assault

STEFON Diggs’ legal fight with his sex assault accuser took a dramatic twist after bombshell new files were dropped.

In explosive documents obtained by The U.S. Sun, Christopher Griffith appears to blame Stefon’s break-up with Cardi B for ruining his NFL career.

He shot back in their legal war after Stefon sued the social media star for defamation over claims the axed New England Patriots player had sexually assaulted him.

The influencer made several posts alleging Stefon had attacked him after a celebrity basketball game in Maryland in May 2023.

In his suit, Stefon claimed that his reputation and, therefore, his income, had been damaged by Christopher’s allegations.

The influencer shot back and said Stefon ruined his reputation himself in several ways, including through his relationship with his on-again, off-again girlfriend and baby mama, Cardi B.

“There is a significant unresolved question as to whether Mr. Diggs’s claimed emotional distress was caused by sources other than Mr. Griffith’s posts on Instagram,” the influencer wrote in the filing.

The social media star then appeared to blame Stefon’s breakup from Cardi B for ruining his reputation and NFL career.

“During the period in question, Mr. Diggs very publicly started and ended a relationship with the musical artist Cardi B, with Mr. Diggs painted as a villain in the tabloid press,” the eyebrow-raising filing continued – and it didn’t stop there.

He also called out another headline-grabbing incident.

“Mr. Diggs was captured on video distributing an unidentified crystalline substance to women partying with him on a yacht, again widely disseminated by the tabloid press; and his performance as an NFL wide receiver declined materially,” he continued, referring to May 2025 photos of Stefon partying on a yacht with bikini-clad women in Miami.

“Any of these could independently account for reputational harm, emotional distress, or lost business relationships. 

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Cardi B’s team for comment.

Christopher claimed his discovery requests thus far have been met with inadequate responses by Stefon and his legal team. 

He also claimed Stefon, 32, has not been forthcoming with providing information on the loss of brand deals as a result of the allegations against him, specifically with the footwear brand UGG.

Outside of this federal lawsuit, Stefon is connected to another lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Chistopher against the NFL star’s brother, Darez Diggs.

Christopher claimed that about a week after the alleged sexual assault by Stefon in Maryland in 2023, the NFL star’s brother Darez and associates came to his Los Angeles apartment building, beat him up and robbed him of about $100,000 in jewelry and other property. 

That lawsuit is also ongoing. 

MINNEAPOLIS — An ICE agent is charged with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car while driving on a Minneapolis highway, prosecutors in Minnesota said Thursday.

An arrest warrant in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, says Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. is charged with two counts of second-degree aggravated assault. The warrant says Morgan was working as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the Minneapolis area on Feb. 5 when he pointed a gun at the occupants of a vehicle on Minnesota State Highway 62.

Hennepin County Atty. Mary Moriarty said she believes it is the first criminal case brought against a federal immigration officer involved in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement that surged federal authorities into cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and New Orleans.

Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The Associated Press called a number associated with Morgan and sent a message to his possible email address but did not receive any immediate response.

Moriarty said during a news conference that Morgan was driving a rented, unmarked SUV on the shoulder of the highway when a car on the road moved into the shoulder to try to slow Morgan down, not knowing he was a federal officer. After the car returned into the legal lane, Morgan pulled up alongside and pointed his service weapon at the people in the car.

Morgan, 35, and his partner, who was not charged, were on their way to the federal building to end their shift when they were caught in traffic. Charging documents note Morgan did not say the incident occurred during an enforcement action.

According to the charging documents, Morgan told a Minnesota State Patrol officer that he pulled up alongside the victim’s vehicle, drew his firearm and yelled “Police Stop.” The warrant says the victims couldn’t hear him because their windows were up.

Morgan is charged with two counts of assault because he threatened both people in the vehicle, and there is a warrant out for his arrest, Moriarty said.

The charges could intensify a clash between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials over the crackdown. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has warned that the Justice Department could investigate and prosecute state or local officials who arrest federal agents for performing their official duties.

Moriarty said she is not concerned about blowback from the Trump administration and that her office’s goal is to “hold people accountable if they violate the laws of the state,” she said.

She said Morgan’s actions were beyond the scope of a federal officers’ authority.

“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota,” she said.

In Minnesota, felony second-degree assault is punishable by up to seven years in prison, or up to 10 years imprisonment if the assault inflicted “substantial bodily harm.”

The Department of Homeland Security deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area from December through February in what the agency called its “largest immigration enforcement operation ever.” The Minnesota operation led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

Backlash over the aggressive tactics mounted, and two of the crackdown’s most high-profile leaders were soon gone. Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March shortly after the Minnesota surge ended. That same month, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief who led immigration operations in several large cities, announced his retirement.

In a letter to California officials last year, then-Deputy Atty. Gen. Blanche wrote that “the Justice Department views any arrests of federal agents and officers in the performance of their official duties as both illegal and futile.”

“Numerous federal laws prohibit interfering with and impeding immigration or other law-enforcement operations,” Blanche wrote. “The Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute any state or local official who violates these federal statutes (or directs or conspires with others to violate them).”

Sullivan and Bynum write for the Associated Press. Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga. AP reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, contributed to this report.

JODIE Marsh has been charged with assault after allegedly confronting her neighbour in a row over her animals.

The ex-glamour model, 47, said she “lost it” and “put her hands on his neck” after he carried out what she called a “campaign of harassment”.

Marsh claims the neighbour filmed her animals and doctored clips to make them look “skeletal” after trespassing on her land.

Describing the clash, she said: “I put my hand on his neck because I leaned in to whisper to him.

“I can’t even remember what I said because I was so upset. It lasted around 30 seconds.

“I’m scared to sleep in my own house. I’m scared to go out.”

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The former lads’ mag star turned her back on fame to run Fripps Farm rescue centre in Lindsell, Essex.

Marsh is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.

She is charged with common assault, specifically the use of “threatening / abusive / insulting words / behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence”.

Common assault carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

But speaking to The Sun, Jodie insisted she did not hurt her neighbour, adding: “I didn’t actually injure him in any way.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “At around 12.40pm on Friday 16 January officers were called to an address in Lindsell to reports of a woman behaving aggressively towards a man and assaulting him.

“It was further reported that verbal threats were made.

“As a result of further enquiries, charges of common assault and using threatening / abusive / insulting words or behaviour have since been authorised against Jodie Marsh, 47, of Lindsell.

“She is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday 17 April.”

Fripps Farm is currently home to over 250 animals including alpacas, emus and reptiles, many of which have been saved from slaughter.

The reality star’s website reads: “Jodie gives a loving home to animals that are either unwanted or in danger of being put to sleep or slaughtered.”

It comes after a fire on her farm killed two of her beloved marmosets.

Fripps Farm hasn’t been without its controversies amid neighbour rows and court battles.

Marsh was left in tears of joy after winning a court battle to keep lemurs at the sanctuary.

She had appealed against a council’s decision to refuse her application for a wild animal licence.

Concerns had been raised about her taking a meerkat to the pub.

She said trolls were behind much of the criticism.

At a previous hearing, clips of screeching zoo lemurs were played to Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court.

But Judge Christopher Williams dismissed the council’s argument about the animals’ noise.

KATY Perry is at the centre of a police probe after Ruby Rose’s bombshell sexual assault allegations.

Victoria Police confirmed they are looking into the claims made by the Australian actress, who alleges the pop star assaulted her during a night out in Melbourne back in 2010.

A police spokesperson said: “Melbourne Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) detectives are investigating a historical sexual assault that occurred in Melbourne in 2010.

“Police have been told the incident occurred at a licensed premises in Melbourne’s CBD.

“As the investigation remains ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

The alleged incident is said to have taken place at the Spice Market nightclub in Melbourne’s CBD while the pair were out together.

Katy Perry’s representatives have firmly denied the claims, labelling them “dangerous lies”.

They previously told Variety: “The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies.

“Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”

Ruby Rose, now 40, reportedly filed a formal complaint – triggering the investigation.

But she has since gone quiet on the claims, revealing police have told her to stop speaking publicly.

She wrote: “Last update on this: As of this afternoon, I have finalized all of my reports.

“This means I am no longer able to comment, repost, or talk publicly about any of those cases, or the individuals involved.

“It’s going to look like I am ignoring everything from supportive messages, to other people’s experiences, but I’m not.

“This is a standard request from the police and in many ways, quite the relief. I can start the healing process now. And temporary [sic] move forward. I love you all so much.”

The shock claims first exploded online on Sunday when Rose accused Perry, 41, of sexually assaulting her during her twenties.

