Judge sets Aug. 16 hearing in Trump’s federal election interference case
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference case has set a hearing for Aug. 16 at 10 a.m. Trump is not required to attend.
This will be the first time in seven months the parties will appear in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom. Chutkan also denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case on statutory grounds. She says they may refile the motion once issues of presidential immunity are resolved.
The case has been stayed as Trump’s legal team appealed presidential immunity all the way to the Supreme Court.
In a 6-3 ruling last month authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court found that a president has absolute immunity for acts within their core constitutional powers and a presumption of immunity for “acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility.”
Judge Chutkan will be responsible for applying the Supreme Court’s decision to the allegations in Trump’s criminal case, including whether Trump’s actions were “official acts” or private conduct that can be prosecuted.
Trump last year pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
Trump originally faced a March 4 trial date before his appeal effectively paused the proceedings.
(ST. LOUIS) — A judge in St. Louis issued a written order Monday vacating the murder conviction of Christopher Dunn, who has served 33 years in a Missouri prison for a murder he has maintained he did not commit.
The order follows a hearing two months ago during which Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser heard evidence in favor of Dunn’s exoneration, including findings from an evidentiary hearing four years ago in which the presiding judge declared that if Dunn were tried today given the current evidence, “reasonably, properly instructed jurors would find [Dunn] not guilty.”
“In conclusion, the only evidence inculpating Dunn has been recanted,” court documents of Sengheiser’s ruling stated. “The [St. Louis] Circuit Attorney [Gabe Gore] has made a clear and convincing showing of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis of Dunn’s convictions because in light of the new evidence, no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment, nor did the state prosecutor’s office return ABC News’ request for a statement, including when Dunn might be released from prison.
Dunn, 52, was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a first-degree murder conviction in the death of 15-year-old Rico Rogers, who was shot to death in May 1990.
There is no physical evidence linking Dunn, who was 18 at the time, to Roger’s murder. His conviction was based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who said they saw Dunn nearby just before the shooting. The witnesses — DeMorris Stepp, then 14, and Michael Davis Jr., who was 12 — recanted their testimonies in 2005 and 2015, respectively.
The eyewitnesses said they were coerced by prosecutors and police to testify that Dunn was guilty. The state attorney general’s office testified during the hearing, which began May 21, that they never coerced, manipulated or threatened the witnesses.
Defense attorneys for Dunn argued during the hearing that Stepp and Davis’ alleged false testimonies were “inconsistent, uncertain and unsure” and made while they were children, and that Stepp and Davis corrected their testimony when they became adults.
Gore filed the motion to vacate Dunn’s murder conviction in February this year.
“There remains no evidence upon which a reasonable jury could return a verdict of guilty,” Gore said in closing statements during the hearing earlier this year. “In fact your honor, in this case, there simply remains no evidence at all.”
Prosecutors from the Missouri Attorney General’s office maintained that Dunn was guilty, arguing that regardless of their testimonies, the witnesses were still able to identify Dunn via photo and a live lineup.
This is the second time a judge has heard Dunn’s case for exoneration. In a 2020 evidentiary hearing, Texas County Judge William Hickle ruled that given the new evidence, and the recantations of the testimonies, “reasonably, properly instructed jurors would find [Dunn] not guilty.”
Still, Dunn was not exonerated on account of a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only allowed death row inmates to make a “freestanding” claim of innocence.
“We are overjoyed to soon be welcoming home MIP [Midwest Innocence Project] client Christopher Dunn,” his defense team told ABC News in a statement. “The Attorney General’s Office is continuing to waste taxpayer money as it fights Chris’ release even though two judges have now found that no jury would convict Chris today.”
In 2021, Missouri adopted a new law that expands the rights of incarcerated persons without death sentences to file for an exoneration. The law allows prosecutors to request hearings to vacate a conviction if they have information that demonstrates that the convicted person is not guilty, or was otherwise wrongfully convicted.
During the May hearing, Dunn’s defense attorneys brought up Judge’s Hickle’s findings in 2020 that Dunn had met the standard for exoneration, and called on Judge Sengheiser to “establish actual innocence and allow you to do what Judge Hickel could not do. Vacate the wrongful conviction of Christopher Dunn.”
(WICHITA, Kan.) — A firefighter in Kansas has lost his life in the line of duty while battling a house fire in Wichita, according to the Wichita Fire Department.
The incident occurred on Thursday at approximately 3:22 p.m. when the currently unnamed firefighter was battling a house fire in Haysville, Kansas.
“The Wichita Fire Department and the City of Wichita are extremely saddened to announce that at approximately 3:22 PM while operating at a mutual aid fire in Haysville, one of Wichita’s bravest was injured in the line of duty, and later succumbed to their injury,” the statement said. “The Wichita Fire Department is working to ensure family members are all appropriately notified.”
Authorities say that they will not be releasing the name of the firefighter who died until next of kin has been informed and they are asking “the same of anyone that may know the firefighter.”
“This is a loss that deeply weighs heavily on all of us. All of the dedicated individuals who serve our fire department do so knowing the immense risk they are undertaking and do it with noble, selfless regard,” said the Wichita Fire Department. “It does not make their sacrifice any less immense. Nor the sacrifice of their loved ones and family any easier.”
“Please keep this firefighters family and crew in your prayers,” authorities continued. “We will update the community on any additional information as it becomes available.”
(NEW YORK) — The estate of a Titanic researcher who was among the five people killed when the Titan submersible catastrophically imploded while on a deep-dive voyage to the site of the famous shipwreck last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $50 million in damages.
The lawsuit, filed by the estate of French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, accused OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who also died in the implosion, and others of gross negligence by designing, building and operating Titan “in almost every way, in a manner outside the norms of the diving community and industry, driven by Rush’s apparent obsession with being remembered for innovation alongside such luminaries as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk” and to cultivate an image as a “maverick genius” of the deep-sea diving world.
The lawsuit also alleged crew members aboard the doomed vessel knew they would die before the June 2023 implosion and experienced “terror and mental anguish.”
“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit stated. “The carbon-fiber hull was cracking under extreme pressure — prompting the pilot to release weight and attempt to abort. Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Washington state, where OceanGate is based. The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.
An OceanGate spokesperson had no comment.
Nargeolet’s estate relied in part on public reporting about the questions experts raised concerning Titan’s safety prior to its fateful final dive, including warnings the vessel was not built to hold up over time to the challenges of deep-sea expeditions.
“Decedent Nargeolet knew that the Titan was different from other submersibles in that it was constructed from carbon fiber and used other unusual materials and components. However, Nargeolet was not an engineer, a submersible designer, or a physicist” and, the lawsuit claimed, appeared to have the “false impression about the safety and seaworthiness of the vessel” based on Rush’s word.
“Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful,” the lawsuit stated.
Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic,” was the director of underwater research at RMS Titanic, which owns the salvage rights. The adventurer had participated in 37 dives to the wreckage of the Titanic, including the first expedition in 1987 shortly after the ship’s location was discovered.
In addition to Nargeolet and Rush, those killed on the vessel included British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
The attorneys representing Nargeolet’s estate said this was the first lawsuit filed in connection with the Titan implosion.
“We are hopeful that through this lawsuit we can get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen,” Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys in the case, said in a statement.
The U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to conduct a formal hearing starting Sept. 16 in South Carolina for the Marine Board of Investigation to consider evidence related to the loss of the Titan.
In June, the Coast Guard said the investigation into the implosion was taking longer than anticipated, calling it a “complex and ongoing effort.”