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☆ Jan. 6 rioter who put feet on desk in Pelosi’s office convicted on all counts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Daniel Barnes | Zoë Richards | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A supporter of US President Donald Trump sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as he protest inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021. An Arkansas man who was photographed during the Jan. 6 riot with his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, was found guilty on all counts Monday after brief jury deliberations. He said repeatedly in court last week that he regretted what transpired at the Capitol that day but did not consider his actions illegal. Before leaving Pelosi's office, Barnett took an envelope that he later displayed for cameras outside the Capitol. Barnett also admitted to telling an officer in the Capitol: "We're in a war.

☆ Additional classified items found in Biden's Delaware home during Justice Department search, attorney says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dennis-Romero-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Dennis Romero | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Six additional items, including documents with classified markings, were found in President Joe Biden's Delaware home after Department of Justice officials searched the residence Friday, the president's personal attorney said Saturday. Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said FBI agents conducted the search of Biden's personal property. In June, Trump’s lawyers turned over 38 classified documents, including 17 marked top secret, as well as other material. Special counsel Jack Smith is heading the FBI’s criminal investigation into the handling of the Trump documents. There’s no indication a criminal investigation has been launched into Biden's handling of sensitive documents.

An Arkansas man who was photographed on Jan. 6 with his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office took the witness stand at his criminal trial Thursday and said he regretted his actions during the attack on the Capitol. “I shouldn’t have put my feet on the desk,” Richard "Bigo" Barnett told jurors while testifying in his own defense on riot-related felony charges. Barnett testified that going inside the building was “against his instinct” and compared the experience to being in a dream. Barnett also told jurors that he hadn't intentionally sought out Pelosi's office. He said he did not realize it was Pelosi’s office until he picked up an envelope with her name on it, which he said he did out of curiosity.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a hate crime targeting people of Mexican descent at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, a court document filed on Tuesday showed. Crusius pleaded not guilty in 2020 to 90 federal hate crime charges in the case. Proceedings were delayed while prosecutors decided whether to pursue the death penalty against him. Last year, a Texas judge put off a state trial in the case as federal prosecutors determined whether they would seek capital punishment. In a notification to the court and to the defendant filed Tuesday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman said the government would not seek death in the case.

☆ Robert Hur: special counsel on Biden classified document probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Michael A. McCoyWASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday named Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate whether President Joe Biden had improperly handled sensitive government documents. Hur was the U.S. attorney in Maryland during the Trump administration and most recently served as litigation partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. A graduate of Stanford Law School and Harvard College, Hur served as top aide to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before his appointment as the U.S. Attorney in Maryland. He knows what he is getting into," Rosenstein told CNN on Thursday after Hur's appointment as special counsel. "I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment," Hur said in a statement released after his appointment as special counsel.

☆ Proud Boys Jan. 6 Trial Opens for Leader, Four Others
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department on Thursday outlined its sedition case against Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four members of the group, telling jurors during a long-awaited opening statement that the five men “took aim at the heart of our democracy” by leading the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021. “In the days after the election, these men began calling for action—calling for war,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough during his opening remarks. “Led by Tarrio, they agreed—by any means necessary, including force—to stop Congress from certifying the election.”

☆ Who is Robert Hur? Special Counsel looking into Biden’s classified documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — Robert Hur, named Thursday by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents, is a former federal prosecutor who has worked with many Republicans throughout his law enforcement career. Garland appointed Hur as special counsel on Thursday after the White House acknowledged that Obama administration documents with classified markings were found in one of Biden’s Delaware homes. On Monday, the White House said that similar documents had been found in a Washington office. Hur has served as a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since April 2021 where he has focused on enforcement, investigations and litigation. In between his jobs at the Justice Department, Hur worked at another private law firm, King & Spalding.

☆ Prosecutors are in a good position against Sam Bankman-Fried, says fmr. assistant U.S. attorney
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailProsecutors are in a good position against Sam Bankman-Fried, says fmr. assistant U.S. attorneyDanya Perry, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, joins CNBC's 'Squawk Box' to weigh in on the case against FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, who is expected to enter a plea next week.

Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison Wednesday, more than what was meted out to a co-defendant. “I do think of Mr. Croft as the more seriously culpable … more so than even Mr. Fox," Jonker said. “I think he was the person who gave Mr. Fox something to grab on to." Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said Croft needs to go away for an extended period of time to protect the public. I say all of this to say that Mr. Croft needed some intervention."

But what could mark the end of zero-Covid may be just the beginning of China's pandemic problems. Not to mention there are doubts that China's economy will be able to make a swift recovery even as it moves away from zero-Covid. "Between companies that manufacture in China for China, they're not going anywhere," Jeff Moon, China Moon Strategies founder and former assistant U.S. trade representative for China, said in an interview. "But there are also companies that are manufacturing in China for export out of China, and those are the companies that are actually looking to at different locations." Watch the video to learn more about how China's stringent zero-Covid policies collapsed and the challenges the world's second-largest economy faces as it moves to reopen.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate's Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bond while awaiting trial for fraud and other criminal charges, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday. Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Bankman-Fried would require "strict" supervision following his release to his parents' home in California. Bernie Madoff posted a $10 million bond while awaiting trial on his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO, posted a $5 million bond, while Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder, posted a scant $500,000.

In 2019, Cambodia supplied 8,571 of the 33,818 research monkeys imported to the U.S., or 25%. In 2021, the number of monkeys from Cambodia more than doubled to 18,870, making up nearly 60% of the 31,844 research monkeys brought to America. Earlier this year, long-tailed macaques and pig-tailed macaques were listed as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The decades long effort by animal rights groups to derail the monkey trade has made some impact. The incident shined a rare spotlight on the monkey trade, which largely goes on outside the view of the public.

WASHINGTON — A QAnon believer who chased U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman on Jan. 6, 2021, and apparently believed he was storming the White House will be sentenced Friday after he was convicted in September. He was one of the first 10 rioters to enter the Capitol during the insurrection. On Jan. 6, Jensen recorded videos from the base of the Capitol, where he proclaimed, inaccurately, that he was at the White House. “Storm the White House! If not for the "quick thinking" of Goodman, rioters would have been carried out of the building, he continued.

"There are grave medical concerns," Erin Hyde told a federal judge in Orlando on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by NBC News. Things took a stranger turn when the judge turned his attention to Josh Edwards, who did appear in the courtroom. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Wednesday. Jon Levy / AFP via Getty ImagesThe 13-minute hearing ended with Evan Edwards’ lawyer telling the judge there were grave concerns around his health. The case centers on a Paycheck Protection Program loan application Josh Edwards filed in April 2020.

☆ Hackers linked to Chinese government stole millions in Covid benefits, Secret Service says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Sarah Fitzpatrick | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Kit-Ramgopal-Byline.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Hackers linked to the Chinese government stole at least $20 million in U.S. Covid relief benefits, including Small Business Administration loans and unemployment insurance funds in over a dozen states, according to the Secret Service. One senior Justice Department official called it “dangerous” and said it had serious national security implications. ‘The horse is out of the barn’As soon as state governments began disbursing Covid unemployment funds in 2020, cybercriminals began to siphon off a significant percentage. China’s targets include state governments, which can have inadequate cybersecurity defenses. “The state governments don’t allocate a lot of cyber protection money to their state I.T.

BOSTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A co-owner of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy whose mold-tainted drugs sparked a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 was sentenced on Thursday to one year in prison for deceiving regulators to avoid federal oversight before the tragedy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Strachan said his lies to regulators in the decade beforehand ensured NECC remained open, allowing the tragedy to unfold. A jury in 2018 found Conigliaro guilty, but Stearns threw out his conviction, saying it was legally impossible for Conigliaro to have impeded the FDA's functions. In addition to prison, Conigliaro must pay a $40,000 fine. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Oath Keepers founder found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Ryan J. Reilly | Daniel Barnes | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

WASHINGTON — A federal jury in Washington found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. All five defendants faced felony counts of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging their duties. Three of the defendants — Rhodes, Caldwell and Watkins — took the stand in their own defense, with Rhodes telling jurors it was "stupid" for Oath Keepers to go inside the Capitol. While three other Oath Keepers pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, none of them testified during the trial. Four other Oath Keepers charged in conjunction with Rhodes — Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Ed Vallejo —are set to go to trial in early December.

