charges

Three months after Josh Jacobs was arrested on five charges relating to domestic abuse, the Green Bay Packers star running back on Thursday was formally charged with misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal damage to property.

The Brown County (Wis.) District Attorney’s Office released an incident report that asserts that video footage taken inside Jacobs’ garage corroborates the altercation the alleged victim described. However, a felony and four misdemeanor charges pertaining to domestic violence were dropped.

Jacobs’ legal team led by David Z. Chesnoff issued a statement: “The Brown County District Attorney has reviewed evidence and elected to file misdemeanor charges against Josh that do not include domestic violence. The allegations will be addressed in court, and not in the media. Mr. Jacobs respects the District Attorney’s office and the process it followed.”

The report states that on the morning of May 23, police were dispatched to Jacobs’ home near Green Bay because of a disturbance between Jacobs and a woman described as his girlfriend.

The woman told officers she had a lump on her head as a result of a physical struggle with Jacobs. She said she became upset after looking through Jacobs’ phone and seeing he had been talking to other women. Jacobs had her phone, and she told Jacobs he could look through it, but when she tried to take back her phone, he grabbed her arm and she ended up on the floor.

According to the report, the video shows that Jacobs followed her to the garage. When she attempted to exit, Jacobs grabbed her, threw her to the ground and she struck her head. The woman lay on the ground before standing and walking into the house.

The report stated that a responding officer observed redness on the woman’s face and neck and felt the bump on the back of her head.

Retrieving relevant video from the surveillance system in the garage “was complex and took several weeks,” according to the report. Surveillance footage “corroborates the relevant portions of [the alleged victim’s] statements” that occurred in the garage but “does not depict any portion of the incident that is alleged to have occurred inside the residence.”

The day of the incident, Jacobs was charged with felony strangulation and suffocation, and four misdemeanors pertaining to domestic abuse. However, he was released from jail the next day because the District Attorney’s office said it found insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.

Three months later, that changed, although neither of the Class A misdemeanors filed Thursday mentioned domestic abuse. Jacobs would be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 and not more than nine months in jail if he is convicted.

“Our office sought to ensure a fair and complete review of available evidence, some of which only recently became available to our office due to significant, ongoing forensic efforts by law enforcement,” Brown County District Attorney David L. Lasee said in a statement. “A criminal complaint is nothing more than a written, formal accusation against a defendant alleging the commission of criminal offenses and does not raise any inference of guilt. Mr. Jacobs is presumed innocent of these charges.”

The Packers and the NFL both issued statements saying only that they are monitoring the developments and will cooperate with law enforcement.

Jacobs has been one of the top running backs in the NFL since he was drafted out of Alabama in the first round by the Raiders in 2019. He signed a four-year, $48 million contract with the Packers as a free agent after the 2023 season.

Jacobs, 28, has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in four of his seven NFL seasons and last year rushed for 929 yards despite missing two games with a knee injury.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — A divided federal appeals court has ruled that Rep. LaMonica McIver is not immune from prosecution on charges stemming from a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside a federal immigration detention facility in 2025.

The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three federal counts of impeding and interfering with federal immigration officers over alleged conduct on May 9, 2025, as they were attempting to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility.

McIver denies the allegations and has sought their dismissal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 Wednesday that two of the three charges against McIver may proceed to trial, while the third was sent back to a lower court for reconsideration.

McIver said she disagrees with the ruling and was “exploring” her options.

“To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation,” McIver said in a statement.

“Today’s decision chills that authority and emboldens the Trump administration to continue persecuting our most vulnerable communities, those who try to defend them and anyone who dares hold the president or his lackeys accountable.

“I will not fold to this administration,” she continued. “The administration will not stop me from doing my job or standing for what is right. This is not over.”

Federal prosecutors charged McIver in a three-count indictment in June 2025, a month after the incident at Delaney Hall.

According to the court document, she and two other members of Congress were at the facility to conduct an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of the facility as a protest was occurring outside against the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

After arriving at the facility, Baraka entered but was informed by a federal officer he was not authorized to be there, according to federal prosecutors, who said McIver prevented the federal officers from arresting the mayor, who was allegedly given multiple warnings to leave.

Outside the facility, McIver allegedly placed herself in front of Baraka and wrapped her arms around him to prevent his arrest. During the situation she is accused of having “slammed her forearm into the body of one law enforcement officer,” whom she also allegedly tried to retrain by grabbing him.

Court documents also accuse her of striking a second officer with both of her forearms.

Video of the incident posted online shows a chaotic scene that day outside the facility.

Baraka was eventually arrested and charged with trespassing, though the case against him was later dropped.

McIver moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing it violated the Speech or Debate Clause and the constitutional principle of separation of powers as well as under selective prosecution and enforcement claims, while also arguing selective and vindictive prosecution and enforcement.

All three counts accuse her of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with federal officers. However, the appeals court sent count three back to the lower court to review whether it includes conduct that can be considered legislative acts.

While counts one and two identify specifics act, count three encompasses a range of alleged conduct over a broad time frame, both inside and outside the facility, the court said.

Numerous Democrats came to McIver’s defense, arguing it is an attack on congressional oversight.

“Donald Trump wants Congressmembers to fall in line & not conduct oversight of detention centers,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in a statement.

“And he wants to make an example out of @RepLaMonica. But we’re not letting up.”

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill similarly said that she continues to stand with her friend.

“Trump weaponizing the Department of Justice to target members of Congress simply for doing their jobs is straight out of his corruption playbook,” she said in an online statement.

“It’s a brazen and unlawful abuse of power, and a direct attack on congressional oversight.”

Police allege Australian-Russian citizen joined Ukrainian military seeking to send information to Russian intelligence.

Australian police have charged a dual Russian-Australian citizen for trying to pass Ukrainian military information to people he believed were linked to Russian intelligence.

The 27-year-old man was due ⁠to appear in court in Brisbane on Friday on charges of foreign interference.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told a news conference that the suspect travelled to Russia for training in October 2024. He then returned to Australia but “maintained contact” with individuals he believed were linked to Moscow’s intelligence services.

