prosecutors

A federal grand jury subpoena has been served on the Los Angeles Fire Department for firefighters’ text messages and other communications about smoke or hot spots in the area of the Jan. 1 Lachman brushfire, which reignited six days later into the massive Palisades fire, according to an internal department memo.

The Times reported last week that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to pack up their hoses and leave the burn area the day after the Lachman fire, even though they complained that the ground was still smoldering and rocks were hot to the touch. In the memo, the department notified its employees of the subpoena, which it said was issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

“The subpoena seeks any and all communications, including text messages, related to reports of fire, smoke, or hotspots received between” 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and 10 a.m. on Jan. 7, said the memo, which was dated Tuesday.

A spokesperson with the U.S. attorney’s office declined to confirm that a subpoena was issued and otherwise did not comment. The memo did not include a copy of the subpoena.

The memo said the subpoena was issued in connection with an “ongoing criminal investigation” conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Last month, an ATF investigation led to the arrest of former Pacific Palisades resident Jonathan Rinderknecht, who was charged with deliberately setting the Jan. 1 fire shortly after midnight near a trailhead.

It is unclear from the memo whether the subpoena is directly related to the case against Rinderknecht, who has pleaded not guilty.

During the Rinderknecht investigation, ATF agents concluded that the fire smoldered and burned for days underground “within the root structure of dense vegetation,” until heavy winds caused it to spark the Palisades inferno, according to an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint against Rinderknecht.

The Palisades fire, the most destructive in the city’s history, killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes, businesses and other structures.

Last week, The Times cited text messages among firefighters in reporting that crews mopping up the Lachman fire had warned the battalion chief that remnants of the blaze were still smoldering.

The battalion chief listed as being on duty the day firefighters were ordered to leave the Lachman fire, Mario Garcia, has not responded to requests for comment.

In one text message, a firefighter who was at the scene on Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief had been told it was a “bad idea” to leave because of the visible signs of smoking terrain, which crews feared could start a new fire if left unprotected.

“And the rest is history,” the firefighter wrote in recent weeks.

A second firefighter was told that tree stumps were still hot at the location when the crew packed up and left, according to the texts. And a third firefighter said this month that crew members were upset when told to pack up and leave but that they could not ignore orders, according to the texts. The third firefighter also wrote that he and his colleagues knew immediately that the Palisades fire was a rekindle of the Jan. 1 blaze.

The Fire Department has not answered questions about the firefighter accounts in the text messages but has previously said that officials did everything they could to ensure that the Lachman fire was fully extinguished. The department has not provided dispatch records of all firefighting and mop-up activity before Jan. 7.

After The Times published the story, Mayor Karen Bass directed interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva to launch an investigation into the matter, while critics of her administration have asked for an independent inquiry.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered prosecutors in the criminal case of former FBI Director James Comey to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, saying he was concerned that the Justice Department’s position had been to “indict first and investigate later.”

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick instructed prosecutors to produce by the end of the day on Thursday grand jury materials and other evidence that investigators seized during the investigation. The order followed arguments in which Comey’s attorneys said they were at a disadvantage because they had not been able to review materials that were gathered years ago.

Comey, who attended the hearing but did not speak, is charged with lying to Congress in 2020 in a case filed days after President Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued that it’s a vindictive prosecution brought at the direction of the Republican president and must be dismissed.

At issue at Wednesday’s hearing were communications seized by investigators who in 2019 and 2020 executed search warrants of devices belonging to Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and close friend of Comey who had also served as a special government employee at the FBI.

Richman factors into the case because prosecutors say that Comey had encouraged him to engage with reporters about matters related to the FBI and that Comey therefore lied to Congress when he denied having authorized anyone at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source. But Comey’s lawyers say he was explicitly responding to a question about whether he had authorized former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to serve as an anonymous source.

Comey’s lawyers told the judge they had not reviewed the materials taken from Richman and thus could not know what information was privileged.

“We’re going to fix that, and we’re going to fix that today,” the judge said.

Comey’s indictment came days after Trump in a social media post called on Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and other longtime foes of the president. The indictment was brought by Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide and Trump lawyer who was installed as U.S. attorney after the longtime prosecutor who had been overseeing the investigation resigned under administration pressure to indict Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The Justice Department in court papers earlier this week defended the president’s social media post, contending it reflects “legitimate prosecutorial motive” and is no basis to dismiss the indictment.

Tucker writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Hurling a sandwich at a federal agent was an act of protest for Washington, D.C., resident Sean Charles Dunn. A jury must decide if it was also a federal crime.

“No matter who you are, you can’t just go around throwing stuff at people because you’re mad,” Assistant U.S. Atty. John Parron told jurors Tuesday at the start of Dunn’s trial on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Dunn doesn’t dispute that he threw his submarine-style sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. It was an “exclamation point” for Dunn as he expressed his opposition to President Trump’s law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, defense attorney Julia Gatto said during the trial’s opening statements.

“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” Gatto said. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.”

A bystander’s cellphone video of the confrontation went viral on social media, turning Dunn into a symbol of resistance against Trump’s months-long federal takeover. Murals depicting him mid-throw popped up in the city virtually overnight.

“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” Gatto told jurors. “And now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has turned that moment — a thrown sandwich — into a criminal case, a federal criminal case charging a federal offense.”

