u.s. attorney

A federal judge Tuesday ruled that Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli is not lawfully serving in that role, but declined to dismiss criminal indictments that were challenged by defense attorneys.

Senior Judge J. Michael Seabright from the District of Hawaii was brought in to oversee the case after federal judges in Los Angeles recused themselves. In his ruling, Seabright said Essayli “unlawfully assumed the role of Acting United States Attorney” but can remain in charge under a different title.

Seabright said Essayli “remains the First Assistant United States Attorney” and can “perform the functions and duties of that office.”

Essayli, a former Riverside County assemblyman, was appointed as the region’s interim top federal prosecutor by U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi in April.

The top prosecutors in charge of U.S. Attorney’s offices are supposed to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate or a panel of federal judges, but the Trump administration has circumvented the normal process in order to allow Essayli and others to remain on the job without facing a vote.

Essayli’s temporary appointment was set to expire in late July, but the White House never moved to nominate him to a permanent role, instead opting to use an unprecedented legal maneuver to shift his title to “acting,” extending his term for an additional nine months.

Challenges to Essayli’s appointment have been brought in at least three criminal cases, with defense lawyers arguing that charges brought under his watch are invalid. The federal public defender’s office in Los Angeles asked the judge to disqualify Essayli from participating in and supervising criminal prosecutions in the district.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seabright’s ruling comes amid similar challenges across the country to the Trump administration’s tactics for installing loyalists who wield the power to bring criminal charges and sue on the government’s behalf.

A federal judge in August determined Alina Habba has been illegally occupying the U.S. attorney post in New Jersey, although that order was put on hold pending appeal. Last month a federal judge disqualified Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, Sigal Chattah, from several cases, concluding she “is not validly serving as acting U.S. attorney.” Chattah’s disqualification also is paused while the Department of Justice appeals the decision.

James Comey, the former FBI director charged with lying to Congress, cited the Nevada and New Jersey cases in a recent filing and is now challenging the legality of Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan was appointed after his predecessor, also a Trump appointee, refused to seek charges against Comey.

Since taking office, Essayli has doggedly pursued President Trump’s agenda, championing hard-line immigration enforcement in Southern California, often using the president’s language at news conferences. Essayli’s tenure has sparked discord in the office, with dozens of career DOJ prosecutors quitting.

The judge’s ruling Tuesday conceded arguments from the Justice Department that Essayli would continue leading the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. regardless of how the judged decided on the challenge to his status.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Alexander P. Robbins said that because Essayli also has been designated as first assistant U.S. attorney, he would retain his authority even if stripped of the “acting” title.

Bondi in July also appointed him as a “special attorney.” Robbins told the judge that “there’s no developed challenge to Mr. Essayli’s appointment as a special attorney or his designation as a first assistant.”

The prosecutor told the judge the government believes Essayli’s term will end Feb. 24 and that afterward the role of acting U.S. attorney will remain vacant.

Robbins argued in a court filing that the court shouldn’t order Essayli “to remove the prosecutorial and supervisory hats that many others in this Office wear, sowing chaos and confusion into the internal workings of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the largest district in the country.”

When asked by a Times reporter last month about the motion to disqualify him, Essayli said “the president won the election.”

“The American people provided him a mandate to run the executive branch, including the U.S. attorney’s office, and I look forward to serving at the pleasure of the president,” he said during a news conference.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has harnessed the weight of his office in recent days to accelerate a campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies and attacks on 1st Amendment protections.

In the last week alone, Trump replaced a U.S. attorney investigating two of his political adversaries with a loyalist and openly directed the attorney general to find charges to file against them.

His Federal Communications Commission chairman hinted at punitive actions against networks whose journalists and comedians run afoul of the president.

Trump filed a $15-billion lawsuit against the New York Times, only to have it thrown out by a judge.

The acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles asked the Secret Service to investigate a social media post by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office.

The Pentagon announced it was imposing new restrictions on reporters who cover the U.S. military.

The White House officially labeled “antifa,” a loose affiliation of far-left extremists, as “domestic terrorists” — a designation with no basis in U.S. law — posing a direct challenge to free speech protections. And it said lawmakers concerned with the legal predicate for strikes on boats in the Caribbean should simply get over it.

