US President Donald Trump has vowed to impose import tariffs on $11 billion worth of goods from the European Union after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled EU subsidies to Airbus caused “adverse effects” to the US.
Earlier this week, the US Trade Representative (USTR) said Washington was mulling tariffs on a wide range of European exports to the US, including large commercial aircraft and parts, as well as wine, cheese, and dairy products.
The US threat has been sharply criticized by EU officials, who said the figure of $11 billion was “greatly exaggerated.” The bloc is reportedly weighing retaliatory measures against the US over Boeing subsidies. Airbus said it saw no legal basis for Washington’s move and warned of deepening transatlantic trade tensions.
The US filed its first WTO complaint against illegal subsidies provided by the EU to Airbus 15 years ago. Washington accused the European aircraft manufacturer of benefitting from the state aid. For more than a decade the sides have been involved in litigation over the issue, with Brussels making identical accusations against US subsidies for Boeing.
This is the latest chapter in the escalating trade tensions between Washington and Brussels which started shortly after Donald Trump took office in early 2017.
After ending negotiations on the Transatlantic and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the proposed trade agreement between the US and EU, Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU and a number of other countries. The EU placed retaliatory levies on €2.8 billion worth of US goods, including bourbon whiskey, motorcycles, jeans and orange juice.
Will Johnson presents a video and breaks down how a female was attacked by a leftist simply for wearing her ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.
An Alabama gas station clerk defends himself with a machete when two alleged robbers pull out knives and demand he hand over the cash in the register, shocking surveillance video shows.
The Huntsville Police Department released the footage of the March 16 incident, which took place at a Conoco convenience store at 3:15 a.m.
It shows a man, later identified by authorities as 32-year-old Seth Holcomb, advancing on an unnamed store clerk with a knife, when the clerk pulls out a much larger knife of his own.
The fight begins behind the counter with the two men swinging their blades at each other. They spill out through the front of the store, knocking down shelves, and end up outside, in the gas station’s fill-up area.
A second suspect, a 33-year-old woman later identified as Laney Nicholson, appears near the getaway car as the clerk chases her accomplice out of the store. She allegedly pulls out a knife of her own and begins fighting the clerk.
“During that time, Holcomb has the presence of mind to go back in the store and take the cash drawer out of the register,” Lt. Michael Johnson told North Alabama's WAFF-TV.
The clerk and a second suspect fight outside the store, where the clerk bashed their getaway car so that police could recognize it. (Huntsville Police Department via Storyful)
While Holcomb is inside getting the cash, the machete-wielding clerk pounds the getaway car, smashing the windshield and other windows. He later told police he wanted to “visibly mark” the car so police could “easily recognize it.”
The suspects were initially able to make their escape, but police arrested them a short time later. The suspects and the clerk were all treated for minor cuts on their hands, AL.com reported.
Seth Holcomb, 32, and Laney Nicholson, 33, were arrested and may face up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree robbery. (Huntsville Police Department)
Holcomb and Nicholson were both charged with first-degree robbery and criminal mischief on top of individual charges of theft of property and assault, Newsweek reported. Since first-degree robbery is a Class A felony in Alabama, they could face up to life in prison if convicted.
President Trump’s fresh push for the elimination of ObamaCare followed a disagreement within the administration, with top officials and Vice President Pence advising against such move, according to multiple reports.
The Trump administration on Monday told a federal appeals court that the whole Affordable Care Act should be abolished, with Justice Department attorneys filing a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans agreeing with a ruling by a federal judge in Texas last year that the health care law is unconstitutional.
"The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed. Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule," the filing read.
The decision to support the total overturn of the law was made after Trump sided with White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a staunch critic of the Obama-era health care program, rather than following the advice of Attorney General William Barr and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who both reportedly cautioned against proceeding.
FILE- In this Jan. 2, 2019, file photo White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Trump was apparently encouraged by Mulvaney and saw the move as a way to deliver on his campaign promise to overturn ObamaCare in its entirety instead of only partly dismantling the system -- by nixing the penalty on the individual mandate.
But the health secretary insisted that backing a lawsuit to repeal the health care law is untenable as there’s no Republican alternative, according to Politico. Mulvaney reportedly dismissed the concerns, claiming that such a bold move would force Congress to come up with alternatives.
Barr, who was recently praised by Trump over the handling of the end of the Robert Mueller probe, reportedly sided against Trump, saying the effort is doomed to fail as the Supreme Court has already upheld the legality of the law.