A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, part of a pattern of pushback against the Justice Department’s prosecution of surge-related criminal cases. After the rare rebuke from the grand jury, U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office charged Dunn instead with a misdemeanor.

Customs and Border Protection Agent Gregory Lairmore, the government’s first witness, said the sandwich “exploded” when it struck his chest hard enough that he could feel it through his ballistic vest.

“You could smell the onions and the mustard,” he recalled.

Lairmore and other agents were standing in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night” when Dunn approached and shouted profanities at them, calling them “fascists” and “racists” and chanting “shame.”

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Lairmore testified that he and the other agents tried to de-escalate the situation.

“He was red-faced. Enraged. Calling me and my colleagues all kinds of names,” he said. “I didn’t respond. That’s his constitutional right to express his opinion.”

After throwing the sandwich, Dunn ran away but was apprehended about a block away.

Later, Lairmore’s colleagues jokingly gave him gifts making light of the incident, including a subway sandwich-shaped plush toy and a patch that said “felony footlong.” Defense attorney Sabrina Schroff pointed to those as proof that the agents recognize this case is “overblown” and “worthy of a joke.”

Parron told jurors that everybody is entitled to their views about Trump’s federal surge. But “respectfully, that’s not what this case is about,” the prosecutor said. “You just can’t do what the defendant did here. He crossed a line.”

Dunn was a Justice Department employee who worked as an international affairs specialist in its criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

Dunn was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said.

Dunn’s lawyers have argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House show Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech. They urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to dismiss the case, calling it a vindictive and selective prosecution. Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, didn’t rule on that request before the trial started Monday.

Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Thirty-four children were among 78 people killed in the deadly blaze, which occurred during the school holidays.

A Turkish court has sentenced 11 people to life in prison over a fire that killed 78 people at a hotel in a ski resort in northwest Turkiye’s Bolu mountains in January.

Among those sentenced on Friday were Halit Ergul – the owner of the Grand Kartal Hotel, which sits in the Kartalkaya ski resort about 295km (183 miles) east of Istanbul – according to state-run broadcaster TRT Haber.

The court also sentenced Ergul’s wife, Emine Ergul, and their daughters, Elif Aras and Ceyda Hacibekiroglu – all of whom were part of the hotel’s management team.

The deadly blaze broke out overnight in the restaurant of the Grand Kartal on January 21, quickly engulfing the 12-storey hotel, where 238 guests were staying.

Thirty-four children were among 78 people killed in the fire, which occurred during the school holidays when many families from Ankara and Istanbul head to the Bolu mountains to ski.

Another 137 people suffered injuries during the incident, as panicked hotel guests were forced to jump from windows in the middle of the night.

Also sentenced on Friday were the hotel’s general manager, Emir Aras, as well as the deputy mayor of Bolu, Sedat Gulener, and the director of another hotel, Ahmet Demir, both of whom were reportedly on the board of directors of the company that owned the Grand Kartal.

There are a total of 32 defendants in the trial, 20 of whom are in pre-trial detention, according to TRT. It’s unclear when the remaining defendants will appear in court.

In total, the convicted were handed 34 aggravated life sentences for the 34 children killed in the disaster. Those in the courtroom greeted the announcement with applause.

The fire sparked nationwide anger in Turkiye, with questions raised over safety measures in place at the hotel after survivors said no fire alarms went off during the incident, and they had to navigate smoke-filled corridors in complete darkness.

Under pressure to act, Turkish authorities quickly arrested nine people in connection with the blaze, while the government appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation.

Speaking to reporters outside the still-smoking hotel, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya pledged that those “responsible for causing this pain will not escape justice”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a day of national mourning, as he served as a pallbearer at a funeral ceremony for the victims the following day.

The United States Department of Justice has reportedly placed two federal prosecutors, Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia, on administrative leave after they referred to the participants in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as “a mob of rioters”.

Documents the two prosecutors had filed in advance of a Thursday sentencing hearing were also amended to remove references to the January 6 attack.

The new filings were made on Wednesday, the same day that the prosecutors received their notices and were locked out of their government devices.

Both were members of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, according to sources who spoke to Reuters and The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity.

The punishment they faced was the latest instance of the administration of President Donald Trump taking action against federal prosecutors who participated in cases the Republican leader perceives as unfavourable.

Trump has long defended the participants in the January 6 attack, going so far as to pardon more than 1,500 rioters who had pending criminal charges or convictions during the first day of his second term.

Another 14 rioters had their sentences commuted. In a presidential statement, Trump called the prosecutions a “grave national injustice”.

The attack on the Capitol was prompted by Trump’s false claims that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election had been “rigged”. Spurred by the misinformation, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on the day that lawmakers inside were certifying the Electoral College votes.

More than 100 police officers were hurt, and multiple deaths were attributed to the attack, including a protester who was shot while trying to enter the Speaker’s Lobby and a police officer who collapsed and suffered multiple strokes, potentially due to the stress of being assaulted.

Some officers were beaten with flag poles, fire extinguishers and hockey sticks.

The Justice Department has yet to comment on Wednesday’s suspensions of the two prosecutors.

