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Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes
NEW YORK — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a plan to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn star who claimed they had sex.
Trump sat stone-faced as the verdict was delivered, and cheers from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor, where the decision was announced after more than nine hours of deliberation.
“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” an enraged Trump told reporters after exiting the courthouse. “The people will decide the actual verdict on November 5th. They and everyone else are aware of what occurred here.
Judge Juan M. Merchan set the sentencing date on July 11, two days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP officials, who remained steadfast in their support following the verdict, are anticipated to formally nominate him.
The verdict is a shocking legal reckoning for Trump, exposing him to probable prison time in the city where his manipulation of the tabloid press propelled him from real estate tycoon to reality television celebrity and, eventually, president. As he aspires to recover the White House in this year’s election, the decision again puts voters to the test regarding their readiness to support Trump’s reckless behavior.
Trump is anticipated to appeal the sentence, creating an awkward situation as he returns to the campaign trail laden with convictions. There are no campaign rallies scheduled for the time being, but he did fly Thursday evening to a fundraiser in Manhattan that had been arranged before the verdict, according to three individuals familiar with his plans who were not permitted to comment publicly.
Trump | AP news Image
Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes
He plans to appear at Trump Tower on Friday and continue fundraising next week. His campaign was already mobilizing to raise funds in response to the verdict, producing a pitch referring to him as a “political prisoner.”
The charges of falsifying business records carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say Thursday whether prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment. It is unclear whether the judge, who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations, would impose that punishment even if asked.
Trump will continue his goal of the White House despite his conviction and even incarceration.
Trump faces three other criminal indictments, but the New York case may be the only one resolved before the November election, increasing the significance of the decision. Though the legal and historical ramifications of the verdict are clear, the political consequences are less so, given the potential to reinforce rather than change already hardened views of Trump.
A criminal conviction might end a presidential campaign for another candidate in another time, but Trump’s political career has survived two impeachments, sexual abuse allegations, investigations into everything from potential ties to Russia to plotting to overturn an election, and personally salacious storylines, including the release of a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals.
The main claims in the case have been known to voters for years, and while tawdry, they are widely seen as less serious than the allegations against him in three other cases, which charge him of subverting American democracy and mismanaging national security secrets.
Before the verdict, Trump’s team maintained that, regardless of the jury’s finding, the outcome was unlikely to impact voters and that the election would be decided by factors such as inflation.
Even yet, the ruling will likely give President Joe Biden and other Democrats room to reinforce their allegations that Trump is unfit for office, despite the White House’s subdued statement that it respects the rule of law. In contrast, the ruling will give grist for the presumptive Republican nominee to push his unsubstantiated allegations that he is victimized by a criminal justice system that he thinks is politically motivated against him.
Trump insisted throughout the trial that he had done nothing wrong and that the case should never have been brought, railing against the proceedings from inside the courthouse — where he was joined by a parade of high-profile Republican allies — and incurring fines for violating a gag order with inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses.
Following the decision, Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, stated in television news interviews that he did not believe Trump received a fair trial and that the team would appeal based on the judge’s refusal to disqualify himself and what he described as excessive pretrial publicity.
Republicans showed no signs of weakening their support for the party leader, with House Speaker Mike Johnson lamenting “a shameful day in American history.” He described the lawsuit as “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”
The first criminal prosecution of a former American president has always been a unique test of the legal system, not just because of Trump’s celebrity but also because of his continuous attacks on the case’s premise and players. However, the 12-person jury’s judgment rejected Trump’s efforts to undermine trust in the proceedings or to impress the panel with a show of GOP support.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor,” Bragg stated following the verdict.
The trial contained allegations that Trump fabricated business documents to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn performer who claimed she had sex with the married Trump in 2006.
Trump | AP news Image
Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, paid Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence during the final weeks of the 2016 election in what prosecutors claim was an attempt to influence the outcome. When Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were classified as legal expenses, which prosecutors claimed was an illegal attempt to conceal the true nature of the transaction.
Trump’s lawyers argue that these were valid payments for legal services. He disputed the sexual encounter, and his attorneys claimed at trial that his famous position made him an extortion target.
Additionally, defense attorneys asserted that personal motives—such as the effect on Trump’s family—rather than political ones were behind hush money transactions to cover negative articles about him. By implying that Cohen’s motivations were personal animosity toward Trump, fame, and money, they also attempted to undermine the credibility of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who admitted guilt to federal crimes related to the payments in 2018.
