Category Archives: Law (US)

Impeachment inquiry: Nadler may add Mueller counts against Trump

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The Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, has not ruled out including evidence from the Mueller report in articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that could be published as early as next week.

On Sunday, Nadler told CNN’s State of the Union evidence showed the president’s conduct in the Ukraine scandal was part of “a pattern”, indicating “that the president put himself above this country several times”.

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Trump impeachment inquiry: House judiciary committee releases report

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The House judiciary committee released a report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment on Saturday. Shortly after that, Donald Trump once again insisted the whole thing was a “witch hunt” and “a total hoax”.

Related: White House dismisses invitation to take part in key impeachment hearing

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The supreme court gutted the most powerful law for fair 2020 elections. Can Democrats revive it? | Myrna Pérez

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The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Can the Democrats’ new bill revive it in time?

On Friday the House of Representatives showed the country that it will not tolerate racial discrimination at the polls. It passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act to its full strength. Our country needs that reform and others to make the 2020 election free and fair for all.

Since its founding, America has moved slowly towards granting suffrage to more and more Americans, bringing more people into the electoral process. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been instrumental to that progress. But in 2013 the supreme court dramatically weakened that law.

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Alabama woman who joined Isis is not US citizen, judge rules

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Hoda Muthana, 25, and son left in limbo in Syria after federal judge sided with Trump administration

A judge sided with the Trump administration on Thursday in ruling that an Alabama woman who joined the Islamic State group was not a US citizen, leaving the 25-year-old and her son in limbo in Syria.

Hoda Muthana, an American-born woman who left Alabama to join Isis in 2014, has said she “deeply regrets” joining the terrorist group and wants to return to the US with her young son.

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National Coming Out Day marked by worry over supreme court LGBTQ case

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National Coming Out Day festivities across the US were tempered this year by anxiety that some LGBTQ people may have to go back into the closet so they can make a living, depending on what the supreme court decides about workplace discrimination.

Related: The US decision on LGBT workers could turn employers into the gender police | Arwa Mahdawi

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Judge rejects Trump’s ‘repugnant’ immunity claim in tax-return ruling

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Judge rules Manhattan’s district attorney could subpoena eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate returns

Donald Trump suffered a major setback in the long struggle to conceal his tax returns on Monday, when he lost a federal court ruling in New York.

Related: Jeff Daniels to play Comey on TV – and Brendan Gleeson to play Trump

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US government files civil lawsuit against Snowden over publication of memoir

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Suit contends whistleblower published Permanent Record ‘in violation of non-disclosure agreements’ with both CIA and NSA

The US government on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, over the publication this week of his memoir.

Snowden, the suit contends, “published a book entitled Permanent Record in violation of the non-disclosure agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA”.

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New York prosecutors subpoena eight years of Trump’s tax returns

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Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance sent subpoena to accounting firm Mazars USA, which says it will ‘fully comply’

Donald Trump faces a new battle over the release of his tax returns after New York prosecutors issued a subpoena for them.

Trump is the first US president in nearly 40 years not to release his tax information, despite having promised to do so during his 2016 election campaign. He has resisted pressure from Democrats and watchdogs demanding greater transparency.

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Elon Musk claims he didn’t intend to accuse British diver of pedophilia

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Tesla CEO’s lawyers said ‘pedo guy’ is a common insult used when Musk was a child in South Africa and not meant to ‘accuse a person’

Elon Musk is continuing to try to wriggle his way out of a defamation lawsuit, claiming in a court filing on Monday that a tweet labeling a British diver “pedo guy” was not meant to actually accuse him of pedophilia.

The Tesla CEO is being sued over comments made in 2018 about Vernon Unsworth, a diver who helped rescue a team of young soccer players stuck in an underwater cave.

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Trump blasts calls for impeachment of Brett Kavanaugh after new allegations

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  • New York Times details new claims against supreme court judge
  • Harris, Castro and Sanders lead calls for constitutional action

Donald Trump came storming to the defence of Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday, after the publication of new allegations about the supreme court justice’s behaviour while he was a student at Yale led to renewed calls for his impeachment.