An active investigation into the president’s border advisor over an alleged bribery scheme involving a $50,000 payout was quashed by the White House itself.

Trump emphasized his partisan-fueled dislike of his political opponents during a Sunday memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who he said “did not hate his opponents.”

“That’s where I disagreed with Charlie,” Trump said. “I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”

It has been an extraordinary run of attacks using levers of power that have been seen as sacred arbiters of the public trust for decades, scholars and historians say.

The assault is exclusively targeting Democrats, liberal groups and establishment institutions, just as the administration moves to shield its allies.

Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney in Virginia, resigned Friday after facing pressure from the Trump administration to bring criminal charges against New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James over alleged mortgage fraud. In a social media post later that day, Trump claimed he had “fired” Siebert.

A few hours later, on Saturday, Trump said he nominated White House aide Lindsey Halligan to take over Siebert’s top prosecutorial role in Virginia, saying she was “tough” and “loyal.”

Later that day, Trump demanded in a social media post addressed to “Pam” — in reference to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi — that she prosecute James, former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s remarks, saying Monday that the president is “rightfully frustrated” and that he “wants accountability for these corrupt fraudsters who abuse their power, who abuse their oath of office, to target the former president and then candidate for the highest office in the land.”

“It is not weaponizing the Department of Justice to demand accountability for those who weaponize the Department of Justice, and nobody knows what that looks like more than President Trump,” Leavitt told reporters.

As the president called for prosecution of his political opponents, it was reported that Tom Homan, the White House border advisor, was the subject of an undercover FBI case that was later shut down by Trump administration officials. Homan, according to MSNBC, accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover agents after he indicated to them he could get them government contracts.

At Monday’s news briefing, Leavitt said that Homan did not take the money and that the investigation was “another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump’s strongest and most vocal supporters.”

“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100% because he did absolutely nothing wrong,” she said.

Some see the recent actions as an erosion of an expected firewall between the Department of Justice and the White House, as well as a shift in the idea of how criminal investigation should be launched.

“If the Department of Justice and any prosecution entity is functioning properly, then that entity is investigating crimes and not people,” said John Hasnas, a law professor at Georgetown University.

The Trump administration has also begun a military campaign against vessels crossing the Caribbean Sea departing from Venezuela that it says are carrying narcotics and drug traffickers. But the targeted killing of individuals at sea is raising concern among legal scholars that the administration’s operation is extrajudicial, and Democratic lawmakers, including Schiff, have introduced a bill in recent days asserting the ongoing campaign violates the War Powers Resolution.

Political influence has long played a role with federal prosecutors who are political appointees, Hasnas said, but under “the current situation it’s magnified greatly.”

“The interesting thing about the current situation is that the Trump administration is not even trying to hide it,” he said.

Schiff said he sees it as an effort to “try to silence and intimidate.” In July, Trump accused Schiff — who led the first impeachment inquiry into Trump — of committing mortgage fraud, which Schiff has denied.

“What he wants to try to do is not just go after me and Letitia James or Lisa Cook, but rather send a message that anyone who stands up to him on anything, anyone who has the audacity to call out his corruption will be a target, and they will go after you,” Schiff said in an interview Sunday.

Trump campaigned in part on protecting free speech, especially that of conservatives, who he claimed had been broadly censored by the Biden administration and “woke” leftist culture in the U.S. Many of his most ardent supporters — including billionaire Elon Musk and now-Vice President JD Vance — praised Trump as a champion of free speech.

However, since Trump took office, his administration has repeatedly sought to silence his critics, including in the media, and crack down on speech that does not align with his politics.

And in the wake of Kirk’s killing on Sept. 10, those efforts have escalated into an unprecedented attack on free speech and expression, according to constitutional scholars and media experts.

“The administration is showing a stunning ignorance and disregard of the 1st Amendment,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School.

“We are at an unprecedented place in American history in terms of the targeting of free press and the exercise of free speech,” said Ken Paulson, former editor in chief of USA Today and now director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

“We’ve had periods in American history like the Red Scare, in which Americans were to turn in neighbors who they thought leaned left, but this is a nonstop, multifaceted, multiplatform attack on all of our free speech rights,” Paulson said. “I’m actually quite stunned at the velocity of this and the boldness of it.”