The trial included weeks of occasionally fascinating testimony that revisited a well-documented chapter in Trump’s history. The publication of an “Access Hollywood” recording in which he discussed sexually assaulting women without their consent, as well as the potential emergence of additional stories about Trump and sex that might have jeopardized his candidacy, both posed challenges to his 2016 campaign.
Trump did not testify, but jurors heard his voice on a secret tape of a call with Cohen in which he and the lawyer discussed a $150,000 hush money arrangement involving Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who has claimed to have an affair with Trump. Trump denies the affair.
Daniels herself testified, providing a graphic account of their sexual encounter in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite. David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified about how he sought to prevent information damaging to the Trump campaign from becoming public, including purchasing McDougal’s story.
Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who handled the hush money payments for Daniels and McDougal. He described the stressful discussions to compensate both women for their silence, but he also faced hard questioning from a Trump counsel, who pointed out that Davidson had helped organize similar hush money transactions in cases involving other notable persons.
Trump | Org Image
Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes
Cohen was the most crucial witness, providing an insider’s perspective on the hush money scheme and what he claimed to be Trump’s extensive knowledge of it over several days of testimony.
“Just take care of it,” he cited Trump as saying.
He provided jurors with the most obvious link between Trump and the heart of the accusations, detailing a meeting in which a proposal to compensate Cohen in monthly installments for legal fees was proposed.
He also revealed his emotional break with Trump in 2018, when he began collaborating with prosecutors following a decade-long career as the then-president’s fixer.
“To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family,” Cohen stated.
Although some legal experts condemned the case as the weakest of the prosecutions against Trump, it gained prominence not just because it went to trial first but also because it could be the only one to reach a jury before the election.
The other three — local and federal charges in Atlanta and Washington saying he conspired to overthrow the 2020 election, as well as a federal indictment in Florida accusing him of illegally storing top-secret records — are stalled or on appeal.
SOURCE – (AP)
Microsoft’s online gaming and digital media network, Xbox Live, experienced a massive outage Tuesday, and thousands of customers reported issues accessing it.
According to monitoring site Downdetector, user-reported Xbox Live difficulties began to surge at 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday. At 2:25 p.m., the site had received over 23,000 outage reports, with more than three-fourths indicating login troubles. Some Xbox Live customers reported getting an error message indicating that the service was undergoing “scheduled maintenance.”
Xbox | XBox Image
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
Other Microsoft-operated services, such as Minecraft and the Microsoft Store, also received many user issue reports on Downdetector.
The official Xbox Support account on X stated at 2:55 p.m. ET, “We are aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live. We are conducting an investigation!” The notice led visitors to the Xbox status page, which was later modified to indicate that a serious outage of the “Account & Profile” service was reported at 2:07 p.m. ET.
Xbox
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
“You may be unable to sign in to your Xbox profile, disconnected while signed in, or experiencing other related issues,” the statement on the Xbox status website read. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”
To play online games and access additional experiences on the Xbox console, Windows PC, and Xbox mobile apps, users must first create an Xbox Live account (which is free).
SOURCE – Variety
(CTN News) – General Access Solutions, the company that owns the patent, has been ordered to collect $847 million from Verizon, a major telecommunications carrier in the United States.
According to the information that was provided by The Register, a federal jury in East Texas ordered Verizon to pay General Access the money that was owing to it.
This was stated in the material. The reason for this was that General Access had broken two patents, which led to this situation. As a consequence of this change.
For General Access, Verizon is now responsible for making payments.
According to the decision that was handed down by the court a week ago, the total amount is comprised of a “reasonable royalty” of $583 million for infringing on US Patent No. 7,230,931 (the ‘931) patent, as well as an additional $264 million for infringing on the other patent, which is 9,426,794 (‘794).
The total amount in question is $583 million. The sum in dispute comprises a total of 583 million dollars. Five hundred and eighty-three million dollars is the entire amount that is under question.
According to the allegations, Verizon has committed a violation of the patents that General Access possesses which pertain to the technologies of 5G and hotspots. These patents are related to the technologies that are accessible to the general public without restriction.
General Access was the purchaser of the patents, which had been developed by Raze Technologies, the firm that had bought them. On the other hand, General Access said that some components of Verizon’s 5G wireless networks, smartphone hotspots, wireless home routers, and MiFi devices are in breach of the company’s intellectual property rights.
Raze Technologies was the company that successfully completed the acquisition of the patents offered by General Access.
2001 was the year that both patent applications were initially submitted to the appropriate authorities. The year in which everything began was the year in question.
In the initial complaint that the firm has submitted, it says that the base station technology that Verizon has been deploying is in violation of the 931 patent that it possesses.
