Month: May 2024

Georgia’s Court of Appeals said on Wednesday that it will consider an appeal from former President Donald Trump on a lower court ruling’s decision to not disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis, who is overseeing the 2020 election interference racketeering trial against Trump and alleged co-conspirators. The Georgia Court of Appeals issued a brief order granting Trump’s request, saying that he can file a notice of appeal within the next 10 days; it’s unclear when arguments will be held.   The DA’s office declined to comment.

Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement on social media that the court granted Trump’s appeal of Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to allow Willis to continue leading the prosecution, and that the case should be dismissed and Willis disqualified: “President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution.” 

Judge McAfee ruled in mid-March that Willis shouldn’t be disqualified from prosecuting Trump and his co-defendants despite their allegation that she had a conflict of interest in the case. They accused Willis of misconduct, alleging she financially benefited from her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, which led to days of testimony in court about their romance. McAfee ultimately decided found the “appearance of impropriety” created by their personal relationship should result in either Willis or Wade leaving the case. Hours later, Willis’ office confirmed Wade had resigned and she had accepted his resignation.

McAfee granted a certificate of immediate review days later, giving Trump and eight of his co-defendants permission to appeal his decision to keep Willis on the case. This gave the court of appeals 45 days to decide whether to hear an appeal on the matter. Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants then asked the appeals court to allow them to challenge the ruling.

The appeals court decision Wednesday comes as Trump continues to sit for trial in the criminal case he faces in New York; one of four criminal cases against him going to trial.

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Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says that nearly all of its customers will receive money back that they are owed which was tied to the platform, along with additional compensation.

In a bankruptcy court filing FTX said that it owes about $11.2 billion to its creditors. The exchange estimates that it has between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion to distribute to them. FTX said customers with claims of $50,000 or less — about 98% of all of its creditors — will get at least 118% of allowed claims in cash within 60 days of court approval of the proposed plan.

ABC NEWS reports that the filing states that after paying claims in full, the plan provides for supplemental interest payments to creditors, to the extent that funds still remain. The interest rate for most creditors is 9%. It added that other creditors would receive “100% of allowed claims plus billions in compensation for the time value of their investments.”  The filing added that “the monetization effort has been successful and the debtors currently expect to have approximately $12.8 billion in cash as of the expected effective date of the plan, enough to pay all non-governmental customers and creditors in full based on the petition date value of their claims, subject to the conditions and assumptions described in this disclosure statement.”

FTX said in a Wednesday statement that “subject to being finalized and approved by the bankruptcy court, the plan contemplates the centralized distribution to customers and other creditors around the world of virtually all of the assets associated with FTX at the time of its collapse in November 2022, regardless of where the assets were located at that time.” 

The repayment plan includes a proposed agreement with the Department of Justice to distribute more than $1.2 billion of forfeiture proceeds to FTX customers and creditors through the Chapter 11 cases. John J. Ray III, CEO and Chief Restructuring Officer of FTX, said in a statement: “We are pleased to be in a position to propose a Chapter 11 plan that contemplates the return of 100% of bankruptcy claim amounts plus interest for non-governmental creditors.” 

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TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the federal government Tuesday over what it called an “unconstitutional” potential ban in the U.S. of the social media platform.  The company is suing to stop enforcement of a recently signed law that effectively would ban the app unless they sell it. The White House did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

TikTok said in its 65-page petition filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday: “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”

In March, the House Energy and Commerce Committee had unanimously approved the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that would essentially ban TikTok from American app stores unless ByteDance sold the app in a year or less. President Biden and some congressional leaders have argued that the ultimatum against TikTok was necessary because of security concerns about ByteDance and its connections to the Chinese government. The House on March 13 passed the bill in a 352-65 vote, and Biden signed it into law on April 24 as part of a massive, $95 billion foreign aid package to commit foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

In TikTok’s lawsuit, they argue that what the United States has proposed is not based in any kind of workable reality, and “certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act.”  ByteDance also argued there has been no tangible evidence that the app poses any security risk: “Congress itself has offered nothing to suggest that the TikTok platform poses the types of risks to data security or the spread of foreign propaganda that could conceivably justify the act … The ‘qualified divestiture’ demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.”

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