New top story from Time: New York Prosecutor Convenes Grand Jury in Criminal Investigation of Donald Trump

https://ift.tt/3wuXF3R

(NEW YORK) — New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records.

The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters such as hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf, property valuations and employee compensation.

The Democratic prosecutor has been using an investigative grand jury through the course of his probe to issue subpoenas and obtain documents. That panel kept working while other grand juries and court activities were shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The investigation includes scrutiny of Trump’s relationship with his lenders; a land donation he made to qualify for an income tax deduction; and tax write-offs his company claimed on millions of dollars in consulting fees it paid.

The new grand jury could eventually be asked to consider returning indictments. While working on that case, it also will be hearing other matters. The Post reported that the grand jury will meet three days a week for six months.

Trump contends the investigation is a “witch hunt.”

“This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors,” Trump said in a statement.

Vance’s office declined to comment.

The new grand jury is the latest sign of increasing momentum in the criminal investigation into the Republican ex-president and his company, the Trump Organization.

Attorney General Letitia James said last week that she assigned two lawyers to work with Vance’s office on the probe after her civil investigation into Trump evolved into a criminal matter.

James, a Democrat, said her office also is continuing its civil investigation into Trump. She did not say what prompted her office to expand its investigation into a criminal probe.

In recent months, Vance hired former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to help run the investigation and has been interviewing witnesses, including Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Vance declined to run for reelection and will leave office at the end of the year, meaning the Trump case is likely to pass to his successor in some form. An election next month is all but certain to determine who that will be.

Trump said in a statement last week that he’s being “unfairly attacked and abused by a corrupt political system.” He contends the investigations are part of a Democratic plot to silence his voters and block him from running for president again.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court buoyed Vance’s investigation by clearing the way for the prosecutor to enforce a subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm and obtain eight years of tax returns and related documents for the former president, the Trump Organization and other Trump entities.

The documents are protected by grand jury secrecy rules and are not expected to be made public.

Vance’s investigation has appeared to focus in recent weeks on Trump’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg. His former daughter-in-law, Jen Weisselberg, is cooperating with both inquiries.

She’s given investigators reams of tax records and other documents as they look into whether some Trump employees were given off-the-books compensation, such as apartments or school tuition.

Allen Weisselberg was subpoenaed in James’ civil investigation and testified twice last year. His lawyer declined to comment when asked Tuesday if he had been subpoenaed to testify before the new grand jury.

A message seeking comment was left with Jen Weisselberg’s lawyer.

Comments

New top story from Time: All 53 People Aboard Indonesia Submarine Declared Dead After Vessel’s Wreckage Found

https://ift.tt/3ezrzg5 ANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was considered sunk, not merely missing , but did not explicitly say whether the crew was dead. Officials had also said the KRI Nanggala 402’s oxygen supply would have run out early Saturday, three days after vessel went missing off the resort island of Bali. “We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday. “With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead,” Tjahjanto said. An underwater ro...

New from Equal Rights Advocates: Remembering Legal Pioneer Barbara Babcock

The post Remembering Legal Pioneer Barbara Babcock appeared first on Equal Rights Advocates . By: Delia Coleman Published at: May 23, 2020 at 07:27AM

New top story from Time: As Myanmar’s Junta Intensifies Its Crackdown, Pro-Democracy Protesters Prepare for Civil War

https://ift.tt/3cUWeEQ Before the Feb. 1 coup, Zarni Win* worked for a United Nations-funded committee that monitored a ceasefire between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic armed groups. Today, the 27-year-old from Yangon, the country’s largest city, is getting ready to enlist in one of those groups herself. “Now is the time to start preparing to eliminate the terrorist military,” she tells TIME. “I am ready to join the armed revolution.” Myanmar is veering dangerously toward all-out civil war as the military, known as the Tatmadaw, terrorizes the public , and attacks restive ethnic territories. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Mar. 31 that “a bloodbath is imminent.” In an online presentation cited by the Associated Press, she said civil war “at an unprecedented scale” was a possibility and spoke of Myanmar’s deterioration into a “failed state.” Protesters in Myanmar have maintained a largely peaceful resistance to dictatorship since ...

New top story from Time: Almost Every Doctor Recommends Sunscreen. So Why Don’t We Know More About Its Safety?

https://ift.tt/3llOUXn Each year, as Memorial Day approaches, Holly Thaggard braces herself for the headlines. About how sunscreen may be damaging coral reefs . About the possible flammability of spray-on sunscreen . Headlines—as there were this year—about how sunscreen contains chemicals that could harm your health . “This has happened every single year for the last decade of my life,” says Thaggard, founder of Texas-based Supergoop, a sunscreen company that brands itself as reef-safe and free of hundreds of potentially problematic ingredients. This year, the is-sunscreen-dangerous news cycle started in May, when Valisure, an independent laboratory dedicated to quality-testing pharmaceuticals and personal-care products, released a report warning that its scientists found benzene—a carcinogen also found in vehicle emissions and cigarette smoke—in 78 U.S. sun-care products. Benzene is not an ingredient in sunscreens, but rather a contaminant likely introduced during the manu...