This is stated in the complaint that the company has filed. As an additional point of disagreement, the business asserts that the wireless devices produced by Verizon that are capable of receiving 4G and 5G cell signals are in violation of its ‘794 patent. This is due to the fact that these devices route information to mobile stations by abusing 802.11 WiFi communications protocols. This is an additional contentious factor to consider.
In answer to a question that was posed about the patents, Verizon provided a statement in which it suggested that the patents were invalid due to the fact that there was either no written description or the patents were not “fully enabled.”
Verizon’s response to the inquiry is as follows:
According to the official response, this was the response. On the other hand, the members of the jury did not accept this line of thinking in any manner, shape, or form and refused to accept it in any way.
Verizon disclosed that the company will be appealing the verdict in a statement that was issued to DCD. The statement was sent to provide information about the case.
Despite the fact that we have a great deal of respect for the court system, we are unable to express our agreement with the verdict that was reached by this particular jury. As part of our efforts to reverse the verdict that was handed down today, we are going to file an appeal, and we are also going to continue searching for administrative remedies.
In line with a statement that was released by a spokesperson for Verizon, this does not imply the fact that the situation has been resolved.
According to Law 360, Ericsson, a Swedish component manufacturer, is also vehemently opposed to the verdict. The business has declared that it will support any challenge that Verizon takes forward, and it has stated that it will defend itself against any other challenge. The company Ericsson is widely recognized as a frontrunner in the business when it comes to the creation of components.
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To navigate the climate proposal, BlackRock employs a new voting policy.
Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
(VOR News) – The $10.5 trillion money BlackRock manager’s assets will vote differently on shareholder proposals than the funds that have specific climate change mandates. This is BlackRock’s most recent attempt to navigate the political rift over decarbonization.
The world’s biggest asset management said in a statement on Tuesday that clients of funds with a climate focus will now be allowed to voice their opinions aggressively in shareholder resolutions pertaining to decarbonization.
All of BlackRock’s funds are susceptible to climate risk.
Still, funds that follow its recently released “climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines” will evaluate whether or not companies are really attempting to keep the rise in world average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Agreement, which over 200 nations joined, set this goal as the optimal threshold.
The head of BlackRock, Larry Fink, was a vocal early proponent of integrating sustainability into the investment process. In his letter to investors for the 2020 annual meeting, he raised the topic of climate change, but he has subsequently faced criticism from all sides.
With the new stewardship policy, BlackRock is attempting to reconcile US regulations compelling fund managers to focus on financial returns with the expectations of its clients in Europe and the US, who want the company to promote decarbonization.
In a letter to clients, Joud Abdel Majeid, Global Head of Stewardship at BlackRock, said that the policy will start to apply to 83 funds in the fourth quarter. $150 billion worth of assets are held by these funds, all of which are headquartered in Europe.
Conservatives in the US are starting to push back, denouncing the movement as “woke capitalism.” This is true even if a large number of progressives and investors in Europe favor advancing the effort to limit global warming as quickly as is practical.
The boards of directors of funds with a special responsibility for climate change in the United States and Asia will be asked if they would like to carry out the policy later this year. The climate-related option that BlackRock intends to offer will also be available to clients who invest through independently managed accounts.
“BlackRock will continue to undertake our stewardship responsibilities with a sole focus on advancing clients’ long-term financial returns in line with our benchmark policies,” Abdel Majeid stated.
“BlackRock will continue to handle all other funds.”
As a result, the climate-focused funds might adopt stances on business votes related to fossil fuels and other decarbonization-related issues that are completely at odds with those of the other funds in the group. They will follow BlackRock’s primary criteria for additional environmental, social, and governance considerations in all other cases.
Since the spike in energy prices that coincided with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, BlackRock has been the subject of intense political discourse. Conservatives have tried to limit or boycott the company’s offerings. Simultaneously, proponents of climate change expressed their annoyance at the company’s sharp drop in backing for shareholder resolutions related to the issue.
Since then, the asset manager has claimed that a large number of recently passed shareholder resolutions by businesses were unduly prescriptive and did not support customers’ financial interests.
BlackRock withdrew its support from Climate Action 100+, an investor group founded to motivate companies to combat global warming, at the beginning of this year. Instead of carrying on with global participation, it chose to move membership to its smaller foreign subsidiary.
BlackRock has also implemented a policy that gives institutional clients and some retail investors authority over how their shares are voted on proxy matters.
Investors may choose to entrust BlackRock with their vote or they can choose from over a dozen policies created by proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis through the “voting choice” scheme.
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