Bondi recently railed against “hate speech” — which the Supreme Court has previously defended — in an online post, suggesting the Justice Department will investigate those who speak out against conservatives.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC and its parent company, Disney, with repercussions if they did not yank Jimmy Kimmel off the air after Kimmel made comments about Kirk’s alleged killer that Carr found distasteful. ABC swiftly suspended Kimmel’s show, though Disney announced Monday that it would return Tuesday.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it will require news organizations to agree not to disclose any information the government has not approved for release and revoke the press credentials of those who publish sensitive material without approval.

Critics of the administration, free speech organizations and even some conservative pundits who have long criticized the “cancel culture” of the progressive left have spoken out against some of those policies. Scholars have too, saying the amalgam of actions by the administration represent a dangerous departure from U.S. law and tradition.

“What unites all of this is how blatantly inconsistent it is with the 1st Amendment,” Chemerinsky said.

Chemerinsky said lower courts have consistently pushed back against the administration’s overreaches when it comes to protected speech, and he expects they will continue to do so.

He also said that, although the Supreme Court has frequently sided with the president in disputes over his policy decisions, it has also consistently defended freedom of speech, and he hopes it will continue to do so if some of the free speech policies above reach the high court.

“If there’s anything this court has said repeatedly, it’s that the government can’t prevent or stop speech based on the viewpoint expressed,” Chemerinsky said.

Paulson said that American media companies must refuse to obey and continue to cover the Trump administration and the Pentagon as aggressively as ever, and that average Americans must recognize the severity of the threat posed by such censorship and speak out against it, no matter their political persuasion.

“This is real — a full-throttle assault on free speech in America,” Paulson said. “And it’s going to be up to the citizenry to do something about it.”

Chemerinsky said defending free speech should be an issue that unites all Americans, not least because political power changes hands.

“It’s understandable that those in power want to silence the speech that they don’t like, but the whole point of the 1st Amendment is to protect speech we don’t like,” he said. “We don’t need the 1st Amendment to protect the speech we like.”

Federal prosecutors on Thursday sued Southern California Edison over its alleged role in the deadly Eaton fire, a blaze that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes and other structures in Altadena and the surrounding area.

In a civil complaint, prosecutors allege that the Eaton fire was ignited by “faulty power infrastructure or by sparks from faulty power infrastructure owned, maintained, and operated” by Edison.

The results of the official investigation of the fire by the Los Angeles County Fire Department and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have not yet been announced. The government’s lawsuit notes that the investigation into the fire remains ongoing.

The government also sued Edison on Thursday for its alleged role in the Fairview fire, which burned near Hemet in 2022. Prosecutors are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from Edison, alleging the company’s negligence caused both fires.

Together, the fires burned tens of thousands of acres of National Forest System lands, killed 21 people and destroyed thousands of buildings, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said “there’s no reason to wait” for the results of the investigation into the Eaton fire. During a Thursday morning news conference, Essayli cited evidence and “Edison’s own statements … that there’s no other apparent cause for the fire.”

“We believe that the evidence is clear that Edison is at fault,” he said. “The reason not to wait is because fire season is coming up again. We want Edison to change the way it does business. It does not maintain its infrastructure in a way to prevent fires. We do not want another fire igniting.”

Essayli stressed that the intention is for the utility company and “not the ratepayers” to bear the burden of the costs.

“Innocent hardworking Californians who pay their electricity bills should not have to pay for Edison’s negligence by incurring higher utility rates,” he said.

Jeff Monford, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, told The Times that the company is reviewing the lawsuits “and will respond through the appropriate channels.” It is “committed to wildfire mitigation through grid hardening, situational awareness and enhanced operational practices.”

In addition, he said, “our thoughts are with the community affected by the Fairview fire. We continue our work to reduce the likelihood of our equipment starting a wildfire.”

Although the cause of the Eaton fire is still under investigation, Monford said, it “was heartbreaking for so many of us who live and work in the Los Angeles area.”

