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Riding a 3-game win streak, the Bengals cling to playoff hopes with the Broncos next
The last time Alabama State had three straight winnings seasons was under coach Reggie Barlow, who had five consecutive from 2010-15. The teams combined for 22 first downs, 428 total yards and five turnovers. Daquon Kincey rushed for 94 yards for Alabama State (6-5, 5-3 SWAC). Kareem Keye completed 6 of 14 passes for 71 yards with an interception. Jaden Johnson was also intercepted for Prairie View (5-7, 3-5). He was 13 of 23 for 122 yards. Guillermo Garcia Rodriguez had two field goals, including a 50-yarder. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
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Three decades after JonBenét Ramsey’s death, her murder remains officially unsolved. But the Little Miss Colorado’s demise lingers as the archetypal crime mystery. Sleuths continue to hash out theories: in bustling and competing Reddit communities, on podcasts and network documentaries . The speculation broadly falls into two opposing camps: Was the murder an inside job by someone in the family, like parents John and Patsy or even older brother Burke? Or did an outside intruder somehow pierce the sanctity of their upscale Boulder home? The case was perplexing from the moment Patsy found a ransom note the morning of December 26, 1996. “Listen carefully,” began the three-page letter. It went on to blame a “foreign faction” for her daughter’s disappearance and requested $118,000 from her husband, Access Graphics CEO John, for her safe return. The onetime Miss West Virginia called 911 in a panic. The note, the FBI later said, felt like it was staged rather than written by a stranger actually seeking ransom after a kidnapping. The suspicion ramped up when John found JonBenét’s body later that day, bound and strangled with a garrote in a small room practically hidden in the home’s basement. Still, the case would not have mushroomed into a frenzy without the sudden flood of footage of JonBenét’s child beauty contests. Before Toddlers & Tiaras turned pageant moms into pop archetypes, the subculture was mostly hidden from view. The eerie footage of the little girl parading around in teased hair and heavy makeup played on an endless loop on 24/7 cable television as broadcasters debated the case nonstop. The parents’ insulation with lawyers and spokespeople only heightened suspicions. The theories proliferated. Eventually, in 1998, a grand jury was convened to hear charges against the Ramseys, but as far as most people remember, nothing came of it. Without a trial to sift through fact and fiction, a content boom took over: books, scripted TV movies, documentaries, and the then-emerging landscape of true-crime message boards and forums. The cycle continues. Reddit has replaced message boards and Usenet forums. Theories have zoomed in on specific family members. And a new scripted series is forthcoming on Paramount+ , starring Melissa McCarthy as Patsy and Clive Owen as John. Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, directed by Joe Berlinger, doesn’t really offer a new take. The three-part documentary series makes the case for an intruder, but it does so by focusing on police and prosecutorial missteps, a current trend in true-crime content. Berlinger directed 1996’s Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills , which centered on three teenagers — known as the West Memphis Three — convicted of murdering four boys. The documentary examined the moral panic incited by violent murders of children, and his work was widely credited with helping free the teens. Cold Case asks many of the same questions about agendas and power that Paradise Lost did. The filmmakers have the cooperation of John, who remarried after Patsy’s death from ovarian cancer in 2006 and now lives in Utah. Paula Woodward, a journalist who wrote two books about the case with his cooperation, is also a major talking head. But unlike the West Memphis Three, the affluent Ramseys were not unsophisticated, working-poor teens in rural America. And in trying to make a simplistic case for railroading, the documentary skips over cultural nuances that could make for a more definitive account of the story. Cold Case starts with the confusion at the Ramsey home on the day after the murder. The police officers involved in the investigation did not talk to Berlinger. But in the docuseries, John claims cops and reporters promoted misinformation. John points out that after his discovery of JonBenét’s body, Linda Arndt, a detective on the scene, became convinced he did it. She later gave an infamous interview saying a nonverbal exchange with John led to her conclusion. But John, CEO of a company that reached $1 billion in sales that year, was treated deferentially by police from the start. Officers viewed him and Patsy as victims of a kidnapping, not potential suspects. Cops didn’t seal off the home like a crime scene. Instead, they called in victim advocates, and the Ramseys called friends from the neighborhood to their home for emotional support. Arguably, the scene was hopelessly contaminated and any conclusive answers that could have emerged almost certainly died that day. That wasn’t because the police suspected the Ramseys, but rather, the opposite: because they didn’t. Still, the series claims that law enforcement painted the Ramseys in a bad light. Cops said there were no footsteps in the snow to indicate an intruder when, according to John, it hadn’t