Law and Crime

Dec. 19 (UPI) — House Democrats said they’re looking into legal options after U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department would release some but not all of the files related to its investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, missing a congressional deadline.

Blanche, in an appearance on Fox News Friday morning, said the department will release the remaining files “over the next couple of weeks,” citing the length of time it has taken for officials to go through each document and redact the names of victims.

“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today,” he said.

“There’s a lot of eyes looking at these, and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials that we’re producing, that we’re protecting every single victim.”

President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress in November. The law gave the Justice Department 30 days to make the records “publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democratic on the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the Justice Department was in violation of federal law by not releasing all documents Friday. In a statement, they accused the Trump administration of covering up facts about the case.

“Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this administration has broken the law,” they said in a joint statement.

“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”

Both chambers of Congress were nearly unanimous in supporting the bill — all but Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., voted in favor of it and five didn’t vote. The bill allowed for the Justice Department to redact the names of victims or information that would hinder active federal investigations. A summary of redactions, including the legal basis, must be provided to Congress.

Earlier in November, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released some documents, which included emails between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who helped Epstein sex traffic girls.

While at least one of the references is somewhat cryptic in its reference to Trump, others more openly appear to discuss what the president knew about Epstein’s scheme to bring women and underage girls to his private island for his friends to sexually abuse.

The committee released more documents Thursday evening, this time 68 photos from Epstein’s private island estate.

Among the high-profile people seen in photos with Epstein were Trump, Republican strategist Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and filmmaker Woody Allen. All have denied wrongdoing and none has been charged.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan prison while awaiting trial.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — A Paris court denied an effort by the French government to suspend the fashion website Shein from operating in the country after it was found to be selling “childlike” sex dolls.

The court called the three-month suspension “disproportionate,” but said the site must implement strong age-verification protocols to sell any “sexual products that could constitute pornographic content.” It said the fine for each breach would be $11,700.

The action was taken after the sex dolls and weapons were discovered by France’s consumer watchdog in November, causing an uproar in France.

Shein, based in Singapore, issued a statement on Nov. 4 saying it had removed the dolls and permanently banned “all seller accounts linked to illegal or non-compliant sex-doll products.”

The court noted that the company removed the items and that the issue was only for a small number of the hundreds of thousands of items on the site.

A Shein spokesperson told Euro News that the platform will not reopen in France right away. It’s doing an internal audit to find weaknesses in its marketplace operations.

Paris senator Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée of the conservative Les Républicains party told Euro News that “the issue with Shein or Temu goes far beyond these specific products. It is an entire business model that violates consumer rights, destroys our companies and jobs, and tramples on human rights, including environmental protection.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office has begun a criminal investigation and assigned it to France’s Office for the Protection of Minors. It includes other online retailers, including AliExpress, Temu, Wish and eBay.

The company opened its first-ever brick-and-mortar store in Paris on Nov. 5, soon after the controversy began. The store opened to chaos, as shoppers lined up to get in and protesters shouted at them, “Shame!”

The European Commission has requested information from Shein but hasn’t launched an investigation. It has begun investigating AliExpress and Temu.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — Attorneys for former special counsel Jack Smith again asked for a public hearing after he testified behind closed doors about his efforts to prosecute President Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee deposed Smith on Wednesday during a closed hearing that lasted for about nine hours, and his attorneys wrote committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Thursday to ask for a public hearing, CBS News reported.

“Mr. Smith welcomed this opportunity and hopes that it will serve to correct the many mischaracterizations about the work of the Special Counsel’s Office,” said Smith’s attorneys, Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer.

“During the investigation of President Trump, Mr. Smith steadfastly followed Justice Department policies, observed all legal requirements and took actions based on the facts and the law,” they wrote in their joint letter to Jordan.

“He stands by his decisions,” they said, adding that an open hearing would enable the public to hear Smith directly and not through third-party accounts, according to Politico.

Koski and Breuer also asked Jordan and the committee to release a full recording of Smith’s deposition, during which he said evidence showed Trump illegally mishandled classified documents and tried to overturn the 2020 election results.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Smith told the committee that he would charge Trump again based on the same evidence if given the chance to do so.

Jordan and other House Republicans accused Smith of “prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional abuses” while investigating Trump on behalf of the Biden administration.

They claim Smith tried to silence the president by manipulating evidence against him and raiding his Mar-A-Lago estate without cause after other federal prosecutors said there was no justification to do so, Axios reported.

Neither the classified documents case nor the alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results case reached the trial stage.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Friday released records from the Jeffrey Epstein case in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed into law last month by President Donald Trump.

The DOJ has made the files publicly available online on the Justice Department website’s section on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but the names of victims and other identifying information have been redacted. Congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation and it was signed by Trump on Nov. 19 with a 30-day deadline to release files.