In April, Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility’s parent company, said that “a leading hypothesis” of Eaton fire investigators was that a century-old transmission line, last used during the Vietnam War, somehow became reenergized and sparked the fire.

The government’s lawsuit cites a July Edison filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the utility company stated it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition” for the Eaton fire.

In March, the California Public Utilities Commission fined Edison $2.2 million for the Fairview fire, which killed two people and destroyed 36 homes and other structures in Hemet.

The commission said the utility violated state regulations by failing to cooperate with investigators and not safely maintaining its electrical equipment.

State investigators concluded that the 2022 Fairview fire was ignited when Edison’s equipment came in contact with a cable owned by Frontier Communications.

The government is seeking more than $40 million in damages tied to the Eaton fire. For the Fairview fire, the government is seeking to recover about $37 million in damages incurred by the Forest Service, including approximately $20 million in fire-suppression costs, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.

“The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” Essayli said in a written statement Thursday.

“We hope that today’s filings are the first step in causing the beginnings of a culture change at Southern California Edison, one that will make it a responsible, conscientious company that helps — not harms — our community.”

Edison is facing dozens of lawsuits from people who lost their homes or businesses in the Jan. 7 Eaton fire. A study by UCLA estimated that losses from the fire could be $24 billion to $45 billion.

State officials say damage claims from the Eaton fire could wipe out a $21-billion fund California created to shield utilities from the cost of blazes sparked by their electrical lines.

Gilbert Arenas and Skip Bayless have made news lately for reasons they would rather forget. Now, they will attempt to put an entertaining spin on NFL news in a digital program launching Tuesday and airing three times a week.

Arenas, a Van Nuys Grant High product who played 11 seasons in the NBA, will rebrand his current channel. Bayless, who had long runs on ESPN’s “First Take” and FS1’s “Undisputed,” will be featured on “The Arena: Gridiron” along with former NFL coach Jay Gruden and former NFL cornerback Aqib Talib.

Arenas was arrested July 30 and charged along with five others with conspiracy for allegedly running illegal poker games at his Encino mansion, court records show. Arenas, 43, rented out the mansion “for the purposes of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games,” according to a news release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

The three-time All-Star guard — who went by the nickname “Agent Zero” according to federal authorities — was charged with conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, operating an illegal gambling business and making false statements to federal investigators.

Among the others charged was Yevgeni Gershman, 49, a.k.a. “Giora,” of Woodland Hills, who the U.S. attorney’s office described as “a suspected organized crime figure from Israel.” Arenas pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond.

Bayless has also been sifting through court filings. He is a defendant along with Fox Sports, broadcaster Joy Taylor and executive Charlie Dixon in a lawsuit by former FS1 hairstylist Noushin Faraji, who alleged that Bayless offered her $1.5 million for sex.

Faraji filed a request to dismiss the lawsuit this month in L.A. Superior Court, which legal experts said is an indication that a settlement has been reached.

Bayless told the Athletic that he isn’t bothered by the criminal charges against Arenas.

“I’ve talked to Gil,” he said. “He has no concerns. I mean, he’s obviously concerned, but he believes he did nothing at all wrong, except rent out his space, and I believe in him.”

Underdog, a five-year-old gaming and media firm, will own and produce the show. Arenas’ two digital basketball programs under “Gil’s Arena” have become one of Underdog’s biggest draws.

Shifting to football prompted the addition of Bayless, whose spirited back-and-forth on social media with Arenas grew into a professional relationship.

“I’m back in the saddle in the debate arena,” Bayless said. “I live for this. I love this.”

The parade of Trump terribles is a long one, starting in Washington and stretching clear across this beleaguered nation.

A bumbling Defense secretary who lacks the competence to organize a two-car military procession.

A screw-loose Health secretary who seems not to care if measles and other plagues descend on America.

A director of national intelligence who’s shown no great abundance of that quality but, rather, an eagerness to twist and bend facts like a coat hanger, serving whatever cockamamie claim the president burps up.

Because, after all, obeisance and lay-down-your-life loyalty are the main prerequisites for service in the Trump administration, along with the all-important consideration of how one comes across on television.

How else to explain the chief federal prosecutor he’s imposed on Nevada, Sigal Chattah?