The police allege the man enlisted in the Ukrainian military in May 2025, ‌where he “gained access to information relating to their military personnel, units and locations”.

Barrett said he shared the information obtained in Ukraine with “individuals he believed were acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services”, putting the safety of Ukrainian military staff at risk.

“We don’t want Australia to become a safe haven for people who are undertaking foreign interference on behalf of other countries,” the commissioner said.

The identity of the suspect, who is unemployed, has not been revealed. Police said there was no indication he had received military training in Australia. Search warrants have been executed, they added, noting the possibility of further arrests related to the case.

Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation spy agency conducted the investigation.

“This case should put regimes perpetrating foreign interference on notice: we have zero tolerance,” ASIO Deputy Director-General Claire McGuinness said.

Russia’s embassy in Australia said it had no knowledge of the case.

“At this stage, no official requests or notifications have been received by the Embassy or the Consulate General in Sydney, either from the Australian authorities or from the individual concerned,” the embassy said in an email to the AFP news agency. “We are currently using the available channels and resources to establish the circumstances of the case.”

Russia arrests Ukrainian operatives

Meanwhile, Russian authorities have arrested nine people and charged them with working for Ukrainian intelligence, state media reported on Friday.

The TASS media agency said eight of the suspects were found to have 35 drones, equipped with explosives smuggled from the European Union, and planned ‌to attack a strategic defence enterprise in the Moscow region.

Separately, a foreign ⁠national was detained close to the Norwegian border. The FSB security service said that the man – whose nationality it did not reveal – had been arrested for trying to launch a surveillance drone over Moscow to help Ukrainian intelligence plot an attack on the Russian capital.

The FSB said it had detained the individual as he was trying to flee to Norway on foot.

Activist group says the ‘twisted’ Hong Kong judicial system had long ago decided that the pair were guilty.

A Hong Kong court has found two pro-democracy activists guilty on national security charges in a trial widely viewed as exemplifying the erosion of freedom of expression in the Chinese city.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were found guilty of “incitement to subversion” for their role in organising candlelit vigils to mark Beijing’s deadly 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, in a Hong Kong court on Friday. The two had pleaded not guilty and were charged in 2021.

The pair could face up to 10 years in jail. Sentencing is expected at a later date.

Prosecutors argued that the pair “endanger[ed] national security in the name of human rights”.

Chow, a human rights barrister who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

Friday’s verdict was “no surprise”, said Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.

Hong Kong’s “twisted” judicial system had already decided the pair were guilty in 2021, he said. He described Lee and Chow as “true Chinese patriots” who were silenced because they “spoke truth to power” and “held up a mirror to the Chinese Communist Party”.

Hong Kong’s crackdown

For three decades, the candlelight vigil organised by the alliance was the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown, drawing tens of thousands of people annually to mourn the victims in China. The event was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong to quell the 2019 massive antigovernment protests.

The alliance’s leaders have been behind bars since they were charged.

Chow and Lee “exposed the Chinese government’s fears of the memory of its own atrocities”, Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, urging governments around the world to hold Beijing to account for erasing Hong Kong’s freedoms.

Earlier this year, Jimmy Lai, 78, a media mogul and high-profile rights campaigner in Hong Kong, was found guilty on national security charges and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

Led ‘like a dog on a lead’

In a personal blog published in the days leading up to the verdict, Chow detailed her treatment by correctional services, in which she described being led “like a dog on a lead”, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles.

She described a new method of restraint, with specialised handcuffs, as the source of significant pain during her long detention: “One can only ‘choose’ which part of the body shall suffer in turn” due to the bodily contortions forced by the restraints she has been held in.

Chow is one of the few high-profile political prisoners detained in Hong Kong to continue to speak out publicly against the authorities.

In June 1989, China’s government sent tanks and soldiers to crush a pro-democracy movement that had installed itself in Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed by soldiers, and many were injured. Beijing has since sought to censor mention of the incident in China.

A Los Angeles police officer who faced multiple felonies for recording his colleagues making racist, sexist and homophobic comments will now likely avoid jail time under a new agreement with prosecutors, Los Angeles County’s district attorney said Wednesday.

Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman announced he would reduce 16 felony eavesdropping counts against Officer Daniel Flores to misdemeanors, and that the case would likely resolve in court through a diversion agreement.

The announcement came after Hochman faced backlash for the decision to prosecute Flores, with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and even some of his own prosecutors criticizing the filing as “insane” and a deterrent for police looking to expose corruption and misconduct within their ranks.

The district attorney acknowledged the public reaction to the case as he spoke downtown Wednesday morning, and said he wanted to make “crystal clear” his intentions were to blunt illegal investigative practices by police, rather than discourage cops who want to report bad behavior.

“The message was not being clearly interpreted about us being protective of whistleblowers,” he said.

Flores’ attorney, ex-L.A. County prosecutor Alan Jackson, said he expected to request a diversion agreement for Flores in a downtown courtroom on Thursday.

“Following this disposition, 16 felonies will be dismissed with no plea, no punishment, and no record, because Daniel Flores told the troubling truth about what he heard inside his own department. As the investigators themselves concluded, there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in this open-plan LAPD office,” he said. “That isn’t eavesdropping, it’s being a witness. Mr. Flores has committed no crime.”

If a judge accepts a diversion agreement, Flores would have to satisfy certain terms and conditions for about a year. If he does so, the case would be dismissed.

An LAPD spokesman referred all questions to the district attorney’s office. While misdemeanor prosecutions in Los Angeles are normally handled by the city attorney’s office, the D.A. can keep possession of the case because it was initially filed as a felony, according to a district attorney’s office spokesman.

Flores made more than 100 recordings of his colleagues in the Los Angeles Police Department’s recruitment division last year,capturing other officers making an array of racist, homophobic and sexist remarks. Comments included a joke about a legendary L.A. Dodgers pitcher who was Latino dying because he “ate too many tacos,” and referring to stereotypes about Black people enjoying eating watermelon and playing basketball. One officer was recorded calling a young LAPD recruit “rapeable,” according to court records.