“By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement shared with NBC News.

Friday’s files release gives the public access to hundreds of thousands of records, with more to be released over the next several weeks, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a letter to members of Congress, as reported by CBS News.

“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story to the extent it needs to be protected is completely protected,” Blanche added.

The DOJ had 187 attorneys review the documents ahead of their release and 25 more on a quality control team, he said.

“Protecting victims is of the highest priority for President Trump, the Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice,” Blanche said in the letter.

He also said Trump has said he wants full transparency on the matter and has supported the release of the Epstein case files for several years.

The president signed the supporting legislation in November to expedite the release of the Epstein case files.

The documents include information that was already made public, along with files that are “very likely to have never seen the light of day before,” CNN crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz said.

The records are in addition to the tens of thousands of files already released regarding the federal case against former financier Epstein.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have also released files and photos from Epstein’s estate.

On Aug. 10, 2019, Epstein hung himself while jailed in Manhattan and awaiting a federal trial that accused him of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

The release of hundreds of thousands of pages of the case files and other information will keep news outlets busy going through them well into the foreseeable future.

The released files include documents, telephone records, audio recordings and photographs, but many lack context that explains why they are included in the case files.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — A federal judge has stopped the Trump administration from changing the conditions for allocating $3.9 billion in federal funds to homeless support programs.

U.S. District Court of Rhode Island Judge Mary McElroy issued a preliminary injunction on Friday that stops officials with the Housing and Urban Development Department from significantly changing how the funding approved by Congress would be spent, NPR reported.

“Continuity of housing and stability for vulnerable populations is clearly in the public interest,” McElroy said while ordering HUD to abide by the prior funding requirements.

The ruling applies to HUD’s Continuum of Care program that provides funding for local non-profits and other organizations that help people who are homeless to learn about and access housing resources, according to Politico.

A group of 20 states, 11 local units and several nonprofits sued HUD after its leadership in November revoked prior funding notices and changed how the funds would be distributed.

The changes greatly reduce federal grants to permanent housing, which McElroy said likely go against the requirements set forth in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which mostly applies to educational opportunities for children.

HUD officials said the new policies are intended to “restore accountability” and support “self-sufficiency” by focusing on the causes of homelessness, including “illicit drugs and mental illness.”

HUD officials also said they increased the total amount available from $3.6 billion to $3/9 billion.

Opponents to the changes argue that they put 170,000 people at risk of losing their homes and the relatively sudden change in funding requirements makes it very hard for impacted programs to file new funding applications.

Complicating the matter is the 43-day federal government shutdown that started on Oct. 1 and ended on Nov. 12.

McElroy, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2019, said the plaintiffs are likely to win their case when she issued the preliminary injunction.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — Wisconsin’s Republican leaders will begin impeachment proceedings against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan if she does not resign after her felony obstruction conviction.

State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, both of whom are Republicans, issued the ultimatum in a joint statement, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Friday.

“Judge Hannah Dugan, while wearing judicial robes of the state of Wisconsin, attempted to impede the lawful work of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents,” Vos and August said.

“The last time a Wisconsin judge was impeached was in 1853,” they said. “If Judge Dugan does not resign from her office immediately, the Assembly will begin impeachment proceedings.”

A jury of 12 on Thursday found Dugan guilty of obstructing federal agents as they attempted to arrest a man who was scheduled to appear on an unrelated matter in her courtroom in April.

The jury found her guilty of one count of obstruction, which is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The jury acquitted her on one count of concealment.

Dugan’s legal team said they will appeal her felony conviction.

Vos cited the Wisconsin Constitution’s Article XII, Section 3(2), which says no individual who has been convicted of a felony is eligible to serve in “any office of trust” in the state, unless that person is pardoned according to WISN.

Federal prosecutors tried Dugan in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee after she interfered with ICE agents’ efforts to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz for illegally being in the United States on April 18.

Court records show Dugan engaged the ICE agents in the court’s hallway after she helped Flores-Ruiz and his attorney use an entrance for jurors to exit the courthouse.

ICE agents arrested Flores-Ruiz after chasing him on foot.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Congressional Democrats released 68 photos from the Jeffrey Epstein estate on Thursday, bringing the total number to more than 95,000 that have been turned over to the House Oversight Committee investigating names on a list of prominent people who were associated with the now deceased sex offender.

Epstein, the former financier and friend of the ultra-wealthy and politically powerful, was convicted of sexual behavior with minor girls. He later died by suicide in a Manhattan prison while awaiting trial.

To date, only a small fraction of the photos have been released to the public, but those that have been released featured President Donald Trump, top Republican strategist Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and movie mogul Woody Allen, among other high-profile people, in candid shots with Epstein.