The lawyers were previously scheduled to appear on Thursday in federal court for the sentencing of Taylor Taranto, a Navy veteran who was among those pardoned by Trump for participating in the January 6 attack.

During that clash, he was observed attempting to breach the Speaker’s Chamber, a restricted area. Taranto had been charged with four misdemeanours for those actions before Trump pardoned his charges.

In May, Taranto was convicted on unrelated charges, including illegally carrying two firearms, the unlawful possession of ammunition, and spreading false information and hoaxes.

Taranto had been arrested on June 29, 2023, near an address in Washington, DC, supposedly linked to former President Barack Obama, one of Trump’s political rivals.

Trump had posted the address on social media, and Taranto proceeded to drive to the area, livestreaming his progress, in an attempt to seek out “tunnels” to enter the residence.

Upon exiting his vehicle and entering a restricted area, he was confronted by Secret Service agents. He allegedly told them, “Gotta get the shot, stop at nothing to get the shot.”

There were reportedly more than 500 rounds of ammunition in his van.

A day earlier, Taranto had also recorded a “hoax” video claiming that a car bomb was headed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Taranto’s defence lawyers have described him as a “journalist” and “comedian”. But prosecutors have sought a sentence of more than two years in prison for Taranto.

That sentencing recommendation was kept in the revised documents submitted on Wednesday.

At Thursday’s hearing, US District Judge Carl Nichols praised the suspended prosecutors, White and Valdivia, saying they did a “commendable and excellent job” and displayed the “highest standards of professionalism” in the case.

Nichols ultimately sentenced Taranto to 21 months in prison. Since Taranto has already been in custody for 22 months, he will not serve any additional time.

Career prosecutors are assigned to criminal cases regardless of the presidential administration in power.

But the Trump White House has repeatedly sought to sideline, if not fire, those who prosecuted cases that run contrary to the Republican president’s interests.

In January, for instance, nearly two dozen employees of the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, were fired, many with links to the January 6 prosecutions carried out under former President Joe Biden.

And in June, another three prosecutors involved in the January 6 cases were reportedly fired.

Oct. 29 (UPI) — Two U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C., have been suspended after turning in a sentencing memo that described the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” sources said.

The prosecutors were assistant U.S. attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, who were prosecuting a case against Taylor Taranto. Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his part in the Jan. 6 riots. He was arrested for unrelated threats and firearms charges, and the description of the capitol insurrection was part of a sentencing memo for that case, according to anonymous sources reported by ABC News, Politico and The Washington Post. Taranto is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

White and Valdivia were locked out of their government-issued devices Wednesday and told they will be placed on leave. It happened just hours after they filed the memo, sources told ABC.

The memo asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to sentence Taranto to 27 months in prison for a hoax threat against the National Institute of Standards and Technology and for driving through President Barack Obama‘s neighborhood with a van full of guns and ammunition.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who leads the Washington, D.C., office prosecuting Taranto, declined to comment.

But Pirro released a statement on the case.

“While we don’t comment on personnel decisions, we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously,” Politico reported Pirro said in a statement. “We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”

It wasn’t clear whether the two prosecutors were told why they were put on leave or if the suspensions would change Taranto’s sentencing date.

In the memo, White and Valdivia said the following about Jan. 6:

“On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building. After the riot, Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election produced criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.

The allegations of fraud appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and was not an effort to influence the election results, said Pennsylvania Atty Gen. Dave Sunday.

Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.

The six canvassers are charged with unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, Lancaster and Berks.

“We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.

In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”

The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Ariz., said last year the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.

Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.

“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson.

Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit said Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month he was unaware of any canvassers paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.

“Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’ ” investigators wrote.

One canvasser said she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did, too, according to the police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach a daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”

The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.

In a separate but related investigation, authorities in Monroe County late Friday filed voter registration fraud charges against three canvassers who worked for Field+Media Corps last year. All three defendants were charged with forgery, perjury, unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, identity theft and election law violations.

The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential election, and then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news. At a campaign event, he declared there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.

Scolforo writes for the Associated Press.

Oct. 26 (UPI) — French prosecutors on Sunday announced that arrests had been made in connection with the brazen daylight heist of historic jewels worth more than $100 million from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Laure Beccuau, the Paris public prosecutor, said in a statement that the office’s anti-gang unit had made the arrests Saturday evening, but did not disclose precisely how many arrests had been made. It previously had been reported that at least four people were believed to have been involved in the heist last Sunday.

Beccuau revealed that one of the men was preparing to flee the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport when he was arrested.

The arrests had first been reported by the French newspaper Le Parisien, citing anonymous sources, before the news was confirmed by Beccuau. The prosecutor lamented that the leak that arrests had been made before authorities were ready to disclose the news.

“I deeply regret the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals, without consideration for the investigation,” she said in her statement.

“This revelation can only hinder the investigative efforts of the hundred or so investigators mobilized in the search for both the stolen jewelry and the perpetrators. It is too early to provide any further details.”

Beccuau said that she would provide further information to the public at the end of this phase of police custody.

A representative for the Louvre confirmed to UPI last week that several people broke in through a window in the Galerie d’Apollon, which houses many of France’s royal jewels, around 9:30 a.m. local time after the museum had already opened its doors to the public.

