prosecutors

Oct. 26 (UPI) — French prosecutors on Sunday announced that arrests had been made in connection with the brazen daylight heist of historic jewels worth more than $100 million from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Laure Beccuau, the Paris public prosecutor, said in a statement that the office’s anti-gang unit had made the arrests Saturday evening, but did not disclose precisely how many arrests had been made. It previously had been reported that at least four people were believed to have been involved in the heist last Sunday.

Beccuau revealed that one of the men was preparing to flee the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport when he was arrested.

The arrests had first been reported by the French newspaper Le Parisien, citing anonymous sources, before the news was confirmed by Beccuau. The prosecutor lamented that the leak that arrests had been made before authorities were ready to disclose the news.

“I deeply regret the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals, without consideration for the investigation,” she said in her statement.

“This revelation can only hinder the investigative efforts of the hundred or so investigators mobilized in the search for both the stolen jewelry and the perpetrators. It is too early to provide any further details.”

Beccuau said that she would provide further information to the public at the end of this phase of police custody.

A representative for the Louvre confirmed to UPI last week that several people broke in through a window in the Galerie d’Apollon, which houses many of France’s royal jewels, around 9:30 a.m. local time after the museum had already opened its doors to the public.

The thieves had posed as workers in yellow vests and used a hoist truck to break into a second-floor window of the Galerie d’Apollon and cut through the glass display cases to snatch the jewels before dashing away on motorcycles along the A6 motorway.

The theft set off alarms on the gallery’s exterior window and display cases, and museum workers present in the gallery during the theft quickly notified police, but the thieves escaped with the jewels in less than seven minutes.

Interpol later added the jewels to its Stolen Works of Art database, an international registry of cultural property stolen worldwide to aid in their recovery, the art news publication Urgent Matter reported.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for working tirelessly to find the men who stole the jewels.

“The investigations must continue while respecting the confidentiality of the inquiry under the authority of the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Parquet de Paris,” he said.

The heist has heightened scrutiny of security flaws faced by French institutions.

Also last week, thieves stole historic silver and gold coins from the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot museum in the town of Langres.

And French authorities announced that a Chinese woman had been charged in connection with the September theft of gold nuggets from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Authorities in Argentina have opened a criminal investigation into the daughter of a former Nazi official and her spouse after an 18th-century painting stolen from a late Jewish art dealer was recovered from one of their properties.

Prosecutors announced the probe on Thursday, which will focus on Juan Carlos Cortegoso and his wife Patricia Kadgien, whose father was the fugitive Nazi officer Friedrich Kadgien.

The elder Kadgien died in the late 1970s. He spent the final decades of his life in Argentina, having fled Germany at the end of World War II.

He is believed to have brought with him priceless artworks looted from the collections of Jewish families and businesses, including that of the Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.

Goudstikker had amassed a collection of nearly 1,400 pieces, according to the meticulous records he kept.

But that made his collection a target for Nazi officials like Hermann Goring, who sought to seize the artwork for himself. The elder Kadgien was Goring’s financial adviser.

It is unclear how Kadgien came to own Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi, an Italian portraitist prolific during the Baroque and Rococo periods.

The painting, a large portrait of the Contessa Colleoni holding gloves and a book, had not been seen in decades. As far as researchers knew, only black-and-white photographs of the artwork survived.

Goudstikker had been forced to sell many of his artworks to Nazi officials as the Holocaust unfolded in Europe.

In May 1940, the art dealer would ultimately die from a fall on board the SS Bodegraven, as he fled a genocide that would claim at least six million Jewish lives, as well as millions of prisoners-of-war, dissidents, LGBTQ people and those with disabilities.

Goudstikker’s heirs have been seeking to recover his collection ever since.

Thought lost, Portrait of a Lady reappeared suddenly last month, as the result of internet sleuthing.

Dutch journalists with the publication Algemeen Dagblad had been investigating the late Kadgien’s dealings with the Nazis, and they stumbled across a real estate listing from February for a house belonging to his daughter, Patricia Kadgien.

A picture in the listing showed Portrait of a Lady hanging above a green velvet couch.

The journalists published their findings on August 25, and soon after, police in Argentina raided the residence, which was located in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

But the painting was nowhere to be found. Instead, authorities reported they had recovered other paintings, this time from the 19th century, that they suspected may also be Nazi-looted artwork.

A tapestry was found hanging where Portrait of a Lady was once photographed. The real estate listing, meanwhile, appeared to have been removed.

Police have since raided several properties belonging to Patricia Kadgien and her sister. On Wednesday, it was announced that the painting had finally been recovered.

