Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, plans to pursue a psychiatric defense in his state murder trial, a judge revealed Wednesday. New York Judge Gregory Carro said Mangione’s lawyers notified the court they intend to argue the 28-year-old was suffering from an “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of the…
President Trump calls the Obama-era JCPOA a catastrophe while defending his new Iran memorandum of understanding at the G7 summit press conference.
They will argue he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance" at the time UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was killed.
Defense lawyers will argue at a New York state court trial that the 28-year old was in a state of extreme emotional disturbance.
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in March 2024.
Israel has killed over 260 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023. With Israel’s latest and ongoing assault on Lebanon, the death toll of journalists there has reached 28. Irish filmmaker Seán Murray investigates Israel’s killings of journalists in his new feature documentary Journacide: The War on Truth. He says the term “journacide” applies to Israel’s military actions because of the “explicit nature of the targeting and killing of journalists” as a way to silence the truth. Murray calls it “the Gaza doctrine that is now being applied in Lebanon.”
Federal prosecutors charged at least five people in connection with an alleged plot to kill the president and countless others at Sunday's UFC cage fight on the White House lawn. Ed O'Keefe reports.
One of President Trump’s personal lawyers now has a federal judgeship for life, and it’s thanks to multiple Senate Democrats being absent.Justin Smith, 41, was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday in a 48–43 vote, with every Democrat voting against his nomination, while all but one Republican, Lisa Murkowski, voted for him. Nine senators missed the vote: Michael Bennet, Kevin Cramer, John Curtis, Angus King, Ben Ray Luján, Cynthia Lummis, Bernie Sanders, Raphael Warnock, and Mitch McConnell.Bennet, King, Luján, Sanders, and Warnock all caucus with the Democratic Party, and if they had been present to cast a “no” vote, Smith’s vote would have been blocked in a 48–48 tie. Smith will now sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, overseeing federal district court appeals in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.Smith represented Trump in his presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court and worked on his case to have the Supreme Court overturn the sexual assault and defamation charge against the president brought by E. Jean Carroll. Despite being nominated to the federal bench in March, Smith continued representing Trump in Carroll’s case.In his confirmation hearings in April, Smith refused to say who won the 2020 presidential election, and refused to answer questions about whether he would recuse himself from any cases involving Trump, sparring with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.Smith is now the third of Trump’s personal lawyers to be appointed as a federal judge, and the second to be confirmed. He’ll join Emil Bove, who, while working for the Justice Department in Trump’s first term, told his fellow federal prosecutors to disobey court orders and say “fuck you” to judges who ruled against them.Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor Tuesday that Smith’s conflicts of interest raised “serious questions.”“These are lifetime appointments to federal judgeships—lifetime appointments which have to be given to people who have been carefully scrutinized. We have not done that when it comes to Mr. Smith,” Durbin said.
President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Boris Epshteyn, allegedly joined an Indian billionaire's criminal defense team — and the Justice Department then moved to drop the charges, according to a new Wall Street Journal investigation.Epshteyn, who serves as Trump's legal coordinator and closest legal adviser, was said to have joined the defense of Gautam Adani — an Indian billionaire indicted in October 2024 on charges he schemed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials.The alleged bribes were meant to secure solar-energy contracts. Initial defense lawyers had already tried and failed to get the case dropped. By spring 2025, senior Justice Department officials had greenlit proceeding with the prosecution.Then Sullivan & Cromwell — a white-shoe law firm that also represents Trump — took over Adani's defense last July. Around that same time, the Adani family told associates that Epshteyn was helping them.That account came from seven sources familiar with the matter, the Journal reported. Epshteyn never appeared in court filings or attended meetings with prosecutors. But his name was discussed inside the Justice Department.After two presentations by Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers, senior Justice Department officials on May 18 asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to dismiss all charges. The motion notably lacked the signatures of the line prosecutors who built the case — a sign of their disagreement.Epshteyn has spent nearly a decade at Trump's side, starting as a senior adviser on his 2016 campaign. He helped secure Justice Department posts for several officials — including Trent McCotter, the principal associate deputy attorney general who had the final say over the Adani dismissal.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who defended Trump through multiple criminal prosecutions, was previously Epshteyn's own criminal-defense lawyer."The claims in this personal attack are false, malicious, and defamatory," Epshteyn said in a statement. The Adani Group said it "have not retained him in any capacity."Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Blanche demanding an explanation."This administration has made clear that it is not the world police," a Justice Department spokeswoman said.