If convicted of the original charges, Flores could have faced up to 13 years in prison.

California is a “two-party consent” state, meaning it is a crime for someone to record a conversation without the permission of other participants, unless there is a court order granting authority to do so. Flores’ attorneys have argued that his actions were allowed under the California Invasion of Privacy Act because he was acting in the course of his duties as a police officer.

Flores lodged a complaint with the LAPD’s inspector general’s office and has said he hoped the officers he taped making inappropriate remarks would face discipline.

The decision to charge Flores drew relentless criticism from a number of groups. Bass said she worried about the potential chilling effect on other police whistleblowers.

Last week, City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez introduced a resolution condemning Hochman for bringing “felony charges against a City employee who reported workplace discrimination through official channels” and urging him to drop the charges.

Hochman told reporters that his office assessed the case with the same rigor as it would any other. In bringing the charges, he said he wanted to thread the needle between punishing the illegal recording and not dissuading whistleblowers from coming forward.

He suggested that he could have technically charged Flores with 122 felony counts, one for each recording that he made. Hochman also reiterated Wednesday that he felt it was important to file the case at a time when new products like Meta Glasses make it even easier to surreptitiously record people.

“If you go ahead and illegally eavesdrop in our community, you will face criminal prosecution for doing it, so don’t take out your cellphones and or your smart glasses or anything else,” he said, while encouraging whistleblowers to work with the D.A.’s office to gather evidence in the future.

Flores had pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in a downtown courtroom last week, with a team of high-powered lawyers in tow. His next court date was set for Sept. 9.

The second-guessing of Hochman’s decision ramped up earlier this month after the D.A., in an unusual move, filed a 27-page motion asking for a lengthy preliminary hearing in the case. The filing alleged Flores deceptively edited the recordings to hide his own insensitive remarks and suggested he was motivated by a desire to win a large legal settlement in court.

Hochman’s motion referred to the officers’ remarks as “locker room talk” — a characterization that was seized on by Flores’ legal team.

Jackson, a former L.A. County prosecutor, accused Hochman of contradicting himself, questioning the D.A.’s efforts to justify the officers’ coarse language.

Several county prosecutors, who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, called Hochman’s decision to file his own motion in the case bizarre and unprecedented. While they privately lauded him for backing down on Wednesday, some said Hochman’s turn from zealously defending the filing to public capitulation in the span of two weeks was embarrassing for the office.

“From charging to doubling down to reducing to misdemeanors, this just makes it worse,” one prosecutor said. “The filing was inappropriate but then to bend to public pressure isn’t appropriate either.”

The motion, Jackson noted, relied heavily on the observations of the officers against whom Flores had leveled claims — and who were under internal investigation by the LAPD.

Flores filed a lawsuit in June accusing the LAPD of retaliating against him after he reported misconduct.

When reached for comment on Flores’ lawsuit, a spokesperson for the LAPD’s inspector general’s office said it was barred by state law from disclosing information about individual cases, but added that its practice is to refer all “complaints of employee misconduct” to Internal Affairs.

Everyone in the Premier League wants clarity and a speedy resolution in the case against Manchester City which features more than 100 alleged breaches of its financial rules, says Arsenal chief executive Richard Garlick.

An independent commission is yet to publish a ruling, more than a year and a half after a disciplinary hearing concluded, and three and a half years since City were first charged.

City have always denied wrongdoing.

When asked if the length of time the process was taking was frustrating Arsenal, Garlick told BBC Sport: “It has gone on for a while.

“Everybody – the league and the teams – would want the clarity around what’s going to happen next.

“But it’s not something that I can control. It’s not something that I can speculate on.

“And I just hope that there is a solution very quickly.”

Garlick’s comments come on the eve of the new season and after Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said: “I do accept it’s taking longer than expected, and I understand that people want to find out as soon as possible what’s going on, but I simply can’t provide that.”

Describing the case as “hugely complex”, Masters added: “Our rules are very clear – we have to follow the process, and there’s only one real clear route through, which is to allow that process to reach its natural conclusion.”

Privately, officials at a host of other Premier League clubs BBC Sport has spoken to in the past 24 hours have also expressed their frustrations, while acknowledging that this is an independent process which is running on its own timetable.

One said the Premier League should be “actively seeking to put in place a better system” to ensure speedier resolutions.

Another made the point that given that the league spent £45m on legal bills during the 2023–24 season on disputes over its financial regulations, there are mounting concerns at the spiralling costs of such a long legal fight.

Aug. 19 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man from the Bronx with hate crime offenses alleging he assaulted a security guard and a congregant in a racially motivated attack at a Manhattan synagogue last week.

Larry Montes was arrested following the alleged attack at Central Synagogue on Friday and was charged by New York State.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department charged him with two counts of committing hate crimes, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury, which carries a maximum 20 years’ imprisonment.

“These charges serve as notice that the Department of Justice will intervene to protect the public in the face of antisemitic and racially motivated attacks,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

According to the complaint, Montes was allegedly among some 375 people who attended Shabbat service Friday night at the synagogue. During the service, he is alleged to have stood up and begun shouting and then struck two ceremonial silver candlesticks, which were damaged.

As a security guard attempted to remove Montes from the building, Montes allegedly uttered profanities about those in attendance and allegedly punched a woman.

After being handcuffed, he allegedly looked at a Black security guard cursed and called him a racial slur, before spitting on and head-butting the security guard.

During an interview with law enforcement, Montes allegedly issued antisemitic statements.

As of the end of July, there were 360 hate crime incidents committed in New York City, 205 of which were motivated by anti-Jewish bias, according to the city statistics.

Aug. 13 (UPI) — The Trump administration has filed fraud-related charges against a former Southern Poverty Law Center official who testified during the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation, as its crack down on the anti-hate group and President Donald Trump‘s perceived opponents.

