Page 8 - Us Supreme Court

Michael Cohen to face more grilling in Donlad Trump's hush money trial

Donald Trump's hush money trial is heading into the final stretch, with prosecutors' last and star witness back on the stand Monday for more grilling before the former president's lawyers get their chance to put on a case. The landmark trial will kick back off in Manhattan with more defence cross-examination of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, whose pivotal testimony last week directly tied Trump to the alleged hush money scheme. He's the last prosecution witness and it's not yet clear whether Trump's attorneys will call any witnesses, let alone the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself. Defence lawyers already have questioned Cohen for hours about his criminal history and past lies to paint him as a serial fabulist who is on a revenge campaign aimed at taking down Trump. After more than four weeks of testimony about sex, money, tabloid machinations and the details of Trump's company recordkeeping, jurors could begin deliberating as soon as this week to decide ...

30 yrs in prison for man who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband with hammer

The man who broke into the home of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seeking to hold her hostage and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison. But prosecutors later filed a motion saying the court failed to offer the defendant, David DePape, an opportunity to speak or present any information to mitigate the sentence" as required by federal rule. They asked the court to reopen the sentencing portion to allow him that option. The court did not immediately respond. A jury found DePape, 44, guilty in November of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year prison term. The attack on Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and sent shockwaves through the political world. He suffered two head wounds including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will

ByteDance asks US court to speed up lawsuit over divest-or-ban law

TikTok urged the appeals court to decide on the merits of the case by Dec. 6 so there is adequate time to request an emergency review by the Supreme Court

Trump trial at pivotal moment: Michael Cohen poised to give testimony

The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and personal fixer, is by far the Manhattan district attorney's most important witness in the case and his expected appearance signals that the trial is entering its final stretch. Prosecutors say they may wrap up their presentation of evidence by the end of the week. Cohen is expected to testify about his role in arranging hush money payments on Trump's behalf during his first presidential campaign, including to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who told jurors last week that the USD 130,000 that she received in 2016 was meant to prevent her from going public about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in a hotel suite a decade earlier. He also matters because the reimbursements he received form the basis of the charges 34 felony counts of ...

Trump's classified documents case: Judge postpones trial indefinitely

The federal judge in Florida presiding over the classified documents prosecution of former President Donald Trump has cancelled the May 20 trial date, postponing it indefinitely. The order from US District Judge Aileen Cannon had been expected in light of still-unresolved issues in the case and because Trump is currently on trial in a separate case in Manhattan charging him in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election. The New York case involves several of the same lawyers representing him in the federal case in Florida. Cannon said in a five-page order Tuesday that it would be imprudent to finalise a new trial date now, casting further doubt on federal prosecutors' ability to bring Trump to trial before the November presidential election. Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021, and then ...

Google broke antitrust law to maintain its dominance, says US Justice Dept

Being the default search engine gives Google access to more users generating more queries than its rivals, allowing it to improve its algorithms and results, DOJ lawyers argued

Abortion still consuming US politics, courts 2 years after SC draft leaked

Two years after a leaked draft of a US Supreme Court opinion signalled that the nation's abortion landscape was about to shift dramatically, the issue is still consuming the nation's courts, legislatures and political campaigns and changing the course of lives. On Wednesday, a ban on abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realise they're pregnant, took effect in Florida, echoing laws in two other states. In Arizona, meanwhile, lawmakers voted to repeal a total ban on abortion dating back to 1864, decades before Arizona became a state. Also this week, the Kansas Legislature increased funding for anti-abortion centres, while advocates in South Dakota submitted the required number of signatures for a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The status of abortion in states across the country has changed constantly, with lawmakers passing measures and courts ruling on challenges to them. Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans o

Trump faces prospect of additional sanctions in hush money trial case

Donald Trump faces the prospect of additional sanctions in his hush money trial as he returns to court on Thursday for another contempt hearing followed by testimony from a lawyer who represented two women who have said they had sexual encounters with the former president. The testimony from attorney Keith Davidson is seen as a vital building block for the prosecution's case that Trump and his allies schemed to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He is one of multiple key players expected to be called to the stand in advance of prosecutors' star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and personal fixer. Prosecutors are seeking USD 1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge's gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a USD 9,000 fine that Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed on Tuesday related to nine separate gag order ...

Arizona's Democrats get enough votes to repeal 19th century abortion ban

Democrats in the Arizona Legislature made a final push Wednesday to repeal the state's long-dormant ban on nearly all abortions, which a court said can be enforced. Voting wasn't complete but the Senate had the 16 votes it needed to advance the bill. Fourteen Democrats in the Senate were joined by two Republican votes in favour of repealing the bill, which narrowly cleared the Arizona House last week and is expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. The near-total ban, which predates Arizona's statehood, permits abortions only to save the patient's life and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which says that anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison. If the repeal bill is signed, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona's prevailing abortion law. Still, there

Harvey Weinstein appears in court after New York rape conviction overturned

Harvey Weinstein arrived at a Manhattan courthouse Wednesday, his first appearance since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court last week. Weinstein, wearing a navy blue suit, was seated in a wheelchair pushed by a court officer as he entered the preliminary hearing in Manhattan that is expected to include discussion of evidence, scheduling and other matters, according to Weinstein's attorney, Arthur Aidala. Aidala said Weinstein was attending the hearing despite the 72-year-old having been hospitalized since shortly after his return to the city jail system Friday from an upstate prison. He has said Weinstein, who has cardiac issues and diabetes, was undergoing unspecified tests because of his health issues. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has said it is determined to retry the case against Weinstein. Legal experts say that may be a long road and come down to whether the women he's accused of assaulting are willing to testify again. One of the .

