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During his arraignment, Mr. Trump is expected to be advised of his rights, and a judge will assess whether he has legal representation. The case against Mr. Trump is the second criminal prosecution against the former president this year. Mr. Trump was already arraigned in April in a New York courthouse on state charges that he falsified business records. In the case that has brought him to Miami, Mr. Trump has been charged with 37 counts of unauthorized retention of national security information. After the court appearance, Mr. Trump is expected to fly to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., to give remarks defending himself in the evening.

Persons: Wilkie, Ferguson Jr, Donald J, Trump, Francis X, Suarez, Mr, We’re, James, John Rowley —, Todd Blanche, Christopher M, Jay I, Bratt, Julie Edelstein, Manny Morales, Morales, “, ”, that’s, ” Adam Goldman, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage Organizations: Mr, Trump, Suarez of Miami, Republican, United States Supreme, Justice Department’s, Trump National Golf Club, Capitol, Miami police Locations: Miami, United States, New York, Florida, Bedminster, N.J, MIAMI

☆ Kaczynski Died by Suicide in Prison, Sources Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Theodore J. Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” who killed three people and injured 23 in a bombing spree stretching from 1978 to 1995, died by suicide at a federal prison medical center in North Carolina early Saturday, according to three people familiar with the situation. Emergency workers were called to Mr. Kaczynski’s cell at 12:23 a.m. at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Attempts to revive him in the prison and in an ambulance were unsuccessful, and he was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, officials said. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina confirmed in an email that it conducts autopsies of deaths at the federal medical center in Butner, but offered no timetable for when one might be completed for Mr. Kaczynski. The circumstances of his suicide are unclear, and it is uncertain whether prison officials could have done more to ensure his safety.

Persons: Theodore J . Kaczynski, ”, Kaczynski, Jeffrey Epstein Organizations: Federal Medical Center, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Mr Locations: North Carolina, Butner, Manhattan

Indictments against former President Donald J. Trump and a personal aide, Walt Nauta, unsealed Friday reveal a host of embarrassing and potentially devastating new details about a yearlong investigation previously cloaked in secrecy. and grand jury. Here are some of the most significant, and startling, allegations:Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta are accused of conspiring to obstruct justice. Prosecutors say they have assembled evidence showing that Mr. Trump willfully ignored a May 2022 subpoena requiring him to return everything belonging to the National Archives — and took extraordinary steps to obstruct the F.B.I. In the hours before Mr. Trump’s lawyer visited his Mar-a-Lago estate to search for documents in a storage room — an attempt to comply with the subpoena — Mr. Trump directed Mr. Nauta, his co-defendant, to move 64 of the boxes out of the storage room because he maintained they were his property.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Walt Nauta, Nauta, National Archives —, Trump’s Organizations: White, Prosecutors, National Archives

He urged Americans read the indictment to understand the “scope and gravity” of the charges, which he said were necessary to preserve “bedrock” democratic principles. “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” he said. The investigation had been conducted with utmost integrity, he added, and, in an implicit nod to the election calendar — Mr. Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — promised to seek a speedy trial. Mr. Trump and his allies continued their effort to portray the prosecution as politically motivated and unjustified, with House Republicans rallying behind him and arguing that President Biden had weaponized the Justice Department against his potential rival in 2024. Mr. Biden stuck to his calculated silence about the prosecution, judging it best not to provide ammunition to Republicans who are trying to convince voters that he was behind the decision to charge Mr. Trump.

Persons: Trump, ” Jack Smith, ”, —, Biden, Mr Organizations: Justice Department, House Republicans, Republicans Locations: Washington

The indictment gives the clearest picture yet of the files that Mr. Trump took with him when he left the White House. Mr. Trump is expected to appear in Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Trump continued to rail against the indictment on Friday, calling it the “greatest witch hunt of all time,” in a Truth Social post. Two lawyers, James Trusty and John Rowley, have left Mr. Trump’s legal team, and will no longer represent him in the documents case. “I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith, “, ”, Waltine, —, Nauta, Trump’s, FVEY, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon, Biden, James, John Rowley, Todd Blanche, ” Mr, Charlie Savage, Nicholas Nehamas Organizations: White, “ United, Prosecutors, Mr, Court, General Services Administration Locations: “ United States, United States, Florida, Iran, Bedminster, N.J, U.S, Britain , New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Miami, White, Mar, Esq

The judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who Mr. Trump appointed to the bench in 2020, is scheduled — at least for now — to preside over the former president’s first appearance in Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday, the people said. But it was not clear whether Judge Cannon would remain assigned for the entirety of Mr. Trump’s case. Judge Cannon’s involvement was earlier reported by ABC News. The chances that Judge Cannon would randomly receive the assignment were low. There are 15 active Federal District Court judges in South Florida, along with 11 on senior status who are still assigned to hear cases but at a reduced workload.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon’s, Angela Noble Organizations: Mr, Court, ABC News, Southern, Southern District of, The New York Times Locations: Miami, Southern District, Southern District of Florida, South Florida

Federal prosecutors unsealed indictments on Friday against former President Donald J. Trump and one of his personal aides, Walt Nauta, revealing devastating new details about a more than yearlong investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified material. The 49-page indictment, containing 38 counts and seven separate charges, gave the clearest picture yet of the files that Mr. Trump took with him when he left the White House. It said he had illegally kept documents concerning “United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.”“The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collections methods,” the indictment said. The indictment described Mr. Trump as willfully hanging onto documents that were called by some aides “his papers.” It detailed how Mr. Trump suggested to one of his lawyers that it was possible to tell prosecutors that “we don’t have anything here” after a grand jury subpoena had been issued for all remaining classified material in his possession.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Walt Nauta, ”, “ Organizations: White, “ United, United States Locations: “ United States, United States

☆ Who Is Jack Smith, the Special Counsel Who Indicted Trump?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jack Smith, appointed in November to investigate former President Donald J. Trump, is a hard-driving, flinty former prosecutor chosen for his experience in bringing high-stakes cases against politicians in the United States and abroad. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland tasked him with overseeing two investigations into Mr. Trump: one into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and the other into Mr. Trump’s retention of classified materials at his residence in Florida. “The right choice to complete these matters in an evenhanded and urgent manner,” Mr. Garland said in announcing the appointment of Mr. Smith, who had been serving as the top prosecutor investigating war crimes in Kosovo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have accused the Justice Department of pursuing a politically motivated investigation intended to destroy Mr. Trump’s chances of retaking the White House, including by leaking details of the case. But department officials have said Mr. Smith, 54, is intent on conducting a fair investigation in secrecy — and Mr. Smith has refused to even acknowledge the questions of reporters who have approached him outside his office in northeast Washington.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, General Merrick B, Garland, Trump’s, “, Mr, Smith Organizations: Capitol, Criminal, Mr, Justice Department Locations: United States, Florida, Kosovo, The Hague, Washington

Once he was sworn in as president, Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen. Rather than publish her account, the tabloid suppressed it in cooperation with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, prosecutors say. Legal experts say that Mr. Trump and others appear to be at “substantial risk” of prosecution for violating a number Georgia statutes, including the state’s racketeering law. But if she were to prevail at trial, a judge could impose steep financial penalties on Mr. Trump and restrict his business operations in New York. Ms. James’s investigators questioned Mr. Trump under oath in April, and a trial is scheduled for October.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Jack Smith, Alvin L, Bragg, Stormy Daniels, Michael D, Cohen, Daniels, Karen McDougal, McDougal, Brad Raffensperger, Biden’s, —, Emily Kohrs, “ You’re, ”, “, Willis, Jan, Mr . Biden, Smith, Mike Pence, Mark Meadows, Letitia James, Mr, James, Donald Jr, Eric, Jonah E, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Michael Gold, Michael Rothfeld, Ed Shanahan, Richard Fausset, Ashley Wong Organizations: Capitol, Manhattan, National Enquirer, Mr, ., The New York Times, Justice Department, Trump, Prosecutors, White House, Trump White House, New York, Civil, New Locations: Manhattan, Georgia, . Georgia, Fulton County, United States, Washington, Trump’s, New, New York, Bromwich