While not dyeing their association with the convicted sex offender, all have denied wrongdoing. None have been charged.

The latest trove of photographs was released prior to a Friday deadline, when the Justice Department will be required to release all of the government’s Epstein files with a few exceptions.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said the committee is reviewing materials from the Epstein estate and working with victims shown in the photographs who are not identified or threatened.

“Certainly the most disturbing photos are certainly the ones that are more sexual in nature,” Garcia said during a Thursday briefing on the Capitol steps. “We’re having a conversation about the best way to deal with those and talking to the lawyers and the survivor groups, because we want to be very cautious of the trauma that the survivors are going through.”

The new law says the photos must be published online and in a publicly searchable database.

The White House has accused Garcia and other Democrats of releasing “cherry-picked photos with random reactions to try to create a false narrative” with the intention of putting Trump in a negative light.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — A 12-person jury has found Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing federal agents attempting an immigration arrest near her courtroom in April.

The jury deliberated for more than six hours before delivering its guilty verdict on one count of obstruction, but acquitted her on a second count of concealment.

She could face up to five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine when sentenced. A sentencing date has not been set.

The ruling is a victory for President Donald Trump and his administration, who have portrayed Dugan as an example of judges interfering with their immigration enforcement policies.

Dugan was arrested by FBI agents in late April and charged with knowingly concealing a person whose arrest warrant had been issued in order to prevent their apprehension, and corruptly endeavoring to influence, obstruct and impede the administration of law enforcement.

Federal prosecutors said she misdirected federal agents on April 18 to allow undocumented migrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz to evade arrest.

Court documents state that she confronted federal agents in the court’s hallway after escorting Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of her courtroom.

Flores-Ruiz was arrested by immigration enforcement agents following a foot chase.

The arrest came amid the early stages of Trump’s immigration crackdown, part of which was the rescinding of a Biden administration policy prohibiting immigration enforcement action in or near courthouses.

Critics and justice advocates — including nearly 150 former state and federal judges — rebuked the arrest as an effort to intimidate the judiciary, warning it threatened judicial independence and the Constitution.

Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel for the Eastern District of Wisconsin told reporters following the jury verdict that while some have sought to make the case about a larger political battle, “it’s ultimately about a single day — a single bad day in a public courthouse.”

“The defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some great cause. It was a criminal case, like many that make their way through this courthouse every day,” he said.

“And we all must accept the verdict.”

Steven Biskupic, Dugan’s lead attorney, told reporters the defense was “obviously disappointed” with the verdict and that it does not make sense for his client to be found guilty on one count and acquitted on the other since they are based on the same elements.

“I would just say the case is a long way from over,” he said.

Norm Eisen, executive chair of the nonpartisan Democracy Defenders Fund, issued the same sentiment in a statement emailed to UPI.

“This case is far from over. Substantial legal and constitutional issues remain unresolved, and they are exactly the kinds of questions appellate courts are meant to address,” Eisen said.

“Higher courts will have the opportunity to determine whether this prosecution crossed the lines that protect the judiciary from executive overreach.”

Republicans and members of Trump’s administraiton swiftly celebrated the ruling, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche remarking that “nobody is above the law” and Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin stating, “Now, lock her up.”

Dec. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations on Thursday that restrict the ability for transgender minors to access gender-affirming healthcare.

The regulations work to “carry out President Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” a press release said.

The new rules will ban hospitals from “performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

“These actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures,” a department official told reporters Thursday.

The department said what it calls “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, “expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department officials will offer details about the moves later Thursday.

Gender-affirming care is a holistic approach to treating gender-dysphoria and is supported by every major medical association as treatment for both adults and children.

It includes a range of therapies, from psychological and behavioral to medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare.

The medical practice, however, has been a target for conservatives for years amid a larger campaign that civil rights organizations see as a threat to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

St. Louis pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Haller called HHS’ actions “anti-science” during a Human Rights Campaign press briefing. He pointed out that these efforts still allow the treatments for children with other conditions that affect hormone production.

Haller said that as long as the condition doesn’t change a child’s gender, “these people don’t have a problem with [prescribing hormones]. That same care for kids who are transgender is what they say is wrong. There’s no science behind it.”

HHS said the Food and Drug Administration would send warning letters to manufacturers and sellers of breast binders for minors alleging they are doing illegal marketing, the department official said.

“Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement.

The Human Rights Campaign said these rules infringe on the rights of families.

“Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and wellbeing of their children,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “But these proposed actions would put [President] Donald Trump and RFK Jr. in those doctor’s offices, ripping healthcare decisions from the hands of families and putting it in the grips of the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.”