Chattah, 50, devoted years to a not-particularly-noteworthy legal career, practicing domestic and international law at her Las Vegas firm and teaching political science for a time at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2022, Chattah was the Republican nominee for state attorney general, losing rather handily to incumbent Democrat Aaron Ford.

But not before distinguishing herself as a notably reprehensible candidate.

Among other things, Chattah compared Ford to the leader of Hamas and said that her opponent, who happens to be Black, “should be hanging from a f— crane.” (The Israeli-born Chattah told the Las Vegas Review Journal the “smart-ass comment” was a tongue-in-cheek expression derived from her Middle East background.)

A pugnacious poster on social media — another perceived asset in Trump World — Chattah called a Black member of Congress a “hood rat,” a Black female prosecutor “ghetto” and a Black “Saturday Night Live” cast member a “monkey.”

She suggested immigrants — make that “invaders” — and college protesters should be shot and transgenderism should be treated with “meds or commitment to an in-patient facility.”

But what might have particularly endeared her to Trump is her embrace of his ego-salving Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen from under him. Chattah even served as legal counsel to one of the fake electors who tried to overturn Joe Biden’s clear-cut victory and swipe Nevada for Trump.

It’s hardly unusual for a president to pick a member of his party to serve as U.S. attorney, replacing the choice of a previous administration. In fact, even though justice is supposed to be blind and thus, theoretically above political considerations, that’s how the selection process usually works.

But Trump has broken new and treacherous ground by installing not just partisans as federal prosecutors but lackeys — starting with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi — who’ve shown their allegiance not to fair-minded application of the law but rather delivering on the feral impulses of their White House patron.

Trump’s pick for top prosecutor in the Los Angeles area is Bill Essayli, a former state assemblyman from Riverside County whose main qualification seemed to be his loud, performative approach to serving in Sacramento’s GOP minority.

Bondi appointed Essayli on an interim basis in early April. His appointment was limited to 120 days; normally within that time he would have been formally nominated and faced confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Knowing the latter was unlikely, the Trump administration executed an end run and named Essayli “acting U.S. attorney,” which gives him an additional 210 days in the job before he faces formal confirmation.

As it happened, the very same day that maneuvering took place, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges in a criminal case involving one of Trump’s political donors.

Coincidence?

The same sleight-of-hand — interim appointment, designation as “acting U.S. attorney” — was used to extend the tenure of Trump sycophants as chief federal prosecutors in New Jersey, New Mexico, upstate New York and, in Chattah’s case, Nevada.

(In a setback for Trump, a federal judge ruled last week that his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, was unlawfully serving as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, though the order was put on hold pending appeal.)

Chattah’s partisanship is plain as a desert squall. In a remarkable breach of protocol and ethics — not to mention the federal law forbidding employees from mixing work and politics — she kept her position as Nevada’s representative on the Republican National Committee even as she served as interim U.S. attorney.

Chattah abandoned the post only after the Nevada Independent reported on the obvious conflict of interest.

Last month, in the final days before Chattah’s interim appointment ended, more than 100 retired state and federal judges wrote Nevada’s chief federal district judge to object to her continued service. The group said Chattah’s history of “racially charged, violence-tinged, and inflammatory public statements” was disqualifying.

The Trump administration extended her tenure nonetheless.

As part of their unavailing effort, the judges quoted a 1940 speech then-U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert H. Jackson delivered, citing the immense power and responsibility that rests with a U.S. attorney.

“The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous,” said Jackson, who went on to serve as one of the Supreme Court’s most distinguished justices. “… The prosecutor can order arrests, present cases to the grand jury in secret session, and on the basis of his one-sided presentation of the facts, can cause the citizen to be indicted and held for trial.

“While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.”

Obviously, Jackson never knew Chattah or other Trump appointees besmirching the halls of justice. But the late justice, buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Frewsburg, N.Y., is doubtless turning somersaults in his grave.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell made history — becoming the first New Orleans mayor to be indicted while in office — after federal prosecutors on Friday charged her with multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to a grand jury.