But in Thursday’s hearing, federal authorities revealed they were charging Kadgien, 59, and her husband, Cortegoso, 62, with attempting a cover-up.

Prosecutor Carlos Martinez accused the couple of hiding the painting, despite being “aware that the artwork was being sought by the criminal justice system and international authorities”. That, he said, amounted to obstruction of justice and concealment.

“It was only after several police raids that they turned it in,” Martinez explained.

Patricia Kadgien and Cortegoso were briefly put under house arrest on Monday, though that was lifted in favour of a 180-day travel ban and a requirement that they seek court approval before leaving the house.

A lawyer for the couple reportedly asked a civil court this week to allow them to sell the painting, but that request was denied.

Martinez, meanwhile, told journalists on Thursday that Marei von Saher, one of Goudstikker’s heirs, had already reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States to ensure the painting’s restitution.

He explained that prosecutors had requested Portrait of a Lady be held at the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum for now.

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge on Thursday angrily accused Justice Department prosecutors of trampling on the civil rights of people arrested during President Trump’s law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

Judge Zia Faruqui, a former federal prosecutor, said leaders of U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office have tarnished its reputation with how they are handling the deluge of cases. He said Pirro’s office is routinely bringing cases that don’t belong in federal court and needlessly keeping people in jail for days while they evaluate charges.

“It’s not fair to say they’re losing credibility. We’re past that now,” Faruqui said. He later added, “There’s no credibility left.”

The judge lambasted Pirro’s office during a hearing at which he agreed to dismiss the federal case against a man accused of threatening to kill Trump while in police custody. The defendant, Edward Alexander Dana, spent more than a week in jail before a federal grand jury refused to indict him.

It is extraordinarily rare for a grand jury to balk at returning an indictment, but it has happened at least seven times in five cases since Trump’s surge started nearly a month ago. Faruqui said it is ironic that an occupying force is at the mercy of the occupants” serving on the grand juries.

Pirro has been critical of Faruqui, one of four magistrates at the district court in Washington. On Thursday, the top federal prosecutor for Washington responded to Faruqui’s latest remarks by saying the judge “has repeatedly indicated his allegiance to those who violate the law and carry illegal guns.”

“This judge took an oath to follow the law, yet he has allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment and his requirement to follow the law,” she said in a statement. “America voted for safe communities, law and order, and this judge is the antithesis of that.”

Faruqui said there is no precedent for what is happening at the courthouse over the last few weeks. He said Trump administration officials are frequently touting the arrest figures on social media with seemingly no regard for how the arrests are affecting people’s lives.

“Where are the stats on the people illegally detained?” he asked.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Conor Mulroe said prosecutors from Pirro’s office are working around the clock on the influx of new cases.

“You are busy because you all have created this mess,” he told Mulroe. “I’m not saying it’s your problem. It’s your office’s problem.”

Mulroe was the only representative of Pirro’s office who attended Thursday’s hearing. Faruqui questioned why Pirro or her top deputies “don’t have the dignity to come here” and defend their charging decisions.

“That’s what leaders do,” he said.

The White House says over 1,800 people have been arrested since the operation started Aug. 7. Over 40 cases have been filed in district court, which hears the most serious federal offenses, including assault, gun and drug charges.

Dana was jailed for about a week after his arrest on Aug. 17. A different judge ordered his release on Aug. 25. On Thursday, Pirro’s office opted to drop the federal case against Dana but charge him with misdemeanors, including destruction of property and attempted threats, in D.C. Superior Court.

Dana’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Elizabeth Mullin, said prosecutors should have known that this case didn’t belong in federal court.

“A 15-year-old would know,” she said. “It was obvious from the outset.”

Dana was arrested on suspicion of damaging a light fixture at a restaurant. An officer was driving Dana to a police station when he threatened to kill Trump, according to a Secret Service agent’s affidavit. Dana also told police that he was intoxicated that night. Mullin said Dana’s “hyperbolic rambling” didn’t amount to a criminal threat.

Faruqui ordered prosecutors to file a brief explaining why they didn’t immediately inform him of its charging decisions in Dana’s case. The judge apologized to Dana “on behalf of the court” and suggested that Pirro’s office also owes Dana an apology.

Pirro said in an earlier statement that a grand jury’s refusal to indict somebody for threatening to kill the president “is the essence of a politicized jury.”

“The system here is broken on many levels,” she said. “Instead of the outrage that should be engendered by a specific threat to kill the president, the grand jury in D.C. refuses to even let the judicial process begin. Justice should not depend on politics.”

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — Prosecutors seek a seven-year sentence for Nadine Menendez, the wife of former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., for her part in a bribery and corruption scheme.