The thieves had posed as workers in yellow vests and used a hoist truck to break into a second-floor window of the Galerie d’Apollon and cut through the glass display cases to snatch the jewels before dashing away on motorcycles along the A6 motorway.

The theft set off alarms on the gallery’s exterior window and display cases, and museum workers present in the gallery during the theft quickly notified police, but the thieves escaped with the jewels in less than seven minutes.

Interpol later added the jewels to its Stolen Works of Art database, an international registry of cultural property stolen worldwide to aid in their recovery, the art news publication Urgent Matter reported.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for working tirelessly to find the men who stole the jewels.

“The investigations must continue while respecting the confidentiality of the inquiry under the authority of the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Parquet de Paris,” he said.

The heist has heightened scrutiny of security flaws faced by French institutions.

Also last week, thieves stole historic silver and gold coins from the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot museum in the town of Langres.

And French authorities announced that a Chinese woman had been charged in connection with the September theft of gold nuggets from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Authorities in Argentina have opened a criminal investigation into the daughter of a former Nazi official and her spouse after an 18th-century painting stolen from a late Jewish art dealer was recovered from one of their properties.

Prosecutors announced the probe on Thursday, which will focus on Juan Carlos Cortegoso and his wife Patricia Kadgien, whose father was the fugitive Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien.

The elder Kadgien died in the late 1970s. He spent the final decades of his life in Argentina, having fled Germany at the end of World War II.

He is believed to have brought with him priceless artworks looted from the collections of Jewish families and businesses, including that of the Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.

Goudstikker had amassed a collection of nearly 1,400 pieces, according to the meticulous records he kept.

But that made his collection a target for Nazi officials like Hermann Goring, who sought to seize the artwork for himself. The elder Kadgien was Goring’s financial adviser.

It is unclear how Kadgien came to own Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi, an Italian portraitist prolific during the Baroque and Rococo periods.

The painting, a large portrait of the Contessa Colleoni holding gloves and a book, had not been seen in decades. As far as researchers knew, only black-and-white photographs of the artwork survived.

Goudstikker had been forced to sell many of his artworks to Nazi officials as the Holocaust unfolded in Europe.

In May 1940, the art dealer would ultimately die from a fall on board the SS Bodegraven, as he fled a genocide that would claim at least six million Jewish lives, as well as millions of prisoners-of-war, dissidents, LGBTQ people and those with disabilities.

Goudstikker’s heirs have been seeking to recover his collection ever since.

Thought lost, Portrait of a Lady reappeared suddenly last month, as the result of internet sleuthing.

Dutch journalists with the publication Algemeen Dagblad had been investigating the late Kadgien’s dealings with the Nazis, and they stumbled across a real estate listing from February for a house belonging to his daughter, Patricia Kadgien.

A picture in the listing showed Portrait of a Lady hanging above a green velvet couch.

The journalists published their findings on August 25, and soon after, police in Argentina raided the residence, which was located in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

But the painting was nowhere to be found. Instead, authorities reported they had recovered other paintings, this time from the 19th century, that they suspected may also be Nazi-looted artwork.

A tapestry was found hanging where Portrait of a Lady was once photographed. The real estate listing, meanwhile, appeared to have been removed.

Police have since raided several properties belonging to Patricia Kadgien and her sister. On Wednesday, it was announced that the painting had finally been recovered.

But in Thursday’s hearing, federal authorities revealed they were charging Kadgien, 59, and her husband, Cortegoso, 62, with attempting a cover-up.

Prosecutor Carlos Martinez accused the couple of hiding the painting, despite being “aware that the artwork was being sought by the criminal justice system and international authorities”. That, he said, amounted to obstruction of justice and concealment.

“It was only after several police raids that they turned it in,” Martinez explained.

Patricia Kadgien and Cortegoso were briefly put under house arrest on Monday, though that was lifted in favour of a 180-day travel ban and a requirement that they seek court approval before leaving the house.

A lawyer for the couple reportedly asked a civil court this week to allow them to sell the painting, but that request was denied.

Martinez, meanwhile, told journalists on Thursday that Marei von Saher, one of Goudstikker’s heirs, had already reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States to ensure the painting’s restitution.

He explained that prosecutors had requested Portrait of a Lady be held at the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum for now.

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge on Thursday angrily accused Justice Department prosecutors of trampling on the civil rights of people arrested during President Trump’s law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

Judge Zia Faruqui, a former federal prosecutor, said leaders of U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office have tarnished its reputation with how they are handling the deluge of cases. He said Pirro’s office is routinely bringing cases that don’t belong in federal court and needlessly keeping people in jail for days while they evaluate charges.

“It’s not fair to say they’re losing credibility. We’re past that now,” Faruqui said. He later added, “There’s no credibility left.”

The judge lambasted Pirro’s office during a hearing at which he agreed to dismiss the federal case against a man accused of threatening to kill Trump while in police custody. The defendant, Edward Alexander Dana, spent more than a week in jail before a federal grand jury refused to indict him.

It is extraordinarily rare for a grand jury to balk at returning an indictment, but it has happened at least seven times in five cases since Trump’s surge started nearly a month ago. Faruqui said it is ironic that an occupying force is at the mercy of the occupants” serving on the grand juries.