She said: “I’m now 40. It has taken almost two decades to say this publicly.

“Though I am so grateful to have made it long enough to find my voice, it just shows how much of an impact trauma and sexual assault takes. Thank you for seeing me.”

The Batman star spoke out in response to an article Complex Magazine had written about Katy going to Coachella.

In a series of graphic posts, Rose alleged the singer – who is currently dating ex-Canadian PM Justin Trudeau – assaulted her inside the club.

Writing to her followers on Threads, she said: “Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at Spice Market Nightclub in Melbourne.

“Who gives a s**t what she thinks.”

As fans reacted to Ruby’s shocking claims in the comments, the Orange is the New Black star shared more about the alleged incident.

“She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friend’s lap to avoid her and bent down, pulled her underwear to the side and rubbed her disgusting vagina on my face until my eyes snapped open and I projectile vomited on her,” Ruby added.

The actress also claimed she initially tried to laugh off what allegedly happened.

“After it, I threw up on her. I told the story publicly but changed it to be a ‘funny drunk story’ because I didn’t know how else to handle it.

“Later she agreed to help me get my US visa. So I kept it a secret. But I did tell ya’ll she wasn’t a good persona. Instead I got attacked by everyone.

“The psychological manipulation was strong with that one,” Ruby admitted.

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Another woman came forward Tuesday to describe rape allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell, who announced his resignation from Congress on Monday amid a torrent of sexual misconduct accusations.

Lonna Drewes said at a news conference called by her attorneys that she was drugged and raped by Swalwell (D-Dublin) in 2018 while she was working as a model in Beverly Hills.

Drewes said she met Swalwell three times as she was growing her fashion software company and toying with the idea of a political career.

On the third occasion, she said, she believed he drugged her glass of wine. She said they were supposed to go to a political event and they stopped by his hotel room to retrieve some paperwork.

She said she found herself incapacitated despite having had only one drink.

“He raped me and he choked me and while he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died,” she said. “I did not consent to any sexual activity.”

Swalwell’s attorney Elias Dabaie did not immediately respond to a call or email requesting comment. Swalwell has previously denied allegations against him, while acknowledging undefined “mistakes.”

Swalwell and his team threatened legal action against several individuals over the claims, Dabaie previously confirmed to The Times.

Lonna Drewes, left, says she met Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) on three occasions in Beverly Hills in 2018. She says he sexually assaulted her on the third occasion.

(Myung J Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Drewes said she didn’t undergo a rape kit test, but disclosed the assault to people close to her and described it in her calendar. She did not have contact with Swalwell again, one of her attorneys said.

Drewes said she had no interest in Swalwell romantically and was drawn to his friendship, she said, in part because he touted connections that she believed could help her grow her businesses. She was in a relationship at the time, and he had a pregnant wife, she said.

The alleged rape had a severe impact on her mental health, causing her to self-medicate, she said. She said she also went to therapy sessions at a sexual assault center.

“I did not want to live anymore,” she said. “I cried all the time for years.”

She said she’d been considering a run for Beverly Hills City Council at the time. After the incident, she said, she feared a political backlash and felt like she had no choice but to remain silent.

Lonna Drewes walks behind her lawyer Arick Fudali during a news briefing in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt,” she said. “I have never doubted what happened.”

The L.A. County Sheriffs Department said Tuesday that it is investigating the case.

“The investigation remains in its preliminary stages and is ongoing,” the department said. “Investigators are in the process of gathering information, reviewing available evidence and conducting follow-up inquiries as part of a comprehensive investigative process.“

A spokesperson for the L.A. County district attorney’s office said the Sex Crimes Division had been assigned to work with law enforcement partners in an unfolding investigation.

Arick Fudali, one of the attorneys representing Drewes, said he hoped his client’s account would encourage other women to come forward.

“This is not about Democrat versus Republican,” Fudali said. “This is about accountability versus silence.”

“Lonna deserves what all women deserve — autonomy over her own body,” said attorney Lisa Bloom.

Bloom is well-known for representing high-profile victims of sexual misconduct, including women in cases against actor Bill Cosby and commentator Bill O’Reilly. Bloom said they would be providing text messages, journal entries and photographs to the police. Those include a photo of Drewes and Swalwell at the opening of a restaurant called Avra that was displayed Tuesday for reporters.

Bloom said she wanted to assist with an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, who has opened a case into allegations against Swalwell. She said three other women have reached out to her.

Swalwell, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2013, has said he plans to fight the “serious, false” allegations made against him.

“However, I must take responsibility and ownership of the mistakes I did make,” Swalwell wrote in a statement Monday.

Bloom called Swalwell’s recent statements about the accusations against him “blather and spin” and a “slap in the face” to victims.

“Stop it,” she said. “Own your behavior.”

Swalwell had been a Democratic front-runner in the hotly contested and crowded race to be California’s next governor. Then in two bombshell reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN on Friday, women accused the congressman of sexual assault and misconduct.

Candidates in the California gubernatorial race reacted to the new allegations with horror.

“The level of my disgust and outrage just continues to grow,” former state Controller Betty Yee told The Times after a business forum in Sacramento. “The fact that this is still being uncovered, that it could be bigger than what we already know?”

Swalwell said he would resign from his congressional seat under intense pressure from lawmakers of both parties. The resignation came on the heels of the House Ethics Committee opening an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations and bipartisan threats to expel him from the House if he did not resign as women continued to come forward.

One woman told CNN that after messaging with Swalwell about her interest in Democratic politics last year, she met him for drinks and tried to deflect his advances without jeopardizing potential job opportunities. She said she began to feel “really fuzzy” and intoxicated and later found herself in his hotel room with no memory of how she got there.

Another woman, a former staff member who accused Swalwell of rape, told CNN she met him for drinks in 2019, blacked out and awoke naked in his hotel bed and could tell she had had intercourse. She said that in a separate encounter years later, he forced himself on her while she was too intoxicated to consent and despite her protests.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday called a special election for Swalwell’s Alameda County seat on June 16, two weeks after the state’s regularly scheduled primary. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, a second special election will be held on Aug. 18.

The June 2 regular primary and Nov. 3 general election will decide who will represent the recently reconfigured district for the next term, starting in January 2027. The special election decides who will represent the district for the remaining months of Swalwell’s term.

Times staff writers James Queally, Dakota Smith and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

The Democratic representative from California has resigned his seat in Congress over multiple sexual misconduct allegations.

Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell has resigned from the United States Congress, amid mounting allegations of sexual misconduct.

On Tuesday, a fifth woman came forward to accuse Swalwell of unwanted sexual contact, saying the Democratic lawmaker drugged and raped her during an encounter in 2018.

“My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt – fear of his political power,” Lonna Drewes said during a news conference in Los Angeles.

Drewes’s lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said her firm would be filing a police report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office.

Swalwell has denied allegations of wrongdoing. But on Monday, he announced he would resign from Congress, one day after suspending his gubernatorial campaign.

Polls had shown the 45-year-old leading the race to replace Gavin Newsom as governor of California.

But his campaign imploded last week after reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN detailed allegations of sexual misconduct from several women.

One woman, identified as a former staffer, told CNN that Swalwell raped her in a New York City hotel in 2024, an encounter that left her bleeding and bruised.

Three other women told US news outlets that they had received inappropriate messages from Swalwell on the app Snapchat, which automatically deletes interactions.

The accusations quickly prompted backlash to Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign. Supporters withdrew their endorsements, and a handful of bipartisan lawmakers said they would push for a vote to expel Swalwell from Congress.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also announced on Saturday that it is investigating the sexual assault allegations.

In a statement on Monday, Swalwell apologised to his family, staff and constituents for what he called “mistakes in judgment”.

Although he confirmed he would resign his seat in Congress, he nevertheless criticised his colleagues for seeking his expulsion.

“I will fight the serious, false allegations made against me,” Swalwell wrote.

“I am aware of the efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong.”

Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna had said she would withdraw her motion to expel Swalwell once he stepped down, and she confirmed on Tuesday that he had submitted a resignation letter, “effective immediately”.

Republican Representative Tony Gonzales also announced on Monday that he would retire from Congress amid calls for his expulsion over allegations of sexual misconduct.

KATY Perry has hit back at ‘reckless’ claims she sexually assaulted Ruby Rose nearly two decades ago.

Ruby, 40, took to Threads on Sunday to accuse Katy, 41, of assaulting her at a nightclub in a flurry of posts.

In one shocking post, she accused Perry of rubbing her genitals on her face.

The Batman star spoke out in response to an article Complex Magazine had written about Katy going to Coachella.