According to The New York Times, Pence also voiced reservations. He reportedly cautioned about the risks of pursuing the case without a “strategy or a plan to handle the suddenly uninsured if the suit succeeds.”
Trump spoke about ObamaCare on Wednesday, but didn’t address the disagreement within the administration.
“ObamaCare is a disaster. It's too expensive by far. People can't afford it and the deductible is horrible,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “The premiums are too expensive. People are going broke trying to pay for it.”
“If the Supreme Court rules that ObamaCare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than ObamaCare,” Trump added.
“If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.”
— President Trump
The Department of Health and Human Services provided a statement to Politico, denying any rift in the administration.
“Secretary Azar fully supports the Administration's litigation position in the ACA case, which bears his name,” said an agency spokeswoman. “Any insinuation that Secretary Azar has 'butted heads' with Mulvaney on this issue is false.”
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled last year that ObamaCare is no longer constitutional because the tax reform package – as enacted by Republicans – eliminated the health care law’s penalty for not having health insurance.
The administration initially insisted that only certain parts of the law should be invalidated. But the latest filing moved on from the earlier position and embraces the total overturn of the law.
The filing noted that the government will file a brief in support of the Texas-led coalition of states that are trying to overturn the health care law, given that “the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed,” the Washington Post reported.
“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, told the newspaper.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia – Polls opened early Sunday in North Macedonia for a presidential election seen as a key test for the government following the country's changing its name to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece over the use of the term "Macedonia".
More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1700GMT).
Three university professors are vying for the largely ceremonial presidency post.
Gordana Siljanovska Davkova is backed by the main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, Stevo Pendarovski is a joint candidate of the ruling Social Democrats and 30 smaller parties, while Blerim Reka is supported by two small ethnic Albanian parties.
A candidate needs 50% plus one vote of the 1.8 million registered voters to win outright in the first round.
RABAT, Morocco – Thousands of demonstrators in Morocco are condemning prison sentences given to the leader of the Hirak Rif anti-poverty movement and dozens of other activists.
The demonstration brought one of the main avenues of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, to a standstill on Sunday. Security forces kept watch as participants sang, "The people want the detainees released" and "Long live Rif."
Hirak leader Nasser Zefzafi was sentenced to the maximum prison term of 20 years for threatening state security. An appeals court upheld his sentence and those of other activists this month.
Rif is the struggling region in northern Morocco where the Hirak movement was born in 2016. The movement demands development and job creation for the region.
Families, human rights organizations and left-wing parties are demanding the imprisoned activists' immediate release.
FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Mueller found some evidence in the redacted report released Thursday, April 18, that suggests Trump may have intended to discourage Cohen from cooperation. But he reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
NEW YORK – Days after the FBI raided Michael Cohen's home and office last year, President Donald Trump called his longtime fixer and urged him to "stay strong" and "hang in there" in the face of the intensifying investigation.
That call was among several assurances Cohen says he received that the White House would have his back so long as he "stayed on message," special counsel Robert Mueller said in his long-awaited report on his Trump investigation. The redacted 448-page document was made public Thursday.
Mueller's team said it found evidence to suggest that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with federal authorities, noting among other things that after Cohen flipped on his boss, Trump branded him a "rat" and publicly suggested Cohen's family members had committed crimes.
Ultimately, however, the special counsel reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. And last month, upon receiving Mueller's report, Attorney General William Barr decided Trump shouldn't be prosecuted.
Cohen, 52, is set to report to prison next month to begin serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to crimes that included lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and arranging the payment of hush money to a porn star and a Playboy centerfold who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
The Mueller report, though blacked out in places, offers a window into the quiet support Cohen received from Trump before he turned on his longtime boss and began cooperating with federal prosecutors.
In the months after the April 2018 raid against Cohen by the FBI, Trump associates sought to assure him that the president intended to take care of him. Someone associated with the Trump Organization — whose name is blacked out of the report — told Cohen that "everyone knows the boss has your back." Another time, a friend of the president's reached out to tell Cohen that he was with "the Boss" at Mar-a-Lago and that Trump said "he loves you" and not to worry, according to the report.
Cohen "believed he needed the power of the President to take care of him," he told Mueller's team, noting his legal fees were still being paid at the time by the Trump Organization.
But Cohen grew increasingly worried and asked one Trump attorney "what was in it for him," the report says. Cohen "discussed pardons with the President's personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message he would be taken care of."
By June 2018, however, he had broken with the president, saying in an interview that he needed to put family and country ahead of his loyalty to Trump. Trump reacted by lashing out at him and later, in what Cohen regarded as a threat, accused Cohen family members of illegal acts.