Pirro has been critical of Faruqui, one of four magistrates at the district court in Washington. On Thursday, the top federal prosecutor for Washington responded to Faruqui’s latest remarks by saying the judge “has repeatedly indicated his allegiance to those who violate the law and carry illegal guns.”

“This judge took an oath to follow the law, yet he has allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment and his requirement to follow the law,” she said in a statement. “America voted for safe communities, law and order, and this judge is the antithesis of that.”

Faruqui said there is no precedent for what is happening at the courthouse over the last few weeks. He said Trump administration officials are frequently touting the arrest figures on social media with seemingly no regard for how the arrests are affecting people’s lives.

“Where are the stats on the people illegally detained?” he asked.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Conor Mulroe said prosecutors from Pirro’s office are working around the clock on the influx of new cases.

“You are busy because you all have created this mess,” he told Mulroe. “I’m not saying it’s your problem. It’s your office’s problem.”

Mulroe was the only representative of Pirro’s office who attended Thursday’s hearing. Faruqui questioned why Pirro or her top deputies “don’t have the dignity to come here” and defend their charging decisions.

“That’s what leaders do,” he said.

The White House says over 1,800 people have been arrested since the operation started Aug. 7. Over 40 cases have been filed in district court, which hears the most serious federal offenses, including assault, gun and drug charges.

Dana was jailed for about a week after his arrest on Aug. 17. A different judge ordered his release on Aug. 25. On Thursday, Pirro’s office opted to drop the federal case against Dana but charge him with misdemeanors, including destruction of property and attempted threats, in D.C. Superior Court.

Dana’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Elizabeth Mullin, said prosecutors should have known that this case didn’t belong in federal court.

“A 15-year-old would know,” she said. “It was obvious from the outset.”

Dana was arrested on suspicion of damaging a light fixture at a restaurant. An officer was driving Dana to a police station when he threatened to kill Trump, according to a Secret Service agent’s affidavit. Dana also told police that he was intoxicated that night. Mullin said Dana’s “hyperbolic rambling” didn’t amount to a criminal threat.

Faruqui ordered prosecutors to file a brief explaining why they didn’t immediately inform him of its charging decisions in Dana’s case. The judge apologized to Dana “on behalf of the court” and suggested that Pirro’s office also owes Dana an apology.

Pirro said in an earlier statement that a grand jury’s refusal to indict somebody for threatening to kill the president “is the essence of a politicized jury.”

“The system here is broken on many levels,” she said. “Instead of the outrage that should be engendered by a specific threat to kill the president, the grand jury in D.C. refuses to even let the judicial process begin. Justice should not depend on politics.”

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — Prosecutors seek a seven-year sentence for Nadine Menendez, the wife of former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., for her part in a bribery and corruption scheme.

Nadine Menendez, 58, is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York courtroom in Manhattan, where her husband was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in January.

Nadine Menendez “did not commit bribery reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale,” federal prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein, as reported by The New York Times.

“She did so eagerly, for years, and in a scheme implicating foreign relations, national security and the integrity of state and federal law enforcement,” they argued.

“The defendant engaged, for years, in a corruption and foreign influence scheme of stunning brazenness, breadth and duration, resulting in exceptionally grave abuses of power at the highest levels of the legislative branch of the United States government,” prosecutors argued.

Her attorneys alternatively seek a sentence of one year and one day due to breast cancer treatment.

They said she can’t receive adequate care while in prison and sought leniency due to her growing up in war-torn Lebanon, enduring gender-based violence and having cancer, The Hill reported.

Federal prosecutors expressed a willingness for her to undergo recommended surgeries before surrendering for her eventual incarceration.

A jury in April found Nadine Menendez guilty on 15 counts related to the bribery scheme centered on her husband’s political corruption.

Federal prosecutors showed she accepted cash, gold and a Mercedes luxury automobile in exchange for political favors by Bob Menendez.

He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before resigning amid his legal troubles in 2023.

Two co-defendants, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, also were found guilty on related charges and sentenced to three years and eight years, respectively, in January.

L.A. County prosecutors tried to force City Councilman Curren Price’s wife to testify before a grand jury and served subpoenas on several members of his City Hall staff earlier this year, three sources told The Times.

The grand jury was convened in March, according to three sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are secret under California law. Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, also confirmed the existence of a grand jury proceeding in a new court filing on Thursday.

The convening of a grand jury, coupled with news that prosecutors filed additional charges against Price earlier this week, marks a significant uptick in the district attorney’s office’s focus on the veteran councilman. Price was first charged in 2023 after voting in favor of multiple measures that prosecutors allege would financially benefit his wife, real estate consultant Del Richardson.

Documents made public Thursday also show the district attorney’s office considered Richardson a “suspect” in the criminal investigation into her husband as recently as 2022.

The councilman has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

Richardson ultimately did not testify before the grand jury, though it was not clear why, according to two of the sources. No criminal charges were filed against Richardson. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about that decision Thursday.

“I would not expect Del Richardson to be charged because she has done nothing wrong,” said Richardson’s attorney, Adam Kamenstein. “She is also completely confident that her husband, Councilman Price, will soon be fully vindicated, and she looks forward to being able to put this matter behind them.”

