Obama-appointed Florida judge to preside over Trump's $10B suit against Murdoch and WSJ
Judge Darrin P. Gayles with the Southern District of Florida, a former U.S. attorney, was appointed by the former president in 2014. He was unanimously confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 98-0.
The Howard University and George Washington University School of Law graduate became the first openly gay Black man to serve on the federal bench.
Trump's lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami on July 18 accuses the newspaper, its parent companies, executives and journalists of falsely accusing the president of writing a 50th birthday card to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
The lawsuit names right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp, WSJ publisher Dow Jones, executive Robert Thomson, and two WSJ journalists whose bylines appeared on the story.
The birthday greeting is described as including a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish that says 'may every day be another wonderful secret.'
The defendants 'failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,' according to the lawsuit.
'The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,' the complaint claims.
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The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Sentencing hearing set for ex-Kentucky officer convicted in Breonna Taylor raid
A federal judge prepared Monday afternoon to sentence an ex-Kentucky police officer convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid, days after the U.S. Justice Department recommended he receive no prison time in the Black woman's fatal shooting. Brett Hankison fired his weapon the night of the March 2020 botched drug raid. His shots didn't hit or injure anyone, though they flew through Taylor's walls into a neighboring apartment. The 26-year-old's death, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice protests nationwide that year. Though the sentence could amount to several years, if U.S. District Judge Grady Jennings heeds the Justice Department's request, it would mean none of the Louisville police officers involved in the raid would face prison time. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department recommended no prison time for Hankison, an abrupt about-face by federal prosecutors that has angered critics after the department spent years prosecuting the former detective. The Justice Department, which has changed leadership under President Donald Trump since Hankison's conviction, said in a sentencing memo last week that "there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public' from Hankison. Federal prosecutors suggested time already served, which amounts to one day, and three years of supervised probation. Prosecutors at his previous federal trials aggressively pursued a conviction against Hankison, 49, arguing that he blindly fired 10 shots into Taylor's windows without identifying a target. Taylor was shot in her hallway by two other officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment, striking an officer in the leg. Neither of the other officers was charged in state or federal court after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment. Louisville police used a drug warrant to enter the apartment, but found no drugs or cash inside. A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in 2023, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022. In their recent sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison's 'response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant's fellow officers, or anyone else.' Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor's family secure a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville, has called the Justice Department recommendation 'an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury's decision' and said in a social media statement that it "sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity.' A U.S. Probation Office presentencing report said Hankison should face a range of 135 to 168 months imprisonment on the excessive force conviction, according to the memo. But federal prosecutors said multiple factors — including that Hankison's two other trials ended with no convictions — should greatly reduce the potential punishment. The memorandum was submitted by Harmeet Dhillon, chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and a Trump political appointee who in May moved to cancel settlements with Louisville and Minneapolis that had called for overhauling their police departments. In the Taylor case, three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant, but have not gone to trial. None were at the scene when Taylor was shot.
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Washington Post exodus grows as MSNBC host and Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Capehart takes Bezos buyout
The flood of high-profile editorial talent fleeing the Washington Post as the storied newspaper revamps its opinion section to focus exclusively on 'personal liberties and free markets' continued to grow this week as Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jonathan Capehart decided to take a buyout. Capehart's departure comes just days after longtime Post reporter and writer Philip Bump announced that he had also accepted a buyout and had written his last column, which followed the paper's beleaguered CEO Will Lewis' ultimatum to staffers to leave if they 'do not feel aligned' with the company's new direction. As first reported by Axios' Sara Fischer Monday morning, Capehart – who was a member of the Post's editorial board until 2023 – ended his 18-year run with the paper this week after taking a buyout through the company's recently implemented voluntary separation program. Capehart, meanwhile, will continue to co-host MSNBC's The Weekend, and serve as a political analyst for PBS. The Washington Post and Capehart did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The paper has been experiencing an exodus of reporters, columnists and editors since late last year when the Post's owner Jeff Bezos blocked the editorial board's planned endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The meddling from the Amazon founder, who has increasingly cozied up to Trump over the past year, resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of subscribers and the resignations of several editorial board members. That internal turmoil, which had already featured the paper's journalists unsuccessfully begging Bezos to visit the newsroom and restore the 'trust that has been lost' under his watch, only grew worse in February when the mega-billionaire instituted a new mandate for the Post's opinion pages that resulted in the section's top editor resigning. 'We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,' Bezos stated in a memo to staff. 