Donald Trump is sharpening his focus on a possible running mate by taking a page from his days hosting reality show “The Apprentice” and parading the top contenders for the slot in front of rich benefactors this weekend.

Contestants jockeyed for a job with his business empire for over a decade on the NBC show, with Trump pitting them against each other for his favor. An exclusive donor retreat at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach this week promises a similar vibe — drawing hundreds of deep-pocketed GOP backers as well as allies eyeing the No. 2 spot on the Republican presidential ticket.

The spectacle comes as Trump is narrowing his gaze on a handful of potential running mates: Ohio Senator JD Vance, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, according to people familiar with the deliberations as recently as this week.

Trump is saddled with legal woes. His running mate could be a crucial surrogate on the campaign trail, helping broaden his appeal with independents, women and minority voters, while also helping tap wealthy donors as he trails President Joe Biden by nearly $100 million.

Scott, Rubio and Vance all offer valuable experience raising money for Senate campaigns. Burgum, who sold his software company to Microsoft Corp. for $1.1 billion in 2001, has contacts in tech and energy sectors that could also help him woo wealthy donors.

Trump has publicly praised all four candidates recently, but Trump and Rubio have a history of trading barbs. During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump dubbed the Florida Senator “Little Marco,” and Rubio called Trump “the most vulgar person.” On Wednesday, Trump called Rubio “great” and “one of the people I respect.”

“Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump,” Trump senior advisor Brian Hughes said.

Game-Time Decision

The former president – known for his loyalty tests and challenges that mirror some plot-lines from The Apprentice – has repeatedly emphasized that he has yet to decide on his running mate and will announce closer to the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15 in Milwaukee.

“We’ll be making that decision I think closer to Wisconsin time,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday with a Michigan television station. “It’s very early right now.”

The campaign is vetting lots of candidates, but Trump has yet to commit his full attention to the formal process or hold official one-on-one meetings with the VP contenders, people familiar with the process said.

Last month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a post on X that Trump “emissaries” reached out to him about possibly being Trump’s running mate. Ben Carson, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary, is seen as a safe choice for Trump among those in his orbit, the people familiar said.

Guest List

The weekend donor retreat gives Trump an opportunity to test-run his top tier of candidates — Burgum, Scott, Vance and Rubio — all of whom are slated to attend. Representatives for those individuals did not immediately respond to requests to comment or declined to comment.

Other potential VP candidates, including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York and Byron Donalds of Florida, are also listed on an invitation for the event.

Donors planning to attend include Scott Bessent of Key Square Group, who has been floated as a potential Treasury secretary nominee, and private equity investor Tommy Hicks Jr., Red Apple Group founder John Catsimatidis, former Intrepid Museum chief executive officer Bill White and his husband Bryan Eure of Willis Towers Watson will also have ringside seats, giving Trump to see how potential running mates are received by the GOP’s money elite.

The backdrop for the three-day donor event at The Four Seasons in Palm Beach is a stark contrast to Trump’s week, mostly spent in a New York City courtroom where he was fined for violating a gag order for criticizing key witnesses and warned that future breaches could result in jail time. Trump is in the middle of a multi-week criminal trial dealing with the falsification of business records to obfuscate hush money paid to an adult film actress. He also faces three other criminal indictments.

The Four Seasons will be locked down for the duration of the event to keep journalists and other unauthorized visitors out of the beach-front complex, according to a person familiar with the planning.

The schedule includes a Senate panel featuring Scott, Rubio, and other senators on Friday, according to a person familiar with the planning. House members will also host a reception that same evening, while Noem and Burgum will appear at a breakfast on Saturday, the person said. Trump himself will speak at a lunch that will be held at his Mar-A-Lago club, four miles away from the Four Seasons property. One topic that will be a key focus of discussion: election integrity.

Other notable Republicans slated to attend include US Representatives Jim Banks and Wesley Hunt, Senators Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. US Senate candidates, Dave McCormick, who is running in Pennsylvania, and Bernie Moreno, who is seeking to flip an Ohio Senate seat, are also scheduled to be there.

Running Mate Material

Trump’s running mate may have to take on an unusually large amount of campaigning if the former president’s legal troubles prevent him from maintaining a robust travel schedule. Trump’s current trial is expected to wrap up in June and trial dates for the other three indictments have not yet been scheduled and could stretch out past the election.

Douglas Heye, a Republican operative, said a strategically selected running mate could give Trump the bump he needs to win in what is expected to be a close race in November.

“Just as Mike Pence helped Trump with evangelicals, the right pick can help Trump make inroads with communities he is targeting,” Heye said. “Peeling off a few percentage points could have a big impact in key states.”

The Arizona Supreme Court on May 2 overturned two lower court rulings that imposed sanctions against the state’s Republican Party for a 2020 election lawsuit against Maricopa County that a lower court called “meritless.”

The Arizona GOP filed suit against Maricopa County challenging its hand-count auditing process during the 2020 general election days after the election.
The Republicans argued that the county’s decision to conduct a hand count audit by vote center instead of by precinct violated formal state election procedures, as the GOP is seeking a new audit by precinct.

The Superior Court of Arizona dismissed the case, claiming it was “meritless” and the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld that decision in April 2023, also finding it had “no merit.”

The party shortly after appealed again, and the ruling this week reverses a slate of attorney’s fees they were set to have to pay in an amount over $27,000.

The Arizona Supreme Court also emphasized a need for caution against dismissing too quickly election-related lawsuits as groundless.

“The desire to vindicate a legal right—even if in the election context and animated exclusively by political motives—is not relevant, much less per se sanctionable,” the supreme court wrote. “Courts should focus on the legal and factual merits of a claim and the party’s and attorney’s conduct in the course of the litigation. Any suggestion that a party or attorney faces enhanced risk of sanction merely because they couple political motives with a long-shot effort to vindicate a legal right in the election law context intolerably chills citizens and their attorneys precisely in an arena where we can least afford to silence them.”

The court went on to say courts should “in their zeal to ensure that election challenges are properly grounded in fact and law” does not “inadvertently inflict real damage to our republic by slamming the courthouse door on citizens and their counsel legitimately seeking to vindicate rights, which is also important to maintaining public confidence in elections.”

The Arizona Republican Party applauded the decision in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“We are pleased with the Supreme Court of Arizona’s decision to reverse and vacate the attorney fees awards previously levied against us,” their statement said. “This ruling reaffirms the fundamental legal principle that raising questions about the interpretation and application of election laws is a legitimate use of the judicial system, not a groundless or bad faith action. We remain committed to ensuring that election laws are followed precisely, upholding the integrity of our electoral process.”