Price now faces 12 criminal counts in total accusing him of grand theft by embezzlement, perjury and violating state conflict of interest laws. Prosecutors allege Price repeatedly voted in favor of measures to sell buildings or support grants for developers or agencies that had previously contracted with his wife’s consulting firm, Del Richardson & Associates.

Price has also been accused of bilking the city out of $33,000 in medical premiums by listing his wife as a beneficiary of his city-issued healthcare plan between 2013 and 2017, before they were legally married.

In documents made public Thursday morning, a summary of the district attorney’s office’s investigation written in 2022 described Richardson as a “suspect” in the case.

An investigator wrote that Richardson committed perjury and aided and abetted in Price’s alleged embezzlement by seeking to recoup healthcare costs from the city of Inglewood, where Price formerly served as a councilman, between 2015 and 2017, according to the summary document. Price and Richardson were not legally married at the time as Price did not divorce his first wife until 2018, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors served subpoenas on several members of Price’s City Hall staff and several former employees of Del Richardson & Associates, which Richardson sold to the Greenwood Seneca Foundation several years ago, the sources said.

The purpose of the grand jury was also unclear, as two of the sources said questions asked by prosecutors were not focused on the charges already filed against Price.

In a motion seeking to dismiss all charges filed Thursday morning, Schafler questioned the legality of the grand jury proceedings.

Schafler said the grand jury hearings “appear to impermissibly have been for the primary purpose of discovery and preparing for the preliminary hearing and trial in this action, which had already been pending since June 2023.”

Grand juries are held in secret and transcripts of such proceedings only become public if an indictment is returned against the target of the hearing. Price has not been indicted.

The district attorney’s office said it could not comment on grand jury proceedings without court authorization.

“The Grand Jury process involves two types of Grand Juries: Investigative and Indicting. An Investigative Grand Jury investigates and does not seek an Indictment,” the office said in a statement.

It was not clear which type of grand jury was convened in Price’s case. It is rare for prosecutors to fail to convince a grand jury to return an indictment.

In a motion seeking to dismiss charges in 2023, Price’s attorney argued prosecutors could not prove that past payments to Richardson’s company had any influence on the councilman’s voting record. Many of the votes that prosecutors zeroed in on passed easily, with Price’s vote making no difference to their success or failure.

Under California law, criminal cases can proceed from the filing of charges to a trial by two pathways. More often than not, defendants face a preliminary hearing where a judge must decide if prosecutors have enough evidence to prove there is probable cause for a defendant to stand trial.

Prosecutors can also seek an indictment before a grand jury, a move that limits what counterarguments defense attorneys can put forth and protects witnesses from cross-examination. In recent years, L.A. County prosecutors have convened grand juries to indict disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy on a litany of rape allegations and to review manslaughter charges against Torrance police officers.

Price appeared in court on Thursday morning to answer the two new charges filed against him earlier this week. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said that between 2019 and 2021, Price voted in support of grants and funding for L.A. Metro and the city’s housing authority after Richardson’s firm was paid more than $800,000 combined by both agencies.

Joined by about two dozen supporters who sat in the back rows of the courtroom, Price pleaded not guilty to the new charges. His attorney said he would file a motion to dismiss those charges later on Thursday.

Prosecutors said the councilman’s staff “flagged the conflict of interest prior to the votes” that prompted the new charges.

Price’s spokeswoman, Angelina Valencia, did not respond directly to that allegation. But she said the councilman’s office has always “carried out a multi-layered process to identify and address potential conflicts of interests, work that is highly complex and requires thorough review.”

“Each month, our legislative team reviews hundreds of Council and Committee votes, cross-checking for potential conflicts,” she said.

Schafler has repeatedly argued that Price did not knowingly violate conflict of interest laws.

Report says Karim Khan ‘privately threatened’ by then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron with UK’s withdrawal from International Criminal Court.

New details have emerged about a series of intimidation campaigns, including threats to safety as well as possible sanctions, directed at the British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he pursues an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israeli officials in Gaza.

Karim Khan has also been subjected to intense pressure from top British and United States public officials for The Hague court to withdraw the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news website reported.

The latest report followed an earlier revelation by the London-based online publication in July that Khan and the ICC were threatened with being “destroyed” if they pursued the case against Israel.

According to the MEE report published on Friday, Khan was “privately threatened” by then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants against the Israeli leaders, which it did so in November.

In May 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the MEE reported.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Khan and four ICC judges.

Khan also received a security briefing warning him that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency “was active in The Hague and posed a potential threat” to him, the MEE reported.

Khan, who is currently on indefinite leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct, was also reportedly told by his female accuser in text messages that there were “games being played” and attempts to make her a “pawn in some game I don’t want to play”, according to the MEE.

The ICC investigations into Khan’s alleged behaviour were later closed after the female witness refused to cooperate with them, but a separate United Nations probe remains.

Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.

Two weeks before he was forced to go on leave in May 2025, Khan also reportedly met with Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, to discuss the Israel investigation, the MEE report said.

In a note of the meeting on file at the ICC, Kaufman reportedly told Khan that if the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were not dropped, “they will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.”

The report said some ICC lawyers have privately “expressed doubts” about the allegations against Khan, which emerged after the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued.

The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed killed in an Israeli attack.

The Israeli defendants remain internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under a legal obligation to arrest them.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,430 Palestinians and wounded 148,722.

