Lawyers say Epstein victims to sue financier's estate this week

Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents two women, told Reuters "we intend to promptly file those civil claims" having held off suing while federal prosecutors pursued sex trafficking charges against Epstein. New York lawyer Roberta Kaplan said she hopes to file on Wednesday on behalf of a client to take advantage of a new New York State law which makes it possible to pursue decades-old claims of abuse. Kaplan will sue on behalf of a woman described in the indictment against Epstein as a minor victim.

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Hong Kong's airport canceled all flights on Monday as protests raged. Here's why.

Hong Kong International Airport shut down all flights after thousands of protesters flooded the airport's main terminal Monday afternoon.

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Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea

A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has asked Beijing to explain the activities of Chinese research vessels and warships in what the Philippines claims as its waters.

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Police arrest white supremacist for threatening Walmart attack

A white supremacist has been arrested after he posted a message on Facebook threatening a shooting at a Walmart in Florida, police have said.Richard Clayton, 26, was arrested after making an online threat on Friday, according to police, just days after a gunman stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people. That suspect, Patrick Crusius, reportedly posted an anti-immigrant screed on the online messaging forum 8chan shortly before the mass shooting. Mr Clayton reportedly wrote on Facebook: “3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back.”“Don’t go to Walmart next week,” the post continued.He was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily harm, according to Florida officials, who told the Associated Press he was held on $15,000 (£12,461) bond at the Orange County Jail. The Florida Department of Law enforcement said in a statement: “Law enforcement has zero tolerance for threats being made and will utilise the full force of the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure the public’s safety.” The country has been on high alert amid a wave of deadly mass shootings and an apparent rise in domestic terror incidents which FBI Director Christopher Wray attributed to violent white supremacy during a public Senate hearing this summer. A day before Mr Clayton’s arrest, a man was charged with “making a terrorist threat in the first degree" after walking into a Missouri Walmart earlier in the week donning full body armour while carrying multiple firearms and over 100 rounds of ammunition. The suspect, 23-year-old Conor Climo from Las Vegas, reportedly possessed bomb-making materials and shared white supremacist and neo-Nazi sentiments with an undercover FBI agent.Another Florida resident was charged with threatening an attack just one day after the Walmart shooting, calling one of the chain stores in the town of Gibsonton and reportedly threatening to “shoot up the store”. There have also been a series of false alarms in recent weeks where crowds have mistaken loud noises for mass shootings, including in Times Square, New York.

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Venezuela pro-Maduro legislature to assess early congress elections

Venezuela's pro-government legislature on Monday agreed to create a commission to evaluate holding 2020 legislative elections early, which would create an opportunity for the government to reclaim control of the opposition-dominated congress.

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Next Guatemala leader seeks better U.S. migrant deal, hindered by split Congress

Guatemala's incoming president Alejandro Giammattei has vowed to seek better terms for his country from an unpopular migration deal agreed with Washington last month, but any room for maneuver is seen as likely to be hampered by weakness in the national Congress.

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'They're being used': Hong Kong protests divide neighbourhoods

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters boast of a broad support base but their movement has divided some neighbourhoods, including Wong Tai Sin, where many police officers live. Poppy Chan, the wife of a police officer, was preparing dinner for her family when she heard the crash of a brick shattering the window of her third-floor apartment. Chan's family had cowered inside the apartment during three days of running protests in the neighbourhood.

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Hong Kong airport shuts down amid pro-democracy protest

The extreme action by the largely leaderless movement seemed calculated to prompt a stern response from Beijing, and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's administration responded within hours. No new violence was reported by Monday evening, although the city remained on edge after more than two months of near-daily and increasingly bloody confrontations between protesters and police. Beijing tends toward a broad definition of terrorism, including in it nonviolent protests of government policies on the environment or in minority regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet.

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Goldman Sachs economists say fears rise that U.S.-China trade war leading to recession

"We expect tariffs targeting the remaining $300bn of U.S. imports from China to go into effect," the bank said in a note sent to clients. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 1 that he would impose a 10% tariff on a final $300 billion worth of Chinese imports on Sept. 1, prompting China to halt purchases of U.S. agricultural products. China denies that it has manipulated the yuan for competitive gain.