The Justice Department originally charged SPLC in an 11-count indictment in April, alleging that the frequent target of right-wing criticism had defrauded donors by using their money to pay informants within hate groups they were monitoring. The Trump administration has framed the payments as paying the hate groups it was supposed to monitor, such as the KKK. SPLC vehemently denies the allegations.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors unveiled a superseding indictment against Heidi Beirich, 59, a political extremism expert and former SPLC chief financial officer, and the SPLC, charing them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank.

Beirich, of Palm Springs, Calif., was arrested Wednesday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

“The indictment unsealed today reflects the continued work of federal investigators and prosecutors in examining this alleged scheme,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Govan said in a statement.

“We look forward to presenting the evidence in court and allowing the judicial process to determine the facts and the defendants’ responsibility for the alleged crimes.”

The SPLC has long faced criticism from some Republicans and conservatives, who say the prominent anti-hate group has drifted from its mission of fighting extremism and White supremacy by labeling several right-wing organizations as hate groups.

Pressure from the White House has mounted on the group since Trump returned to the helm of the government. The Trump administration has brought a number of federal and civil prosecutions against the president’s perceived opponents, attracting criticism from judicial and civil rights advocates as well as Democrats who accuse it of weaponizing the Justice Department.

As an expert in far-right extremist political violence, Beirich, in her role as co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, testified before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt by Trump supporters, stating that there was substantial political and personal overlap between the Proud Boys and Trump’s movement.

In October, FBI Director Kash Patel severed ties with the SPLC, saying it had “long abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine.”

The April indictment alleges that between 2014 and 2023, SPLC paid some $3 million in donated funds to members of violent extremist groups. In the superseding indictment unveiled Wednesday, the Justice Department no contends that it paid more than $4 million between 2007 and 2023.

During an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer of the president, said Beirich is believed to have been part of an effort “to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names to make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described.”

Michael Proctor, Beirich’s attorney, accused the Trump administration of using the justice system to silence its political opponents.

“Heidi Beirich has dedicated her life to fighting hate groups and extremist movements like the KKK, neo-Nazis and other White supremacists,” Proctor said in a statement, NBC News reported.

“She has combatted these hateful, ugly and un-American extremists and their repeated uses of violence and intimidation in order to promote a fairer, safer and more just America. Her decades-long record of success dismantling hate groups — and the resulting threats to her life — speak volumes. For this, she has been indicted.”

Aug. 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that 11 people have been charged with in connection in a marriage fraud scheme that allegedly lasted more than a decade.

The department said in a release that those charged conspired to orchestrate more than 1,000 fraudulent marriages. These marriages allegedly were intended to obtain immigration status for foreign nationals, mostly citizens of China.

“The individuals who were arrested today allegedly orchestrated elaborate schemes to illegally obtain citizenship for foreign nationals through sham marriages,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Schemes like this are a deliberate affront to the United States and our laws and will not be tolerated under the Trump administration.”

The indictment was filed in the Southern District of New York. Some people paid up to $100,000 for a sham marriage to help them obtain a green card, with the U.S. citizens involved receiving as much as $30,000 from that fee, the Justice Department said.

At a press conference, Blanche said this marks one of the biggest marriage fraud prosecutions in U.S. history.

“This scheme was not a quick, fly-by-night operation, but rather a years-long, multimillion-dollar cottage industry to criminally assist people who would not, or legally could not, otherwise become citizens of the United States,” he said.

Those allegedly running the scheme include defendants Amy Cheng, Xiao Mei Chan, Gang Zheng and Xiao Yan Chan. Others charged include “recruiters” who allegedly found U.S. citizens to take part and “officiators” who presided over the marriage ceremonies.

The Justice Department said organizers allegedly paired foreign nationals with U.S. citizens, arranging fake marriage ceremonies and staging photographs meant to make the wedding look authentic. Scheme participants also allegedly manufactured further evidence, including joint financial accounts and insurance policies.

Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at the press conference that the scheme generated “tens of millions of dollars.”

NICK Reiner has been indicted in the deaths of his parents after they were found fatally stabbed in their family home in December.

Nick, 32, previously pleaded not guilty to the murders of his film director dad Rob Reiner and his mother Michele, but a newly unsealed indictment reveals an additional allegation.

Rob and Michele were found with their throats slashed on December 14 inside of their Los Angeles home.

Nick, the couple’s youngest son, was indicted by a grand jury on the updated murder charges, replacing the initial charges filed against him in 2025.

He has since pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with special circumstances allegations of lying in wait and personally using a knife, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The indictment was returned on July 20 and unsealed on Wednesday after Nick entered his plea.

NO PICNIC

Inside Nick Reiner’s horrid jail conditions from ‘repulsive meals’ to ‘solitude’

The new lying in wait allegation carries the possibility of a life sentence without parole or the death penalty.

The indictment allows prosecutors to speed up the process for Nick’s case to go to trial, avoid a preliminary hearing and avoid witnesses testifying about the circumstances and Nick’s history.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman.

“We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

Rob and Michele attended a holiday party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien with Nick on December 13, and later got into a heated argument with their son.

Their daughter Romy found them dead inside their home on December 14 around 3:30pm PST.

Nick, who has a history of substance abuse and mental illness, was arrested later that night and has since been held inside the Twin Towers jail in California.

His arraignment in January was postponed after his star lawyer Alan Jackson, who represented Karen Read, withdrew from the case abruptly, saying he had “no choice” but to leave.

Nick is scheduled to appear in court on September 15.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty in his case.

A family friend told The U.S. Sun that Nick’s siblings Jake and Romy want him to avoid the death penalty.

“Rob & Michele’s family, despite everything, do not want Nick to get the death penalty, as they insist this horrific incident was the byproduct of a mental health crisis,” the insider said.

Jake released a lengthy Substack post in April titled “Mom and Dad,” where he revealed the moment he learned of his parents’ deaths.

“It was at that moment I received a call from my sister Romy telling me our father was dead,” the 34-year-old wrote.

“Minutes later, she called back telling me our mother was also dead.”

Jake took an “unendurable” 45-minute Lyft ride to his parents’ home, writing in his Substack post, “My world, as I knew it, had collapsed.”