Writing to her her 19.7 million followers, she said: “Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at Spice Market Nightclub in Melbourne.

“Who gives a s**t what she thinks.”

As fans reacted to Ruby’s shocking claims in the comments, the actress shared more about the alleged incident.

“She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friend’s lap to avoid her and bent down, pulled her underwear to the side and rubbed her disgusting vagina on my face until my eyes snapped open and I projectile vomited on her,” Ruby added.

The Fireworks singer branded the allegations “reckless lies.”

In a statement, her representative said: “The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies.

“Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”

The Orange is the New Black star said that she initially made a joke about the ordeal before deciding to tell the truth.

“After it, I threw up on her. I told the story publicly but changed it to be a ‘funny drunk story’ because I didn’t know how else to handle it.

“Later she agreed to help me get my US visa. So I kept it a secret. But I did tell ya’ll she wasn’t a good persona. Instead I got attacked by everyone.

“The psychological manipulation was strong with that one,” Ruby admitted.

In another post, Ruby wrote, “I was in my early 20s, I’m now 40.

“It has taken me almost two decades to say this publicly.

“Though I am so grateful to have made it long enough to find my voice, it just shows how much of an impact trauma and sexual assault takes. Thank you for seeing me.”

Katy attended the first weekend of Coachella with her boyfriend, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 54.

The ex-American Idol judge shared photos and videos from the festival on Instagram, showing the couple holding hands and dancing to Justin Bieber’s set.

According to sources, Katy and Ruby have never seen eye to eye and have had a “complicated” history.

“Ruby and Katy have a complicated backstory – they’ve never really been friends,” an insider told The U.S. Sun.

“This allegation has come as a massive shock to everyone, though.

“Screenshots of Ruby’s messages are being shared around the music industry now, and people don’t know what to think,” they added.

Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell suspends campaign to succeed Gavin Newsom after media reports detailed alleged accounts of sexual assault.

US Congressman Eric Swalwell has dropped out of the California state gubernatorial race following sexual assault allegations.

“I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” he said in a social media statement on Sunday.

“To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made – but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s,” the Democrat added.

Swalwell’s statement came after several influential Democratic Party lawmakers called on him to exit the race and resign from the United States Congress following reports from CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle that detailed alleged accounts of sexual assault from a former staffer and misconduct allegations from several other women.

“What he did is sick and disgusting,” Congressman Ro Khanna told the news programme Fox News Sunday, calling for investigations into the allegations by law enforcement and the US House of Representatives.

A March poll from Emerson College suggested that Swalwell was ahead of Democratic and Republican challengers by several points in the race to replace Governor Gavin Newsom.

But the reports shook his campaign, with powerful figures and organisations revoking their endorsements and calling for him to drop out over the weekend. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed on Saturday that it was investigating the allegations.

Republican US Representative Anna Paulina Luna said she would submit a motion to begin the process of expelling Swalwell, a move some Democrats in Congress said they could support.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Representative Pramila Jayapal said on Sunday. “This cuts across party lines. And it is the depravity of the way that women have been treated.”

Democrats have also called for the expulsion of Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, who is also facing sexual misconduct allegations.

Khanna and Republican Representative Byron Donalds have said they could support a bid to eject both Gonzales and Swalwell from Congress.

“As far as I’m concerned, both gentlemen need to go home,” Donalds said.

SACRAMENTO — Embattled Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for California governor on Sunday but continued to deny he sexually assaulted anyone.

His campaign to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom has all but collapsed as key Democratic supporters, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Adam Schiff, abandon him.

“To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell wrote on social media Sunday.”

“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”

House ethics rules bar members from having sex with a subordinate, and House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries from New York is seeking an investigation into the allegations.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced plans to force a House vote to expel Swalwell, a motion supported by some House Democrats. Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat representing Northern California, is among those calling on him to resign.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Swalwell by the former staffer, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office on Saturday said the office was in the process of evaluating “whether any alleged criminal conduct occurred” in the agency’s Bay Area jurisdiction.

The 45-year-old Democratic candidate established himself as a frontrunner in the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, despite not having a broad base of supporters in California.

A one-time member of the House Intelligence Committee and a savvy social-media user, Swalwell relished his role as a foil to President Donald Trump, using his many platforms to attack and taunt the twice-impeached, criminally convicted president.

He previously worked as a criminal prosecutor, and was elected to Congress in 2012 after he defeated Rep. Pete Stark, a fellow Democrat.

He cast himself as a centrist middle-class guy and featured his wife and three young children prominently in his campaign for governor. In an interview with the Times last year, he talked about his decision to continue in politics, despite the toll on his family.

Reports published in the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN offered a stark contrast to Swalwell’s wholesome image, alleging that he forced himself on a young staffer and sent women pictures of his penis and sexy messages.

CNN also reported on another woman’s alleged account of a sexual encounter with Swalwell that involved fending off his advances over drinks, and then waking up in his hotel room with no memory of how she got there.

Swalwell and his team threatened legal action against several individuals, Swalwell’s attorney Elias Dabaie confirmed to the Times. Swalwell himself took to social media on Friday night and called the allegations “lies” intended to hurt him in the race.

But campaign staffers resigned, his fundraising website went offline and even his self-described “best friend” in Congress, Sen. Ruben Gallegos from Arizona, withdrew his endorsement. Powerful labor groups, including the California Labor Federation, SEIU California and the California Police Chiefs Assn., withdrew their support.

Other Democrats in the race include billionaire Tom Steyer; former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter; State Supt. Tony Thurmond; former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra,; San José Mayor Matt Mahan; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former state Controller Betty Yee.

The top GOP gubernatorial candidates are Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

SACRAMENTO — The fallout over sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell grew Saturday as his fellow gubernatorial candidates faced a new race and Democrats were forced into a rapid test of how they respond to accusations of sexual misconduct.

Within hours of the accusations against Swalwell being made public, the Northern California congressman’s campaign began to unravel and a chorus of top Democrats urged him to drop out. Staff members resigned, his fundraising website went offline and allies moved quickly to distance themselves from a candidate who had been gaining momentum as a front-runner in the race to lead the Golden State.

The repercussions extended beyond Swalwell’s campaign for governor. The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Swalwell by a former staffer and issued a statement Saturday that urged “survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted a video on X saying that she plans to force a House vote next week to expel Swalwell.

Swalwell has denied the allegations, calling them “flat [out] false.”

The upheaval has created an opening for lesser-known contenders to gain traction just as voters are beginning to turn their attention to the race — a spotlight now intensified by the controversy.

The speed and severity of the response underscores how quickly political support can erode — and reflects a broader shift in how such allegations are handled in the post-#MeToo era, which has been intensified by the scrutiny surrounding the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Ask any woman staffer over the age of 45 what her experience was like, and this was a fairly prevalent sort of situation,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a veteran Democratic strategist. “It was allowed. I really think it shows a lot of growth on the part of political professionalism, that these things are taken seriously.”

As of Saturday afternoon, Swalwell ignored calls to drop out of the race and resign from Congress, even as outrage and criticism swelled. A Bay Area fundraiser was canceled and major institutional backers abandoned the campaign. The California Labor Federation withdrew its endorsement, SEIU California rescinded its backing and urged Swalwell to exit the race, and the California Police Chiefs Assn. suspended its support.

Speculation swirled Saturday about Swalwell’s whereabouts after the congressman announced that he intended to spend time with his wife.

A man who opened the door of Swalwell’s rental home in Livermore early Saturday refused to talk to a Times reporter. Swalwell has claimed that he rents space in the one-story house, located on a quiet cul-de-sac. He also owns a home in Washington, D.C., but no one inside responded when a reporter rang Saturday.

Livermore residents couldn’t escape news of the scandal. “Swalwell faces assault claims,” read the front page of the East Bay Times, stacked up at the Lucky grocery story around the corner from Swalwell’s rental home.

The most serious allegation against Swalwell is from a woman who worked for the congressman who said their relationship was at times consensual, but that he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Three other women have also accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including sending unsolicited nude photos, according to CNN.

The allegations prompted several members of his campaign to abruptly walk away from their jobs. One senior campaign staffer said they resigned after hearing the seriousness of the allegations, adding that they didn’t want to be put in a position where they were using their own credibility to defend Swalwell.

Former staffers in Swalwell’s congressional office traded messages in group texts after the news reports, with many expressing shock and horror at the allegations, according to two former employees.

A group of senior staff in Swalwell’s congressional office and campaign said in a statement Saturday that they “stand with our former colleague and the other women who have come forward” and that others “should stand with them, too.”