Other Matters

“We consider whether the trial court and the court of appeals erred in awarding attorney fees against the [Arizona Republican Party] and its attorneys,” the state high court’s decision stated.

The court continued, noting those attorney fees were awarded under a state law that provides for awarding fees if an attorney or party brings or defends a claim that is “groundless and is not made in good faith.”

“We hold that the attorney fees award was improper because petitioners’ claim was not groundless, thus obviating any need to determine whether the claim was made in the absence of good faith,” the court’s opinion, authored by Justice John R. Lopez stated. The court’s decision was unanimous among the seven justices.

The court vacated the attorney fees awarded against Arizona GOP and clarified the interpretation of what constitutes a claim made in “bad faith” under the relevant Arizona statute, advocating for a more measured approach in assessing the motivations behind legal claims.

The court notes that there is a legitimate interpretive conflict between the statutory requirements for hand counts and the procedures actually followed, which included voting centers not specified in the law.

Regarding the issue of good faith, the state supreme court criticized the lower courts for equating the lack of good faith with the presence of bad faith or ulterior motives. Instead, the supreme court offers a different perspective, suggesting that a claim is made without good faith if it is pursued despite the party or attorney knowing it lacks a sound legal basis, or if pursued with indifference to its validity.

The court also addresses other aspects criticized by the lower courts, such as the timeliness of the lawsuit being filed after the election and procedural errors, arguing that these do not render the Arizona Republicans’ actions groundless or in bad faith. The court emphasized that the claims were not only legally tenable but also did not constitute an abuse of the judicial process.

The economy added 175,000 jobs in April, versus 315,000 the month before, and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 3.9%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.

Investors had expected roughly 300,000 new jobs and for the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.8%.

The interpretation

“It’s a little disappointing, obviously, but it’s still a strong number, and this is kind of what you would expect as the economy eases down a little bit after we’ve had such a long string of interest rate hikes,” Dan North, a senior economist with Allianz Trade Americas, told the Washington Examiner. “A little weaker on the headline, but still OK.”

What it means … for Biden

The report is unwelcome news for President Joe Biden, who is suffering from high disapproval ratings related to his handling of the economy. Biden is running low on time to turn around voter perceptions of his handling of the economy before the election.

While the economy is still adding jobs, the number was well short of expectations and a major slowdown from the months before.

What it means for … the Fed

Friday’s report shows some cooling in the labor market. If subsequent reports indicate that employment growth is slowing, that would push up the timing of a cut in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate target.

The underlying reality

It is important not to read too much into any one jobs report. The payroll numbers bounce around from month to month and are revised in subsequent reports.

Instead, it is helpful to look at the trend. The three-month moving average of jobs decreased to 242,000.

Roughly 110,000 new payroll jobs are needed each month to keep unemployment from rising, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Note, though, that a separate estimate that takes into account the full extent of recent immigration puts the number as high as 200,000.

Prime-age employment, relative to the overall population, is strong by historical standards.

Recession watch

The unemployment rate, taken from the jobs report’s household survey, is low.

Recessions entail a rising unemployment rate.

Friday’s data suggest that the United States is close to but still short of triggering one major recession indicator — namely, when the three-month moving average of the unemployment rate rises half a percentage point relative to its minimum point over the past year. This indicator, known as the Sahm Rule, signaled the start of all postwar recessions.

Industries to watch

The leisure and hospitality sector is just below the levels of employment it reached in February 2020, right before restaurants and bars were forced to shut down across the country.

Construction employment has remained robust, even as the housing market has taken a massive hit over the past few years as mortgage rates have soared alongside the Fed’s rate hikes. That’s in part because of a huge backlog of construction of multifamily housing over recent months. Economists will watch closely for any sign of slowing hiring in construction.

Unemployment rates by race/ethnicity

The household survey also includes unemployment rates by race and ethnicity. Rates for all groups neared record lows in the past few years but appear to have drifted up recently.

The IRS says it is about to ramp up audits as it cracks down on tax cheats and seeks to deliver more revenue into the U.S. Treasury’s coffers. But not every group of taxpayers will face more scrutiny, according to IRS commissioner Danny Werfel.

The IRS has been bolstered by $80 billion in new funding directed by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law in 2022 by President Joe Biden. The idea behind the new funding was to help revive an agency whose ranks have been depleted over the years, leading to customer service snarls, processing delays and a falloff in audit rates.

On Thursday, the IRS outlined its plans for the funding, as well as its efforts so far to burnish the agency’s customer service operations after some taxpayers encountered months-long delays during the pandemic. The IRA money has helped the IRS answer more taxpayer calls during the tax season that just ended on April 15, as well as beef up its enforcement, which led to the collection of $520 million from wealthy taxpayers who hadn’t filed their taxes or still owed money, it said.

“The changes outlined in this report are a stark contrast to the years of underfunding” that led to a deterioration in the agency’s services, Werfel said on a conference call with reporters.

Werfel noted that the IRS’ strategic plan over the next three tax years include a sharp increase in audits, although the agency reiterated it won’t boost its enforcement for people who earn less than $400,000 annually — which covers the bulk of U.S. taxpayers.

Here’s who will face an increase in audits

At the same time, the IRS is increasing its audit efforts, with Werfel noting on Thursday that the agency will focus on wealthy individuals and large corporations:

• The IRS plans to triple the audit rates on large corporations with assets of more than $250 million. Audit rates for these companies will rise to 22.6% in tax year 2026 from 8.8% in 2019.
• Large partnerships with assets of more than $10 million will see their audit rates increase 10-fold, rising to 1% in tax year 2026 from 0.1% in 2019.
• Wealthy individuals with total positive income of more than $10 million will see their audit rates rise 50% to 16.5% from 11% in 2019.

“There is no new wave of audits coming from middle- and low-income [individuals], coming from mom and pops. That’s not in our plans,” Werfel said.

But by focusing on big corporations, complicated partnerships and wealthy people who earn over $10 million year, the IRS wants to send a signal, he noted.

“It sets an important tone and message for complex filers, high-wealth filers, that this is our focus area,” he said.

The myth of 87,000 armed IRS agents

The agency also outlined its efforts to bolster hiring, thanks to the new IRA money. In the mid-1990s, the IRS employed more than 100,000 people, but its workforce had dwindled to about 73,000 workers in 2019 due to a wave of retirements and prior funding cuts.

