Alice Stewart, a veteran political adviser and CNN political commentator who worked on several GOP presidential campaigns, has died. She was 58.

Law enforcement officials told CNN that Stewart’s body was found outdoors in the Belle View neighborhood in northern Virginia early Saturday morning. No foul play is suspected, and officers believe a medical emergency occurred.

“Alice was a very dear friend and colleague to all of us at CNN,” Mark Thompson, the network’s CEO, said in an email to staff Saturday. “A political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN’s coverage, known across our bureaus not only for her political savvy, but for her unwavering kindness. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn such an extraordinary loss.”

Stewart was born on March 11, 1966, in Atlanta.

Stewart started her career as a local reporter and producer in Georgia before moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, to be a news anchor, she told Harvard International Review. She went on to serve as the communications director in then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office before assuming a similar role for his presidential run in 2008.

She also served as the communications director for the 2012 Republican presidential bids of former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and then former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, also a former CNN commentator. Most recently, Stewart was the communications director for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 GOP campaign.

⁦”Alice was wonderful and talented and a dear friend,” Cruz said in a post on X. “She lived every day to the fullest, and she will be deeply missed.”

CNN hired Stewart as a political commentator ahead of the 2016 election, and she appeared on air frequently to provide insight on the political news of the day, including as recently as Friday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

“We always invited her to come on my show because we knew we would be a little bit smarter at the end of that conversation,” Blitzer told Jessica Dean on “CNN Newsroom.” “She helped our viewers better appreciate what was going on and that’s why we will miss her so much.”

Speaking about her role as a commentator for the network, Stewart told Harvard Political Review in 2020 that she brings “a perspective that I think CNN appreciates.”

“My position at CNN is to be a conservative voice yet an independent thinker,” Stewart said. “I’m not a Kool-Aid drinker; I’m not a never-Trumper, and I didn’t check my common sense and decency at the door when I voted for (Trump).”

Stewart was also a co-host of the podcast “Hot Mics From Left to Right,” alongside fellow CNN commentator Maria Cardona.

“I just can’t believe that she’s gone,” Cardona said on “CNN Newsroom,” adding that the two were going to record an episode of their podcast Saturday. “I want everyone to know what a special person she was, especially in this industry. As you know, today’s politics can be indecent and so dirty, and Alice was just such a loving, shining light.”

Stewart also served on the senior advisory committee at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where she previously was a fellow.

In her free time, Stewart was an avid runner. She frequently posted photos from road races on social media, including from the TCS New York City Marathon, which she ran in November, and the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race, which she ran last month.

Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, offered the gun rights advocacy group’s presidential endorsement to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Saturday.

The move did not come as a surprise, as the NRA previously endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Kozuch made the announcement as he introduced the former president to the crowd at the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Dallas.

Trump thanked Kozuch before addressing the audience. He called gun owners a “rebellious bunch,” claiming that they tend not to vote and encouraging them to change that in 2024.

“Let’s be rebellious and vote this time, OK?” Trump said.

The former president’s remarks were largely reminiscent of a traditional campaign rally, but he briefly discussed the Second Amendment, which he told attendees was “under siege.”

“With me, they’d never get anywhere, and we need that Second Amendment,” Trump said.

“… We need it for safety because the bad guys are not giving up their guns, you know that.”

Trump also warned that if President Joe Biden wins another term in the White House, his “regime” would be “coming for your guns, 100% certain,” citing the president’s “40-year record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”

The former president also weighed in on independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who referred to the NRA as a “terror group” in the aftermath of the deadly 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Parkland students are right; the NRA is a terror group

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 17, 2018

“He calls you a terrorist group,” Trump said. “Can’t vote for him. Somebody said, well, you know, they like his policy on vaccine. The other day, he said ‘No, no,’ he’ll go for the vaccine. He’s got no policy on anything. He’s radical left. He always has been. His family is angry at him because he’s doing this”

Earlier this month, Kennedy challenged Trump to a debate at next weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Washington. The former president is scheduled to deliver remarks there, while the independent candidate has been invited to do the same.

Trump and Biden are scheduled to meet on the debate stage in just under six weeks. CNN will host the in-studio event on June 27 in Atlanta.

The autopsy of a Boeing whistleblower has officially determined his death as suicide – as it is revealed he left a furious note slamming the airline.

John Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck outside a Holiday Inn in Charleston, South Carolina, suffering from what the Coroner’s Office said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

His death sparked huge uproar when his body was found on March 9 – the same day he was due to testify against Boeing after alleging under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line.

Charleston Police Department announced the conclusion to its investigation into his death on Thursday.

‘All findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,’ the report from Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal read. The coroner concluded the manner of Barnett’s death ‘is best deemed, ‘suicide.”

The department confirmed Barnett’s death was a suicide based on a series of factors.

Investigators found him alone and locked inside his car with the key fob in his pants pocket. There was no sign of forced entry or a physical struggle.

His phone and hotel key card showed no suspicious activity, and hotel security footage confirmed he left the building unaccompanied before returning shortly after to park.

The vehicle remained undisturbed until the discovery of his body the next morning.

A ballistic analysis of the gun found in Barnett’s hand at the scene was registered under his name and legally purchased in 2000.

The notebook containing his suicide note found in the front passenger seat of the truck had his and only his fingerprints on them.

Records obtained by officials confirmed Barnett has had a history of mental health struggles, which only worsened throughout his lawsuit with Boeing.

For the first time, the contents of Barnett’s suicide letter were also revealed, which included several profane messages directed at Boeing.

‘I CAN’T DO THIS ANY LONGER!!! ENOUGH!! F*** BOEING!!!’ one message reads.

‘Bury me face down so Boeing and their lying-a*** leaders can kiss my a**’ reads another.

Barnett’s mother told an investigator with CPD that Barnett would often make these remarks.

The whistleblower ends his letter by addressing his loved ones: ‘TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS, I FOUND MY PURPOSE! I’M AT PEACE! I LOVE YOU MORE’ with a doodled heart at the end.

Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years before retiring in 2017, with 17 of those years spent as a quality manager.

He was involved in lawsuit with Boeing up until the day he died, and had been in Charleston undergoing legal interviews as part of the process.

In March, Barnett’s lawyers Robin Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, referenced a full list of Barnett’s complaints against his employer as outlined in a lawsuit for wrongful retaliation filed in 2021.

Among those is that after raising a certain issue in June 2014, the company retaliated by having a manager spy on him.

Boeing’s production practices have been questioned both on the 787, a model called the Dreamliner, and the company’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max.

The company has come under increased scrutiny since a panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Barnett said in his complaint that he raised the issue of Boeing’s ‘deep-rooted and persistent culture of concealment’ multiple times. He goes on to accuse the company of not documenting and fixing other problems.

In retaliation for his complaints, Barnett said that he was given low scores on performance reports, isolated and forbidden from transferring out of South Carolina.

He says he was ‘treated with scorn and contempt by upper management.’ Thanks to his treatment, Barnett said that he had to take medical leave in order to deal with stress.

Low scores on performance reviews can affect an employees changes of earning a raise or gaining promotion. Prior to making complaints, Barnett alleges that he was a ‘top performer’ at the Boeing plant in North Charleston.

Another complaint outlined in the legal filing saw Barnett raising the issue of mechanics doing self-inspections on their own work, something that is prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration.

In addition to now following FAA protocols, Barnett said that Boeing didn’t even follow internal rules.

After emailing another quality control manager in 2012 about a complaint, he claims he was told the company didn’t believe him and therefore no investigation took place.

Company officials allegedly asked him to stop complaining about staff taking one piece from a plane and using it on another without authorization.

For that complaint, Barnett said that he was publicly chastised in front of his staff and moved to a new shift.

When he filed another complaint in June 2014 regarding procedures not being followed, Barnett alleges that the company had a manager ‘spy’ on him as he told ‘to work in the grey areas.’

Later that same year, Barnett was put on a 60 day ‘corrective action plan’ and was told by human resources that there was an investigation underway into his behavior.

In July 2015, Barnett said that he saw his team reassigned without his knowledge and thus leaving other areas that he was responsible for understaffed.

A year later, Barnett said he was challenged with performing a task involving recovering lost parts during an impossible timeframe. When he raised this, he was told to ‘let it go.’

A month after that, Barnett said that he was removed from an investigation into defective passenger oxygen masks finding that 75 out of 300 didn’t work. After his removal, he alleges that the investigation never addressed the problem.

Barnett then saw mechanical staff be asked to use scrap parts in planes without proper documentation. When he complained about this, Barnett said he was blocked from applying for a promotion.

In October 2016, Barnett took his complaints to Boeing’s national office. In the legal complaint he says that after being told that it would be handled, the investigation reverted back to staff in the Charleston office.

According to this filing, the same year that he retired, 2017, Barnett filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in which he raised his issues as well as the personal punishments he believed that he received.

Early in the year, he says he learned that he was on a list of ‘quality managers to get rid of.’

Boeing issued a statement upon the release of the complaint.

‘We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends. Boeing reviewed and addressed quality issues that Mr. Barnett raised before he retired in 2017, as well as other quality issues referred to in the complaint about its 2020 disposition of Mr. Barnett’s claims,’ the company said.

Barnett is just one of many whistleblowers who have come forward in recent months, raising a string of allegations about Boeing’s quality control.

Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit AeroSystems – where the troubled 737 Max is built – at its factory in Kansas, is the latest to speak out, saying he was asked to hide defects on 737 fuselages.

The House is poised to vote on two contempt resolutions against Attorney General Merrick Garland as early as next week, but Republicans are already preparing alternatives if the Justice Department declines to bring criminal charges against its leader.

Both the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees passed the measures on Thursday that hold Garland in contempt of Congress for not turning over the audio recording from President Joe Biden‘s interview with special counsel Robert Hur despite handing over the transcript from the conversation. The measures now head to the House floor for a full vote as early as Tuesday, when the chamber is back in session.

When the bill comes to the floor is unknown, but it is up to House GOP leadership to schedule the vote.

The contempt resolution against Garland is part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Biden, whom Republicans claim improperly benefitted from his family members’ foreign business dealings. So far, they have provided little to no evidence of these allegations.

A vote on the contempt resolution is Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) next hurdle to overcome as he tries to navigate a one-seat majority and a small group of hard-line conservatives who have pushed back against his leadership since he took the gavel. Johnson recently survived a motion to vacate effort, after House Democrats joined most Republicans to table the motion to oust him.

Even with a one-seat majority, Johnson has a larger numbers problem: Many of his GOP members represent Biden districts or are centrist Republicans fighting in competitive primaries and general elections this November. A lawmaker told Axios in February that there are already “easily 40-50” Republicans who are likely to vote against the impeachment.

If the resolutions somehow pass the full House, a criminal referral will then be made to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which must then weigh whether to move forward with prosecution. However, it is unlikely to result in any criminal proceedings for Garland, who heads the DOJ.

Republicans prepare a backup plan

Ahead of Thursday’s contempt markups, the Justice Department announced Thursday morning that the president was asserting executive privilege over the recordings — placing another roadblock in the way of House Republicans as they continue to argue with the DOJ over whether Congress should have access to the audio recording.

Because of Biden’s assertion of executive privilege, the chances of Garland facing criminal proceedings are slim to none. However, House Republicans have several alternative paths to take should the DOJ decline to follow through on the contempt resolutions.

One path is to allow the courts to decide whether executive privilege is a viable claim on behalf of the president. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Politico that he thinks battling it out in the courts is “very likely.”

Some Republicans have criticized the president’s assertion of executive privilege as a political move, while some legal experts have argued that because Biden waived privilege with the transcript, it applies to the audio recording, as well. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) echoed this thought to Politico, saying that GOP legal counsel is skeptical about the president’s claim.

“Hopefully we’ll find out if that’ll hold up in court very soon,” Comer said.