Timeline of Rob and Michele Reiner’s death

Rob Reiner and his wife of Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025.

Timeline:

• December 13, 2025: Reiner and his wife Michele attended a holiday party on the evening of December 13 with their son, Nick.
• Sources conveyed to The U.S. Sun that the couple and their son were engaged in a heated public argument while at the event.
• December 14, 2025: Reiner and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood home in Los Angeles at around 3:30 pm PST.
• The couple’s daughter, Romy, reportedly discovered her parents’ bodies.
• Online police records show Reiner and Michele’s 32-year-old son, Nick, was arrested at 9:15 pm PST on December 14.
• December 15, 2025: Authorities in Los Angeles announce that Nick Reiner was arrested and charged with murder.
• Nick was booked into a Los Angeles jail at 5:04 am and was being held on $4 million bail, which was later revoked.
• December 16, 2025: Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman formally charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder.
• Hochman said his office would consider the death penalty in Nick’s case.
• Nick’s scheduled court appearance on December 16 was postponed due to what his attorney said was a procedural issue.
• December 17, 2025: Nick Reiner briefly appeared in court. A plea was not entered.
• December 23, 2025: The death certificates of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner disclosed that the couple died of multiple sharp force injuries caused with “a knife, by another.”

Jake did not name Nick in his writing, referring to him only as his “brother.”

“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” Jake said.

“Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it.”

Rob was a famous Hollywood filmmaker, known for directing films like The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally.

He famously rewrote the ending of When Harry Met Sally after meeting his wife.

Nick and Rob worked together to create the film Being Charlie in 2015, with characters that thinly resembled versions of the father and son.

The film explored how drugs could harm a relationship between a successful actor and his son.

Jake remembered his mother as “the engine, the backbone, and the heart of our entire family,” in his Substack post.

“My dad is my hero. I love how he would analyze my dreams or how I felt I could come talk to him about anything. No subject was ever off-limits,” Jake said of his father.

“He was authentic, passionate, and his sense of humor has always been my sense of humor.”

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has charged nearly a dozen people with participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to help hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens, officials said Wednesday.

American citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter into bogus marriages with immigrants seeking lawful permanent resident status as part of the scheme orchestrated from New York, according to court papers. The defendants charged up to $100,000 per green card, bringing in tens of millions of dollars over the course of the decadelong scheme, according to officials.

Authorities say they believe the group arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings, describing it as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in U.S. history.

“This scheme was not a quick, fly-by-night operation but rather a yearslong, multibillion dollar cottage industry to criminally assist people who would not, or legally could not, otherwise become citizens of the United States,” Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche told reporters.

The charges come against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration that have sought to crack down on who is able to enter the country or become a citizen.

After recruiting U.S. citizens, the defendants would arrange fake weddings and in some cases stage photos of families at places such as restaurants afterward to make them look legitimate, according to officials. The defendants would then help the immigrants through the lawful permanent status application process.

“These schemes have real cost. They rob our country of its ability to know who should be and who should not be allowed in America,” Blanche said.

The 11 defendants, including people accused of officiating the sham weddings, are charged in an indictment filed in New York. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether they had lawyers to speak on their behalf.

Richer writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 11 (UPI) — A federal judge has approved the Trump administration’s request to dismiss criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani while chastising the Justice Department for its reasoning and methods for abandoning the high-profile case.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed with prejudice three fraud-related charges against Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, while reserving judgement on two conspiracy charges against five other defendants, asking the Justice Department for more information before deciding their dismissals.

The Justice Department charged Gautam Adani and the seven other defendants, all current or former executives of Adani Group or its subsidiary Adani Green Energy, in November 2024, alleging various defendants participated in schemes to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure lucrative solar energy contracts, lied to U.S. and international investors to raise billions of dollars in financing and impede the investigations of three U.S. government entities.

The three alleged schemes were conducted between 2020 and 2024, according to the indictment.

In May, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter requested that the charges be dismissed, stating “the Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.”

In response to Garaufis’ demand that the Justice Department explain its motion to dismiss, McCotter said that the case is predominantly foreign, India has investigated the allegations and found no actionable misconduct, investors lost no money, there would be “extraordinary proof problems,” the defendants would likely never appear before U.S. courts and the indictment was unsealed during the final days of the Biden administration in order to drop “a potential quagmire of a case into the lap” of the incoming Trump administration.

In his Monday order, Garaufis called the “irregularities” in McCotter’s decision to dismiss the indictment “concerning” and said the principal associate deputy attorney general “appears to have eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment.”

He said McCotter’s decision, reached largely in collaboration with Adani’s defense counsel and seemingly without input from those who investigated and brought the case, “evinces a lack of respect for the judiciary.”

Garaufis also strongly rebuked McCotter for alleging the Biden administration’s Justice Department unsealed the indictment during its final days to hinder the incoming Trump administration, stating he appears to be accusing officials from four different government agencies without providing “a scintilla of evidence” to show that the unsealing of the indictment was politically motivated.

“McCotter’s baseless assertion is unbecoming of his office. It is also inconsistent with this court’s experience,” Garaufis said.

“The court has presided over innumerable cases brought by the SEC, the FBI, the department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office over the last 26 years (and counting) and does not agree with McCotter’s characterization of their integrity and motives.”

His order also recounts several events involving Gautam Adani and President Donald Trump or his inner circle as he was being investigated and prosecuted, including congratulating Trump on Nov. 6, 2024, on winning re-election and announcing a commitment to invest $10 billion in the United States days later. The order also cites reporting that Gautam Adani and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., held meetings as early as November 2025.

In a social media statement on Monday, Gautam Adani said he welcomed the court’s decision “with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”

“Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering,” he said.

“We will continue doing what matters: building our nation, creating value that outlasts us and serving a purpose larger than ourselves. That is our commitment.”

Aug. 10 (UPI) — Authorities in Colorado on Monday announced the arrest of Tyler Boebert, the 21-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert, on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and other offenses.