Nadine Menendez, 58, is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York courtroom in Manhattan, where her husband was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in January.

Nadine Menendez “did not commit bribery reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale,” federal prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein, as reported by The New York Times.

“She did so eagerly, for years, and in a scheme implicating foreign relations, national security and the integrity of state and federal law enforcement,” they argued.

“The defendant engaged, for years, in a corruption and foreign influence scheme of stunning brazenness, breadth and duration, resulting in exceptionally grave abuses of power at the highest levels of the legislative branch of the United States government,” prosecutors argued.

Her attorneys alternatively seek a sentence of one year and one day due to breast cancer treatment.

They said she can’t receive adequate care while in prison and sought leniency due to her growing up in war-torn Lebanon, enduring gender-based violence and having cancer, The Hill reported.

Federal prosecutors expressed a willingness for her to undergo recommended surgeries before surrendering for her eventual incarceration.

A jury in April found Nadine Menendez guilty on 15 counts related to the bribery scheme centered on her husband’s political corruption.

Federal prosecutors showed she accepted cash, gold and a Mercedes luxury automobile in exchange for political favors by Bob Menendez.

He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before resigning amid his legal troubles in 2023.

Two co-defendants, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, also were found guilty on related charges and sentenced to three years and eight years, respectively, in January.

L.A. County prosecutors tried to force City Councilman Curren Price’s wife to testify before a grand jury and served subpoenas on several members of his City Hall staff earlier this year, three sources told The Times.

The grand jury was convened in March, according to three sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are secret under California law. Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, also confirmed the existence of a grand jury proceeding in a new court filing on Thursday.

The convening of a grand jury, coupled with news that prosecutors filed additional charges against Price earlier this week, marks a significant uptick in the district attorney’s office’s focus on the veteran councilman. Price was first charged in 2023 after voting in favor of multiple measures that prosecutors allege would financially benefit his wife, real estate consultant Del Richardson.

Documents made public Thursday also show the district attorney’s office considered Richardson a “suspect” in the criminal investigation into her husband as recently as 2022.

The councilman has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

Richardson ultimately did not testify before the grand jury, though it was not clear why, according to two of the sources. No criminal charges were filed against Richardson. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about that decision Thursday.

“I would not expect Del Richardson to be charged because she has done nothing wrong,” said Richardson’s attorney, Adam Kamenstein. “She is also completely confident that her husband, Councilman Price, will soon be fully vindicated, and she looks forward to being able to put this matter behind them.”

Price now faces 12 criminal counts in total accusing him of grand theft by embezzlement, perjury and violating state conflict of interest laws. Prosecutors allege Price repeatedly voted in favor of measures to sell buildings or support grants for developers or agencies that had previously contracted with his wife’s consulting firm, Del Richardson & Associates.

Price has also been accused of bilking the city out of $33,000 in medical premiums by listing his wife as a beneficiary of his city-issued healthcare plan between 2013 and 2017, before they were legally married.

In documents made public Thursday morning, a summary of the district attorney’s office’s investigation written in 2022 described Richardson as a “suspect” in the case.

An investigator wrote that Richardson committed perjury and aided and abetted in Price’s alleged embezzlement by seeking to recoup healthcare costs from the city of Inglewood, where Price formerly served as a councilman, between 2015 and 2017, according to the summary document. Price and Richardson were not legally married at the time as Price did not divorce his first wife until 2018, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors served subpoenas on several members of Price’s City Hall staff and several former employees of Del Richardson & Associates, which Richardson sold to the Greenwood Seneca Foundation several years ago, the sources said.

The purpose of the grand jury was also unclear, as two of the sources said questions asked by prosecutors were not focused on the charges already filed against Price.

In a motion seeking to dismiss all charges filed Thursday morning, Schafler questioned the legality of the grand jury proceedings.

Schafler said the grand jury hearings “appear to impermissibly have been for the primary purpose of discovery and preparing for the preliminary hearing and trial in this action, which had already been pending since June 2023.”

Grand juries are held in secret and transcripts of such proceedings only become public if an indictment is returned against the target of the hearing. Price has not been indicted.

The district attorney’s office said it could not comment on grand jury proceedings without court authorization.

“The Grand Jury process involves two types of Grand Juries: Investigative and Indicting. An Investigative Grand Jury investigates and does not seek an Indictment,” the office said in a statement.

It was not clear which type of grand jury was convened in Price’s case. It is rare for prosecutors to fail to convince a grand jury to return an indictment.

In a motion seeking to dismiss charges in 2023, Price’s attorney argued prosecutors could not prove that past payments to Richardson’s company had any influence on the councilman’s voting record. Many of the votes that prosecutors zeroed in on passed easily, with Price’s vote making no difference to their success or failure.