snowed. He claims police leaked that John had flown back to their second home in Atlanta with JonBenét’s casket in his plane when, in fact, he had done no such thing. Still, the FBI agreed an intruder was unlikely and suggested examining the family first. The police pursued leads that JonBenét might have been sexually abused. The series takes issue with the consideration of evidence that JonBenét’s bed-wetting was getting worse at the time of the murder, and this can be a sign of sexual abuse. In the series, John shrugs as he dismisses the police’s consultation with former Miss America Marilyn Van Derbur, an expert on incest, who cautioned police that a “normal,” image-conscious father and family wasn’t evidence of a lack of abuse. But the police soon moved on from John to Patsy. Detective Steve Thomas settled on the theory that Patsy had murdered her daughter. He believed that with her 40th birthday approaching, she snapped due to a bed-wetting. It’s telling that Thomas’s theory was ultimately the one that took off. He had more power in the department than Arndt, who thought Patsy was innocent. True-crime cases are always a mix of human interest and forensics, as evidenced by the series’s focus on the media’s portrayals of the Ramseys as unsympathetic. Still, Cold Case never quite acknowledges how, early on, even intimate friends of both Ramseys found their lack of cooperation with police unethical. John and Patsy gave DNA samples in 1996 but refused to come to police headquarters for an official interrogation . Instead, in an early January 1997 interview on CNN , a subdued Patsy declared a “killer on the loose.” In April, they finally went to police headquarters . Did their class entitlement contribute to confusion between them and friends and police? By framing them unilaterally as underdogs, the documentary leaves that question unanswered. The series instead focuses on the more extreme examples of the media’s witch hunt at the time. On the talk show Geraldo, a mock trial took place and a so-called expert claimed a video of JonBenét swinging a trumpet was evidence of sexual abuse; one panelist called her a “tarted-up miniature-dwarf hooker.” Cold Case ’s binary understanding of the battle lines limits its insight. According to Lawrence Schiller’s massive 2000 book about the investigation, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town , the Boulder DA had a liberal culture, emphasizing community policing and plea bargaining instead of going to trial. Detective Thomas was out of step with Boulder’s liberal culture. District Attorney Alex Hunter didn’t accept Thomas’s claims about Patsy. In 1998, Hunter brought in detective Lou Smit because Smit had solved one case involving a murder and abduction. Smit later claimed the Ramseys were people of faith and couldn’t have murdered their daughter. He offered an unproven “stun gun” theory, claiming that two marks on JonBenét’s skin were about the size of a stun gun used to keep her quiet, which would point to an intruder. The documentary re-platforms these claims, and the series presents Smit, uncritically, as the “Sherlock Holmes of his time.” But Smit’s police work, as much as Arndt’s and Thomas’s, comes off as heavily influenced by their personal biases. Arndt’s work with women survivors shaped how she viewed Patsy as a victim and John as a perpetrator. Thomas’s dislike of Patsy bordered on misogynist confusion about women snapping at 40. Smit’s bonding with them over religion was equally unprofessional. Hunter ultimately sent the case to a grand jury in 1998, and both Thomas and Smit testified . The grand jury voted to indict the Ramseys for child endangerment. In his 1999 announcement after the grand jury concluded its work, DA Hunter said there was insufficient evidence for prosecution. He arguably protected the Ramseys by not airing out the grand jury’s decision — seemingly, per Schiller’s book, to protect himself from the political fallout either way. Both Thomas and Smit resigned in protest. It’s unclear if the Ramseys knew the grand jury voted to indict them. The world was in the dark about this development until a judge forced the release of the charging documents in 2013. Instead, the Ramseys were very active non-suspects. They wrote a best-selling book about their alleged persecution by police, The Death of Innocence . Michael Tracey, a communications professor, made a documentary with them about the supposed media witch hunt. He reappears in Cold Case as a talking head. The last episode investigates old leads about potential suspects from the pageant circuit that never went anywhere. But the most revealing aspect of the final episode is how much the series seems to be in the dark about the police or FBI theories. Early on, the series makes the point that DNA evidence found on JonBenét — on items of clothing and under her fingernails —pointed away from the family and that the police hid the information. But by the end, the docuseries admits that it’s still unclear whether that genetic material, which might just be degraded touch DNA, can exonerate or implicate anyone at all. Cold Case seems confused about the fact that this case is, in some ways, an exception. Many elements of the case — from the length of the ransom note and the improbability of a stranger kidnapping for ransom to the discovery of an alleged kidnapping victim in her own home — make it a difficult case to universalize. In 2008, Mary Lacy, the new Boulder district attorney, took the unusual, unprecedented step of apologizing to the