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Guatemala election winner Alejandro Giammattei says he wants to rewrite controversial Trump migration deal

Conservative "eternal candidate" Alejandro Giammattei has won Guatemala's presidential election, saying he wants to make changes to a controversial migration deal the Central American country signed with the Trump administration last month. Speaking to Reuters shortly before being declared victor, Mr Giammattei, who had made three previous presidential bids, said he wanted to see what could be done to improve the deal that outgoing President Jimmy Morales agreed to stem US-bound migration from Central America. Mr Giammattei will not take office until January, by which time Guatemala may be under severe pressure from the deal that effectively turns the country into a buffer zone, by forcing migrants to seek refuge there rather than in the United States. "I hope that during this transition the doors will open to get more information so we can see what, from a diplomatic point of view, we can do to remove from this deal the things that are not right for us, or how we can come to an agreement with the United States," Mr Giammattei, 63, said in the interview. Threatened with economic sanctions if he said no, Mr Morales reached an accord in late July to make Guatemala a so-called safe third country for migrants, despite the endemic poverty and violence plaguing the Central American nation. "It's not right for the country," Mr Giammattei said of the deal. "If we don't have the capacity to look after our own people, imagine what it will be like for foreigners." The agreement is also highly unpopular in Guatemala, which is itself now the biggest source of migrants intercepted at the US-Mexico border, according to US government data.  A poll published this week by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre showed more than eight out of 10 respondents rejected the idea of the country accepting foreign migrants seeking asylum. Mr Giammattei noted that since a US judge had already suspended a separate safe third country accord, there was a chance that the deal with Guatemala could change. "We'll have to see what happens in the United States with the federal judge's decision. The most likely outcome is that the United States will have to modify ... the deal," he said, also noting Guatemala's Congress would need to be consulted. In July, a US federal judge in California blocked a Trump administration rule that would bar asylum applications at the US-Mexico border. Prior to the accord president Mr Morales signed, Guatemala's Constitutional Court said Congress, which is in recess, needed to be consulted on any safe third country deal. But when Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Guatemalan exports, and to levy charges on billions of dollars in remittances sent home by Guatemalans living in the United States if he failed to sign the migration deal, Mr Morales relented. Three million Guatemalans live and work in the United States, which is also the country's main trading partner. Mr Giammattei also said he doubted that migrants would be willing to comply with the deal. "They are looking for asylum in the United States," he said. "I don't think there are a lot of people from El Salvador and Honduras who want to seek asylum in Guatemala, especially if they are fleeing poverty." To address the migration problem, Mr Giammattei has pledged to build a "wall of investment" along Guatemala's impoverished border region with Mexico as a means of promoting economic development and encouraging people to stay at home. Mr Giammattei defeated his centre-left rival, former first lady Sandra Torres, by a landslide, winning more than 58 per cent of the vote, preliminary results showed.

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Hong Kong's airport reopens on Tuesday after unprecedented closure

Hong Kong's airport reopened on Tuesday but its administrator warned that flight movements would still be affected, after China said widespread anti-government protests that halted flights a day earlier showed "sprouts of terrorism".

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'#ClintonBodyCount': Trump's sharing of Epstein conspiracy theory draws outrage

President Trump drew widespread backlash after sharing a baseless conspiracy theory tying the death of Jeffrey Epstein, a well-connected convicted sex offender, to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

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Clashes undermine fragile truce over Jerusalem holy site

It wasn't inevitable that the overlap of Jewish and Muslim holidays would lead to clashes at a Jerusalem site deeply revered by both faiths. After an outcry by right-wing Israeli leaders, the police reversed an earlier decision to bar the Jewish visitors and let them in, as stun grenades echoed and tear gas filled the air.

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Hong Kong's Airport Is Shut Down Amid Protests. Here's What Travelers Should Know

Protesters occupied the airport, causing hundreds of flights to be canceled

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Joe Biden vows to increase the number of immigrants in the US

Democratic hopeful Joe Biden promises Iowa voters that if he's elected there will be a flood of immigrants into the U.S.

