Trump administration says it will appeal order granting El Salvador deportees due process
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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration says it will appeal a court order requiring it to allow hundreds of noncitizens who were deported in March to El Salvador to challenge their detentions.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg last week ordered the Trump administration to give the hundreds of men deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act the right to challenge their detentions as unlawful.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal Tuesday, signaling plans to challenge a lower court’s decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The Trump administration touched off a legal battle in March when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged that “many” of the men deported on March 15 lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson slammed Boasberg’s decision last week, saying in a statement that Boasberg lacks the authority to intervene in the deportations.
“Judge Boasberg has no authority to intervene with immigration or national security — authority that rests squarely with President Trump and the Executive Branch. His current and previous attempts to prevent President Trump from deporting criminal illegal aliens poses a direct threat to the safety of the American people,” Jackson said, referring to other recent rulings by the judge.
“Fortunately for the American people, Judge Boasberg does not have the last word,” Jackson said.
Boasberg, in last week’s ruling, said that the detainees — regardless of their alleged criminal status — deserve the right to challenge the government’s claims against them.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Years after the 2020 election and in the wake of a landmark $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News is continuing to fight back against a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by voting machine company Smartmatic.
Fox wrote a clear message in a new court filing on Wednesday: “Smartmatic is not Dominion.”
“Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic was mired in a decade of business failure due to inadequate technology, missing certifications, and involvement in multiple highly controversial elections,” the filing states. “Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic was founded by Venezuelans and was embroiled in claims of fraud in Venezuelan and Filipino elections well before any controversy arose over the 2020 Presidential Election.”
The filing from attorneys representing Fox Corp, Fox News, and some talent on Wednesday came in support of the motion for summary judgment, in which their attorneys urged the court that Smartmatic’s suit is nothing more than a “meritless cash grab” from what they say is “failing company.”
In its 12-page filing, Fox laid out a litany of what it said were Smartmatic’s “ongoing reputational problems” in an effort to give credit to some of the claims made on its air about the company in the wake of the 2020 election. They say that “none of it was defamatory.”
“In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country,” the filing from the network said.
In its own filing on Wednesday, Smartmatic claimed that Fox News “deliberately deceived its audience” when it reported claims of fraud surrounding Smartmatic after the 2020 election — and claimed that the top officials at the company, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, “knew President Trump lost the 2020 election” and “mocked” him in private.
“That is what they knew, said, and did behind closed doors,” a filing in support of Smartmatic’s motion for summary judgment claimed. “In public, Fox News told its audience the opposite.”
In a statement, Smartmatic’s attorney Erik Connolly said, “Fox is running the same playbook as other abusers, trying to sully the victim.”
“Fox cannot justify its month-long smear campaign against Smartmatic. Everyone from the Murdochs to the show producers knew they were pushing baseless claims,” Connolly said. “So, Fox is piling new lies on top of its old ones to try to persuade shareholders that its financial exposure is less than the $780 million paid to Dominion. It is not. It is much more. Fox will be held accountable. Fox’s motion is a distraction, not a defense.”
The filing from Smartmatic says Fox “from top to bottom” knew “with absolute certainty” that Smartmatic did not rig the 2020 election, but that they “systematically promoted the inflammatory and false narrative” anyway.
“The Murdochs and their executives believed this was a story that President Trump’s supporters wanted to hear, so that is what Fox News told them even though no one believed it to be true,” the filing states.
Smartmatic labeled Fox News as having done a “pivot”– in which they remained in “neutral ground” on the 2020 election until they decided to “lean into election fraud claims” after it faced backlash for calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
“Fox News’ ‘pivot’ was designed to boost ratings, which it did. Good for Fox. It devastated Smartmatic,” the voting machine company’s filing says.
Smartmatic’s filing includes some threats it says it received in the wake of the election. The company claims that its “prospects and reputation have been destroyed.” Smartmatic claims they are now “fighting to survive,” suffering billions in value that “have forever been lost” and that over 100 employees have lost their jobs.
The motions for summary judgement from both sides remained redacted until further notice.
Smartmatic sued Fox and other defendants in 2021, claiming they “knowingly and intentionally” lied about them in the wake of the 2020 election regarding claims of fraud, causing them to lose business.
Instead, Fox claims that Smartmatic “saw a litigation lottery ticket in Fox News’s coverage of the 2020 election.”
“Smartmatic seized on those allegations as a financial lifeline,” Fox News’ filing states. “It manufactured a defamation lawsuit claiming to be a highly reputable company worth more than $2.7 billion and poised to win dozens of contracts in the U.S. and around the world.”
Fox further claimed that they were covering “the biggest story at the time” by covering Trump and his attorney’s claims about Smartmatic, and that there is “no evidence” to support Smartmatic’s claims of lost contracts.
Fox also says that did not air defamatory statements about Smartmatic with actual malice — but rather they were merely trying to “accurately convey what the President was claiming (and still claims.)”
“That is not defamatory,” Fox News says.
In seeking summary judgement, Smartmatic added Wednesday that there is only one “crucial question” that the jury should answer: “How much should Rupert and Lachlan’s media empire pay for promoting an intentional falsehood that destroyed a voting technology company and eroded public trump in American democracy itself?”
Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion in April 2023 on the eve of trial over similar allegations that Fox pushed false claims of fraud about the voting system company.
