours of oral arguments, that the appeals court had been too quick to rule against Groff.

    There seemed to be, as Justice Elena Kagan put it, some level of “kumbaya-ing” between the justices on the bench at times.

    But as justices sought to land on a test that lower courts could use to clarify how far employers must go to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs, differences arose when a lawyer for Groff suggested that the court overturn decades-old precedent. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito seemed open to the prospect.

    Critically, however, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh were sympathetic to arguments made by the Postal Service that granting Groff’s request might cause morale to plummet among the other employees. Kavanaugh noted that “morale” among employers is critical to the success of any business. And several justices nodded to the financial difficulties the USPS has faced over the years.

    Groff, who lives in Pennsylvania, served in 2012 as a rural carrier associate at the United States Postal Service, a position that provides coverage for absent career employees who have earned the ability to take off weekends. Rural carrier associates are told they need flexibility.

    In 2013, Groff’s life changed when the USPS contracted with Amazon to deliver packages on Sundays. Groff’s Christian religious beliefs bar him from working on Sundays.

    The post office contemplated some accommodations to Groff such as offering to adjust his schedule so he could come to work after religious services, or telling him he should see if other workers could pick up his shifts. At some point, the postmaster himself did the deliveries because it was difficult to find employees willing to work on Sunday. Finally, the USPS suggested Groff choose a different day to observe the Sabbath.

    The atmosphere with his co-workers was tense and Groff said he faced progressive discipline. In response, he filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is charged with enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against an employee because of religion.

    Groff ultimately left in 2019. In a resignation letter, he said he had been unable to find an “accommodating employment atmosphere with the USPS that would honor his religious beliefs.”

    Groff sued arguing that the USPS violated Title VII – a federal law that makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee based on his religion. To make a claim under the law, an employee must show that he holds a sincere religious belief that conflicts with a job requirement, he must inform his employer and has to have been disciplined for failing to comply.

    Under the law, the burden then shifts to the employer. The employer must show that they made a good faith effort to “reasonably accommodate” the employee’s belief or demonstrate that such an accommodation would cause an “undue hardship” upon the employer.

    District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled against Groff, holding that that his request to not work on Sundays would cause an “undue hardship” for the USPS.

    The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in a 2-1 opinion.

    “Exempting Groff from working on Sundays caused more than a de minimis cost on USPS because it actually imposed on his coworkers, disrupted the workplace and workflow, and diminished employee morale,” the 3rd Circuit wrote in its opinion last year.

    “The accommodation Groff sought (exemption from Sunday work)” the court added, “would cause an undue hardship on USPS.”

    A dissenting judge, Thomas Hardiman, offered a road map for justices seeking to rule in favor of Groff. The main thrust of his dissent was that the law requires the USPS to show how the proposed accommodation would harm “business” – not Groff’s coworkers.

    “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stayed Gerald Groff from the completion of his appointed rounds,” wrote Hardiman, a George W. Bush nominee who was on a shortlist for the Supreme Court nomination that went to Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017. “But his sincerely held religious belief precluded him from working on Sundays.”

    Groff’s lawyer, Aaron Streett, told the high court that the USPS could have done more and was wrong to claim that “respecting Groff’s belief was too onerous.” He urged the justices to cut back or invalidate precedent and allow an accommodation that would allow the worker to “serve both his employer and his God.”

    “Sunday’s a day where we get together and almost taste heaven,” Groff told The New York Times recently. “We come together as believers. We celebrate who we are, together. We worship God. And so to be asked to deliver Amazon parcels and give all that up, it’s just really kind of sad.”

    The Biden administration has urged the high court to simply clarify the law to make clear that an employer is not required to accommodate an employee’s Sabbath observance by “operating shorthanded or regularly paying overtime to secure replacement workers.”

    Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar acknowledged, however, that employer could still be required to bear other costs such as administrative expenses associated with rearranging schedules.

    This story has been updated with additional details.