Kyle Alagood, an attorney who worked for Swalwell’s congressional office and his short-lived presidential campaign, told The Times he was “disgusted and pissed off.”

“I pray he has the decency to resign for the sake of his wife and kids,” said Alagood, adding that Swalwell must also “face the full legal consequences of his actions.”

Rob Stutzman, a longtime GOP strategist, said the impact of Swalwell’s political advisers quitting and his endorsements being yanked has sunk his chances in the governor’s race whether he stays in or not.

Stutzman advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 2003 recall when The Times reported allegations of inappropriate behavior with women during his bodybuilding and film career. Stutzman said the severity of the allegations against Swalwell makes the situation very different from that involving Schwarzenegger, who didn’t lose endorsements.

“If this had been the circumstances … I would have quit,” Stutzman said. “They’re just not the same.”

While Swalwell’s political future hangs in the balance, political insiders are closely watching who will be the beneficiary of the chaos. There are eight Democrats running: billionaire Tom Steyer, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, San José Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Controller Betty Yee and Swalwell. There are two GOP candidates: Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Loyola Marymount University law professor Jessica Levinson said that with key endorsements, such as labor, now back up for grabs, anyone can jump to the front of the pack. She said the safest bet on who will gain an advantage is Porter and Steyer, who with Swalwell have been the top candidates in recent opinion polls.

“But, I think this is a race where there is no heir apparent,” Levinson said. “You can’t rule out surprises anymore in this race.”

Paul Mitchell, a veteran Democratic strategist, agreed that the upheaval benefits Porter and Steyer, adding that Swalwell’s chances have been reduced to zero.

“First off, I think that staying in the race is not tenable,” Mitchell said. “And so if he does drop out of the race, what it means is that you’re going to have a lot of progressive voters looking for somebody else to go to and the primary beneficiaries should be Porter and Steyer right now, because they’re the other two that are in that kind of first tier of Democratic candidates that have been splitting up that progressive base.”

Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Swalwell had circulated for weeks on social media and in political circles. Once the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN posted stories with details from women accusing Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including rape, the swift rebuke was likened by one political strategist to a bomb detonating.

Those media outlets reported that the staff member accusing Swalwell of rape was 21 when she began working for him in 2019 in his Castro Valley district office. She said Swalwell, who is nearly two decades older, quickly began sending her messages and then nude pictures on Snapchat, a platform in which messages and images disappear after being viewed.

She said that in September 2019 she had drinks with the congressman, blacked out and could tell she had had intercourse when she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed, according to the report. In a separate encounter years later, she said he forced himself on her while she was too intoxicated to consent and despite her protests.

She said she did not report the incidents to police, citing fears she would not be believed and concerns about professional repercussions.

Another woman who began messaging with Swalwell about her interest in Democratic politics last year said she met him for drinks and that she was attempting to fend off his advances without hurting potential job opportunities when she began feeling “really fuzzy” and intoxicated, according to CNN. She told the outlet that she ended up in Swalwell’s hotel room without a memory of how she got there.

Social media creator Ally Sammarco said Swalwell sent her unsolicited nude pictures in 2021, when she was 24 years old. Another woman in her 20s, who works in marketing, said the congressman sent her unsolicited videos of his penis.

Swalwell, who is married with three young children, posted a video on Instagram on Friday in which he called the accusations of inappropriate behavior “flat [out] false,” while also acknowledging unspecified poor behavior.

“I don’t suggest to you in any way that I am perfect or that I am a saint,” he said in the video. “I’ve certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”

Elias Dabaie, an attorney representing Swalwell, sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two people demanding that they stop accusing the congressman of sexual assault, according to CNN. Dabaie was asked by CNN whether the congressman’s comments can be construed as acknowledging that he cheated on his wife, while denying doing anything illegal.

“I’m not going to get into the details of that,” Dabaie said.

Times staff writers Melody Peterson and Gavin Quinton contributed to this report.

SACRAMENTO — An attorney for Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, on Thursday sent a cease and desist letter to an unknown individual demanding that they stop accusing the congressman of sexual assault.

Swalwell’s attorney Elias Dabaie of the law firm Dabaie Kelley, in Los Angeles, confirmed Friday that he sent the cease and desist letter, which tells the recipient that they could be sued for defamation. A copy of the letter was posted online by a social media influencer on Friday, and Dabaie confirmed it was authentic.

Swalwell (D-Dublin) and his representatives earlier this week denied allegations made by social media influencers and repeated by political insiders in recent weeks that he behaved inappropriately toward young staffers and others.

Dabaie’s letter sent Thursday states that it “has come to our attention that you have made false statements accusing Mr. Swalwell of sexual assault and non-consensual sexual encounters…”

“We write to demand that you immediately and permanently cease and desist from continuing your wrongful conduct, including by stopping any further publication of such information or allowing it to be disseminated in any form, whether oral, written, electronic or otherwise,” the letter stated.

Dabaie confirmed to The Times that he sent the letter via text. He declined to say whether other cease and desist letters had been sent.

“I can tell you that there have been multiple baseless allegations made against the Congressman and we are attacking them on all fronts,” he said.

A spokesperson for Swalwell’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cheyenne Hunt, a Laguna Hills attorney and executive director of a progressive advocacy group who has said she is helping organize a group of women who allege inappropriate behavior toward Swalwell, posted a screenshot of Dabaie’s letter online on Friday.

“This is the first page of the cease and desist letter from Swalwell’s team — it has has been shared with permission from the recipient,” she wrote on social media.

The name of the individual who received the letter was redacted.

Hunt told The Times on Friday that she was aware of two individuals who received cease and desist letters from Swalwell’s team.

Swalwell earlier in the week denied any inappropriate behavior, including allegations that his office required interns to sign nondisclosure agreements. “It’s false,” he told reporters.

Swalwell said he never behaved inappropriately with female staff members or had a sexual relationship with a staff member or an intern.

For weeks, salacious talk swirled in campaign circles, ricocheted through email chains and was served up, like a buzzy side dish, over gossipy lunches from Sacramento to San Diego.

The talk revolved around Eric Swalwell, the 45-year-old congressman from the East Bay and one of the top Democratic contenders for California governor. The rumors involved allegations of inappropriate behavior with young staffers.

Pressed by rival camps, pursued by the political press corps, the claims were largely confined to unvetted corners of the internet until this week, when Swalwell’s campaign — knowing the whispers were getting louder — issued a public statement denying any wrongdoing.

The move was a prebuttal. Strategists figured it better to get out front of the chatter and address the online innuendo, even if it meant exposing the allegations to a much wider audience. The campaign’s statement was followed hours later by a categorical denial from the congressman.

“It’s false,” Swalwell told reporters Tuesday night in Sacramento. He said he never behaved inappropriately with female staff members or had a sexual relationship with any staffer or intern. There were no quiet legal settlements, he said. No hiding behind nondisclosure agreements.

Then, on Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a lengthy report — filled with highly specific and graphic details — quoting a woman who worked nearly two years for Swalwell, stating she had sexual encounters with him while he was her boss. Twice, she alleged, he sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent.

The woman, who is 17 years younger than Swalwell, said the congressman began pursuing her within weeks of her hiring at age 21 to work in his district office in the East Bay Area. That was in 2019.

The woman said she largely kept quiet about Swalwell’s behavior out of fear she would suffer personal and professional consequences. She told the Chronicle she did not share her account with authorities because she was afraid they would not believe her. The newspaper said medical records show the woman obtained pregnancy and STD tests a week after one of the alleged assaults.

Swalwell issued another categorical denial.

“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the front-runner for governor,” he said in a statement, somewhat overstating his status in the neck-and-neck gubernatorial race. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public — as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women.

“I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action,” Swalwell said. “My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”

Even before the Chronicle published its article, once the privately bandied rumors were suddenly the open, you could almost hear the sound of a dam bursting. Swalwell’s competitors were quick to amplify the assertions, grappling for advantage in a race that remains stubbornly knotted up.

“Very, very troubling,” said fellow Democrat Katie Porter. “Deeply troubling,” echoed Betty Yee, another of the Democratic hopefuls.

A third Democrat running, Antonio Villaraigosa, was more inventive, accusing Swalwell “of skipping town” — he did not attend a Wednesday candidate forum in Sacramento — “as more and more women come forward with sexual harassment allegations.”

At that point no one with firsthand knowledge had come forward to contradict Swalwell’s denial of wrongdoing.