☆ Justice Dept. Reaches Cleanup Deal With Houston After Civil Rights Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department has reached an agreement with the City of Houston to improve trash removal and environmental monitoring after an investigation into the widespread dumping of garbage, including human bodies, in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. The pact, announced on Tuesday, was the result of a yearlong inquiry by the department’s civil rights division into dozens of complaints from residents. It includes a commitment by Mayor Sylvester Turner to fund cleanup projects, under the supervision of federal officials for three years. The agreement, which followed weeks of negotiation between department officials and municipal leaders in Houston, is part of the Biden administration’s larger environmental justice agenda, which seeks to redress the disproportional impact of waste, air and water pollution on communities of color around the country. “No one should have to live next to discarded tires, bags of trash, rotting carcasses, infected soils and contaminated groundwater, all caused by illegal dumping,” Alamdar S. Hamdani, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said on Tuesday during a news conference in Houston.

Persons: Sylvester Turner Organizations: Department, City, Biden, Southern, Southern District of Locations: Houston, Black, U.S, Southern District, Southern District of Texas

☆ U.S. Can’t Bar Man Convicted of Nonviolent Crime From Owning Gun, Court Rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a man who committed a nonviolent crime cannot be legally prevented from owning a firearm — a potential setback to gun regulations spurred by a Supreme Court ruling last year that vastly expanded the right to bear arms. In an 11-to-4 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia overturned decisions by lower courts that had prevented Bryan Range, a Pennsylvania resident who had sued the state after being blocked from buying a shotgun for hunting and self-protection over a conviction for lying on a benefits application in the 1990s. In a majority opinion, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman repeatedly cited the Supreme Court ruling last June, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, in which the majority established a new standard that dictated that gun laws conform to “historical traditions” dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. “In sum, we reject the government’s contention that only ‘law-abiding, responsible citizens’ are counted among ‘the people’ protected by the Second Amendment,” wrote Judge Hardiman, a George W. Bush appointee who was on former President Donald J. Trump’s short list to serve on the Supreme Court after the death of Antonin Scalia in 2016.

Persons: Bryan, Judge Thomas M, Hardiman, Clarence Thomas, ’, ”, George W, Bush, Donald J, Antonin Scalia Organizations: U.S ., Appeals, Third Circuit Locations: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

personnel conducted this investigation,” Mr. Parlatore said. Along with the classified documents case, prosecutors under Mr. Smith are also scrutinizing efforts by Mr. Trump and his aides to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The letter to Mr. Garland was an abbreviated version of a longer one that contained a more detail account of the concerns by Mr. Trump’s lawyers, according to two people familiar with the matter. The legal team’s visit to the Justice Department came amid indications that Mr. Smith is approaching the end of his investigation into the documents case and could soon make a decision about whether to seek charges. The initial letter to Mr. Garland was directly confrontational, accusing officials at the Justice Department of showing favoritism to President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who is under criminal investigation by the department.

Persons: “, ” Mr, Parlatore, that’s, Peter Carr, Smith, Garland, Trump, Biden, Hunter Biden Organizations: Justice Department, Mr, Capitol, Justice

☆ Pence Won’t Face Charges in Documents Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Maggie Haberman | Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department has declined to pursue charges against former Vice President Mike Pence in connection with his retention of classified documents at his home in Indiana, informing him in a brief letter on Thursday night, according to three people familiar with the situation. Word that the case would be closed came days before Mr. Pence was set to announce his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in Iowa. and the Justice Department’s national security division conducted an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, the department wrote to Mr. Pence’s lawyer, according to a person who had read the letter. Based on the results of that investigation, “no criminal charges will be sought,” according to that person. In January, a lawyer for Mr. Pence searched the former vice president’s house for documents after aides to President Biden discovered a trove of sensitive material at an office he had once occupied in Delaware.

Persons: Mike Pence, Pence, Pence’s, “, Biden Organizations: Republican, Justice Department’s Locations: Indiana, Iowa, Delaware

☆ Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Cite Landmark Gun Ruling in Bid to Stave Off Charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Glenn Thrush | Michael S. Schmidt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Mr. Biden is under investigation for several potential offenses, including whether he had lied on a federal firearms application in 2018 when asked if he was addicted to drugs. It is unclear if Mr. Weiss is receptive to that suggestion. A spokeswoman for Mr. Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At the time, Mr. Biden was struggling to remain sober. But such federal prosecutions are relatively rare, and seldom pursued as stand-alone charges.