Under California law, criminal cases can proceed from the filing of charges to a trial by two pathways. More often than not, defendants face a preliminary hearing where a judge must decide if prosecutors have enough evidence to prove there is probable cause for a defendant to stand trial.

Prosecutors can also seek an indictment before a grand jury, a move that limits what counterarguments defense attorneys can put forth and protects witnesses from cross-examination. In recent years, L.A. County prosecutors have convened grand juries to indict disgraced porn star Ron Jeremy on a litany of rape allegations and to review manslaughter charges against Torrance police officers.

Price appeared in court on Thursday morning to answer the two new charges filed against him earlier this week. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said that between 2019 and 2021, Price voted in support of grants and funding for L.A. Metro and the city’s housing authority after Richardson’s firm was paid more than $800,000 combined by both agencies.

Joined by about two dozen supporters who sat in the back rows of the courtroom, Price pleaded not guilty to the new charges. His attorney said he would file a motion to dismiss those charges later on Thursday.

Prosecutors said the councilman’s staff “flagged the conflict of interest prior to the votes” that prompted the new charges.

Price’s spokeswoman, Angelina Valencia, did not respond directly to that allegation. But she said the councilman’s office has always “carried out a multi-layered process to identify and address potential conflicts of interests, work that is highly complex and requires thorough review.”

“Each month, our legislative team reviews hundreds of Council and Committee votes, cross-checking for potential conflicts,” she said.

Schafler has repeatedly argued that Price did not knowingly violate conflict of interest laws.

Report says Karim Khan ‘privately threatened’ by then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron with UK’s withdrawal from International Criminal Court.

New details have emerged about a series of intimidation campaigns, including threats to safety as well as possible sanctions, directed at the British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he pursues an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israeli officials in Gaza.

Karim Khan has also been subjected to intense pressure from top British and United States public officials for The Hague court to withdraw the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news website reported.

The latest report followed an earlier revelation by the London-based online publication in July that Khan and the ICC were threatened with being “destroyed” if they pursued the case against Israel.

According to the MEE report published on Friday, Khan was “privately threatened” by then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants against the Israeli leaders, which it did so in November.

In May 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the MEE reported.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Khan and four ICC judges.

Khan also received a security briefing warning him that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency “was active in The Hague and posed a potential threat” to him, the MEE reported.

Khan, who is currently on indefinite leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct, was also reportedly told by his female accuser in text messages that there were “games being played” and attempts to make her a “pawn in some game I don’t want to play”, according to the MEE.

The ICC investigations into Khan’s alleged behaviour were later closed after the female witness refused to cooperate with them, but a separate United Nations probe remains.

Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.

Two weeks before he was forced to go on leave in May 2025, Khan also reportedly met with Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, to discuss the Israel investigation, the MEE report said.

In a note of the meeting on file at the ICC, Kaufman reportedly told Khan that if the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were not dropped, “they will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.”

The report said some ICC lawyers have privately “expressed doubts” about the allegations against Khan, which emerged after the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued.

The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed killed in an Israeli attack.

The Israeli defendants remain internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under a legal obligation to arrest them.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,430 Palestinians and wounded 148,722.

In recent months, Israel has been accused of committing new war crimes after reports that Israeli forces intentionally shot and killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect humanitarian aid from GHF food distribution points.

Paris Saint-Germain which the Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi denies the alleged rape of a woman in 2023.

French prosecutors on Friday called for Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Moroccan international denies.

The Nanterre prosecutor’s office told the AFP news agency that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court.

“It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP in a statement.

Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG’s run to their first Champions League title, with the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May.

Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic run to the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman.

Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday.

The woman went to a police station following the encounter, alleging rape and was questioned by police.

Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player.

She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram.

On the night in question, she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non-consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time.

She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up.

Contacted by AFP after Friday’s development, Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as “incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case’s elements”.

“We, along with Achraf Hakimi, remain as calm as we were at the start of the proceedings.

“If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal,” she added.

“My client welcomes this news with immense relief,” Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, told AFP.

Hakimi, born in Madrid, came through the youth system at Real Madrid before joining Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in 2018.

He went on to make 73 appearances for the German club.

He moved to Inter Milan in 2020 and then on to PSG in 2021, where he has established himself as an integral part of the team.

In Qatar, Hakimi was a cornerstone of the Morocco team that became the first African or Arab nation to reach the semifinals of a World Cup.

Dutch prosecutors have dropped charges against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans after CCTV footage showing violence towards Muslim women last November was erased. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen is in Amsterdam, where the decision has sparked controversy over alleged double standards.