The parameters of executive privilege agreed by the DOJ and other institutions allow the president and his advisers to “discuss issues candily, express opinions, and explore options without fear that those deliberations will later be made public,” according to comments from public interest law professor John Banzhaf from George Washington University Law School shared with the Washington Examiner.

“But here those discussions and opinions have already [been] made very public,” Banzhaf noted. “The cat is out of the bag.”

Another route that GOP members may take is to take up a long-dormant House contempt power under a resolution from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). In May, she announced an “inherent contempt” resolution against Garland, which differs from the committees’ proceedings.

Luna’s resolution relies on the power to allow the House to detain and imprison someone until they comply with the congressional demand. Under the process, which hasn’t been used since 1935, the person being held in contempt could be arrested by the sergeant-at-arms and brought to the House floor for trial, and can be imprisoned or detained in the Capitol.

Luna’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Luna’s resolution is still active. The Florida congresswoman spoke about her resolution during the Oversight hearing on Thursday night, which was moved from the early morning to later that night to accommodate Luna and other members’ trip to New York to be at Trump’s hush money trial.

“I fully intend to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress if the DOJ does not do their job,” Luna said in a post to X late Thursday.

Recording sows divisions between political parties

During the Judiciary Committee hearing, Republicans declared the executive branch “doesn’t get to choose” what evidence they provide to the committee, while House Democrats blasted Republicans for politicizing the issue and wanting the audio recording for “Donald Trump’s campaign commercials” or use Biden’s stutter to “smear” him.

The White House has avoided responding directly to the political implications of the audio recording’s release. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the transcripts are “already out there” and Garland made it clear “that law enforcement files like these need to be protected.”

“I don’t want to get into — dive into the specific point that you’re making about the politics,” Jean-Pierre said. “I would have to … refer you to our Counsel’s Office on that. But there were determination that the president took very seriously … at the request of the Attorney General. And that’s how this decision was made.”

Though Hur determined that the president’s conduct posed “serious risks to national security,” the special counsel wrote in his report that he did not charge Biden because he believed a jury would find him a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and likely not convict him for this reason.

GOP members during the Judiciary Committee hearing latched onto those lines quickly as evidence that the president is not mentally competent to serve as commander-in-chief, believing that the audio recording will shed light on Biden’s mannerisms, colloquialisms, and ability to answer questions.

“That tape must be quite something if the administration of the president has decided to assert executive privilege to keep it from the committee in the course of an impeachment inquiry. Think about it,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said. “The basis for withholding the audio recording, when the transcript has been furnished, must rest on something about the recording that is distinct from the information contained in the transcript.”

The Oversight Committee hearing Thursday dissolved into chaos, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) trading insults and barbs with Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Despite the late hour and long, drawn-out arguments, the committee passed its resolution, 23-19. The Judiciary Committee passed its resolution earlier in the day, 18-15.

A transgender teen athlete was booed as she crossed the finish line in a 400m race at the Oregon state championships.

Aayden Gallagher appeared to win her heat with a time of 55.25 seconds on Friday.

Her performance earned one of five spots from across two heats in the final due to take place Saturday.

The tenth grader came second overall across both heats behind Josie Donelson, who won her heat and narrowly pipped her to the top spot with a time of 55.04, Athletic Live reported.

Sophie Castaneda was listed as coming in third overall and second behind Gallagher with a time of 55.65s, per the outlet.

In a clip shared online, jeering could be heard in the background as Gallagher crosses the finish line.

Even prior to the win, her participation in the race has been criticized by Republican lawmakers, who called for a change to the regulations after Gallagher clinched a win during a previous 400m race.

Oregon State Activities Association rules allow athletes to participate in a category that aligns with their gender identity without the need to provide evidence of a medical transition.

The controversy was reignited after footage of Gallagher’s most recent race was shared by Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer who campaigns against allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sport.

Gaines claimed that Gallagher ‘dominated’ her most recent heat on Friday, asking ‘When will we see coaches and parents standing up to this mockery?’

The campaigner previously drew attention to Gallagher when she shared another video of the McDaniel High School sophomore cruising to victory in a race at the Sherwood Need for Speed Classic last month.

Gaines became an anti trans activist after she tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a 2022 swim meet. However, Thomas was handed the trophy over Gaines.

The Kentucky swimmer has since joined forces with a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Thursday, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing Thomas to compete at the competition.

Aayden Gallagher (male) dominates his heat of the women’s 400m this morning at the Oregon Track & Field State Championships.

He will run in the state championship final tomorrow.

When will we see coaches and parents standing up to this mockery? pic.twitter.com/jQ9QnWOUgv

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 17, 2024

OSAA’s executive director, Peter Weber, has defended the organization’s trans inclusive policy.

‘Oregon law has long prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,’ he wrote in a letter to his critics.

‘In 2019, the Oregon Department of Education amended its rules that ‘sexual orientation’ was defined to include ‘gender identity.’ The Oregon legislature likewise amended the definition of ‘sexual orientation’ to include ‘gender identity.”

A Massachusetts agency reportedly housed homeless and migrant families with young children in the same hotels as registered sex offenders, according to the Boston Globe.

The state placed hundreds of homeless migrant families in at least six locations with sex offenders convicted of crimes against children, including pornography, rape and assault, the Boston Globe reported.

Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities rejected the outlet’s requests for information on sex offenders, but said after the outlet identified offenders that the agency checks shelters against the registry every six months.

“The safety and wellbeing of the 7,500 families in Emergency Assistance shelter is a priority for our administration,” a spokesman for the agency, Keven Connor, told the Boston Globe.

“We will continue to take all possible steps to ensure the safety of EA residents and carefully review any situation that comes before us to act quickly to protect families.”

Families in locations with sex offenders, like at the Baymont Hotel, where a man convicted of “repeatedly and indecently assaulting” a girl under 14 is reportedly living or at the Colonial Traveler Inn, where an offender convicted of rape and child abuse is reportedly living, did not seem to be notified, the outlet reported.

