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A Texas court has ruled that embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton’s long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges from 2015 will take place in Houston AUSTIN, Texas -- Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges from 2015 will take place in Houston, a court ruled Wednesday, dealing the Republican another setback as he awaits a separate impeachment trial . It remains unclear, however, when Paxton might finally have his day in court on felony charges of defrauding investors in a tech startup. For now, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a decision by a judge who originally oversaw the case to move the proceedings out of Paxton's hometown near Dallas. Paxton has spent years fighting to keep the trial in Collin County, where he maintains wide support among GOP activists and his wife, Angela Paxton, is a state senator. The ruling by Texas' highest criminal court comes as Paxton faces removal from office following h...

A judge has set an early 2024 trial date for writer E. Jean Carroll's initial defamation case against former President Trump. A judge has set an early 2024 trial date for writer E. Jean Carroll's original 2019 defamation case against former President Donald Trump. Judge Lewis Kaplan set a trial date of Jan. 15, 2024, for the case, in which Carroll claims then-President Trump defamed her in 2019 when he said she was "not my type" while denying that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied all accusations. MORE: Judge allows E. Jean Carroll to include Trump town hall remarks in defamation suit Last month, in a separate suit, a jury found Trump liable for battery and for defaming Carroll when he said in a 2022 Truth Social post that her allegations were "a Hoax and a lie" and saying again that "This woman is not my type!" Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, added the charge of battery under a recen...

Robert Bowers has been convicted in the killing of 11 worshippers in a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Robert Bowers was found guilty on Friday on all counts in the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 worshippers. Bowers was convicted on all 63 charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death . Bowers offered to plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the table, but prosecutors turned him down. The bullet damaged doors of the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh, was entered June 1, 2023, as a court exhibit by prosecutors in the federal trial of Robert Bowers. U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania via AP MORE: Pittsburgh synagogue massacre: Remembering the 11 victims The jury deliberated for less than one day. Jurors will next weigh if Bowers should be sentenced to death . Bowers stormed the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, gunning down 11 people in the deadliest antisemitic attack in Amer...

Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty in February to dozens of federal hate crimes and firearms charges. The El Paso Walmart gunman was formally sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences for the racist 2019 massacre that killed 23 people and injured nearly two dozen others, according to El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA. Judge David Guaderrama handed down the sentence on Friday after hearing two days of emotional impact statements from victims and the family members of victims. The gunman , 24-year-old Patrick Crusius, pleaded guilty in February to dozens of federal hate crimes and firearms charges. El Paso Walmart shooting suspect Patrick Crusius pleads not guilty during his arraignment in El Paso, Texas, Oct. 10, 2019. Briana Sanchez/AP Crusius allegedly told investigators following his arrest that he set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could after driving from his home in Allen, Texas, about 650 miles east of El Paso, officials said. Twenty-two shooting victims died within days of the ...

A Las Vegas police officer accused of stealing nearly $165,000 in three casino heists is scheduled to face a jury as prosecutors paint him as a gambling addict who grew increasingly desperate under a crush of debt LAS VEGAS -- A trial for a Las Vegas police officer accused of stealing nearly $165,000 in a series of casino heists is set to begin Monday with prosecutors painting him as a gambling addict who grew increasingly desperate under a crush of debt. Prosecutors claim Caleb Rogers, 35, carried out three robberies over a span of four months while armed with a weapon issued by the police department. Rogers' attorney, Richard Pocker, said the government's evidence allegedly tying Rogers to two of the robberies is weak. He accused the FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives of pressuring two people, including Rogers' brother, into identifying him as the suspect in the robberies to close out the cases. Rogers made off with more than $85,000 in the firs...