US President Donald Trump links US aid to Netanyahu’s corruption trial in fiery post on his social media site.

United States President Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on Israeli prosecutors over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, calling it “insanity” and linking Washington’s financial support to the proceedings.

Posting on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump lashed out at Israeli authorities for undermining Netanyahu’s ability to negotiate with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and manage mounting tensions with Iran.

“It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump wrote, referring to the Israeli leader with his nickname and claiming his trial would obstruct peace efforts in the region.

“The United States of America spends billions of dollars a year … protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” he added.

Netanyahu is set to take the stand on Monday for cross-examination in a long-running corruption case that began in 2020.

He faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. His lawyers had requested a two-week delay in testimony, citing national security demands following Israel’s recent 12-day conflict with Iran. That appeal was rejected on Friday.

Members of Israel’s Knesset have accused Netanyahu of using the regional conflicts to secure an end to his corruption trial.

“[Netanyahu] is conditioning the future of Israel and our children on his trial,” Naama Lazimi, Knesset member from the Democrats Party, told The Times of Israel newspaper.

Karine Elharrar, Knesset member from Yesh Atid party, warned that Netanyahu is “acting against the Israeli public interest” by linking his legal fate with captive negotiations and regional normalisation agreements.

ICC arrest warrant

Netanyahu’s legal troubles include an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued last year for him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

The charges include war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel’s war on Gaza, beginning in October 2023. Both leaders have called the arrest warrant “anti-Semitic”.

Trump’s comments come just days after he suggested a ceasefire deal with Hamas may be close.

Speaking to reporters, he claimed Netanyahu was engaged in negotiations with the Palestinian group, though no further details were provided.

Hamas has stated it would free remaining Israeli captives in Gaza as part of a deal to end the war, but has rejected Israeli demands for total disarmament.

Netanyahu responded to Trump’s defence with a post on X: “Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!”

Calls for Netanyahu to resign

The political turmoil in Israel has deepened, with renewed calls for Netanyahu’s resignation. In a televised interview with Channel 12, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it was time for Netanyahu to step aside.

“He has been in power for 20 years … that’s too much,” said Bennett. “He bears heavy responsibility for the divisions in Israeli society.”

Bennett, who has taken a break from politics, is reportedly eyeing a return, with polls suggesting he could challenge Netanyahu once more.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday fired at least three prosecutors involved in U.S. Capitol riot criminal cases, the latest moves by the Trump administration targeting attorneys connected to the massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Those dismissed include two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol riot and insurrection, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

A letter received by one of the prosecutors was signed by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. The letter did not provide a reason for their removal, effective immediately, citing only “Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” according to a copy seen by the Associated Press.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Friday evening.

The terminations marked yet another escalation of the moves that have raised alarm over the Trump administration’s disregard for civil service protections for career lawyers and the erosion of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House. Top leaders at the Justice Department have also fired employees who worked on the prosecutions of President Trump and demoted a slew of career supervisors in what has been seen as an effort to purge the agency of lawyers seen as insufficiently loyal.

Trump’s sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters have led to worries about actions being taken against attorneys involved in the massive prosecution of the more than 1,500 Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of them on his first day back in the White House, releasing from prison people convicted of seditious conspiracy and violent assaults on police.

During his time as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, Ed Martin in February demoted several prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 cases, including the attorney who served as chief of the Capitol Siege Section. Others demoted include two lawyers who helped secure seditious conspiracy convictions against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio.

In January, then-acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s 2024 presidential win. Bove said he would not “tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.”

Trump, the only felon to ever occupy the White House, was impeached on a charge of inciting insurrection in the attack on the Capitol. He was also indicted on felony charges related to Jan. 6, but that case was dropped after Trump was elected in November.

Richer writes for the Associated Press.

Prosecutors make closing arguments in six-week trial that heard harrowing testimony from people who faced alleged abuse.

United States prosecutors argued that Sean “Diddy” Combs used his wealth and influence to evade accountability for violently abusing women in closing arguments in the entertainment mogul’s trial.

Prosecutors told the jury on Thursday that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”

The trial of the billionaire former rapper, a central figure in the rise of hip-hop in US popular culture, has included harrowing testimony from women who described an atmosphere of cruelty, exploitation, and intimidation.

Over six weeks of testimony, prosecutors also said that Combs pushed people to participate in drug-fuelled sex parties known as “freak offs”, with footage of people engaged in sex acts then used as leverage by Combs.

Slavik said that Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” singer and former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura to have sex with escorts for his own entertainment and used a “small army of employees” from his entertainment empire to cover up abuses and intimidate anyone who tried to push back.

