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Lawyers for New York Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss the bribery charge included in his federal indictment, saying the government’s allegations are “extraordinarily vague” and failed to prove Adams broke the law. Adams was charged last week with five criminal counts, including bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. He is the first sitting mayor of New York City to face criminal charges in the modern era. “The zealous prosecutors who secured the indictment would have alleged that kind of specific agreement if they had any evidence to support it,” Spiro added. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment on the defense’s motion to dismiss the bribery charge.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Alex Spiro, ”, Spiro, ” Spiro, “ It’s, Damian Williams, Williams Organizations: New York, New York Fire Department, Southern, of Locations: New York City, Turkish, U.S, of New York

New York City Mayor Eric Adams will step into a Manhattan courtroom and into the history books on Friday when he is arraigned on federal corruption and bribery charges that could force him out of office. Adams is the first sitting New York City mayor to be indicted on criminal charges in the modern era. “This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Thursday. Adams' indictment capped two weeks of turmoil in his administration, a period during which Banks, the city’s police commissioner, and the city's top lawyer, have announced their resignations. “You could almost picture them trying to cobble this together and try to tell a story so that they could say, ‘corruption, corruption’ at a press conference,” Spiro said at a Thursday press conference.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, David Banks, ” Adams, ”, ensnared Adams, Damian Williams, Banks, Alexandria Ocasio, Sen, John Liu, New York — Sen, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Kathy Hochul —, “, Adams ’, Alex Spiro, ” Spiro, Edward Caban, James Caban, ” Williams Organizations: York City, New York City, City, New York City Schools, New York Fire Department, Democratic, ” Prosecutors, Turkish, Adams . Police, Authorities, Queens Locations: York, Manhattan, New York City, Brooklyn, Turkish, U.S, Alexandria, Cortez, New York, India, France, China, Hungary, Ghana, Turkey, Istanbul, Washington, Adams

Timoteo Benavidez: The retired Sante Fe Police Department lieutenant was the day shift command on the day of the 2021 shooting on the “Rust” set. When he checked the gun, Benavidez testified there were no rounds in it. The retired Sante Fe Police Department lieutenant was the day shift command on the day of the 2021 shooting on the “Rust” set. When he checked the gun, Benavidez testified there were no rounds in it. The detective at Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department testified for the prosecution, giving details oh how the director of “Rust” was treated for his injury.

Persons: Alec Baldwin, —, Halyna Hutchins, ”, Baldwin, “, Erlinda Johnson, Johnson, Hutchins, that’s, ” Johnson, Hutchins “, Alex Spiro, Harland Rust ., ” Spiro, Spiro, Nicholas Lefleur, Timoteo, Benavidez, armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Joseph Lujan, “ Rust ”, Marissa Poppell Organizations: ”, Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department, Sante Fe Police Department Locations: Mexico, Santa Fe

☆ Twitter threatens to sue hate-speech watchdog group
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

In a July 20 letter shared publicly Monday, Twitter threatened to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the group of a campaign to hurt Twitter by driving away its advertisers. The CCDH has published numerous reports about various social media companies’ approach to everything from vaccine misinformation to online racism and antisemitism. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has slashed roughly 80% of the company’s staff, including many working on the platform’s content moderation teams. Threatening lawsuits has become a favored tactic for Musk as Twitter faces continued pressure. Earlier this month, Twitter threatened to sue Facebook-parent Meta over the launch of its competing app, Threads, accusing the company of copying Twitter’s product through trade secret theft.

Persons: DC CNN — Elon Musk, “, Twitter, Alex Spiro, Musk, CCDH, Spiro, ” Spiro, Imran Ahmed, ”, Spiro didn’t, — Organizations: DC CNN, Twitter, Safety, Defamation League, Tufts University, University of Southern, Facebook, Microsoft Locations: Washington, University of Southern California, Redmond, Wash

☆ Twitter threatens to sue Meta after rival app Threads gains traction
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Twitter is threatening Meta with a lawsuit after the blockbuster launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads — in perhaps the clearest sign yet that Twitter views the app as a competitive threat. On Wednesday, an attorney representing Twitter sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter that accused the company of trade secret theft through the hiring of former Twitter employees. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” he said on Threads. Unlike some Twitter rivals, Threads has experienced rapid growth, with Zuckerberg reporting 30 million user sign-ups in the app’s first day. As of Thursday afternoon, Threads was the number-one free app on the iOS App Store.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, Elon Musk, Meta, Musk, Meta “, ” Spiro, ”, Andy Stone, “, — that’s, Jack Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Carl Tobias, ” Tobias Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Semafor, University of Richmond, Meta