New top story from Time: No Time to Die Is an Imperfect Movie. But It’s a Perfect Finale for the Best James Bond Ever

https://ift.tt/3zVh3bj No Time to Die , the 27th movie in the James Bond franchise and the last to star Daniel Craig , isn’t the best Bond movie. Yet it may be the greatest. At two hours and 43 minutes, it’s too long and too overstuffed with plot—more isn’t always better. And it features one of the dullest villains in the series’ history, played by Rami Malek in mottled skin and dumb silky PJs. But forget all that. No Time to Die, its flaws notwithstanding, is perfectly tailored to the actor who is, to me, the best Bond of all. With his fifth movie as 007, Craig is so extraordinary he leaves only scorched earth behind. There will be other Bonds for those who want them. For everyone else, there’s Craig. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A summary of No Time to Die ’s labyrinthine plot would be boring to write and even more boring to read, so here are a few bullet points: The evil scheme engineered by Malek’s inscrutably named Lyutsifer Safin involves bioengineered weapons t...

New top story from Time: Timothée Chalamet Wants You to Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve

https://ift.tt/3uZ3cQu T imothée Chalamet and I are on the run, chasing down Sixth Avenue on a bright September day in search of a place to talk. The restaurant in Greenwich Village where we had planned to meet ended up getting swarmed by NYU students while I was waiting for him, chattering excitedly to one another—“Timothée Chalamet is here!” “Shut up!” “Yeah, he’s right outside!”—so, trying to avoid a deluge of selfie seekers, I bolt from the table, tapping Chalamet on the shoulder where he stands under the awning, on the phone, and we make our escape. Face covered with a mask and hoodie pulled up over his curly hair, he’s mostly incognito but still cuts a distinct enough figure that we’d better find a new location fast, and standing at a crosswalk with him, I feel briefly protective, like I should be prepared to body-block an onslaught of fans at any moment. <strong>“I feel like I’m here to show that to wear your heart on your sleeve is O.K.”</strong> [time-br...

New top story from Time: The Best Albums of 2021 So Far

https://ift.tt/2SvJehl This year’s musical offerings have been a scattered bunch: with the music industry still on a pandemic-induced slowdown, the output in the first half of the year has been less commercial than highly personal, narratively complex and, at times, surprisingly collaborative. We likely have quarantine to thank for that, a time during which artists could craft something cohesive on their own schedules. Besides Taylor Swift’s buzzy re-release of her 2008 album Fearless , the albums of the year so far have not been blockbusters, but projects to sit with and stew over, as some of the industry’s biggest stars continue to bide their time before making a comeback. Consider: Julien Baker’s melancholy, personal rock; the unlikely combo of a jazz musician and electronic DJ in Promises ; Jazmine Sullivan’s intimate embrace of female sexuality in a project that sounds and feels like a warm bath. These are the best albums of 2021 so far. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”...

New top story from Time: The Harder They Fall Fails to Make Enough Room for Each Star Among Its Stellar Cast

https://ift.tt/3oCytaK If looking cool were enough to make a movie great, the gritty-stylish revenge Western The Harder They Fall would be the best movie of the year. Everybody, and I mean everybody, looks cool in this thing: Jonathan Majors struts his stuff in a fawn-gold leather jacket as supple as silk. Idris Elba cuts a dashing figure even in workaday prison stripes. Regina King , her withering stare its own brand of don’t-mess-with me glamour, faces down a moving train decked out in an elegant military coat and cap—she’s so fiercely self-possessed you fear more for the poor locomotive than you do for her. Everybody has great hats; everybody, at one time or another, appears on horseback, and everyone looks at home there. If looks—and for that matter, intentions—were everything, The Harder They Fall would be the ultimate. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But even though the plot is simple at its core—rival gangs face off in the old West after a barbarous criminal is r...

New top story from Time: Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov Win Nobel Peace Prize for Fighting for Freedom

https://ift.tt/3BnKjt7 (OSLO) — The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. They were cited for their fight for freedom of expression. The winners were announced Friday by Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” said Reiss-Andersen. “Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time.” Alexander Zemlianichenko–AP In this Oct. 7, 2021 file photo, Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, in Moscow, Russia. The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for the fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines an...

New top story from Time: There’s No Definitive List of Roman Empresses. Their Individual Stories Still Matter

https://ift.tt/3mNRYe8 A line-up of busts or paintings of the first twelve Roman emperors is one of the commonest decorations in up-market houses in Europe and the United States. Most are not actually ancient Roman, but modern versions created over the last few hundred years, attempting to capture the distinctive “look” of these famous, or infamous, dynasts, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Domitian (assassinated 96 CE). They are so familiar that most of us walk straight past them in museums and galleries, without a second look. Not so with their wives. In the modern world we have been used to spotting female power-wielders or villains, as the power behind throne—whether Nancy Reagan whispering in Ronald’s ear, or Ivanka Trump in the ear of her father . But what of ancient Rome and Roman versions of female imperial power? What do we think of Roman “empresses” ? Is there a model for power among the women of the Roman hierarchy? Many of us thrilled to the wicked Liv...

My precise view

Search This Blog