But with Friday’s article in the Chronicle, opponents escalated their attacks. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and state schools superintendent Tony Thurmond both called on Swalwell to quit the race.

One of his highest-profile backers, Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, withdrew his endorsement and expressed regret he had defended Swalwell on social media prior to the Chronicle’s account. Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles also withdrew his endorsement and urged Swalwell to abandon his candidacy.

Behind closed doors, other major Swalwell backers were reassessing their support.

It’s understandable — and probably necessary — for the congressman to retreat, as he suggested, to spent time with his wife and family.

But in light of the Chronicle’s report, and its damning allegations, he’ll need to do more than issue strongly worded statements on threatened legal action if he has any hopes of salvaging his gubernatorial candidacy and political career. (Swalwell gave up his congressional seat to run for governor.)

If the allegations are false, he needs to refute each and every detail in thorough, incontrovertible fashion. If they’re true, then what could Swalwell possibly have been thinking — not just forcing himself on his alleged victim, but running for governor knowing what he’d done? Was he convinced his behavior would never come to light? Did he believe that adamant denials would allow him to brazen his way through?

Swalwell has a lot of explaining to do — about his behavior, his disclaimers, his judgment.

And even though the June primary is still many weeks away, he has very little time to do so.

Protesters have blocked roads outside the Israeli embassy in London, condemning Israel’s violent strikes on Lebanon which killed hundreds across the country on the day the US-Iran ceasefire was announced. Many demonstrators also expressed solidarity with Iranians and Palestinians who have all suffered under Israeli bombardment.

Trump steps up threats after US strike on Iran’s largest bridge, as Tehran launches attacks across the region.

In a new report, Doctors Without Borders says sexual violence is the ‘defining feature’ of the conflict in Sudan.

Hanaan was 18 years old when she was raped by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of committing widespread “war crimes” during nearly three years of fighting against Sudan’s army.

She was walking alongside a female friend to her makeshift home in an encampment for displaced people in South Darfur, when four men on motorbikes stopped them and asked where they were going.

“Two took each girl, and they raped us,” she told Doctors Without Borders, an international medical NGO known by its French initials MSF.

“I feel uncomfortable in my body, heavy. I don’t feel pain, apart from in my back – because they beat me, they beat me with their guns on my back,” she said.

Hanaan – not her real name – shared her testimony as part of a report released by MSF on Tuesday, which details the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon in Sudan’s ongoing brutal civil war.

The NGO said 3,396 survivors of sexual violence sought treatment in MSF-supported health facilities across North and South Darfur between January 2024 and November 2025.

The data, presented in the report titled, There is Something I Want to Tell You…, was drawn from MSF programmes in just two of Sudan’s 18 states and reflects only a fraction of the crisis, while the true scale of the phenomenon remains unknown.

Women and girls accounted for 97 percent of survivors treated in MSF programmes. The RSF and allied militias were found to be primarily responsible for the systematic abuse.

Children among the survivors

“Sexual violence is a defining feature of this conflict – not confined to front lines, but pervasive across communities,” Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency health manager, said in a statement.

“This war is being fought on the backs and bodies of women and girls. Displacement, collapsing community support systems, lack of access to healthcare and deep-rooted gender inequalities are allowing these abuses to continue across Sudan.”

Following the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, on October 26, 2025, MSF treated more than 140 survivors fleeing to Tawila. Among them, 94 percent were attacked by armed men, with many reporting assaults along escape routes.

The assaults “deliberately targeted non-Arab communities as a means of humiliation and terror, echoing previous RSF atrocities such as the dismantling of Zamzam camp”, the report said. The RSF took control of famine-hit Zamzam camp in the western Darfur region after two days of heavy shelling and gunfire in April 2025.

Survivors described attacks not only during fighting, but in everyday settings, such as fields, markets and displacement camps.

Children were also among the survivors. In South Darfur, one in five survivors was under 18, including 41 children younger than five, the organisation said.

MSF called on the United Nations, donors and humanitarian actors to urgently scale up health and protection services in Darfur and all of Sudan, and on all parties to the conflict to cease and prevent sexual violence and hold perpetrators accountable.

Displaced Lebanese families ‘living in constant fear’ under Israeli bombardment, warns UN Refugee Agency official.

Lebanon faces the threat of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned, as Israel expands its weeks-long bombardment and ground invasion of the country.

UNHCR’s Lebanon representative Karolina Lindholm Billing said on Friday that Israeli strikes and forced displacement orders have affected people living across the country – from southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley, the capital Beirut, and further north.

More than 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes since Israel’s intensified attacks against its northern neighbour began in early March, according to UN figures.

“The situation remains extremely worrying and the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe … is real,” Lindholm Billing told reporters during a briefing in Geneva.

She noted that, as displacement numbers continue to rise, Lebanon’s already overstretched shelter system is struggling to meet families’ needs.

“Just last week, there were strikes that hit central Beirut, including in densely populated neighbourhoods … where many people had tried to find safety in collective shelters,” Lindholm Billing said.

“The families are … living in constant fear, and the psychological toll, particularly on children, will last far beyond this current escalation.”

Israel launched intensified attacks across Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli territory following the February 28 assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israel war on Iran.

The Israeli military has carried out aerial and ground attacks across the country while issuing mass forced displacement orders for residents of the country’s south, as well as several suburbs of Beirut.

On Friday afternoon, the Israeli military said it had begun a wave of air strikes on Beirut. It also issued more forced displacement orders for several areas in the city’s southern suburbs, including the neighbourhoods of Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh.

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel and confront Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, with leader Naim Qassem stressing this week that the group had no plans to stop fighting “an enemy that occupies land and continues daily aggression”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also announced plans to expand the country’s ground invasion in southern Lebanon, saying the military would create “a larger buffer zone” in Lebanese territory.

Rights groups have condemned the expanded operation and warned that preventing Lebanese civilians from returning to their homes in the south may amount to the war crime of forced displacement.

“Israel’s tactics of mass expulsion in Lebanon raise serious risks of forced displacement,” Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. “Forced displacement and collective punishment are war crimes.”

The Israeli military’s destruction of civilian homes and several bridges linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country has also fuelled concerns that Israel is trying to isolate the area.

During Friday’s news briefing, UNHCR’s Lindholm Billing noted that the destruction of the bridges has made accessing southern Lebanon “increasingly difficult”.

“The destruction of key bridges in the south has cut off entire districts … isolating over 150,000 people and severely limiting humanitarian access with essential items to reach them,” she said.

Reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto also stressed that Israel’s forced evacuation orders are “causing a lot of panic” among residents.

“Evacuation orders are happening in areas that were previously thought to be safe,” he said, adding that the destruction and damage to bridges over the Litani River in the south has made the prospect of finding safety more difficult.

“This is putting the government in Beirut in a very difficult situation to try and respond to the humanitarian crisis quickly growing in the south of the country,” Hitto said.

Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a former waitress in 1972 after escorting her to one of his shows, a civil jury in California concluded Monday, awarding the woman $19.25 million in damages.

The verdict was the latest turn in a series of legal battles the disgraced entertainer, now 88, has faced since allegations that he repeatedly drugged and raped women exploded publicly about a decade ago. Since then, he served about three years in a Pennsylvania prison on sexual assault charges before the case was overturned in 2021.

Donna Motsinger, now 84, said in her lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court that Cosby had given her wine and a pill that left her unable to move, and that she woke up in her house wearing nothing but her underwear, according to court records, and that “she knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

Cosby has denied the allegations, as well as those brought by dozens of other women who claimed they had been drugged and raped. Coming in the early years of the #MeToo movement, a broad social media-inspired campaign to name and prosecute men accused of sexual misconduct, Cosby’s attorneys painted him as an unfair target of mass vigilantism gone awry.

Motsinger sued Cosby in 2023, alleging that, at the time, she was working at a Sausalito restaurant called The Trident that was popular with celebrities, including Cosby, according to the complaint her attorneys filed Sept. 27 of that year. One night, Motsinger accepted Cosby’s invitation to go with him to his show at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. Cosby picked her up at her home in a limousine, according to her complaint, and, on the way to the venue, gave her the wine and a pill that she thought was aspirin.

“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine,” the complaint said. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light,” before waking up in her house in nothing but underwear.

Motsinger didn’t consent to Cosby’s sexual contact and, having been rendered unconscious by drugging, she couldn’t consent to it to begin with, according to the complaint. As a consequence of her ordeal, her complaint says she suffered lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering and emotional distress.