Werfel said the agency has recently boosted its workforce to about 90,000 full-time equivalent employees, and that it plans to expand to about 102,500 workers over the next few years.

“That number won’t even be a record high for the IRS workforce; it’s well below the numbers from the 1980s and early 1990s,” Werfel noted.

He added that the hiring data should dissolve what he called “any lingering myths about a supersized IRS.” After the IRA passed, some Republican lawmakers warned in 2022 that the agency would use the money to hire “87,000 new IRS agents to audit Walmart shoppers.”

“This should put to rest any misconception about us bringing on 87,000 agents,” Werfel noted, adding that many of the new hires are replacing retiring employees.

The Biden administration funneled nearly $1.3 million to the Taliban as part of reconstruction projects in Afghanistan that are being administered by the United States, according to a government oversight group.

Since 2021, when the Biden administration conducted its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has allocated millions to weapons removal projects. As part of these activities, the U.S. government and its partners inside Afghanistan “have paid Taliban entities nearly $1.3 million in taxes, including $138,000 this quarter,” according to an audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which monitors America’s $17 billion post-withdrawal investment in the country.

Another $5 million in U.S. funds remain available for future weapons removal projects, which will likely have to be conducted with the Taliban’s blessing. The United States’ payments to the Taliban—which seized power during the Biden administration’s evacuation—come amid warnings that Afghanistan “is once again becoming a terrorist haven,” according to SIGAR. The oversight group has repeatedly warned that billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars are potentially being diverted to the Taliban and that this money cannot be properly tracked because the Biden administration is stonewalling investigations.

With billions in taxpayer dollars still flowing into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, terror attacks from inside the country are on the rise. The Taliban government “remain[s] tolerant of some terror groups, such as al Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” according to SIGAR. Other militant groups, including ISIS, are also expanding their operations in Afghanistan and maintain the ability to launch attacks on U.S. and Western interests abroad.

ISIS-K, for instance, “retains the capability and will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months and with little to no warning,” Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March.

The Taliban continues to enforce its strict interpretation of Islamic law, which includes booting women out of the public sector and banning girls from attending schools.

In March, Taliban leaders defended the stoning and flogging of women who violate religious laws, according to documentation provided by SIGAR.

The deteriorating human rights situation has forced many Afghans to flee the country, with a sizable portion arriving at the U.S. southern border.

“Groups of 30-40 Afghans, including adults and children, made the journey across 13 countries from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border, using a variety of transportation methods including planes, trains, buses, and by foot,” SIGAR reported, citing interviews with refugees.

“Many of those interviewed said SIGAR was the first U.S. government agency to contact them since their arrival,” indicating that the U.S. government is not undertaking a coordinated effort to track those entering the country.

Afghans trying to obtain asylum in America said they “often had to pay bribes to police officers” in a range of countries along the way, “since they entered those countries illegally.”

Upon arriving at the U.S. southern border, one refugee recounted being “greeted by a border agent who told them, ‘Welcome to America.'”

Elon Musk said Thursday that he will reinstate the account of Nick Fuentes.

“Very well, he will be reinstated, provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes,” Musk said in a post, responding to a comment asking him to allow Fuentes back on the platform.

“It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness,” the billionaire added.

Musk briefly reinstated Fuentes’s account in January 2023, after acquiring the platform then known as Twitter in late 2022. Twitter suspended the 25-year-old’s account less than 24 hours after he was allowed back on the platform.

During his brief return to Twitter last year, Fuentes posted a video advertising the presidential campaign of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

Ye and Fuentes attended a dinner with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December 2022, sparking backlash against the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Musk, who has previously described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” sought to return several controversial figures to the platform following his takeover, including Trump and Ye. However, Ye’s account was suspended once again following several antisemitic posts.

“I cannot claim to be a defender of free speech, but then permanently ban someone who hasn’t violated the law, no matter how much I disagree with what they say,” Musk said in another post Thursday.

“This will probably cause us to lose a lot of advertisers and makes me sad, but a principle is a principle,” he continued.

Since taking over the platform in 2022, Musk has struggled to retain advertisers. Several major advertisers pulled back on ad spending last fall after reports emerged that the platform now known as X was placing ads for mainstream brands next to pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.

A man has been accused of killing a convenience store customer before ‘eating’ his face in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Colin Czech, 29, reportedly tackled Kenneth Brown to the ground on Las Vegas Boulevard near Charleston Boulevard just before 5am Sunday.

CBS Austin reported that a 7-Eleven employee told police a man had punched a customer in the parking lot before tackling the man and smashing his head on the concrete.

About 45 minutes later, police received another call from witnesses reporting a man fitting the same description now at a bus stop ‘eating’ another man’s face.

‘One of the males was unresponsive and bleeding from the head,’ the police said.

The victim, identified by the broadcaster as Kenneth, was taken to hospital having sustained a large cut to his face and missing an eye and an ear.

‘He was later pronounced deceased by medical personnel,’ the police added.

Officers found Czech with ‘biological matter in his hair, mouth and on his clothing’, according to arrest documents obtained by CBS affiliate KLAS.

Czech was taken into custody at the Clark County Detention centre on an open murder charge at 5.57am.

He claimed he was homeless, had been awake for ‘five days straight’ because he was ‘possessed’ and that Kenneth had attacked him.

He used his ‘teeth to eat [Kenneth’s] eyeballs and ears’, he told detectives, the documents said.

Appearing today at Las Vegas Justice Court this morning, Czech’s lawyer told Judge Amy Chelinin that he believes Czech is incompetent to stand trial.

31-year-old Colin Czech was arrested in connection with a homicide that occurred on April 28th, near 3rd Street and East Charleston Boulevard.

Click below for additional information. pic.twitter.com/zkvLh8J20l

— LVMPD (@LVMPD) April 29, 2024

Chief Deputy Public Defender David Westbrook said he intends to request a medical examination for Czech.

He told the court: ‘I’ve spoken to him, and I’ve determined that he is incompetent.’

He had failed to appear in court on Monday.

A Pennsylvania nurse who prosecutors say administered excessive doses of insulin to nursing home patients, 17 of whom died, pleaded guilty Thursday.

The nurse, Heather Pressdee, was charged last May with killing two patients and injuring a third at Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility in Chicora. Months later, she was hit with new charges after prosecutors said she confessed to trying to kill 19 others at different facilities where she worked.

In total, Pressdee allegedly mistreated 22 patients — some diabetic and others not — with dangerously high levels of insulin at different facilities from 2020 to 2023, the state attorney general’s office said.

