Epstein associate appears in court
NEW YORK -- Ghislaine Maxwell faced her trial judge in person for the first time Friday as lawyers squabbled over exactly when she should be tried on sex trafficking charges that allege that she procured teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse at his posh residences.
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Maxwell, 59, has been in custody at a federal lockup in Brooklyn since her arrest last July at a $1 million New Hampshire estate where her lawyers say she went to live to avoid the spotlight of media attention and to remain safe from threats. Prosecutors, though, say she took steps to hide her whereabouts and movements.
Maxwell, a British socialite and one-time girlfriend of Epstein, who took his own life at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial, pleaded innocent to sex trafficking conspiracy and an additional sex trafficking charge that were added in a updated indictment by a Manhattan federal court grand jury.
Prosecutors say Maxwell recruited at least three teenage girls between 1994 and 1997 for Epstein to sexually abuse. The superseding indictment says another teenage girl was recruited in the early 2000s, when she was 14.
Maxwell's trial has been set to start July 12, although her lawyers have asked for more time to prepare because of the new charge. The judge didn't make an immediate decision on the request.
San Diego gunman kills man, wounds 4
SAN DIEGO -- A man in downtown San Diego shot and killed one person and then walked another block and opened fire again, wounding four people before police subdued him with a Taser, police said Friday.
The 32-year-old suspect was arrested after the Thursday night shooting. He was taken to a hospital for injuries after being tackled by bystanders before police detained him, police homicide Lt. Andra Brown said in a statement.
Brown said the gunman had been bumping into people and verbally picking fights in the busy Gaslamp Quarter, a downtown nightlife district.
About 10:30 p.m., the gunman confronted a man standing in a valet area outside a hotel and opened fire, police said. He walked away and then turned back and shot again.
The gunman then walked a block and confronted a group of men. He opened fire again, wounding four of them, before walking away, police said. Bystanders then tackled him, Brown said.
Gun range owner to defy tear-down order
WEST PAWLET, Vt. -- The owner of an unpermitted firearms training center that has rattled neighbors in a southern Vermont town says he won't comply with a judge's order to dismantle much of the facility he has built.
Daniel Banyai said he is looking for "the proper constitutional attorney" to appeal a Vermont Environmental Court order that he dismantle all structures on the 30-acre property that were built without permits in Pawlet, near the New York border. He has until May 5 to appeal.
"We are not going to do that," Banyai said when asked about the order during a weekend event at the center he calls Slate Ridge Vermont. "We have not done anything wrong, we haven't done anything illegal."
Banyai, 51, a native of Hyde Park, N.Y., said he felt that since he moved to Pawlet the close-knit community has rejected him as an outsider. He chose Vermont because of its lax gun laws.
Pawlet asked a judge to hold Banyai in contempt for refusing to obey the March 4 order that he end training activities on the property, have the structures there surveyed and remove any buildings that were constructed without local zoning permits. He was fined $46,000.
The property is only permitted to have a garage with an apartment.
Neighbors have complained for some time about gunfire at the facility and what they claimed were threats and intimidation by Banyai and his supporters. Many of its neighbors say they are afraid to talk publicly because of fears for their safety.
Delay granted in McGahn subpoena case
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court has granted the U.S. Justice Department's request to postpone arguments in the legal battle over a congressional subpoena for ex-president Donald Trump's former White House counsel Donald McGahn.
The order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit comes over objections from lawyers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who had asked the court to proceed with argument next week. Instead, the court gave lawyers for the Biden administration additional time to try to negotiate a deal with House Democrats over McGahn's testimony.
In a brief order Thursday night, the D.C. Circuit set a new date of May 19 for argument before a full panel of judges. The court said there would be "no further postponements" in the case "absent exceptional circumstances."
The House Judiciary Committee first subpoenaed McGahn in 2019, and has told the court it still needs his testimony to investigate Trump's efforts to interfere with the investigation of former special counsel Robert Mueller III.