One offender, who lives at a former Salem State University dormitory being used to house migrants and was convicted of rape and abuse of a child in 2012, was removed, the agency told the Boston Globe after the outlet identified him.

Massachusetts has spent nearly $1 billion to house migrant families coming into the state and is supporting around 23,000 people, according to the Boston Globe.

In March, an immigrant from Haiti allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl in a hotel being used as a shelter.

Even before kicking off a three-day visit to Madrid on Friday, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei stirred controversy, accusing the socialist government of bringing “poverty and death” to Spain and weighing in on corruption allegations against the prime minister’s wife.

In such circumstances, a typical visiting head of state may strive to mend fences with diplomacy.

Not Milei. The brash economist has no plans to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during his three days in the Spanish capital – nor the Spanish king, nor any other government official. Instead, he’ll attend a far-right summit Sunday hosted by Sánchez’s fiercest political opponent, the Vox party.

The unorthodox visit was business as usual for Milei, a darling of the global far right who has bonded with tech billionaire Elon Musk and praised former U.S. President Donald Trump. Earlier this year on a trip to the United States, Milei steered clear of the White House and took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, where he railed against abortion and socialism and shared a bear hug with Trump.

Milei presented his 2022 book, “The Way of the Libertarian,” in Madrid Friday at a literary event organized by La Razón, a conservative Spanish newspaper.

The book – withdrawn from circulation in Spain earlier this month because the back-flap biography erroneously said Milei had earned a doctorate – traces his meteoric rise in politics from eccentric TV personality to national lawmaker and outlines his radical free-market economic ideas.

To thunderous applause, Milei condemned socialism as “an intellectual fraud and a horror in human terms.”

“The good thing is that the spotlight is shining on us everywhere and we are making the reds (leftists) uncomfortable all over the world,” Milei said.

He took the opportunity to promote the results of his harsh austerity campaign in Argentina, celebrating a decline in monthly inflation in April though making no mention of the Buenos Aires subway fares that more than tripled overnight.

Repeating a campaign pledge to eliminate Argentina’s central bank – without giving further details – Milei promised to make Argentina “the country with the most economic freedom in the world.”

At the event Milei gave a huge hug to his ideological ally Santiago Abascal, the leader of the hard-right Vox party and the only politician with whom Milei has actual plans to meet in Madrid.

The Vox summit Sunday seeks to bring together far-right figures from across Europe in a bid to rally the party’s base ahead of European parliamentary elections in June. Milei described his attendance a “moral imperative.” He also has plans to meet Spanish business executives Saturday.

Tensions between Milei and Sánchez have simmered since the moment the Spanish prime minister declined to congratulate the libertarian economist on his shock election victory last November.

But hostility exploded earlier this month when one of Sánchez’s ministers suggested Milei had taken narcotics. The Argentine presidency responded with an unusually harsh official statement accusing Sánchez’s government of “endangering the middle class with its socialist policies that bring nothing but poverty and death.”

The lengthy government statement also accused Sánchez of having “more important problems to deal with, such as the corruption accusations against his wife.”

The allegations of influence peddling and corruption brought by a right-wing group against Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, had prompted Sánchez, one of Europe’s longest serving Socialist leaders, to consider stepping down.

Seize the Grey went wire to wire to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, giving 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas a seventh victory in the race and ending Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid.

The gray colt took advantage of the muddy track just like Lukas hoped he would, pulling off the upset in a second consecutive impressive start two weeks after romping in a race on the Derby undercard at Churchill Downs.

Seize the Grey went off at 9-1, one of the longest shots on the board.

Mystik Dan finished second in the field of eight horses running in the $2 million, 1 3/16-mile race.

After falling short of going back to back following his win by a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it would be a surprise if he runs in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

Seize the Grey was a surprise Preakness winner facing tougher competition than in the Pat Day Mile on May 4.

Seize The Grey WINS the 149th Preakness Stakes! 🌻 pic.twitter.com/Uqyb5nXPuS

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 18, 2024

Though given the Lukas connection, it should never be a surprise when one of his horses is covered in a blanket of Black-Eyed Susan flowers.

No one in the race’s 149-year history has saddled more horses in the Preakness than Lukas with 48 since debuting in 1980.

He had two this time, with Just Steel finishing fifth.

Lukas has now won the Preakness seven times, one short of the record held by two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer and close friend Bob Baffert, whose Imagination finished seventh.

Baffert was also supposed to have two horses in the field and arguably the best, but morning line favorite Muth was scratched earlier in the week because of a fever.

Muth’s absence made Mystik Dan the 2-1 favorite, but he and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. could not replicate their perfect Derby trip to win that race’s first three-way photo finish since 1947.

Instead, Jaime Torres rode Seize the Grey to a win in his first Preakness.

This was the last Preakness held at Pimlico Race Course as it stands before demolition begins on the historic but deteriorating track, which will still hold the 150th running of it next year mid-construction.

That process is already well underway at Belmont Park, which is why the final leg of the Triple Crown is happening at Saratoga for the first time and is being shortened to 1 1/4 miles because of the shape of the course.

Kentucky Derby second-place finisher Sierra Leone, a half step from winning, is expected to headline that field.

Rudy Giuliani’s 80th birthday bash in Palm Beach was stormed “like it was Normandy” as the former New York City mayor was served with notice of his Arizona indictment, sources told The Post.

In front of nearly 75 guests, two officials with Arizona’s attorney general’s office arrived at the shindig around 11 p.m. to hand Giuliani the papers in the case alleging he and 17 others were involved in a plot to overturn the 2020 election, the sources said.

Some partygoers started screaming and one woman even cried as Giuliani was served.

“While crime in Arizona is at an all time high the Arizona Secretary of State’s office felt it was a good use of resources to send multiple agents across the country to storm an 80th birthday party like it was Normandy,” fumed Caroline Wren, a top GOP consultant, who hosted the gathering at her home.

Giuliani’s spokesman Ted Goodman echoed a similar sentiment.