Andrew Lester, the Missouri man charged in the shooting of teenager Ralph Yarl after he mistakenly went to the wrong house, will face trial, a Clay County judge ruled. Andrew Lester, the Missouri man charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl after the teenager mistakenly went to the wrong house, will face trial, a Clay County judge ruled during a preliminary hearing on Thursday. Following testimony from 12 witnesses in a Liberty courtroom, Clay County Judge Louis Angles said that there was enough probable cause that a felony has been committed. Lester, who did not take the stand, appeared in court with his attorney Steve Salmon. "The binding over of a defendant from a preliminary hearing is fairly normal. The prosecutor simply needs to provide probable cause to bind the case over," Salmon told ABC News after the ruling. "There was certainly no evidence that race had anything to do with this incident. Also, there was an admission that Yarl grabbed the storm door handle of L...

A court officer testified before the judge in Trump adviser Peter Navarro's contempt of Congress case, after Navarro moved for a mistrial following his guilty verdict. In a rare post- trial hearing, a court security officer testified before the judge overseeing former Trump adviser Pet er Navarro's contempt of Congress case, after Navarro's attorneys moved for a mistrial . Navarro, who under Donald Trump was director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was found guilty last week of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued in February 2022 by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. After the verdict, Navarro's attorneys moved for a mistrial on the grounds that the jury exited the building before returning a verdict, and that they may have seen protesters while outside. MORE: Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro found guilty of contempt of Congress Rosa Torres, the court security officer who escort...

A judge has ordered a Dec. 11 trial date to determine what damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay two former Georgia election workers he was found liable for defaming. A federal judge has ordered a Dec. 11 trial date to determine what damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay two former Georgia election workers he was found liable for defaming . Judge Beryl Howell last month found Giuliani liable for defamatory comments he made about the mother-daughter tandem of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss. MORE: Giuliani sanctioned by judge in defamation case brought by 2 Georgia election workers The judge sanctioned Giuliani over erroneous remarks he made accusing the pair of fraudulently manipulating ballots on Election Day 2020 in Georgia, while Giuliani was contesting the 2020 election loss by then-President Donald Trump. In the days after the election , Freeman and Moss became the subjects of a Trump-backed conspiracy theory that was later found to be "false and unsubsta...

Several high-level allies of former President Trump could potentially be called as witnesses in the first Georgia election interference trial starting Oct. 23. Several high-level allies of former President Donald Trump -- including Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn -- could potentially be called as witnesses in the first Georgia election interference trial next month, according to a court filing in the case. McDaniel and Epshteyn were among 52 names that were submitted on a list of potential witnesses and evidence filed Thursday by attorneys for defendant Kenneth Chesebro, who is set to begin trial alongside Sidney Powell on Oct. 23. "Defendant Kenneth Chesebro respectfully provides notice of the following evidence and witness (es) for the 10/13/23 trial ," said the filing from attorneys Scott Grubman and Manubir Arora. MORE: Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood to be prosecution witness in Georgia election case, DA says While not...

Former President Trump's legal team has asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference case for a two-month extension for the filing of pretrial motions. Former President Donald Trump's legal team has asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference case for a two-month extension for the filing of pretrial motions. The current deadline for pretrial motions in the case is Oct. 9, with the case currently scheduled to go to trial on March 4. Trump's legal team argues that this is the "first time a President has been charged for conduct committed while in office, and the first time the leading presidential candidate has been charged in the middle of a campaign by his opponent's administration." MORE: Trump opposes special counsel's request for gag order in Jan. 6 case As a result, they argue, "defense counsel must research and address issues of extreme constitutional import that require careful analysis and briefing." Tr...

The Michigan Supreme Court has turned down an appeal and cleared the way for the parents of the Oxford High School shooter to face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges DETROIT -- The parents of a teenager who killed four students at Michigan's Oxford High School lost an appeal Tuesday and will face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges, a rare case of prosecutors attempting to pin some responsibility for a school shooting on the perpetrator's family. James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and ignoring his mental Health needs. The state appeals court said in March that the couple could face trial , and the Michigan Supreme Court let that decision stand in a one-sentence order. Prosecutors in suburban Detroit had to show only that there was probable cause to put the parents on trial, a low threshold at this stage. The appeals court noted that an Oakland County jury will hear a more expansive case from all sides. The shoote...