TIG Post

Tag: US District Court

  • Protesters flood Miami court ahead Trump arraignment as police prepare in riot gear

    Protesters flood Miami court ahead Trump arraignment as police prepare in riot gear

    In advance of former President Donald Trump‘s arraignment in the investigation into his handling of secret papers, protesters thronged the perimeter of a federal court in Miami.

    Thousands of Trump supporters and detractors were anticipated to congregate Tuesday surrounding the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse in advance of the former president’s scheduled appearance at 3pm. Hundreds of Trump fans, media personnel, and detractors were present as of early afternoon.

    Trump faces 37 felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents he kept after leaving the White House and took to his Mar-a-Lago home. Thirty-one of the counts relate to secret or top secret classified records. Trump has also been charged with obstructing justice, making false statements, conspiracy and concealment.

    Law enforcement officials have erected steel barricades around the courthouse and helicopters flew overhead to monitor the scene.

    Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales said they have deployed enough manpower to deal with a crowd from 5,000 to 50,000 people.

    ‘We are ready, and we’re ready for it to be over and done,’ said Morales. 

    Cops in riot gear arrived in trucks, the Daily Mail reported.

    Trump’s arraignment and trial will unfold in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida.

    The former president will be ‘processed’ in loose custody of the US Marshals instead of ‘arrested’, an official with knowledge on the preparations told CBS News. Trump will not have a mugshot taken, officials said. He will be fingerprinted and have his date of birth, Social Security number and address taken.

    Trump is not expected to be handcuffed.

    It will mark the first time that the Justice Department has charged a former president with a crime.

    Trump will have been charged with a crime twice. In April, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush payment to a porn star.

    The former president told Fox News that he plans to plead not guilty in the classified documents case.

    Both Trump and special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigation, arrived in Miami on Monday.

    The ex-president spent the night at his Trump National Doral resort. After his court appearance, Trump will fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is expected to deliver remarks at 8.15pm.

    ‘ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY,’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform about an hour-and-a-half before his scheduled court appearance. ‘WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!’

  • Nigerian “scammer” turns over luxury vehicles and pays the US govt $8m in proceeds

    Nigerian “scammer” turns over luxury vehicles and pays the US govt $8m in proceeds

    Mr. Woodberry, also known as Jacob Ponle, a close associate of notorious internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, has admitted to engaging in wire fraud.

    In a plea declaration filed on April 6, 2023, at the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Mr. Woodberry admitted guilt to one count of the indictment.

    As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to relinquish his luxury cars, watches, and $8 million in wire fraud proceeds to the US government.

    According to the Nigerian blog, People’s Gazette, the court plea agreement requests that Mr. Woodberry repay the $8 million he fraudulently obtained from seven businesses that he defrauded.

    The plea reads: “Defendant understands that by pleading guilty, he will subject to forfeiture to the United States all rights, titles, and interests that he has in any property constituting or derived from proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of the offence.”

    In addition, Mr. Woodberry was ordered to relinquish his claim to the expensive cars and designer watches he had hidden in Dubai, including a Lamborghini Urus, a Mercedes-Benz G-class, and a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

    In addition, six gold neck chains, three pairs of gold and diamond-studded earrings, four Rolex watches, one Patek Philippe watch, three Audemars Piguet watches, and one Patek Philippe watches were confiscated.

    It’s important to remember that Mr. Woodberry already gave the American government 151.8 Bitcoin in 2022. On June 10, 2020, Hushpuppi and Mr. Woodberry were captured in Dubai for their participation in cybercrime.

    Mr. Woodberry had a reputation for flashing his money on social media before his arrest, notably by donning pricey designer attire and showing off his ill-gotten earnings to his enormous Instagram following.

  • Hans Niemann files a $100 million lawsuit over allegations of chess cheating

    The grandmaster is suing world champion Magnus Carlsen, as well as the online portal Chess.com.

    Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old American grandmaster at the centre of an alleged cheating controversy, has filed a slander and libel suit against world champion Magnus Carlsen, internet platform Chess.com, and others, seeking at least $100 million in damages.

    The lawsuit, filed at a US District Court in Missouri on Thursday, also listed Carlsen’s online chess platform Play Magnus, Chess.com executive Danny Rensch, and US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura as defendants.

    Niemann claimed that the defendants are “colluding to blacklist” him from the professional chess world and that he has been shunned by tournament organisers since five-time world champion Carlsen publicly accused him of cheating.

    Niemann had previously been banned from Chess.com for cheating online, having admitted he had not played fairly in non-competitive games on the website in his youth but denied any wrongdoing while contesting over-the-board games.

    Carlsen’s surprise defeat to Niemann and his subsequent withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Missouri in September sparked a furore of comments and allegations, including from Nakamura, that Niemann had cheated.

    Weeks after the Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen resigned after just one move against Niemann in an online tournament and said later in September he believed Niemann had “cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted”.

    In a statement on Thursday, lawyers for Chess.com said there was no merit to Niemann’s allegations and that the company was saddened by his decision to take legal action.

    “Hans confessed publicly to cheating online in the wake of the Sinquefield Cup, and the resulting fallout is of his own making,” the statement read.

    “Chess.com looks forward to setting the record straight on behalf of its team and all honest chess players.”

    Chess.com banned Niemann after the first match against Carlsen and published a report earlier this month that said he had likely cheated more than 100 times in online games.

    Niemann’s lawsuit said that Chess.com banned him “from its website and all of its future events to lend credence to Carlsen’s unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations of cheating”.

    “Carlsen, having solidified his position as the ‘King of Chess,’ believes that when it comes to chess, he can do whatever he wants and get away with it,” the complaint added.

    The lawsuit further accused Nakamura, a streaming partner of Chess.com, of publishing “hours of video content amplifying and attempting to bolster Carlsen’s false cheating allegations”.

    The International Chess Federation (FIDE) said it would open an investigation into the allegations of cheating last month.