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Category: Law/Crime

McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. The investigation is led by the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Massachusetts and the Western District of Virginia in coordination with the department’s civil division in Washington, according to two officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to…

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Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

UN News reports: Disturbing reports continue to emerge about mass graves in Gaza in which Palestinian victims were reportedly found stripped naked with their hands tied, prompting renewed concerns about possible war crimes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday. The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in…

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Team Trump is ready to lose the Supreme Court immunity case. They’re celebrating

Team Trump is ready to lose the Supreme Court immunity case. They’re celebrating

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump‘s inner circle doesn’t expect the Supreme Court to go along with his extreme arguments about executive power in the immunity case before the justices. But what the high court does now is almost beside the point: Trump already won. Three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone that many of the former president’s lawyers and political advisers have already accepted that the justices will likely rule against him, and reject his claims…

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Opening statements are the most important part of a trial – as lawyers in Trump’s hush money case know well

Opening statements are the most important part of a trial – as lawyers in Trump’s hush money case know well

Former U.S. President Donald Trump enters Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024. Victor J. Blue – Pool/Getty Images By Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University Though Hollywood movies about courtroom dramas often glamorize the closing arguments given by lawyers, in reality the opening statement is likely the most important single event of a trial. Such was the case in the hush money trial involving former President Donald Trump and alleged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels when lawyers for…

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The MAGA circus Trump wanted outside his trial hasn’t arrived

The MAGA circus Trump wanted outside his trial hasn’t arrived

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump was evidently not happy with what he saw out the window of his chauffeured S.U.V. as he rode through Lower Manhattan on Monday morning for the beginning of opening arguments in his first criminal trial. The scene that confronted him as he approached the dingy courthouse at 100 Centre Street was underwhelming. Across the street, at Collect Pond Park, the designated site for protesters during the trial, only a handful of Trump…

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U.S. poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

U.S. poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

The Guardian reports: A unit of the Israel Defense Forces is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, even as Congress voted for $26bn in new emergency aid to Israel. According to reports in the Israeli media, US state department officials have confirmed they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians. The highly significant move, which would be the…

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Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

The New York Times reports: In the official record, the case is known as the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, and, for now, the people have the stronger hand: They have insider witnesses, a favorable jury pool and a lurid set of facts about a presidential candidate, a payoff and a porn star. On Monday, the prosecutors will formally introduce the case to 12 all-important jurors, embarking on the first prosecution of an American…

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U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank

U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank

Axios reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, three U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios. Why it matters: It would be the first time the U.S. imposed sanctions on an Israeli military unit. The sanctions will ban the battalion and its members from receiving any kind of U.S. military assistance or training, the sources said. A…

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Trump forced to listen silently as potential jurors offer their unvarnished assessments of him

Trump forced to listen silently as potential jurors offer their unvarnished assessments of him

The Associated Press reports: He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman. The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another. His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.” Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him. It’s been a dramatic…

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Blinken says he’s made ‘determinations’ linked to human rights accusations against Israel

Blinken says he’s made ‘determinations’ linked to human rights accusations against Israel

Reuters reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he has made “determinations” regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of U.S. laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights. The Leahy Laws, authored by then-Senator Patrick Leahy in the late 1990s, prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights and have not been brought to justice. Earlier…

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Pregnant women are being turned away from emergency rooms with fatal consequences

Pregnant women are being turned away from emergency rooms with fatal consequences

The Associated Press reports: One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died. Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from…

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New York AG says $175 million Trump fraud bond isn’t properly backed, should be voided

New York AG says $175 million Trump fraud bond isn’t properly backed, should be voided

CNBC reports: The New York Attorney General’s office on Friday asked a judge to effectively void a $175 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump to secure a much larger monetary damage award in his civil business fraud case as he appeals the judgment. The AG’s office in a filing said Trump and other defendants in the case had failed to show there is enough identifiable collateral to back the bond for the judgment in Manhattan Supreme Court. The…

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What sentencing could look like if Trump is found guilty

What sentencing could look like if Trump is found guilty

Norman L. Eisen writes: To date, Mr. Trump has been unrepentant about the events alleged in this case. There is every reason to believe that will not change even if he is convicted, and lack of remorse is a negative at sentencing. Justice Merchan’s evaluation of Mr. Trump’s history and character may also be informed by the other judgments against him, including Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling that Mr. Trump engaged in repeated and persistent business fraud, a jury finding that…

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Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

The New York Times reports: For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past week. On Tuesday, in a United Nations court, Germany found itself having to defend against accusations that it was complicit…

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Majority of voters think Trump committed ‘serious federal crimes,’ according to NYT poll

Majority of voters think Trump committed ‘serious federal crimes,’ according to NYT poll

Politico reports: A majority of voters believe former President Donald Trump has committed “serious federal crimes,” according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. Fifty-three percent of likely voters said they believe this, while 39 percent of those surveyed said they did not believe that Trump committed serious crimes. Nine percent said they didn’t know or didn’t answer the question. The numbers broken down by party affiliation show that 90 percent of Democrats believe he has committed serious crimes,…

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A legal process rigged in Trump’s favor

A legal process rigged in Trump’s favor

James Romoser writes: Nearly 500,000 people in America are in jail while they await criminal trials. Trump, obviously, is not one of them. In all four of his criminal cases, he was allowed to remain free with minimal conditions of release. One of the few conditions — perhaps the central one — is that he must refrain from saying anything that would threaten or harass potential witnesses, co-defendants or jurors. His Georgia bond order, for instance, states: “The Defendant shall…

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