Aurelia Butler

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    Trump to Pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, Reality TV Stars Convicted of Fraud

    The clemency for Todd and Julie Chrisley, the stars of “Chrisley Knows Best,” is Mr. Trump’s latest gift to people he calls victims of a weaponized justice system.President Trump will fully pardon the reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted three years ago of evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million to support their luxurious lifestyle.The pardon, announced Tuesday by the White House, is the latest instance of Mr. Trump using his clemency power to settle grievances over what he calls the political weaponization of the justice system. Mr. Trump, in notifying the Chrisleys’ daughter, Savannah, called their treatment “pretty harsh,” as shown in a video clip of their call posted to social media by one of the president’s special assistants, Margo Martin.“Your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” Mr. Trump tells Savannah Chrisley, adding, “I don’t know them, but give them my regards and wish them a good life.”Savannah Chrisley can be heard saying, “Thank you so much, Mr. President.”The Chrisleys soared to fame about a decade ago in the USA Network hit “Chrisley Knows Best” as self-made, God-fearing real estate moguls who lived in a 30,000-square-foot mansion outside Atlanta. But according to prosecutors, their empire was “based on the lie that their wealth came from dedication and hard work” and they were “career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors and evading taxes at every corner.”A jury in 2022 found the couple guilty of eight counts of financial fraud and two counts of tax evasion, while Ms. Chrisley was convicted of additional counts of wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Mr. Chrisley received a 12-year prison sentence, and Ms. Chrisley was sentenced to seven years.According to the Justice Department, the Chrisleys conspired with a former business partner to defraud banks around Atlanta into giving them more than $36 million in personal loans. They submitted false bank statements, audit reports and personal financial statements to obtain the loans, the Justice Department said, and spent the money on luxury cars, real estate and clothing, while also using new fraudulent loans to repay older ones. After spending all the money, the Justice Department said, Mr. Chrisley filed for bankruptcy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Gardener Stumbles Upon Hidden Treasure in a Vermont Park

    Kelly Wakefield found a rock with a skull and crossbones in the same park last fall, but she didn’t realize that it was a clue to much more.Kelly Wakefield, a professional gardener, was doing her spring cleanup of a public park in St. Albans, Vt., when she stumbled upon a mysterious metal box under a pile of leaves.She shook the box and heard the telltale jangle of coins.“I didn’t really know what to do,” she said on Sunday, recalling the discovery.She opened the metal box and was floored by the bounty inside. She ran to her truck and drove straight to her mother’s house. What exactly had she found? Was any of it real? Did she need a lawyer?Ms. Wakefield, 46, soon learned that she had stumbled upon a treasure chest intentionally hidden by Michael Cloherty O’Connell, the author of two history books that led readers on scavenger hunts around the Northeast.Kelly Wakefield was shocked to find a treasure chest while gardening in St. Albans, Vt.via Kelly WakefieldThe box contained various coins, antiques, a Civil War-era bullet, a map and a note from the author himself. It is now in a safe deposit box, Ms. Wakefield said, and has yet to be appraised. (She’ll get to it eventually, she said.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Marshals’ Data Shows Spike in Threats Against Federal Judges

    Data gathered by the law enforcement agency responsible for judicial security showed 162 judges faced threats between March 1 and April 14.Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since President Trump took office, according to internal data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service.In the five-month period leading up to March 1 of this year, 80 individual judges had received threats, the data shows.Then, over the next six weeks, an additional 162 judges received threats, a dramatic increase. That spike in threats coincided with a flood of harsh rhetoric — often from Mr. Trump himself — criticizing judges who have ruled against the administration and, in some cases, calling on Congress to impeach them.Many judges have already spoken out, worrying about the possibility of violence and urging political leaders to tone things down.Since mid-April, the pace of the threats has slowed slightly, the data shows. Between April 14 and May 27, it shows 35 additional individual judges received threats. Still, the total number of judges threatened this fiscal year — 277 — represents roughly a third of the judiciary.The threat data was not released publicly but was provided to The New York Times by Judge Esther Salas of Federal District Court for New Jersey, who said she obtained it from the Marshals Service, which is tasked by law with overseeing security for the judiciary.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ICE, Shifting Tactics, Detains High School Student at N.Y.C. Courthouse

    The detention of a 20-year-old Venezuelan appears to be the first reported instance of immigration officials apprehending a student in the city this year.When a 20-year-old from Venezuela was arrested last week at an immigration courthouse in New York, it was the first reported instance of a public school student in the city being apprehended by federal officials since the start of President Trump’s second term.It also signaled a shift in strategy by immigration authorities who are intent on expediting deportations.Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last week began standing inside and outside of immigration courts across the United States in an effort to detain certain migrants who are appearing for scheduled hearings. Immigration lawyers said ICE officers — from San Diego and Los Angeles to Boston and Miami — were targeting migrants shortly after their cases were dismissed by judges. Government lawyers are requesting that the cases be dismissed in order to place the migrants in expedited deportation proceedings.Dylan, the New York student, was arrested on Wednesday in the lobby of a courthouse in Lower Manhattan by ICE officers who showed up at the city’s immigration courts in large numbers. Dylan’s last name was withheld at the request of his family, which fears retaliation from the government.Dylan, 20, was arrested after he showed up to court for what he thought would be a routine hearing.RaizaOn Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams fended off a barrage of questions about the student’s arrest.Mr. Adams, who oversees a school system serving thousands of immigrant students, sought to distance himself from Dylan’s apprehension, saying that the arrest was a federal issue beyond his purview because it did not happen on school grounds.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Bitten by Alligator, Man Is Killed After Charging at Deputies, Sheriff Says

