
Black man punched and pulled from his car by Florida deputies on video is set to speak to public
But Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters says there's more to the story than the cellphone video that went viral. He warned the public about a rush to judgment that could lead to faulty conclusions. McNeil's lawyers say the video clearly depicts police brutality. Body camera footage of the encounter shows McNeil had been repeatedly told to exit the vehicle, and though McNeil earlier had his car door open while talking with authorities, he later closed and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before deputies forcibly removed him, the video shows. The vantage point of the body camera footage that was released makes it difficult to see the punches that were thrown. The cellphone footage from the Feb. 19 arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, 'What is your reason?' He had pulled over and had been accused of not having his headlights on even though it was daytime, his lawyers said.
'What happened to William McNeil Jr. is a disturbing reminder that even the most basic rights – like asking why you've been pulled over – can be met with violence for Black Americans,' lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels said in a statement. Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence. 'William was calm and compliant,' they said. 'Yet instead of answers, he got his window smashed and was punched in the face all over a questionable claim about headlights in broad daylight.' The sheriff said the cellphone camera footage from inside the car does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident. 'Part of that stems from the distance and perspective of the recording cell phone camera,' the sheriff said in a statement, adding that the video did not capture events that occurred before officers decided to arrest McNeil. 'Cameras can only capture what can be seen and heard,' the sheriff added. 'So much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it.'
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Arab News
39 minutes ago
- Arab News
French president Macron sues influencer over claim France's first lady was born male
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. on Wednesday against right-wing influencer and podcaster Candace Owens, centered on her claim that France's first lady is male. The Macrons said in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court that Owens has waged a lie-filled "campaign of global humiliation" to promote her podcast and expand her "frenzied" fan base. The Macrons said the lies included that Brigitte Macron, 72, was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, the actual name of her older brother. "Owens has dissected their appearance, their marriage, their friends, their family, and their personal history — twisting it all into a grotesque narrative designed to inflame and degrade," the complaint said. "The result," the complaint added, "is relentless bullying on a worldwide scale." In a statement, a spokesperson for Owens called the lawsuit itself an effort to bully her, after Brigitte Macron rejected Owens' repeated requests for an interview. "Candace Owens is not shutting up," the spokesperson said. "This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist." In a joint statement released by their lawyers, the Macrons said they sued after Owens rejected three demands that she retract defamatory statements. "Ms. Owens's campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety," the Macrons said. "We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused." HIGH LEGAL STANDARD Wednesday's lawsuit is a rare case of a world leader suing for defamation. U.S. President Donald Trump has also turned to the courts, including in a $10 billion lawsuit accusing The Wall Street Journal of defaming him by claiming he created a lewd birthday greeting for disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The Journal said it would defend against that case and had full confidence in its reporting. In December, meanwhile, Trump reached a $15 million settlement with Walt Disney-owned ABC over an inaccurate claim that a jury found him liable for rape, rather than sexual assault, in a civil lawsuit. To prevail in U.S. defamation cases, public figures must show defendants engaged in "actual malice," a tough legal standard requiring proof the defendants knew what they published was false or had reckless disregard for its truth. Owens has more than 6.9 million followers on X and more than 4.5 million YouTube subscribers. CARLSON, ROGAN The Macrons' lawsuit focuses on the eight-part podcast "Becoming Brigitte," which has more than 2.3 million views on YouTube, and X posts linked to it. According to the Macrons, the series spread "verifiably false and devastating lies," including that Brigitte Macron stole another person's identity and transitioned to female, and that the Macrons are blood relatives committing incest. The complaint discusses circumstances under which the Macrons met, when the now 47-year-old president was a high school student and Brigitte was a teacher. It said their relationship "remained within the bounds of the law." According to the complaint, baseless speculation about Brigitte Macron's gender began surfacing in 2021, and the topic has been discussed on popular podcasts hosted by Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, who have many conservative followers. In September, Brigitte won a lawsuit in a French court against two women, including a self-described medium, who contributed to spreading rumors about her gender. An appeals court overturned that decision this month, and Brigitte Macron has appealed to France's highest court. The case is Macron et al v Owens et al, Delaware Superior Court, No. N25C-07-194.


Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports
WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The disclosure about Trump's appearance in the Justice Department's case records threatened to deepen a political crisis that has engulfed his administration for weeks. Some Trump supporters for years have fanned conspiracy theories about Epstein's clients and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison. The White House sent mixed signals following the story. It released an initial statement characterizing it as 'fake news,' but a White House official later told Reuters the administration was not denying that Trump's name appears in some files, noting that Trump was already included in a tranche of materials Bondi assembled in February for conservative influencers. Trump, who was friendly with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, appears multiple times on flight logs for Epstein's private plane in the 1990s. Trump and several members of his family also appear in an Epstein contact book, alongside hundreds of others. Much of that material had been publicly released in the criminal case against Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after her conviction for child sex trafficking and other crimes. During her trial, Epstein's longtime pilot testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Trump has denied being on the plane. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the Journal's report. Trump has faced intense backlash from his own supporters after his administration said it would not release the files, reversing a campaign promise. The Justice Department said in a memo earlier this month that there was no basis to continue probing the Epstein case, sparking anger among some prominent Trump supporters who demanded more information about wealthy and powerful people who had interacted with Epstein. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said their friendship ended before Epstein's legal troubles first began two decades ago. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement that did not directly address the Journal's report. 'Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts,' the officials said. 'As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings.' MANY NAMES APPEARED The newspaper reported that Bondi and her deputy told Trump at a White House meeting that his name, as well as those of 'many other high-profile figures,' appeared in the files. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, to which he had pleaded not guilty. In a separate case, Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a prostitution charge in Florida and received a 13-month sentence in what is now widely regarded as too lenient a deal with prosecutors. Under political pressure last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to seek the release of sealed grand jury transcripts related to Epstein. On Wednesday, US District Judge Robin Rosenberg denied one of those requests, finding that it did not fall into any of the exceptions to rules requiring grand jury material be kept secret. That motion stemmed from federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, according to court documents; the department has also requested the unsealing of transcripts in Manhattan federal court related to later indictments brought against Epstein and Maxwell. Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had sent Epstein a bawdy birthday note in 2003 that ended, 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.' Reuters has not confirmed the authenticity of the alleged letter. Trump has sued the Journal and its owners, including billionaire Rupert Murdoch, asserting that the birthday note was fake. MAGA PUSHBACK Trump and his advisers have long engaged in conspiracy theories, including about Epstein, that have resonated with Trump's political base. The Make American Great Again movement's broad refusal to accept his administration's argument that those theories are now unfounded is unusual for a politician who is accustomed to enjoying relatively unchallenged loyalty from his supporters. Epstein hung himself in prison, according to the New York City chief medical examiner. But his connections with wealthy and powerful individuals prompted speculation that his death was not a suicide. The Justice Department said in its memo this month that it had concluded Epstein died by his own hand. In a sign of how the issue has bedeviled Trump and divided his fellow Republicans, US House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday abruptly said he would send lawmakers home for the summer a day early to avoid a floor fight over a vote on the Epstein files. His decision temporarily stymied a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution that would require the Justice Department to release all Epstein-related documents. But a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday approved a subpoena seeking all Justice Department files on Epstein. Three Republicans joined five Democrats to back the effort, in a sign that Trump's party was not ready to move on from the issue. Trump, stung and frustrated by the continued focus on the Epstein story, has sought to divert attention to other topics, including unfounded accusations that former President Barack Obama undermined Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign. Obama's office denounced the allegations as 'ridiculous.' More than two-thirds of Americans believe the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein's clients, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week.


Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Longtime critic of voting machines charged in firebombing of colorado election office
A longtime critic of voting machines and local government has been charged with arson for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail-like device into the office holding the voting equipment in his Colorado mountain community. William Wayne Bryant in a brief court appearance Wednesday was advised of the charges presented against him in the June 12 firebombing of a county building in Pagosa Springs. The overnight attack sparked a fire that damaged Dominion Voting Systems equipment in the county clerks office and damaged the assessors office upstairs, police said. Court documents show Bryant faces two counts of arson and one count of using an explosive or incendiary device. Bryant's lawyer, David Karl Ottman, said that his client was presumed innocent. He told Archuleta County Judge Justin Fay he was concerned that officials, including Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, have spoken out about the case and that photographs of the damaged election equipment have been released publicly. Ottman, who declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press, urged Fay to issue an order limiting what officials can say about the case. Fay didn't act immediately but said he would not be able to put limits on those like Griswold who are outside his jurisdiction. Griswold, a Democrat who serves as Colorado's chief election official, said the attack was another example of how conspiracy theories have destabilized elections. No motive provided. Police said the device was thrown through a window into a room in the clerks office that held the Dominion equipment. But authorities haven't provided a motive so far. Bryant has long been critical of Dominion and also has been outspoken against taxes and rising property valuations and also spoke out against encouraging students to be vaccinated, according to the minutes of county commissioners meetings. The firebombing incident follows years of false claims surrounding elections and voting systems pushed by President Donald Trump and his allies after his 2020 election loss. Many of the claims have focused on Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest voting machine companies. Despite Trump's claims, there was no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting systems. Bryant suggested Dominion was to blame for loss. Bryant ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in the county in the scenic San Juan Mountains in 2022 and repeatedly urged county commissioners to abandon the Dominion election equipment and count ballots by hand in the election he lost. In one case, Bryant told county commissioners at a May 2022 meeting that the film '2000 Mules' had exposed voter fraud and asked them to abandon the Dominion equipment. The debunked film amplified claims that ballot drop boxes were responsible for massive voter fraud in the 2020 election. After his defeat, Bryant suggested in a video on his campaign page that Dominion algorithims were to blame for his loss. 'They don't want patriots, people that are willing to stand up and fight for this country,' he said. In another video in May 2023, Bryant said he and others were outraged by a huge jump in property valuations and that some people might have to sell their properties because they would no longer be able to pay their taxes. In the video, which included 'taxation without representation' in its title, Bryant claimed that the local 2022 election had been stolen from him and another candidate. Police identified Bryant as the only person in the area at the time of the fire, according to surveillance video from different locations laid out as police evidence in an arrest affidavit. In addition to citing Bryant's criticism of Dominion equipment to the county commissioners, Bryant also had expressed anti-government views and had called taxation extortion on social media, the affidavit said. Election work continues. Archuleta County clerk and recorder Kristy Archuleta said a sheriff's deputy awoke her the night of the fire. Arriving around 2:30 a.m., she said she learned the fire had occurred in a locked room where ballots are counted. A Dominion ballot scanner and computers used to review ballots were among items damaged, she said. 'It's just scary to think that somebody is going to be that angry that they're going to light our workspace on fire,' Archuleta said recently. 'What if this was done during the day? Lots of people could have been hurt.' Archuleta, a Republican elected in 2018, said the county of some 12000 active registered voters has largely been supportive of the office's work, which also handles motor vehicle registration and marriage licenses. But she said there has been a vocal group upset about the use of voting machines since the 2020 election who have sought a move to hand counting. 'People would call and yell and all the things. But all we can do is tell them we do our jobs according to law and rule,' she said. Because of the damage to her office, Archuleta and her employees are working in a conference room as they wait for a new temporary office. Wherever they end up working from, she said they still have to have the ballot for the next election certified in the next two months.