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Deadly explosion at Russian test site involved nuclear power source, reports say

An explosion at a Russian base that killed at least five people last week involved a small nuclear reactor, state nuclear officials said.

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Jeffrey Epstein: Who is embroiled in sex scandal - and why are there conspiracy theories over his death?

Outrage and intrigue surrounds the apparent suicide in prison of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted paedophile who had connections to celebrities and presidents.  His death sparked questions about whether the alleged victims will have a full chance at justice, though US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the federal investigation into allegations that Epstein ran a sex trafficking ring remains ongoing. Among those dragged into one of the biggest sex scandals of a generation is the Duke of York, a former friend of the high-flying financier. Epstein, who hobnobbed with countless politicians and celebrities over the years, was found dead in his cell on Saturday while awaiting trial. Here is everything we know about the case.  Who was Jeffrey Epstein? Epstein, 66, was a hedge fund manager who once socialised with the rich, famous and powerful. Epstein owned a private island in the Caribbean, homes in Paris and New York City, a New Mexico ranch, and a fleet of high-price cars.  Under a 2008 non-prosecution agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and another similar prostitution charge. That allowed him to avoid federal prosecution and a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work-release programme. He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender. Jeffrey Epstein looks on during a a bail hearing last month  Credit: Reuters Last month, he was arrested by FBI officers when his private jet landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey following a trip to Paris. He was then charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Prosecutors said Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage teens, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005. The young women were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him, perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors alleged. Epstein denied the charges and faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted. Who has been caught up in the scandal? Politicians, celebrities and even members of the Royal family have been embroiled in the controversy after a Manhattan court released 1,200 pages of documents detailing lurid claims of the alleged abuse carried out by Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell The files relate to the case of Giuffre v Maxwell, in which Virginia Giuffre, who claims to have been the US ­businessman’s teenage “sex slave”, sued Ghislaine Maxwell, a British ­socialite and the billionaire’s former girlfriend, for defamation. Testimony includes claims by Giuffre that she had sex with the Duke of York when she was 17.  All the allegations about Prince Andrew were struck from the court record in 2015 after being described as "immaterial and impertinent" by the judge. The Prince has always denied the allegations and any involvement. The documents released state it is “an undisputed fact that multiple witnesses deposed in this case” have testified that Ms Maxwell, daughter of Robert Maxwell “operated as convicted paedophile Epstein’s procurer of under age girls”. The defamation case, filed in 2015, was settled out of court by Ms Maxwell in 2017. Ms Maxwell called Ms Guiffre’s claims ­“fictitious lies and stories to make this a salacious event”. Jeffrey Epstein: The tangled web left behind Separately, the documents refer to his former friendships with people such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Both have denied knowing anything about Epstein's alleged crimes.  