New York
Judge rejects lawyer’s disputed bid to join Nicolás Maduro’s defense team
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Monday nixed a former high-ranking Justice Department official’s attempt to join the team defending ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s defense team, ruling that lawyer Bruce Fein had “no legal basis” to do so.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein had initially approved Fein’s application to join Maduro’s drug trafficking case but reversed course after the deposed leader’s actual lawyer, Barry Pollack, objected to his involvement.
Fein, an associate deputy attorney general during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, claimed in court papers that “individuals credibly situated” within Maduro’s inner circle or family had sought out his assistance. Fein claimed that Maduro “had expressed a desire” for his “assistance in this matter.”
But Hellerstein said in a written order that only Maduro has the authority to retain Fein as his lawyer, not unidentified individuals. He rejected Fein’s request for the judge to summon Maduro to court to ask him if he would like Fein added to the defense team.
“If Maduro wishes to retain Fein, he has the ability to do so,” Hellerstein wrote. “Fein cannot appoint himself to represent Maduro.”
Pollack, a prominent Washington lawyer whose clients have included WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was the only lawyer with Maduro at his Jan. 5 arraignment in Manhattan federal court, days after U.S. special forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in Caracas.
In court, Maduro called it a kidnapping and declared himself a prisoner of war. Pollack told Hellerstein he expected to make “substantial” court filings challenging the legality of his military abduction” and invoking immunity as the head of a sovereign state.
As Fein sought to join the case, Pollack said in a court filing last week that he’d spoken with Maduro and that the ex-leader confirmed to him that he doesn’t know Fein and has not communicated with him, much less retained him or authorized him to join the case.
Fein acknowledged in a written response that he’d had no contact with Maduro by telephone, video or any other direct way.
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They remain held without bail at a federal jail in Brooklyn and are due back in court on March 17.
Washington
Supreme Court revives GOP congressman’s challenge to late-arriving mail ballot law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday revived a Republican challenge to a law that allows the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a target of President Donald Trump.
The high court ruled 7-2 that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. has the legal right to challenge the law, even though the ballots likely had little effect on a race he won handily.
The state had argued that allowing the lawsuit would open the floodgates for more election litigation and “cause chaos” for election officials. Bost said vote-total considerations shouldn’t affect his ability to come to court.
The Illinois law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received up to two weeks later. More than a dozen states, as well as the District of Columbia, accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Supreme Court will also consider the broader issue of whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots in the spring.
The Trump administration weighed in to support Bost. The Republican president has asserted that late-arriving ballots and drawn-out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.
California
Former CEO charged with embezzling $5.2M from a camp for sick kids co-founded by Paul Newman
The former CEO of a camp for kids with serious medical conditions has been charged with 15 felonies after prosecutors said he embezzled more than $5 million over seven years from the nonprofit co-founded by Paul Newman.
Christopher L. Butler, 49, of Porter Ranch, California, is expected to be arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles. He is charged with embezzling funds from The Painted Turtle, one of many camps for children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses co-
founded by the late actor Newman.
Like the other camps funded through Newman’s “SeriousFun Children’s Network,” the Lake Hughes, California-based Painted Turtle relies on donations and provides free programs, allowing campers to enjoy fun with other kids who have similar medical conditions.
“Abusing a position of power to steal funds from a camp dedicated to helping children with serious medical conditions is an affront to both the law and our deepest values,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman wrote in a news release. “My message is crystal clear: If you steal from the most vulnerable members of our community or the organizations that serve them, this office will use every tool the law allows to hold you fully accountable.”
A phone number for Butler could not be located, and a public defender who represented Butler briefly during his first court appearance declined to comment because she is no longer handling his case. Officials with The Painted Turtle did not immediately respond to a voice message requesting comment.
According to the criminal complaint, Butler worked for The Painted Turtle from 2018 until the summer of 2025, and prosecutors say he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars each year — the total allegedly reaching about $5.2 million. He also served as the organization’s controller for a time, according to the complaint, and prosecutors say he tried to hide evidence of the alleged crimes by modifying or deleting computer records.
A new controller discovered “irregularities” in the organization’s financial records in August 2025, according to the complaint.
The charges carry a potential sentence of more than 18 years in prison.
New York
State AG settles with Jewish group she accused of intimidating pro-Palestinian activists
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement Tuesday with a right-wing Jewish group that she accused of trying to intimidate pro-Palestinian activists.
The group, Betar US, gained attention last year after claiming it had compiled the names of campus protesters against the war in Gaza and submitted them to Trump administration officials, urging deportation. It boasted of using facial recognition software to identify masked activists.
The agreement with New York authorities requires Betar to cease activities that threaten or intimidate Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian activists at protests and its frequent social media posts or face a $50,000 penalty.
In one incident noted by James’ office, a member of Betar last year repeatedly urged pro-Palestinian protesters at a New York campus to take beepers — a reference to Israel’s detonation of thousands of electronic pagers to kill and wound members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.
“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,” James said in a written statement.
The chairman of Betar, Ronn Torossian, disputed allegations that his group had done anything illegal, including intimidation.