Her charges include first-degree murder, attempted murder and neglect of a care-dependent person.

She pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder, the attorney general’s office said in a news release.

Several family members of victims have filed wrongful death lawsuits.

The family of Nicholas Cymbol said in a civil suit filed in March that Pressdee “routinely insulted, berated, bullied and abused” him at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler.

They described Cymbol as a “brittle diabetic” who had an anoxic brain injury, blindness and neuropathy. The suit alleged that Pressdee would prevent other nurses from feeding or giving him water and would use derogatory terms in reference to his brain injury.

Pressdee was also accused of saying another patient, identified only as J.B. in a criminal complaint, would be “better off dead.” That patient, who was a nonverbal at Quality Life Services, was hospitalized twice in 2022 for low blood sugar before he died on Dec. 4, 2022.

Attorney General Michelle Henry slammed Pressdee for using “her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care.”

“I offer my sincere sympathy to all who have suffered at this defendant’s hands,” Henry said in a statement.

Attorney Robert N. Peirce, who represents five families, said in a statement Thursday: “On behalf of all our clients, we are optimistic the resolution of the criminal case will help alleviate some of their suffering.”

A probable cause affidavit outlined disturbing details in the case, including alleged text messages Pressdee sent to her mother discussing times she said she wanted to kill someone.

“Can I kill this man at Taco Bell,” one alleged text from April 6, 2022, read.

“I’m gonna murder already,” another one read, dated June 10, 2022.

Other text messages discussed her patients and co-workers.

In a Sept. 2, 2022, text message, Pressdee allegedly told her mother that she was “gonna murder my aides.” In a message a few days later, she complained about a patient who was yelling, according to the affidavit.

“I drugged him already and I don’t know how he is awake,” the message read.

On May 12, 2023, Pressdee complained to her mother that a patient was “driving me nuts” because he was following her, according to the affidavit.

“But I may kill this resident,” the text message read. “I need to set some sort of boundary with him.”

Pressdee was sentenced Thursday to three consecutive life sentences for the first-degree murder charges and up to 760 years for criminal intent to commit murder.

“This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm,” the attorney general said.

An attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels testified at Donald Trump‘s trial Thursday that he “would never” describe the $130,000 payment to her as “hush money.”

Testimony from Daniels’s former attorney Keith Davidson is viewed as a key component of the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies plotted to hide damaging stories in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. As prosecutors questioned him from the stand on Thursday, the porn star’s attorney made a surprising dispute of the definition of the “hush money.”

“Would you use the phrase hush money to describe the money that was paid to your client by Donald Trump?” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

“I would never use that word,” Davidson said, adding he would describe it as a “consideration in a civil settlement.” Trump denies having a sexual encounter with Daniels.

The description of the alleged sexual encounter that prosecutors say Trump sought to cover up using his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen was also subject to scrutiny by Davidson on Thursday.

Davidson went to great lengths to defend a January 2018 statement he wrote on behalf of Daniels denying a news report that Cohen had paid $130,000 to silence her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump, a payment that Daniels’s attorney said he took a $10,000 cut from.

For example, the 2018 statement’s claim that she never had a “sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump” could technically be true, Davidson argued, if you were to “hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual and affair.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr. Trump was romantic,” the lawyer said from the stand, prompting some people in the room to laugh, including prosecutors.

Cross-examination began later in the day, where Trump attorney Emil Bove became visibly frustrated at times with Davidson and raised his voice when he declined to answer questions about his previous work securing settlements for clients to suppress embarrassing information about other celebrities.

Bove tapped Judge Juan Merchan to help him compel answers from Davidson after the witness claimed he didn’t remember the deals or wasn’t authorized to speak about them. Merchan refused to help.

“We’re both lawyers. I’m not here to play lawyer games with you,” Bove said after Davidson invoked attorney-client privilege several times during cross-examination. Davidson at one point invoked attorney-client privilege when asked if he had negotiated a similar deal with the actor Charlie Sheen.

Throughout Bove’s cross-examination, Trump could be seen paying careful attention to Davidson’s testimony as the defense attorney continued to grill him from the witness stand.

Bove appeared to be suggesting that other nondisclosure agreements Davidson brokered for previous clients were essentially extortion of celebrities.

Davidson is the prosecution’s sixth witness and walked the jury through the $130,000 payment he negotiated with Cohen on behalf of Daniels that is at the core of the case. Bove intended to poke holes at his memory and character by questioning his alleged work in other celebrity cases but was met with roadblocks during his first round of cross-examination.

Although Cohen has yet to take the witness stand for the trial, he has received the sharpest criticism of his credibility even before the trial began. On Thursday, prosecutors began highlighting Cohen’s personality flaws in apparent hopes that it may have a “boomerang” effect against Trump, who once called him a “very talented lawyer.”

Trump’s side has often sought to paint Cohen as a former attorney with an ax to grind, and Davidson’s testimony on Thursday may have inched that notion further. Davidson recalled Cohen’s unparalleled disappointment when he found out he was not selected for any positions in Trump’s former administration and even admitted, “I thought he was going to kill himself.”

Earlier in the day, Merchan held a gag order hearing considering four additional allegations against Trump after he was fined $1,000 per nine violations earlier this week. The judge has yet to rule on the other alleged violations.

The court resumed testimony after 2:15 p.m.

A Boeing whistleblower who raised concerns about one of the carrier’s suppliers ignoring production defects died suddenly on Tuesday — just two months after another employee who sounded the alarm about the embattled company died by alleged suicide.

Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, died Tuesday morning from a fast-growing mystery infection, the Seattle Times reported.

Dean, of Wichita, Kan., had reportedly been in good health until about two weeks ago, when he was admitted to the hospital, the outlet reported.

However, by April 21 he was in “very critical condition,” and had tested positive for influenza B, MRSA, and pneumonia, the outlet said.

He was intubated and put on dialysis before eventually being airlifted to another hospital in Oklahoma City.

A CT scan indicated that he had also suffered a stroke.

Shortly before his death, doctors were considering amputating his hands and feet, which had turned black from infection, baffling his family and doctors.

“He is in the worst condition I have ever known or heard of. Even the hospital agrees,” his sister-in-law, Kristen Dean, wrote on Facebook Saturday, before detailing the life saving procedures doctors were trying in order to save him.

His family announced that he died Tuesday morning.

Dean had raised the alarm about defects while working at Spirit Aerosystems, a Kansas-based company which manufactures aircraft parts for Boeing in 2022. Less than a year later he was fired.