How did Epstein die? According to the US department of justice it was an "apparent suicide" in which he hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional center in Manhattan. He was discovered at 6.30am on Saturday. Epstein had previously been found on the floor of his cell with bruises on his neck on July 23. He was placed on suicide watch, which included having a daily psychiatric evaluation, and checks by prison guards every 15 minutes. But less than a week later he was taken off suicide watch. He was still supposed to be checked every 30 minutes but that was not done on the night he died. His cellmate had been transferred and he was alone in the cell. The US attorney general said he was "livid". The FBI and the inspector general have launched inquiries into what went wrong. What are the conspiracy theories? Epstein's death immediately sparked conspiracy theories because the possibility he might tell all about his sordid life was undeniably embarrassing to a host of high profile politicians and celebrities who knew him. Depending on political persuasion, conspiracy theorists pointed the finger at either Mr Trump, or Bill and Hillary Clinton. The hashtags "Trumpbodycount" and "Clintonbodycount" began trending on Twitter. One Trump administration official wrote on social media that Epstein had been "Hillary'd". The Clintons responded that the conspiracy theory was "ridiculous." Death of financier | Epstein's final days Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, fanned the flames. He said: "What a lot of us want to know is, what did he know? How on earth is he not under special protection? What's really going on here?" A former inmate at the jail in Manhattan, where drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was once held, said: "There’s no way that man [Epstein] could have killed himself. I’ve done too much time in those units. It’s an impossibility." What happens to the Epstein case? His death means the criminal case against Epstein, in which he was charged with trafficking underage girls for sex, is over. However, the charges included that he was part of a "conspiracy" and prosecutors made clear they would continue to pursue any alleged co-conspirators. That means other individuals in Epstein's orbit could still be charged with crimes. The focus now is on associates of Epstein who have been accused either of having sex with teenage girls, or procuring them for Epstein and others. Adam Citron, a former New York prosecutor, told The Daily Telegraph the prosecutors might "absolutely" want to speak to the Duke and Ms Maxwell, as witnesses as they built up a picture of Epstein's world. The prosecutors in New York believe a flood of new information could emerge as employees of Epstein who signed non disclosure agreements during his lifetime may now feel free to talk. However, Epstein's estate could still sue them if they breach the agreements by speaking. Will the alleged victims be compensated? Epstein was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and lawyers for the alleged victims immediately called for his estate to be frozen, saying they will sue his estate. Several of Epstein's accusers said they were disappointed that the financier would not face them in court or serve a long prison sentence if convicted. They called on federal authorities to investigate associates of Epstein for any role in his activities. Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer representing one accuser, said in a statement that "the reckoning of accountability begun by the voices of brave and truthful victims should not end" with Epstein's death. Jennifer Araoz Another accuser, Jennifer Araoz, who came forward after the new charges were filed, said she was angered by Epstein's suicide. Ms Araoz alleged that Epstein raped her in his New York mansion in the early 2000s when she was 15. "We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed the pain and trauma he caused so many people," she said. Eva Ford, mother of alleged Epstein victim Courtney Wild, questioned why Epstein was not being monitored more closely. “How does someone who is this high profile commit suicide?” Ford told the Miami Herald. “They had to have cameras on him! Someone must have been paid to look the other way.”