The 11 counts specific to Cantrell stem from an investigation into her alleged affair with former New Orleans Police Department Officer Jeffrey Vappie, who worked on Cantrell’s security detail prior to his retirement from the force and has also been federally indicted.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleges, in a 48-page indictment, that Cantrell and Vappie illegally used city funds to travel around the country together, falsely claiming that the expenditures were related to city business, then conspired to cover it up. Federal investigators combed through 15,000 text messages sent between the two — and later deleted by Cantrell, according to the indictment — in which they discussed their relationship and travel plans.

What comes next?

With no political precedent to turn to in order to understand how the following months will play out, legal and governmental experts in New Orleans have relied on the rules set out in New Orleans’ Home Charter and similar incidents from other cities to inform predictions for the future.

“I don’t expect this as a legal matter to have any effect on her ability to be mayor of the city of New Orleans,” said attorney and Loyola College of Law professor Dane Ciolino. “Now, as a practical and political matter, that’s another issue.”

Ciolino added that when Cantrell appears in court for an initial hearing and arraignment — which is now scheduled for Sept. 10 — it is likely there will be restrictions placed on her movement as a condition of release, meaning that she will need to consult with a judge before engaging in any international travel, or perhaps even travel outside of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

“It won’t be any impairment to her doing her job,” he said. “She’ll just have to seek permission, which would be, I suspect, liberally granted to her.”

An in-office conviction would force Cantrell out

Although it may be unlikely that Cantrell will go to trial before her second term as mayor ends in January, she would be forced to step down if she were convicted of a felony.

Under state law, public officials must be removed from office if they are convicted of a federal or state felony. Under the city charter, if Cantrell were to plead guilty or chose not to contest the charges, she would face immediate removal.

If a mayor pleads not guilty and is convicted after a trial, the city charter calls for an automatic, unpaid suspension until the conviction is finalized through the appeals process, at which time she would be removed. If Cantrell were suspended but later made a successful appeal to overturn the conviction, she would receive back pay.

What happens after a mayor is removed from office?

The charter also states that if a mayor is removed or resigns with less than a year left in the term, the City Council must elect one of the two at-large council members to fill the seat, in lieu of a special election. Helena Moreno and JP Morrell are currently the two at-large City Council members, with Morrell currently serving as council president.

Morrell is running for a second term in his seat. Moreno, meanwhile, is actively running her own mayoral campaign and is thus far the front-runner in the race to succeed Cantrell. (The New Orleans municipal election will be held on Oct. 11, with a runoff — should it be necessary — set for Nov. 15.)

Moreno’s office put out a public statement the day that the charges were announced, saying that the mayor is entitled to the presumption of innocence and “a vigorous defense.”

Moreno’s statement mirrored many of her colleagues — neutral on the subject matter involved in the charges, choosing instead to reframe and discuss how to best serve the city. Although Cantrell’s relationship with the City Council has been rocky throughout her second term, there have been no public calls from members of the City Council for her to resign.

“The announcement today reminds us of the need to let the justice system work in a fair, timely fashion and without regard to politics or preference,” Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also running for mayor, wrote in a statement. “These are critical times for our city to get back on track and to stay focused on building a city that works and thrives for everyone.”

Councilmember Eugene Green released a statement similar in content, adding that it was a difficult day for New Orleans.

“My focus will continue to be on moving New Orleans forward — ensuring the safety of our citizens, strengthening our neighborhoods, and meeting the needs of my constituents,” Green wrote.

No indication of stepping down

A similar saga unfolded in Nashville, Tenn., in 2018 when then-Mayor Megan Barry — who, like Cantrell, was the city’s first female mayor — had an affair with a city-employed security officer who traveled with her on the city’s dime.

Barry pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned from office immediately after. Her political career was short-lived in the aftermath of the scandal as she mounted an unsuccessful run for Congress then pivoted to write a memoir.

Cantrell has not made any public statements since the indictment was announced by prosecutors. She skipped the launch of Amtrak’s new train service from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., where she was slated to be a guest speaker on Saturday, but was back to work by Monday.

Cantrell’s communications team did not respond to Verite News requests for comment about whether her governance plans will change in response to the charges. Cantrell’s attorney, Eddie Castaing, declined to comment on the charges. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement Monday that the mayor is focused on doing her job for the city of New Orleans.

