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Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in her legal battles against U.S. President Donald Trump, was arrested on Monday and charged with extorting more than $20 million from Nike, federal prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorneys offices in New York and Los Angeles separately filed charges against Avenatti, with the California case accusing him of embezzling a client’s money to cover his own debts, as well as using phony tax returns to obtain millions of dollars in loans from a bank.

Avenatti threatened to expose allegations of misconduct from Nike employees unless the apparel company paid him and an unnamed co-conspirator $22.5 million to “buy Avenatti’s silence,” the New York complaint said.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday cast doubt on a $8.5 million settlement Google had agreed to pay to end an internet privacy dispute, directing a lower court to review whether plaintiffs who accused the search engine operator of wrongdoing in a class action lawsuit were legally eligible to sue.

The plaintiffs had argued that Google, part of Alphabet Inc., violated federal privacy law by allowing other websites to see users’ search queries.

Continue reading “U.S. top court undermines Google settlement in internet privacy case”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the U.S. government’s authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation anytime – potentially even years – after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing President Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies.

The court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could pick up such immigrants and place them into indefinite detention anytime, not just immediately after they finish their prison sentences.

Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court hands Trump a victory on immigration detention”

The U.S. college admissions scandal that erupted this week has triggered private litigation accusing rich, well-connected parents of buying spots for their children at prestigious schools, and keeping children of less wealthy parents out.

A $500 billion civil lawsuit filed by a parent on Wednesday in San Francisco accused 45 defendants of defrauding and inflicting emotional distress on everyone whose “rights to a fair chance at entrance to college” were stolen through their alleged conspiracy.

Continue reading “U.S. college admissions scandal sparks $500 billion lawsuit”

Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump, has been indicted in New York on residential mortgage fraud and other charges, as state lawmakers move to insulate the case from a possible presidential pardon.

The indictment was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Wednesday, less than an hour after a federal judge sentenced Manafort to about 3-1/2 extra years in prison on charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Continue reading “Ex-Trump aide Manafort charged with mortgage fraud in New York”