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The Latest: Hong Kong airport to restart flights Tuesday

The Hong Kong airport says it will restart flights starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday after it completely shut down operations when thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators occupied its main terminal. Airport staff advised passengers to leave the airport for their own safety, but traffic outside was at a near standstill, and public transportation was clogged. Some passengers and departing protesters opted to walk.

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Devastating photos show the damage of Typhoon Lekima, which left at least 44 people dead and forced 1 million to evacuate in China

A million people were evacuated from their homes and thousands of flights were cancelled across major airports in China.

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Low-Polling Democrats Seek Breakout Moments at Iowa State Fair

(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Yang waved around a half-eaten turkey leg as he calculated how many such treats one could buy with the $1,000 a month he’s proposed giving to Americans. Tim Ryan jokingly joined the hordes asking Kamala Harris for a photo before handing his small son over for a photo with her. Kirsten Gillibrand brought her son, Henry, and his new stuffed sloth, Blueberry, onto the soapbox stage.The Iowa State Fair is a rite of passage for presidential contenders, but for the lowest polling candidates in the record-size field, the event took on an extra level of urgency.It was perhaps their final attempt to gin up extra attention and support as they seek to qualify for the September Democratic debate in Houston. If candidates fail to qualify -- and only nine have so far-- they might start heading off the field.So even though the State Fair itinerary for politicians is steeped in traditional routines -- speaking from the Des Moines Register Soapbox, flipping burgers with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, visiting the famed 600-pound butter cow, and biting into some fried food on a stick -- candidates were looking for any way to stand out.‘Best Week’Asked on “Fox News Sunday” if his campaign was faltering, Ryan, a Representative from Ohio, said, “We’ve literally had the best week of our campaign,” citing the state fair.Others struggled to rise above the crowd.“I’m standing out by enjoying myself and having fun eating all the delicious food and watching my 11-year-old having a total blast,” said Gillibrand, a New York senator, who’s yet to hit either the fundraising or polling qualification threshold for the Houston debate, as she walked down the main concourse of the fair in sun hat and flowery dress.But it was the frontrunners who clearly stood out.Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the two poll leaders in Iowa, drew the largest crowds at the soapbox and could barely make their way through the crowds as voters muscled in to get a selfie and cameras hovered in front of their faces.Wealth TaxWarren, who operatives say has the strongest Iowa field operation, was greeted with rapturous applause when she spoke about her proposed 2% household tax on wealth over $50 million and 3% on wealth over $1 billion. Dozens of Warren organizers -- most wearing “I’m a Warren Democrat” T-shirts-- also dotted the crowd, seeking to connect with voters and gather their information.Meanwhile, candidates like Ryan and Gillibrand mostly made their way through the crowd unnoticed. When one fair-goer walked by the soapbox and was told Gillibrand was speaking, she asked, “Senator Jill Brown?”Ryan similarly faced name recognition problems: “You might not know who I am,” he said on the soapbox. “I’m Tim Ryan.”The Iowa State Fair rarely vaults an unknown candidate into the top tier or dooms a front-runner. But with hundreds of reporters in attendance and the chance for candidates to speak from the soapbox and exhibit their retail politicking skills in the crowds, it’s one of the only marquee candidate events in sleepy August. About one million people typically come through the gates each year.‘Reaching Out’“If you don’t come to the Iowa State Fair and participate then there’s a perception that you’re not reaching out to everyday Iowans,” said Scott Brennan, a former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. “It’s an opportunity to get your face in front of a lot of people.”Former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, the once-rising star of Democratic politics who hasn’t yet broken out of single-digits in national polls, skipped the fair to stay in his home town of El Paso, the site of one of last weekend’s deadly shootings. He paused his campaign but indicated he will return to the trail.The latest Iowa poll released on Thursday by Monmouth University showed Biden maintaining his lead with 28%, but Warren has steadily closed the gap, earning 19% support. They are followed by Harris, the California senator, with 11% and Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, with 9%.But, as voters baked under the hot sun and listened to candidate after candidate on the soapbox, they shared a resounding message: the field is full of good candidates, but there are too many in the race.Candidate Overload“After this, there’s a lot of them that should be going,” said Arlee Brunsvold, a 77-year-old from Moingona. “Half of them should be going because they haven’t hit their niche yet.”Longtime Democratic operatives agreed, saying they’ve heard complaints about the field being too unwieldy. The two candidates debates so far, in Miami and Detroit, were each held over two nights to accommodate the many Democratic hopefuls.“Just talking to traditional Iowans who attend the caucuses, they are just sort of waiting because the field is so large they can’t really differentiate between the candidates,” Brennan said.However, Democratic voters also said they appreciate the role some low-polling candidates have played in bringing new ideas into the fold. Many said they hope some of those policy proposals would make it into the Democratic Party’s platform next summer, whoever the nominee is.Ultimately, though, it was clear to fair-goers who would be in the race for the long haul.“You can tell the staying power of her versus the staying power of Tim Ryan,” said Sharon Teale, 62, of Altoona, after Harris and Ryan spoke at the soapbox. “There were hardly any people here. You know right away unfortunately. Tim Ryan has good suggestions. Tim Ryan will be dropped.”\--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Des Moines at tpager1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Jeffrey Epstein death: Why was billionaire paedophile taken off suicide watch six days after being found unconscious in his cell?