Ramseys and seemingly exonerating them. “I’d get letters from people for years that say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’” John says in the documentary. How could they not? “That’s what you were told by the media, by the police,” he says. The series’s portrait of John, now a remarried grandfather, bears no trace of the litigious figure who hired Trump attorney L. Lin Wood early on to sue media outlets for libel. (That attorney has since been disbarred .) John ran for a congressional seat as a Republican and wrote two more books claiming innocence. John’s domination of the narrative — both in the docuseries and in his books — has helped occlude the fact that it was the “Patsy did it” theory that allowed the case to even land before a grand jury. This raises its own questions. Is there a gendered element involved in cases where victims become suspects? Most parents — and mothers — without the Ramsey resources would have been easily railroaded. It might be too much to expect this docuseries to offer some kind of wider context or patterns about the limitations of police or their relationship with district attorneys, and none is provided. Instead, in trying to present John’s perspective as the objective truth, Cold Case unintentionally highlights the fraught nature of all the legal and forensic facts in this case. In some ways, the series functions best as a corrective to some of the more irresponsible instances of platformed conspiracies — for instance, the 2017 CBS special that accused Burke of killing his sister, which he denies. A film from that same year, the faux docudrama Casting JonBenet, took a different route. Interviewing actors from the Boulder area for a supposed casting for a scripted series about the Ramseys, the film brought out their speculations and direct connections to the case. It was a subtle unpacking of how the Boulder community made sense of the murder over time. And ultimately, the case remains compelling as gothic-spectacle sleuth bait. For those who think the Ramseys did it, the case speaks to the idea that evil is within, that money and power can cover up abuse within families. For those who believe in an intruder, the story confirms the notion that evil lurks outside. Cold Case presents that latter story in its most coherent form yet. But it won’t be enough to put the speculation to rest.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Kino Lilly Jr.'s 21 points helped Brown defeat Canisius 83-76 on Saturday. Lilly shot 5 of 13 from the field, including 5 for 9 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 7 from the line for the Bears (3-3). Landon Lewis scored 17 points and added eight rebounds. Lyndel Erold shot 5 for 9 (3 for 6 from 3-point range) and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line to finish with 16 points. Paul McMillan IV finished with 25 points for the Golden Griffins (0-7). Cam Palesse added 22 points for Canisius. Anthony Benard had seven points, eight assists and two steals. The Golden Griffins prolonged their losing streak to seven in a row. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .2027: Political movements spread as bigwigs plot Tinubu’s ouster
No. 2 Georgia is resting its national championship hopes on backup quarterback Gunner Stockton. Coach Kirby Smart said Monday that Georgia is preparing Stockton to start in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal against No. 3 Notre Dame. Stockton took over when starter Carson Beck suffered a right elbow injury in the the first half in the Bulldogs’ 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 7 in Atlanta. Georgia's first-round bye in the playoffs has given Stockton, a sophomore, more time to prepare for his new starting role. Smart said the experience with the first-team is the primary benefit in “several practices” since the SEC championship game. “He got lots of reps prior to these practices, but he’s getting much more now,” Smart said. “I do think ... when you get ready for an opponent like Notre Dame, you need time and we have time.” The Fighting Irish advanced by beating Indiana 27-17 in the first round on Friday night. Smart said Stockton and Georgia can focus on Notre Dame. “But I think the biggest thing is just competition at practice,” Smart said. “You know, the situations we put him in. All those things allow him to get better as a quarterback.” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said Stockton will require adjustments by his defense. “You evaluate, obviously, what they’ve done all season and you have a separate tape of what Stockton has done,” Freeman said Monday. “I think we have 80-something plays of him. He can run their offense. He does things a little bit differently. He can extend plays with his legs, he’s a good athlete. The thing I probably noticed most about him, he’s an ultra-competitive individual.” Georgia announced on Dec. 9 that Beck and his family were considering treatment options for his elbow. Those options could include surgery, though Georgia has not released details about the injury. Two weeks later, no decision has been released by Beck or Georgia. “The only thing I can update is that they’re still going through those deliberations in terms of the decision-making process time, all the kind of decisions they have to make as a family,” Smart said. Beck suffered the injury to his throwing arm in the first half of the SEC championship game and made a dramatic return to the field for the handoff on the game-winning play in overtime. Stockton had to