    The authorities say that Timothy Schulz, 42, of Mulberry, Fla., swam across an alligator-filled lake before a violent encounter with deputies in the neighborhood.Early on Memorial Day, a Florida man was bitten by an alligator as he swam across a lake. Bleeding from a bite to his right arm but undeterred, he climbed out, grabbed a pair of garden shears and walked into a gated neighborhood, alarming residents, according to local authorities.Within minutes, the man, Timothy Schulz, 42, of Mulberry, Fla., was dead — shot by sheriff’s deputies after, they say, he charged at them with the shears, failed to be subdued by a stun gun and tried to grab either a shotgun or rifle from their cruiser.“The fact that he was bitten by an alligator significantly and continued on his rampage was shocking,” the Polk County sheriff, Grady Judd, said at a news conference on Monday. “This is just crazy stuff. You know it’s got to be true. You can’t make it up.”In fact, Mr. Schulz had started acting strangely at least two hours before the fatal encounter in Lakeland, Fla., according to the sheriff’s office, which pieced together the events leading up to his death using 911 calls and witness statements from residents of the neighborhood who tried to help Mr. Schulz in his final moments. Sheriff Judd also said that Mr. Schulz had a lengthy criminal history, which he described as “meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest.”The events on Monday began before 6 a.m., when an employee at RaceTrac gas station off Highway 37 called the sheriff’s office to report a man inside who was acting bizarre — shaking and asking to call his son, Sheriff Judd said.Deputies arrived within three minutes and searched the premises until about 6:39 a.m., but the man, later identified as Mr. Schulz, had vanished, the sheriff said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Sarah Milgrim, Victim of D.C. Shooting, Is Mourned by Kansas City Jewish Community

    At the funeral for Sarah Milgrim, who was killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington last week, the Israeli embassy aide was mourned as someone who wanted to help everyone.At college, at temple and at the embassy where she worked, Sarah Milgrim was known for bringing people together.“Sarah was a link, a powerful, radiant link,” Rabbi Stephanie Kramer told a synagogue overflowing with mourners on Tuesday in Overland Park, Kan., just days after Ms. Milgrim was one of two Israeli Embassy workers killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington.Standing near the casket draped with an Israeli flag, as hundreds watched online, the rabbi added that Ms. Milgrim had the ability to make her family and friends feel “more deeply connected to Israel, to Jewish life, and to each other.”Speakers at the funeral on Tuesday, held at Congregation Beth Torah, also recalled moments from her childhood. She loved horseback riding and caring for animals, once using oven mitts to save a baby bunny.A rabbi who had known her since she was a young girl growing up in nearby Prairie Village recalled her as a steadfast member of the Jewish community through high school and then at the University of Kansas. And her supervisor at the Israeli embassy praised her for serving as a liaison to progressive groups “with a natural brilliance and boldness.”A gunman killed Ms. Milgrim, 26, and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, last week as they left an event focused on improving the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Middle East. The suspect claimed that he “did it for Gaza,” according to an F.B.I. affidavit filed in federal court.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Another Suspect Is Arrested in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case

    The man, William Duplessie, surrendered to the police Tuesday morning. Authorities have said the victim was an Italian man who was tormented in a luxury Manhattan townhouse for weeks.A third person accused of kidnapping a man and torturing him for nearly three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police on Tuesday morning, said Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.The police identified the man, who has connections to Switzerland and Miami, as William Duplessie. He had spent days negotiating his surrender with the Police Department after the arrest on Friday of two others, John Woeltz, a cryptocurrency investor, and Beatrice Folchi, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. Ms. Folchi was quickly released and her prosecution was deferred, one of the officials said.“We know he is going to be charged, with Mr. Woeltz, with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate,” Commissioner Tisch said in an interview on Fox 5 of Mr. Duplessie, shortly after he turned himself in.The episode burst into public view on Friday morning when the victim, an Italian man, escaped from the lavish, 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan where he had been held captive and flagged down a traffic agent.The victim, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, and Mr. Woeltz had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York, according to an internal police report relayed by a third law enforcement official.But Mr. Carturan and Mr. Woeltz fell out over money and Mr. Carturan flew to Italy, according to the report. Soon after, Mr. Woeltz persuaded him to return to New York.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner

    Paul Walczak’s pardon application cited his mother’s support for the president, including raising millions of dollars and a connection to a plot to publicize a Biden family diary.As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More