US SC rejects Elon Musk's appeal over tweets that must be approved by Tesla

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Elon Musk over a settlement with securities regulators that requires him to get approval in advance of some tweets that relate to Tesla, the electric vehicle company he leads. The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower-court rulings against Musk, who complained that the requirement amounts to prior restraint on his speech in violation of the First Amendment. The case stems from tweets Musk posted in 2018 in which he claimed he had secured funding to take Tesla private. The tweets caused the company's share price to jump and led to a temporary halt in trading. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission included a requirement that his tweets be approved first by a Tesla attorney. It also called for Musk and Tesla to pay civil fines over the tweets in which Musk said he had funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The funding wasn't secured, and Tesla remains public. The SEC's initial ...

Planning for potential transition underway as Biden admin kicks it off

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday formally began planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November's general election. Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for transition planning by May 3. It's the routine first step in congressionally mandated preparedness for presidential transitions. Next week, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients who also chaired Biden's 2020 transition effort will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which consists of senior White House policy, national security and management officials, as required by the Presidential Transition Act. The act provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so that they can have personnel in place to take policy actions on their first day in ...

'No one above the law, not even the president,' says US Supreme Court

On the left and right, Supreme Court justices seem to agree on a basic truth about the American system of government: No one is above the law, not even the president. The law applies equally to all persons, including a person who happens for a period of time to occupy the Presidency, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in 2020. Less than a year earlier, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, then a federal trial judge, wrote, Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings. But former President Donald Trump and his legal team are putting that foundational belief to the test on Thursday when the high court takes up Trump's bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. Trump's lawyers argue that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official acts. Otherwise, they say, politically motivated prosecutions of former occupants of the Oval Office would bec

After firing 7, Starbucks takes on federal labour agency before US SC

After Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store, a US government agency obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire them. Now, Starbucks wants the Supreme Court to curb the government's power in such cases. On Tuesday, justices are scheduled to hear Starbucks' case against the National Labour Relations Board, the federal agency that protects the right of employees to organise. If the court sides with Starbucks, it could make it tougher for the NLRB to step in when it alleges corporate interference in unionization efforts. The hearing comes even as the animosity between Starbucks and Workers United, the union organising its workers, has begun to fade. The two sides announced in February that they would restart talks with the aim of reaching contract agreements this year. Starbucks and union representatives planned to meet Tuesday for their first bargaining session in nearly a year. Workers at 420 company-owned US Starbucks stores have ..

Donald Trump's immunity gambit at Supreme Court: A delay is still victory

The dynamic underscores the power the court and its three Trump-appointed members have over his fate

US court rejects last-minute bid to halt Donald Trump's hush money trial

A New York appeals court judge on Friday rejected a last-minute bid by Donald Trump to halt his hush money criminal trial over defense complaints that jury selection was unfairly rushed. Justice Marsha Michael issued the ruling just minutes after a brief hearing. The arguments in the mid-level appeals court came hours after the jury selection process concluded in Trump's criminal trial, which is currently taking place roughly two miles south. The ruling will allow opening arguments to take place as soon as Monday in Trump's criminal trial.

Jury chosen in Trump's hush-money case, and other trial takeaways

Trump, who faces three other criminal prosecutions, denies wrongdoing and claims the cases are part of a political 'which hunt' against him

Donald Trump hush money trial: Jury selection encounters setbacks

Jury selection in Donald Trump 's hush money case encountered setbacks Thursday as two previously sworn-in jurors were excused one after backtracking on whether she could be impartial and fair and the other over concerns that he may not have been truthful about whether he had ever been accused or convicted of a crime. Seven jurors were sworn in on Tuesday, but with the excusal of two of them, lawyers now need to pick 13 others including six alternates to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president. Prosecutors on Thursday also asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to sanction Trump over seven more social media posts they say violate a gag order that bars Trump from attacking witnesses. The prosecution on Monday sought a $3,000 fine against Trump over three Truth Social posts. Questioning of a second wave of prospective jurors began mid-morning. Over half of the group of 96 people was excused after saying they couldn't serve. Trump has

Judge declines to delay Trump's trial over complaints of pretrial publicity

The judge in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case on Friday turned down the former president's request to postpone his trial because of publicity about the case. It's the latest in a string of delay denials that Trump has gotten from various courts this week as he fights to stave off the trial's start Monday with jury selection. Among other things, Trump's lawyers had argued that the jury pool was deluged with what the defense saw as exceptionally prejudicial news coverage of the case. The defense argued that was a reason to hold off the case indefinitely. Judge Juan M. Merchan said that idea was not tenable. Trump appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality, the judge wrote. He said questioning of prospective jurors would address any concerns about their ability to be fair and impartial. Prosecutors had objected to Trump's request, saying that the .

Prosecutors urge SC to reject Trump's immunity claims in 2020 election case

Special counsel Jack Smith's team urged the Supreme Court on Monday night to reject former President Donald Trump's claim that he is immune from prosecution in a case charging him with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The brief from prosecutors was submitted just over two weeks before the justices take up the legally untested question of whether an ex-president is shielded from criminal charges for official actions taken in the White House. A President's alleged criminal scheme to use his official powers to overturn the presidential election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power frustrates core constitutional provisions that protect democracy, they wrote. The outcome of the April 25 arguments is expected to help determine whether Trump faces trial this year in a four-count indictment that accuses him of conspiring to block the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has argued that former presiden