Combs sat with his head down while Slavik made her remarks before the jury, wearing a light-coloured sweater and khaki trousers. His lawyers have argued that while Combs has a violent temperament and has committed violent acts against romantic partners, prosecutors have misrepresented a sexually unorthodox lifestyle as evidence of crimes such as racketeering and trafficking.

Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury that they would hear final statements from the defence on Friday, with the prosecution given a chance to offer a rebuttal before jurors are instructed on their responsibilities and sent to begin deliberation.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday or Monday, and Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.

Lawyers for the Salvadoran immigrant asked he be returned to Maryland to prevent his quick deportation from Tennessee.

Federal prosecutors have told a judge in Maryland that the United States government plans to initiate a new round of removal proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose mistaken deportation in March drew outcry.

On Thursday, Department of Justice lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, said the removal proceedings would be to a “third country”, not El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia was previously deported.

But the prosecutor also said the government’s plans are not “imminent”. Guynn added that the US government would comply with all court orders.

The government’s plan came to light as part of an emergency request presented to US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Abrego Garcia is currently being held in Tennessee, where he faces criminal charges. But judges in Tennessee have indicated they plan to release Abrego Garcia – leaving him vulnerable to re-arrest by immigration agents.

His lawyers petitioned Judge Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland when he is released in Tennessee, to prevent his deportation before he stands trial.

“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” Jonathan Cooper, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, said.

Judge Xinis, however, said she could not move as quickly as Abrego Garcia’s lawyers requested.

Abrego Garcia is one of the most prominent immigrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s recent push for “mass deportation”.

Though he was subject to a 2019 protection order allowing him to remain in the country, Abrego Garcia was arrested and deported around March 15, setting off a high-profile legal battle for his return.

Initially, he was held with hundreds of other deported men in El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison accused of housing abusive conditions. But by April, amid intense media scrutiny, it was revealed he had been transferred to another facility in the city of Santa Ana.

Prior to his removal, Abrego Garcia had not been charged with a crime. But when the US government announced his abrupt return on June 6, it revealed that it had sought an indictment against Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges.

That case is ongoing in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers there have argued that the charges are an attempt by the Trump administration to save face.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang and a danger to society. It has relied on a 2022 video of a traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia as evidence: He is seen driving a large vehicle with nine passengers, while a police officer speculates why they do not have luggage.

Officials have previously described Abrego Garcia’s initial March deportation as an “administrative error”.

Separately from the Tennessee case, Judge Xinis has weighed whether the March deportation was unlawful – and whether the Trump administration’s actions constitute contempt of court.

In April, Xinis, and later the US Supreme Court, ruled that the US government had an obligation to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador after his mistaken deportation.

But lawyers for Abrego Garcia have argued that the US government delayed and failed to provide court-mandated information about his return. All the while, they say, the Trump administration was preparing criminal charges against their client.

On Thursday, Judge Xinis said she had to consider the Trump administration’s pending motions to dismiss the case before she could rule on the emergency request to bring Abrego Garcia to Maryland.

She scheduled a July 7 court hearing in Maryland to discuss the emergency request and other matters.

Abrego Garcia currently remains in temporary custody in Tennessee to prevent a second deportation.

Federal prosecutors in the US will not seek the death sentence for Joaquin Guzman Lopez if he is found guilty at trial, court documents show.

Federal prosecutors in the United States said they will not seek the death penalty for the son of Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” if he is found guilty of multiple drug trafficking charges when he goes on trial.

According to media reports, federal prosecutors in Chicago filed a one-sentence notice on May 23, saying they would not seek the death penalty for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – the former leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa Cartel who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The notice did not offer any explanation for the decision by the federal prosecutors, or further details.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 38, was indicted in 2023 along with three of his brothers – known as the “Chapitos”, or little Chapos – on US drug trafficking and money laundering charges after assuming leadership of their father’s drug cartel when “El Chapo” was extradited to the US in 2017.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that he was pleased with the federal prosecutors’ decision, “as it’s the correct one”.

“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to the five charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering against him, one of which carries the maximum sentence of death as it was allegedly carried out on US territory.

He was taken into US custody in a dramatic July 2024 arrest alongside alleged Sinaloa Cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on a New Mexico airfield.

Zambada has also pleaded not guilty. But his lawyer told the Reuters news agency that he would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to spare him the death penalty.

Another of the brothers, Ovidio Guzman, is expected to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges against him at a court hearing in Chicago on July 9, according to court records.

“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.

Labour prosecutors allege that workers were brought to Brazil illegally and toiled in ‘slavery-like conditions’.

