Month: June 2024

On Tuesday, NY Judge Juan Merchan partially lifted former President Donald Trump’s gag order in his New York hush money trial, following the former president’s conviction last month on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The move comes two days before the former president faces off against President Joe Biden in the first of two debates, with the revised terms of the gag order allowing Trump to speak freely about witnesses and jurors in the case.

Merchan wrote Tuesday: “Circumstances have now changed. The trial portion of these proceedings ended when the verdict was rendered, and the jury discharged.” Trump is allowed to speak about witnesses, the jury and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, but is still restricted from speaking about lawyers and staff for the District Attorney’s office and the court, as well as any family members until he is sentenced on July 11. Merchan wrote: “Until sentence is imposed, all individuals covered by Paragraph (b) must continue to perform their lawful duties free from threats, intimidation, harassment and harm.” Although he struck the portion of the gag order pertaining to jurors, Merchan wrote that it would be his “strong preference” to extend those protections because there remains “ample evidence to justify continued concern for the jurors.” An earlier prohibition on releasing personal information about jurors will remain in effect.

Trump’s campaign spokesman blasted the judge for failing to lift the entire gag order and promised Trump’s legal team “will immediately challenge” the order. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “this is another unlawful decision by a highly conflicted judge, which is blatantly un-American as it gags President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election during the upcoming presidential debate on Thursday.”

Merchan first imposed the gag order in March; before and during the trial, Merchan fined Trump $1,000 for each of 10 violations and warned the former president he could face jail time if the violations continued. On May 30, Trump was convicted of falsifying business records in connection to a hush money payment Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump, who denied an affair, pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts and has vowed to appeal the verdict.

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The North Las Vegas Police Department confirmed that a man who fatally shot five people and critically injured a 13-year-old girl at an apartment complex near Las Vegas killed himself. The suspected shooter, 57-year-old Eric Adams, died by suicide on Tuesday morning after he was confronted by officers.

North Las Vegas Police officers responded to a reported shooting at about 10 p.m. at the apartment complex at 370 Casa Norte Drive between Commerce Street and Craig Ranch Park. Per local news outlet 8 News Now, police initially found two women dead while investigating reports of a shooting; one of them was in her early 40s and the other in her late 50s, according to the department. While officers were investigating,  a 13-year-old girl was also found in the apartment and transported to the hospital in critical condition. Authorities later discovered the bodies of two women in their mid-20s and a man in his early 20s in a nearby apartment; all five victims were killed by gunshot.

A manhunt for the gunman led to an overnight search, who authorities had described as “armed and dangerous.” After officers arrived  a business in North Las Vegas just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, they saw the suspect with a firearm, running into the backyard of a nearby home. The department said officers followed him, but the suspect refused to drop his weapon and died by suicide.

Police have described the shooting as an “isolated incident,” and have not disclosed a motive for the shootings. A spokesperson for the police department didn’t respond on Tuesday to phone and emailed requests for more information. Anyone with information about this crime is urged to contact the North Las Vegas Police Department at 702-633-9111. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 702-385-5555, or at the link here.

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President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has requested a new trial following his conviction on three felony gun counts two weeks ago.

In court papers filed Monday, Biden’s attorneys argued that his convictions should be vacated because the trial commenced before a circuit court formally issued a mandate denying his appeal — a technical argument disputing not the merits of the case, but a procedural claim. Court papers stated: “Here, no mandate was issued during the trial or even now. Consequently, the conviction must be vacated.” Attorneys for Biden also argued in a separate filing Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision this week in U.S. v. Rahimi, which upheld a longstanding federal ban on firearms for people under domestic violence restraining orders, supported their motion for an acquittal or, “at a minimum” a new trial.

Hunter Biden was found guilty earlier this month on two counts of making false statements for saying on a federal form that he was not addicted to drugs at the time he purchased a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in October 2018, and a third count of illegally obtaining the firearm while addicted to drugs. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in that decision that when “an individual poses a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner, that individual may — consistent with the Second Amendment — be banned from possessing firearms while the order is in effect.” However, Biden’s attorney’s argued in the new court filings that his Second Amendment right to bear arms ought to remain intact: “here, the jury did not find Mr. Biden ever terrorized anyone with a gun in public , or anywhere else, or used it dangerously in any way. That requires Mr. Biden’s acquittal.”

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Officials in Hawaii say that former pro surfer/actor Tamayo Perry was killed in an apparent shark attack on Sunday.

The Honolulu Emergency Services Department said in a statement that the incident was reported just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, with the 911 caller stating that Perry’s body “appeared to have suffered more than one possible shark bite” after he and a group of surfers were paddling out to Malaekahana, an island off Oahu’s North Shore, also known as Goat Island. Honolulu Ocean Safety transported him back to the North Shore, where “Honolulu EMS personnel assisted with his death pronouncement,” according to Shayne Enright of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.

Perry was featured in films including “Blue Crush” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” in addition to making appearances on “Hawaii Five-O” and “The Bridge,” according to IMDB. He was currently employed as a professional lifeguard with Honolulu Ocean Safety since 2016, and was a local surf coach who competed for years in the Pipeline Master Trials, according to his official bio on his coaching site.  Perry is said to have been on his lunch break when the incident occurred.

Kurt Lager, acting Ocean Safety Chief, said in a news conference: “Tamayo Perry was a lifeguard loved by all. He was well-known on the North Shore. He’s a professional surfer known worldwide. Tamayo’s personality was infectious, and as much as people loved him, he loved everyone else more. Our condolences go out to Tamayo’s family and to the entire lifeguard ohana.”

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