☆ Covid policies will disrupt business operations significantly next year and beyond, says Jeff Moon
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCovid policies will disrupt business operations significantly next year and beyond, says Jeff MoonJeff Moon, China Moon Strategies founder and former assistant U.S. trade representative for China, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss how Xi Jinping is expected to handle the anti-government protest in China, how Moon would advise companies operating out of China, and more.

The U.S. Justice Department, in a report this September, said many crypto exchanges still "make little or no effort to comply" with know-your-customer requirements. These sites often included links for users to pay via crypto exchanges, the IWF told Reuters, declining to name companies. While banks and payment platforms demanded more details from online merchants, many crypto exchanges for years requested little or no information from clients. Asked at his trial for his opinion of crypto, Mohammad noted, "Privacy is something that a lot of users value." The IWF received more reports last year of websites selling child abuse imagery for crypto than any year prior.

☆ Jury to begin deliberating in Oath Keepers' Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Ryan J. Reilly | Ryan J. Reilly Is A Justice Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III is facing trial alongside four other defendants: Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell. Watkins, Meggs and Harrelson went inside the Capitol during the attack, while Rhodes and Caldwell were present on restricted Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. Federal prosecutors have not proven that the Oath Keepers had an organized plan to storm the Capitol before Jan. 6. Three defendants — Rhodes, Caldwell and Watkins — took the stand in their own defense during the trial, which began with opening arguments on Oct. 3. In 1995, a jury convicted "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman and others on seditious conspiracy charges in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday sentenced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years and three months in prison for defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion. In San Jose, California, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes, 38, on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy after a jury convicted her last January following a trial spanning three months. The prosecution had recommended a sentence of 15 years in prison, while the defense had urged the judge to impose no prison time. The federal probation office had recommended a 9-year prison sentence, according to court papers. Before sentencing Holmes, Davila asked if any of her victims were in the courtroom.

“For these defendants, the attack on the Capitol was a means to an end,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy told jurors. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP fileBright told jurors there was not evidence of a "meeting of the minds" on seditious conspiracy. “We’ve had 50 witnesses in this case, not one person has testified to you there was a plan,” Bright said. Oath Keepers were upset about the results of the 2020 election, but them venting their frustrations to each other doesn’t constitute a conspiracy, Bright argued. Rhodes told you in his own words he was prepared to start a rebellion the day that president Biden took office,” Rakoczy said, referring back to Rhodes’ testimony in his own defense.

WASHINGTON — Jack Smith, the newly named special counsel in the Trump investigations, most recently served as the chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes committed during the Kosovo War. Before The Hague, Smith served as the vice president of litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America, the nation’s largest nongovernmental health care provider. Smith began his prosecutorial career in 1994 as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney’s Office. From 2008 to 2010, Smith worked at the International Criminal Court where he oversaw war crimes investigations. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that Smith would be returning to the U.S. from his position at The Hague, and would begin his role as special counsel immediately.

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A federal prosecutor on Friday urged a Washington jury to convict far-right Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four of his associates for plotting to use force on Jan. 6, 2021, to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election. The government asserts the Oath Keepers conspired to use force to keep Republican former President Donald Trump in power by stopping Congress from certifying Biden's election victory, with defendants Meggs, Watkins and Harrelson entering the building clad in tactical gear. Prosecutors also allege the Oath Keepers staged a "quick reaction force" in a nearby Virginia hotel, a plan which entailed stockpiling firearms that could be ferried across the river into the capital if needed. More than 900 people have been charged in the Capitol attack, which led members of Congress to run for cover as thousands of Trump's supporters stormed the building. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Howard GollerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Far-right extremist guided 'army' of rioters to Pelosi's office on Jan. 6 , prosecutors tell jury
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Ryan J. Reilly | Ryan J. Reilly Is A Justice Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — A far-right extremist charged with aiding and abetting the theft of a laptop from Nancy Pelosi's office during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, "led an army" towards the House Speaker's suite, prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments on Wednesday. Video features her encouraging rioters to take a laptop inside Pelosi's office, and urging the mob to push up against officers inside the Capitol rotunda. Williams, both prosecutors and the defense agreed, was obsessed with Nick Fuentes and his group the "Groypers," a far-right, white nationalist movement. To prosecutors, Williams was a leader who directed the mob. Williams was "surprised to be where she was" in Pelosi's office, Ulrich said.

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