In recent months, Israel has been accused of committing new war crimes after reports that Israeli forces intentionally shot and killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect humanitarian aid from GHF food distribution points.

Paris Saint-Germain which the Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi denies the alleged rape of a woman in 2023.

French prosecutors on Friday called for Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Moroccan international denies.

The Nanterre prosecutor’s office told the AFP news agency that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court.

“It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP in a statement.

Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG’s run to their first Champions League title, with the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May.

Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic run to the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman.

Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday.

The woman went to a police station following the encounter, alleging rape and was questioned by police.

Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player.

She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram.

On the night in question, she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non-consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time.

She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up.

Contacted by AFP after Friday’s development, Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as “incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case’s elements”.

“We, along with Achraf Hakimi, remain as calm as we were at the start of the proceedings.

“If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal,” she added.

“My client welcomes this news with immense relief,” Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, told AFP.

Hakimi, born in Madrid, came through the youth system at Real Madrid before joining Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in 2018.

He went on to make 73 appearances for the German club.

He moved to Inter Milan in 2020 and then on to PSG in 2021, where he has established himself as an integral part of the team.

In Qatar, Hakimi was a cornerstone of the Morocco team that became the first African or Arab nation to reach the semifinals of a World Cup.

Dutch prosecutors have dropped charges against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans after CCTV footage showing violence towards Muslim women last November was erased. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen is in Amsterdam, where the decision has sparked controversy over alleged double standards.

US President Donald Trump links US aid to Netanyahu’s corruption trial in fiery post on his social media site.

United States President Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on Israeli prosecutors over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, calling it “insanity” and linking Washington’s financial support to the proceedings.

Posting on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump lashed out at Israeli authorities for undermining Netanyahu’s ability to negotiate with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and manage mounting tensions with Iran.

“It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump wrote, referring to the Israeli leader with his nickname and claiming his trial would obstruct peace efforts in the region.

“The United States of America spends billions of dollars a year … protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” he added.

Netanyahu is set to take the stand on Monday for cross-examination in a long-running corruption case that began in 2020.

He faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. His lawyers had requested a two-week delay in testimony, citing national security demands following Israel’s recent 12-day conflict with Iran. That appeal was rejected on Friday.

Members of Israel’s Knesset have accused Netanyahu of using the regional conflicts to secure an end to his corruption trial.

“[Netanyahu] is conditioning the future of Israel and our children on his trial,” Naama Lazimi, Knesset member from the Democrats Party, told The Times of Israel newspaper.

Karine Elharrar, Knesset member from Yesh Atid party, warned that Netanyahu is “acting against the Israeli public interest” by linking his legal fate with captive negotiations and regional normalisation agreements.

ICC arrest warrant

Netanyahu’s legal troubles include an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued last year for him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

The charges include war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel’s war on Gaza, beginning in October 2023. Both leaders have called the arrest warrant “anti-Semitic”.

Trump’s comments come just days after he suggested a ceasefire deal with Hamas may be close.

Speaking to reporters, he claimed Netanyahu was engaged in negotiations with the Palestinian group, though no further details were provided.

Hamas has stated it would free remaining Israeli captives in Gaza as part of a deal to end the war, but has rejected Israeli demands for total disarmament.

Netanyahu responded to Trump’s defence with a post on X: “Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!”

Calls for Netanyahu to resign

The political turmoil in Israel has deepened, with renewed calls for Netanyahu’s resignation. In a televised interview with Channel 12, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it was time for Netanyahu to step aside.

“He has been in power for 20 years … that’s too much,” said Bennett. “He bears heavy responsibility for the divisions in Israeli society.”

Bennett, who has taken a break from politics, is reportedly eyeing a return, with polls suggesting he could challenge Netanyahu once more.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday fired at least three prosecutors involved in U.S. Capitol riot criminal cases, the latest moves by the Trump administration targeting attorneys connected to the massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Those dismissed include two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol riot and insurrection, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

A letter received by one of the prosecutors was signed by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. The letter did not provide a reason for their removal, effective immediately, citing only “Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” according to a copy seen by the Associated Press.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Friday evening.

The terminations marked yet another escalation of the moves that have raised alarm over the Trump administration’s disregard for civil service protections for career lawyers and the erosion of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House. Top leaders at the Justice Department have also fired employees who worked on the prosecutions of President Trump and demoted a slew of career supervisors in what has been seen as an effort to purge the agency of lawyers seen as insufficiently loyal.

Trump’s sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters have led to worries about actions being taken against attorneys involved in the massive prosecution of the more than 1,500 Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of them on his first day back in the White House, releasing from prison people convicted of seditious conspiracy and violent assaults on police.

During his time as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, Ed Martin in February demoted several prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 cases, including the attorney who served as chief of the Capitol Siege Section. Others demoted include two lawyers who helped secure seditious conspiracy convictions against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio.

In January, then-acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s 2024 presidential win. Bove said he would not “tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.”

Trump, the only felon to ever occupy the White House, was impeached on a charge of inciting insurrection in the attack on the Capitol. He was also indicted on felony charges related to Jan. 6, but that case was dropped after Trump was elected in November.

Richer writes for the Associated Press.

Prosecutors make closing arguments in six-week trial that heard harrowing testimony from people who faced alleged abuse.