In the settlement, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
A June 1978 sketch of the suspect accused of killing San Jose schoolteacher Diane Peterson, left, compared to then-student Harry Nickerson, now identified as her killer, in an undated photo, right. Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — The brutal murder of a school teacher, stabbed in the chest at a California high school in 1978, has finally been solved, according to authorities, with the district attorney’s office now revealing the then-16-year-old killer confessed to a family member minutes after the murder.
Diane Peterson was found stabbed at Branham High School in San Jose one day after school ended for the summer. And though they had suspects over the years, her murder had never been solved.
One of those suspects, Harry “Nicky” Nickerson, has now been confirmed as the killer, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Earlier this year, investigators learned Nickerson had confessed to a family member he committed the murder. Investigators met with the family member, who admitted to police that Nickerson came to their home minutes after the murder and confessed to stabbing Peterson, solving the decades-old murder, according to the district attorney’s office.
The district attorney’s office will not be filing charges against the family member who revealed Nickerson admitted to the murder, the DA’s office told ABC News.
“The relative did not participate in the killing and did not provide protection or assistance. Just a witness. The relative was emotional and appeared relieved after having kept a secret for almost 50 years,” the office said in a statement to ABC News.
“The relative did not expressly say why they did not come forward,” the office said, saying it is “reasonable to surmise it was out of fear of retaliation.”
In the years after the murder, Nickerson was arrested and convicted of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, according to the DA’s office. He was shot and critically injured in 1984 while attempting a drug robbery, but no charges were filed against him “given the circumstances,” the district attorney’s office said.
Nickerson died by suicide in 1993, according to the district attorney’s office.
“This marks the end of a terrible and tragic mystery. Ms. Peterson would have been a senior citizen today if she had not crossed paths with this violent teenager. I wish she was. I am pleased that we have solved this case, even though the murderer is not alive to face justice. I wish he was,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
“Let this serve as a solemn reminder: no matter how much time passes, we will continue to seek the truth — because every victim matters, and every life deserves justice,” San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph said in a statement.
A student found Peterson stabbed to death in the high school hallway in 1978, the district attorney’s office said. Peterson suffered a single stab wound to her chest, according to the district attorney’s office.
The murder occurred one day after school ended for the summer, while teachers were cleaning their classrooms, according to the district attorney’s office.
A witness had previously told police that Nickerson confessed to the crime and that he had seen Nickerson “carrying a knife that had written on it: ‘Teacher Dear,'” according to the district attorney’s office. Police were not able to corroborate that claim, according to the district attorney’s office.
Nickerson had long been a suspect in the killing, according to the district attorney’s office. Nickerson allegedly had a “strong similarity to a composite sketch based on eyewitness accounts of the attack,” according to the DA’s office.
The family of a student told police in 1983 that their son had claimed to have seen the killing and that he identified Nickerson as the killer. The student later denied this, according to the district attorney’s office.
In 1984, a witness told police that Nickerson implicated himself in the murder, claiming he killed Peterson after he was discovered making a drug deal, according to the district attorney’s office.
Extensive DNA work on the case in 2023 and 2024 was unable to identify the killer, according to the district attorney’s office.
A family member of the victim, who asked to not be identified by police, thanked investigators for “not giving up for 47 years.”
“Diane was a beautiful and wonderful person who is missed dearly,” the relative said in a statement.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A man accused of trespassing at the home of the Memphis, Tennessee, mayor has been charged with attempted kidnapping and stalking, according to police, who said the suspect had a Taser, gloves, rope and duct tape in his vehicle at the time of his arrest.
The suspect was apprehended and charged after police investigated “suspicious activity” in Mayor Paul Young’s neighborhood, the Memphis Police Department said Wednesday.
“On Sunday night, around 9:30 pm, a man jumped a wall leading into our subdivision,” Young said in a statement. “We now know that he walked straight to our home, knocking on the door with gloves on, a full pocket, and a nervous demeanor.”
Surveillance footage showed that the individual went directly to the mayor’s residence upon scaling the wall and did not approach any other home in the neighborhood, according to the Memphis Police Department.
The suspect — 25-year-old Trenton Abston — has been charged with attempted kidnapping, stalking and aggravated criminal trespass, police said. He is detained at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, online jail records show. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The Memphis Police Department credited the “rapid response” of its officers and the surveillance footage throughout the neighborhood with quickly identifying, locating and arresting the suspect.
“We understand the concerns raised by this incident and want to reassure the public that the Memphis Police Department remains fully committed to the safety of all residents, including our city’s elected officials,” the department said in a press release. “We take any potential threat seriously and will continue to act swiftly and thoroughly.”
The incident comes amid heightened concerns over violence against elected officials, after two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot on Saturday in what prosecutors called “political assassinations.” Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed, and Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded in the attacks.
Young, who has served as Memphis’ mayor since January 2024, cited the Minnesota shootings while making a plea that political violence “cannot become our norm.”
“In today’s climate, especially after the tragic events in Minnesota and the threats my wife and I often receive online, none of us can be too careful,” Young said in a statement on Instagram while sharing a photo of him and his family. “The link between angry online rhetoric and real-life violence is becoming undeniable.”
“Let’s do better,” he added. “Let’s raise our discourse, reduce the hate, and protect one another — no matter our beliefs. Let’s reclaim our strength as one community. Let’s choose love.”