And Advocates for Trans Equality told UPI in an emailed statement that are a “discriminatory attack” that lacks credible medical or financial basis.

“These sets of rules mark a serious escalation in this administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle healthcare programs and services for trans youth,” Fiadh McKenna, A4TE senior staff attorney, said in the statement.

“Targeting healthcare for trans people is unlawful and discriminatory; no one should be denied healthcare because of who they are.”

The new CMS rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period on the Federal Register, the department official said.

Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — A Romanian court on Thursday sentenced American rapper Wiz Khalifa to nine months in prison for using marijuana during a music festival last year.

Citing local news outlets Agerpres and CanCan, USA Today reported the Constanța Court of Appeal issued the final ruling for “committing the crime of possession of high-risk drugs, without right, for own consumption.

The ruling by the appellate court came after the country’s prosecutor’s office — DIICOT Constanța Territorial Service — appealed an earlier sentence that saw Khalifa fined about $829.

The court said it strengthened the punishment because Khalifa sent “a message of normalization of illegal conduct” and encouraged “drug use among young people.”

The court called his actions “ostentatious.”

Sources close to the situation told TMZ that the rapper’s lawyers are appealing the sentence.

Khalifa was sentenced in absentia, and it’s unclear if officials in Romania will seek to have Khalifa extradited to serve his sentence.

Romanian criminal expert Vlad Zaha told the BBC that there’s little chance the United States would extradite Khalifa. He described the sentence as “unusually harsh.”

“Given the defendant’s wealth and connections, Romania’s lack of real negotiating power on extradition, and the legal and political status of cannabis in the U.S., it is highly unlikely that Wiz Khalifa will be sent to serve a prison sentence in Constanța, even though a formal judicial request will be submitted to the United States,” Zaha said.

Khalifa was briefly detained in July 2024 after he smoked marijuana during his set at the Beach Please! Festival.

The musician addressed his arrest in a post on X after his release from custody.

“Last night’s show was amazing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up onstage,” he wrote. “They were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big … joint next time.”

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Sydney police have detained seven men in a suburb Thursday with officers reportedly ramming a car and detaining the men after a tip about a planned “violent attack.”

The arrests came just a few days after 15 people were killed on Bondi Beach in Australia at a Hanukkah gathering.

The seven men were believed to be traveling from Melbourne to Bondi. The intercepted cars had Victoria plates, which is the state that includes Melbourne, 550 miles from Sydney.

“At this point in time, police have not identified any connection to the current police investigation of the Bondi terror attack,” a New South Wales police press release said.

“Police subsequently intercepted two cars as part of the investigation. As investigations continue, seven men are assisting police with their inquiries,” the release said.

Police didn’t release any more details about the men or the attack plans.

The men were stopped in Liverpool, a suburb southwest of Sydney.

Social media images showed a white hatchback with body damage from a collision that was blocked off by police tape at a Liverpool intersection, The Guardian reported.

Other images showed several heavily armed police in camouflage gear, and men with their hands zip-tied behind their backs lined up against a nearby fence.

Though police said there is no link to the Bondi shooting, Thursday morning Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said to expect more raids in the wake of the Bondi attack.

“In the coming days, the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team will execute further search warrants to support our investigation. There is a lot of material to be examined, and the AFP continues to work with both domestic and international partners to build a more complete picture of the movements and who the alleged offenders had contact with, both in Australia and offshore,” she said.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Closing arguments began Thursday in the trial for Judge Hannah Dugan after the court heard testimony from fellow Milwaukee County judicial officials about a lack of court policy on immigration arrests in public areas.

The testimony came on Day 4 of Dugan’s trial. She pleaded not guilty earlier this year to federal charges including one count of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest, and another of concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

The case stems from an incident on April 18, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to her courtroom and notified her they planned to arrest undocumented immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. They said she sent the agents to the chief judge’s office before going back to her courtroom, pushing Flores-Ruiz’s case to the front of her docket, then helped him and his lawyer leave from a private jury door.

The ICE agents ultimately found and arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse.

The defense called two fellow circuit court judges — Katie Kegel and Laura Gramling Perez — to the stand on Thursday to ask them about an email chain also involving Dugan. The email was about the courthouse and county policy on federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests on courthouse grounds.

Kegel said she sent the email after people were “snatched up out of my gallery while waiting for their hearing” and wanted to know about any policies on “detentions of any sort from inside the courtroom.” She said she saw someone who wasn’t in law enforcement clothing — whom she was later told belonged to a federal task force unrelated to immigration — carrying out activity in the gallery of her courtroom.