leave the field for one play after having his helmet knocked off. Even though he was able to take the snap and hand off to Trevor Etienne for the running back’s decisive 4-yard touchdown run, Beck was unable to raise his right arm. Stockton’s job may get a little easier with Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills out. Freeman announced Monday that Mills will miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury he suffered against Indiana. Mills had 37 tackles and 7 1/2 sacks this season and anchored the interior line while All-American Howard Cross II missed the final three regular season games with a high ankle sprain. Cross returned against Indiana. It’s yet another blow to a defense that had already lost preseason All-America cornerback Benjamin Morrison and its top two rush ends with season-ending injuries. “You can’t replace Rylie Mills,” Freeman said. “Yes, the production, but the leadership, a captain, very similar to the things I said about Benjamin when he was out. You feel awful for him as a person, a guy that came back to improve his draft stock. You’ve got to replace what he did for our defense in different ways.” Stockton completed 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards with one interception against Texas. Smart downplayed the suggestion Stockton could give the Bulldogs more options as a running quarterback. “I think we are who we are in regards to that,” Smart said. “I mean, we played an entire season, offensively. You know, Gunner’s a good athlete. I think Carson is a good athlete. So it’s one of those deals that I don’t know how much that changes things.” Beck, a fifth-year senior, is 24-3 as a starter. He started all 26 games for the Bulldogs in 2023 and 2024. He passed for 3,941 yards with 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions in 2023 but had more difficulties with turnovers this season. Beck passed for 28 touchdowns with 12 interceptions this season and completed 7 of 13 passes for 56 yards before his injury in the SEC championship game. AP Sports Writer Mike Marot contributed to this report.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CoreNest Capital , one of the most dynamic emerging players in venture capital, has announced its latest round of investments, backing seven innovative companies: OpenAI, xAI, Weave Robotics, Blaze Money, Domu, Phonely, Andromeda Surgical, and Texture Capital. These strategic investments underscore CoreNest’s commitment to driving transformative growth across AI, robotics, MedTech, and fintech sectors. “Our focus is on backing founders who are reshaping industries and solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology,” said Bob Ras , Co-Founder & GP of CoreNest Capital. “This round of investments underscore CoreNest’s commitment to driving impactful innovation and supporting visionary teams that are defining the future of AI, Robotics, MedTech, and Fintech.” OpenAI: OpenAI is setting new standards in artificial intelligence by driving advancements that push the boundaries of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). xAI: xAI , founded by Elon Musk, is pioneering advancements in artificial intelligence, aiming to deepen our understanding of the universe through the development of cutting-edge AI technologies. Weave Robotics: Weave Robotics is reshaping personal robotics with Isaac, the world’s first autonomous home assistant robot, designed to handle tasks like tidying, folding laundry, and home monitoring. Blaze Money: Blaze Money revolutionizes financial services with a seamless app designed for global nomads, enabling instant, fee-minimal payments worldwide. Domu: Domu leverages AI to transform client interactions in the insurance sector, automating real-time, 24/7 sales and service calls. This innovation empowers businesses to engage clients efficiently, handle payment reminders, and respond to inquiries. Phonely: Phonely enhances business communication with AI-driven phone support that handles calls, schedules appointments, and integrates with existing tools, elevating customer service efficiency. Andromeda Surgical: Andromeda Surgical is advancing precision surgery with AI-guided robotic systems, initially focused on endourology, optimizing accuracy and patient outcomes. Texture Capital: CoreNest has strategically invested in Texture Capital , positioning itself to acquire a significant stake in the firm. This investment will support the launch of the SoloTex platform, the first regulated trading and tokenization platform for U.S. stocks. SoloTex is changing the way people trade and invest in U.S. stocks by enabling users to have self-custody of their tokenized stocks and ETFs and allowing fractional trading of these assets, bringing unprecedented flexibility and accessibility to the securities market. This funding round builds on CoreNest’s history of high-impact investments, including companies like Artisan AI , Piramidal , Avatar Medical , OpenCall , Fleak.ai , Algorized , itsElectric , and Dili . Each of these companies is making strides in their fields, reflecting CoreNest’s mission of driving global innovation and delivering meaningful technological progress. About CoreNest Capital CoreNest Capital is a powerhouse for nurturing and funding startups in cutting-edge sectors like AI, Robotics, MedTech, and Fintech. For more information on CoreNest Capital, visit corenest.com . Innovative startups tackling real-world challenges and seeking investment are encouraged to submit their pitch decks for consideration.