Like all federal prisons, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan has a suicide prevention program designed for inmates who are at risk of taking their own lives.After an apparent attempt three weeks ago, Jeffrey Epstein — the financier who was at the facility awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused dozens of girls — was placed on suicide watch and received daily psychiatric evaluations, a person familiar with his detention said.But just six days later, on July 29, Epstein, 66, was taken off the watch for reasons that remained unclear on Saturday, the person said.Twelve days after that, he hanged himself. Guards making their morning rounds discovered his body at 6.30am on Saturday, the Bureau of Prisons said.Epstein’s suicide, coming shortly after prison officials in Manhattan deemed he was no longer at risk of taking his own life, raises questions about the steps prison officials took to keep him alive and ensure he would face his accusers in court.The Justice Department immediately faced a backlash from elected officials and the public. Ben Sasse, who is on the Senate’s Judiciary committee, said in a letter to the Justice Department that it was inexcusable that Epstein had not been under a 24-hour watch. “These victims deserved to face their serial abuser in court,” he wrote.Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that he had asked the inspector general for the Justice Department to open an investigation “into the circumstances of Mr Epstein’s death.” The FBI is also investigating, he said.The federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for information about its decision that Epstein was no longer a suicide risk.The Metropolitan Correctional Center houses about 800 people awaiting either trial or sentencing in New York City, and over the years its inmates have included high-profile terrorists, white-collar criminals and organised crime figures.Epstein had been held there since his arrest on July 6 on federal charges that he sexually abused and trafficked girls in the early 2000s.Judge Richard Berman of US District Court had denied him bail, rejecting his request to be detained at his Upper East Side mansion as he awaited trial.One federal prison official with knowledge of the incident confirmed Epstein had been taken off suicide watch recently and was being held alone in a cell in a special housing unit.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being fired, said guards found Epstein in an otherwise empty cell during morning rounds. He had hanged himself and he appeared to be dead.It would have been extremely difficult for Epstein to harm himself had he still been on suicide watch, a second prison official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of dismissal.Inmates on suicide watch are generally placed in a special observation cell, surrounded with windows, with a bolted down bed and no bedclothes, the official said.A correction officer — or sometimes a fellow inmate trained to be a “suicide companion” — is typically assigned to sit in an adjacent office and monitor the inmate constantly.Robert Gangi, an expert on prisons and the former executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, said guards also generally take shoelaces and belts away from people on suicide watch. “It’s virtually impossible to kill yourself,” Gangi said.Inmates can only be removed from the watch when the program coordinator, who is generally the chief psychologist at the facility, deems they are no longer at imminent risk for suicide, according a 2007 Bureau of Prison document outlining suicide prevention policies.The inmates cannot be removed from the watch without a face-to-face psychological evaluation.To take an inmate off suicide watch, a “post-watch report” needs to be completed, which includes an analysis of how the inmate’s circumstances have changed and why that merits removal from the watch, the document said.Under Bureau of Prison regulations, the government’s jails and prisons must have at least one room designed for housing an inmate on suicide watch, and that room must allow staff members to control the inmate without compromising their ability to observe and protect them.Every prison facility is required to have a suicide prevention program.Suicide prevention cells must provide an “unobstructed view of the inmate” and “may not have fixtures or architectural features that would easily allow self-injury,” according to a Bureau of Prisons policy.The prison or jail staff members are supposed to operate in shifts to keep the inmate under constant observation and to keep a log of the person’s behaviour, according to federal regulations.The inmate is only supposed to be removed from the watch when he or she “is no longer at imminent risk for suicide,” the regulations say.On July 23, Epstein was lying unconscious in a cell he shared with another inmate, with bruises on his neck.Law enforcement officials at the time said his injuries were not serious, but the incident was investigated as a possible suicide.Before that incident, the former financier had been housed in a cell with Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer facing murder charges.Their cell was in a special unit with strict security measures that is used to separate some inmates from the general population.New York Times

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On Ferguson, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris Told a Terrible Lie

