Harvey Weinstein diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia: Sources
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein has been diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer, sources told ABC News.
Weinstein has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, sources said, adding that the former Hollywood producer is receiving treatment while jailed.
Weinstein’s authorized legal healthcare representative in New York, Craig Rothfeld, declined to comment, saying, “Out of respect for Mr. Weinstein’s privacy, we will offer no further comment.”
According to the American Cancer Society, chronic myeloid leukemia is a type of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow and invades the blood. The organization says approximately 15% of leukemias in adults are CML.
Weinstein is currently in prison on Rikers Island in New York, where he has experienced a slew of health issues amid his ongoing sexual assault trials.
In September, Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital for emergency heart surgery after experiencing chest pains, his representatives told ABC News, at the time.
In July, Weinstein’s representatives said he was hospitalized for a “myriad of health conditions,” including COVID-19 and double pneumonia.
Weinstein was also suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, fluid on his heart and lungs, and various other conditions, he representatives said at the time.
The former movie mogul is being prosecuted again for sex crimes after his New York conviction was overturned on appeal.
On Sept. 19, while he was recovering from his procedure, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to criminal sex act in the first degree, based on the allegations of a woman who said he sexually assaulted her on one occasion in 2006 at a Manhattan hotel.
The latest indictment came months after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 sex crimes conviction. He had been found guilty of criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Weinstein has denied all claims of sexual misconduct, saying his encounters were consensual.
(NEW YORK) — A mother of four who has been missing for nearly six months has been found dead in a wooded area in Missouri, authorities confirmed.
Sheriff Dave Marshak of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced that the body of 33-year-old Emily Strite, who was first reported missing on April 20, was discovered in a wooded area approximately 45 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri, according to a statement from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office released on Tuesday.
“On September 28th, deputies responded to a wooded area near the 4100 block of Frissell Road in De Soto for a report of human skeletal remains found by the property owner,” authorities said. “Through comparison to medical and dental records, investigators with the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the remains are those of Emily Strite. She was reported missing in the De Soto area in April of this year.”
Detectives said in April that Strite was last seen on foot wearing jeans and a dark blue hoodie on the morning of April 12 in the De Soto area and “is believed to have been leaving the area of her own free will,” police said.
“At this time, Strite’s cause of death is undetermined, and investigators are working to learn how her body ended up where it was found,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.
The investigation into her disappearance and death remains ongoing and there are no reported suspects or persons of interest in the case.
“[Due] to the ongoing investigation, we ‘Emily’s Family’ are asking that nobody visits/disturbs the area mentioned of where Emily was recovered,” Strite’s mother posted on social media after authorities confirmed her body had been found. “Please respect our wishes and stay away from the area. We will share details when they are available.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.
(UVALDE, Texas) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, did not violate policy or the law, according to an internal CBP report released on Thursday.
However, the report found responding agents weren’t properly trained for a school shooting event and there were no clear instructions from local agencies on the ground.
CBP personnel including a tactical team from the agency responded to the shooting at the school in 2022, and they ultimately killed the shooter, but not until after a lengthy delay in the response, according to the report.
The fault of the slow response was ultimately placed on local officials who were at the school but didn’t take command of the scene, according to the report.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting.
“None of the first responders or CBP personnel who were in a position to take action against the assailant had access to an accurate school layout or understanding of where to locate the necessary keys for entry to critical areas of the school, which may have been mitigated by a functioning command and control system,” CBP said in a statement about the report.
Ahead of the report, CBP has taken more than half a dozen steps to address issues with its response to mass casualty events — and the lack of training before the shooting hindered the CBP response, it said.
“The training did not prepare CBP personnel for incidents in which they would be responding to a situation at a school, where an active shooter would be engaged behind a locked door, and where local authorities had not established a command and control framework. It also insufficiently covered using a ballistic shield, legal authorities, leadership responsibilities, and agency interoperability,” according to a press release from the agency.
As a result of the shooting, CBP said it has also corrected several policies. Use-of-force training materials have been distributed to agency personnel across the country, the agency is looking at acquiring more tools to respond to active shooters, and it’s also working on a plan for Congress to clarify federal authorities for responding to mass-casualty situations, according to CBP.
