Month: July 2023

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to move his hush-money payments case from New York state court to a federal venue. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein means the case will stay in Manhattan criminal court, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is prosecuting Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. A spokesperson for Bragg said: “We are very pleased with the federal court’s decision and look forward to proceeding in New York State Supreme Court.”  The case will now go back to state criminal court in Manhattan, where it will be overseen by Judge Juan Merchan, and is scheduled to go to trial in March.

Pleading not guilty, Trump argued that the payments were connected to his duties as president and that the case should therefore be heard in federal court; Judge Hellerstein rejected that argument, writing in his 25-page ruling: “Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President. Trump also has failed to show that he has a colorable federal defense to the Indictment.”  

Hellerstein said in his ruling: “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event. Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts. Falsifying business records to hide such reimbursement, and to transform the reimbursement into a business expense for Trump and income to Cohen, likewise does not relate to a presidential duty.” The conduct Trump is accused of covering up includes a $130,000 payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has acknowledged repaying Cohen in a series of payments in 2017 but he maintains the payments were on the up-and-up, and that he never had an affair with Daniels.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement that “this case belongs in a federal court and we will continue to pursue all legal avenues to move it there.” Trump’s attorneys had argued the former president could claim additional defenses in a federal court setting, in part because they say he would not have hired Cohen as his personal lawyer had he not been elected president.

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On Wednesday, the president of Stanford University announced his resignation, citing an independent review that found flaws in some papers he authored, but cleared him of research misconduct. Tessier-Lavigne has been president for nearly seven years.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement to students and staff that he would step down Aug. 31. Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist, says he “never submitted a scientific paper without firmly believing that the data were correct and accurately presented,” but added that he should have been more diligent in seeking corrections regarding his work. Tessier-Lavigne says he’s stepping down because he expects continued debate about his ability to lead the university, but will remain on faculty as a biology professor. Tessier-Lavigne also said he will continue his research into brain development and neurodegeneration.

The resignation comes after the board of trustees launched a review in December following allegations Tessier-Lavigne engaged in fraud and other unethical conduct related to his research and papers. The review assessed 12 papers that Tessier-Lavigne worked on — which were published before Tessier-Lavigne became Stanford president — with five of them in which he was the principal author. Tessier-Lavigne said he was aware of issues with four of the five papers but acknowledged taking “insufficient” steps to deal with the issues. He said he’ll retract three of the papers and correct two.

The panel cleared him of the most serious allegations regarding a 2009 paper published in the scientific journal Nature, which was the subject of a fraud investigation and that fraud was found. The panel ruled there was no investigation and no fraud discovered. H. Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals, said:
“People tend to think of scientists as these individuals that they’ve heard of like Einstein and Marie Curie. The truth is that researchers run laboratories filled with people, and everything that happens in that laboratory is a product of many individuals there.” The report cleared Tessier-Lavigne of research misconduct, but Thorp said ultimately the boss is responsible for what happens in the lab – and shouldn’t be distracted by doing other jobs.

Board chair Jerry Yang said that they’ve named Richard Saller, a classics professor, as interim president starting Sept. 1. In a statement, Yang said Tessier-Lavigne was key to creating the university’s first new school in 70 years (Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability) and in 2019, he unveiled a strategic long-range plan that will continue to guide the university’s growth.

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