Crime

After a flurry of confused and contradictory reports, it appears that the attack in lower Manhattan was indeed Islamic terrorism. At least six people were killed Tuesday afternoon when a speeding Home Depot truck plowed along a Lower Manhattan bike path, running down helpless riders from behind, sources said. Eyewitnesses told police the driver yelled “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for …

USA Today reports: Less than two hours after President Trump’s former campaign manager was indicted Monday, the Trump re-election campaign decided to send out a fundraising email. The email, entitled “Still Standing” and from presidential son Eric Trump, describes the “opposition” to the administration. “The mainstream media continues to play politics, creating division and turning the American people against one …

Scamvangelist Pat Robertson today called for Trump to shut down Robert Mueller’s investigation and issue a blanket pardon for everybody touched by the Russia probe. Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: Trump “can grant a pardon to everybody involved in this thing if he wants to,” Robertson said. “This whole thing has got to be shut down. He has …

The Associated Press reports: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates appeared before a federal …

Get out your popcorn. UPI reports: The White House will have a response Monday afternoon to charges announced against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Press secretary Sarah Sanders is scheduled to hold a news briefing at 1 p.m. Sanders will be asked about a 12-count indictment Monday naming Manafort and former business associate Rick Gates. Separately, George Papadopoulos, a …

“This is the first of many dominoes to fall. Bob Mueller is following the standard M.O. of federal prosecutors. You’ve got a totem pole, you’ve got somebody at the top of the totem pole, that’s your big prize: no surprise, it’s the president of the United States. You’re going to indict people going up the totem pole to see if …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump on Monday responded to charges against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a Manafort business associate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in last year’s election. In a tweet, Trump sought to distance himself from Manafort and insisted that “the focus” should turn to …

ABC News reports that former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopolous has pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents in a plea agreement made public this morning. Papadopolous first worked as an advisor to Ben Carson’s campaign and joined the Trump team in May 2016. He reportedly made at least six attempts to have Trump meet with Kremlin officials …

Bloomberg reports: Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor is accused of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic by bribing doctors to prescribe a powerful form of fentanyl to patients who didn’t need the potent drug. Kapoor, 74, was arrested Thursday in Arizona and charged with racketeering conspiracy and other felonies. He’s scheduled to appear in a Phoenix court later in …

The New York Daily News reports: A conservative YouTube conspiracy theorist has been accused of killing his father after he called him a Nazi. Lane Davis, whose Seattle4Truth YouTube channel includes warnings about a “world internet government” and fluoridated water, stabbed his dad to death, according to prosecutors in northern Washington state’s Skagit County. Audio from a 911 call published …

NBC News reports: A search of a Florida man’s home for child pornography this week yielded more than what authorities were expecting. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday it stumbled upon a disturbing array of weapons inside the Tampa Bay-area home of 24-year-old Randall Drake. Three homemade bombs and a homemade silencer, maps and aerial photos of local schools …

The Arizona Daily Star reports: Saying the president can’t erase facts, a federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid by former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to have all record of his criminal conviction wiped out. Susan Bolton said she already dismissed the criminal contempt case against Arpaio following the decision by President Trump to issue a pardon. That saved …

WIBC News reports: A Rush County pastor, accused of molesting three young members of his congregation. 72-year-old Garry Evans, pastor of Baptist Temple in Rushville, faces three counts of child molesting, four counts of sexual battery, and five counts of child solicitation. Court documents show that an investigation into Evans began September 4, when a three-year-old girl reported an encounter …

KTLA reports: A man accused of torturing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son to death killed the child because he thought the boy was gay, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor said during opening statements Monday. Aguirre, 32, is charged with murder with a special circumstance of torture. Prosecutor Jon Hatami detailed the acts allegedly committed by Aguirre and the …

Andy Humm reports at Gay City News: Abel Cedeno, 18, the bullied gay teen charged with killing one classmate, Matthew McCree, 15, and wounding another, Ariane Laboy, 16, with a knife spoke to Gay City News from Rikers Island on Sunday, recounting the incident, the anti-gay bullying that preceded it for years, and the way it intensified on September 27 …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Of course it is important and right that the Department of Justice assist in bringing to justice the murderer of Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, one of the far too many transgender people, and especially transgender people of color, targeted in the ongoing lethal epidemic of hate violence. But it is the height of cynicism for Attorney …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a …

The New York Daily News reports: A traveler furious over a $50 bag check fee at LaGuardia Airport claimed to have a bomb Saturday morning — prompting an evacuation and flight diversions, Port Authority police said. The man was checking in at a Spirit Airlines counter in Terminal B around 7 a.m. when he was told it would cost him …

The Philly Voice reports: A federal lawsuit alleging Kathryn Knott, her father and members of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office conspired to retaliate against a Montgomery County woman who posted mocking Internet comments can proceed, U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg ruled last week. Goldberg declined to dismiss the lawsuit filed last year by Kathleen O’Donnell, a Norristown resident …

AL.com reports: The son of Roy Moore, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, turned himself in for third-degree criminal trespassing on Monday, the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office said. Caleb Elisha Moore, 27, was booked into Etowah County Jail at 10:31 a.m. He was released on a $1,000 bond a few minutes later, spokeswoman Natalie Barton said. Barton said Moore turned …