“It’s unfortunate that they chose to barge up and startle guests during a celebration of this man’s 80th birthday,” Goodman told The Post.

“They could’ve shown a little more respect for the man who comforted the nation following September 11th and who stands up for law enforcement and the men and women in blue.”

Giuliani was the last of the 18 defendants in the case to be served in the indictment that was returned by a grand jury last month, Arizona officials said.

Arizona prosecutors had been looking for Giuliani for the last few weeks, but up until Friday night had failed to find him, CNN reported earlier this week.

At the height of the Palm Beach soirée, as many as 200 people, including Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, were in attendance.

Giuliani recorded an hour-long episode of “America’s Mayor Live” on his YouTube channel during the gathering, chatting with guests including Stone and Bannon.

While the sun was still shining, the ex-mayor – donning shades and dress pants with a blue button-down and orange tie – belted out Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” over the microphone in the backyard of the Florida home.

He was all smiles around 10 p.m. as cake was served, posing for photos in a room full of birthday balloons.

But about an hour later the celebratory atmosphere shifted.

After he was served, Giuliani got in his car and left, sources said.

Charges against those indicted in the so-called “fake electors” plot include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward were among the 18 indicted.

“In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment says. “Unwilling to accept this fact, Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters.”

It’s been more than 50 years since a Republican won Minnesota in a presidential election, but former President Trump says he’s got “a really good shot” of breaking the losing streak this November in his 2024 rematch with President Biden.

The former president is in the historically reliable blue state Friday evening to headline the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner. He began his speech with the usual jabs at Biden’s cognitive ability, but also referenced the recently agreed to debates between the two.

“He’s going to be so jacked up for those, you watch,” Trump joked, later saying he was going to “demand a drug test” for Biden before the debate.

He went on to promise a rollback of Biden’s environmental mandates relating to automakers, railed against the sour economic statistics under Biden, and vowed to fix the ongoing border crisis.

Trump also blasted Biden’s habit of repeating false stories concerning his life experiences. “He’s so full of s–t,” Trump said as the crowd laughed.

Trump lost Minnesota by just 1½ points in his 2016 presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Four years ago, he lost the state to President Biden by more than seven points in his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump promised a victory in Minnesota, saying that if he lost, “I’m never coming back.”

Fast-forward four years and Trump is back and once again predicting a victory.

“We think we have a really good shot at Minnesota,” Trump emphasized in an interview Wednesday with KSTP, a local TV station in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. “We have great friendships up there.”

Trump added that he’s “worked hard on Minnesota” and that “Tom Emmer is very much involved,” pointing to the House majority whip.

Emmer, who is joining Trump at the state GOP gala, is chairing the Trump campaign in Minnesota even though the former president and his allies helped sink Emmer’s bid last autumn to become House speaker.

As the Trump and Biden campaigns prepare for battle in seven crucial swing states that decided the 2020 election (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which were narrowly won by Biden, and North Carolina, which Trump carried by a razor-thin margin) and will likely once again in the 2024 rematch, both campaigns see opportunities to expand the map.

Two weekends ago at a closed-door Republican National Committee retreat for top-dollar donors at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, senior Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio spotlighted internal surveys that suggested both “Minnesota and Virginia are clearly in play.”

“In both states, Trump finds himself in positions to flip key electoral votes in his favor,” the survey, which was shared with Fox News, emphasizes.

And both states have sizable populations of rural white voters without college degrees who disproportionately support the former president.

Biden’s campaign disagrees that either Minnesota or Virginia are up for grabs.

While noting they are “not taking any state or any vote for granted,” Biden campaign battleground states director Dan Kanninen told reporters last week “we don’t see polls that are six or seven months out from a general election, head-to-head numbers certainly, as any more predictive than a weather report is six or seven months out.”

Kanninen highlighted that the campaign has teams on the ground in both states engaging voters.

“We feel strongly the Biden-Harris coalition in both Minnesota and Virginia, which has been strong in the midterms and off-year elections, will continue to be strong for us in the fall of 2024,” he added.

And Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt, pointing to the president’s current fundraising dominance and ground-game advantage in the key battlegrounds, argued “Trump’s team has so little campaign or infrastructure to speak of they’re resorting to leaking memos that say ‘the polls we paid for show us winning.'”

But Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who launched a long-shot and unsuccessful primary challenge against the president, insists “Minnesota’s in play.”

Phillips, in an interview this week on Fox News’ “Special Edition,” argued Minnesota’s “like a lot of states that I think a lot of my fellow Democrats don’t want to confess is the reality. … I’m telling my Democratic colleagues who are supporting President Biden, myself included, that there’s a lot of work to do.”

While Trump’s campaign looks for opportunities to expand the map in Minnesota and Virginia, Biden’s campaign appears to be eyeing swing state North Carolina and Florida.

Trump carried the Sunshine State by less than four points in 2020, but two years ago, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio each won re-election by nearly 20 points.

LaCivita argued the Biden campaign was playing “a faux game” in both states but insisted Trump has a “real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota.”

Trump’s stop in Minnesota comes a week after he held a large rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, a red bastion in an overwhelming blue state where no Republican has carried the state in a presidential election in over three decades. Trump lost the state to Biden by 16 points four years ago.

“We’re going to win New Jersey,” Trump vowed at the rally.

In a revealing twist for the 2024 presidential election, polls show “Never Biden” voters are more common than “Never Trumpers.”

In a recent poll 52% of respondents said they would never vote for President Joe Biden, while 46% said the same for former President Donald Trump.

This flips the narrative from the 2020 election, which saw the opposite be true. It’s another sliver of evidence that Trump has an edge over Biden in November.

Three of four such polls since November have more “Never Biden” voters than “Never Trump” voters.

Voters have had a more favorable view of Trump’s presidency since Biden took office, and that appears to be manifesting in the polls.

The “Never Trump” movement originally began in 2015, as Trump built momentum toward his eventual 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with many conservatives vowing to never support him.

