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Legal experts say of all the charges filed against the former president and his aide, obstruction is one of the most serious. Of all of the federal charges that former president Donald Trump and his aide Walter Nauta face in the investigation into the alleged mishandling of top secret government documents, obstruction is one of the most serious, according to legal experts. Claire Finkelstein, the founder and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, noted that the obstruction charges in the indictment against Trump and his aide carry as much serious weight as the charges related to keeping the top secret documents, with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Finkelstein told ABC News this was not surprising, as the federal government has always treated allegations of interfering with any investigation seriously and often spearhead these kind of probes. The Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United Sta...

A man who police say was exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis when he shot and killed a pregnant restaurant owner in her car in downtown Seattle this week has been charged with first-degree murder in her death SEATTLE -- A man who police say was exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis after he shot and killed a pregnant restaurant owner in her car in downtown Seattle this week was charged Friday with first-degree murder in her death, and prosecutors said they are seeing whether they can also charge him for the death of the baby girl the woman was carrying. Cordell M. Goosby, 30, was arrested Tuesday soon after witnesses said he ran up to a car occupied by Eina Kwon, 34, and her husband, Sung Kwon, 37, the owners of a sushi restaurant near the city's famed Pike Place Market, and started firing a stolen gun into the vehicle without provocation. Eina Kwon, who was eight months pregnant, was killed. Sung Kwon suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and the fetus died soon after emer...

The men also allegedly vandalized the homes of one of the reporter's parents on two occasions, the U.S. attorney's office said. Three men have been charged with a conspiracy to harass and intimidate two New Hampshire Public Radio journalists in retaliation for a story the reporters were covering, federal authorities said. On three separate occasions between April and May 2022, Tucker Cockerline, 32, Michael Waselchuck, 35, and Keenan Saniatan, 36, allegedly threw rocks and bricks and spray-painted the homes of the two journalists after they started reporting on an alleged sexual assault by an unnamed New Hampshire businessman, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office from the District of Massachusetts. The suspects also allegedly vandalized the homes of one of the reporter's parents on two other occasions, the U.S. attorney's office said. In this image released by the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, a suspect is shown in Hampst...

A white woman accused of firing through her door and fatally shooting a Black mother in front of her 9-year-old son in central Florida has been formally charged with manslaughter and assault A white woman accused of firing through her door and fatally shooting a Black mother in front of her 9-year-old son in central Florida was charged Monday with manslaughter and assault. Susan Lorincz was arrested earlier this month following the fatal shooting of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida. She was formally charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault. State Attorney William Gladson said his office contemplated filing a second-degree murder charge but prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence that Lorincz had “hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent” toward Owens. “As deplorable as the defendant's actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder," Gladson said in ...

The DOJ has charged an IRS tax consultant with allegedly leaking private tax information about wealthy individuals. The Justice Department announced on Friday charges against a Washington, D.C., IRS consultant for allegedly leaking tax information associated with former President Donald Trump and thousands of other wealthy individuals to two separate news organizations. 38-year-old Charles Littlejohn was charged via a criminal information with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information -- indicating he is likely set to plead guilty to the charge. The criminal information notes that while he worked at the IRS as a government contractor, he stole information associated with an unnamed high-ranking government official and disclosed it to a news organization. He also stole tax information from "thousands of the nation's wealth iest individuals and disclosed that information to a separate news organization," the Justice Department says. I...

Hunter Biden is expected to plead not guilty Tuesday when he is arraigned on three gun charges that were originally part of a federal plea deal that fell apart in July. Hunter Biden returns Tuesday to the same Delaware courthouse where his federal plea deal fell apart more than two months ago -- this time to face three felony gun charges leveled by the special counsel who negotiated that ill-fated agreement. Attorneys for Hunter Biden have signaled he will enter a plea of not guilty to the charges, which include allegations that he lied on a federal form when he said he was drug-free at the time that he purchased a Colt revolver in October 2018. Special counsel David Weiss indicted President Joe Biden's son last month after a yearslong investigation. That probe appeared on the cusp of completion in June, when Weiss' office brokered a two-pronged plea agreement with Hunter Biden's legal team. MORE: Judge orders Hunter Biden to appear in person at arraignment on federal gun...