“I think they were sending out a message to anybody else,” Dean later told NPR of his firing. “If you are too loud, we will silence you.”

Dean, who had been at Spirit since 2019 as a quality auditor, raised concerns about improperly drilled bulkhead holes on parts for Boeing 373 Max planes, according to the Seattle Times. He claimed flagging the issue with his management had no effect.

He has said his focus on the improperly drilled parts caused him to miss another issue with fittings between the vertical tail fin to the fuselage of the aircraft, which was later discovered and led to his being fired.

The issues with the improper drilling were later acknowledged by Spirit Aerosystems. Both issues caused delays at Boeing manufacturiung plants.

Dean – who provided testimony he and other workers were told to downplay any problems they identified – filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration which claimed he was scapegoated in Spirit’s effort to keep the Boeing production issues secret.

In November 2023, he also filed a complaint with the Department of Labor on the grounds of wrongful termination.

That case was still pending at the time of his death, the outlet said.

Following a January incident involving a door hatch which flew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, one of Dean’s former colleagues backed up his claims to the Seattle Times.

“It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved,” Dean told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

“It doesn’t mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don’t want you to find everything and write it up.”

Dean’s death comes less than two months after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in March.

His death is still under investigation by the local police after Barnett’s lawyers raised the alarm, saying “we didn’t see any indication he would take his own life … no one can believe it,” and urging a thorough investigation.

The same lawyer, Brian Knowles, was also representing Dean.

He told TIME: “Josh’s passing is a loss to the aviation community and the flying public.

“He possessed tremendous courage to stand up for what he felt was true and right and raised quality and safety issues,” Knowles added.

When asked if he agreed with the growing theories linking his clients’ back-to-back deaths, Knowles said he “would like to see the evidence from the investigating authorities.”

“What society does not need is people in fear to speak up,” he noted.

Spirit Aerosystems told multiple outlets that their “thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family.”

“This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones,” the company said.

The right-leaning news and commentary site Daily Wire obtained a gag order against former host Candace Owens despite co-founder Ben Shapiro claiming he wanted to publicly debate her about Israel and antisemitism, according to a report.

The Daily Wire secretly sought to muzzle Owens through a private arbitrator after she left the company in March, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald in his Locals newsletter on Thursday.

The gag order was approved as Shapiro and Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing were publicly negotiating with Owens on an agreed-upon venue, date and time for a debate that had been widely anticipated by readers and viewers on social media.

Boreing told Greenwald that his report “is inaccurate to the point of being false.”

He did not elaborate.

“I’m sure you can appreciate how fraught a high-profile break-up like this is. For that reason, we are trying to resolve our issues with Candace privately,” Boreing is quoted as telling Greenwald.

Owens told Greenwald she “can neither confirm nor deny” his report.

“I wish I could comment on this but I can’t.” she said.

According to Greenwald, the gag order bars Owens from making any comments that could disparage Daily Wire or be perceived as harming its reputation.

An arbitrator agreed with Daily Wire’s contention that Owens’ social media posts on X challenging Shapiro to a debate while questioning his views on Israel were “disparaging,” Greenwald reported.

Prior to her departure from Daily Wire, Owens was one of the site’s most popular hosts.

She joined the Daily Wire in 2021 after having come to prominence as a black conservative who was urging African-American voters to “BLEXIT” — a term meant to connote the abandonment of the Democratic Party.

After the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis, Owens was publicly critical of Israel’s military response, accusing its government of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and a fervent supporter of Israel, blasted Owens, saying her behavior was “absolutely disgraceful.”

In November, Shapiro’s fans on social media demanded that Daily Wire fire Owens over her comments, but Boreing wrote on social media: “[E]ven if we could, we would not fire Candace because of another thing we have in common — a desire not to regulate the speech of our hosts, even when we disagree with them. Candace is paid to give her opinion, not mine or Ben’s.”

“Unless those opinions run afoul of the law or she violates the terms of her contract in some way, her job is secure and she is welcome at Daily Wire,” according to Boreing.

Owens then made other comments that prompted accusations of antisemitism, including a reference to a “gang” in Hollywood that was doing “horrific things.”

For the very many of you who keep asking for an update regarding my debate with @benshapiro.

My team reached out immediately suggesting the first week I was back in the states. We were informed the proposed date could not work for Ben due to the holiday but have not heard back…

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 24, 2024

She also liked an X post which made mention of an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews being “drunk on Christian blood.”

Despite Boreing’s pledge that the company would not fire Owens over her views on Israel, Daily Wire did just that, according to Greenwald.

“The company had concluded that her increasingly vocal criticisms of Israel, opposition to US financing of it, and her views on antisemitism were incompatible with the Daily Wire’s policies,” Greenwald wrote on Thursday.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that protests at college campuses across the country have not caused him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East.

After a press conference addressing the widespread anti-Israel protests at college campuses over Israel’s war with Hamas and its effect in Gaza, a reporter asked Biden if the “protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region.”

“No,” Biden responded before walking away from the podium.

Tune in as I deliver remarks. https://t.co/zN7LMKaBIf

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 2, 2024

“Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?” a reporter followed up.

“No,” the president said as he exited the room.

Notably, the first protests, which sprouted at Columbia University, began before Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package that allocates $26 billion in aid for Israel, including billions in military aid, on April 24.

In his remarks addressing the anti-Israel protests, Biden condemned both “antisemitism” and “Islamophobia.”

“There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s anti-semitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s simply wrong,” he said.

He also chided violent protests on campuses.

“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations: none of this is a peaceful protest,” Biden said. “Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”

His remarks come during a national uncommitted effort throughout the Democrat nominating process that has seen more than half a million Americans cast ballots against Biden in protest of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and in demand of a ceasefire.

While he demanded an “immediate ceasefire” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April after 48,812 people selected the “Uninstructed” option in the Wisconsin Democrat primary, uncommitted efforts persisted in the Pennsylvania Democrat primary weeks later.

The progressive group Our Revolution is co-hosting a “Vote ‘Uncommitted’ Early Vote Rally” in Maryland later Thursday afternoon with the Listen to Maryland campaign in the build-up to the state’s May 14 Democrat primary. The effort signals that frustrations with Biden were not quelling even before his remarks downplaying protesters’ influence on Thursday.

Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally Thursday.

Demonstrations — and arrests — have occurred in almost every corner of the nation. But in the last 24 hours, they’ve drawn the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday when officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators.

Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.

