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It’s not just Stormy Daniels. Here are ongoing criminal investigations Trump faces

by www.npr.org Leave a Comment

Former President Donald Trump addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on March 4 in National Harbor, Md. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

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Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on March 4 in National Harbor, Md.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

As the possibility looms of a Manhattan grand jury handing down a criminal indictment for former President Donald Trump, he also faces scrutiny in other ongoing investigations that could come with charges of their own.

The proceedings — from New York, Georgia and the federal Department of Justice — all have the potential to upend the 2024 presidential race, in which Trump has already announced his candidacy.

Trump has survived plenty of investigations already — remember the Mueller investigation? How about the Ukraine impeachment inquiry? — but criminal charges, and a subsequent arrest, could have a dramatic effect on his 2024 campaign . Never before has a former president been charged with a crime.

Here are the active investigations:

The Stormy Daniels hush money investigation (Manhattan District Attorney’s Office)

This criminal case centers on a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actor, made just before the 2016 election in order to quiet her allegations of an affair with Trump.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says that she and Trump had an affair at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 . As Trump’s campaign for president picked up steam, she offered to sell her story to gossip magazines. In October, executives at the National Enquirer , a publication long friendly to Trump, alerted Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen .

Cohen reached an agreement with Daniels to pay her $130,000 in exchange for keeping her story quiet. Her attorney received the money from Cohen on Oct. 27, less than two weeks before the election.

After Trump was elected president, Cohen was reimbursed with a total of $420,000, to account for taxes and other costs. Some of the reimbursement checks were signed by Trump himself, who has admitted to repaying Cohen for money paid to Daniels. He has denied having the affair.

According to court records, the Trump Organization’s top executives falsely identified the reimbursements as a “retainer” for “legal services.”

Now, the grand jury is examining whether Trump committed a felony under New York state law by falsifying business records to cover up another crime — like the violation of campaign finance laws with the hush money payment.

The case is being brought by Alvin Bragg Jr. , who was elected district attorney of New York County in 2021. He took over the case from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., who had opened a broad criminal inquiry into Trump’s business activities while Trump was still president.

Earlier this month, reports emerged that prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office had offered Trump the chance to testify before a grand jury. In New York, that’s usually a signal that charges are coming soon, as potential defendants must have the opportunity to answer questions in the grand jury before an indictment. (Trump declined the offer to testify.)

The Georgia 2020 election interference investigation (Fulton County District Attorney’s Office)

The Georgia case centers on the actions of Trump and his allies in the weeks following the 2020 presidential election, as they pressured state officials to undo his loss in the state.

After Trump narrowly lost the state, he repeatedly called Georgia state officials to pressure them to find ways to change the outcome — including the infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in which he instructed the Republican Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.” Trump also called Gov. Brian Kemp and the state attorney general to urge them to contest the election results.

The inquiry has also examined efforts to send slates of fake electors to the Electoral College to say that Trump won, rather than Joe Biden.

The investigation is led by Fani Willis, the top prosecutor in Fulton County, Ga., where a special grand jury spent eight months hearing from more than 70 witnesses. Their work was finalized in early January. A portion of their report was released last month , but a judge ruled that most of it should remain confidential, for now.

Willis has said decisions on indictments are “imminent.” It’s not clear if Trump would be among those charged. Possible crimes for him or others could include soliciting election fraud, giving false statements to government bodies and racketeering.

A pair of investigations into Trump’s actions around Jan. 6 and his mishandling of classified documents (the U.S. Department of Justice)

The U.S. Department of Justice has two ongoing investigations into possible criminal actions by Trump. Both probes are being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith , who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year.

One of the investigations centers on how Trump handled classified documents after his presidency ended. Last June, a lawyer for Trump certified that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and all documents found had been turned over to federal authorities. But two months later, an FBI raid recovered more than 100 additional documents.

(President Biden has been embroiled in his own classified documents scandal after files were found to be improperly stored at his Delaware home and a think tank office in Washington he previously used . A different special counsel has also been appointed to investigate that.)

