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Category: Law/Crime

Can Trump pay? What if he doesn’t? Here’s what to know about Trump’s massive civil judgments

Can Trump pay? What if he doesn’t? Here’s what to know about Trump’s massive civil judgments

Politico reports: A seven-figure verdict, an eight-figure verdict and, now, a nine-figure verdict. Donald Trump has been hit with all three in the past nine months, with Friday’s $354 million penalty for New York business fraud by far the most massive. He is now on the hook for over $440 million in civil judgments as he heads toward the Republican nomination — and as he prepares for one or more criminal trials this year. Those criminal cases could put him…

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Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That’s everyone’s problem

Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That’s everyone’s problem

Vox reports: Two recent verdicts have now left Donald Trump on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars. On Friday, a New York judge handed the former president a $355 million penalty, and banned him from serving in a leadership position in any business in New York for three years, for fraudulently inflating his net worth to lenders in order to receive more favorable loan agreements. And in January, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay the writer E….

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Plastics reckoning: PVC is ubiquitous, but maybe not for long

Plastics reckoning: PVC is ubiquitous, but maybe not for long

Nicola Jones writes: The word “vinyl” might sound innocuous, bringing to mind everyday items like LP records, flooring, pipes, or shiny plastic pants. The plastic this name refers to — polyvinyl chloride (PVC) — is the world’s third-most widely produced synthetic polymer, with more than 50 million tons cranked out each year for everything from window frames to food wrap, fake leather car seats to medical products. It’s everywhere. But environmentalists and NGOs have been raising alarms about PVC for…

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Gaza and the end of the rules-based order

Gaza and the end of the rules-based order

Agnès Callamard writes: After more than four months of conflict, Israel’s campaign of retaliation against Hamas has been characterized by a pattern of war crimes and violations of international law. Israel’s stated justification for its war in Gaza is the elimination of Hamas, which is responsible for the horrific crimes committed during its October 7 attack on Israel: 1,139 people, mostly Israeli civilians, killed; thousands more wounded; a yet unknown number of women and girls subjected to sexual violence; and…

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Judge rules full speed ahead on Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial

Judge rules full speed ahead on Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump will face trial next month in New York City for faking documents to cover up his sexual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, becoming the first American president to face a jury on criminal charges. On Thursday, Justice Juan Merchan refused to dismiss the case and set the trial to start March 25, as previously planned. Trump’s lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, immediately called the decision to keep the start of trial on schedule…

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Ireland, Spain want EU to review Israel’s human rights compliance in Gaza

Ireland, Spain want EU to review Israel’s human rights compliance in Gaza

Reuters reports: The prime ministers of Spain and Ireland asked the European Commission on Wednesday to urgently review whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in Gaza. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 were taken hostage in a raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, prompting Israel to retaliate. At least 28,576 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli strikes, the health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday. Palestinians jammed into their…

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The tangled fates of Fani Willis and her biggest case

The tangled fates of Fani Willis and her biggest case

Charles Bethea writes: This past August, Manny Arora, a lawyer in Atlanta, considered an unusual challenge to the charges brought against his client Kenneth Chesebro. Arora, who is in his fifties, is an unflappable retired Air Force prosecutor. He has argued cases on behalf of the former N.F.L. star Adam (Pacman) Jones and Gucci Mane, the Atlanta rapper. Chesebro was a big client, too: a Harvard-trained lawyer and one of the alleged architects of Donald Trump’s scheme to have several…

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Biden administration investigating Israel’s possible war crimes — despite public claims to the contrary

Biden administration investigating Israel’s possible war crimes — despite public claims to the contrary

HuffPost reports: A month ago, White House spokesperson John Kirby declared Washington was so confident in Israel’s U.S.-backed offensive in Gaza that the U.S. did not need to investigate its actions. “I’m not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by our partner Israel,” Kirby told reporters on Jan. 4, as the Biden administration rallied to defend Israel against an International Court of Justice case arguing…

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Dutch court orders halt to export of F-35 jet parts to Israel

Dutch court orders halt to export of F-35 jet parts to Israel

Reuters reports: A Dutch appeals court on Monday ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used in violations of international law during Israel’s Gaza offensive. It said the state had to comply with the order within seven days and dismissed a request by government lawyers to suspend the order pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. The state has eight weeks to appeal against the decision. “It is…

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Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

The Guardian reports: Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said. The Israeli government was given until 23 February to report to the ICJ on what it has done to comply with six orders the court issued, including one…

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NATO chief says Trump remarks may put U.S. and EU lives at risk

NATO chief says Trump remarks may put U.S. and EU lives at risk

The Guardian reports: The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has said any attack on the western military alliance would be met with a “united and forceful response”, after Donald Trump invited Russia to attack member countries that he perceived as not meeting their financial obligations. Stoltenberg said in a statement: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that…

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The real ‘Robert Hur report.’ How the Special Counsel report has been misinterpreted

The real ‘Robert Hur report.’ How the Special Counsel report has been misinterpreted

Andrew Weissmann and Ryan Goodman write: The Special Counsel Robert Hur report has been grossly mischaracterized by the press. The report finds that the evidence of a knowing, willful violation of the criminal laws is wanting. Indeed, the report, on page 6, notes that there are “innocent explanations” that Hur “cannot refute.” That is but one of myriad examples we outline in great detail below of the report repeatedly finding a lack of proof. And those findings mean, in DOJ-speak,…

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Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case. What this means for scientists

Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case. What this means for scientists

Nature reports: US climate scientist Michael Mann has prevailed in a lawsuit that accused two conservative commentators of defamation for challenging his research and comparing him to a convicted child molester. A jury awarded Mann, who is based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, more than US$1 million in a landmark case that legal observers see as a warning to those who attack scientists working in controversial fields, including climate science and public health. “It’s perfectly legitimate to criticize…

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Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

The Guardian reports: Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives. In a statement issued in October, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a Kenyan, omitted any criticism of Israel. In a letter sent to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday, 16 Palestinian groups,…

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Inside Donald Trump’s incredible cash crunch

Inside Donald Trump’s incredible cash crunch

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump is just days away from getting slammed with a court judgment that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars as a punishment for his decades of bank fraud with the Trump Organization. And two little-known New York laws could leave Trump scrambling for cash: a requirement that he immediately front the money to appeal the decision, and a sky-high state interest rate. During a deposition with the New York Attorney General in April…

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In a masterful opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump’s bid for immunity

In a masterful opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump’s bid for immunity

George T. Conway III writes: On July 24, 1974, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, ordering President Richard Nixon to produce the Watergate tapes, the president turned to his chief of staff, Alexander Haig, to understand what had just happened. He later recounted the exchange in his memoirs: “Unanimous?” I guessed. “Unanimous. There’s no air in it at all,” he said. “None at all?” I asked. “It’s tight as a drum.” These words echoed…

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