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  • See pizza delivery guy take out suspect fleeing police | CNN

    See pizza delivery guy take out suspect fleeing police | CNN

    See pizza delivery guy take out suspect fleeing police

    Pizza guy delivers more than a pie, taking out a fleeing suspect. CNN’s Jeanne Moos shows him putting his best foot forward.

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  • Today is Tax Day. Here’s what you need to know if you haven’t filed your return yet — and even if you have | CNN Business

    Today is Tax Day. Here’s what you need to know if you haven’t filed your return yet — and even if you have | CNN Business

    Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a story that originally ran on April 14, 2023.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    It’s April 18, the official deadline to file your federal and state income tax returns for 2022. (It is also, apparently, National Animal Crackers Day for those who celebrate.)

    Whether you have already filed your tax return or still need to, the good news is this tax filing season has gone much more smoothly than the past three, which were hurt by the pandemic.

    “This is the first tax season since 2019 where the IRS and the nation were on normal footing,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a call with reporters.

    For instance, Werfel noted that since January, thanks to an infusion of some new funding after years of budget cuts, IRS employees have been able to answer 87% of calls from filers with questions. Last year, they answered fewer than 15%. And the wait times on those phone calls dropped to just 4 minutes this filing season from 27 minutes last filing season.

    The agency also added a roster of new online tools for filers, he added.

    Those online tools may be especially helpful today if you are scrambling to get your return in before midnight. Or, if you’ve come to the realization that you need to file for an extension. Either way, here are some key things to know:

    Not everyone has to file on April 18: If you live in a federally declared disaster area, have a business there — or have relevant tax documents stored by businesses in that area — it’s likely the IRS has already extended the filing and payment deadlines for you. Here is where you can find the specific extension dates for each disaster area.

    Thanks to many rounds of extreme weather in recent months, for instance, tax filers in most of California — which accounts for 10% to 15% of all federal filers — have already been granted an extension until Oct. 16 to file and to pay, according to an IRS spokesperson.

    If you’re in the armed forces and are currently or were recently stationed in a combat zone, the filing and payment deadlines for your 2022 taxes are most likely extended by 180 days. But your specific extended filing and payment deadlines will depend on the day you leave (or left) the combat zone. This IRS publication offers more detail.

    Lastly, if you made little to no money last year (typically less than $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for married couples), you may not be required to file a return. But you may want to anyway if you think you are eligible for a refund thanks to, for instance, refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. (Use this IRS tool to gauge whether you are required to file this year.) You also are likely eligible to use IRS Free File (intended for those with adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less) so it won’t cost you to submit a return.

    Your paycheck may not be your only source of income: If you had one full-time job you may think that is the only income you made and have to report. But that’s not necessarily so.

    Other potentially taxable and reportable income sources include:

    • Interest on your savings
    • Investment income (e.g., dividends and capital gains)
    • Pay for part-time or seasonal work, or a side hustle
    • Unemployment income
    • Social Security benefits or distribution from a retirement account
    • Tips
    • Gambling winnings
    • Income from a rental property you own

    Organize your tax documents: By now you should have received every tax document that third parties are required to send you (your employer, bank, brokerage, etc.).

    If you don’t recall receiving a hard copy of a tax form in the mail, check your email and your online accounts — a document may have been sent to you electronically.

    Here are some of the tax forms you may have received:

    • W-2 from your wage or salaried jobs
    • 1099-B for capital gains and losses on your investments
    • 1099-DIV from your brokerage or company where you own stock for dividends or other distributions from their investments
    • 1099-INT for interest over $10 on your savings at a financial institution
    • 1099-NEC from your clients, if you worked as a contractor
    • 1099-K for payments for goods and services through third-party platforms like Venmo, CashApp or Etsy. The 1099-K is required if you made more than $20,000 in over 200 transactions during the year. (Next year the reporting threshold drops to $600.) But even if you didn’t get a 1099-K you still must report all the income that you made over third-party platforms in 2022.
    • 1099-Rs for distributions over $10 that you received for a pension, annuity, retirement account, profit-sharing plan or insurance contract
    • SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S for Social Security benefits received.

    “Be aware that there’s no form for some taxable income, like proceeds from renting out your vacation property, meaning you’re responsible for reporting it on your own,” according to the Illinois CPA Society.