That group of Republicans united behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in 2024, and primary voters are still casting votes for her despite Trump’s clinching of the Republican nomination.

Recently, Haley grabbed 21.3% of the vote away from Trump in Maryland’s primary this month.

Trump is leading by five points in a head-to-head matchup with Biden as well as by three points when third parties are included in an Echelon Insights new poll.

Both candidates recently scheduled a June 27 CNN debate and a Sept. 10 ABC debate, with other debates pending as well.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said on Thursday that his office is “demanding accountability” after Kansas City doxxed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker on social media following a commencement speech he gave over the weekend.

“My office is demanding accountability after @KansasCity doxxed @buttkicker7 last night for daring to express his religious beliefs,” Bailey posted on X. “I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion. Stay tuned.”

The official Kansas City X account, which stated what town Butker resides in, later deleted the post and issued an apology: “We apologies [sic] for our previous tweet. It was shared in error.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas acknowledged that the post was “clearly inappropriate.”

“A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account,” he wrote.

“The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.”

A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account.

The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.

— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) May 16, 2024

Butker ripped President Joe Biden and woke diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies while delivering a commencement address at a Catholic liberal arts school on Saturday.

The three-time Super Bowl champion suggested that Biden, who, like Butler, is Catholic, has betrayed his faith with his support of abortion access.

“Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues,” Butker said during the undergraduate ceremony at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

Butker said “things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”

The place kicker then made reference to Biden without mentioning his name, describing how the president made a sign of the cross during a pro-abortion speech by a fellow Democrat in Florida last month.

“Our nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally,” Butker said.

“He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people, it appears you can be both Catholic and pro-choice,” he added.

Biden is “not alone,” Butker went on.

“From the man behind the COVID lockdowns, to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common — they are Catholic,” Butker said. “This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have discovered hundreds of tunnel shafts inside the Hamas stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza, including dozens of tunnels that cross into Egypt.

Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam made the revelation while speaking at the International Court of Justice.

“Rafah, in particular, is a focal point for ongoing terrorist activity. It is a stronghold for Hamas’ operators with several battalions belonging to the Rafah brigades entrenched in the area,” he said.

“Also present in Rafah is an intricate underground tunnel infrastructure that runs underneath the city and provides ample space for operators, command and control rooms, and military equipment.”

“Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah from which approximately 50 tunnels cross into Egypt,” he continued. “These tunnels are used by Hamas to supply itself with weapons and ammunition. It could potentially be used to smuggle out of Gaza hostages or Hamas senior operators.”

Watch:

Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah, with ~50 tunnels crossing into Egypt, revealed @DrGiladNoam at today’s sham @CIJ_ICJ hearing.

Those tunnels are used to smuggle weapons to Hamas and can be used to smuggle senior terrorists and/or hostages out of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/UAgvyTCoJk

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) May 17, 2024

Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, noted that Israel has been very patient with Egypt while Egypt has been playing “spoiler during this crisis.”

“After Cairo refused to let in Palestinian refugees — a temporary measure that would have shortened the Gaza war — Jerusalem assented to the positioning of heavy Egyptian reinforcements in the supposedly demilitarized Sinai to seal off the Rafah border,” Truzman said.

“And all the Israelis have got in return has been vitriol and, most recently, Egyptian support for the foul allegations being leveled against them at The Hague. President Sisi is supposed to be a pragmatist rather than a populist. This cannot continue.”

OpenAI has disbanded its team focused on the long-term risks of artificial intelligence just one year after the company announced the group, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC on Friday.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the team members are being reassigned to multiple other teams within the company.

The news comes days after both team leaders, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, announced their departures from the Microsoft-backed startup. Leike on Friday wrote that OpenAI’s “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.”

OpenAI’s Superalignment team, announced last year, has focused on “scientific and technical breakthroughs to steer and control AI systems much smarter than us.” At the time, OpenAI said it would commit 20% of its computing power to the initiative over four years.

News of the team’s dissolution was first reported by Wired.

Sutskever and Leike on Tuesday announced their departures on social media platform X, hours apart, but on Friday, Leike shared more details about why he left the startup.

“I joined because I thought OpenAI would be the best place in the world to do this research,” Leike wrote on X. “However, I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point.”

Leike wrote that he believes much more of the company’s bandwidth should be focused on security, monitoring, preparedness, safety and societal impact.

“These problems are quite hard to get right, and I am concerned we aren’t on a trajectory to get there,” he wrote. “Over the past few months my team has been sailing against the wind. Sometimes we were struggling for [computing resources] and it was getting harder and harder to get this crucial research done.”

Leike added that OpenAI must become a “safety-first AGI company.”

“Building smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor,” he wrote. “OpenAI is shouldering an enormous responsibility on behalf of all of humanity. But over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.”

The high-profile departures come months after OpenAI went through a leadership crisis involving Altman.

In November, OpenAI’s board ousted Altman, saying in a statement that Altman had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.”

The issue seemed to grow more complex each day, with The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reporting that Sutskever trained his focus on ensuring that artificial intelligence would not harm humans, while others, including Altman, were instead more eager to push ahead with delivering new technology.

Altman’s ouster prompted resignations or threats of resignations, including an open letter signed by virtually all of OpenAI’s employees, and uproar from investors, including Microsoft. Within a week, Altman was back at the company, and board members Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Ilya Sutskever, who had voted to oust Altman, were out. Sutskever stayed on staff at the time but no longer in his capacity as a board member. Adam D’Angelo, who had also voted to oust Altman, remained on the board.

When Altman was asked about Sutskever’s status on a Zoom call with reporters in March, he said there were no updates to share. “I love Ilya … I hope we work together for the rest of our careers, my career, whatever,” Altman said. “Nothing to announce today.”

On Tuesday, Altman shared his thoughts on Sutskever’s departure.

“This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend,” Altman wrote on X. “His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important.” Altman said research director Jakub Pachocki, who has been at OpenAI since 2017, will replace Sutskever as chief scientist.