United States prosecutors argued that Sean “Diddy” Combs used his wealth and influence to evade accountability for violently abusing women in closing arguments in the entertainment mogul’s trial.

Prosecutors told the jury on Thursday that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”

The trial of the billionaire former rapper, a central figure in the rise of hip-hop in US popular culture, has included harrowing testimony from women who described an atmosphere of cruelty, exploitation, and intimidation.

Over six weeks of testimony, prosecutors also said that Combs pushed people to participate in drug-fuelled sex parties known as “freak offs”, with footage of people engaged in sex acts then used as leverage by Combs.

Slavik said that Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” singer and former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura to have sex with escorts for his own entertainment and used a “small army of employees” from his entertainment empire to cover up abuses and intimidate anyone who tried to push back.

Combs sat with his head down while Slavik made her remarks before the jury, wearing a light-coloured sweater and khaki trousers. His lawyers have argued that while Combs has a violent temperament and has committed violent acts against romantic partners, prosecutors have misrepresented a sexually unorthodox lifestyle as evidence of crimes such as racketeering and trafficking.

Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury that they would hear final statements from the defence on Friday, with the prosecution given a chance to offer a rebuttal before jurors are instructed on their responsibilities and sent to begin deliberation.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday or Monday, and Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.

Lawyers for the Salvadoran immigrant asked he be returned to Maryland to prevent his quick deportation from Tennessee.

Federal prosecutors have told a judge in Maryland that the United States government plans to initiate a new round of removal proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose mistaken deportation in March drew outcry.

On Thursday, Department of Justice lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, said the removal proceedings would be to a “third country”, not El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia was previously deported.

But the prosecutor also said the government’s plans are not “imminent”. Guynn added that the US government would comply with all court orders.

The government’s plan came to light as part of an emergency request presented to US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Abrego Garcia is currently being held in Tennessee, where he faces criminal charges. But judges in Tennessee have indicated they plan to release Abrego Garcia – leaving him vulnerable to re-arrest by immigration agents.

His lawyers petitioned Judge Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland when he is released in Tennessee, to prevent his deportation before he stands trial.

“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” Jonathan Cooper, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, said.

Judge Xinis, however, said she could not move as quickly as Abrego Garcia’s lawyers requested.

Abrego Garcia is one of the most prominent immigrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s recent push for “mass deportation”.

Though he was subject to a 2019 protection order allowing him to remain in the country, Abrego Garcia was arrested and deported around March 15, setting off a high-profile legal battle for his return.

Initially, he was held with hundreds of other deported men in El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison accused of housing abusive conditions. But by April, amid intense media scrutiny, it was revealed he had been transferred to another facility in the city of Santa Ana.

Prior to his removal, Abrego Garcia had not been charged with a crime. But when the US government announced his abrupt return on June 6, it revealed that it had sought an indictment against Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges.

That case is ongoing in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers there have argued that the charges are an attempt by the Trump administration to save face.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang and a danger to society. It has relied on a 2022 video of a traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia as evidence: He is seen driving a large vehicle with nine passengers, while a police officer speculates why they do not have luggage.

Officials have previously described Abrego Garcia’s initial March deportation as an “administrative error”.

Separately from the Tennessee case, Judge Xinis has weighed whether the March deportation was unlawful – and whether the Trump administration’s actions constitute contempt of court.

In April, Xinis, and later the US Supreme Court, ruled that the US government had an obligation to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador after his mistaken deportation.

But lawyers for Abrego Garcia have argued that the US government delayed and failed to provide court-mandated information about his return. All the while, they say, the Trump administration was preparing criminal charges against their client.

On Thursday, Judge Xinis said she had to consider the Trump administration’s pending motions to dismiss the case before she could rule on the emergency request to bring Abrego Garcia to Maryland.

She scheduled a July 7 court hearing in Maryland to discuss the emergency request and other matters.

Abrego Garcia currently remains in temporary custody in Tennessee to prevent a second deportation.

Federal prosecutors in the US will not seek the death sentence for Joaquin Guzman Lopez if he is found guilty at trial, court documents show.

Federal prosecutors in the United States said they will not seek the death penalty for the son of Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” if he is found guilty of multiple drug trafficking charges when he goes on trial.

According to media reports, federal prosecutors in Chicago filed a one-sentence notice on May 23, saying they would not seek the death penalty for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – the former leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa Cartel who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The notice did not offer any explanation for the decision by the federal prosecutors, or further details.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 38, was indicted in 2023 along with three of his brothers – known as the “Chapitos”, or little Chapos – on US drug trafficking and money laundering charges after assuming leadership of their father’s drug cartel when “El Chapo” was extradited to the US in 2017.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that he was pleased with the federal prosecutors’ decision, “as it’s the correct one”.

“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to the five charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering against him, one of which carries the maximum sentence of death as it was allegedly carried out on US territory.

He was taken into US custody in a dramatic July 2024 arrest alongside alleged Sinaloa Cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on a New Mexico airfield.

Zambada has also pleaded not guilty. But his lawyer told the Reuters news agency that he would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to spare him the death penalty.

Another of the brothers, Ovidio Guzman, is expected to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges against him at a court hearing in Chicago on July 9, according to court records.

“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.