    One very last-minute way to reduce your 2022 tax bill: If you’re eligible to make a tax-deductible contribution to an IRA and haven’t done so for last year, you have until April 18 to contribute up to $6,000 ($7,000 if you’re 50 or older). That will reduce your tax bill and augment your retirement savings.

    Proofread your return before submitting it: Do this whether you’re using tax software or working with a professional tax preparer.

    Little mistakes and oversights delay the processing of your return (and the issuance of your refund if you’re owed one). You want to avoid things like having a typo in your name, birth date, Social Security number or direct deposit number; choosing the wrong filing status (e.g., married vs single); making a simple math error; or leaving a required field blank.

    What to do if you can’t file by April 18: If you’re not able to file on time, fill out Form 4868 electronically or on paper and send it in no later than today. You will be granted an automatic six-month extension to file.

    Note, however, that an extension to file is not an extension to pay. You will be charged interest (currently running at 7%) and a penalty on any amount you still owe for 2022 but haven’t paid by April 18.

    So if you suspect you still owe tax — perhaps you had some income outside of your job for which tax wasn’t withheld or you had a big capital gain last year — approximate how much more you owe and send that money to the IRS by the end of today.

    You can choose to do so by mail, attaching a check to your extension request form. Make sure your envelope is postmarked no later than April 18.

    Or the more efficient route is pay what you owe electronically at IRS.gov, said CPA Damien Martin, a tax partner at EY. If you do that, the IRS notes you will not have to file a Form 4868. “The IRS will automatically process an extension of time to file,” the agency notes in its instructions.

    If you opt to electronically pay directly from your bank account, which is free, select “extension” and then “tax year 2022” when given the option.

    You can also pay by credit or debit card, but you will be charged a processing fee. Doing so, though, may become much more costly than just a fee if you charge your tax payment but don’t pay your credit card bill off in full every month, since you likely pay a high interest rate on outstanding balances.

    If you can’t pay what you owe in full, the IRS does have some payment plan options. But it might be smart to first consult with a certified public accountant or a tax preparer who is an enrolled agent to make sure you are making the best choice for your circumstance.

    If you still owe income taxes to your state, remember that you may need to go through a similar exercise of filing for an extension and making a payment to your state’s revenue department, Martin said.

    Use this interactive tax assistant for basic questions you may have: The IRS provides an “interactive tax assistant” that can help you answer more than 50 basic questions pertaining to your individual circumstance on income, deductions, credits and other technical questions.

    If you’ve already filed your return, you’re probably glad to have it in the rear view mirror. But you may still have a few questions about what’s ahead.

    What about my refund? If you are due a refund, the IRS typically sends it within 21 days of receiving your return. When yours does arrive, it may be smaller than last year, even if your financial life didn’t change much. That’s because a number of Covid-related tax breaks expired.

    So far, the average refund paid was $2,878 for the week ending April 7, down from $3,175 at the same point in last year’s filing season.

    Will I be audited?: The reasons and methods for auditing a taxpayer can vary — and many audits result in “no change,” meaning you don’t end up owing anything more to the IRS. But one thing is common for the vast majority of US tax filers: Audit rates are exceedingly low.

    For filers reporting incomes between $50,000 and $200,000, only 0.1% of them were audited in 2020, according to the latest data from the IRS. Even for very high income filers, audit rates were quite low: Just 0.4% for those reporting income of between $1 million and $5 million; 0.7% for those with income between $5 million and $10 million; and 2.4% for returns with income over $10 million.

    Looking ahead, the IRS commissioner noted in a press call that the agency will be using money from the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster its compliance efforts to focus more on auditing high-income individuals — defined as making $400,000 or more. As for filers with income below that level, he said he did not anticipate any change in the likelihood they would be audited.

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  • No words were exchanged before a White homeowner shot a Black teen who rang his doorbell, according to statements to police | CNN

    No words were exchanged before a White homeowner shot a Black teen who rang his doorbell, according to statements to police | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A White, 84-year-old homeowner charged with shooting Ralph Yarl after the Black teen went to the wrong Kansas City address to pick up his siblings told police they didn’t exchange words before he fired at him through a locked glass door – and that he did so because he thought the teen was trying to break in.

