Category Archives: Law (US)

Israeli airstrike that killed seven health workers in Lebanon used US munition, analysis reveals

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Human rights experts say attack was violation of international law, and that US supplying of weapon defies 1997 Leahy law

Israel used a US weapon in a March airstrike which killed seven healthcare workers in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site of the attack, which was described by Human Rights Watch as a violation of international law.

Seven volunteer paramedics, aged between 18 and 25, were killed in the 27 March attack on an ambulance center belonging to the Lebanese Succor Association in the town of al-Habariyeh in south Lebanon on 27 March.

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‘Correct a black mark in US history’: former prisoners of Abu Ghraib get day in court

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Jury trial against military contractor CACI over ‘sadistic, blatant and wanton abuses’ comes 20 years after scandal broke

The first trial to contend with the post-9/11 abuse of detainees in US custody begins on Monday, in a case brought by three men who were held in the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The jury trial, in a federal court in Virginia, comes nearly 20 years to the day that the photographs depicting torture and abuse in the prison were first revealed to the public, prompting an international scandal that came to symbolize the treatment of detainees in the US “war on terror”.

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Ex-US ambassador sentenced to 15 years in prison for serving as secret agent for Cuba

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Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government

A former career US diplomat was sentenced Friday to 15 years in federal prison after admitting he worked for decades as a secret agent for Cuba, in a plea agreement that leaves many unanswered questions about a betrayal that stunned the US foreign service.

Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with authorities after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen other counts, including wire fraud and making false statements.

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Prosecutors say Mike Lynch firm ‘paid customers to buy software’ as part of revenue fraud

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New Jersey executive testified that the UK company Autonomy made millions of dollars’ worth of deals offering to fund purchases

The British technology firm Autonomy struck millions of dollars’ worth of “handshake deals” through which it paid customers to buy its software, the jury in the fraud trial of its co-founder Mike Lynch has heard.

Lynch, who co-founded and led Autonomy, has pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. He stands accused of orchestrating a huge fraud before Hewlett-Packard’s blockbuster takeover of the company in 2011.

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Spurs billionaire Joe Lewis pleads not guilty to securities fraud

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Lewis, whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur FC, is accused of ‘brazen’ insider trading

Lawyers for the British billionaire Joe Lewis have accused prosecutors of making an “egregious” mistake, as the 86-year-old pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of securities fraud and conspiracy.

Lewis, who heads the family that owns Tottenham Hotspur FC, was arraigned on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court with 16 counts of securities fraud and three of conspiracy to commit fraud, which prosecutors called a “brazen” insider trading scheme to enrich his friends, lovers and employees, including two private jet pilots.

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Supreme court rules in favor of trans woman who fled violence in Guatemala

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Estrella Santos-Zacaria will have another chance to seek asylum from sexual assault and death threats after being deported in 2008

The US supreme court ruled on Thursday in favor of a transgender Guatemalan woman fighting deportation on the grounds that she would face persecution if returned to her native country.

The unanimous decision in favor of Estrella Santos-Zacaria gives her another chance to argue that immigration officials were wrong to reject her bid to remain in the US.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html.

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Influencer ‘Ray Hushpuppi’ jailed over plan to launder $300m

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Ramon Abbas, described by FBI as one of world’s most prolific money launderers, sentenced to 11 years

A social media influencer who called himself Ray Hushpuppi and flaunted a lavish lifestyle fuelled by his efforts to launder millions of stolen dollars has been sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison.

Ramon Abbas, 40, also was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7m in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

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US court drops Libor rate-rigging charges against ex-UBS trader

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Judge dismisses case against British former trader Tom Hayes, who was jailed over interest rate scandal

A New York court has dismissed a criminal indictment against Tom Hayes, the British former trader at UBS and Citigroup who served five and a half years in a UK prison for rigging the Libor lending benchmark.

Prosecutors in the US filed a motion to dismiss the case against Hayes and another former UBS trader, Roger Darin.

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Kevin Spacey trial begins in New York, five years after sexual abuse accusations

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Anthony Rapp alleges Spacey acted to gratify sexual desire during an encounter in 1986, when he was 14 and the Oscar winner was 26 or 27

Actor Kevin Spacey faces the first of a series of sexual abuse claims dating back decades on Thursday in New York in a trial that may come to overshadow a glittering career on stage and screen that included two Oscars and numerous other top awards.

The case against the 63-year-old American focuses on accusations by Anthony Rapp, a star of the Broadway musical Rent, who five years ago publicly accused Spacey of sexual assault when he was a teenager.

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Trump asks supreme court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago special master dispute

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Appellate court ruling prevented special master from examining 100 files seized from Mar-a-Lago with classification markings

Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the US supreme court to partially reverse an appellate court decision that prevented the special master, reviewing for privilege protections materials seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago resort in August, from examining 100 documents with classification markings.