Before being elected as the first transgender woman to the US Congress, 34-year-old Sarah McBride said she expected hostility. A harsh national spotlight has fallen swiftly upon her. "They may try to misgender me, they may try to say the wrong name, they will do what we can predictably assume they might do," she told the TransLash podcast last month ahead of her resounding election victory on November 5. "They are going to do that to get a rise out of me and my job will be to not give them the response they want," the Democrat from Delaware explained. Ahead of her arrival in the House of Representatives on January 3, McBride was targeted by a resolution this week from a right-wing Republican colleague that would ban transgender women from women's toilets in the Capitol. "Just because a Congressman wants to wear a mini skirt doesn’t mean he can come into a women’s bathroom," South Carolina firebrand Nancy Mace wrote on social media as she led a highly personal campaign against McBride. House Speaker Mike Johnson, after initially seeking to buy time to debate the issue, came out in support of a ban, saying that all single-sex facilities would be "reserved for individuals of that biological sex." McBride -- who wears knee-length dresses, not miniskirts -- issued a statement saying that she said would respect the rules "even if I disagree with them." "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms," said the politician and activist, who transitioned as a 21-year-old and told her parents on Christmas Day 2011. Donald Trump repeatedly raised transgender issues in the closing stages of his presidential campaign, with aides noting how questions around trans identity struck a nerve with swing voters. Two of the biggest issues -- at the heart of ongoing "culture wars" between conservatives and progressives -- are whether transgender women should be allowed in women's toilets and be admitted in women's sport. Mocking transgender athletes and "woke ideology," Trump promised to get "transgender insanity the hell out of our schools, and we will keep men out of women’s sports." McBride has long been an advocate for trans rights and she helped campaign for a law banning gender discrimination in her home state of Delaware, during which she was publicly called a "freak" and the "devil incarnate". "Listening to that was demeaning and dehumanizing for my child," her mother Sally told The Washington Post in a 2018 profile. "I still have a hard time coping with that." Undeterred, McBride rode the blows and was elected as the first US transgender state senator in 2020. She has been open about her mental health struggles growing up as a boy named Tim and the personal tragedy that has marked her life since, writing a memoir called "Tomorrow Will Be Different" in 2018. "I remember as a child praying in my bed at night that I would wake up the next day and be a girl," she told a TED talk in 2016. She first gathered major public attention with an open letter while a student leader at American University in Washington that announced her transition. She went on to encounter President Joe Biden and his family, also Delaware natives, when she became active in grassroots politics there. After interning at the White House under President Barack Obama, she secured an invitation to speak at the 2016 Democratic Party convention. The White House was also the scene of her first encounter with her late husband, Andrew Cray, a transgender man and LGTBQ+ activist. They married two years later shortly before Cray died from cancer. Knowing the attention she is destined for in the US Congress, she says her aim is to be an effective congresswoman focused on everyday voter priorities such as housing and inflation. But she knows she will be constantly pushed to be a spokeswoman -- and defender -- of the trans community. "I can't do right by the trans community if I'm not being the best member of Congress that I can be for Delaware," she told TransLash. "It's the only way that people will see that trans people can be good doctors, can be good lawyers, good educators, good members of Congress. I can't be there to put out a press release and tweet every time someone says something." adp/bgs