Brazilian labour prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against the Chinese auto manufacturer BYD and two contractors over allegations of illegally trafficking labourers to live and work under conditions “analogous to slavery”.

On Tuesday, the prosecutors, charged with enforcing labour laws, said in a statement that they would seek 257 million reais ($45m) in damages from BYD as well as contractors China JinJiang Construction Brazil and Tecmonta Equipamentos Inteligentes.

They accused the three companies of trafficking Chinese workers to build a BYD plant in Camacari, in the northeastern state of Bahia. There, the prosecutors allege that the companies subjected the workers to “extremely degrading” conditions.

“In December last year, 220 Chinese workers were found to be in conditions analogous to slavery and victims of international human trafficking,” the statement said.

The damages the prosecutors are seeking amount to a penalty of 50,000 reais ($8,867) per violation, multiplied by the number of workers affected, in addition to moral damages.

The lawsuit is the result of a police raid in December 2024, during which authorities say they “rescued” 163 Chinese workers from Jinjiang and 57 from Tecmonta.

The prosecutors say the workers were victims of international human trafficking and were brought to Brazil with visas that did not fit their jobs.

They also allege that conditions at the construction site left the labourers almost totally dependent on their employers, by withholding up to 70 percent of their wages and imposing high contract termination costs. Some of the workers even had their passports taken away, limiting their ability to leave, according to the prosecutors.

The lawsuit also describes meagre living conditions, including some beds without mattresses.

“In one dormitory, only one toilet was identified for use by 31 people, forcing workers to wake up around 4am to wash themselves before starting their workday,” the prosecutors’ statement notes.

Brazil is the largest market for BYD outside China. The Chinese auto giant has said that it is committed to human rights, is cooperating with authorities and will respond to the lawsuit in court.

A spokesman for the company said in December that allegations of poor working conditions were part of an effort to “smear” China and Chinese companies.

But the Brazilian labour prosecutors rejected the notion that their lawsuit was based on anti-Chinese sentiment.

“Our lawsuit is very well-founded, with a substantial amount of evidence provided during the investigation process,” deputy labour prosecutor Fabio Leal said in an interview.

He stated that the workers, who have all returned to China, would receive any payments related to the lawsuit there, with the companies in Brazil responsible for providing proof of payment.

Several federal prosecutors — including the chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section — have submitted their resignations following a plea deal offered by the new U.S. attorney in Los Angeles to a sheriff’s deputy who had already been found guilty of using excessive force.

Two sources confirmed to The Times that Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eli A. Alcaraz, Brian R. Faerstein and section chief Cassie Palmer resigned from the office over a “post-trial” plea agreement filed Thursday in the case of Trevor Kirk, an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy who was convicted of a felony for assaulting and pepper-spraying a woman outside Lancaster supermarket.

Reached Saturday afternoon, Faerstein said he had no comment. None of the other prosecutors said to have resigned responded to inquiries. The sources who confirmed the resignations requested anonymity because they feared retaliation. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

Kirk, who has been “relieved of duty” by the Sheriff’s Department, was found guilty in February of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law and faced up to 10 years in prison. Under the plea deal filed Thursday, which still requires approval from a judge, he would serve a maximum of one year in prison. The government agreed to recommend a year of probation.

In June 2023, Kirk was responding to a reported robbery when he threw a woman to the ground and pepper sprayed her in the face while she filmed him outside a Lancaster WinCo. While the woman matched the description of a female suspect Kirk had received from a dispatcher, she was not armed or committing a crime at the time he first confronted her, court records show.

Under the new agreement, Kirk would plead guilty to a lesser-included misdemeanor violation of deprivation of rights under color of law.

If the plea is approved by the judge, according to the agreement, the U.S. attorney’s office would “move to strike” the jury’s finding that Kirk injured the victim.

Alcaraz, Palmer, Faerstein and another prosecutor, Michael J. Morse, all withdrew from the case on Friday, according to court filings. The only assistant U.S. attorney who signed off on the plea agreement, Robert J. Keenan, was not previously involved in the case.

Bill Essayli, appointed U.S. attorney for Los Angeles last month by President Trump, is also listed on the agreement.

Kirk’s attorney, Tom Yu, declined to comment Friday evening. Previously, he described Kirk as a “hero, not a criminal” and said video showed he acted within the law to “detain a combative robbery suspect.”

Essayli’s move to offer a misdemeanor plea to a defendant who had already been convicted was extremely unorthodox, according to Carley Palmer, a former supervisor in the federal prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles who is now a partner at Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg LLP.

