Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed until after the November election, granting the former president a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the homestretch of his current campaign and the aftermath of his criminal conviction.

In a decision Friday, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, three weeks after the final votes are cast in the U.S. presidential election. The sentencing had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.

The delay is the latest bit of good fortune for Trump in an election season that has been laden with legal perils for him.

The new date means voters will choose their next president without knowing whether the Republican nominee is going to jail, nor whether he will even be sentenced at all. Merchan now plans to rule Nov. 12 on Trump's request to overturn the verdict and toss out the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

Merchan explained that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”

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Trump assails women who accused him of misconduct, days before his debate with Harris

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shortly after appearing in court for an appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse, Donald Trump stepped in front of television cameras Friday and brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten.

The former president has made hitting back at opponents and accusers a centerpiece of his political identity, but his performance at his namesake Manhattan office tower was startling even by Trump's combative standards.

At times, he seemed to relish using graphic language and characterizations of the case brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, which could expose the former president to further legal challenges from Carroll's attorneys. His remarks were especially striking given that they came four days before Trump will debate Vice President Kamala Harris, with early voting about to begin in some parts of the country and Election Day just two months away.

Trump is doing his best to stay in the public eye while Harris prepares for the debate in private, meeting with her advisers in Pittsburgh. That’s a reflection of their divergent campaign styles, with Trump frequently engaging with reporters — albeit often in friendly settings — while Harris has done just one interview and no news conferences since taking President Joe Biden’s place atop the Democratic ticket.

His team had billed Friday's appearance as a press conference and Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ lack of news conferences. But Trump took no questions and instead talked about the cases against him for an hour while hardly mentioning any campaign issues.

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he will vote for Kamala Harris

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, will vote for Kamala Harris for president, he announced Friday.

Liz Cheney, who herself endorsed Harris on Wednesday, first announced her father's endorsement when asked by Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic magazine during an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

“Wow,” Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.

Like his daughter, Dick Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, notably during Liz Cheney's ill-fated reelection campaign in 2022.

Dick Cheney put out a statement Friday confirming his endorsement, which read almost entirely as opposition to Trump rather than support of Harris.

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Biden signs 'common sense' order prioritizing federal grants for projects with higher worker wages

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order for federal grants that will prioritize projects with labor agreements, wage standards, and benefits such as access to child care and apprenticeship programs.

Biden said the ideas in his order “are common sense."

“Economists have long believed that these good job standards produce more opportunities, better outcomes for workers and more predictable outcomes for businesses as well," he said from an Ann Arbor, Michigan union training center where he made the announcement. “A good union job is building a future worthy of your dreams.”

The Biden administration is trying to make the case that economic growth should flow out of better conditions for workers. His administration has stressed the vital role that organized labor will likely play for Democrats in November’s election. In her matchup against Republican Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is depending on backing from the AFL-CIO and other unions to help turn out voters in key states.

Biden has prided himself on his support of labor unions, joining striking Michigan union workers on the picket line last year. On Friday, he came on stage to chants of “Thank you, Joe!"

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Teen charged in Georgia school shooting and his father to stay in custody after hearings

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The 14-year-old suspect in a shooting that killed four people at a Georgia high school and his father, who was arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon, will stay in custody after their lawyers decided not to seek bail Friday.

Colt Gray, who has been charged with four counts of murder, is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two fellow students and two teachers Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. His father, Colin Gray, faces related charges in the latest attempt by prosecutors to hold parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings.

“You don’t have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith said outside the Barrow County courthouse. “Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in that school was a victim.”

The father and son appeared in back-to-back hearings Friday morning with about 50 onlookers in the courtroom, where workers had placed boxes of tissues along the benches, in addition to members of the media and sheriff’s deputies. Some victims' family members in the front row hugged each other and one woman clutched a stuffed animal.

During his hearing, Colt Gray, wearing khaki pants and a green shirt, was advised of his rights as well as the charges and penalties he faced for the shooting at the school where he was a student. He was escorted out in shackles at the wrists and ankles.

