Trump’s allies attempt to undermine prosecutors endangering his 2024 bid

Ex-prosecutors express criticism as key Republican allies attempt to derail investigations into former president

As Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount at the federal, state and local levels, the ex-president and his lawyers are banking on their political allies in the Republican party to make attacks on a New York prosecutor who has charged Trump with criminal offenses and to also get them to help derail investigations that endanger his 2024 campaign.

Former prosecutors and members of both parties have voiced strong criticism about the drives by Trump, his lawyers and Republican House allies to attack prosecutors who have filed charges against Trump, or are investigating him, calling such moves antithetical to democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as fruitless.

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New York law aims to stop funding of illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank

State assembly member introduced law to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land

New York’s state assembly is to consider legislation to stop registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars a year to fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

State assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, has introduced the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence” act to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land and other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva conventions.

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Rudy Giuliani sued by former assistant alleging sexual assault and harassment

Noelle Dunphy gives graphic descriptions of assault and also accuses former New York mayor of wage theft in 70-page lawsuit

A former associate of Rudy Giuliani sued the former New York mayor, presidential candidate and attorney to Donald Trump for $10m on Monday, alleging “abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct” including “alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist and antisemitic remarks”.

Filed in New York state, Noelle Dunphy’s suit includes the allegation that Giuliani “often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump”.

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‘He didn’t completely break us’: Buffalo grieves mass shooting one year on

Mourners gathered to remember the 10 people killed by a white supremacist last year at the Tops Friendly market

As families across the US celebrated Mother’s Day, several hundred people – including prominent elected officials – gathered at Buffalo’s Jefferson Avenue Tops Friendly market for a different reason: to mark the first anniversary of the day a white supremacist gunman drove several hours to Buffalo’s East Side and murdered 10 people at gunpoint.

People from across New York state, the US and Canada had come to the predominantly Black neighborhood to show support after the shooting. And Sunday was no different as speakers hailed Buffalo residents’ resilience 12 months on from the mass killing that left their city bereaved.

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Trump rages after sexual abuse verdict but legal woes have only just begun

Investigations are mounting, making it harder for the former president to spin his troubles as persecution by liberal elites

If the outcome of Donald Trump’s sexual assault trial wasn’t a foregone conclusion, his response to a jury finding he attacked the writer E Jean Carroll was all too predictable.

The former president lashed out at the judge as biased and the jurors as “from an anti-Trump area”, meaning liberal New York, after they believed Carroll’s account of the millionaire businessman attacking her in a department store changing room in the mid-1990s. The jury ordered him to pay $5m in damages for “sexual abuse” and for defaming Carroll by accusing her of “a made-up SCAM” for political ends.

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Legal defense fund raises over $1m for accused in Jordan Neely subway death

Daniel Penny was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in death of fellow passenger on New York subway

An online fundraiser for Daniel Penny, who placed fellow subway rider Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in a case that has come to symbolize fears over crime, racism and vigilantism, has raised more than $1m for his legal defense.

The fundraiser for Daniel Penny, a white former marine, who was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Neely, who is Black, is on GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising website has also hosted drives for rightwing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse and far-right groups, including January 6 insurrectionists.

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Man charged with manslaughter over subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely in New York

Daniel Penny, a former marine who surrendered to police in New York, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty

The man who killed Jordan Neely after putting him in a chokehold while on a subway in New York City has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Friday.

Daniel Penny, 24, could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under the charge. Penny surrendered himself to New York police on Friday morning.

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Ex-marine to be charged in subway chokehold killing of Jordan Neely

Daniel Penny, 24, faces second-degree manslaughter charges that could carry up to 15 years in jail, according to Manhattan DA’s office

Authorities in New York said they will bring criminal charges against a former marine who put fellow subway passenger Jordan Neely in a chokehold that killed him.

Daniel Penny, 24, is expected to be arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter, which could carry a jail term of up to 15 years.

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E Jean Carroll considering suing Trump for his remarks during CNN town hall

The disparaging comments came just a day after the ex-president was found liable for sexually abusing the writer

Writer E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall just a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.

“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the New York Times about the prospect of a defamation lawsuit. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.”

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‘We’re living in madness’: George Santos’s constituents on federal charges

Residents of the congressman’s New York district say they’re fed up with a system that enables his behavior

“It’s like we’re living in madness,” said Danielle Gentile at a Brazilian restaurant in Long Island’s Westbury, one of a cluster of towns close to the eastern border of the fabulist Republican congressman George Santos’s third congressional district.

“I know politicians lie all the time, but you’ve got to at least try to keep up,” Gentile added. “But what’s he going to say? I didn’t mean to lie? He’s like the Brian Williams of politics.”