News of Sutskever’s and Leike’s departures, and the dissolution of the superalignment team, come days after OpenAI launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand the use of its popular chatbot.

The update brings the GPT-4 model to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users, technology chief Mira Murati said Monday in a livestreamed event. She added that the new model, GPT-4o, is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text, video and audio.

OpenAI said it eventually plans to allow users to video chat with ChatGPT. “This is the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use,” Murati said.

Members of the Taiwanese legislature clashed in a chaotic brawl this week, resulting in members being tackled and hit, after a member attempted to steal a bill to prevent it from being passed.

Lawmakers were seen leaping over tables and pulling other colleagues to the floor, Reuters reported.

Watch:

A Taiwan MP stole a bill during a motion and ran off with it to prevent it from being passed. 😂 pic.twitter.com/yoWffNh7D9

— Rodgers Kipembe Mpuru (@RodgersKipembe) May 18, 2024

The Kuomintang (KMT), the main opposition party, has been working alongside the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to opposite the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which just recently elected a new president but lost control of parliament.

The new president, Lai Ching-te is expected to be inaugurated Monday after he won the election in January.

The country’s democratic party, DPP, says the groups are improperly trying to force through certain proposals without having a customary consultation process.

Lawmakers from all parties were part of the fighting that happened this week. They traded accusations about who was to blame about what happened, Reuters reported.

Lai, a Harvard graduate and member of the DPP, said the election was critical, because voters could be choosing between war and peace with China.

A study published last month shows that those who underwent gender surgery had a suicide risk 12 times higher than those who did not, adding more data showing the dangers of the life-altering procedures.

The study utilized patient data from 56 health care organizations in the U.S. and over 90 million patients. Four different groups of patients were looked at in the study, including 1,501 people aged 18-60 who had “gender-affirming surgery” and an emergency visit (cohort A) and 15,608,363 adults who visited the emergency room but had no “gender-affirming surgery” (cohort B). The third group (cohort C) included 142,093 “adults with emergency visits, tubal ligation or vasectomy, but no gender-affirming surgery,” while a fourth group of patients with pharyngitis (cohort D) was studied “to validate the results from cohort C.”

“Data from February 4, 2003, to February 4, 2023, were analyzed to examine suicide attempts, death, self-harm, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within five years of the index event,” the study said, adding that its results found that “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not.”

The study concluded, “Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.”

The study’s findings fly in the face of the argument from those espousing radical gender theory, including the Biden administration, who claim that “gender-affirming care” prevents suicide attempts among those who identify as transgender.

DailyWire+ host Dr. Jordan B. Peterson blasted both President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following the release of the study’s results as both countries have yet to take any action to curb the dangerous effects of gender procedures, especially on children.

“12x the suicide rate post ‘gender affirming’ surgery. The butchers and liars were murderously wrong,” Peterson wrote on X. “The Cass report indicated this. Canada and the US are still enabling this. That’s you @POTUS and @JustinTrudeau and it is utterly barbarous and inexcusable. Putting children to the knife. ‘Follow the science,’ gentlemen.”

12x the suicide rate post "gender affirming" surgery

The butchers and liars were murderously wrong

The Cass report indicated this
Canada and the US are still enabling this

That's you @POTUS and @JustinTrudeau and it is utterly barbarous and inexcusable

Putting children to the…

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2024

The most recent study showing the disturbing increase in suicide risk among those who undergo gender surgery isn’t alone. Dr. Hilary Cass released a long-awaited British report last month that criticized gender procedures for children. Last year, a landmark study in Denmark found that trans-identifying people had a suicide death rate 3.5 times higher and a suicide attempt rate 7.7 times higher than people who did not identify as transgender.

Following more data showing the risk of gender surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormonal treatments on children multiple European countries began dialing back their policies that approved the life-altering procedures for minors. Numerous Republican-led states have also outlawed gender procedures for children, but no action has been taken at the federal level to stop the dangerous procedures.

Americans traveling abroad are being urged to exercise caution worldwide, the State Department said Friday.

The agency issued a security alert because of the “potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.”

“The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events and advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution,” the alert states.

Due to the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. We are aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist… pic.twitter.com/6aXW4CAJoa

— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) May 17, 2024

U.S. citizens abroad are urged to stay in areas frequented by tourists, including Pride celebrations and venues frequented by LGBTQI+ people.

Travelers can receive information and alerts from the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.

The State Department often issues alerts and travel advisories for Americans overseas.

The travel advisories range from “exercise normal precaution” to “Do Not Travel,” which is reserved for parts of the world where there is ongoing conflict, ethnic or religious discrimination or where U.S. citizens are generally not welcome. Other reasons for alerts include crime rates, health concerns and piracy in some parts of the world.

Nations Americans have recently been warned to avoid include Russia, Syria and Ukraine, all of which are involved in deadly conflicts, and others like Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

Two top Biden administration officials held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Oman this week on how to avoid escalating regional attacks, Axios reported.

The talks — involving President Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, and Abram Paley the acting U.S. envoy for Iran — were the first round of discussions between the U.S. and Iran since January, when similar negotiations were held in Oman.

The talks occurred just over a month after Iran’s unprecedented missile assault on Israel on April 13.

The attack put the Middle East on the cusp of a regional war.

Iran fired 350 ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top Iranian Quds Force general in charge of that nation’s military operations in Lebanon and Syria.

It was the first-ever direct attack on Israel that had been launched from Iranian soil.

Zahedi had been killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.

Iran’s attack was defeated in an unprecedented joint air and missile defense effort by Israel, the U.S., the U.K., France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Several days after the attack, Israel responded with a targeted strike on an S-300 air defense system at Iranian air force base.

One of the Biden administration’s main goals since Oct. 7 has been to prevent the Gaza conflict from leading to a regional war.

The U.S. thinks Iran has a lot of influence over its proxies in the region.

Those include Hezbollah in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq that conducted attacks against U.S. forces, and the Houthis in Yemen who still attack ships in the Red Sea.

McGurk and Paley arrived in Oman on Tuesday and met with Omani mediators, the sources said.