“You have people walking the streets vowing to murder Jews,” he said Tuesday. “So somebody can’t hand them a beeper that they buy on eBay, OK? We make no admission of guilt in this document.”
James accused Betar of carrying out “an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment,” against activists in the New York City area. The group has indicated plans to wind down its operations, her office said. Torossian said the New York entity was no longer active and that its successor was based elsewhere.
Betar identifies itself as part of a militant Zionist group founded a century ago in Eastern Europe and based in Israel. But the group chartered in New York, officially known as Betar Zionist Organization Inc. centered its activities on the
metropolitan area, where members sometimes confronted pro-Palestinian activists at protests and it maintained an outspoken presence on social media.
The group’s claims that it had reported protesters to the Trump administration at first drew little attention. But they took on greater significance after U.S. immigration agents arrested several campus activists last March. A Homeland Security official later testified that the government targeted protesters using lists assembled by a doxing group, Canary Mission, as well as by Betar.
James said her office began looking into the group, chartered in a New York suburb, after receiving complaints that it had been threatening protesters. In Tuesday’s announcement, her office noted social media posts by Betar that it said were intended to incite hostility.
“We urge everyone to bring dogs, borrow a pit bull,” the group posted before a February 2025 protest in New York against the sale of land in the West Bank. “Feel free to mask up and wear a helmet. Jihadis are coming to attack synagogues.”
In another post last January, the group called for protesters to take off their head coverings, calling them “rape rags.”
California
Actor Kiefer Sutherland arrested for assaulting a ride-hail driver
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Kiefer Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats early Monday morning after Los Angeles police say he assaulted a ride-hail driver.
Just after midnight, officers responded to a call reporting an assault at an intersection just south of Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles Police Department said they determined Sutherland entered a ride-hail vehicle, physically assaulted the driver and “made criminal threats toward the victim.” The driver did not require medical treatment, police said.
Sutherland was arrested and released from jail a few hours later on a $50,000 bond, according to jail records. His first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 2.
An email sent to representatives of Sutherland requesting comment was not answered.
Sutherland went to jail in 2007 after pleading no contest to a drunken driving charge. He was also convicted in 2004 for drunken driving and has had several other alcohol-related arrests since the 1990s.
The British-born Canadian actor is best known for his longtime portrayal of federal agent Jack Bauer on the Fox TV ticking-time-bomb thriller “24” and several spinoffs. He also starred in “The Lost Boys” and “Young Guns” and appeared in two films directed by Rob Reiner, “Stand by Me” and “A Few Good Men.”
He is the son of Hollywood acting luminary Donald Sutherland.
Judge rejects lawyer’s disputed bid to join Nicolás Maduro’s defense team
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Monday nixed a former high-ranking Justice Department official’s attempt to join the team defending ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s defense team, ruling that lawyer Bruce Fein had “no legal basis” to do so.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein had initially approved Fein’s application to join Maduro’s drug trafficking case but reversed course after the deposed leader’s actual lawyer, Barry Pollack, objected to his involvement.
Fein, an associate deputy attorney general during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, claimed in court papers that “individuals credibly situated” within Maduro’s inner circle or family had sought out his assistance. Fein claimed that Maduro “had expressed a desire” for his “assistance in this matter.”
But Hellerstein said in a written order that only Maduro has the authority to retain Fein as his lawyer, not unidentified individuals. He rejected Fein’s request for the judge to summon Maduro to court to ask him if he would like Fein added to the defense team.
“If Maduro wishes to retain Fein, he has the ability to do so,” Hellerstein wrote. “Fein cannot appoint himself to represent Maduro.”
Pollack, a prominent Washington lawyer whose clients have included WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was the only lawyer with Maduro at his Jan. 5 arraignment in Manhattan federal court, days after U.S. special forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in Caracas.
In court, Maduro called it a kidnapping and declared himself a prisoner of war. Pollack told Hellerstein he expected to make “substantial” court filings challenging the legality of his military abduction” and invoking immunity as the head of a sovereign state.
As Fein sought to join the case, Pollack said in a court filing last week that he’d spoken with Maduro and that the ex-leader confirmed to him that he doesn’t know Fein and has not communicated with him, much less retained him or authorized him to join the case.
Fein acknowledged in a written response that he’d had no contact with Maduro by telephone, video or any other direct way.
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They remain held without bail at a federal jail in Brooklyn and are due back in court on March 17.
Washington
Supreme Court revives GOP congressman’s challenge to late-arriving mail ballot law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday revived a Republican challenge to a law that allows the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a target of President Donald Trump.
The high court ruled 7-2 that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. has the legal right to challenge the law, even though the ballots likely had little effect on a race he won handily.
The state had argued that allowing the lawsuit would open the floodgates for more election litigation and “cause chaos” for election officials. Bost said vote-total considerations shouldn’t affect his ability to come to court.
The Illinois law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received up to two weeks later. More than a dozen states, as well as the District of Columbia, accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Supreme Court will also consider the broader issue of whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots in the spring.
The Trump administration weighed in to support Bost. The Republican president has asserted that late-arriving ballots and drawn-out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.
California
Former CEO charged with embezzling $5.2M from a camp for sick kids co-founded by Paul Newman
The former CEO of a camp for kids with serious medical conditions has been charged with 15 felonies after prosecutors said he embezzled more than $5 million over seven years from the nonprofit co-founded by Paul Newman.
Christopher L. Butler, 49, of Porter Ranch, California, is expected to be arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles. He is charged with embezzling funds from The Painted Turtle, one of many camps for children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses co-
founded by the late actor Newman.
Like the other camps funded through Newman’s “SeriousFun Children’s Network,” the Lake Hughes, California-based Painted Turtle relies on donations and provides free programs, allowing campers to enjoy fun with other kids who have similar medical conditions.
“Abusing a position of power to steal funds from a camp dedicated to helping children with serious medical conditions is an affront to both the law and our deepest values,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman wrote in a news release. “My message is crystal clear: If you steal from the most vulnerable members of our community or the organizations that serve them, this office will use every tool the law allows to hold you fully accountable.”
A phone number for Butler could not be located, and a public defender who represented Butler briefly during his first court appearance declined to comment because she is no longer handling his case. Officials with The Painted Turtle did not immediately respond to a voice message requesting comment.
According to the criminal complaint, Butler worked for The Painted Turtle from 2018 until the summer of 2025, and prosecutors say he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars each year — the total allegedly reaching about $5.2 million. He also served as the organization’s controller for a time, according to the complaint, and prosecutors say he tried to hide evidence of the alleged crimes by modifying or deleting computer records.
A new controller discovered “irregularities” in the organization’s financial records in August 2025, according to the complaint.
The charges carry a potential sentence of more than 18 years in prison.
New York
State AG settles with Jewish group she accused of intimidating pro-Palestinian activists
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement Tuesday with a right-wing Jewish group that she accused of trying to intimidate pro-Palestinian activists.
The group, Betar US, gained attention last year after claiming it had compiled the names of campus protesters against the war in Gaza and submitted them to Trump administration officials, urging deportation. It boasted of using facial recognition software to identify masked activists.
The agreement with New York authorities requires Betar to cease activities that threaten or intimidate Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian activists at protests and its frequent social media posts or face a $50,000 penalty.
In one incident noted by James’ office, a member of Betar last year repeatedly urged pro-Palestinian protesters at a New York campus to take beepers — a reference to Israel’s detonation of thousands of electronic pagers to kill and wound members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.
“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,” James said in a written statement.
The chairman of Betar, Ronn Torossian, disputed allegations that his group had done anything illegal, including intimidation.
“You have people walking the streets vowing to murder Jews,” he said Tuesday. “So somebody can’t hand them a beeper that they buy on eBay, OK? We make no admission of guilt in this document.”
James accused Betar of carrying out “an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment,” against activists in the New York City area. The group has indicated plans to wind down its operations, her office said. Torossian said the New York entity was no longer active and that its successor was based elsewhere.
Betar identifies itself as part of a militant Zionist group founded a century ago in Eastern Europe and based in Israel. But the group chartered in New York, officially known as Betar Zionist Organization Inc. centered its activities on the
metropolitan area, where members sometimes confronted pro-Palestinian activists at protests and it maintained an outspoken presence on social media.
The group’s claims that it had reported protesters to the Trump administration at first drew little attention. But they took on greater significance after U.S. immigration agents arrested several campus activists last March. A Homeland Security official later testified that the government targeted protesters using lists assembled by a doxing group, Canary Mission, as well as by Betar.
James said her office began looking into the group, chartered in a New York suburb, after receiving complaints that it had been threatening protesters. In Tuesday’s announcement, her office noted social media posts by Betar that it said were intended to incite hostility.
“We urge everyone to bring dogs, borrow a pit bull,” the group posted before a February 2025 protest in New York against the sale of land in the West Bank. “Feel free to mask up and wear a helmet. Jihadis are coming to attack synagogues.”
In another post last January, the group called for protesters to take off their head coverings, calling them “rape rags.”
California
Actor Kiefer Sutherland arrested for assaulting a ride-hail driver
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Kiefer Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats early Monday morning after Los Angeles police say he assaulted a ride-hail driver.
Just after midnight, officers responded to a call reporting an assault at an intersection just south of Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles Police Department said they determined Sutherland entered a ride-hail vehicle, physically assaulted the driver and “made criminal threats toward the victim.” The driver did not require medical treatment, police said.
Sutherland was arrested and released from jail a few hours later on a $50,000 bond, according to jail records. His first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 2.
An email sent to representatives of Sutherland requesting comment was not answered.
Sutherland went to jail in 2007 after pleading no contest to a drunken driving charge. He was also convicted in 2004 for drunken driving and has had several other alcohol-related arrests since the 1990s.
The British-born Canadian actor is best known for his longtime portrayal of federal agent Jack Bauer on the Fox TV ticking-time-bomb thriller “24” and several spinoffs. He also starred in “The Lost Boys” and “Young Guns” and appeared in two films directed by Rob Reiner, “Stand by Me” and “A Few Good Men.”
He is the son of Hollywood acting luminary Donald Sutherland.