Smith is also looking at Trump’s attempt to interfere with the 2020 election. As part of that probe, prosecutors have interviewed numerous Trump allies and aides. They’ve also subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence , whom Trump pressured intensely to overturn the election results during the certification process on Jan. 6.

Prosecutors are also reportedly investigating the finances of Save America, a Trump-affiliated political action committee.

The DOJ investigations are ongoing. There’s not much known about when charges, if any, would come. But as the 2024 election draws closer, any indictment is sure to draw accusations of political motivations.

Family lived with man’s corpse for six years: Police

by www.newsweek.com Leave a Comment

A family near Kansas City lived with the corpse of an elderly relative for six years, according to police.

The Overland Park Police Department (OPPD) said they were alerted to reports that a man was found dead in a home in the 11800 block of W. 99th Terrace on October 23, 2022.

According to Fox8, relatives said as many as four people had been living with the body of Mike Carroll since 2016.

An OPPD spokesperson told Newsweek : “The Overland Park Investigations Unit originally worked this case as a suspicious death investigation.

“With the assistance of the Johnson County Medical Examiner Office, it was determined the elderly man had passed away from natural causes in 2016.”

The statement continued: “At this time, the Social Security Administration is conducting a criminal investigation.” As of Thursday morning (March 23), there had been no arrests in connection with the case.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, there are 25 open unidentified persons cases in Kansas, and there are 14 that have been resolved. Across the U.S. there are currently 14,397 open unidentified person cases and 6,195 cases that are resolved.

Jannet Carroll, a niece of Mike, told WDAF: “[I’m] just so confused about the whole thing. You know, how could this happen? And how can he lay there for that many years and nobody reported.”

Mike’s other niece, Stefani Blubaugh, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, told the network that when she and others would ask about Mike, those living with him would make excuses, saying he was sick or not home.

She added: “It was a different story every time. You know, he didn’t feel good. He was sleeping. He was eating.”

Fraud Probe

According to the Social Security Administration’s 2021 report, there was an estimated 8.3 billion worth of improper payments in the 2020 fiscal year.

Social Security payments are often made monthly to retirees, although they also cover widows and dependents.

There have been several cases across the U.S. where elderly relatives’ deaths have not been reported, prompting fraud investigations.

Last year, Michele Hoskins of Sebastian, Floria, was arrested after she allegedly kept her mother’s dead body in a freezer as part of a scheme to collect disability payments.

The body of Marie Hoskins, 93, was found on April 28 that year while police carried out a welfare check at the home.

Police said they believed the daughter had kept her mother’s body hidden for around two weeks after she passed away from natural causes.

In massive data breach, details of 16.8 cr citizens, defence staff leaked, gang held: Cyberabad Police

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

The accused persons were found selling more than 140 different categories of information, which include sensitive information such as details of defence personnel and the mobile numbers of citizens and NEET students, among others, Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra told reporters here on Thursday.

A massive data breach that has implications for national security was unearthed by Cyberabad Police here, who arrested seven people of a gang allegedly involved in the theft and sale of sensitive data of the government and important organisations, including details of defence personnel as well as the personal and confidential data of about 16.8 crore citizens. The accused persons were found selling more than 140 different categories of information, which include sensitive information such as details of defence personnel and the mobile numbers of citizens and NEET students, among others, Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra told reporters here on Thursday.

Seven data brokers were arrested from Delhi, police said adding that the accused had been operating through three companies (call centres) in Noida and other places. So far it has been found that the accused sold data to at least 100 fraudsters. Investigations are still on, police said.

Sensitive data of defence personnel containing their ranks, email ids, place of posting, etc was found available with the accused, Commissioner Raveendra said.

“This will have serious national security implications. The data of defence and government employees can be used for espionage; to impersonate them and commit serious offences that may jeopardise national security. We are in the process of finding out how this data got leaked and who are the insiders who are doing it,” he added.