The “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a central feature of U.S. strategy designed to secure hegemony and limit Chinese and Russian influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. It does not, however, represent a decisive shift in Washington’s relations with the region. Although the corollary does not make this explicit in its formal statement, in practice it makes more evident what liberal rhetoric has long sought to mask: military and covert interventions aimed at preserving U.S. domination in the Western Hemisphere, undermining progressive movements and governments, and backing right-wing regimes. In this sense, it abandons even the pretense of respect for international law and human rights. In what follows we argue that the Trump Corollary constitutes not only an ideological and imperialist offensive against decolonial and multipolar currents in Latin America, but also a strategic project whose assault on Venezuela has broader geopolitical implications.

The ideological backdrop

Although Washington’s unrestrained militarism, which enjoys bipartisan support, is indeed cause for alarm, the erosion of even the pretense of commitment to liberal-democratic values, human rights, and international law did not begin with the Trump administration. The live-streamed Israeli genocide in Gaza, enabled and backed by the Biden administration, has made this difficult to deny. Moreover, it highlights how the U.S.-European axis has normalized impunity for systematic violence against non-combatants. This erosion of even its own professed liberal values has helped consolidate a political climate in which the Trump administration could intensify its offensives against Venezuela and Cuba and pursue a war of aggression against Iran.

This normalization of necropolitics can be better understood through the ideological logic used to justify it. We can make sense of this logic by distinguishing between two different tendencies within Western Eurocentric modernity. On the one hand is the myth of European supremacy, what Enrique Dussel calls the “developmentalist fallacy,” which has been used to justify colonization, with its racial hierarchy, since the invasion of Amerindia in 1492. On the other is a rational, emancipatory current rooted in ideas of community, equality, and liberty. As critical historians have shown, these emancipatory traditions did not originate solely in Europe; they were also present among some Indigenous peoples, such as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose Great Law of Peace established participatory forms of government centuries before European contact. Historically, these ideals were never extended fully to colonized peoples, nor to people of color within the metropole. This contradiction persists. Washington’s recent rhetoric justifying attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran expresses the colonial, violent side of modernity while discarding its emancipatory, humanist dimensions.

Civilizational rhetoric and the objectives of the Trump Corollary

It is this myth of European supremacy, often expressed with religious fervor even when stripped of its humanist facade, that serves as the ideological justification for the offensives launched this year. This worldview was crystallized in a speech delivered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2026. That speech anticipated the inauguration in Miami, on March 7, of Shield of the Americas, a new U.S. partnership with right-wing allies in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be led by former Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem. Rubio, in effect, called for a rejection of historical accountability, stating:

We do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it. . . . The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.

This rhetoric illustrates Rubio’s disdain for anti-colonial struggles that commenced not with the Cold War and communism, but at the very start of the European invasions of Amerindia. Indeed, the “guilt and shame” surrounding the subjugation and exploitation of Indigenous peoples was expressed as early as the sixteenth century, when Bartolomé de Las Casas documented and denounced the tortures inflicted upon them in the name of a European civilizing mission. The same civilizational appeal surfaced again at the Miami summit, where Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called upon members of the Shield to defend their shared cultures and, in particular, “Western Christian civilization.” By casting anti-colonialism as an insidious force, Rubio’s rhetoric functions to blunt decolonial critiques of the Trump Corollary.

Despite Washington’s zeal for exporting Western ideals, decolonizing currents in Latin America’s political, economic, social, and cultural life have taken deep root. Since the 1960s, Marxism, along with liberation theology, liberation philosophy, and Indigenous struggles for self-governance, have helped articulate ethical and political critiques of colonial domination, racial hierarchy, and dependent forms of development from the perspective of the Global South. Indigenous cosmovisions and the philosophy of buen vivir have influenced constitutional and political life in the region and beyond. For example, the United Nations now recognizes the concept of the rights of nature as central to sustainable development. The recognition of the rights of Mother Earth has also been incorporated into the constitutions of both Bolivia and Ecuador, and the plurality of Indigenous and Afro-descendent nationalities is recognized in several Latin American constitutions.

The Trump Corollary emerges in direct opposition to these decolonial currents. It seeks to restore U.S. primacy over the hemisphere’s governance and resources by curtailing the region’s expanding commercial and diplomatic ties with China, Russia, and other non-Western partners. To advance this agenda, Washington has worked to destabilize or overthrow progressive governments while favoring right-wing administrations more aligned with its interests, in some cases through intimidation, electoral interference, or direct military intervention. Much like the Alliance for Progress, Operation Condor, and the invasion of Panama before it, this latest evolution of the Monroe Doctrine invokes the pretext of security to reassert Washington’s influence over hemispheric political and economic life while limiting the region’s turn toward greater autonomy. Yet that effort confronts a regional reality that Washington cannot easily reverse. Trade relations transcend political divisions in Latin America and the Caribbean. And in South America, China has become the principal trading partner for much of the subregion. This complicates Washington’s efforts to rein in Latin America’s turn toward multipolarity. China’s Third Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean presents the region as an “essential force” in the move toward a multipolar world and economic globalization, and describes the bilateral relationship in terms of equality, mutual benefit, openness, and shared well-being. This stated approach stands in clear contrast to the Trump Corollary’s posture of coercion, Western supremacy, and geopolitical subordination. It is, in part, this regional turn toward multipolarity that the assault on Venezuela seeks to counter.

Venezuela: The central case

The violent reality of the Trump Corollary has been most clearly revealed in Venezuela. Washington’s campaign of deadly strikes against maritime vessels in the Caribbean, a series of extrajudicial killings that claimed the lives of more than 145 people, served as a prelude to the January 3 surprise aerial assault on Caracas, named Operation Absolute Resolve. The maritime victims included people from nations such as Colombia, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela who were targeted without public evidence of narco-trafficking or due process. Operation Absolute Resolve itself claimed the lives of more than 120 people, including civilians and security forces, and culminated in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. In Venezuela, the Trump Corollary deploys military force, coercive diplomacy, and control over strategic resources. It also deals a blow to the Bolivarian cause by making an example of a state that has stood as the leading force of regional independence and integration for more than two decades.

Rather than moving, in the short term, to dismantle Chavista institutions, as many Venezuelan opposition hard-liners in Miami and Madrid expected, the Trump administration in the aftermath of Operation Absolute Resolve instead has resorted to “deal-making” with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. The recognition of interim president Delcy Rodríguez as “the sole Head of State” of Venezuela might be part of an effort by the Trump administration to strip President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores of the presidential immunity to which they are entitled. Despite Trump’s praise for a supposedly mutually beneficial relationship with the Chavista government, this is not a win-win situation. Acting President Rodríguez is attempting to balance Washington’s demands for unfettered access to the country’s natural resources with Venezuela’s own economic interests and the long-term survival of the Bolivarian Revolution. That coercive political context also affects the economic arrangements now taking shape in Venezuela.

As new economic agreements are being “negotiated,” major Venezuelan state assets previously frozen, seized, or placed beyond Caracas’s control remain unrecovered. Prior to Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. seized Venezuelan aircraft and targeted ships carrying Venezuelan oil that U.S. authorities said were involved in sanctions evasion. The most egregious case is that of Citgo, Venezuela’s most valuable foreign asset. Caracas has already lost real control over it, and U.S. courts are now overseeing proceedings that could permanently strip Venezuela of ownership to pay creditors.

More recently, a series of Trump administration officials have gone to Caracas to press for greater U.S. influence over Venezuela’s oil industry. They have also “negotiated” with the Chavista government to bring about legal reforms that will facilitate U.S. investment in the extraction of critical minerals and other natural resources. According to Venezuela Analysis (02/20/26), “The Trump administration is forcing all royalty, tax, and dividend payments from Venezuelan oil production [to] be paid into accounts managed by Washington.” For Venezuelan critics of U.S. intervention, these arrangements may result in a significant transfer of national wealth under pressure. Other observers argue that renewed investment could bring Venezuela badly needed revenues. In any case, there is no doubt that these economic arrangements are being carried out in a coercive context.

Regional extensions of the corollary

The offensive against Venezuela did not occur in isolation. It was soon followed by a strangling energy embargo on Cuba designed to provoke a humanitarian crisis to bring about “regime change.” After more than sixty-six years of U.S. embargo against Cuba, this latest escalation is intended not only to destabilize and isolate the island but also to shatter the morale of the forces of resistance throughout the region. At the same time, it has galvanized worldwide solidarity, despite the betrayals of governments that have succumbed to U.S. pressure to expel Cuban doctors and dismantle other forms of Cuban internationalist assistance. Meanwhile, the administration has been pressuring Mexico with the specter of unilateral military strikes against drug cartels, signaling a disregard for Mexico’s repeated insistence on its own sovereignty. In Colombia, Washington antagonized President Gustavo Petro with politically charged drug-trafficking allegations and threats of military intervention, a confrontational posture that later gave way to rapprochement after Petro met with Trump at the White House. In Honduras, the U.S. intervened to back the presidency of the right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura who won the presidential election in December 2025 and took office on January 27.