Grayling Perez said Chief Judge Carl Ashley had scheduled online training via Zoom about ICE activity in the courthouse and that Dugan had had trouble registering for the training session. Gramling Perez said the training indicated that ICE can conduct enforcement actions in public areas of the courthouse with certain “statutory and policy limitations.” She suggested the court develop a policy for such incidents, including a requirement that federal agents consult with the chief judge beforehand.

Gramling Perez said she had concerns about ICE operating in the courthouse, as did Dugan, USA Today reported.

“We are in some uncharted waters with some very serious and even potentially tragic community interests at risk in the balance,” Dugan wrote in an email as testified by Gramling Perez.

Defense attorneys also called former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to testify to Dugan’s character, describing her as “extremely honest” and someone who “will tell you how she feels. Barrett said he’s known Dugan for more than 50 years and that they went to high school together.

The defense rested its cause after hearing from Barrett and closing arguments were underway.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Paraguay signed a security cooperation agreement with the United States to strengthen efforts against organized crime, drug trafficking and other transnational threats, as Asuncion seeks to reinforce its role as a strategic partner of Washington in central South America.

The agreement was signed this week by Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The document sets out general guidelines for joint work and must be sent to Paraguay’s Congress for review and approval.

Paraguay is a landlocked country between Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Its location has made it a key transit point for drug trafficking and smuggling routes across South America, which has led the government of President Santiago Pena to strengthen international security cooperation.

The agreement covers actions against transnational crime, training of military personnel, information sharing, humanitarian assistance and coordination in response to emergencies and natural disasters.

At the signing ceremony, Ramirez Lezcano highlighted the Paraguayan government’s commitment to shared goals with the United States.

“President Santiago Pena is deeply committed to continuing to work strongly on the relationship between our countries and on shared objectives such as fighting transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and corruption,” the foreign minister said.

He added that what is at stake “is not only security, but the freedom of people,” and said the agreement represents an important step to protect both values.

Rubio said the agreement also creates “the opportunity to train together, cooperate, exchange information directly and quickly, and respond to any humanitarian situation that may arise in the future, not only in Paraguay, but in the region.”

“It is a security agreement, but what also exists here is the opportunity to cooperate at the economic level, where there are many opportunities to use Paraguay’s potential so that it becomes a wealthier country,” Rubio said.

He added that Paraguayans are expected to have greater economic opportunities through cooperation with U.S. companies and interests “that are willing to invest responsibly and effectively in the economy and also help create jobs, work and sources of income for the citizens of your country.”

The United States and Paraguay have maintained decades of cooperation in areas such as security, counter-narcotics efforts, institutional strengthening and humanitarian assistance, according to official records from both governments.

Paraguay’s Foreign Ministry has said the relationship with the United States is strategic and has deepened in recent years amid a regional context marked by the advance of transnational organized crime.

The agreement signed in Washington adds to other bilateral instruments already in force and seeks to update cooperation mechanisms in response to emerging threats in South America.

Dec. 17 (UPI) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is facing a Georgia state Senate committee over her attempts to prosecute President Donald Trump in a 2020 election interference case as well as her hiring of Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship.

Willis has fought the subpoena requiring her to appear before the committee since the summer of 2024. Her attorney is former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who said she maintains that the committee’s actions are politically motivated.

Barnes argued before the Georgia Supreme Court on Dec. 9 that the subpoena to testify issued by the committee is invalid because it was issued after the legislature adjourned.

The committee plans to ask about her decisions regarding the case against Trump and his supporters, some of whom pleaded guilty to charges. Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall took plea deals after agreeing to testify. Trump later gave them all federal pardons.

Wade and Willis were removed from the case, and Willis fought to stay on the case, but lost her appeal. The case against Trump was dropped after a new prosecutor took over the case.

Dec. 16 (UPI) — A suspect identified as Micah James Legnon has been arrested by agents from the FBI’s New Iberia office for allegedly planning an attack on federal agents.

Legnon, 29, was a member of the Turtle Island Liberation Front and had communicated with four members who were charged with allegedly planning a series of New Year’s Eve terrorist attacks in the Greater Los Angeles area on Monday, WDSU reported.

He is a resident of New Iberia and was arrested on Friday while driving to New Orleans after FBI agents saw him loading a military-style rifle and body armor into his vehicle and telling others in a Signal chat group that he was traveling to New Orleans.

New Iberia is located about 120 miles west of New Orleans, and Legnon allegedly shared a video that showed multiple firearms, gas canisters and body armor before leaving on Friday.

In that post, Legnon said he was “On my way to NOLA now, be there in about two hours,” but the FBI arrested him while driving east on U.S. Highway 90, according to WWL-TV.

In a Dec. 4 post, Legnon shared a Facebook post showing Customs and Border Protection agents arresting someone and said he wanted to “recreate Waco, Texas,” on the federal officers while referencing the 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidians compound there.