The accused were also found selling information in categories such as Energy and Power sector, PAN card data, Government employees, Gas and Petroleum , HNIs (High Net-worth Individuals), demat accounts, student databases, women databases, data of people who have applied for loans and insurance, and credit card and debit card holders (of private banks), WhatsApp users, Facebook users, IT organisation employees, frequent flyers etc.

The arrested accused were selling the data through a search engine company and similar platforms, police said. These accused aggregated the data leaked from different organisations and having registered themselves as service delivery agents sold the data to cyber criminals after sending them sample data, police said.

The matter came to light after a complaint was lodged with the Cyber Crime wing of Cyberabad Police about the sale and purchase of confidential and sensitive data, even as police had also been investigating how cyber criminals were getting access to data.

The data of NEET students, with their names, mobile number and their residential address, was also found with the accused. A PAN card database containing sensitive information on the income, email ids, phone numbers, address of citizens was also found.

Government employees’ names, mobile numbers, categories, dates of birth etc were also found in a database, apart from a list of Gas and Petroleum companies with similar details of their staff, Raveendra said.

As many as 1.2 crore WhatsApp users and 17 lakh Facebook users had also been targeted in the data theft, with information on login id, IP, city, age, email id, phone number etc found in the possession of the accused, police said.

Further, a mobile number database of three crore individuals, probably leaked from telecom service providers, with order number, service start date, segment details, billing details account number, SIM number etc was also found, which can be used for committing various crimes, the Commissioner said.

The sensitive data that has been leaked can be used for unauthorised access to important organisations and institutions. The data related to PAN card can be used to commit serious financial offences. It is being used to commit a large number of cybercrimes whereby the perpetrators gain the confidence of victims by disclosing such information, police added.

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New York DA investigating Trump calls GOP requests ‘unprecedented’ and ‘unlawful’

by www.npr.org Leave a Comment

District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press conference on Sept. 8, 2022. Alex Kent/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Alex Kent/AFP via Getty Images

District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press conference on Sept. 8, 2022.

Alex Kent/AFP via Getty Images

The New York District Attorney’s office investigating former President Donald Trump called Republican requests for its documents and testimony “an unprecedent inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

In a letter to three Republican House committee chairs, a lawyer in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., said the congressional request suggested their inquiry is designed to “punish” the office for its investigation, and “is therefore indefensible.”

“The DA’s Office will not allow a Congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York’s sovereign police power,” General Counsel for the District Attorney of New York County Leslie Dubeck wrote Thursday.

Earlier this week, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., sent Bragg a letter demanding documents , communications and testimony related to his investigation of the former president.

Bragg’s office is investigating Trump over a $130,000 payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, made just before the 2016 election in order to quiet her allegations of an affair between the two. A New York grand jury is investigating whether Trump falsified his records of the hush money payment in order to cover up a violation of campaign finance laws.

Over the weekend, the former president took to social media to claim he would be arrested on Tuesday, and urged his supporters to protest. The party has rallied around Trump in the days since, decrying the inquiry as political retaliation. But there has been no official announcement of a criminal indictment.

In their letter, the three committee chairs called a possible indictment “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and said it was based on “a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue.”

They argued that if Bragg does indict Trump, Bragg’s actions “will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election.”

In her response Thursday, Dubeck noted that the congressional request “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”

“The Letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” she said.

NPR’s Ilya Marritz contributed to this report.

LAPD chief accused of feeding personal data to anti-police activists: ‘Bounty on our officers’

by www.foxnews.com Leave a Comment

Los Angeles DA facing new challenge for his seat

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney joined ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss why he is running to unseat DA George Gascon as crime surges.

Thousands of photos, names and other personal information for police in Los Angeles were released to an anti-police group that has published the material on a website – sparking a complaint against the city’s top cop from the officers’ labor union.

The information’s release endangers police across the city and exposes undercover cops, the union claims, though the group said the information is public information and doesn’t include private addresses.

“This site just went up a day or two ago and puts a bounty on our officers,” Robert Rico, general counsel for the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “We are going to court to try and get it taken down and have sent cease-and-desist demands to Google and Twitter.”