    Homeowner Andrew Lester – who faces two felony charges, for assault in the first degree and armed criminal action – told police he fired immediately after answering the doorbell when he saw 16-year-old Ralph pulling on an exterior door handle, according to the probable cause document obtained by CNN.

    Lester said he was “scared to death” due to the boy’s size, according to the document.

    After the April 13 shooting, which left the teenage boy with gunshot wounds to his head and arm, Ralph told police while he was hospitalized that he did not pull on the door, according to the document.

    It was “nothing short of a miracle” that Ralph was discharged from the hospital, but “he’s not out of the woods yet,” his attorney Ben Crump told CNN on Monday.

    The shooting of the unarmed Black teenager captured national attention as it drew outrage online and fueled protests in Kansas City. Protesters have marched through the city chanting, “Justice for Ralph” and calling for the shooter’s arrest.

    Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson has said that “there was a racial component to this case,” but did not elaborate.

    Lester was not in custody as of Monday night, though a warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to authorities.

    Andrew Lester was charged for shooting 16-year-old Ralph Yarl.

    On the night of the shooting, the 84-year-old man was taken into custody but was released less than two hours later, two representatives at the Kansas City Police Department detention unit previously told CNN. Thompson said Lester was released because police recognized that more investigative work needed to be done.

    Attorney Crump told CNN’s Jake Tapper Monday that it makes no sense the shooter hasn’t been arrested.

    “Nobody can tell us if the roles were reversed, and you had a Black man shoot a White 16-year-old teenager for merely ringing his doorbell that he would not be arrested,” Crump said. “I mean, this citizen went home and slept in his bed at night after shooting that young Black kid in the head.”

    “He merely rang the doorbell. That was it,” Crump said. “And the owner of the home shoots through the door, hitting him in the head and then shoots him a second time.”

    CNN has not been able to reach the homeowner for comment. A lawyer was not listed in his previous booking report.

    On the night of the shooting, Lester was lying down in bed when he heard the doorbell ring and picked up his .32 caliber revolver, Lester told police, according to a probable cause statement.

    He then went to his home’s front entrance, which includes an interior door and a glass exterior door – both of which were locked.

    Lester opened the interior door and “saw a black male approximately 6 feet tall pulling on the exterior storm door handle,” Lester told police.

    “He stated he believed someone was attempting to break into the house, and shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door,” the probable cause statement reads.

    “He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not take the chance of the male coming in,” the document reads.

    Lester said he immediately called 911 after the shooting, according to the document.

    Police spoke with Ralph while he was being treated at a hospital, where he told them his mother asked him to pick up his brothers at 1100 NE 115th Street, according to the document, which notes the actual address they were staying at was 1100 NE 115th Terrace.

    When he arrived at the house on 115th Street, Ralph said he rang the doorbell and waited a while before a man eventually opened the door and immediately shot him in the head, causing him to fall, the document says.

    A police officer drives Monday past the house where 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot.

    While the teenager was still on the ground, the man then fired again, shooting him in the arm, Ralph told police.

    Ralph said he got up and ran to keep from being shot, and he heard the man say, “Don’t come around here,” the document says. He then went to multiple nearby homes asking for help and telling people to call police.

    The boy told police he did not pull on the door, according to the probable cause statement.

    Officers responded to the scene just before 10 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found the boy wounded in the street.

    Responding officers also found the front storm door glass at Lester’s home broken, with blood on the front porch and the driveway, according to the probable cause document.

    A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told CNN she called 911 after Ralph came to her door, bleeding.

    Since the shooter’s location was unknown at the time, she was directed to stay inside her home by the emergency operator for her safety. She said she complied initially, then went outside with towels to help suppress the bleeding.

    “This is somebody’s child. I had to clean blood off of my door, off of my railing. That was someone’s child’s blood. I’m a mom … this is not OK,” she said.

    Protesters march Sunday in Kansas City.