At least 200 people were arrested, said Sgt. Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol, citing data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Rubio said they were being booked at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles. UCLA police will determine what charges to bring.

Later Thursday morning, workers removed barricades and dismantled the protesters’ fortified encampment. Bulldozers scooped up bags of trash and tents. Some buildings were covered in graffiti.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.

The demonstrations began at Columbia University on April 17, with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

California Highway Patrol officers poured into the UCLA campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they held their batons out to separate themselves from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.”

For hours, officers warned over loud speakers that there would be arrests if the crowd of more than 1,000 people did not disperse. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled. Police helicopters hovered and the sound of flash-bangs pierced the air. Police pulled off protesters’ helmets and goggles as they made arrests.

Police methodically tore apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down dozens of canopies and tents. The number of protesters diminished through the morning, some leaving voluntarily with their hands up and others detained by police.

The law enforcement presence and continued warnings contrasted with the scene Tuesday night, when counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers. Fighting between the two sides continued for hours before police stepped in. No one was arrested, but at least 15 protesters were injured. Authorities’ tepid response drew criticism from political leaders, Muslim students and advocacy groups.

By Wednesday afternoon, a small city sprang up inside the reenforced encampment, with hundreds of people and tents on the quad. Demonstrators rebuilt the makeshift barriers around their tents while state and campus police watched.

Some protesters said Muslim prayers as the sun set, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and headscarves, and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas.

The crowd grew as the night wore on and as more officers poured onto campus.

Ariel Dardashti, a graduating UCLA senior studying global studies and sociology, said no student should feel unsafe on campus.

“It should not get to the point where students are being arrested,” Dardashti said on campus Thursday.

Dardashti said he can relate to the trauma suffered by Palestinians.

“When my dad was fleeing Iran, he prayed that his children wouldn’t have to face anti-Semitism,” Dardashti said. “We’re afraid of having to flee again in the same way our parents did.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the delayed law enforcement response on Tuesday and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block promised to investigate. The head of the University of California system, Michael Drake, ordered an “independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.”

“The community needs to feel the police are protecting them, not enabling others to harm them,” Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Iranian state television carried live images of the police action at UCLA, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks.

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the students’ right to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.

California Republican leaders blasted university administrations for failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests to escalate into “lawlessness and violence.” They called for the firing of leaders at UCLA and Cal Poly Humboldt and pushed for a proposal that would cut pay for university administrators.

“We’ve got a whole lot of people in these universities drawing six figure salaries and they stood by and did nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters. “There does need to be accountability.”

Meanwhile, protest encampments at schools across the U.S., were cleared by police — resulting in more arrests — or closed up voluntarily. In New York, those included the City College of New York, Fordham University, Stony Brook University and the University of Buffalo. Others nationwide included the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and Tulane University in New Orleans.

A college professor from Illinois said he suffered multiple broken ribs and a broken hand during a pro-Palestine protest on Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Bystander video shows the arrest of Steve Tamari, a history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He seems to be moving in to take video or photos of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly take him down.

In a post on the social platform X, Sandra Tamari said her husband needed surgery on his hand and has nine broken ribs.

Tamari said in a statement Thursday that it was “a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Campus police referred questions to the university’s communications department, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Upcoming graduations have become a concern.

Florida’s state university chancellor ordered campus presidents to take whatever steps necessary to prevent disruption of ceremonies. At the same time, University of Minnesota officials reached agreement with protesters not to disrupt commencements. Similar agreements have been made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Brown University in Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, a professors group at Columbia University condemned school leadership on Thursday for asking police to remove protesters in what the group called a “horrific police attack on our students.” Officers burst into a building Tuesday, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

U.S. college campuses have become a flashpoint, with school leaders facing intense scrutiny over their handling of allegations of antisemitism and the right to free speech. The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned following questions at a congressional hearing about whether calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who has been under the microscope this week for an anecdote about killing her dog, defended her actions Wednesday, saying she shot the “dangerous” pup in order to protect her children.

“It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” Noem said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.”

“We were her second chance. And she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she continued. “She attacked me. And it was a hard decision.”

Noem added that she had to make a choice between “keeping my small children and other people safe, or a dangerous animal, and I chose the safety of my children.”

She’s faced heavy scrutiny over the anecdote in her upcoming book, which was uncovered by The Guardian after the outlet received an advanced copy. In light of the reporting, Democratic governors took to social media to mock Noem, posting pictures with their dogs alongside the caption: “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit.”

According to the book excerpt, the governor of the Mount Rushmore State took the dog — a 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket — to a gravel pit on her property and shot it, writing that it was “not a pleasant job” but “had to be done.”

Noem, once seen as a top contender for former President Trump’s running mate in November, has likely doomed her chances of securing the vice-presidential spot. The anecdote, paired with other controversies, have left many Republicans scratching their heads and doubting her chances.

Her anecdote drew parallels from some to a political episode from Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) 2012 presidential campaign, when he faced blowback over a story about him tying his dog to the roof of his car on a family road trip.

The senator pushed back on the comparison earlier this week, saying, “I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.”

Noem too has doubled down on her decision in recent days.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back,” she wrote Sunday on the social platform X. “The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released new photos of a next generation weapon that is in development for the U.S. Military this week, a long-range, uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) capable of firing a payload at enemy targets.

The Manta Ray prototype built by Northrop Grumman is being tested in the waters off the coast of Southern California, the agency said in a statement.

“Testing demonstrated at-sea hydrodynamic performance, including submerged operations using all the vehicle’s modes of propulsion and steering: buoyancy, propellers, and control surfaces,” the statement said. “Northrop Grumman shipped the Manta Ray prototype in subsections from the build location in Maryland to its test location in California. The demonstrated ease of shipping and assembly supports the possibility of rapid deployment throughout the world without crowding valuable pier space at naval facilities.”

Manta Ray will be able to operate for long-range and long-duration missions in a wide variety of maritime environments “without the need for human-present logistic support or maintenance offer the potential for persistent operations in forward environments.”

The Manta Ray program plans to advance new groundbreaking technologies including, but not limited to:

– Novel energy management techniques for UUV operations and undersea energy harvesting techniques at operationally relevant depths;

– Low-power, high efficiency undersea propulsion systems;

– New low-power means of underwater detection and classification of hazards or counter detection threats;

– Mission management approaches for extended durations while accounting for dynamic maritime environments;

– Unique approaches for leveraging existing maritime data sets and exploiting novel maritime parameters for high-efficiency navigation and/or C3; and

– New approaches to mitigate biofouling, corrosion, and other material degradation for long duration missions.

