Florida
Trump pardons 2 divers who freed 19 sharks off the coast of Florida
MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida shark divers convicted of theft for freeing 19 sharks and a giant grouper from a fisherman’s longline several miles from shore have been pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Pardons for Tanner Mansell and John Moore Jr. were signed Wednesday. They had been convicted in 2022 of theft of property within special maritime jurisdiction.
The two men avoided prison time, but they were ordered to pay $3,343.72 in restitution, and the felony convictions prevented them from voting in Florida, owning firearms and traveling freely outside the U.S.
“We never stopped fighting, and justice has finally prevailed,” Moore’s attorney, Marc Seitles, said in a statement. “We are thrilled the White House considered our arguments and determined this was an unjust prosecution. We could not be happier for John and Tanner.”
Moore, who was captain of a shark-diving charter boat, and Mansell, a crew member, spotted the longline about 3 miles (5 kilometers) off the Jupiter Inlet in August 2020, according to court records. Believing it was an illegal fishing line, the men freed the sharks and grouper, reported it to state wildlife officials and brought the line back to shore.
Federal prosecutors later charged the men with theft. Officials said the line actually belonged to a fisherman licensed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to catch sharks for research.
Mansell and Moore were convicted by a jury, and their appeals were later denied. The full and unconditional pardons signed by Trump erase those convictions.
“This case never should have been filed,” Mansell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein, said in a statement. “These gentlemen made an honest mistake and were trying to save sharks from what they believed to be an illegal longline fishing setup. I can’t think of two individuals more deserving of a Presidential Pardon.”
Washington
Judge rules federal prisons must continue providing hormone therapy to transgender inmates
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons must continue providing hormone therapy and social accommodations to hundreds of transgender inmates following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that led to a disruption in medical treatment, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said in his ruling a federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other lifestyle accommodations that its own medical staff has deemed appropriate.
The judge said the transgender inmates who sued to block Trump’s executive order are trying to lessen the personal anguish caused by their gender dysphoria, the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match.
“In light of the plaintiffs’ largely personal motives for undergoing gender-affirming care, neither the BOP nor the Executive Order provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention,” the judge wrote.
The Bureau of Prisons is providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The bureau doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the judge said.
The Republican president’s executive order required the bureau to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
Lamberth’s ruling isn’t limited to the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. He agreed to certify a class of plaintiffs consisting of anyone who is or will be incarcerated in federal prisons.
Trump’s order also directed the Bureau of Prisons to ensure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons.” In February, however, Lamberth agreed to temporarily block prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Transgender Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lamberth, a senior judge, was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, in 1987.
Washington
US citizen who joined Islamic State in Syria is sentenced to 10 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State group was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison.
Lirim Sylejmani, 49, engaged in at least one battle against U.S.-led forces after he entered Syria in 2015, according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., imposed Sylejmani’s prison sentence followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
Sylejmani, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago roughly 25 years ago, pleaded guilty last December to one count of receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.
In November 2015, Sylejmani and his family flew to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria, where he began training with other IS recruits, according to prosecutors. They said he was injured in a battle with Syrian forces in June 2016 and was captured with his family in Baghouz, Syria, in February 2019.
“The conduct is far more than a single, impulsive act. He chose to jeopardize the safety of his family by bringing them to a war-torn country to join and take up arms for ISIS,” prosecutors wrote.
Sylejmani’s attorneys say he isn’t a “committed jihadist” and doesn’t espouse violence.
“He is guilt ridden for his actions and the harm he has visited on his family, who remain detained in a refugee camp in Syria living under terrible conditions,” his lawyers wrote. “He wishes only to complete his time and find his wife and children, so he can live an average law-abiding life with them.”
Trump pardons 2 divers who freed 19 sharks off the coast of Florida
MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida shark divers convicted of theft for freeing 19 sharks and a giant grouper from a fisherman’s longline several miles from shore have been pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Pardons for Tanner Mansell and John Moore Jr. were signed Wednesday. They had been convicted in 2022 of theft of property within special maritime jurisdiction.
The two men avoided prison time, but they were ordered to pay $3,343.72 in restitution, and the felony convictions prevented them from voting in Florida, owning firearms and traveling freely outside the U.S.
“We never stopped fighting, and justice has finally prevailed,” Moore’s attorney, Marc Seitles, said in a statement. “We are thrilled the White House considered our arguments and determined this was an unjust prosecution. We could not be happier for John and Tanner.”
Moore, who was captain of a shark-diving charter boat, and Mansell, a crew member, spotted the longline about 3 miles (5 kilometers) off the Jupiter Inlet in August 2020, according to court records. Believing it was an illegal fishing line, the men freed the sharks and grouper, reported it to state wildlife officials and brought the line back to shore.
Federal prosecutors later charged the men with theft. Officials said the line actually belonged to a fisherman licensed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to catch sharks for research.
Mansell and Moore were convicted by a jury, and their appeals were later denied. The full and unconditional pardons signed by Trump erase those convictions.
“This case never should have been filed,” Mansell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein, said in a statement. “These gentlemen made an honest mistake and were trying to save sharks from what they believed to be an illegal longline fishing setup. I can’t think of two individuals more deserving of a Presidential Pardon.”
Washington
Judge rules federal prisons must continue providing hormone therapy to transgender inmates
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons must continue providing hormone therapy and social accommodations to hundreds of transgender inmates following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that led to a disruption in medical treatment, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said in his ruling a federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other lifestyle accommodations that its own medical staff has deemed appropriate.
The judge said the transgender inmates who sued to block Trump’s executive order are trying to lessen the personal anguish caused by their gender dysphoria, the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match.
“In light of the plaintiffs’ largely personal motives for undergoing gender-affirming care, neither the BOP nor the Executive Order provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention,” the judge wrote.
The Bureau of Prisons is providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The bureau doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the judge said.
The Republican president’s executive order required the bureau to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
Lamberth’s ruling isn’t limited to the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. He agreed to certify a class of plaintiffs consisting of anyone who is or will be incarcerated in federal prisons.
Trump’s order also directed the Bureau of Prisons to ensure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons.” In February, however, Lamberth agreed to temporarily block prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Transgender Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lamberth, a senior judge, was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, in 1987.
Washington
US citizen who joined Islamic State in Syria is sentenced to 10 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State group was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison.
Lirim Sylejmani, 49, engaged in at least one battle against U.S.-led forces after he entered Syria in 2015, according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., imposed Sylejmani’s prison sentence followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
Sylejmani, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago roughly 25 years ago, pleaded guilty last December to one count of receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.
In November 2015, Sylejmani and his family flew to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria, where he began training with other IS recruits, according to prosecutors. They said he was injured in a battle with Syrian forces in June 2016 and was captured with his family in Baghouz, Syria, in February 2019.
“The conduct is far more than a single, impulsive act. He chose to jeopardize the safety of his family by bringing them to a war-torn country to join and take up arms for ISIS,” prosecutors wrote.
Sylejmani’s attorneys say he isn’t a “committed jihadist” and doesn’t espouse violence.
“He is guilt ridden for his actions and the harm he has visited on his family, who remain detained in a refugee camp in Syria living under terrible conditions,” his lawyers wrote. “He wishes only to complete his time and find his wife and children, so he can live an average law-abiding life with them.”