Persons: Biden, Christopher Clark, Weiss, Hunter Biden, Bryan David Range, Hunter Biden’s Organizations: U.S ., Appeals, Third Circuit, Department, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives Locations: U.S, Delaware, Pennsylvania

☆ Airman to Remain Detained as He Awaits Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Alicia Napierkowski | Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal magistrate ruled on Friday that Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air Force National Guardsman accused of posting scores of secret documents to an online gaming platform, will remain behind bars pending his trial because he poses a continuing threat to national security. The judge, David H. Hennessy, cited Airman Teixeira’s history of seeking out, gaining access to and posting classified intelligence materials, in defiance of superiors at an Air Force base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, in denying the airman’s request to be released on bond into the custody of his father. Airman Teixeira’s actions were “a profound breach” of the oath he took to protect sensitive information when he was given his security clearance, Judge Hennessy said during a custody hearing at the federal courthouse in Worcester, Mass. His ruling came after the government introduced evidence that the airman continued to have access to sensitive intelligence months after his superiors noted his suspicious behavior. The decision was a victory for the government, which is seeking to send the strongest possible message to potential leakers after a humiliating disclosure of national security secrets that appears to have been pulled off by a boastful young man trying to impress his online friends.

☆ Military Caught Airman Mishandling Secrets Before Arrest but Left Him in Job
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Glenn Thrush | Robin Stein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Air Force officials caught Airman Jack Teixeira taking notes and conducting deep-dive searches for classified material months before he was charged with leaking a vast trove of government secrets, but did not remove him from his job, according to a Justice Department filing on Wednesday. On two occasions in September and October 2022, Airman Teixeira’s superiors in the Massachusetts Air National Guard admonished him after reports that he had taken “concerning actions” while handling classified information. Those included stuffing a note into his pocket after reviewing secret information inside his unit, according to a court filing ahead of a hearing before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester, Mass., on Friday to determine whether he should be released on bail. Airman Teixeira — who until March shared secrets with scores of online friends from around the world on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers — “was instructed to no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information,” lawyers with the department’s national security division wrote in an 11-page memo arguing for his indefinite detention. The airman’s superiors also ordered him to “cease and desist on any deep dives into classified intelligence information,” although it is not clear how, or if, they enforced that directive.

☆ Celtics Tickets, Political Revenge: U.S. Attorney Accused of Broad Misconduct
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael S. Rollins, misused her office to “boost” a political ally, flouted ethics rules to obtain free tickets from the Boston Celtics and lied under oath to investigators, the Justice Department inspector general said on Wednesday. The 161-page report — one of the most extraordinary public denunciations of a sitting federal prosecutor in recent memory — was released a day after Ms. Rollins announced she would resign at the end of this week, conceding that she had become a harmful “distraction” in one of the department’s most important offices. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz opened an investigation into Ms. Rollins last year after a published report that she had attended a July 2022 Democratic National Committee fund-raiser headlined by Jill Biden, the first lady. His team determined that those actions violated policies and laws against electioneering. But the inquiry rapidly expanded to encompass a striking range of apparent misconduct, including efforts to discredit a political rival and her acceptance of flights and a stay at a resort that were paid for by a sports and entertainment company, he said.

John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of a “lack of analytical rigor” in a final report made public on Monday that examined the bureau’s investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign was conspiring with Moscow. Mr. Durham’s 306-page report appeared to show little substantial new information about the F.B.I.’s handling of the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations impugning the bureau that former President Donald J. Trump and his allies had once suggested that Mr. Durham would find. Instead, the report — released without substantive comment or redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland — repeated previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, including from a 2019 inspector general report, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from a confirmation bias as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia.

Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman implicated in a vast leak of classified documents, was fixated on weapons, mass shootings, shadowy conspiracy theories — and proving he was in the right, and in the know. Even as he relished the respectability and access to intelligence he gained through his military service and top secret clearance, he seethed with contempt about the government, accusing the United States of a host of secret, nefarious activities: making biological and chemical weapons in Ukrainian labs, creating the Islamic State, even orchestrating mass shootings. “The FBI and other 3 letter agencies contact these unhinged mentally ill kids and convince them to do mass shootings,” Airman Teixeira, 21, wrote in an online chat group, sharing a debunked conspiracy theory after a gunman killed three people at a mall in Indiana last summer. In messages posted on Discord, a social media platform popular among gamers, Airman Teixeira claimed that the 20-year-old gunman behind the rampage at Greenwood Park Mall was one of many mass shooters groomed by the American government as part of a secret plot “to make people vote for” gun control.

☆ Short on Staff, Prisons Enlist Teachers and Case Managers as Guards
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

From the outside, the prison complex in Florence, Colo., is a forbidding citadel of steel, concrete and coiled barbed wire, housing some of the most notorious inmates in federal custody. To hundreds of its employees, it is a stressful, isolated, short-staffed workplace. Like many other federal prisons, Florence is undergoing a staffing crisis, with head counts on some guard shifts so low that teachers, case managers, counselors, facilities workers and even secretaries at the complex have been enlisted to serve as corrections officers, despite having only basic security training. “It creates a safety issue: If you aren’t savvy with the housing unit, or the position you’re working, you are not going to spot a problem before it starts. Nowhere has that been more of a problem than at the chronically troubled Bureau of Prisons, with about 160,000 inmates at 122 prisons and camps — employing a work force of about 34,000 people who often earn less than state and county corrections workers.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of posting classified documents online, will remain in custody while a judge considers new evidence that raised serious questions about the military’s decision to grant him a high-level security clearance. During a tense 90-minute hearing on Thursday, lawyers for the Justice Department asked a federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts to detain Airman Teixeira indefinitely pending his trial, arguing that his history of violent and racist remarks, coupled with his attempts to obstruct its investigation, made him a “serious flight risk.”The magistrate judge, David. H. Hennessy, did not immediately rule on the matter, saying he needed more time to consider that motion and a request by the airman’s court-appointed lawyers that he be immediately released to his parents’ custody on $20,000 bond.

☆ Airman Accused of Leak Has History of Racist and Violent Remarks, Filing Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of posting classified documents online, repeatedly tried to obstruct federal investigators and has a “troubling” history of making racist and violent remarks, Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing late Wednesday. In an 18-page memo, released before a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday in a Massachusetts federal court, the department’s lawyers argued that Airman Teixeira needed to be detained indefinitely because he posed a “serious flight risk” and might still have information that would be of “tremendous value to hostile nation states.”Airman Teixeira tapped into vast reservoirs of sensitive information, an amount that “far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed” so far, they wrote. Prosecutors pointedly questioned Airman Teixeira’s overall state of mind, disclosing that he was suspended from high school in 2018 for alarming comments about the use of Molotov cocktails and other weapons, and trawled the internet for information about mass shootings. He engaged in “regular discussions about violence and murder” on the same social media platform, Discord, that he used to post classified information, the filing said, and he surrounded his bed at his parents’ house with firearms and tactical gear.

The cheerleader in Texas simply wanted to find her car in a dark parking lot after practice. Each of them accidentally went to the wrong address or opened the wrong door — and each was shot. This week, the issue of “wrong address” shootings stirred protests and widespread outrage after a homeowner in Kansas City, Mo., shot a 16-year-old who rang the wrong doorbell. Days later, a 20-year-old woman in upstate New York was fatally shot after she and her friends turned into the wrong driveway. And then two cheerleaders in Texas were shot after one got into the wrong car in a dark parking lot.

☆ Justice Dept. Presses Local Courts to Reduce Fines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department’s third-highest-ranking official, Vanita Gupta, informed local judges and juvenile courts on Thursday that imposing fines and fees without accounting for a person’s financial status violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Doing so “may erode trust between local governments and their constituents, increase recidivism, undermine rehabilitation and successful re-entry, and generate little or no net revenue,” Ms. Gupta, the associate attorney general, wrote in a letter. A Justice Department investigation did not result in federal charges against the officer involved. The policy Ms. Gupta outlined was first enacted during the Obama administration, when she led the Justice Department’s civil rights division. It was revoked under Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017, but a handful of states, including several controlled by Republicans, have taken steps to reduce the practice.

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