Month: May 2024

Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts by the jury in his “hush money” trial in New York on Thursday, making him the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime. At the end of their second day of deliberations the 12 person jury found Trump guilty on all counts.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office brought the unprecedented case against Trump, aiming to prove he falsified financial records – “with intent to defraud” – to mask a $130,000 hush money payment his former-attorney Michael Cohe nmade to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of his 2016 presidential election, and also that he did so in order to conceal a second crime (elevating the charges from misdemeanors to felonies). Trump pleaded not guilty to the 34-count indictment.

New York Judge Juan Merchan set a sentencing date of July 11, just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where Trump will be formally nominated. He could face up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each count, but Merchan could limit the punishment to a fine, probation or home confinement.

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Actor Nick Pasqual has been arrested and charged with stabbing his estranged girlfriend. According to prosecutors, Pasqual, 34, allegedly attempted to kill his ex-girlfriend by stabbing her multiple times on May 23 at her home in the Sunland neighborhood of Los Angeles.  Pasqual allegedly fled the scene and was later apprehended at a U.S.-Mexico border check point in Texas.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday that Pasqual, 34, had been charged with one count of attempted murder, a count of first-degree residential burglary with a person present, and one count of injuring a spouse, cohabitant, fiancé, boyfriend, girlfriend or child’s parent. The actor was detained at a check point in Sierra Blanca, Texas, and will be extradited to Los Angeles County, where he faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison if convicted.

District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement: “My thoughts and heartfelt sympathies are with the victim in this horrific incident. Our office, including our Bureau of Victim Services, extends our support and resources to her as she embarks on the long and difficult journey of healing from both the physical and emotional trauma inflicted upon her. This heinous incident is a stark reminder of the dangers of domestic violence. We will ensure that the individual responsible for this egregious act is held accountable for their actions.”

The DA’s office did not identify the victim by name, but Entertainment Tonight reported that the victim is makeup artist Allie Shehorn. A GoFundMe account has been launched and verified by the platform to help cover Shehorn’s medical expenses. Shehorn, who recently filed a restraining order against Pasqual, was hospitalized with critical injuries. Friends said she has already gone through multiple surgeries and is expected to have an extended hospital stay as part of her recovery.

Pasqual has appeared in film and TV projects including “Rebel Moon: Part 1,” “Mean Girls” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Archive 81. ”

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Three Black men are suing American Airlines after alleging employees from the company removed them, as well as five other Black men, from a flight in January due to a complaint about a passenger with “offensive body odor.”

The three men — Emmanuel Jean Joseph, Alvin Jackson and Xavier Jones — were flying separately and did not know one another, and were on a connecting flight from Los Angeles..  The plaintiffs said in their complaint, filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, that as American Airlines Flight 832 from Phoenix to New York was boarding in January, employees removed eight Black men from the plane. The three allege that at no point throughout the other flight did any employee from American Airlines say anything to them about an offensive odor, and according to their lawsuit, they were the only Black passengers on the flight.

Video central to the lawsuit displayed the group of Black men being removed from the flight, with Jean Joseph telling CBS News that as he gathered his belongings and walked to the jet bridge, he noticed that only Black men were being removed from the flight and decided to record the incident on his phone. The lawsuit claims that the men were held in the jetway for about an hour and then moved to the gate area where they were told they would be rebooked on another flight to New York later that day. A gate agent seen in the video at one point seemed to agree that race was a factor in the decision to remove the men from the flight. According to the lawsuit, an American Airlines employee indicated that the complaint about body odor came from a “white male flight attendant.”

Sue Huhta, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that American Airlines declined to provide her clients any answers about the incident and said it seems “fairly apparent that race was part of this dynamic …It’s almost inconceivable to come up with an explanation for that other than the color of their skin, particularly since they didn’t know each other and weren’t sitting near each other.”

American Airlines said in a statement to CBS News: “we take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us. Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.”

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On Wednesday, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a “Do Not Drive” alert for nearly 84,000 Nissan-made vehicles produced between 2002-2006 that were equipped with defective, recalled Takata airbags.