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Woody Newton had 26 points in George Mason's 100-55 win against Ferrum on Saturday. Newton also added six rebounds for the Patriots (4-3). Brayden O'Connor added 14 points while shooting 6 for 7, including 2 for 3 from beyond the arc while they also had five assists. K.D. Johnson shot 4 for 8 (1 for 3 from 3-point range) and 4 of 7 from the free-throw line to finish with 13 points, while adding seven rebounds. Alfredo Abel-Rivera led the way for the Panthers with 15 points and seven rebounds. Bryant Wall added 13 points for Ferrum. Sterling Charles also had six points and two steals. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister Dr R Bindu stated that entrepreneurs should step forward to become job providers instead of remaining job seekers and make efforts to find solutions to the problem of unemployment among skilled workers. The Minister was inaugurating the two-day 'Kerala Kaumudi Tech Expo-2024' organized by Kerala Kaumudi in association with Prathidhwani, the welfare organization of IT employees, at Bhavani Buildings in Technopark. "Entrepreneurs should step forward to become job providers instead of remaining job seekers. Through this, they should make efforts to find solutions to the problem of unemployment among skilled workers. The capital city is witnessing numerous conclaves. Kerala Kaumudi is organizing several conclaves today related to renewable energy and sustainable development ideas. K Sukumaran is a personality who has become synonymous with the term 'Pathradhipar.' As a media platform led by talented individuals, Kerala Kaumudi's commitment to standing by the truth is still significant," the Minister said. The Minister visited the SK Hospital stall at the expo, where she underwent tests for blood sugar, blood pressure, and an ECG. Prathidhwani Secretary Vineeth Chandran received Kerala Kaumudi's token of appreciation for Technopark employees from the Minister. The Minister also unveiled the logo of the Technopark Premier League. Prathidhwani Secretary Vineeth Chandran, Kerala Kaumudi General Managers Shiras Jalal, Ayyappadas, and Chief Manager Vimal Kumar spoke during the event. Tech Expo stalls The Kerala Kaumudi Tech Expo features stalls by various companies and government departments, including S K Hospital's General Medicine, Cosmetology, and Audiometry departments, Sun Homes Builders, Jisan Technologies Private Limited, and government departments such as Non-Conventional Energy and Tourism Promotion Council. This expo is a platform to showcase cutting-edge technologies and various services in the IT and healthcare sectors. It is not only an opportunity for IT professionals in Technopark, but also for outsiders to visit the expo and interact with experts at various stalls.
Valve is now selling refurbished Steam Deck OLEDs starting at $439In court papers made public Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books. The proposals include freezing the case until Trump is out of office, or agreeing that any future sentence wouldn’t include jail time. Another idea: closing the case with a notation that acknowledges his conviction but says that he was never sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. The last is adopted from what some states do when a criminal defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether that option is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Judge Juan M. Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case. “This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Expanding on a position they laid out last month, prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation during a president’s time in office,” but they were adamant that the conviction should stand. They argued that Trump’s impending return to the White House should not upend a jury’s finding. Trump wants the case to be thrown out in light of his election. His communications director, Steven Cheung, called prosecutors’ filing “a pathetic attempt to salvage the remains of an unconstitutional and politically motivated hoax.” Trump has fought for months to reverse his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. He claims they didn’t and denies wrongdoing. Trump portrays the case as a political attack ginned up by District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other Democrats. Trump’s legal team argues that letting the case continue would present unconstitutional “disruptions” to his upcoming presidential term. Trump’s attorneys also cited President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted of tax and gun charges. Biden complained that his son was unfairly prosecuted for political reasons — and Trump’s lawyers say he was, too. Trump’s lawyers argued that the possibility of a jail sentence — even if it’s after he leaves office — would affect his presidency. Prosecutors suggested Merchan could address that concern by agreeing not to put him behind bars. It’s unclear how soon Merchan could decide what to do next with the case. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the suggestions from prosecutors, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. He was scheduled for sentencing late last month. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election win, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office. The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in each case.
Vance takes on a more visible transition role, working to boost Trump’s most contentious picksNone
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