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Georgia school shooting stirs debate about safe storage laws for guns

Just a couple of weeks ago, a special panel of Georgia state senators convened to study potential laws aimed at keeping firearms safely locked up and out of the hands of children.

A day after a 14-year-old was charged in a deadly shooting at his Georgia high school, that same panel gathered again Thursday to discuss safe gun storage policies. The lawmakers are still talking about the issue because — like many state legislatures across the U.S. — they have been unable to agree in recent years on whether new gun safety measures provide a solution to the all-too-frequent occurrence of mass shootings at schools and public places.

The Georgia school shooting marked the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings.

Under federal law, no one younger than 18 can legally purchase a rifle or other long gun from a licensed firearm dealer. Yet authorities say Colt Gray used a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School near Winder, just outside of Atlanta. Nine others were injured.

His father, Colin Gray, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with his son's actions and for "allowing him to possess a weapon,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said.

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Israeli soldiers fatally shot an American woman at a West Bank protest, witnesses say

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, according to two witnesses who said what began as a peaceful demonstration devolved into a clash between stone-throwing protesters and troops firing live ammunition. Two Palestinian doctors said 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle was shot in the head.

The U.S. government confirmed Eygi's death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a U.S. citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.

The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.

On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, Bana Laboom, in her village outside the West Bank town of Nabul, Palestinian health officials said. There was no immediate military comment on the report.

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Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for 'all the right reasons' while condemning Hamas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Thursday that those protesting American support for Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza are doing so for “all the right reasons," as the Democratic ticket looks to balance its support for Israel with the humanitarian plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.

Walz' comments came in an interview with a local Michigan public radio station — a state with a large Muslim American population that is also a potentially pivotal swing state in this November's election. His comments appeared to mark tonal shift, though not a policy one, from the steadfast support for Israel that Vice President Kamala Harris espoused at the Democratic National Convention last month.

Walz said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was “a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves.” But, he also said that, “we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”

During the interview, Walz was also asked how a Harris administration might handle the nearly 11-month Israel-Hamas conflict and whether she would break with President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel while working to broker a ceasefire and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.

Walz made no mention of the six hostages, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who were executed last week in Gaza by Hamas as Israeli forces drew near. Nor did he mention the protests that involve violence and vandalism and are frequently directed at Jewish Americans.

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January 6 crimes did happen. Court cases, video and thousands of pages of evidence prove it

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inside Washington’s federal courthouse, there’s no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb the chilling sights and sounds from television screens of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers as democracy lay under siege.

But as he seeks to reclaim the White House, Donald Trump continues to portray the defendants as patriots worthy of admiration, an assertion that has been undercut by the adjudicated truth in hundreds of criminal cases where judges and juries have reached the opposite conclusion about what history will remember as one of America’s darkest days.

The cases have systematically put on record — through testimony, documents and video — the crimes committed, weapons wielded, and lives altered by physical and emotional damage. Trump is espousing a starkly different story, portraying the rioters as hostages and political prisoners whom he says he might pardon if he wins in November.

“This is not normal," U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was nominated to the federal bench in Washington by Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote in court papers. “This cannot become normal. We as a community, we as a society, we as a country cannot condone the normalization of the January 6 Capitol riot.”

There are no broadcast television cameras inside the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse on Constitution Avenue. But the real story of Jan. 6 is found in the reams of evidence and testimony judges and juries have seen and heard behind the doors of the courthouse where hundreds of Trump’s supporters have been convicted in the attack.

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A hitman serving life in prison gets more time for killing ‘Whitey’ Bulger

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — A former Mafia hitman already serving life in prison was sentenced to 25 years Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Prosecutors said Fotios “Freddy” Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at the troubled U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization Friday, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

The Justice Department said last year that it would not seek the death penalty against Geas in Bulger’s killing.

The sentences — 15 years for voluntary manslaughter and 10 years for assault resulting in serious bodily injury — will be served consecutively with each other as well to the current life term for Geas.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh agreed to a sentencing recommendation from prosecutors that was longer than government guidelines. Kleeh said he found the final result to be “fair, reasonable and just.” The judge dismissed more serious charges that included murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which each carried maximum penalties of life in prison.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024