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George Santos surrenders to face federal charges of fraud and money laundering

New York congressman known for lying expected to appear in court on charges also including theft of public funds

The Republican congressman George Santos, exposed for lying extensively about his background and campaign finance disclosures, appeared in federal court in New York on Wednesday on multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false statements.

Santos surrendered to authorities at the courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island, a day after he was informed of the indictment, slipping in through a back door.

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Jury finds Donald Trump sexually abused columnist E Jean Carroll

Verdict for first time legally brands a former US president as a sexual predator but clears Trump of rape

A New York jury found on Tuesday that Donald Trump sexually abused the advice columnist E Jean Carroll in a New York department store changing room 27 years ago.

The verdict for the first time legally brands a former US president as a sexual predator. But as it is the result of a civil not criminal case, the only legal sanction Trump will face is financial.

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Jordan Neely killing: lack of arrest highlights racial disparities in charging

Anger mounts that white subway rider who put Black man in chokehold was released without charge

As New York City authorities continue to investigate the killing of an unhoused Black man who was put into a chokehold by a white transit passenger, anger and frustration mounted over the lack of an arrest in the case, reinforcing longstanding racial disparities over who gets charged for crimes in the city and nationally.

“His killing is a reflection of deep racial bias in our society,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Guardian on Friday. “And the way he was treated after death is a reflection of other biases with regard to people who suffer mental illness.

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Jordan Neely killing: marine veteran could face manslaughter charge, says expert

Source confirms marine’s identity as Daniel Penny, 24, of West Islip, Long Island, but Penny has not yet been charged with a crime

The US Marine veteran who was recorded placing Jordan Neely in a chokehold on the New York City subway before the Michael Jackson impersonator died on Monday could face a manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide charge, an expert told the Guardian on Friday.

A source with knowledge of the case first confirmed the marine veteran’s identity as 24-year-old Daniel Penny of West Islip, Long Island. Attorneys for Penny later provided his name to news outlets after it was widely circulated late on Thursday by social media users, citing information from people who recognized him in cellphone video footage of Neely’s final moments.

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Jordan Neely: man killed by rider’s chokehold was talented dancer

Neely, 30, whose subway death was ruled a homicide by New York’s medical examiner, remembered as kind and loving

Jordan Neely had a fan club.

The 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator had amassed a following within New York City and beyond, with thousands online admiring the young man’s aptitude for dance and creating a Facebook group to share his performances.

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New York mayor and police criticized for lack of action over Jordan Neely’s death

Medical examiner confirmed on Wednesday that 30-year-old Black man died from compression to the neck

Pressure was mounting on police, prosecutors and the New York mayor, Eric Adams, on Thursday as protesters, advocates and even Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez criticized the lack of action over the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black man and Michael Jackson impersonator who was placed in a chokehold by another subway rider.

Adams has heightened police presence in subway stations in an attempt to curtail crime, while endorsing involuntarily hospitalizing people experiencing homelessness with mental illness and using police to remove people suffering from mental illness from subway stations.

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US judge throws out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against New York Times

Lawsuit alleged newspaper sought out niece Mary Trump and persuaded her to join ‘insidious plot’ to obtain Trump’s tax records

A judge in New York has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit accusing New York Times reporters of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.

The former president has also been asked to pay all attorneys’ fees and legal expenses the Times has incurred. The lawsuit alleged that the newspaper sought out Trump’s niece Mary Trump and persuaded her “to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office”.

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Trump described E Jean Carroll rape accusation as ‘ridiculous’, jury hears

Jurors shown tape of deposition taken before case came to court in which Trump dismissed ‘the most ridiculous, disgusting story’

Donald Trump has described the accusation he raped the advice columnist E Jean Carroll as “ridiculous” in a deposition played to a New York jury on Wednesday.

The former president also said he could not remember when he was married to his various wives, but could find out. Asked if he had affairs while married, Trump said: “I don’t know.”

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New York takes big step toward renewable energy in ‘historic’ climate win

Measure will also help shift utilities away from private companies to make them publicly owned

New York state has passed legislation that will scale up the state’s renewable energy production and signals a major step toward moving utilities out of private hands to become publicly owned.

The bill, included in the state’s new budget, will require the state’s public power provider to generate all of its electricity from clean energy by 2030. It also allows the public utility to build and own renewables while phasing out fossil fuels.

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Witness says E Jean Carroll called her ‘hyperventilating’ after alleged rape by Trump

Lisa Birnbach testifies that Carroll called her and described the incident in 1996, and that she told her friend ‘E Jean, he raped you’

A close friend of E Jean Carroll has told a New York jury she received a distressed call from the advice columnist within minutes of Donald Trump allegedly raping her.

Lisa Birnbach testified at Carroll’s civil action against the former president on Tuesday that she was feeding her children at home when Carroll called “breathless, hyperventilating, emotional” in spring 1996.

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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