Trump seeks dismissal of hush money conviction on immunity grounds
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(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal hush money conviction in New York must be dismissed “to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power,” Trump’s defense attorneys argued Wednesday in a letter to the court.
Defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove — both of whom Trump nominated last week to top DOJ posts in his new administration — sought the judge’s permission to file a motion to dismiss the case.
“Continuing with this case would be uniquely destabilizing,” the defense letter argued. “Just as a sitting President is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as President-elect.”
The defense filing comes one day after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposed dismissing the case but consented to freeze of all remaining proceedings, including sentencing, until after Trump completes his term.
The defense sought a Dec. 20 deadline to file its motion to dismiss Trump’s 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records.
Blanche and Bove said that would give Trump time to address “the positions taken by DOJ in the federal cases” Trump faces over the his election interference efforts and his handling of classified documents.
Both of the federal cases are currently paused while the Justice Department evaluates how to proceed.
Trump was convicted in May of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to silence allegations about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
His conviction carries a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison, but first-time offenders would normally receive a lesser sentence.
(NEW YORK) — Many teenagers and college students reported being among those who received racist text messages sent to phone numbers across the U.S. last week.
The texts, which tell the user they’re going to be taken to a plantation to “pick cotton,” have been reported in at least 24 states, plus Washington, D.C, and primarily appeared to target Black users from teenagers to adults, according to investigators in several states.
“I don’t understand why there’s so much hate in this world,” Nicole Nuñez, whose 15-year-old son attends a Los Angeles charter school, told ABC7. “I don’t understand why they don’t like us because of the color of our skin.”
TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said Friday that it discovered “one or more” of its users allegedly sent out racist text messages and that the service quickly shut down the accounts. The text messaging service told ABC News that they were cooperating with law enforcement and condemned the messages.
Some of the messages address the recipients by name.
The TextNow representative said once the accounts that were allegedly behind the texts were reported, the accounts were disabled in less than an hour.
Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho addressed the many students in his district that reported receiving the messages.
“We are aware of racist and incendiary texts that are being sent to students nationwide, including to some of our students,” Carvalho said in a statement acquired by ABC News. “We unequivocally condemn this hateful and threatening rhetoric. We are investigating this situation. If you receive one of these messages students and families should contact their school for support.”
One text message reviewed by ABC News read, “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12 pm sharp with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you in a brown van. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation. You are in plantation group W.”
As of Saturday, the texts were reported by authorities in California, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.
At least five students at Fisk University, a historically Black institution in Nashville, received the offensive text messages, the university told ABC News in a statement. Some told the school that their peers had received the texts as well, it noted.
“We are aware of disturbing and offensive messages circulating on social media, appearing to target members of our community,” Fisk University said in its statement. “These messages, which suggest threats of violence and intimidation, are deeply unsettling. However, we want to assure you that these are likely the work of an automated bot or malicious actors with no real intentions or credibility.”
Local and federal investigators, including the FBI, said they were looking into the messages and urged anyone who received them to contact the authorities. The probes are ongoing.
A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that it has not been determined if the source of the racist texts is domestic or foreign, but efforts are underway to determine their origin.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a video statement posted on X Friday that “some” of the racist text messages “can be traced back to a VPN in Poland.”
“At this time, they have found no original source — meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world. We will continue to investigate,” Murrill said.
Murrill told ABC News that, in addition to the messages being “vile” and “racist,” they could also contain malware.
“City officials, pastors, democratic clubs, need to speak up and speak out and cannot be silent if you are silent it suggests you are complicit with evil,” Brown said, according to ABC7.
Carryn Freeman, who runs a non-profit near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, said that she and some of friends’ children received the texts. Their parents are angry and want to know what to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again, she said.
“I got mad that my friends’ children were receiving this, 15 year olds who are having to process very overt pre-Jim Crow, transatlantic slave trade level racism in their text messages,” Freeman told ABC News on Friday. “Then they have to go to school the next day.”
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Abby Cruz, Luke Barr and Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A week after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in New York, the health insurer’s parent company is praising him as “one of the good guys” and seeking to both console employees and reassure them that their work makes a difference.
In a message to the company’s nearly 400,000 employees, Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group — UnitedHealthcare’s parent company — confirmed Thompson was laid to rest on Monday and that colleagues gathered in Minnesota on Tuesday for a memorial.
“I know this has been an extraordinarily difficult week,” Witty said in the letter, obtained by ABC News. “Our company remains in a state of mourning.”
Referring to Thompson, 50, who had led the world’s largest health insurer since 2021, Witty said: “It was a life lived to the absolute fullest. And a life that helped make a profoundly positive impact on the lives of so many people. People he never saw. People he never met. People who never knew him. But people Brian cared so deeply about.”
He added: “Brian was one of the good guys. He was certainly one of the smartest guys. I think he was one of the best guys. I’m going to miss him. And I am incredibly proud to call him my friend.”
Thompson’s killing thrust the nation’s health care industry into the spotlight.
When suspect Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, earlier this week, investigators discovered he had writings with him that criticized health care companies.
A bulletin from the New York Police Department warned of heightened risks to health care executives in the wake of the shooting, citing social media posts that expressed frustration with the health insurance industry and celebrated Thompson’s death.
Witty’s letter to employees said the best way to remember Thompson “is to carry on his legacy — continuing to do right by the people who’ve entrusted us with their care and those who are counting on us to take care of their loved ones.”
The letter added: “We owe it to Brian to make good on our promise to make health care work better for everybody, in every way.”
Witty’s letter also shared messages of support from people who shared their sympathies and described how UnitedHealthcare had helped them. He said the company has received thousands of phone calls, text messages, comments and emails offering condolences and gratitude.
“I am super proud to be a part of an organization that does so much good for so many and to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the most compassionate, most dedicated and truly brilliant people in health care,” Witty said in the letter. “I hope you feel that, too.”