    Crump said Ralph is still struggling with the trauma from the ordeal, but the family hopes for a full recovery because Ralph is young and strong.

    “He and his family are just happy that he’s alive after being shot in the head,” Crump told CNN.

    Ralph, a section leader in a marching band who could often be found with an instrument in hand, had been looking forward to graduating from high school and visiting West Africa before starting college, according to a GoFundMe started by Ralph’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore.

    “Life looks a lot different right now. Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally. The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable,” the aunt wrote in the fundraiser.

    The GoFundMe page, started to help the family with medical expenses, had garnered more than $2 million in donations by Monday night.

    Crump likened Ralph’s shooting to the shootings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida and 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia – two unarmed Black Americans who were fatally shot by assailants who later claimed self defense.

    “We continue to fight to say you can’t profile and shoot our children, just because you have this ‘stand your ground’ law,” Crump said. “Unacceptable.”

    “Stand your ground” laws allow people to respond to threats or force without fear of criminal prosecution in any place where a person has the right to be. It remains unclear whether this will play a role in Lester’s case.

    Lee Merritt, another attorney representing Ralph and his family, told CNN Monday that the “stand your ground” action would not apply to Ralph’s case.

    “The stand your ground action, under the laws of Missouri, are completely inapplicable to this case, because there has been no conversation, not from the suspect, not from the victim and not from law enforcement, that Ralph Yarl, at 16 years old, ever posed a threat to this shooter,” Merritt said.

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  • Arrests over alleged secret ‘police station’ deepen showdown between Washington and Beijing | CNN

    Arrests over alleged secret ‘police station’ deepen showdown between Washington and Beijing | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    “We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city,” said Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York on Monday – expressing the likely feeling of many Americans at the news that the FBI has arrested two alleged agents for the Chinese government accused of working to harass and silence its critics in the US.

    The Justice Department also charged 34 officers of China’s national police, all of whom are believed to live in China, with related offenses.

    The revelations threaten to pitch already sour US-China relations into further crisis, and had the immediate effect of hardening bipartisan suspicion about Beijing on Capitol Hill in a way that will have serious diplomatic implications.

    Prosecutors allege that China opened an “undeclared police station” in New York City that was used at least once to track down a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California.

    The two men Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping — both US citizens — allegedly created the “first known overseas police station in the United States,” on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, according to the Justice Department.

    The FBI also accused a group of Chinese officers of flooding an online video conference, screaming at and threatening Chinese dissidents in the US who were discussing democracy.

    This is not unsurprising activity by a foreign intelligence agency on foreign soil; Washington’s penchant for engaging democracy activists in totalitarian countries has, for instance, long been seen as meddling by repressive governments.

    And the FBI has outposts in many foreign embassies.

    The bureau’s work, however, involves fighting organized crime, combating terrorism and drug trafficking, and forging links with local police and law enforcement. It isn’t designed to monitor US expats and police their political activity.

    If proven, the two agents’ alleged activities represent an attempt by the Communist Party in Beijing to extend its crackdown on dissent and democracy outside the country and onto the soil of a nation where such freedoms are protected.

    “The efforts of the PRC to export authoritarian methods to stifle free expression in the United States is a threat to America’s democracy that we will not abide,” said David Newman, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.

    There has so far been no comment from Beijing on the charges.

    But the notion that Beijing is operating foreign police stations is not new.

    According to a new report by Madrid-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders shared with CNN last year, President Xi Jinping’s government set up more than 100 such posts to monitor the activity of large Chinese diasporas, using bilateral security arrangements as a cover.

    Beijing has denied such allegations, arguing the offices help expat citizens with services like the issuing of new drivers licenses. Any activity that goes beyond consular services and targets Chinese exiles would infringe international law.

    While China has police patrol agreements with several nations, including Italy and South Africa, reports of the undeclared police posts have prompted investigations in at least 13 other countries including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

    The revelations by authorities in New York on Monday are already having a detrimental impact on China’s already tarnished reputation in Washington and will further complicate efforts by the Biden administration to defuse spiraling tensions with Xi.