A police abolitionist group called Stop LAPD Spying Coalition was able to obtain records for all police officers in the city through a public records request and then posted the information on a website titled “Watch the Watchers.”

LA MAYOR BASS CALLS TO ROOT OUT ‘RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST’ POLICE, SIGNALS LOWERING THE BAR FOR NEW RECRUITS

Members of the LAPD walk in downtown Los Angeles.

Members of the LAPD walk in downtown Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / File)

The website allows for users to search for police by name or serial number. Users are then taken to a profile page on the searched officer, including their photo, serial number, ethnicity and year of hire.

News of the data getting released publicly apparently came as a surprise to the police union , which only found out about the matter through a Los Angeles Times reporter who was investigating the story on March 16.

“The LAPPL was shocked and dismayed regarding the release of this information and the dire consequences the release of this information would have on the safety of our member Police Officers,” the union wrote in a formal misconduct complaint.

LAPD’S THIN BLUE LINE FLAG BAN SPURS OUTRAGE AMID RECRUITMENT STRUGGLES: ‘MORALE’S IN THE GUTTER’

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore talks during a news conference at LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore talks during a news conference at LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles. (AP Photo / Marcio Jose Sanchez / File)

The complaint was filed against LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Police Administrator III Lizabeth Rhodes on Tuesday “for gross negligence and misconduct regarding egregious neglect of duty, false statements, and conduct unbecoming an officer or employee for their role in the public disclosure of personal information that will endanger police officers, especially those working in sensitive assignments,” the police union said in a press release this week.

LAPD BANS THIN BLUE LINE FLAG OVER COMPLAINT IT REPRESENTS ‘RACIST, BIGOTED VIEWS’

“Some genius at LAPD f—d up and exposed everybody, including those who are undercover,” Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the LAPPL, told LA Magazine.

Moore said earlier this week that he extended his “deep apologies” for how officers found out about their data getting publicly posted and cited how many cops in the city work dangerous undercover jobs and are now at risk of being exposed.

The Los Angeles skyline

The Los Angeles skyline (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / File)

“They are involved in criminal investigations involving drug cartels, violent street organizations, in which their identity pursuant to court oversight and the constitution is masked,” Moore said at a regular meeting of the Police Commission, according to the LA Times.

LAPD CHIEF WENT ‘WOKE ON US BIG TIME,’ PANDERED TO FAR LEFT IN THIN BLUE LINE FLAG DEBATE: CAITLYN JENNER

The union is demanding answers on “who knew what and when did they know it.”

“If the Chief did not know, as he has claimed, then who did and when will they get shown the door? We will also be pressing to ensure those officers that are working in sensitive assignments are accorded the appropriate security to keep them and their families safe,” the union said in a press release.

Los Angeles Police Department personnel gather outside a crime scene.

Los Angeles Police Department personnel gather outside a crime scene. (LAPD Headquarters Facebook)

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition describes itself as a “community group building power toward abolition of the police state” and was founded in 2011.

An organizer with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition told Fox News Digital on Thursday that “all the information on the Watch the Watchers website is public records.”

“The information on the officers is limited to their names, serial numbers, divisions, year of hire, gender, ethnicity, departmental email address and rank, along with their departmental headshots. The information on the site is in service of public education and community awareness,” organizer Hamid Khan said.

Personal information, such as home addresses, are not included on the website.

Since the data was published on its other site, Watch the Watchers, social media has also ignited with menacing posts calling for “payback time.”

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“We have now #published over 9000 names and head-shots of numerous regular and #undercover #LAPD officers on ⋊i||ɘɿɔoq.ɔom online. A to Z. Let the games begin!! Remember, nobody pays more for LAPD head-shots then ⋊i||ɘɿɔoq.ɔom Payback time!,” a tweet on an account called “KillerCop™” stated on Wednesday.

The Office of the Inspector General is investigating the matter.

The LAPD directed Fox News Digital to the LAPPL’s website when approached for comment Thursday.