It’s unclear who represented Iran at the talks.

The sources said the talks focused on clarifying the consequences of actions by Iran and its proxies in the region and to discuss U.S. concerns regarding the status of Iran’s nuclear program.

Several Iranian officials hinted in recent weeks about the possibility of Iran moving toward production of nuclear weapons.

Vedant Patel, the State Department’s deputy spokesperson, said Monday the Biden administration has ways to communicate with Iran when necessary.

“The Biden administration continues to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device,” he said.

Patel added that the U.S. doesn’t believe Iran’s supreme leader has made a decision “to resume the weaponization program that we judge Iran suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.”

A 2016 surveillance video obtained exclusively by CNN shows Sean “Diddy” Combs grab, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during an altercation that matches allegations in a now-settled federal lawsuit filed by Ventura in November.

The footage, compiled from multiple camera angles dated March 5, 2016, appears to show the rapper, producer and business mogul during an incident that, according to Ventura’s complaint, occurred at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. CNN verified the location based on publicly available photos of the former hotel’s interior.

In the video, Ventura exits a hotel room and walks to a bank of elevators. Combs, holding a towel around his waist, runs down a hall after Ventura. He grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor. Still holding his towel closed with one hand, he then turns to kick her, the video shows.

As Ventura is on the ground, Combs retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks Ventura again as she lies motionless on the floor. About four seconds transpire between the two kicks, according to the video. He then briefly drags Ventura by her sweatshirt toward a room before walking away.

Ventura is then seen slowly standing up. She gathers items from the floor and moves to pick up a phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Combs, still in a towel and socks, returns. A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Combs appearing to shove Ventura.

Seconds later, he sits down on a chair, grabs an object off a table and forcefully throws it toward Ventura. Combs is seen walking away, then turns toward Ventura once again when an elevator door opens and someone appears to exit.

Sean Diddy Combs is and was always in reality the very ruthless violent monster that Marion Suge Knight was feared and depicted as in street lore and in popular culture pic.twitter.com/1J1kv8q7Hs

— Roy Drones Jr (@chiweethedog) May 17, 2024

Ventura, who reached an undisclosed settlement with Combs, declined to comment on the video obtained by CNN.

Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said: “The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs. Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”

CNN has reached out to representatives for Combs for comment. Combs has previously denied Ventura’s allegations.

When contacted by CNN, a representative for InterContinental Hotels said on Friday, “This hotel is no longer under IHG management, and we do not have any access to prior incident records or footage.”

Ventura’s lawsuit

Combs and Ventura, a model and singer known for songs like “Me & U,” were in an off-and-on relationship from 2007 – 2018. The two were photographed together at the Los Angeles premiere of the film “A Perfect Match” on March 7, 2016.

According to Ventura’s complaint, which cited the altercation as occurring “around March 2016,” Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.”

After Combs fell asleep, Ventura attempted to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her,” the complaint said.

“He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape,” the complaint alleged.

After Ventura got in the elevator, her complaint states that she took a cab to her apartment.

“Upon realizing that her running away would cause Mr. Combs to be even angrier with her, and completely stuck in his vicious cycle of abuse, Ms. Ventura returned to the hotel with the intention of apologizing for running away from her abuser,” the complaint claims. “When she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment, suggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway.”

The complaint alleges Combs paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage of the incident. The incident was part of a number of allegations made in the November lawsuit in which Ventura claimed she was raped in 2018 and subjected to years of repeated physical and other abuses by Combs.

Ventura, who was formally signed to Combs’ label, claimed in her suit that he “exerted his power and influence” over her throughout the course of their professional and romantic relationship. According to the complaint, she was 19 when they met and Combs was 37, and their business relationship lasted until 2019. It detailed claims that Combs was physically violent toward Ventura and forced her to engage in various sex acts with other men during that time.

Ben Brafman, an attorney for Combs, said in a statement to CNN on the day it was filed, “Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”

The suit was resolved the following day.

“A decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Brafman told CNN in a statement at the time. “Mr. Combs‘ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms. Ventura the best.”

Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Ongoing legal issues

Since November, Combs has faced five other civil lawsuits accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct and other illegal activity. He has denied the allegations, and the cases remain active.

Authorities searched Combs’ homes in California and Florida in March as part of a federal investigation carried out by a Department of Homeland Security team that handles human trafficking crimes, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The investigation stems from many of the same sexual assault allegations put forth in the civil lawsuits, according to a second law enforcement source familiar with the searches.

Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Combs, issued a statement at the time, calling the searches a “gross overuse of military-level force.”

“This unprecedented ambush – paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence – leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits,” he said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday spoke to Fox News about the upside-down American flag seen flying outside his home in the days following the Jan. 6 Capitol protests, saying his wife displayed it in response to insults directed at her from a neighbor.

Alito weighed in after The New York Times first reported on the story Thursday, in which it said the upside-down flag — a sign of dire distress and versatile symbol of protest — appeared outside Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, on Jan. 17, 2021.

Alito said the saga in his neighborhood began in the days around Jan. 6, 2021, when a neighbor living down the street put up a sign that read “F— Trump” about 50 feet away from a children’s bus stop.

He said his wife, Martha-Ann, then spoke with those neighbors about the sign and the conversation was not well received.

Alito told Fox News those neighbors then put up a sign directly attacking his wife and personally blaming her for the events that transpired on Jan. 6 at the nation’s capital.

He said that during a walk in the neighborhood with his wife, one person who lived at the property with the signage then got into an argument with her — at one point calling her derogatory language “including the C-word.”

Following that incident, Alito said Martha-Ann was distraught and decided to make some sort of statement by hanging the American flag upside down outside their home.

Alito told Fox News he had no role in the flag decision, and it was flying outside their property only “for a short time.”

He added that he felt he had no right or ability to control or order around his wife and that some neighbors on his street have been “very political.”

The story surrounding the flag outside Alito’s home comes as the Supreme Court is deciding on former President Trump’s immunity case.