    The alleged police station scheme is seen as another example of China’s growing global reach, perceived threat to the United States and its values, and willingness to curtail political enemies wherever they might be.

    “This is absolutely absurd that the Chinese Communist Party thinks that they can set up their own police station in a place like New York City,” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, a member of the new House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told CNN.

    “The story out there that the Americans and Chinese are ratcheting up tensions is really not accurate. This is China ratcheting up tensions. This is the Chinese Communist Party trying to exact their repressive regime all over the globe.”

    The arrests contribute to a sense in Washington that China is indulging in increasingly provocative behavior and is ever disdainful of American sovereignty.

    They follow the flight of a suspected Chinese spy balloon across the North American mainland earlier this year that was viewed by many Americans as an insult and was a first tangible sign of how a potential new Cold War could unfold with a new superpower foe.

    Monday’s developments are also likely to increase uncertainty — some might say paranoia — about the level of clandestine activity China might be conducting on US soil.

    Every elevation of the standoff between Beijing and Washington takes a diplomatic toll.

    The level of antipathy towards China is so strong on Capitol Hill that it makes it hard for President Joe Biden — who is ultimately in charge of managing this critical diplomatic relationship — not to toughen his stance. This in turn causes diplomatic and political after shocks in Beijing, whipping up more anti-US rhetoric and behavior.

    To dispute the idea that the US and China are barreling towards a confrontation increasingly looks like heresy in Washington. This is a dangerous new reality since it narrows the room for sober, strategic reasoning about the implications of a potential generations-long showdown across the Pacific.

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  • Australian businessman accused of supplying suspected Chinese spies with AUKUS information | CNN

    Australian businessman accused of supplying suspected Chinese spies with AUKUS information | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    An Australian man has been refused bail after being charged with a foreign interference offense for accepting cash from suspected Chinese intelligence agents, with a Sydney court saying his close ties to China made him a flight risk.

    Magistrate Michael Barko said Alexander Csergo was a “sophisticated, worldly businessperson” who had been on the radar of Australian intelligence for some time before his arrest on Friday.

    The prosecution had a strong case against Csergo, who had lived in China for decades, Barko said in refusing bail.

    Csergo is alleged to have arrived back in Australia this year with a “shopping list” of intelligence priorities he had been asked for by two people he had suspected since 2021 to be agents for China’s Ministry of State Security, the court heard.

    The pair, named in court only as “Ken” and “Evelyn,” first made contact with Csergo through LinkedIn.

    This shopping list had been discovered by Australian intelligence authorities three weeks after Csergo returned to Sydney, the court was told.

    Csergo had been allegedly asked to handwrite reports about Australia’s AUKUS defense technology partnership with the United States and Britain, the QUAD diplomatic partnership, iron ore and lithium mining, Barko said.

    A marketing executive, Csergo, 55, was arrested in the beachside suburb of Bondi on Friday.

    He is the second person charged under Australia’s foreign interference law, which criminalizes activity that helps a foreign power interfere with Australia’s sovereignty or national interest. It carries a maximum 15 year prison sentence.

    Csergo appeared in court via video link from Parklea Prison where he is being held as a high security prisoner. His mother and brother were in court.

    Csergo had told Australian intelligence agents in an interview that when he met Ken and Evelyn in Shanghai cafes and restaurants, the establishments had been empty and he suspected they had been cleared, Barko said.

    He developed a high level of anxiety and was in “survival mode,” he had told the Australian authorities.

    Csergo had exchanged around 3,300 WeChat messages with the pair, and had accepted cash payments in envelopes, Barko said.

    Barko raised concerns for Csergo’s safety, saying some people may not want him to give evidence against China.

    Csergo’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery, had sought bail, saying the reports Csergo had written were based on publicly sourced information and the case against his client was “shallow and unsubstantiated.”

    Prosecutor Conor McCraith disputed this, saying it was not all open source because he had engaged covertly with two others to prepare reports. He also said Csergo had not come to Australian authorities with his concerns about Ken and Evelyn, and had instead invited Ken to come to Australia.