He is a former Marine who was trained in combat and a self-professed satanist who used the alias “Black Witch” in group chats with four suspects accused of targeting locations throughout California.

Federal prosecutors filed a federal complaint against Legnon and asked the magistrate judge to seal it and related records due to an ongoing investigation.

They asked that it be unsealed on Tuesday, which is a day after the four suspects accused of planning the California terror attacks were charged with related crimes.

The FBI said Legnon had been communicating with the four suspects in California before the arrests were made and charges filed in the respective cases.

The Turtle Island Liberation Front is a far-left, anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian group, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Dec. 16 (UPI) — The two suspects in the deadly mass terror attack in Bondi Beach in Sydney over the weekend spent most of November in the southern Philippines, where they allegedly received military-style training from Islamic militants.

The Philippine Bureau of Immigration told ABC News on Tuesday that the father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, arrived in the Philippines from Australia on Nov. 1, giving Davao on the southern island of Mindanao as their destination.

“They left the country on Nov. 28, on a connecting flight from Davao to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination,” said Immigration Bureau spokesperson Dana Sandoval.

Australian national security officials said investigators were now looking at the duo’s links to an international jihadist network after a senior counterterrorism officer said the pair underwent terrorist training on the island.

The development came hours after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared that the pair were motivated by “Islamic State ideology” after the discovery by police of flags of the jihadist group and improvised explosive devices in the suspects’ car.

Philippine and Australian officials said they were working together to establish exact details of where the pair stayed and their movements with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her Philippine counterpart Maria Theresa Lazaro vowing to “keep each other closely informed” of progress in the investigation into Sunday’s attack targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah.

“The Philippines stands firmly in solidarity with Australia and underscores strong Philippine-Australia cooperation in security and law enforcement matters. We reaffirm our support for efforts that protect communities from intolerance, hatred, and violence,” said Lazaro.

The largely Muslim region of the predominantly Catholic country has been a base for Islamic militants for decades after terror camps relocated there from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the 1990s, with the Philippine military at war with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front before that.

In 2017, ISIS fighters laid siege to the city of Marawi in Mindanao for five months, prompting the central government in Manila to launch an all-out military offensive to regain control.

A New South Wales health department spokesman said 22 people were still being treated for their injuries in the hospital, nine of whom were in a critical condition following the shooting attack in which 15 people were killed.

The victims included children, survivors of the Holocaust and two rabbis.

Authorities said Akram Naveed, who was shot and wounded by police, had regained consciousness in the hospital. The elder Akram was shot dead by police at the scene.

Dec. 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion, alleging it intentionally misrepresented a speech he gave before the Jan. 6 storming of Capitol Hill in order to influence the result of the 2024 presidential election.

The lawsuit was filed in a Florida court on Monday, more than a month after Trump threatened to bring litigation against Britain’s public broadcaster over the editing of a speech he gave to supporters in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance.

Trump’s lawyers described the documentary’s depiction of him as “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory and malicious,” alleging it was aired “in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”

The suit is for $5 billion in damages, plus interest, costs, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and other relief the court finds appropriate.

The BBC declined to comment Tuesday but vowed it would fight the case.

“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” said a spokesman.

The Panorama documentary aired in Britain on Oct. 28, 2024, just days ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The BBC stresses it was not broadcast in the United States and that it did not make it available to view there.

In the documentary, video of Trump’s speech was edited to piece together two comments the president made about 50 minutes apart, while omitting other parts of his speech.

“[T]he BBC “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world by splicing together two entirely separate parts of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021,” his lawyers state in the lawsuit.

“The Panorama Documentary deliberately omitted another critical part of the Speech in such a manner as to intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

The claim refers to the splicing together of excerpts lifted from the video that made it sound as if Trump was inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight:

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” was what viewers of the program saw, when Trump’s actual words were, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

It wasn’t until 50 minutes later in the speech that Trump made the comments about fighting.

The infraction went unnoticed until early November when The Telegraph published an exclusive on a leaked internal BBC memo in which a former external ethics adviser allegedly suggested that the documentary edited Trump’s speech to make it appear he directed the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

Following the report, the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, and head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned.

BBC chairman Samir Shah immediately apologized for what he called an unintentional “error of judgment.”

After Trump wrote the BBC demanding a correction, compensation and threatening a $1 billion lawsuit, the corporation formally apologized and issued a retraction that was the lead story across all of its news platforms on television, radio and online — but said it strongly disagreed “there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

To win the case, Trump’s legal team would need to convince the court the program had caused Trump “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”

The BBC has said that since the program was not broadcast in the United States or available to view there, Trump was not harmed by it and the choices voters made in the election were not affected as he was re-elected days after.