The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office announced Tyler Boebert’s arrest in a statement, saying he was taken into police custody Sunday following an investigation and a felony review process by the 9th Judicial Distric Attorney’s Office.

Tyler Boebert faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, The Denver Gazette reported.

Bond was set at $10,000. Tyler Boebert was bonded out of the Garfield County Jail the day of his arrest, authorities said.

According to the affidavit, the charges stem from a sexually explicit video made in early 2024 allegedly of Tyler Boebert, then 18, and a a 17-year-old girl, The Gazette reported.

He is accused of producing, possessing and distributing sexually exploitative material, Colorado Public Radio reported.

The document states the investigation began following a report about an Instagram account that posted videos of teens ranging from 14 to 18 engaging in sexual activity, CPR reported, adding that one of the videos was allegedly of Tyler and the 17-year-old girl.

“I love my son,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a statement to media on Monday.

“We take allegations very seriously and pray for everyone affected during this challenging time.”

This is at least the third time Tyler Boebert has been arrested.

In July 2025, he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor child abuse in connection with an incident involving his son. He entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced next month, CPR reported.

In February 2024, he was arrested on multiple felony charges on accusations of stealing money with the use of credit and bank cards stolen from vehicles in Colorado. He pleaded guilty and received a deferred sentence plus community service and probation. CPR reported that a complaint for revocation of probation was filed in the case last year, and a sentencing hearing was also scheduled for September.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is seeking to have a federal indictment against him in Minnesota, arguing that he is being illegally targeted for vindictive prosecution.

According to Lemon’s attorneys, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anger towards the journalist “is well documented, stretching back over a decade.”

The attorneys argued in court filings that Lemon was charged by the U.S. Justice Department “as punishment for his First Amended protected reporting on protests related to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.”

Lemon is one of several journalists facing charges — along with a number of protestors — for violating the FACE Act, which bars interfering or intimidating people as they exercise their constitutional rights to practice religion. He has pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors have alleged Lemon and another independent reporter took part in a “takeover-style attack” of Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon live-streamed anti-ICE protestors entering the charge on Jan. 18. He said during his live-stream as well as afterwards that he entered the church to report on the protest.

In the court filing, Lemon’s lawyers cited public remarks by Trump, as well as current and former Justice Department officials, that were aimed at Lemon ahead of his indictment in late January.

The Justice Department first tried to file a criminal complaint against Lemon, but a magistrate judge ruled against it, citing a lack of probable cause.

The Justice Department then sought intervention from the chief judge and the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals but was rejected. Prosecutors then secured an indictment from a grand jury. Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 to cover the Grammy Awards. He has said he sought to turn himself in but never heard back from the Justice Department.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” in moving to drop charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Speaking at an unrelated Oval Office event, Trump ducked questions about whether he’d fire Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime ally he handpicked as top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital.

But the president kept up his drumbeat of sharp criticism, saying he remained disappointed by her assessment that damage to the Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction, not vandalism.

“Frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question after he signed an executive order for military spouses. “I don’t know what the hell happened.”

The move to dismiss charges against David Hearn was an embarrassing setback for the Justice Department and marked a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.

After initially posting on social media over the weekend, “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” Trump was still fuming two days later, insisting for several minutes that vandalism had marred the troubled project.

“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed,” the president said Monday. “She folded like an umbrella.”

Pirro has not commented publicly since Trump’s initial social media post criticizing her.

Hearn has said he was on a bike ride June 19 when he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool. But he said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

The president also used the opportunity Monday to distance himself from the troubled project, which he had touted as part of his overarching efforts to spruce up the nation’s capital.

Trump said in April that he had consulted with a trio of firms that had worked on swimming pools at his properties and that the one he picked for the Reflecting Pool project had done work at his golf course in Northern Virginia. That firm was Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof its concrete floor.

“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools,” Trump said then. “He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it.’”

But Trump insisted Monday that “I didn’t know the contractor” and for the first time hinted that he wasn’t pleased by the work that was done to get the Reflecting Pool ready in time for Independence Day celebrations.

“I’m not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th,” he said.

Crews drained the Reflecting Pool weeks ago to launch a new round of repairs. The White House hasn’t said when those might be finished or how much more they will cost, but the Trump administration did not seek new bids from other companies on the new round of repair work.

Trump also said Monday that the Reflecting Pool would be “fixed” and reopened in the next week and a half to two weeks — without providing further details.

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has called out District Attorney Jeanine Pirro after her office moved to dismiss charges against an Olympic canoeist for vandalism.

Prosecutors on Friday made the motion to dismiss charges against David Hearn, 67, and admitted that the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.” Hearn was indicted in early July for purposely ripping up a piece of the blue sealant from the bottom of the pool.

The filing in D.C Superior Court lists documents and evidence showing the contracting work was rushed to finish in time for the America 250 celebrations and was not done properly.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday. “I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

Soon after, he posted again, saying, “Look for yourselves at the VANDALISM that took place at The Reflecting Pool. The material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!”

United States President Donald Trump has criticised his own Department of Justice after it decided to drop criminal charges against a former Olympic athlete for the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.

Trump voiced his opposition to the decision on Saturday, a day after US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced she was dismissing the charges against 67-year-old competitive canoeist David Hearn.

Pirro said the damage was the result of “a botched installation and not vandalism”, contradicting both her own previous statements and claims made following Hearn’s June 19 arrest.

On Saturday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social page that he disagreed “100 percent” with Pirro, although he did not directly reference Hearn. Instead, he maintained that vandalism had been committed at the Reflecting Pool.

“To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” Trump wrote. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

He followed his statement by posting a video showing an individual, though not Hearn, sticking a hand into the Reflecting Pool.

He also shared a photo of the numbers “86 47” etched into the lawn of the nearby National Mall, which has been interpreted as a call to “86” — or “nix” — the 47th president by removing him from his office.

There is no evidence that the numbers on the lawn are related to the Reflecting Pool, which has become a major political flashpoint for Trump.

Through a series of controversial renovation projects, Trump has sought to physically transform Washington, DC, including by resurfacing the pool.