'We'll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.' In the months since, a number of veteran Washington Post journalists have quit, directly citing the new opinion directive and editorial restrictions that they've faced. Ruth Marcus, who had been with the paper since 1984, resigned in March when she said Lewis declined to publish her column that saw her 'respectfully dissenting' from Bezos' edict. The following month, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson – who had worked for the paper since 1980 – announced that he was 'retiring from my longtime journalistic home but not from journalism,' adding that 'significant shift' in the opinion section's mandate had pushed him to do so. Longtime cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit earlier this year after her cartoon mocking media titans – including Bezos – bending the knee to Trump was rejected by her editor. She would win a Pulitzer Prize for her work months later. With morale at an all-time low at the paper, Lewis has been described as being in a 'state of hiding' by staff. In late May, executive editor Matt Murray revealed that the paper would be offering a voluntary separation program for news employees with at least 10 years of service, along with all members of the Post's video department, copy desk and sports section. Weeks later, after intense speculation over who would take over the opinion section after David Shipley's resignation over the new mandate, Bezos and Lewis tapped Adam O'Neal to take the job – despite the fact that his only prior management experience was a short and tumultuous run as executive editor of conservative outlet The Dispatch. 'I know this represents a shift for many of you, and maybe even an unwelcome one for some, but simply being reconciled to these changes is not enough,' O'Neal wrote to opinion staffers in an introductory memo earlier this month. 'We want those who stick with us to be genuinely enthusiastic about the new direction and focus.' Meanwhile, Lewis reiterated in a letter to the newsroom a couple of weeks ago that those who aren't fully on board with Bezos' edict should take the money and run. 'As we continue in this new direction, I want to ask those who do not feel aligned with the company's plan to reflect on that,' he noted. Amid the buyout push and the new direction of the paper's opinion pages, the paper has seen more and more veteran journalists add their names to the list of ex- Washington Post staffers. Joe Davidson, who helmed the outlet's Federal Insider column for the past 17 years, said earlier this month that he quit in protest after one of his pieces was killed for being 'too opinionated under an unwritten and inconsistently enforced policy.' Though he said he had 'no reason to believe' Bezos was directly involved in spiking the column, 'it would be naïve to ignore the context.' Sharing his latest column about authoritarians stepping in when 'trust in institutions' crumbles, Bump told his social media followers on Thursday that it was his last Post article. 'I was offered and accepted a buyout,' he stated. 'To answer one possible next question, I'm not sure what's next save taking some time off.' As for Capehart, his decision to walk away from the Post comes two months after he revealed in his latest book what sparked his resignation from the paper's editorial board in 2023. According to his book, Capehart got into a heated disagreement with fellow editor Karan Tumulty over the editorial board writing an op-ed that criticized then-President Joe Biden for calling Georgia's voting laws 'Jim Crow 2.0,' claiming he had been 'hyperbolic.' 'Capehart, the only Black man on the Post's editorial board at the time, agreed with Biden's description and was bothered by the editorial and the fact that readers may believe it represented his view,' Semafor reported about the incident. 'He was incensed when Tumulty later did not apologize to him for publishing it; Capehart said he felt additionally put off when Tumulty said Biden's choice of words was insulting to people who had lived through racial segregation in the South.' Semafor added that Capehart's book had been the 'subject of internal recriminations' at the paper, largely because it 'publicly pitted current colleagues against each other and appeared to run afoul of the Post's editorial guidelines around collegiality, as well as rules that restrict staff from publicly disclosing internal editorial conversation.'
The Sun
18 minutes ago
- The Sun
Brutal street brawl erupts after women try to claim parking spot by standing in the way of driver – who's in the wrong?
A BRUTAL street brawl erupted after two women tried to claim a parking spot by standing in the way of a driver. The viral video taken in Queens, New York, has reignited a debate on whether it's ever right to claim a public space using an item - or your body. 5 5 5 Mom and daughter duo Andreea Dumitru, 45, and Sabrina Starman, 21, launched a heinous attack on driver Jada McPherson as she tried to park into a Ridgewood street. But the pair were allegedly "guarding" the space - with their bodies. An unidentified man also joined in on the horror brawl, fighting McPherson, but fled the area before cops arrived, authorities said. After McPherson attempted to find another spot on the block at 18-28 Putnam Ave, she return to tell the mom and daughter that they couldn't guard parking spots, she told The NY Post previously. It was then the unknown man was said to have gone "ballistic" while Dumitru and Starman hurled racist language at McPherson. Shocking footage shows McPherson expressing her outrage at the empty space being reserved, before Dumitru and Starman approach her. It is at this point the mom and daughter duo slam her to the ground and pull her hair as the unknown neighbour joins in on the vile chaos. Starman and Dumitru were arrested and charged with first-degree assault and second-degree harassment, cops said. They have since apologised for the horrific fight after they received online death threats. McPherson doesn't accept their sorry's though, she told the Post, as she believes "the apologies are only because of how much outreach the video is getting and I don't think the apology is wholesome". Moment huge fight breaks out at Benidorm swimming pool in front of shocked tourists She added: "I don't think it's from their hearts, like deep down. "But I just hope they could see or see what they did wrong and kind of get a better understanding of how to operate or act in certain situations from this situation." The incident has divided people online on whether it's right to guard a space. One Ridgewood resident told the newspaper: "Honestly, if you have a friend that you know is literally coming around the corner in like a minute? "Yeah, what's the problem with that? But standing there longer than five minutes - absolutely not." "But that's just how New Yorkers are, territorial. I understand why, but it's not something I'd ever consider doing." But another argued they wouldn't be worth putting your safety at risk for a space. They said: "I personally wouldn't get into a fight over it [...] because of how people drive here, I would not put my body on the line in front of cars. "I'd be scared to stand in the street to save a spot. Because of how people drive here, I wouldn't put my body on the line." 5 5