On Friday afternoon, two of the leading contenders in the Democratic presidential primary lied. There’s no other fair way to put it. They flat-out spread fiction, libeled an innocent man, and stoked American divisions — all for political gain.Five years ago, a Ferguson, Mo., police officer named Darren Wilson shot a young black man named Michael Brown to death after an altercation in the street. False rumors about Brown’s death — namely that he was shot in cold blood while trying to surrender with his hands in the air — ignited violent protests in Missouri and revulsion across the United States.“Hands up, don’t shoot” became a national rallying cry — until the Obama Department of Justice comprehensively and thoroughly debunked it in a lengthy report published on March 4, 2015. Writing in December of the same year, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler called the slogan one of “the biggest Pinocchios of the year.”But Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren ignored the Obama DOJ. They blew straight through the facts of the case and published these accusations:> Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America. His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement. We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.> > -- Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 9, 2019> 5 years ago Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael was unarmed yet he was shot 6 times. I stand with activists and organizers who continue the fight for justice for Michael. We must confront systemic racism and police violence head on.> > -- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 9, 2019To demonstrate just how preposterous it is to accuse Wilson of murder, it’s worth revisiting the actual facts of the case, according to the best evidence available to the investigators. On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown and a friend were walking in the middle of the street shortly after Brown had stolen cigarillos from a local market and shoved away the store clerk when he tried to intervene.When Wilson first spotted Brown and his friend, he told them to walk on the sidewalk. He then realized that they matched the description of the theft suspects and blocked their path with his vehicle.Wilson tried to open his door, but it either bounced off Brown or Brown slammed it shut. Brown then reached into the vehicle and started punching Wilson. As Wilson fended off the blows, he reached for his gun. Brown allegedly tried to take the gun from Wilson, and Wilson managed to get a shot off, injuring Brown in the hand. Eyewitnesses corroborated Wilson’s claims that Brown was reaching in the car, and these claims were further corroborated by “bruising on Wilson’s jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown’s DNA on Wilson’s collar, shirt, and pants, and Wilson’s DNA on Brown’s palm.”Brown then started to run away. After a brief pause Wilson pursued, ordering Brown to stop. Brown then turned back to Wilson and started running toward him. According to the report, “several witnesses stated that Brown appeared to pose a physical threat to Wilson as he moved toward Wilson.” Wilson fired again, striking Brown several times, yet Brown kept moving toward Wilson until the final shot hit him in the head, killing him.The report’s conclusion was crystal clear:> Given that Wilson’s account is corroborated by physical evidence and that his perception of a threat posed by Brown is corroborated by other eyewitnesses, to include aspects of the testimony of [Brown’s friend], there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat. [Emphasis added.]The report flatly declared that Wilson “did not act with the requisite criminal intent.”“No credible evidence” is a powerful statement, but if you read the report, it’s a powerful statement based not just on extensive forensic evidence but also on the courageous testimony of witnesses who feared reprisal for speaking the truth. One witness, a 58-year-old black male, told prosecutors that there were signs in the neighborhood that said “Snitches get stitches.” Yet he spoke the truth anyway. Other witnesses overcame their fears and spoke the truth.How do we have confidence that they spoke the truth? Because, as the report notes, their statements “have been materially consistent, are consistent with the physical evidence, and . . . are mutually corroborative.”To be sure, there were other witnesses. Some neither incriminated him nor fully corroborated him. And there was an entire category of witnesses whose accounts were “inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence,” the report noted, adding:> Some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible [or] otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media.There are few more fraught issues in American public life than the question of police shootings — especially police shootings of black men. I’ve written about the issue time and time again and have come to believe not only that too many American police officers resort to deadly force too quickly but also that there is an unacceptable pro-police bias in our criminal-justice system. There is also evidence that race plays a more malignant role in policing than many of us hoped.Indeed, while we must of course remember the DOJ’s report exonerating Darren Wilson, we should also remember that there was a second DOJ report in 2015 that found systematic misconduct at the Ferguson Police Department, misconduct that disproportionately affected Ferguson’s black citizens. I urge you to read both reports, and if you read the second report with an open mind, you’ll almost certainly come to believe that Ferguson’s black residents possessed legitimate grievances against their police department.That’s the complicated nation we inhabit, but the complexity does not mean there aren’t simple obligations that attach to every politician, activist, and member of the media. And the simplest of those obligations is a commitment to the truth. We know that lies and falsehoods can cause riots. They can cause city blocks to burn. They can destroy a man’s life. At the very least, they can further embitter an already toxic public discourse. When issues are most fraught, the obligation of courageous, honest leadership is most imperative.But Warren and Harris’s failure is more than a failure of leadership. The publication of a false accusation of a crime like murder is libelous under American law. In other words, their lies may well have been illegal. Democrats — especially Democrats who seek to address the very real challenges surrounding police violence in the United States — should demand better. Harris and Warren should do better. They should correct and retract their false statements. There is no excuse for their inflammatory lies.

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Epstein: How he died and what it means for his accusers

Financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York, officials said Saturday. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then sexually abusing them at various locations, including homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York from 2002 through 2005. WHO WAS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

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