Dr. Kyle Woerner, DARPA program manager for Manta Ray said that Manta Ray’s testing has been successful.

“The combination of cross-country modular transportation, in-field assembly, and subsequent deployment demonstrates a first-of-kind capability for an extra-large UUV,” he said. “Shipping the vehicle directly to its intended area of operation conserves energy that the vehicle would otherwise expend during transit. Once deployed, the vehicle uses efficient, buoyancy-driven gliding to move through the water. The craft is designed with several payload bays of multiple sizes and types to enable a wide variety of naval mission sets.”

The accused “killer” New Jersey father who forced his 6-year-old son to run on a treadmill did so because the child was “too fat” as a disturbing new video reveals the alleged child abuse.

Christopher Gregor, 31, appeared in court Tuesday to stand trial for allegedly murdering his son Corey Micciolo in 2021. He faces life in prison if convicted.

During the trial, the Superior Court in Ocean City was shown surveillance video of Gregor forcing Corey to run on a treadmill after the boy fell off multiple times due to the exercise machine’s excessive speed.

Gregor and his son were seen on March 20, 2021, entering the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center, where the boy was promptly placed on the treadmill and began running, according to video, obtained by CourtTV.com.

Footage captured Gregor walking up to the treadmill to increase the speed and raise the incline of the track.

The sudden changes were too much for the little boy’s legs, causing him to fall down and slide off the moving track.

New Jersey father Christopher Gregor is accused of killing his 6-year-old son Corey Micciolo. He bit him on the head after falling on the treadmill!

This man is evil! pic.twitter.com/x68nXmTxUF

— Lorrie Ann 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇸 (@LorrieAnn25) May 1, 2024

Gregor lifted his son and tossed him back onto the treadmill, which forced the child’s legs to fold backward as the father seemingly clamped his teeth into Corey’s head.

The boy gets back on, but again falls off and continues to struggle to remain on the machine, eventually leading the father to decrease both the the speed and incline.

The boy’s mother, Bre Micciolo, was the first witness to take the stand, and was in tears as she watched the horrific video.

Days before her son’s death, Bre Micciolo reported the boy’s injuries to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, according to the US Sun.

On April 1, she requested that Gregor take their son to see a doctor.

While at the appointment, Corey reportedly revealed his father made him run on the treadmill “because he was too fat,” the outlet reported.

The next day, Gregor rushed the young boy to the hospital because the boy woke up from a nap stumbling, slurring his words, and experiencing nausea and shortness of breath, according to Court TV.

During a CT scan, Corey suffered a seizure, forcing medical staff to take life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful.

An initial autopsy found Corey died as a result of blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.

Gregor was arrested in July 2021 on child neglect charges stemming from investigators reviewing the surveillance footage from the fitness center.

“Specifically by having (Corey) run on a treadmill and increasing the speed, causing (Corey) to fall, placing (him) back on the moving treadmill while appearing to bite his head, causing the said child to fall several more times,” an arrest warrant obtained by the outlet read.

In September 2021, a forensic pathologist determined Corey’s death to be a homicide as he suffered from chronic abuse including blunt impact injuries on his chest and abdomen with a laceration on his heart, left pulmonary contusion, and laceration and contusion of his liver.

Dr. Thomas Andrew believes Corey suffered an acute traumatic injury to the heart four to 12 hours before his death, according to Court TV.

Gregor was arrested on March 9, 2022, for his son’s death.

He has since turned down a 30-year plea deal and is being held in the Ocean City Jail without bond.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that the FBI took possession of his phone after someone attempted to trick the South Carolina Republican into thinking he was communicating with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.

Mr. Graham revealed the potential hack in remarks at the Hill & Valley Forum on Capitol Hill, which is a gathering of top tech and government officials meeting in Washington to discuss artificial intelligence security.

Asked about spies targeting Silicon Valley and how AI labs should prepare themselves, Mr. Graham said people should be concerned and relayed his own brush with apparent hackers.

“My phone is in the hands of the FBI now,” Mr. Graham said at the forum.

“So I get a message, I think, from Schumer, it ain’t from Schumer, and next thing you know, my phone’s, I don’t know what. Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.”

Mr. Graham did not identify who he suspected was responsible. Taylor Reidy, Mr. Graham‘s spokeswoman, said the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms was investigating.

American political activist and author James O’Keefe on Wednesday released a video, claiming a CIA official Amjad Fseisi was caught admitting that the agency and several officials, including Mike Pompeo, witheld information from Donald Trump when he was president.

The official can be heard saying that the Central Intelligence Agency is currently monitoring the Republican and his ex-wife. The intelligence agency has not reacted to the video yet.

O’Keefe, in a post on X, platform formerly known as Twitter, said that Fseisi is a project manager working in cyber operations for the CIA. He is also a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor with top-secret clearance working for Deloitte.

Fseisi, according to James O’Keefe, was on undercover cameras when he implicated ‘the highest levels of the intelligence agencies, including the executive staff’

“We’re talking about the director and his subordinates, former CIA Directors Gina Haspel. And I believe Mike Pompeo did the same thing too,” the official can be heard saying. He further adds that they ‘kept information from him (Trump) because we knew he’d f***ing disclose it.”

Watch:

BREAKING 🚨 CIA and NSA contractor, Amjad Fseisi, has been fired following a leak of a video that confirms Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel withheld information from @realDonaldTrump in fear that he would disclose it to the public.

pic.twitter.com/j9dk9hfWUq

— The Real Toria Brooke (@realtoriabrooke) May 1, 2024

Amjad futher adds that Trump is a ‘Russian asset’. “There are certain people that would give him a high-level overview but never give him any details. You know why? Because he’ll leak those details. He’s a Russian asset. He’s owned by the fucking Russians.”

The video shows the CIA official saying he and his team are monitoring the former president. “We monitor everything. We also have people that monitor his ex-wife. He likes to use burner phones.”

He reveals that the CIA steals information and hack other countries ‘just like that’. Amjad states that he currently works on the CIA’s China Mission Center.

“We don’t share information across agencies” because the CIA is “very reluctant” to share information with the “careless” NSA, he says.

“We believe in this case, and we will be retrying this case,” prosecutors in Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape case told a judge today in the first hearing since the much-accused producer’s 2020 conviction was overturned last week. “It was a strong case in 2020 …and it remains a strong case in 2024,” added Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg.