However, Trump’s legal team alleges the BBC had a deal with a third-party media company that had rights to air the documentary outside of the United Kingdom.

The blunder has reignited a furious national debate about the BBC’s editorial impartiality and the institution itself, which is funded by a $229 annual license that households with a TV must pay.

It also comes as the future of the BBC is under review, with the renewal date of its royal charter approaching on the centenary of its founding in 2027.

Trump has won out-of-court settlements in a series of disputes with U.S. broadcasters, although largely at significantly reduced sums than those sought in the original lawsuit.

In July, CBS settled a $20 billion claim out of court for $16 million over an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris that aired four weeks before the election on Nov. 5.

ABC News paid Trump $15 million and apologized to settle a defamation suit over comments by presenter George Stephanopoulos that incorrectly stated Trump was “liable for rape.”

In 2022, CNN fought and successfully defended a $475 million suit alleging it had defamed Trump by dubbing his claim the 2020 election was stolen from him as the “Big Lie.” The judge ruled it did not meet the legal standard of defamation.

He has live cases pending cases against the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — The trial for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan began Monday, with prosecutors playing audio of the judge saying she’ll “get the heat” by showing an undocumented defendant how to leave her courtroom to avoid immigration officials.

Dugan pleaded not guilty earlier this year to federal charges including one count of obstructing and official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest and another of concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

The case stems from an incident on April 18, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to her courtroom and notified her they planned to arrest undocumented immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. They said she sent the agents to the chief judge’s office before going back to her courtroom, pushing Flores-Ruiz’s case to the front of her docket, then helped him and his lawyer leave from a private jury door.

The ICE agents ultimately found and arrested Flores-Ruiz.

During Monday’s trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander played audio from the day appearing to depict Dugan speaking with the court reporter, Joan Butz, who offers to show Flores-Ruiz the private door. Dugan says, “I’ll do it. I’ll get the heat.”

Alexander said Dugan’s actions were tantamount to formulating an escape plan for Flores-Ruiz, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“The judicial robe the defendant wore that morning did not put her above the law,” Alexander said in his opening statements.

Dugan’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, said the private jury door Dugan showed Flores-Ruiz wasn’t hidden and was less than 12 feet away from the public doors of the courtroom. He said she didn’t seek to thwart ICE agents.

“Not even as far as your jury box,” he said. “There was a federal agent to the left and to the right.”

Biskupic said that instead of arresting Flores-Ruiz, the federal agents chose to follow him outside and arrest him after a foot chase, NBC News reported.

“Now, after the fact, everyone wants to blame Judge Dugan,” he said.

Dec. 15 (UPI) — An individual detained by police as a person of interest in the Brown University shooting will be released, authorities said late Sunday as the investigation into the crime continues.

The person of interest was taken into police custody early Sunday following a tip that led police to a Hampton Inn in the Rhode Island town of Coventry.

The announcement of the person’s imminent release was made before midnight Sunday in a social media statement from Providence Police.

“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community, and we want to reiterate what we said earlier, which remains true, which is ever since the initial call a day and a half ago, we have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said during a late Sunday press conference about the individual’s release.

“And so the status of safety in our community remains unchanged and we believe that you remain safe in our community.”

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha explained that evidence initially pointed toward the individual taken into police custody, but as the investigation has continued, the evidence “now points in a different direction.”

“So, what that means is that this person of interest needs to be — and should be — released,” he said.

Police are continuing to investigate and develop leads as they hunt for a suspect, he said, as he asked the public to be patient as investigators comb through the facts.

“There is too much at stake for the victims of this horrific crime and their families to take chances with respect to this investigation,” he said.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez added that neither the individual’s apprehension nor their release was the result of an error, noting that such developments are part of the investigative process.

“Investigations will tell us whether something is valid or not, whether something needs to be ruled out. It’s not a mistake. It’s just how investigations work,” he said. “And our responsibility is to make sure that we conduct the proper investigations.”

Two people were killed and eight were injured in a late Saturday afternoon shooting at the Brown University campus as students were taking exams in the Barus and Holley Engineering Building.

Police had initially taken another person into custody, but later released them after determining they were not a suspect.

Authorities have released a short, 10-second clip from surveillance video showing a person of interest in the shooting.

During the Sunday press conference, Perez said the individual seen in the clip is not the person who was detained and is being released.

“I would describe that person as a person of interest,” Neronha added.

“There are a lot of unknowns in this case, and that’s one unknown … that what we’re working towards,” he said.

Brown University said in a late Sunday statement that Providence police have kept officials informed of their search efforts.