The inability of law enforcement to establish an “identifiable incident management or command and control protocols led to a disorganized response to the Robb Elementary School shooting,” the report found.
“No law enforcement official ever clearly established command at the school during the incident, leading to delays, inaction, and potentially further loss of life,” according to the report.
One Border Patrol agent told internal investigators they “never knew who was in command” of the scene.
At least 188 members of CBP responded to the incident, with 19% being members of the BORTAC team — the equivalent of a CBP SWAT team.
There was also no diagram of the school that was useful for the BORTAC agents to use, according to the report..
The report points to a 40-year-old Border Patrol training manual that had not been updated to accurately reflect the post-9/11 federal law enforcement apparatus under the Department of Homeland Security.
“… CBP training on active shooter response procedures did not adequately prepare responding personnel to deal with this situation,” the report states.
(NEW YORK) — Lawyers for Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith disagree on how to proceed with the former president’s election interference case, both sides said in a joint filing late Friday.
On the heels of this week’s superseding indictment in which Smith adjusted the case’s original charges to respect the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, Smith, in Friday’s filing, declined to propose a timeline for the case — telling the court that “decisions on how to manage its docket are firmly within its discretion” — while Trump’s lawyers proposed delaying any in-person proceedings until after the November election.
Trump last August pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election to remain in power. Last month, in a blockbuster decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
Smith, in Friday’s joint filing, urged U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to address the Supreme Court’s immunity decision “first and foremost,” while Trump’s lawyers asked the court to immediately consider dismissing the case based on the legality of Smith’s appointment before turning to the immunity issue.
“The parties recognize the types of motions and briefing anticipated in pre-trial proceedings but have differing views on how the Court should schedule these matters and the manner in which they are to be conducted,” the filing said.
Rather than propose in-person evidentiary hearings — which could have resulted in a so-called “mini-trial” ahead of the election — Smith urged the court to accept written briefs about presidential immunity to “distinguish [Trump’s] private electioneering activity from official action.” If Trump’s team filed motions on other issues, Smith asked the court to consider those issues simultaneously with the immunity issue.
Such a schedule could quickly address the question of presidential immunity and position the case to proceed to trial, though Trump is likely to appeal his immunity claim if Chutkan rules against him.
“The Government is prepared to file its opening immunity brief promptly at any time the Court deems appropriate,” the filing said.
Trump’s lawyers asked Chutkan to first consider whether Smith’s appointment as special counsel and funding are constitutional — the issue that led a Florida judge to dismiss the former president’s classified documents case last month — before considering whether to dismiss the indictment based on presidential immunity. Defense lawyers proposed holding a hearing about Smith’s appointment in December followed by a non-evidentiary hearing about immunity in late January.
“We believe, and expect to demonstrate, that this case must end as a matter of law,” Trump’s attorneys said in the filing.
Defense lawyers also signaled that they plan to argue the indictment should be dismissed because the grand jury heard evidence related to then-Vice President Mike Pence’s role in the 2020 vote certification process, which they believe is subject to presidential immunity.
“If the Court determines, as it should, that the Special Counsel cannot rebut the presumption that these acts are immune, binding law requires that the entire indictment be dismissed because the grand jury considered immunized evidence,” the filing said.
Chutkan had earlier scheduled a Sept. 5 status conference to chart a path forward for the long-delayed case, which has not seen an in-person proceeding since last year.
The Jan. 6 developments are just part of the flurry of legal activity Trump faces in the final months before the election.
On Monday, prosecutors in the special counsel’s office appealed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon decision to dismiss the charges in Trump’s classified documents case.
Trump is also scheduled to be sentenced in New York on Sept. 18 after he was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The former president has mounted multiple efforts to delay the sentencing, including a last-minute attempt to remove the case to federal court.
“At that potential sentencing, President Trump faces the prospect of immediate and unlawful incarceration under New York law, which could prevent him from continuing to pursue his leading campaign for the Presidency,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing Thursday.