The motion to vacate the ruling by the US appeals court for the 11th circuit represents the former president’s final chance to reinsert the 100 documents into the special master review – and potentially exclude some from the investigation into whether he illegally retained national defense information

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The Onion defends right to parody in very real supreme court brief supporting local satirist

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Long-running satirical publication files legal document relating to case of man who was arrested for making fun of police

The clarion call of justice is sounding across America once again, thanks to the tireless efforts of its finest purveyor of made-up news.

The Onion, the long-running satirical publication, has filed a very real legal document with the US supreme court, urging it to take on a case centered on the right to parody. And in order to make a serious legal point, the filing does what the Onion does best, offering a big helping of total nonsense.

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California woman who admitted to faking her kidnapping sentenced to 18 months in prison

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Sherri Papini’s case gained national attention when she went missing for weeks but was found staying with an ex-boyfriend

Sherri Papini, the California woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping in 2016, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Papini’s case grabbed national attention when she went missing for several weeks, prompting a frantic search and widespread media coverage. She eventually reappeared with an elaborate story of being abducted by two “Hispanic women”, chained to a pole for three weeks, beaten and branded before being released by the side of a highway.

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John Roberts defends supreme court as Kamala Harris lashes out at Roe ruling

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Chief justice warns against linking contentious decisions with court legitimacy as vice-president attacks ‘activist court’

US supreme court chief justice John Roberts has defended his conservative-leaning bench from attacks over its decision in June to overturn federal abortion rights, as US vice-president Kamala Harris launched a fierce attack on what she called today’s “activist court”.

Roberts, in his first public appearance since the bombshell ruling to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision, warned against linking contentious decisions with court legitimacy, saying at an event on Friday night: “The court has always decided controversial cases and decisions have always been subject to intense criticism, and that is entirely appropriate.”

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Trump ‘deeply wounded narcissist’ says former White House lawyer

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Ty Cobb served during the ex-president’s administration and claimed it was one of his two toxic traits dictating his actions

A lawyer who served in the White House during Donald Trump’s administration, said the ex-president is a “deeply wounded narcissist”, claiming that’s one of the two toxic traits that dictate his actions and decision making.

Ty Cobb, who stepped down in 2018 because of Trump’s disapproval of his “conciliatory” approach, also said Trump is “incapable of acting other than in his perceived self-interest or for revenge”.

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Revealed: Ginni Thomas’s links to anti-abortion groups who lobbied to overturn Roe

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Analysis of ‘amicus briefs’ shows how closely Clarence Thomas’s wife was entwined with rightwing effort to reverse 1973 ruling

Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.

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‘Unhinged’ Rudy Giuliani drank and ranted about Islam, new book claims

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Ex-mayor derailed ‘train wreck’ dinner with clients and colleagues, then was later considered for secretary of state

At a law firm dinner in New York in May 2016, an “unhinged” Rudy Giuliani, then Donald Trump’s suggested pick to head a commission on “radical Islamic terrorism”, behaved in a drunken and Islamophobic manner, horrifying clients and attorneys alike.

According to a new book by Geoffrey Berman, a former US attorney for the southern district of New York (SDNY), at one point Giuliani turned to a Jewish man “wearing a yarmulke [who] had ordered a kosher meal” and, under the impression the man was a Muslim, said: “I’m sorry to have tell you this, but the founder of your religion is a murderer.”

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New York enacts new gun restrictions in response to supreme court decision

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After court overturned 1911 New York law, state lawmakers produced act to create ‘gun-free zones’ and strengthen gun control measures

After a federal judge said New York could implement new gun restrictions passed after the US supreme court struck down a century-old law, the state attorney general saluted “a victory in our efforts to protect New Yorkers”.

“Responsible gun control measures save lives and any attempts by the gun lobby to tear down New York’s sensible gun control laws will be met with fierce defense of the law,” Letitia James said on Wednesday night.

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Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documents

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Court motion submitted by ex-president’s lawyers argues some materials seized by FBI could be subject to executive privilege

Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing over the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege.

The motion submitted on Monday by the former president’s lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues.

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US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules

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Ruling comes as plaintiffs say current Georgia public service commission election system discriminates against Black voters

Black voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members to the state’s public service commission scored a preliminary US supreme court order in their favor late Friday.

The decision came after conflicting rulings from lower courts earlier this month, offering up a rare example of the supreme court’s 6-3 conservative majority’s siding with voters over state officials.

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‘I live in fear’: Vanessa Bryant testifies at trial over Kobe’s crash images

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For three hours, Bryant provided testimony against Los Angeles county for invasion of privacy over photos of her husband’s corpse

Vanessa Bryant testified on Friday that she was only beginning to grieve the loss of her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna when she was faced with the fresh horror of learning that sheriff’s deputies and firefighters had shot and shared photos of their bodies at the site of the helicopter crash that killed them.

“I felt like I wanted to run, run down the block and scream,” she said, her tears turning to sobs and her voice quickening. “It was like the feeling of wanting to run down a pier and jump into the water. The problem is I can’t escape. I can’t escape my body.”

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