“We know that this update may prompt numerous questions,” the university said in a statement. “We continue to make every effort to ensure the safety and security of the campus. We are also advising every member of the Brown community to be vigilant in their own activities on campus.”

Dec. 15 (UPI) — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that his government will seek to strengthen Australia’s already stringent gun laws after a father-and-son duo killed 15 people and injured 40 others on Sunday in one of the country’s worst-ever shootings.

“People’s circumstances change. People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity,” he told reporters during a Monday press conference.

The shooters have not been identified, although authorities have said the father was 50 years old and the son 24.

They are alleged to have opened fire late Sunday afternoon into crowds of people at the iconic Australian tourist destination. The 50-year-old father was shot and killed by police at the scene. The 24-year-old son has been hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Authorities are investigating the shooting as a terrorist attack targeting Australia’s Jewish community during Hanukkah celebrations.

Six firearms have been confiscated by the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which is investigating the shooting.

The NSW Police Force said in a statement Monday that three firearms and two improvised explosive devices were located at the scene following the shooting and are undergoing forensic examination.

Search warrants executed Sunday night at two homes, one in Bonnyrigg and another in Campsie, uncovered two additional firearms.

A sixth firearm and a third improvised explosive device were discovered Monday at the Bondi crime scene, NSW Police Force said.

Authorities said earlier Monday that the 50-year-old alleged shooter is a licensed firearms holder and that they are investigating to confirm that the six firearms confiscated are the six he is licensed to have.

Albanese said Monday that he will take to the National Cabinet later that afternoon a proposal to empower agencies to examine what can be done to strengthen Australia’s gun laws.

“If we need to toughen these up, if there’s anything we can do, I’m certainly up for it,” he said.

The identities of the alleged shooters have not been made public. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters that the 24-year-old son is an Australian-born citizen, and that the father had arrived in the country in 1998 on a student visa, which was then transferred to a partner visa in 2001. He has been on resident return visas since.

Asked what country the father was a native of, Burke declined to answer, saying he has not been cleared by police to make that information public.

Albanese said the son was known to police, and first came to their attention in October 2019.

“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” he said.

The probing of the son was the product of those he was associated with rather than anything he had done, he said, adding that the investigation was conducted over a six-month period.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon earlier Monday told reporters that “there was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities.”

“The person had a firearms license for a number of years for which there were no incidents,” he said.

Dec. 14 (UPI) — A Hong Kong court is scheduled to deliver its verdict Monday in the national security case against media founder and former publisher Jimmy Lai, one of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy figures and the founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily.

Lai, 78, whose Chinese name is Lai Chee-ying, is charged alongside several companies linked to Apple Daily, including Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited, according to the court’s docket.

Prosecutors allege that Lai conspired to collude with foreign forces, an offense punishable by as much as a life sentence in prison under Hong Kong’s national security law.

Court records show the case is listed for verdict at 10 a.m. local time in the Court of First Instance at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building.

The Hong Kong Judiciary issued special public seating and ticketing arrangements for the hearing, citing high demand. According to court notices, admission tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning 45 minutes before the hearing, with overflow seating and live broadcasts provided in multiple courtrooms.

The case has also drawn international attention, with governments and press freedom groups warning that the prosecution reflects a broader erosion of civil liberties and press freedom in Hong Kong since the national security law was imposed in 2020.

Lai has pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” and a separate count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, The New York Times reported. He has been jailed since his arrest five years ago.

Dec. 13 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday ended U.S. sanctions on potash fertilizers from Belarus in exchange for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko releasing 123 political prisoners.

Lukashenko freed the prisoners, who include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and political opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova, in an effort to improve the Russia-allied nation’s relations with the United States, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times reported.

“In accordance with President Trump’s instructions, the United States is lifting sanctions on potash,” U.S. Special Envoy John Coale told Belta, Belarus’ official news agency.

“I believe this is a very good step by the United States for Belarus,” Coale said. “We are lifting them now.”

Belarus has been sanctioned by the U.S. and other Western nations since 2021 because of Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule and decades of political repression.

Sanctions have ramped up since 2022 because Lukashenko also allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch his invasion of Ukraine from Belarus.

In 2024, Lukashenko started releasing prisoners in order to appease Western leaders, including Trump, and get sanctions lifted that have crippled the Belarusian potash industry.

Since July 2024, before Saturday’s prisoner release, Belarus has freed more than 430 political prisoners.

According to Coale, the United States is “constantly talking” to Belarus and lifting the U.S. sanctions on potash — European sanctions, which have been called more consequential than the U.S. sanctions, remain in place — is a step toward reaching a point where all sanctions against the country have been removed.

“As relations between the two countries normalize, more sanctions will be lifted,” Coale said.