The latest example of this interventionist regional posture was the U.S.-Ecuadorian military operation launched on March 3, which conducted bombings near the Colombian border in northeastern Ecuador, ostensibly aimed at narco-terrorists and illegal mining. In Ecuador, as in Peru, small-scale artisanal mining is often practiced within Indigenous communities living near mineral deposits and employs methods with a far lighter environmental impact than industrial-scale extraction. Whatever its stated purpose, the operation may have the effect of displacing artisanal mining and opening mineral-rich territory to large North American transnational corporations. In brief, by convening twelve compliant right-wing regional leaders in Miami, the Shield of the Americas summit serves to institutionalize Washington’s renewed drive toward regional hegemony. But the significance of this offensive is not only regional.

Geopolitical implications

The Trump Corollary has geopolitical importance because the recent offensive to consolidate U.S. hegemony in the Americas has served as a strategic prelude to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The offensive in Venezuela not only stops Venezuelan crude from reaching Cuba, thereby sharpening the knife of the subsequent energy embargo, but also secures strategic leverage over the largest oil reserves in the world ahead of Iran’s restrictions on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. In this sense, Venezuela is not peripheral to the wider conflict, but central to it. This does not, however, mean that the Trump administration ever had a clear, coherent rationale for starting this war of aggression against Iran.

The ever-shifting rationale for the war was at first framed in terms of protecting demonstrators in Iran, then became an effort to overthrow the government, and has now dissolved into incoherence, with no consistent justification offered at all. In any case, the war may also carry broader geopolitical implications, insofar as prolonged disruption in Gulf oil exports would place pressure on China, whose energy needs depend heavily on Middle Eastern crude shipments. It is also beginning to generate visible political strains within NATO, as doubts about the direction of the war grow in Europe, with Spain as the clearest example. It has likewise raised concerns among some U.S. allies in the Gulf about the wisdom of continuing to host major U.S. bases.

Taken together, the shifting rationale for the war, the U.S.-Israeli callous disregard for civilian life and infrastructure, its mounting economic costs, and the danger that the conflict could spiral out of control and raise the specter of the possible deployment of nuclear weapons suggest that the decision to wage war on Iran was a profound miscalculation, one harmful not only to Iran and the wider region, but also to the people of the U.S. and the global economy. It also exhibits in stark relief the same colonial ideology that underlies the Trump Corollary. For these reasons, opposition to the war, as well as to the Trump Corollary, is growing both at home and abroad.

William Camacaro is a Venezuelan-American  National Co-Coordinator in the Alliance for Global Justice. He was a co-founder of the Bolivarian Circle of New York “Alberto Lovera” and Senior Analyst for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA). He holds a Master’s Degree of Fine Arts and a Master’s Degree in Latin American Literature from City University of New York. William has published in the Monthly Review, Counterpunch, COHA, the Afro-America Magazine, Ecology, Orinoco Tribune and other venues. He has organized delegations to Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. He has been a long-time activist for social justice in the United States, such as organizing protests against police brutality in NYC, for the independence of Puerto Rico, and for the freedom of political prisoners. William has also been a leader in defense of progressive governments and social movements in Latin America.

Frederick B. Mills, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy and a member of the Philosophy of Liberation Association and the American Philosophical Association. He has received awards for excellence in teaching and international outreach from Bowie State University. Mills has published articles on philosophy of mind, ethics and public policy, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Mario Bencastro, Enrique Dussel as well as political analysis on contemporary Latin American politics. He has contributed articles to Counterpunch, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and other independent media.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Orinoco Tribune

“What were they thinking?”

This is the question on everyone’s mind of “The Bachelorette’s” producers, ABC, Hulu and the Disney legal team.

On Thursday, ABC announced that the heavily promoted new season of “The Bachelorette,” scheduled to premiere Sunday, would not be moving forward “at this time.” Why not? Well, the Bachelorette in question, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul, was the subject of a second domestic assault investigation as a damning video from her first, in which she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, made the rounds courtesy of TMZ. Filming for Season 5 of “Mormon Wives,” which Paul executive produces, was also abruptly halted.

The disturbing video is hard to watch. Not so much because Paul puts on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen into a headlock and then pelts him with metal bar stools — sadly, this is a scene that would not be out of place on many reality shows — but because a small child is in the room. After one of the stools bounces toward the camera, Paul’s then-5-year-old daughter Indy begins crying and Mortensen later says “help your child.” Even as the child cries “Mommy,” Paul continues on her rampage. When Mortensen belatedly attempts to help Indy, Paul screams at him to “get away from my child.”

And while “Bachelorette” producers and Disney lawyers may not have seen the video, which was introduced in the 2023 court case, the police report makes it clear that Indy was injured during the incident, noting a “goose egg” on the child’s head. Paul was charged with aggravated assault, child abuse and domestic violence in the presence of a child. Paul, who said she had been drinking before the incident, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. The other charges were dismissed and Paul, who was put on probation, submitted a plea of abeyance. In August 2026, a court will review the assault charge and, if Paul complies with the terms of her probation, could lessen it to a misdemeanor.

Should a new criminal charge be made after the current investigation, all bets are off.

So was it the emergence of the video or the possibility of a felony conviction that caused ABC to put this season of “The Bachelorette” on ice? Does the reason matter?

ABC knew that Paul had been charged in a domestic violence incident that led to the injury of her child and somehow thought she would make an excellent Bachelorette anyway.

What were they thinking?

“The Bachelorette” Season 22 billboard starring Taylor Frankie Paul is seen on Thursday — the day her season was axed.

(HIGHFIVE / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images via Getty Images)

They were thinking that audiences like messy “authenticity,” and it doesn’t get any more authentically messy than 31-year-old Paul, who climbed to social media fame by founding MomTok, a TikTok community of married Mormon women dancing, joking and pushing against the traditions and restrictions of their faith. Pretty and profane, funny and frank, Paul amassed a large following. After Paul discussed the “soft swinging” she and her husband engaged in with other Mormon couples, the group went viral and led to the creation of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the first episode of which was titled “The First Book of Taylor.”

Chronicling the fallout from the “soft-swinging” scandal, the first season built on Paul’s frank discussions of her chaotic life; it was Hulu’s most-watched unscripted season premiere of 2024. The subsequent three seasons, in which the MomTokers deal with the pressures of fame, their romantic relationships and all manner of internal “Mean Girls” drama, have continued to grow the show’s audience even as ratings for “The Bachelor” franchise flagged.

To the algorithm, or a numbers cruncher, the hopes that Paul could bring some of the “Mormon Wives” magic to “The Bachelorette” might make sense.

Except Paul isn’t magic; she waves her red flags high and proud, and the good folks at ABC, Hulu and Disney charged at them with the oblivious desperation of so many trapped, maddened bulls. (It usually does not end well for the bulls either.)

The “soft swinging” led to her divorce from first husband, Tate Paul, with whom she has two children, including Indy. As chronicled on “Mormon Wives,” she began her turbulent relationship with Mortensen, with whom she shares a young son, Ever. Her 2023 arrest was a storyline — she called it one of the rock bottoms of her life, though in a recently resurfaced TikTok video, she brags about throwing things and being arrested — and in Season 4 she was found in bed with Mortensen, with whom she had allegedly broken up, on the morning she was supposed to fly to L.A. to film “The Bachelorette.” (She caught a later flight.) The season finale ended with the possibility that Paul might be pregnant.

Reality cross-pollination has become so increasingly popular — ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” couldn’t live without it, and Peacock’s hit show “The Traitors” is built on it — that there seems to be little thought given to the apples-versus-oranges fact that not every reality show is the same. “Bachelorette” producers not only ignored the misgivings voiced by their own fans, many of whom did not think Paul would be approaching the show as a truly single woman searching for love, they reportedly extended her many freedoms denied other participants, including unmonitored use of her phone during filming.

They clearly wanted the ratings miracle that Paul’s unvarnished wildness had lent “Mormon Wives.”

Casting for maximum drama is a driving force in many reality shows. Even if one accepts that perfectly reasonable people are happy to live in a bubble with strangers for months in hopes of achieving love, fame or a cash prize, someone inevitably is cast to bring the crazy, er, conversation-sparking personality. And like all of television, reality is facing splintered and waning audiences so the decibel level of that conversation-sparking is often dialed way up.