Mediratta writes for Verite News, in partnership with the Associated Press.

A former Miami Heat security officer has been accused in federal court of stealing millions of dollars worth of team memorabilia — including a game-worn LeBron James jersey from the 2013 NBA Finals — and selling them to online brokers.

Appearing Wednesday at U.S. Superior Court for the Southern District of Florida, retired Miami police officer Marcus Thomas Perez pleaded not guilty to the felony charge of transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce.

Perez, 62, faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. His attorney, Robert Buschel, declined to comment when asked on Wednesday by The Times.

According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Miami field office of the FBI, Perez worked on game-day security detail for the Heat from 2016-2021, and later worked as an NBA security employee from 2022-2025.

While employed by the Heat, the press release states, Perez “was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room” where “hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia” were being stored to be displayed at a future Heat museum.

“During his employment, Perez accessed the equipment room multiple times to steal over 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, which he then sold to various online marketplaces,” the press release states. “Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often for prices well below their market value.”

One example listed in the press release is the jersey that James wore in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, during which the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 to win their second straight championship. Perez allegedly sold the jersey for around $100,000; it was sold in an online auction for $3.7 million in 2023.

In executing a search warrant at Perez’s home April 3, law enforcement “seized nearly 300 additional stolen game-worn jerseys and memorabilia,” all of which the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their facility, according to the press release.

A newly unsealed court document alleges that Richard Tillman admitted to police officers that he drove a vehicle into a Northern California post office and set the building on fire, “trying to make a statement to the United States Government.”

It’s unclear what the statement was intended to be. According to the document, Tillman also told San Jose Police officers at the scene that he was responsible for spray-painting “Viva La Me” on the building as it was burning but was unable to finish writing because of the heat.

The youngest brother of late NFL star and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman has been charged with the federal crime of malicious destruction of government property by fire in connection with the incident at Almaden Valley Station Post Office on July 20 at around 3 a.m. Sunday.

The 44-year-old San Jose resident was arrested at the scene. The criminal complaint against Tillman was filed July 23 but remained sealed until Wednesday when Tillman made his initial appearance in federal district court in San Jose. KRON-TV in San Francisco reports that Tillman did not enter a plea.

Tillman is in federal custody and has a status conference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins scheduled for Aug. 6, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release.

The criminal complaint includes a statement of probable cause by U.S. Postal Inspector Shannon Roark. According to the statement, Tillman told officers on the scene that he had placed “instalogs” throughout his vehicle and doused them with lighter fluid. He then backed the vehicle into the post office, exited the vehicle and used a match to set the car ablaze.

The building was “partially destroyed by the fire,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Roark also stated that Tillman told officers at the scene that he had livestreamed the incident on YouTube. Tillman’s channel has since been removed from the site.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Pat Tillman famously walked away from a three-year, $3.6-million contract offer from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army, along with his younger brother, Kevin.

On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in the province of Khost, Afghanistan. He was 27.

The day after the post office fire, Kevin Tillman released a statement.

“Our family is aware that my brother Richard has been arrested. First and foremost, we are relieved that no one was physically harmed,” Kevin Tillman stated. “ … To be clear, it’s no secret that Richard has been battling severe mental health issues for many years. He has been livestreaming, what I’ll call, his altered self on social media for anyone to witness.

“Unfortunately, securing the proper care and support for him has proven incredibly difficult — or rather, impossible. As a result, none of this is as shocking as it should be.”

Just hours after the Trump administration moved to extend U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli’s term as Los Angeles’ top federal law enforcement official, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges in a pair of controversial criminal cases, including one involving a donor to the president.

In a motion filed late Tuesday, federal prosecutors sought to dismiss an indictment accusing Andrew Wiederhorn, ex-CEO of the company that owns the Fatburger and Johnny Rockets chains, of carrying out a $47 million “sham loan” scheme.

Prosecutors also sought to dismiss charges against L.A. County sheriff’s deputy Trevor Kirk, who has already been convicted and sentenced in an excessive force case after he attacked a woman in a supermarket parking lot in 2023.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined comment. Both cases had already drawn significant controversy during Essayli’s turbulent run as L.A.’s top federal prosecutor.