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is returning to a New York City federal court to enter a not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government NEW YORK -- U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez returns to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging that he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government even as he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez, 69, was scheduled to appear in the afternoon before Judge Sidney H. Stein at federal court in Manhattan. The Democrat stepped down from his powerful post leading the Senate committee after he was charge d last month. Prosecutors said the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car over the past five years from three New Jersey Business men in exchange for a variety of corrupt acts. The other defendants enter ed not guilty charge s to a superseding indictment last week. The senator was permitted to delay his...

A Hong Kong court has dismissed a gun charge against a Washington state senator arrested after he carried a gun into the Chinese territory HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong court dismissed a gun charge Monday against a Washington state senator who had been arrested after he carried a gun into the Chinese territory in what he called an “honest mistake.” Republican Jeff Wilson self-declared he was carrying the gun at the airport Oct. 21, has a clear criminal record in Hong Kong and made his admission in an open manner, the prosecution said at the court hearing. Principal Magistrate Don So approved the arrangement for a bind-over order rather than a plea to possessing an unlicensed firearm, saying he was inclined to believe Wilson was innocent. The bind-over order requires Wilson to keep the peace and avoid committing further firearms offenses for two years. The magistrate said Wilson would be fined 2,000 Hong Kong dollars ($255) for breaching the order if he doesn't comply. With the case...

A grand jury in Atlanta has indicted an Alabama man on charges that he threatened Fulton County DA Fani Willis over her prosecution of former President Trump. A federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted an Alabama man Monday on charge s that he threatened Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Arthur Ray Hanson was charged with transmitting interstate threats to injure Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat, who controls the jail where Trump was fingerprinted and photographed after he was indicted in August on charge s of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Hanson made an initial appearance in Huntsville federal court in Alabama, and will be brought to Atlanta for an arraignment next month. MORE: Jenna Ellis becomes 4th defendant to take plea deal in Georgia election case, regrets representing Trump Hanson, 59, called the Fulton County customer service line twice in August and le...

A suspect has been arrested on a murder charge in connection with the stabbing of Brooklyn activist Ryan Carson, police said. A teenage suspect has been charged with murder in connection with the stabbing of Brooklyn, New York, activist Ryan Carson, police said. The suspect, 18-year-old Brian Dowling, was taken into custody around 11 a.m. Thursday, police said. He was also charge d with criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Brian Dowling is walked out of 81st Precinct in Brooklyn, New York, Oct. 5, 2023. ABC News Detectives were searching Dowling's home, located less than a block from the deadly assault, when he showed up, according to police sources. They recovered the sweatshirt he appears to have been wearing in the surveillance images from the scene of the stabbing along with a knife that will now be tested to see if it matches the murder weapon, sources said. He was being held at the NYPD's 81st Precinct and was arraigned late Thursday. Social Justice Advocate Rya...

U.S. Attorney David Weiss was appointed special counsel in the case last month. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has been indicted by special counsel David Weiss on felony gun charges . The charges bring renewed legal pressure on the younger Biden after a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors imploded in recent months. The younger Biden has been charged with one count of False Statement in Purchase of a Firearm, one count of False Statement Related to Information Required to be Kept By Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer, and one count of Possession of a Firearm by a Person who is an Unlawful User of or Addicted to a Controlled Substance. MORE: What to know about the Hunter Biden investigations Prosecutors have spent years scrutinizing Hunter Biden's business endeavors and personal life -- a probe that appeared to culminate in a plea agreement the two sides struck in June, which would have allowed him to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax offenses and enter i...

Illinois’ attorney general ended a five-year investigation into sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy in the state Tuesday, releasing a nearly 700-page report that revealed the problem was far worse than the church had said in 2018 at the start o... CHICAGO -- Illinois' attorney general has ended a five-year investigation into sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy in the state, releasing a nearly 700-page report that revealed the problem was far worse than the church acknowledged in 2018 at the start of the state's review. Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Tuesday that state investigators found that more than 450 Catholic clergy in Illinois had sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950. But Raoul and other experts say the finding is unlikely to lead to criminal charges. That follows a familiar pattern — no rush of criminal charge s followed the 2018 release of a bombshell grand jury report on clergy abuse in Pennsylvania or last month’s report on abuse ...