    Collaery said making cash payments was a common business practice in China, and Csergo undertook the consulting work during the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai as a source of income.

    “Of course he believed Ken and Evelyn were keeping tabs on him. That’s how it works in China, he became very worried about it,” Collaery said.

    Csergo had worked in China since 2002 in data marketing, including for a major international advertising agency.

    Collaery said Csergo’s career had come “tumbling down” since his arrest and he had no intention to return to China and instead planned to pursue the Australian government for damages for ruining his career.

    Collaery told media outside the court the case was a “civil liberties” issue and raised concerns about the scope of the foreign interference law introduced in 2018.

    “If you work as a consultant in any foreign country… and you undertake consulting work that may relate to Australia’s foreign influences or national security… you can be guilty of foreign interference,” he told reporters.

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  • He was free for 2 years. Now Crosley Green is back in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit | CNN

    He was free for 2 years. Now Crosley Green is back in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Florida man who served three decades behind bars for a murder he says he didn’t commit returned to prison Monday after spending the past two years building a life outside prison walls.

    Since his conditional release in 2021 amid appeals, Crosley Green, 65, had held a job at a machine grafting facility, attended church and spent time with his grandchildren. He even fell in love.

    “I’ve been with this man for two years,” his fiancée, Kathy Spikes, told CNN. “To not be able to have a 5 o’clock phone call to say, ‘I’m home,’ for me to say, ‘What do you want for dinner,’ that’s what I’m anxious about.”

    His return to prison came about two weeks after US District Judge Roy Dalton ruled he must turn himself in to the authorities by April 17 to resume his life sentence.

    Green surrendered to Florida’s Department of Corrections at 5 p.m. Monday, according to his attorneys. He was accompanied by Spikes, family members and his lawyers Keith Harrison and Jeane Thomas, who have represented him pro bono for 15 years.

    Green was allowed to leave prison on conditional release in 2021, about three years after a federal court in Orlando overturned his conviction. The state of Florida appealed that decision and won last year, and Green’s conviction was reinstated. Dalton allowed Green to remain free while he exhausted his legal options. Green’s legal team petitioned the US Supreme Court, but in late February the court declined to hear his case.

    “I can’t be angry at no one,” Green told CNN. “I don’t want no one else to be angry at no one. Anger isn’t going to take you nowhere. Ain’t going to do (anything) but harm you. I’m happy. I’m not happy about going back. I’ve got my future wife, I’ve got my friends that came up here with me. I’ve got my family.”

    Green was convicted in the 1989 shooting death of 21-year-old Charles Flynn. Green, who is Black, was sentenced to death by an all-White jury, then resentenced to life in prison in 2009 due to a technicality related to the sentencing phase of his trial.

    In 2018, Judge Dalton ruled prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence that police at one point suspected someone else was the shooter. But late last year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and reinstated Green’s conviction, saying the withheld evidence was not material to the case.

    Green’s only options for remaining out of prison now are clemency or parole, according to his legal team.

    “We think he’s an outstanding candidate for parole,” Thomas said. “He’s demonstrated that in the last two years he’s been under supervised release. He’s been an incredibly successful person on the outside with his work, his church and his family.”

    Thomas has pointed out that clemency is not the same as exoneration. She says it is just a mechanism through which the state decides someone has served enough time behind bars to be released.

    Since his release, Green has worn an ankle monitor and been “a model citizen,” according to Thomas.

    “For 15 years now, we have believed wholeheartedly, 100 percent in the innocence of our client,” Thomas said. “As lawyers, we have to believe that the justice system will get it right. We’re going to keep fighting. This is a grave injustice. And we just believe that eventually we will get it right.”

    Despite the latest ruling, Green remains optimistic in his fight to prove his innocence. In a statement shared by his lawyers with CNN, he said, “To me, it’s just another part of what I’m going through now to get my freedom. That’s all it is.”

    He further attributed his perseverance to his faith in comments to CNN.

    “If everyone can just believe in themselves the way I believe in myself, with the Lord, then you can understand and say the things that I can say by not letting anything come between you and your faith,” he said.

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