Related: Trump is seriously, frighteningly unstable - the world is in danger | Robert Reich

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Gwyneth Paltrow ‘a crucial source’ in Harvey Weinstein revelations

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A new book says the actor was scared of going on the record at first but then encouraged other women to speak out

Gwyneth Paltrow has been named a key figure in the New York Times story that first catalogued a series of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and led to the film producer’s dismissal from his own company and subsequent prosecution.

In a new book titled She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey – the New York Times reporters whose story on 5 October 2017 triggered Weinstein’s downfall – Paltrow is said to have been “scared to go on the record but became an early, crucial source, sharing her account of sexual harassment and trying to recruit other actresses to speak”.

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Jeffrey Epstein accuser denies claims photo with Prince Andrew was faked

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Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s attorney says picture said to have been taken at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home is authentic and unaltered

A woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein of forcing her to have sex with his powerful friends has denied a claim by allies of Prince Andrew that a notorious photograph of them together was faked.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s attorneys rejected the claim as a “troubling assertion” and reiterated a request to interview Andrew about the late wealthy financier Epstein, who killed himself last month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

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Boston ‘straight pride’ parade dwarfed by large counter-protest

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A controversial “straight pride” parade in Boston on Saturday drew more than 1,000 counter-protesters and a few hundred supporters.

The rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was “grand marshal” of the event, for which a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) acquired a permit in June.

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Trial for five men charged with planning 9/11 to start in 2021, 20 years after attack

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US charged the five with war crimes that include terrorism, hijacking and nearly 3,000 counts of murder for their alleged roles

A military judge has set a trial date for five men held at Guantánamo Bay and facing the death penalty for their alleged role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks – nearly 20 years after the atrocities took place.

Judge Col W Shane Cohen set a start date of early 2021 in an order setting motion and evidentiary deadlines on Friday. The five defendants include Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior al-Qaida figure who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks and other terrorist plots.

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Alabama man who served 36 years of a life sentence for stealing $50 to be freed

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Alvin Kennard was imprisoned in 1983 with a disproportionately harsh sentence under the ‘three strikes law’

A man from Alabama who was sentenced to life without parole after stealing $50.75 from a bakery in his 20s is to be released after more than three decades in prison.

Alvin Kennard, who was convicted of first degree robbery following the bakery incident, was 22 when he was first imprisoned in 1983.

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Weinstein due in court over indictment involving actor Annabella Sciorra

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Prosecutors to likely ask for Sciorra’s testimony to be included rather than add additional charge, which could delay proceedings

Harvey Weinstein will head back to court in New York on Monday morning, to be arraigned on a new indictment involving the actor Annabella Sciorra.

Related: Lisa Bloom: lawyer in Epstein case speaks of suffering sexual abuse

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Jeffrey Epstein: how will investigators find potential co-conspirators?

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The financier is dead but the investigation has continued – and it’s possible any participants may have fled into hiding

Jeffrey Epstein is dead but the investigation that snared on sex trafficking charges has continued as authorities seek to make good on their promise not to let the convicted sex offender’s apparent suicide mark an end to their quest for justice.

Given the nature of the wealthy financier’s elite international social scene, it’s possible potential co-conspirators or other participants in the alleged trafficking would have the means to flee into hiding, in the US or abroad.

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Supreme court allows Trump to use $2.5bn in Pentagon funds for border wall

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Move allows administration to redirect money despite lawmakers’ refusal to provide funding

The US supreme court cleared the way for Donald Trump to use billions in Pentagon funds to build a border wall.

The decision allows the Trump administration to redirect approximately $2.5bn approved by Congress for the Pentagon to help build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border even though lawmakers refused to provide funding.

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Fear, confusion, despair: the everyday cruelty of a border immigration court

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At a federal immigration court in El Paso asylum seekers wait in limbo as a result of Trump’s policies

Judge Sunita Mahtabfar, presiding over the El Paso immigration court in south-west Texas, kicked off the hearing by asking the 16 asylum seekers a question.

“Is anyone here afraid to return to Mexico?” she said.

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