Weinstein was sitting in the courtroom as the officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced their intention to take the case back to a jury. The trial could begin as quickly as September, if room can be found on the court calendar.

“We are happy to hear that the prosecutors want a speedy trial,” Weinstein chief attorney Arthur Aidala told the court as he once again proclaimed his client’s innocence. “It’s a new trial, it’s a new day … his life is on the line.”

Charged and arrested for rape in May 2018 after revelations by the New York Times in late 2017 detailing decades of abuse and alleged assaults by Weinstein, the defendant was convicted in February 2020 on first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape after allegations by two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann.

While not handling the case directly, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg himself was in attendance Wednesday in Judge Curtis Farber’s court, as was attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Haley and Mann.

In fact, Mann was brought directly into today’s proceedings when Assistant D.A. Blumberg, who is the head of the office’s Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Bureau, pointed to her in the courtroom. “She’s here today to show she’s not backing down … the defendant may have power and privilege but she has the truth.”

“Good afternoon Mr. Weinstein,” said Judge Farber as the wheelchair bound producer was brought into the courtroom around 11:23 a.m. PT. Almost seconds after his client was seated at the defense table, lead lawyer Aidala addressed the court with objections to photos being taken in the courtroom.

Despite all the lead-up, today’s hearing was over in less than 20 minutes. Weinstein did not speak once during the session.

The next hearing in the case has been set now for May 29. Weinstein is expected to be present.

Under medical supervision at Bellevue Hospital since the weekend, a blue-suited Weinstein was wheeled into the Manhattan court building around 10:15 am PT. Looking gaunter than he did at his 2022 LA trial, Weinstein’s blazer still had the price tag on it as he was brought in surrounded by heavily armed police. By the time Weinstein arrived in the courtroom proper, the price tag on his sleeve had been removed.

Announced less than a day after New York state’s Appeals Court in a 4-3 vote overturned 72-year old Weinstein’s 2020 sex crimes conviction which resulted in sex offender status and 23-year sentence, the intention of today’s hearing was to release Weinstein from his conviction of four years ago. Coming off long delayed oral arguments in February, the Appeals Court agreed with Weinstein’s lawyers in last week’s order. At the heart of overturning the conviction was a determination, led by Judge Jenny Rivera writing for the majority, that the inclusion of Prior Bad Acts testimony by now ex-Justice James Burke from a number of women on uncharged assault and abuse accusations was prejudicial in the 2020 trial.

With a new trial ordered by the Empire State’s highest court, the hearing in Judge Farber’s courtroom also re-arraigned Weinstein on the sex crimes charges for which he was originally arrested in 2018.

Still, due to his 2022 conviction on sex crimes in the City of Angels and sentencing to 16 years behind bars, Weinstein will not be released after Wednesday’s hearing. Instead, having been moved from the medium security Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York late last week, the ailing Oscar-winning producer will be returned to Bellevue, at least in the short term.

In preparation for a new trial, Weinstein will likely remain in NYC to be close to his core legal team of Aidala and Diana Sampson. As was the case in the immediate aftermath of his sentencing four years ago and ever so briefly last week, Weinstein could be transferred to the notorious Rikers Island as the wheels of justice grind on.

There is no expectation in the short term that Weinstein will be sent out to LA to serve his West Coast sentencing. Insiders at LA County District Attorney George Gascón’s office tell Deadline there is “no need” for such a transfer right now.

In that vein, even before today’s hearing, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s office strongly indicated they wanted to take the case to a new trial “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” the D.A.’s office said on April 25, and reiterated on April 26.

Also on April 26, Haley said at an LA press conference in Allred’s office that she was “sick to her stomach” upon learning of Weinstein’s conviction being overturned by the New York Appeals Court. Coming forward just over seven years ago to say she was raped by Weinstein in his SoHo apartment in 2006, Haley was a major witness at the 2020 trial.

Whether she will be a witness in a second NYC Weinstein trial is unknown right now.

“I definitely don’t want to actually go through that again,” the Allred-represented Haley said in an LA press conference late last week. “But for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing, because it is what happened, I would consider it,” she went on to say.

The presence of Allred at today’s hearing implies that Haley may be very seriously considering taking the stand again at a second NYC Weinstein trial.

The circus atmosphere and high security that has enveloped the Manhattan Criminal Courts building in recent weeks due to Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial was greatly diminished. Wednesdays have been a dark day for the DA-prosecuted case over whether the $130,000 the former Celebrity Apprentice host paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to bury the news of their alleged affair just before the 2016 election. Hence, Trump and his army of lawyers were nowhere to be seen.

In addition to the New York criminal case heading for a new trial and an appeal of his LA conviction, Weinstein has a plethora of civil cases pending against him for alleged attacks and rapes over the past 30 years.

Wisconsin police said an active shooter threat was “neutralized” before he was able to enter a middle school with a rifle.

Police responded to reports of the active shooter at the Mount Horeb Middle School in Dane County at about 12:30 p.m. local time.

School officials reassured parents that none of the students were harmed and that the suspect did not breach the entryway of the school. The schools of the Mount Horeb Area school district went into a hard lockdown after the active shooter report.

One witness who worked about a block away from the school said she heard numerous gunshots and saw dozens of students running away.

“I thought it was fireworks. I went outside and saw all the children running,” said Jeanne Keller to the Associated Press. “I probably saw 200 children.”

Parents were frantically trying to find their children after hearing about the lockdown.

“One of my daughters is still inside of the middle school as we speak, but all we know is that there are some kids that want to shoot,” said parent Brittany Rodriguez in an emotional interview with WISN-TV.

“To get a call when you’re at work of your babies crying, saying that there’s a shooting going on and, ‘We’re scared,’ and you’re 30 minutes away from them!” she added.

Officials later confirmed that the suspect had been a student of the middle school. They also said that Mount Horeb Police shot the student and that they were wearing active body cameras at the time.

Another parent said her children were leaving the school when the shooting happened.

“I literally have one that left the middle school five minutes before the shooting happened,” Melissa Alvarado said to WMTV-TV. “My other one was on this side of the school when the shots were fired and she said all the teachers were telling the children, they were yelling telling all the kids to run to the other side of the school and then about a half hour later she called and said they were barricading doors.”

Democrat Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers released a brief statement about the shooting on social media.

“I have been briefed on the incident at the Mount Horeb Area School District and am closely monitoring the situation,” he posted. “I am praying for the health and safety of our kids, educators, and staff and grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond.”

School officials credited their security precautions for preventing the alleged threat from entering into the school.

Here’s more about the incident: