A federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump could retain control of the California National Guard, blocking a decision from a district court judge ordering Trump to yield power to Governor Gavin Newsom following anti-ICE riots.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday night granted an emergency motion from the Trump administration to block a ruling from District Judge Charles Breyer saying Trump violated the law when he ordered the National Guard into Los Angeles. Trump celebrated the decision, saying that the National Guard was to thank for keeping Los Angeles safe. 
“The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114675518227311570" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Truth Social Friday morning. “If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!”
The court scheduled a hearing on the case for Tuesday to hear further arguments. 
The decision is the latest in the battle between Trump and Newsom over riots that broke out last weekend in Los Angeles County after ICE began making arrests in the area, including day laborers at a Home Depot parking lot. Newsom sued Trump after the president sent in the National Guard and deployed thousands of Marines. 
L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell told “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/la-police-chief-national-guard-focused-on-immigration-agenda-not-helping-with-protests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS Mornings</a>” on Wednesday that the National Guard is not assisting local authorities with street protests or riot control.
“That’s not our understanding. They have a different mission,” McDonnell said. “They’re working in support of the federal agencies that are working with ICE on civil immigration enforcement and criminal immigration enforcement.” He added, “We don’t need the National Guard, and they are not here to help us right now.”
On Thursday, Breyer sided with Newsom, saying that Trump lacked the authority to send in the National Guard. 
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not. His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Breyer <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.450934/gov.uscourts.cand.450934.64.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. 
The judge, appointed by President Bill Clinton, also asserted that Trump’s actions were an “unlawful militarization” of the city and had a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, echoing Newsom’s complaints. His decision was blocked just hours later by the appeals court. 
Trump has repeatedly said that Newsom should thank him for sending in the troops, saying that the violence would have been worse had he not acted. 
“Incompetent Gavin Newscum should have been THANKING me for the job we did in Los Angeles, rather than making sad excuses for the poor job he has done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “If it weren’t for me getting the National Guard into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now!”

Donald Trump

Appeals Court Says Trump Can Keep National Guard Deployed In L.A.

California

Courts

Gavin Newsom

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Los Angeles

National Guard

Politics

Disney and Universal are teaming up to sue the AI image generation firm Midjourney for what they’re describing as copyright infringement.
Midjourney is a popular AI platform which utilizes user prompts to create original images in seconds. But the entertainment companies claim the model uses their copyrighted content to spit out images that are incredibly similar to the originals, representing a violation of copyright in their estimation.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in California described Midjourney as a “quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism” that’s responsible for “endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works,” per <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/business/media/disney-universal-midjourney-ai.html">The New York Times</a>.
While this is not the first AI-based lawsuit, this represents the first time any major entertainment company has filed this type of complaint. In the case of other lawsuits, AI companies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/11/disney-universal-sue-midjourney-ai-copyright/">claimed</a> that their tools are generating new creations and that the resulting output counts as “fair use” per copyright law.
The entertainment companies disagree.
“We are bullish on the promise of A.I. technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity,” Disney’s general counsel Horacio Gutierrez told NYT in an email. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an A.I. company does not make it any less infringing.”
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Kim Harris, general counsel at Universal, expanded on this in a separate email statement, saying, “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content.”
Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin voiced support for the lawsuit, calling copyright protection “the backbone of [the entertainment] industry,” per <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/tech/disney-universal-midjourney-ai-copyright-lawsuit">CNN</a>.
“A balanced approach to AI that both protects intellectual property and embraces responsible, human-centered innovation is critical for maintaining America’s global leadership in creative industries,” he added.
The lawsuit is demanding $150,000 per infringed work in addition to Midjourney ceasing copyright infringement in the future. If Disney and Universal win the case, the payout could total up to $20 million for 150 protected images they claim have been infringed upon.

Disney

‘Bottomless Pit Of Plagiarism’: Disney And Universal Sue AI Image Generator

'Bottomless Pit Of Plagiarism': Disney And Universal Sue AI Image Generator

Artificial Intelligence

copyright

Entertainment

Lawsuit

U.S.

We have all seen the images this past week. They have become a far too common sight in America’s largest cities: cars ablaze, small businesses looted and vandalized, city centers held hostage by violent mobs, all while local law enforcement stands idly by.
President Trump took decisive action to protect the public from lawless rioters by activating the National Guard, but many of the rioters continue to engage in blatant criminality, correctly guessing they face only a remote risk of prosecution. Congress and state legislatures, however, can step in by making it ruinously expensive to riot.
For decades, the federal government has used private litigation as a tool to further public policy objectives. Disabled Americans can sue businesses for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Consumers who suffer even the most trivial losses from deceptive advertising can bring class actions against manufacturers. Litigation is expensive, often ruinously so, and the government therefore outsources much of its law enforcement to private citizens, armed with statutes that award attorneys’ fees and civil penalties.
Rioting is first and foremost a criminal matter, and local police departments and district attorneys should quell riots through vigorous, evenhanded enforcement of criminal law. But they do not. Congress should thus fill this void by creating a private right of action, that is, the ability to bring a lawsuit against individuals who create disruptions in the form of riots.
The first step would be to define a riot, taking care to draw a clear line between criminality and First Amendment activity. Fortunately, the law already makes this distinction: expressing one’s thoughts using signs or chants is legal, but trespassing, assault, and vandalism are not. A riot should therefore be defined as a gathering of two or more people who are present in a location where they lack legal permission to be (whether private property or public property without a required permit) who engage in or aid and abet trespass, assault, and vandalism that results in property damage and obstructed rights of way. If Congress is the body passing the law, it can add a requirement that the riot affects interstate commerce (a very broad and easily satisfied requirement) to ensure the law is upheld.
The second step would be to identify the parties who can bring suit under this law. Riots result in many kinds of harm. Workers are unable to make it to work on time. Business owners contend with shattered windows, stolen inventory, and lost revenue when law-abiding residents stay home. Parents are unable to take their children to school. Police officers are assaulted. The law must recognize each of these harms by allowing anyone who suffers a harm to their person or property to bring suit.
The third step would be to craft a remedy that gives the law teeth. A challenge with enforcing criminal rioting laws is the difficulty of determining precisely which member of a riot committed which act of criminality. Civil law need not be so exacting. A participant in a riot — or those who provided material support to rioters (the deep-pocketed unions and nonprofits who help organize the protests that quickly become riots) — should face civil liability for harm that occurred during the riot. While some victims face tremendous financial harm, like a small business owner whose shop or restaurant is looted, others face smaller, harder-to-quantify harms. Plaintiffs should therefore be able to recover not only their actual damages, but a civil penalty in the tens of thousands of dollars, sufficient to deter rioters. Like almost all civil enforcement statutes, there should be a mandatory award of attorney’s fees to prevailing plaintiffs to ensure that anti-rioting cases are financially viable for attorneys.
The coddling of rioters by state and local authorities has caused tremendous destruction in American cities. In the past five years, we have seen riots ostensibly related to policing, race relations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, now, the enforcement of immigration laws. As long as rioters know they can act with impunity, the riots will continue. A law that makes funding or participating in riots financially devastating will make many rioters—and those who fund them—think twice before blocking a bridge or smashing a storefront window.
* * *
Jesse Franklin-Murdock is counsel at Dhillon Law Group Inc. and he is also a resident of San Francisco, where violent riots have taken place over the course of the last week.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Protests Erupt In L.A. County, Sparked By Federal Immigration Raids

Want To End The Riots? Hit The Mob Where It Hurts

Illegal Immigation

Looting

Opinion

Riots

San Francisco

A New York jury on Wednesday delivered a mixed verdict in Harvey Weinstein&#8217;s sexual assault retrial, finding the former Hollywood mogul guilty of one count while acquitting him of another.
The jury found Weinstein guilty of forcibly performing oral sex on former &#8220;Project Runway&#8221; production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, but acquitted him of criminal sexual assault against former model Kaja Sokola.
They remain deadlocked on third-degree rape charges related to actress Jessica Mann, who testified that Weinstein had raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
Since the trial began last week, the jurors have been contentious with one another. The judge even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/11/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-verdict">ordered</a> them to pause deliberations and “cool down” earlier on Wednesday, per The New York Times.
Justice Curtis Farber was informed in the courtroom that jurors were indeed “yelling and screaming” at each other throughout the day, and that one juror threatened the jury’s foreman, “I’ll see you outside one day.”
<div id="attachment_933075" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-933075" class="wp-image-933075 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219041463-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Photo by Curtis Means-Pool via Getty Images.</div>
Weinstein attempted to capitalize on the situation, arguing to Justice Farber that the jury conflict was grounds for a mistrial.
“This is not right for me, for me the person on trial here,” Weinstein told the judge. “This is my life on the line, and you know what, it’s not fair. It’s simple. It’s not fair.”
“It’s time, it&#8217;s time, it&#8217;s time to say this trial is over,” the former Hollywood mogul <a href="https://apnews.com/article/harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault-trial-31d7a64b75148d1e482f3c020ffea527">said</a>.
Farber denied Weinstein&#8217;s request: “Jurors fight. They act childish at times. They get heated. I’m not going to allow any injustice to happen to you.”
This <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvey-weinsteins-lawyers-argue-hes-the-one-whos-being-abused-during-retrial">retrial</a> followed the New York State Court of Appeals overturning Weinstein&#8217;s 2020 conviction, which had become a defining case of the #MeToo movement.
&#8220;If this person wasn&#8217;t Harvey Weinstein, would we even be here?&#8221; Weinstein&#8217;s attorney, Arthur Aidala, asked during closing arguments, maintaining the encounters were &#8220;transactional&#8221; and &#8220;consensual.&#8221; On June 5, Weinstein told FOX 5 New York that he acted &#8220;immorally&#8221; but insisted, &#8220;never illegal, never criminal, never anything.&#8221;
Over the past six weeks, three accusers testified: former &#8220;Project Runway&#8221; production assistant Miriam Haley, actress Jessica Mann, and former model Kaja Sokola from Poland. Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
<div id="attachment_933069" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-933069" class="wp-image-933069 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2219678380-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images.</div>
The partial verdict came as a shock, as Farber had only assembled the jury to formally send them home for the day when the foreman suddenly announced decisions on two of the three charges.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on the third charge and will continue deliberating on Thursday.
Regardless of the outcome, the 73-year-old former producer, who has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, will likely return to California, where he&#8217;s serving a 16-year sentence for a separate 2022 rape conviction.
Weinstein’s lawyers <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jury-harvey-weinstein-sex-assault-retrial-reached-partial-verdict-rcna210599">filed</a> an appeal for his 2022 conviction last year, which is still in process, per NBC.
Judge Farber instructed the jury to continue deliberations on Thursday regarding the remaining charge related to Sokola&#8217;s allegations.

The Jury Deliberates In The Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Retrial

Deadlocked Jury Throws Harvey Weinstein Retrial Into Chaos After Partial Verdict

Crime

Harvey Weinstein

Manhattan

MeToo

News

Rape

Sexual Assault

A Washington, D.C., judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump&#8217;s control of the African Development Foundation, a small federal agency that locked its doors to prevent Trump&#8217;s staff from entering and had to be physically taken over by U.S. Marshals.
The suit was brought by Ward Brehm, a former member of the agency&#8217;s board of directors, which is appointed by the president. On February 24, the White House notified Brehm that he was fired. But Brehm later insisted he was not just on the board, but had become president of the agency — not Pete Marocco, the architect of the USAID demolition, who Trump also named as president of the similar African aid group.
Senior Judge Richard J. Leon <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118.41.0_1.pdf">ruled</a> that Brehm &#8220;never lawfully held the position, and the Court is not at liberty to unilaterally install him as president. The Court therefore finds that summary judgment is warranted for the defendants.&#8221;
&#8220;The &#8216;President may remove anyone he appoints,&#8217; unless Congress &#8216;wishes to restrict the President&#8217;s removal power,&#8217; which it &#8216;must make clear in a statute,'&#8221; he wrote, citing precedent.
The White House removed all five board members on the same day, but ADF staff would not share contact info for the board members with Trump staff, and notifications to members besides Brehm were sent to invalid email addresses.
On February 28, the White House wrote to the African Development Foundation&#8217;s Chief Financial Officer, Mathieu Zahiu, that the agency had become &#8220;Board-less&#8221; and Trump had temporarily appointed Marocco as acting chair.
Zahui consulted with the fired board members, then told the White House that agency staff would not recognize Marocco as their boss because &#8220;a board nomination requires Senate confirmation.&#8221;
On March 3, the old board held a meeting that purported to appoint Brehm as the chair. They notified Congress that they had seen the February 28 email, but that Brehm was the new president.
Marocco then held a board meeting with only himself and terminated Brehm. &#8220;Since then, both Brehm and Marocco claim to be USADF&#8217;s president,&#8221; the judge wrote.
Judge Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Brehm could not be president of the agency because he had been fired from the board before it supposedly elected him president. Even the other board members, whose emailed termination notices were bungled, knew they had been fired, he said.
&#8220;President Trump removed the board prior to Brehm&#8217;s appointment, and thus Brehm was not lawfully appointed! Brehm&#8217;s removal claims must therefore fail.&#8221;
He noted that chief financial officer Zahui consulted with the previous board members before refusing the accept the White House&#8217;s appointee, and that &#8220;Zahui effectively notified the Board members of their terminations.&#8221;
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why">Daily Wire investigation</a> found that, according to the USAID Inspector General, Zahui received secret payments to his personal bank account after improperly steering contracts to a friend. One of the contracts was for travel during COVID, when no one was traveling. A search warrant was executed on Zahui&#8217;s phone in November, but as of now, he has not been criminally charged.
The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigation found that the African Development Foundation affirmed many of the fears that critics expressed about USAID, particularly that money advertised as going to poor people in third-world countries was being rerouted to D.C. bureaucrats and their friends.
The African Development Foundation sent &#8220;grants&#8221; to African groups on the condition that they send part of the money to American groups affiliated with agency officials and even wire money directly to the personal bank accounts of Foundation employees in Washington, the investigation found.
By law, the group is only permitted to give aid to African groups, and the maneuvering allowed Congress to think it was a low-overhead charity sending the bulk of its money to Africans, when in reality, it was essentially cooking the books.
“The grant was provided to an African organization … a grant can pay for people,” Zahiu told the Daily Wire about one instance of the agency forcing an African group to use part of its grant to pay the salaries of D.C. staff. “Yeah, granted, they were in D.C.” He also said that after DOGE changed the office&#8217;s locks, he gained access through a back door.
One longtime employee said the agency&#8217;s staff locked DOGE out because “the contracts don’t make sense, and they know [DOGE] will find lots of wrongdoing and illegal activity.”
“I’m not a fan of DOGE, but some of the things they’re doing need to be done. They have been operating like this for years, and no one did anything about it,” she said.
Another employee, program manager Kate Ristroph, explained in a videotaped internal investigative interview obtained by The Daily Wire how an agency official gave a grant to an African group on the condition that it route some of the money to his former employer in D.C. “We’re in that murky territory of like, is this legal?” she said.
Mateo Dunne, the agency&#8217;s former lawyer, said he was summarily removed from his job by CEO Travis Adkins after sounding the alarm about lawbreaking.
One piece of misconduct he raised involved one of the now-fired board members, John Agwunobi.
Agwunobi was the CEO of Herbalife, a company accused of being a pyramid scheme, and used the federal agency to push the multi-level marketing firm in Africa months after it paid a $122 million settlement to the Department of Justice to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ADF misrepresented the partnership as being with a nonprofit when it was actually with the for-profit company, and connected Africans with the company&#8217;s reps, he said.
Adkins also bragged about concealing operations from Brehm and other board members, saying “them white motherf***ers, they don’t need to know … I don’t think I should tell them s***,” his former assistant told The Daily Wire.
The assistant, who is black, said in a sworn affidavit that “On at least three occasions, Mr. Adkins told me that he wanted his entire team (to include the General Counsel) to consist only of Black people. He wanted all of his direct reports to be Black.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why">This Foreign Aid Agency Locked Its Doors To Keep DOGE Out. Now We Know Why.</a>

African Development Foundation locked the doors when DOGE tried to gain access

D.C. Judge Sides With Trump In Lawsuit Over Control Of Corrupt Foreign Aid Agency

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

USAID

The Supreme Court on Thursday tossed a lawsuit by the Mexican government against United States gun manufacturers.
The unanimous court decision found that Mexico did not prove a link between the gun manufacturers and cartel violence in Mexico. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the 9-0 opinion in the case known as Smith &amp; Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
“Mexico alleges that the companies aided and abetted unlawful sales routing guns to Mexican drug cartels. The question presented is whether Mexico’s complaint plausibly pleads that conduct. We conclude it does not,” Kagan <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1141_lkgn.pdf">wrote</a>.
Lawyers for the Mexican government argued that gun makers in the United States sold firearms to “rogue dealers” who in turn sold guns illegally to Mexican gun traffickers to eventually end up in the possession of cartels. The cartels have used those firearms to do damage to the Mexican government.
Mexico’s argument failed due to a lack of specificity and linkage between the gun manufacturers and the “rogue dealers.”
“To begin, the complaint sets for itself a high bar. It does not pinpoint, as most aiding-and-abetting claims do, any specific criminal transactions that the defendants (allegedly) assisted. Instead, it levels a more general accusation: that all the manufacturers assist some number of unidentified rogue dealers in violation of various legal bars. The systemic nature of that charge cannot help but heighten Mexico’s burden. To survive, it must be backed by plausible allegations of pervasive, systemic, and culpable assistance,” Kagan wrote.
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“Mexico’s lead claim — that the manufacturers elect to sell guns to, among others, known rogue dealers — fails to clear that bar,” she continued. “For one thing, it is far from clear that such behavior, without more, could ever count as aiding and abetting under the Court’s precedents. And in any event, Mexico has not said enough to make its allegations on this point plausible: It does not confront that the manufacturers do not directly supply any dealers, and its complaint does not name alleged bad-apple dealers or provide grounds for thinking that anyone up the supply chain often acquires that information.”
In recent months, President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Mexico to crack down on drug cartels across the country. The cartels have long served as human traffickers fomenting illegal immigration and drug traffic into the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/world/americas/mexico-cartel-fentanyl-trump-tariffs.html">shown</a> some willingness to work with Trump on the cartel issue after the United States placed significant tariffs on Mexican goods, arguing that Mexico’s handling of drug cartels and immigration constituted a severe national security risk to the United States.

Smith & Wesson

SCOTUS Tosses Mexico Lawsuit Against U.S. Gun Manufacturers

Drug Cartels

Guns

Mexico

Supreme Court

World

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer argued during closing statements at his retrial that his client was actually the victim.
The disgraced Hollywood executive, now a convicted sex predator, has been undergoing a new trial in Manhattan since late April. His attorney’s closing statements have been making headlines as he attempts to flip the script.
“They’re using their youth, their beauty, their charm, their charisma to get stuff from him,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the three women who testified against him, per <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/03/us-news/closing-arguments-begin-in-harvey-weinsteins-manhattan-rape-trial/">the New York Post</a>.
“I know it’s going to sound crazy, but he’s the one who’s being abused. He’s the one who’s getting used,” he added.
Aidala went into detail about the Miramax co-founder’s romantic relationships with his accusers, saying the sex was both consensual and “transactional” because they all “wanted to cut the line” to getting famous.
He said the women were upset that their method didn’t work and they never achieved notability. “They’re mad. They’re mad to this day,” Aidala <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/harvey-weinstein-abused-defense-retrial-closing-argument-1236416728/">said</a>.
The attorney next referenced the prosecutor deciding on a retrial. “They needed to get the poster boy, the original sinner for the MeToo movement,” Aidala said. “They tried to do it five years ago, and there was a redo, and they’re trying to do it again.”
The defense attorney said the women’s claims were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He described his client as a “fat dude” incapable of participating in some of the sexual acts described by their testimonies.
“Some of these descriptions from these women sound like ‘Cirque du Soleil’!” Aidala said.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg denied these assertions, saying “it wasn’t about fooling around — it was rape.”
Weinstein is charged with two counts of committing a “criminal sexual act” and one count of third-degree rape by former production assistant Miriam Haley, former model Kaja Sokola, and former aspiring actor Jessica Mann. Weinstein pleaded “not guilty” to all charges.
Once a powerful figure in Hollywood, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York following his 2020 conviction on charges of rape and sexual assault. But in April 2024, the New York Court of Appeals overturned that conviction. The court ruled that testimony from three women should not have been included as their accounts were deemed unfairly prejudicial and most likely helped sway the jury.
Weinstein was also found guilty of rape in a Los Angeles court and sentenced to 16 years in prison for the crime.

Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyers Argue ‘He’s The One Who’s Being Abused’ During Retrial

Harvey Weinstein's Lawyers Argue 'He's The One Who’s Being Abused' During Retrial

A Biden-appointed judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked immigration officials from deporting the wife and five children of Mohamed Soliman, who firebombed pro-Israel demonstrators on Sunday.
&#8220;Defendants are temporarily restrained and enjoined from removing Hayem El Gamal and her five minor children from the State of Colorado or the United States,&#8221; U.S. District Judge Gordon Gallagher wrote in the order, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-appointed-judge-blocks-deportation-boulder-attack-suspects-family-despite-visa-violations">reported</a>.
The temporary restraining order grants brief protection from deportation to Soliman’s wife, Hayem El Gamal, and their five children, all Egyptian nationals, after Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security initially <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ice-seizes-wife-5-kids-of-terrorist-who-firebombed-pro-israel-crowd?author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=ICE+Seizes+Wife%2C+5+Kids+Of+Terrorist+Who+Firebombed+Pro-Israel+Crowd">intended</a> to use expedited removal to deport the family.
Judge Gallagher <a href="https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rqSrSAnQPqMM/v0">stated</a> that &#8220;deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents.&#8221;
The judge&#8217;s order specifically prohibits federal immigration officials from removing Soliman&#8217;s family from either Colorado or the United States, unless the order is vacated by the court or the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Gallagher claims the order is being handled on an emergency basis due to &#8220;its urgency and an ongoing jury trial resulting in the unavailability&#8221; of the originally assigned judge, according to a footnote in the court document.
Gallagher has scheduled a hearing on the request for a temporary restraining order for June 13 at the federal courthouse in Denver, with the petitioner required to file a supporting memorandum by June 6 and defendants ordered to respond by June 11.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Colorado federal judge Gordon Gallagher, a Biden appointee, has issued an order blocking the Trump administration from deporting the wife and five children of Boulder terror suspect Mohamed Soliman. <a href="https://t.co/Lo8R1Yp19E">pic.twitter.com/Lo8R1Yp19E</a>
&mdash; Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/1930361834848039141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Soliman, 45, severely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/terror-in-colorado-pro-israel-demonstrators-attacked-in-firebombing?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daniel+Chaitin&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Terror+In+Colorado%3A+Pro-Israel+Demonstrators+Attacked+In+Firebombing">injured</a> 12 pro-Israel demonstrators at a Boulder, Colorado rally, throwing Molotov cocktails into the Jewish crowd while yelling “Free Palestine!” and “End Zionist.” Among those injured was an 88-year-old holocaust survivor.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/suspect-in-colorado-attack-on-pro-israel-demonstration-is-in-u-s-illegally-report?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=41&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Suspect+In+Colorado+Attack+On+Pro-Israel+Demonstration+Is+In+U.S.+Illegally%3A+Report">reported</a>, Soliman and his family entered the country in August 2022.
Soliman arrived on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February of the following year, and the Egyptian national then filed an asylum claim with the Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Biden administration eventually granted Soliman work authorization until March of this year.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-appointed-judge-blocks-deportation-boulder-attack-suspects-family-despite-visa-violations">reports</a> that Soliman’s wife and her five children have all also overstayed their visas, with their deportation likely complicated by a pending asylum application that had already been submitted on their behalf by Soliman before the attack.
Soliman’s family is being <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boulder-attack-mohamed-soliman-family-deportation-blocked/">detained</a> at an immigration detention center in southern Texas, where DHS is “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack.&#8221;

US-ATTACK-ISRAEL-DEMONSTRATION-PALESTINIANS-CONFLICT-POLITICS-POLICE

Biden Appointed Judge Blocks Deportation Of Boulder Terrorist’s Family

Anti-Semitism

Department of Homeland Security

Illegal Immigration

Kristi Noem

Terrorism

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a sweeping block of President Donald Trump’s order to stop taxpayer-funded transgender procedures for prisoners.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of Washington, D.C., granted class-action status to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of over 1,000 federal prison inmates who are taking advantage of taxpayer-funded prison systems to finance clothing, hormones, and other expenses.
“In light of the plaintiffs’ largely personal motives for undergoing gender-affirming care, neither the BOP nor the Executive Order provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention,” Lamberth wrote in a 36-page <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/4b45e925-7db7-4cb7-b423-064d985f1373.pdf">ruling</a>.
“[N]othing in the thin record before the Court suggests that either the BOP or the President consciously took stock of — much less studied — the potentially debilitating effects that the new policies could have on transgender inmates before the implementing memoranda came into force,” Lamberth added.
The ruling is the latest example of a federal judge issuing a ruling the effect of which expands far beyond the scope of the case at hand. The ACLU lawsuit was brought on behalf of just three transgender-identifying prisoners before the court allowed it class-action status.
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The White House said the “decision allowing transgender women, aka MEN, in women’s prisons fundamentally makes women less safe and ignores the biological truth that there are only two genders. The Trump administration looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue in court,” according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-judge-rules-against-trump-order-halting-sex-change-procedures-prisons">Fox News</a>.
Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/">executive order</a> on January 20 setting the administration’s official stance of recognizing only two genders, male and female, and rejecting “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex.”
“The Attorney General shall ensure that the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex,” the order says in part.
The courts have emerged as a major venue for opponents of Trump&#8217;s agenda to stifle the administration. Last week, a court <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2jeg8zej8o">interfered</a> in the administration&#8217;s ongoing battle with Harvard University, temporarily blocking the Department of Homeland Security from freezing new international enrollments at the Ivy League school.

Judge Orders Trump Admin To Restart Taxpayer-Funded Trans Procedures In Prisons

Prisons

Transgender

The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday included testimony from a former hotel security guard claiming he was paid $100,000 to destroy footage of the rapper assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in 2016.
The footage went viral after being released by CNN in May 2024, a full year before Combs’ trial began. Eddie Garcia told the jury that he was approached by the rapper’s chief of staff, Kristina Khorrum, with an offer to exchange cash for destroying the video and all copies of it.
Garcia described an alleged phone call he had with Combs during which the rapper said he had “a little too much” to drink preceding the assault, saying “it could ruin him” if the video got out. “You know how it is with women,” Combs reportedly said.
The former security guard said it was promised that he would be taken care of, per <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/arts/music/sean-combs-diddy-trial-cassie-hotel.html">The New York Times</a>.
The witness said he turned down the rapper’s request at first, but eventually agreed. “He was excited, said ‘Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it,’” Garcia said of Combs.
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Garcia said he and his supervisor handed over the USB drive during a meeting at a high rise apartment building. &#8220;I was very nervous and my voice kept cracking,&#8221; the security guard said of the meeting. Garcia testified that he signed a non-disclosure agreement asserting that there were &#8220;no duplicates, backups, stored drives&#8221; containing the video and then was given $100,000 in cash in a paper bag.
The security guard said he was told “not to make any big purchases” because “it would draw attention.”
It’s not clear how the security footage wound up on CNN, as the outlet noted.
Ventura testified earlier during the trial, providing the jury with graphic details of alleged physical, sexual, and psychological abuse during her decade-long relationship with the Bad Boy Records founder. The defense claims that Combs had an unconventional sex life, but is not guilty of the criminal activities he’s been charged with.
Combs pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Combs and Cassie

Diddy Trial: Security Guard Claims He Was Paid $100K To Destroy Hotel Assault Footage

Bribery

Sean 'Diddy' Combs

Sex Crimes

Newark’s Democratic mayor, Ras Baraka, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba after she charged him with trespassing at a federal immigration facility last month.
Baraka claims that Habba and Homeland Security Investigations supervising agent Ricky Patel, who was the lead officer in charge of arresting the mayor last month, violated his Fourth Amendment rights against “false arrest and malicious prosecution.” Baraka’s suit also accuses Habba of defamation.
Habba charged Baraka with trespassing at a federal immigration facility during an altercation on May 9, but later dropped the charge.
Habba “acted as a political operative, outside of any function intimately related to the judicial process, and in her individual personal capacity,” the <a href="https://mcusercontent.com/4a79b9be775bc92174318c05e/files/25bd88da-35a4-79cb-2804-b61dafa9349a/filedcomplaint.6_3_25.pdf">lawsuit</a> says. Patel “in this matter acted outside the scope of his employment and in his individual capacity.”
Baraka is one of six Democrats running in the primary to be the next governor of New Jersey. Baraka is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/newark-mayor-ras-barakas-arrest-shake-new-jerseys-democratic-primary-g-rcna206273">campaigning</a> as an action-oriented progressive in the crowded primary. The super PAC supporting his candidacy, One New Jersey United, has already begun funding ads highlighting his May 9 arrest.
The lawsuit’s filing coincides with the first day of early voting ahead of the June 10 primary for the New Jersey governor’s race.
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The mayor arrived at Delaney Hall, used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house illegal immigrants, at the invitation of Democratic congressmen who wanted to inspect the facility as part of their congressional oversight authority. Baraka stood outside the facility while the assembled crowd began to call for him to be let inside, according to the lawsuit.
Baraka was later invited inside the gate of Delaney Hall by a guard who wanted to “calm the crowd,” the suit says. Patel later approached Baraka and directed him to leave. Baraka did not initially follow the order, but stayed to argue with Patel.
After finally leaving the property, Baraka was arrested and handcuffed “in an effort to effect maximum humiliation,” the lawsuit says.
On Monday night, Habba dismissed Baraka’s expected lawsuit in a post on X.
“‘Shocking’ leak from Mayor Baraka’s team: He is planning to sue the Feds,” Habba <a href="https://x.com/AlinaHabba/status/1929728392649114062">wrote</a>. “My advice to the mayor &#8211; feel free to join me in prioritizing violent crime and public safety. Far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey.”

Ras Baraka

Newark Mayor Sues Trump DA Over ‘False Arrest’ After ICE Facility Flap

Alina Habba

Elections

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

New Jersey

A man who exceeded the weight limit for a water slide at Walt Disney World is now suing the park, citing injuries he sustained during his visit to the amusement park.
Eugene Strickland filed the complaint on May 29, per <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/02/us-news/334-pound-man-sues-walt-disney-world-over-injuries-sustained-on-waterslide-that-allegedly-didnt-support-his-weight/">the New York Post</a>, and is seeking $50,000 in monetary damages.
The plaintiff claimed he suffered “catastrophic” injuries after riding the Downhill Double Dipper at Disney’s Blizzard Beach Waterpark in July 2021. It says he “became momentarily airborne&#8221; and hit “exhilarating speeds,” which caused “permanent catastrophic injuries as a result.”
He claims this caused his inner tube to come out from underneath him and made him “land with force onto the hard plastic surface of the slide.&#8221;
Strickland claims he weighed 334 pounds at the time of the incident, but the weight limit for the ride was 300 pounds. It’s not clear based on the lawsuit whether he was aware of the weight restrictions when he got onto the ride.
The Disney World website describes the attraction as “side-by-side high-speed slides.”
“A retractable starting gate is all that stands between you and victory. Anticipation builds as you and your opponent wait on inner tubes at the top of twin enclosed waterslides. Suddenly, the gates retract—and you’re off,” the ride description says. “Disappear into a black hole and plummet 50 feet downhill at exhilarating speeds. Hurtle through darkness, then emerge just in time for the big splashdown.”
The plaintiff claims to have “suffered serious bodily injury and resulting pain and suffering, disability, scarring, disfigurement, mental anguish, [and] loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life” that he still grapples with today.&#8221;
Strickland also claims Disney World is negligent for failing to establish safe premises, which resulted in his injuries.
In a <a href="https://people.com/man-suing-disney-world-over-alleged-water-slide-injury-11746095">statement</a> to People on behalf of Strickland, Morgan &amp; Morgan founder John Morgan and attorney Alberto Oliveri said, “Our client was severely injured on a ride at Disney’s Blizzard Beach. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that it was the defendant’s lax safety measures and oversight that contributed to those injuries. We are pursuing justice for him and working to hold Disney accountable for their alleged negligence.”
This isn’t the only water park-related lawsuit <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/26/us-news/long-island-mom-scarred-at-disney-by-mammoth-wave-lawsuit/">pending</a> against Walt Disney World. A Long Island mother is seeking $2 million for injuries she allegedly sustained from a “mammoth” wave at Typhoon Lagoon.

Water slides

Man Sues Disney For Water Slide Injury, Says He Exceeded Weight Limit And Hit ‘Exhilarating Speeds’

Man Sues Disney For Water Slide Injury, Says He Exceeded Weight Limit And Hit 'Exhilarating Speeds'

Disney World

Florida

Injury

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