The warning covers certain model year 2002-2006 Nissan Sentras, 2002-2004 Nissan Pathfinders and 2002-2003 Infiniti QX4s that are subject to open Takata airbag recalls under past NHTSA recall campaigns. Recall notices from the NHTSA stated that a vehicle’s frontal passenger airbag inflators may explode due to “propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to high absolute humidity, high temperatures, and high temperature cycling.” According to a news release, the NHTSA “is urging all vehicle owners to immediately check to see if their vehicle has an open Takata airbag recall,” and if so, should schedule a free repair at their dealerships and follow warnings from the manufacturer. NHTSA’s press release added that “even minor crashes can result in exploding Takata airbags that can kill or produce life-altering, gruesome injuries. Older model year vehicles put their occupants at higher risk, as the age of the airbag is one of the contributing factors.”

Nissan said on its website: “Due to the age of the vehicles equipped with defective Takata airbag inflators, there is an increased risk the inflator could explode during an airbag deployment, propelling sharp metal fragments which can cause serious injury or death.” Nissan and Infiniti are offering free towing, mobile repair and, in some places, loaner vehicles.

An estimated 67 million Takata airbags across vehicles from multiple automakers have been recalled because exposure over time to heat and humidity can cause metal parts inside the air bag to shoot out at drivers or passengers when deployed, according to NHTSA, who added that 27 people have been killed by a defective Takata airbag and over 400 people have been injured. Approximately 50 million defective Takata airbag inflators had been repaired as of 2021.

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A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the conviction of a former New York City Police Department officer who was charged for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, after he claimed that he couldn’t get an impartial jury in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Webster, the former NYPD officer, was found guilty in 2022 of assaulting a police officer during the riot. Webster sought to have his case moved out of the nation’s capital, raising concerns about political bias by the jury pool, but a federal district court denied his request. His legal arguments echoed public comments about the partisan bent of DC from Trump and his allies about the criminal case the former president faces in the nation’s capital for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

However, the unanimous three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a ruling Tuesday that Webster was wrong when he argued that the jury pool in the District of Columbia was too Democratic, too tied to the federal government and too surrounded by news coverage of the Capitol attack to produce 12 unbiased jurors who would decide his case.  The opinion was written by Barack Obama-appointed Judge Patricia Millett and joined by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both Trump appointees. According to ABC News, the judges found that nothing in the record suggested that the jury pool had preconceived notions about Webster or knew who he was, and also determined that he failed to show that the district’s jury pool is incapable of producing fair juries for people facing charges that stem from the Jan. 6 attack. Millett wrote: “Webster asserts that the District overwhelmingly voted for President Biden and historically votes for Democratic candidates. That may be. But the political inclinations of a populace writ large say nothing about an individual’s ability to serve impartially in adjudicating the criminal conduct of an individual .. Webster’s focus on the jury pool’s opinion of January 6th and its perpetrators misses the point. We expect jurors to view significant criminal events in their hometown with an unapproving eye, whether it is the January 6th attack on the Capitol, a murder, or an armed robbery spree. Generalized disapproval of criminal conduct — even the specific conduct at issue in a defendant’s case — says nothing about a juror’s ability to be impartial in deciding whether a particular individual committed a crime or not.”

Webster was among the crowd of Trump supporters who attended the rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 and marched to the Capitol. Wearing body armor and carrying a Marine Corps flag, he confronted police officers outside the Capitol and was involved in an altercation with a member of the Metropolitan Police Department, knocking him to the ground and pushing his gas mask into his face.

In addition to upholding Webster’s conviction, the panel affirmed his 10-year prison sentence – one of the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. He was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument.

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Pope Francis is apologizing after reports surfaced that the pontiff had used a homophobic term for LGBTQ+ people in a closed-door meeting with bishops. The Vatican issued a statement on Tuesday on behalf of Pope Francis, which said in part: “In the Church there is room for everyone, for everyone! Nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, all of us.” Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, added: “Pope Francis is aware of articles that recently came out about a conversation, behind closed doors, with the bishops of the [Italian Bishops Conference]. The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”

CBS News reported that the Pope Francis had used derogatory language at the Italian Bishops’ Conference when asked if gay men should be allowed to train as priests if they remain celibate. The pope reportedly said gay men should not be allowed to train as priests even if they pledge to remain celibate, and he used a homophobic slur – reinforcing longstanding Church instruction against allowing homosexual men to enter the seminary to train for the priesthood.

The remarks were first reported on the Italian tabloid website Dagospia and then by other Italian news agencies, who said that Pope Francis was reportedly speaking in Italian, which is not his first language. The Vatican’s statement continued: “The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term, reported by others.”

Pope Francis has previously been respectful publicly towards the LGBTQ+ community, stating that priests should be able to bless same-sex couples in some circumstances, but stressing that the blessings would be for individuals in the couples, and not the couples themselves.

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