“It’s not unprecedented, but it is extraordinary, to try to have a jury verdict withdrawn and replaced by a plea agreement to a lesser crime. The government invests extraordinary resources to take a case like that to trial,” she said. “You have the agency’s investigation, you have all the man or woman hours … then you have a jury that says you got it right beyond a reasonable doubt.”

To justify seeking a post-conviction plea deal, prosecutors would need to have found evidence that the defendant was innocent or that there was some serious misconduct on the part of the trial team, according to Palmer.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied a motion from Yu for an acquittal. Wilson ruled footage of the incident was sufficient evidence for a jury to find Kirk had used “objectively unreasonable force.”

“J.H. did not have a weapon, did not attack Defendant, was not attempting to flee, and was not actively committing a crime,” Wilson wrote, identifying the woman involved by initials.

The judge also noted in his ruling that while Kirk acted aggressively toward the woman from the outset, his partner managed to lead the arrest of the other robbery suspect without using force.

There are noticeable differences in the way the new plea agreement describes what Kirk did, as compared to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in February when the jury returned a guilty verdict.

The agreement makes references to the woman having “resisted” Kirk’s attempt to detain her and describes her as “swatting” at the deputy’s arm.

In his ruling last month, Wilson determined this could have been seen as the victim reacting reflexively to Kirk’s actions, and noted it’s unclear if she even hits Kirk.

The plea agreement also makes no reference to the woman’s injuries, while the February release says she “was treated for blunt-force head trauma and injuries to her head, arms, and wrist.”

Attorney Caree Harper, who is representing the woman in a civil suit that reached a settlement earlier this year, said the new plea deal is “changing the facts” and is not supported by video footage of the incident.

“They’re taking creative liberty with the facts and deciding to give a jury of Trevor Kirk’s peers the middle finger and it should not be tolerated,” she told The Times. If Wilson approves the agreement, Harper said, she expects civil rights groups will launch protests and urge state or county prosecutors to take up the case.

Harper noted that downgrading Kirk’s charge from a felony could allow him to continue working as a law enforcement officer. He will also retain his right to own a firearm without a felony conviction.

“He definitely should not be able to wear a badge again, anywhere in any state,” she said.

According to Robert Bonner, a former federal judge who now chairs the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission, a post-conviction plea deal is an extreme rarity. Allowing pleas after trial, Bonner said, could undermine prosecutors’ ability to negotiate in the future.

“If you did this routinely, you could never get a plea bargain,” he said.

Even though federal prosecutors and the defense have both agreed to the deal, Bonner said, the judge doesn’t have to adhere to it.

“He could reject the whole plea deal, or he can accept the plea deal and say I’m not going to give one year probation, I’m going to give six months in custody or some other period of time up to one year in prison,” he said.

Wilson last month refused to delay Kirk’s May 19 sentencing hearing, after prosecutors told him Essayli wanted more time to review the case.

Support for Kirk began gaining steam on social media after his indictment last September. In January, Nick Wilson, founder of a first responder advocacy group and spokesperson for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Professional Association, wrote a letter to Trump urging him to intervene before the case went to trial. Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who has become increasingly popular in right-wing circles online, has also championed Kirk’s case, posting Instagram video of himself and Wilson consoling the deputy at the courthouse after trial.

Wilson, the Sheriff’s Professional Association spokesperson, on Friday said he was “encouraged by the recent development in Deputy Trevor Kirk’s case and will continue to monitor the upcoming sentencing closely.”

“While this case should never have been prosecuted in the first place, we are deeply grateful the Department of Justice took a second, impartial look at the facts and merits,” he said in an email. “This action sends a powerful message — not just in Trevor’s case, but to law enforcement officers across the state and nation who too often feel abandoned or politically targeted in today’s climate.”

A spokesperson for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately comment on the developments in Kirk’s case.

The wave of resignations comes amid other recent controversy in the federal prosecutor’s office. In March, a White House official fired Adam Schleifer as an assistant U.S. attorney, in a one-line email informing him that the dismissal was “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump.”

Schleifer recently challenged his firing, calling it “unlawful” and alleging it was motivated in part by his prosecution of Andrew Wiederhorn, the former chairman and chief executive of Fat Brands, which owns the Fatburger and Johnny Rockets restaurant chains. Schleifer had also posted negative comments about Trump during a period when he left his job as prosecutor to run for office as a Democrat.

According to Meghann Cuniff, an independent legal affairs reporter, the Department of Justice is reviewing a separate case involving Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who pleaded guilty to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Biden and his son Hunter. A federal judge sentenced Smirnov to six years in prison.

The turmoil in the L.A. federal prosecutor’s office follows mass resignations in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan earlier this year, when several prosecutors stepped down after Trump administration appointees pushed to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.