He initially used the pool’s condition and previous renovation projects to criticise past presidents.

But his own attempt to fix the Reflecting Pool instantly attracted scrutiny, particularly after Trump hand-picked a company he had previously used in a private capacity.

It had never before received a government contract, and the multimillion-dollar deal was awarded without a competitive bidding process, as is standard.

Upon the renovation’s completion, problems soon emerged. The Reflecting Pool’s new lining quickly appeared to peel, and algae blooms sprouted in early June.

Trump repeatedly blamed the situation on “vandals”. The announcement of at least seven arrests connected to the pool sparked accusations of political scapegoating.

Hearn, who represented the US three times at the Olympics, emerged as the most high-profile case.

The athlete said he was bicycling past the Reflecting Pool when he stopped, reached in and felt the peeling sealant. He has denied committing any vandalism, with his lawyers calling his arrest an attempt to distract from the shoddy renovation work.

Pirro, a former Fox News host and Trump loyalist, had initially accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping the pool’s liner, decrying his actions as “an affront to the dignity of our shared history”.

In their court filings, federal prosecutors alleged that the damage Hearn caused exceeded $1,000, justifying federal charges.

They further claimed that all of the damage done to the Reflecting Pool had been caused by vandals.

Pirro struck a far different tone in her filing on Friday. She claimed she had received new information, leading her to dramatically pivot.

“It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the [Department of Interior] provided additional documents to the [US Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC] indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor,” Pirro wrote.

The Department of the Interior’s documents, she continued, showed “that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism”.

Pirro further blamed the damage on pressure to finish the project by July 4, a date that coincides with US Independence Day and the country’s 250th anniversary.

“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” Pirro wrote.

The US Department of Justice has moved to dismiss its case against Olympian David Hearn over damage to the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. The DOJ says new evidence points to flawed installation by the contractor, not vandalism.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has moved to drop a criminal charge against former Olympic athlete David Hearn, in a remarkable about-face.

In a motion filed on Friday afternoon, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro acknowledged that the accusations levelled against Hearn — blaming him for vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — did not appear to be substantiated.

“The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism, as initially represented by [the Department of the Interior],” Pirro wrote.

Earlier this month, the prosecutor had accused Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, of “forcefully and violently” ripping the newly installed liner of the Reflecting Pool, part of a renovation project Trump had championed.

She described his actions as “an affront to the dignity of our shared history” and warned that Hearn could face up to 10 years in prison for the destruction of government property.

But in Friday’s court filings, a different narrative emerged.

Pirro repeatedly emphasised she did not receive the new information until after the criminal indictment against Hearn had been returned. She blamed, in part, the “barebones police reports” her office had received.

“It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the [US Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC] indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor,” Pirro wrote.

She added that the pressure to finish the Reflecting Pool renovation project before the Independence Day holiday — marking the 250th anniversary of the US — contributed to the renovation’s failure. Trump had planned several events for the occasion.

“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” Pirro explained, citing delayed installation work, inclement weather and repeated testing failures.

Reshaping Washington, DC

The Reflecting Pool project is one of several changes to the landscape of Washington, DC, that Trump has pursued during his second term in office.

In seeking to leave his mark on the US capital, the Republican leader has torn down the East Wing of the White House, gilded statues with a fresh coat of gold leaf, and proposed to build a large triumphal arch on the road to the Arlington National Cemetery.

Just this week, he unveiled a $22.5bn project to revamp the Dulles international airport, the main air terminal for the capital region.

Several of his public works projects have been challenged in court, including an attempt to affix his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The Reflecting Pool renovation was among Trump’s most controversial.

The 618-metre (2,028-foot) pool has served as the backdrop for many iconic moments in US history, including the 1963 March on Washington, when civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

It sits between the Washington Monument, a large obelisk, and the Lincoln Memorial, two popular tourist sites mere blocks from the White House. But the pool had long struggled with leaks along its granite edge and concrete bottom.

In April, Trump abruptly announced he would address the problem by resurfacing the Reflecting Pool’s bottom with swimming pool coating in a shade of “American Flag Blue”.

The project, he added, would be finished “long before July 4” and at relatively little cost to the government.

By early June, Trump had announced the project was complete. But within days, a thick layer of green algae appeared on the surface of the pool, and the blue coating appeared cracked, with sheets of paint flapping in the water.

The project also attracted criticism for how the government contract for the renovations was awarded.

The Trump administration granted a $13.1m contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company he claimed to have worked with as a real estate developer, led by one of his donors. The deal was struck without taking competitive bids, as is standard, on the basis that the renovation was necessary immediately.

Within two days of the site’s final inspection, on June 11, a National Park Service engineer observed that the Reflecting Pool’s new lining had begun to peel, according to Pirro.

Citing the engineer’s report, Pirro wrote that the damage to the pool appeared to have been caused by “over spraying and delamination”.

Accusations of vandalism

But Trump had aggressively pushed accusations that the algae and tears in the Reflecting Pool’s new bottom had been the result of vandalism.

“We caught some people vandalising our beautiful Reflecting Pool,” Trump said at a news conference in June. “They took a cutter, a box cutter, or something very sharp. Can you imagine? Where do these people come up with this? And they threw a little fertiliser in the water.”

Separately, he suggested those responsible should face “years in jail” for their alleged crimes.

Hearn, a three-time Olympian representing the US, has said he was among the members of the public drawn to the hullabaloo surrounding the Reflecting Pool’s controversial renovation.

In media interviews, he admitted he bicycled past the pool, reached in and felt the peeling sealant, out of curiosity. He has adamantly denied, however, damaging any property.

Hearn was among at least seven people arrested or cited over alleged damage to the Reflecting Pool. His indictment was announced at a news conference held by Pirro on July 2.

Friday’s motion to dismiss arrived just four weeks later. In it, Pirro acknowledged the peeling was not caused by vandalism.

She wrote that the revelation came around July 17, when her office inspected the Reflecting Pool site, which had once again been drained for repairs.