Days before Essayli’s initial appointment in April, Adam Schleifer, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the criminal case against Wiederhorn, was fired at the behest of the White House.

Schleifer alleged in appealing the decision that his firing was motivated in part by his prosecution of Wiederhorn, a Trump donor who has maintained his innocence.

According to three sources familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly, Essayli had a meeting with Wiederhorn’s defense team shortly after he was appointed. The meeting included former U.S. Atty. Nicola T. Hanna, whom the sources said was in charge of the office when the investigation into Wiederhorn began and is now on Wiederhorn’s defense team.

According to those sources, Essayli suggested shortly after the meeting ended that the cases against Wiederhorn could be dismissed if Essayli was permanently appointed.

“From day one, we have maintained Andy’s innocence,” Hanna said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are extremely grateful that the U.S. Attorney’s Office listened to our arguments and determined, in the interests of justice, that all charges should be dropped.”

Hanna has not responded to requests for comment about the prior meeting with Essayli.

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Essayli would be named acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, a move that extends his term another 210 days.

Under normal procedures, U.S. Attorneys must receive Senate confirmation or be appointed by a federal judicial panel. But facing opposition to Trump’s picks in the Senate, the administration has used a similar tactic to skirt legal norms and keep its chosen prosecutors in power in New York, New Jersey and Nevada in recent weeks.

The indictment against Wiederhorn also alleged he was aided by the company’s former chief financial officer, Rebecca D. Hershinger, and his outside accountant, William J. Amon. The U.S. attorney’s office moved to to dismiss the indictment against all three defendants, as well as charges against their company, Fat Brands.

“From day one, we have said Rebecca Hershinger was innocent,” attorney Michael J. Proctor of the law firm of Iversen Proctor LLP said in a statement. “We are grateful that the government has acknowledged the case should be dismissed.”

Wiederhorn was also under indictment on a gun charge, which prosecutors moved to dismiss as well. Wiederhorn is banned from possessing firearms after he pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges of paying an illegal gratuity to his associate and filing a false tax return. He spent 15 months in prison and paid a $2-million fine.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s office also moved to dismiss an indictment against Alejandro Orellana, a 29-year-old ex-Marine who had been accused of aiding in civil disorder for passing out gas masks during large scale protests against immigration raids in Southern California.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment. Orellana’s case was one of the few indictments Essayli’s prosecutors had won related to alleged misconduct during the protests, and Essayli had fervently defended the charges when questioned by a Times reporter last month.

“He wasn’t handing masks out at the beach … they’re covering their faces. They’re wearing backpacks. These weren’t peaceful protesters,” Essayli said. “They weren’t holding up signs, with a political message. They came to do violence.”

Orellana issued a statement Tuesday that declared: “Protesting is not a crime. Defending my community is not a crime.”

“I want to thank all the supporters across the country who mobilized to get the charges dropped,” he said. “We won because we’re on the right side of history and our cause is just.”

Kirk, the sheriff’s deputy, was convicted of assault under color of authority in February and faced 10 years in prison for hurling a woman to the ground and pepper spraying her while responding to a reported robbery at a Lancaster supermarket in 2023. The victim, Jacy Houseton, was filming Kirk at the time but was not armed or actively committing a crime.

Kirk and his defense team have argued Houseton matched the description of a suspect given to Kirk as he responded.

Kirk was set to self-surrender next month, on August 28.

“We support that obviously without any objections and I think it’s within the confines of the law,” Kirk’s attorney, Tom Yu, said.

Caree Harper, who has represented Houseton, said she was notified Tuesday afternoon by Asst. U.S. Atty. Robert Keenan of the plan to dismiss the indictment against Kirk.

“We thought Trump’s new U.S. Attorneys office could not stoop any lower, but it seems like Mr. Essayli & Mr. Keenan’s insistence on being Trevor Kirk’s BEST defense attorney has no limits,” Harper said in an email.

Reached by phone, Harper called the news “disappointing and disheartening,” citing the fact that the judge in the case “already gave him an unbelievable break.”

“They don’t want him to spend one day in jail. They don’t want him in cuffs at all,” Harper said. “This is a travesty of justice yet again.”