Hence the ascendancy of Taylor Frankie Paul, queen of MomTok and “Mormon Wives,” a woman known for her lack of filter and habit of putting it all out there. For the purposes of our entertainment.

There is, of course, no point in mentioning the many past, and often show-derailing, scandals of the genre — the suicides, the racism, the sexual assault, homophobia, bullying, pedophilia, infidelity and just general ghastliness that has arisen from the popularity of people sharing their “real” lives. Audiences connect with these shows, the messier the better.

But, as it turns out, some messes are too big to leverage even for forgiving eyeballs of reality fans.

“The Bachelor” franchise should have known better. It’s been around for almost a quarter-century and has suffered its fair share of scandals during those years. But drafting a woman who was convicted of assault in an incident that harmed her own child, well, “The Bachelorette” knew it was playing with fire.

Clearly they hoped she would rekindle the dying embers of the show.

Instead, she burnt it down.

The Pentagon is reportedly sending the Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the rest of its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), loaded with elements of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). This comes as the Trump administration is reported to be increasingly considering seizing or blockading Iran’s highly strategic Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf as part of a new phase of Operation Epic Fury.

It has now been widely reported that what is described as an “accelerated” deployment of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th MEU from the West Coast will be in support of Operation Epic Fury.

The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group also includes two other amphibious warfare ships, the San Antonio class USS Portland and the Whidbey Island class USS Comstock. The 11th MEU has roughly 2,500 personnel, in total, and includes air and ground components.

This follows reports last week that the America class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and its ARG, carrying elements of the 31st MEU, had also begun moving from the Pacific toward the Middle to support ongoing operations against Iran.

Axios reported today that the Trump administration could be leaning toward establishing a blockade around Iran’s Kharg Island, through which it exports much of its oil, or occupying it, citing unnamed officials. The central goal of doing this would be to step up pressure on the regime in Tehran to, in turn, force it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through that waterway has come to a virtual halt, which is causing massive reverberations across global energy markets.

“[Trump] wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that’s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that’s going to happen,” one official said, according to Axios. “But that decision hasn’t been made.”

The U.S. military carried out extensive strikes on Kharg Island this past weekend. A deployment of U.S. ground troops there would be a major escalation that could have significant ramifications, including domestically.

“We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics, but the president is going to do what’s right,” a second official, who also said no decision has yet been made, said, per Axios.

Just yesterday, TWZ spoke with Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, with a particular focus on the tumultuous Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. You can read that interview here.

In the meantime, publicly available flight-tracking data indicates that the U.S. Navy is using MQ-4C Triton intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones to monitor Kharg Island as part of their patrols of the northern Persian Gulf.

Trump has warned that he might consider targeting oil facilities on the island if Iran or other countries “do anything to interfere” with the safe passage of ships through the strait.

Destroying or damaging oil infrastructure on Kharg could have unintended side effects, however. On the one hand, it would further push up global oil prices. The complex nature of infrastructure might take years to repair, which would compound this. In the long term, there is also the question of whether oil infrastructure here should be preserved for the benefit of a potential new Iranian government.

Any successor to the current regime would lose out on vital oil income, potentially driving further internal strife.

There is also the possibility that seizing the island and cutting off the current Iranian government from its most vital source of revenue could be used as a catalyst to bring about its fall.

Then there is the huge question about the kind of military effort that would be required to seize Kharg. This would require a large-scale, sustained operation and would be brought with risk. The island is only 20 miles from the Iranian mainland, putting whatever U.S. force is there at extreme risk of bombardment of multiple types. Getting amphibious assault ships through the Strait and into the Gulf would be an issue, as well, and those ships would be heavily targeted during transit and especially once inside the Gulf. With this in mind, a longer-range aviation assault would be most likely.

A naval blockade of the island might be easier to achieve in the short term, but it would run the risk of Iranian attacks, likely involving uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), drones, and other asymmetric options, as well as anti-ship cruise missiles, the use of which has been limited up to this point, as you can read about here.

As already noted, additional U.S. forces are headed to the region in the form of the Tripoli ARG and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). While the deployment of the big-deck amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli had already been reported, we now know it is being supported by the amphibious transport docks USS San Diego (LPD-22) and USS New Orleans (LPD-18), thanks to publicly available ship-tracking data.

What exactly the next phase of Operation Epic Fury will look like could be clearer as the Navy amphibious warfare ships and the thousands of Marines they are carrying get closer to the Middle East.

UPDATES

UPDATE: 6:16 PM EST –

There are some mixed messages coming out of Washington about the future of Epic Fury.

President Donald Trump said he is considering “winding down” the war on Iran. His comments, delivered on his Truth Social account, come even though two Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) are steaming toward the Middle East and the Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans to put American troops into Iran with the president’s approval.

Trump added that the U.S. could end the war effort even with the Iranians still closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran,” Trump proclaimed.

He stated that the U.S. has: “(1) Completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them. (2) Destroying Iran’s Defense Industrial Base. (3) Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry. (4) Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place. (5) Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others.”

The Strait, Trump added, “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them.”

Our coverage has ended for the day. Stay tuned for more.

UPDATE: 5:15 PM EST –

Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who served as Defense Secretary and CENTCOM commander, weighed in on the war, saying he doesn’t believe regime change is likely.

Iranian state media warns Iran will target the UAE’s industrial port city of Ras Al-Khaimah if Iranian islands are again attacked from that nation, Arab News reported.

March 19 (UPI) — Actor Kevin Spacey settled out of court in England with three men who sued him, accusing him of sexual assault.

The cases were set for trial in the High Court this year.

The men alleged that between 2000 and 2013 Spacey, 66, assaulted them, but Spacey denies any wrongdoing.

In 2023, he was found not guilty of nine criminal sexual assault charges. Two of the accusers in the criminal trial filed the civil cases.

One accuser, known as LNP, alleged that Spacey “deliberately assaulted” him 12 times between 2000 and 2005. Another, known as GHI, said he “suffered psychiatric damage and financial loss” from an assault in 2008.

Actor Ruari Cannon, who has waived his right to anonymity, said that when he was in the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth at the Old Vic Theater in 2013, Spacey groped him at a party. Spacey was the artistic director at the theater at the time.

Cannon also settled with the Old Vic in a civil suit two weeks ago.

Cannon was on a BBC Channel 4 documentary, Spacey Unmasked, in 2024. Spacey called the allegation “ridiculous and it never happened.”

Spacey has been trying to win back his career, Deadline reported. Last year he said he has no home and was living out of hotels and Airbnbs and working as a lounge singer in Cyprus. He claims his struggles are like the actors who were blacklisted during McCarthyism, Deadline said.

Spacey also won a civil case in the United States in which actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was 14.

KEVIN Spacey has settled with three men who accused him of sexual assault over a 13-year period.

The Oscar-winning actor was due to go on trial at the High Court later this year after the complainants brought a civil case against him.

But Spacey has now reached an out-of-court settlement with the men, which has now frozen the legal proceedings.

It comes after the Usual Suspects star was cleared of nine sexual offence charges at a criminal trial in 2023.

Spacey has always denied any wrongdoing – claiming the accusations against him were motivated by “money, money and then money”.

Two of the men who accused the Hollywood actor during the star-studded trial then filed civil cases at the High Court.

One man, known only as LNP, claimed that Spacey “deliberately assaulted” him on around 12 occasions between 2000 and 2005.

The second – referred to as GHI – alleged he “suffered psychiatric damage and financial loss” as a result of an assault in 2008.

He claimed he met Spacey through a workshop at London’s Old Vic theatre, where the star was artistic director of the Old Vic between 2004 and 2013.

The third man, Ruari Cannon, who has waived his right to anonymity, claimed Spacey groped him in 2013 during a party at the theatre.

Spacey said the allegation was “ridiculous and it never happened”.

The court was told previously Cannon had reached a settlement with the Old Vic.

Spacey – who won Oscars for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty – was one of the most high-profile scalps during the Me Too movement.

The allegations caused his Oscar-winning career to crumble around him as he faced claims from multiple men in the UK and US.

He was stripped of an International Emmy Award in the wake of the claims and was edited out of Sir Ridley Scott film All The Money In The World.

His central character in acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards was also killed off after he was axed from the show.

Speaking in November, Spacey claimed he lost his house due to the financial fallout caused by the expensive lawsuits.

He said he put all his belongings in storage facilities – and has been forced to live in hotels and Airbnbs.