BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors say Bryan Kohberger’s defense team will argue at his murder trial that someone else could have planted a knife sheath with Kohberger’s DNA at the home where four University of Idaho students were killed in 2022.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson made the claim in a motion filed in the case this week.
“Instead of challenging the conclusion that the DNA on the knife sheath belonged to Defendant, the defense’s expert disclosures reveal that the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator,” Thompson wrote.
Many of the court documents detailing both sides’ plans for expert witnesses have been sealed, so it’s not currently possible to compare Thompson’s characterization of the defense plans against the defense team’s own court filings.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho.
When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
Prosecutors have said they matched “touch DNA” found on a knife sheath near one of the victims to DNA taken from Kohberger using investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG techniques. Defense attorney Anne Taylor pushed to have the investigative genetic genealogy thrown out of the case, but 4th District Judge Steven Hippler denied that request last month.
Still, prosecutors say they don’t intend to refer to the IGG evidence during the trial and will instead tell jurors that a “tip” led them to Kohberger as a suspect.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin August 11 and expected to last more than three months.
BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to military charges of obstructing justice at his court-martial Thursday.
The plea agreement calls for dishonorable discharge and no confinement. The judge approved the plea agreement, but it’s not clear whether she will accept the plea agreement. His sentencing was expected to occur later Thursday afternoon.
The Massachusetts Air National Guard member was already sentenced last year to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act, following his arrest in the most consequential national security breach in years.
Military prosecutors said before the court-martial at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts that charges of disobeying orders and obstructing justice were appropriate given that obeying orders is the “absolute core” of the military.
Teixeira’s lawyer, Lt. Col. Bradley Poronsky, argued Monday that the obstructing justice charge should either be dismissed or go unpunished, saying it amounts to double jeopardy because it already factored into Teixeira’s November sentencing.
A plea agreement was accepted by both sides that drops the disobeying orders charge. Teixeira pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge.
The leaks exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a U.S. adversary’s plans to harm U.S. forces serving overseas.
Teixeira worked as an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. His lawyers described Teixeira as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his Discord community, and never meant to harm the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service’s acting chief counsel, William Paul, has been removed from his role at the agency and replaced by Andrew De Mello, an attorney in the chief counsel’s office who is deemed supportive of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to two people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The people said Paul was demoted from his position because he clashed with the DOGE’s alleged push to share tax information with multiple agencies. The news also comes as the IRS plans to institute massive cuts to its workforce.
The IRS is drafting plans to cut its workforce by as much as half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts as part of the President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce. The administration is closing agencies, laying off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection and offering buyouts to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly reduce the government workforce.
Already, roughly 7,000 probationary IRS employees with roughly one year or less of service were laid off from the organization in February.
Paul was named acting chief counsel to the IRS in January, replacing Marjorie A. Rollinson, and has served in various roles at the IRS since the late 1980s.
Paul is not the first government official to be demoted after voicing concern about access to sensitive systems and taxpayer data.
Government officials across the Treasury Department, the Social Security Administration and other agencies have seen a wave of retirements, resignations and demotions for voicing concern about DOGE access to sensitive systems and taxpayer data.
After 30 years of service, Michelle King, the SSA’s acting commissioner, stepped down from her role in February after refusing to provide DOGE access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
“The series of IRS officials who have put the law above their personal job security join a line of public servants, stretching back to Treasury and IRS leaders during the Nixon era, who have resisted unlawful attempts by elected officials to weaponize taxpayer data and systems,” Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University School of Law, said in a statement.