A judge agreed with that jury that Tesla was liable but said the award was excessive. He ordered a new trial on damages after Diaz declined the reduced $15 million award. But it could be cut even further because punitive damages are typically capped at no more than nine times the amount of damages for emotional distress and other injuries, Saba said. The punitive damages awarded by the jury on Monday were nearly 20 times the damages for emotional distress. The first jury in 2021 awarded Diaz $7 million in damages for emotional distress and a staggering $130 million in punitive damages.

He opted for a new trial on damages after a judge agreed with that jury that Tesla was liable but significantly reduced the award to $15 million. Tesla and lawyers for Diaz did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the verdict. The first jury in 2021 awarded Diaz $7 million in damages for emotional distress and a staggering $130 million in punitive damages. On Friday, Orrick denied a motion by Diaz's lawyers for a mistrial. Orrick said those questions were related to other incidents discussed in the first trial, and that Diaz's lawyers had not shown that the questioning prejudiced the jury.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the witness stand again Monday in a trial over whether he purposefully misled investors when he tweeted that he had "secured" funding to take the electric car maker private. Musk is being sued by Tesla investors who claim the August 2018 take-private tweet caused them to lose substantial sums of money. “Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly,” Musk told the jury Friday in San Francisco federal court. Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told the jury in opening statements last week that Musk believed he had financing from Saudi backers and was taking steps to make the deal happen. Asked Friday about requests from Twitter stakeholders to avoid tweeting, Musk said he did not recall them.

☆ Elon Musk returns to the stand in class-action lawsuit over controversial tweet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington, DC CNN —Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stand again on Monday morning in a California courtroom to testify for a second day in the lawsuit over his controversial “funding secured” tweet from 2018. Musk had spoken to executives of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund about the funding he would need to take Tesla private. However, it was anything but “secured.” Musk shared his recollection of the incident in his testimony Monday. He pointed to an incident in May of 2020 when he tweeted that “Tesla stock price is too high.” The stock price dropped the day of his tweet but recovered and closed the year higher than it had opened. Musk testified Friday that no one at Tesla reviewed his tweets in 2018 before he published them.

The court trial to decide whether a tweet Elon Musk sent in 2018 cost Tesla investors millions of dollars will resume Friday, with Musk himself potentially taking the stand. Tesla shareholders are suing the company to recoup losses they say they suffered amid Musk's claims that he had "secured" money to take the company private at $420 per share. Had the plan ultimately materialized, people who owned shares of Tesla at the time could have earned profits on their holdings. After the trial adjourned Wednesday, Porritt told The Associated Press he hopes to call Musk to the stand Friday after two other witnesses testify. Littleton told the nine-person San Francisco jury that Musk’s claim about the financing alarmed him.

☆ Elon Musk is under federal investigation over his Twitter deal, Twitter claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN Business —Federal authorities are investigating Elon Musk in connection with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the social media platform said in a court filing Thursday. Twitter’s filing merely said authorities are looking into Musk’s “conduct” linked to the deal. Twitter sued Musk to complete the acquisition, accusing the billionaire of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal that he developed buyer’s remorse over following a market decline. “Twitter’s executives are under federal investigation,” Spiro said in a statement to CNN. “Twitter did not ask Zatko to torch his own documents, much less demand that he do so,” Twitter’s filing read.

☆ Elon Musk accuses SEC of unlawfully muzzling him
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Tom Krisher | Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. Securities regulators are unlawfully muzzling Tesla CEO Elon Musk, violating his free speech rights by continually trying to enforce a 2018 securities fraud settlement, Musk’s lawyer contends in a court brief. The SEC is investigating whether Musk violated the settlement with tweets last November asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. But in the brief, Musk attorney Alex Spiro contends that the SEC is continually investigating Musk for topics not covered by the settlement. The whole dispute stems from an October 2018 agreement with the SEC that Musk signed. The judge also said Musk’s argument that the SEC had used the settlement order to harass Musk and launch investigations was “meritless.”

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