"The evidence concerning this sequence of events," the Mueller report says, "could support an inference that the President used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohen's credibility once Cohen began cooperating."
Some of Cohen's statements to Mueller's team were blacked out of the report. But Cohen attorney and spokesman Lanny Davis tweeted Thursday that Cohen has "7 days, 70 hours, + 100 pages of what #TeamMueller knows and can fill in the bulk of the redactions."
Cohen himself tweeted: "Soon I will be ready to address the American people again ... tell it all ... and tell it myself!" It wasn't clear how or when he would do that.
FILE PHOTO: A labourer cleans an underground sewer at Noida in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh September 2, 2010. REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma/File Photo
April 7, 2019
By Sai Sachin Ravikumar
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Five sanitation workers, all from the lowest rung of India’s caste system, were chosen in late February to meet a very important guest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As cameras flashed, Modi proceeded to wash the feet of the workers, one by one, using water and his hands, a gesture intended to honor staff who clean toilets at the Kumbh Mela, a massive religious gathering in north India.
But sanitation workers, scores of whom die each year from asphyxiation while removing waste from underground drains, have had enough, said Bezwada Wilson, the head of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), or Sanitation Workers’ Movement.
Ahead of general elections that begin on Thursday, the workers are reminding Modi of his promise to eradicate by this year the practice of manual scavenging — the cleaning, carrying or disposing of human excreta from dry latrines and sewers.
“(Modi) has done nothing for us in the past five years,” Wilson said.
India has laws banning the hiring of manual scavengers, but they have not been properly enforced, mostly due to difficulty collecting evidence and apathy by successive governments. Workers picking up human waste with bare hands is a common sight at railway stations.
While government estimates peg the number of manual scavengers at anywhere between 14,000 and 31,000, the SKA says the figure is closer to 770,000, with nearly 1,800 sewer cleaners asphyxiating to death in the last decade.
The community has little political power and Modi remains the front-runner to win the election, but critics point to their condition as another example of lofty promises undone and the empty symbolism of washing their feet.
Wilson has launched a hashtag #StopKillingUs on Twitter and demanded government help workers find jobs that give them dignity.
Most sanitation workers find it difficult to get other work because of caste-based barriers, while many operate without formal contracts and are unaware of the terms of their employment, a study by U.S.-based advisory firm Dalberg shows.
The workers whose feet Modi washed in February are not satisfied with their jobs and want an end to manual scavenging, they told the Indian Express newspaper last month.
One said he was grateful for the honor, calling Modi a great man. But, he added: “There is no difference in our lives. We were doing this cleaning work before too, we continue to do it.”
More than 90 percent of latrine cleaners are women, and all sanitation workers are Dalits, the social group at the bottom of India’s caste system.
(Reporting by Sai Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Jacqueline Wong)
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 26, 2019
LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.
The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo
April 26, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.
The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.
Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.
But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.
Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.
High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.
It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.
Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.
“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.
The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.
Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.
Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.
Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.
Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.
This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff
April 26, 2019
By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh
(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.
The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.
Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.
Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.
“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.
Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.
“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.
U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.
Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.
Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.
Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.
Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.
Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.
Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.
Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
April 26, 2019
By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan
(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.
Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.
Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.
WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?
The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.
Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.
HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?
The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.
Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.
The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.
The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.
No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.
Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.
Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.
CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?
No.
Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.
“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.
“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”
PROOF OF WRONGDOING?
In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.
Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”
PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?
Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.
In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.
The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.
WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?
A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
FILE PHOTO: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers on Friday are set to ask a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favors for money inside a Florida massage parlor.
The owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions plans wants the video to not be used as evidence against him as he contests two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.
His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser to block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.
Kraft, who has owned the franchise since 1994, pleaded not guilty, but has issued a public apology for his actions.
His attorneys have argued in court papers that the surreptitious videotaping of customers, including Kraft, inside a massage parlor was governmental overreach and the result of an illegally obtained search warrant.
The warrant, Kraft’s lawyers claim, was secured under false pretenses because police officers cited human trafficking as a potential crime in their application. Prosecutors have since acknowledged that the investigation yielded no evidence of trafficking.
Palm Beach County prosecutors in a court filing on Wednesday said Kraft’s motion should be rejected because he could not have had any expectation of privacy while visiting a commercial establishment to engage in criminal activity.
That prompted an indignant response from Kraft’s attorneys, who said the prosecution’s position on privacy was “unhinged.”
“It should go without saying that Mr. Kraft and everyone else in the United States have a reasonable expectation that the government will not secretly spy on them while they undress behind closed doors,” they wrote.
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