“It was at that time that [the US Attorney’s Office] first became aware of the significant damage throughout the pool and accordingly requested all documents from [the Department of the Interior] concerning how the pool was lined,” Pirro said.

Her office received “695 megabytes of additional documents” in return, revealing “a rushed and flawed installation process”.

Since indicting Hearn, Pirro’s office has faced questions about whether it was pursuing justice — or simply doing Trump’s political bidding, as he seeks to save face after the botched renovation.

The withdrawn indictment also comes as courts have repeatedly pressed the Department of Justice about prosecutions that appear to be hastily submitted and lacking in evidence.

“ Did you ultimately decide to charge this so harshly at the president’s direction?” one reporter asked Pirro at the outset of Hearn’s case.

“I didn’t charge anything harshly. I charge according to the evidence,” she replied at the time.

In a statement, Hearn’s legal team called the case an “abuse of government power”. They added that the Trump administration owes their client an apology.

July 30 (UPI) — A federal jury has convicted the New Jersey man who attempted to murder writer Salman Rushdie on additional terrorism-related charges, including attempting to provide material support to the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

Hadi Matar of Fairview, N.J., was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a state court in May 2025 for trying to kill Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022.

Matar rushed the stage and stabbed the India-born writer at New York’s Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, N.Y., before being subdued by audience members and taken into police custody. Rushdie lost vision in his right eye and suffered nerve damage as a result of the attack.

A federal jury in the Western District of New York on Wednesday convicted Matar on charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and providing material support to terrorists. Matar faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the most serious charge when sentenced on Nov. 3.

“Hadi Matar, who was born and raised in the United States, chose to align his values with the terroristic values of the leaders of Iran, which often promote violence, and in this case, the call for murder,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York Michael DiGiacomo said in a statement.

“The defendant spent months planning and preparing to carry out what he hoped would be the execution of Salman Rushdie and possibly follow in the footsteps of martyrs he admired. Instead, his attempted act of terror failed, and Salman Rushdie survived, thanks to courageous members of the public and law enforcement, who saved Rushdie and captured Matar.”

The trial began July 22, and Rushdie, 79, testified.

DiGiacomo said Rushdie answered every question asked of him by the defense and prosecutors.

“It was very powerful,” DiGiacomo said.

“And at the end, at some point, Mr. Rushdie removed his glasses so the jury could see the extent of the injury to his eye that he no longer has vision it.”

Prosecutors said Matar was attempting to carry out the orders of Iran’s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who in 1989 called for Rushdie’s murder after the publication of his award-winning novel The Satanic Verses on the grounds that it was blasphemous to Islam.

The fatwa was reaffirmed in 2017 by Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, and endorsed by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah was killed Sept. 27, 2024, in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, while Khamenei was killed Feb. 28 in joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

Federal prosecutors said during the trial that Matar had spent more than a year researching the fatwa before deciding to try to kill Rushdie and discussed it with people in Iran, Australia and Canada.

According to the Justice Department, Matar had surrounded himself with Hezbollah symbols ahead of the attack and had traveled to the institution that day with a false driver’s license bearing the name Hassan Mughniyeh, with Hassan being Nasrallah’s first name and Mughniyeh being the surname of Hezbollah’s former external security organization head, Imad Mughniyeh.

DiGiacomo told reporters following the conviction that ahead of the attack, Matar traveled by bus from New Jersey to Buffalo, then traveled toward the Chautauqua Institution.

On the morning of the attack, Matar visited a website run by Hezbollah and took screenshots of Hezbollah operatives who had died that month.

“The evidence presented in the trial showed that this attack was not spontaneous. It was deliberate. It was research. It was planned. It was motivated by violent extremist ideology,” Alan Davis, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo field office, said during the press conference.

“For more than a year, the defendant researched a decades-old fatwa, communicated with individuals overseas about carrying it out and embraced the propaganda and symbols of Hezbollah before traveling to western New York to commit this violent act.”

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in the US after British authorities issued 38 new charges against the pair.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Andrew was being charged with seven further counts of rape, as well as charges relating to sex trafficking and indecent images of a child.

Tristan’s charges include two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The total number of charges against the brothers is now 59, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police said.

The alleged offending is said to have taken place between July 2010 and August 2017. The Tates have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Following their arrest, prosecutors will begin legal proceeding to extradite the brothers, who are dual British-US citizens, to the UK, the CPS said.

“These charging decisions followed receipt of a further file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police and bring the total number of alleged victims in this case to seven,” Malcolm McHaffie, Head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS, said.

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police have been investigating a number of offences in what it called a “complex investigation”.

As a result, 38 new charges were authorised against the brothers, meaning Andrew, 39, faces a total of 42 charges in the UK and Tristan, 37, faces 17.

July 11 (UPI) — Top members of the far-right group Proud Boys had their convictions dismissed on Friday, ending the federal case against the men accused of leading the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a request by the Department of Justice to wipe out the seditious conspiracy charges against Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs.

President Trump pardoned more than 1,500 of the rioters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

But he had only commuted the sentence of the four Proud Boys leaders, leaving them out of jail but still convicted.

Trump’s DOJ in April asked a federal court to fully dismiss the charges against the four men.

Kelly, a Trump appointee, granted the request but added, “No one should mistake the court’s granting of the government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions.”

“In light of fundamental separation of powers principles … the proper course here is for the court simply to grant the motion in full,” Kelly said, according to Politico.

The attack on the Capitol resulted in injuries to more than 140 police officers and caused $3 million in damage.

“As the court has said many times, the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a perilous event,” Kelly wrote in his decision, as reported by The Washington Post.

“It was an attack on people, including police officers, many of whom were injured,” he added. “It was an attack on a coordinate branch of government — Congress — that the founders saw fit to give a place of primacy in Article I of the Constitution. And it was an attack on the Constitution’s mechanism to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.”

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio saw the dismissal as vindication.

“We took the worst they threw at us — the raids, the solitary, the lies, and we stood tall,” he wrote on X after the ruling. “Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED!”

“Proud Boys don’t lose,” Tarrio added. “We WIN. This is OUR victory.”