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Justice Department investigating whether Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll committed perjury, sources say

May 27, 2026 / 11:18 PM EDT / CBS News

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into whether author E. Jean Carroll committed perjury in connection with her civil lawsuits against President Trump, sources familiar with the matter said.

The investigation is being led out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one of the sources added.

Carroll sued Mr. Trump in two civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and defamation. In 2023, a jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation for comments he made in 2022. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages.

A second jury in 2024 found him liable for defamation in connection with comments he had made about Carroll in 2019, awarding her $83.3 million in damages. Both judgments were upheld on appeal.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Mr. Trump on some of the litigation, is recused from the case, one source added.

The investigation was reported earlier by CNN. The theory of the case hinges on whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, a source told CBS News.

It was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, helped pay for some of her legal expenses.

CBS News has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois for comment on the investigation, as well as to Roberta Kaplan, the attorney who represented Carroll for the two lawsuits.

Carroll accused Mr. Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store dressing room during an encounter in the mid-1990s, an account which she published in a 2019 story for New York Magazine. In 2019, Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation, but the case stalled in court.

She then filed a second defamation lawsuit in 2022, adding a claim of rape under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied the sexual assault allegations.

Hoffman’s financial backing for Carroll’s lawsuit was first revealed in legal papers filed by Mr. Trump’s attorneys in April 2023, just ahead of the trial in the first defamation lawsuit, according to the New York Times.

When Mr. Trump’s attorneys brought the issue up on appeal, the appeals court found that Carroll had “plausibly represented” in her deposition “that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained.”

“Rather, it showed that Ms. Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District wrote in its 2024 ruling.

In a May 2023 interview with the Washington Post, Hoffman explained why he chose to help fund Carroll’s legal action, saying that “we didn’t encourage the lawsuit to happen, we only got on board after she’d already filed.”

“My team looked at it, thought that her voice should be heard because she was challenging someone who was so much more wealthy and powerful, it shouldn’t be squashed,” Hoffman said.

本月20日，波斯湾海峡管理局发表声明，明确伊朗对霍尔木兹海峡的管理和监督范围，并附上划定这一范围的地图。 （路透社）

美国财政部周三宣布，已将伊朗新设立的波斯湾海峡管理局列入制裁名单。

美国媒体报道指，这一制裁行动是美国在军事行动之外，再次试图利用经济杠杆迫使伊朗达成协议，以结束战争并重新开放霍尔木兹海峡。

伊朗新设的波斯湾海峡管理局（Persian Gulf Strait Authority，简称PGSA）已在霍尔木兹海峡划定管控区，管控范围延伸至阿联酋富查伊拉港以南海域，引起阿联酋谴责。

本月20日，波斯湾海峡管理局发表声明，明确伊朗对霍尔木兹海峡的管理和监督范围，并附上划定这一范围的地图。

声明强调，船只在通过霍尔木兹海峡前，须与管理局协调并获得许可。

延伸阅读

特朗普：霍尔木兹海峡不归任何人管辖 盟友阿曼不守规矩也会被炸 中东五国表明不接受伊朗管控霍尔木兹海峡

美国总统特朗普周三强调，霍尔木兹海峡是国际水域，不归任何人管辖，他并警告波斯湾盟友阿曼，如果“不守规矩”同伊朗联合控制海峡，就会被炸毁。

美财政部将伊朗波斯湾海峡管理局列入制裁名单

2026年5月28日 10:50 / 联合早报

美财政部将伊朗波斯湾海峡管理局列入制裁名单

本月20日，波斯湾海峡管理局发表声明，明确伊朗对霍尔木兹海峡的管理和监督范围，并附上划定这一范围的地图。 （路透社）

美国财政部周三宣布，已将伊朗新设立的波斯湾海峡管理局列入制裁名单。

美国媒体报道指，这一制裁行动是美国在军事行动之外，再次试图利用经济杠杆迫使伊朗达成协议，以结束战争并重新开放霍尔木兹海峡。

伊朗新设的波斯湾海峡管理局（Persian Gulf Strait Authority，简称PGSA）已在霍尔木兹海峡划定管控区，管控范围延伸至阿联酋富查伊拉港以南海域，引起阿联酋谴责。

本月20日，波斯湾海峡管理局发表声明，明确伊朗对霍尔木兹海峡的管理和监督范围，并附上划定这一范围的地图。

声明强调，船只在通过霍尔木兹海峡前，须与管理局协调并获得许可。

特朗普：霍尔木兹海峡不归任何人管辖 盟友阿曼不守规矩也会被炸
中东五国表明不接受伊朗管控霍尔木兹海峡

美国总统特朗普周三强调，霍尔木兹海峡是国际水域，不归任何人管辖，他并警告波斯湾盟友阿曼，如果“不守规矩”同伊朗联合控制海峡，就会被炸毁。

YouTube taking steps to make clear when realistic videos are made by AI

May 27, 2026 / 5:20 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

YouTube is updating its policies to more clearly identify when a realistic-seeming video was made using artificial intelligence.

The change comes as social media platforms are flooded with AI-generated videos, images and music.

In response, Alphabet-owned YouTube said Wednesday it will more prominently feature an existing label on videos that discloses if they have been altered or generated with AI. For long-form videos, the label will appear directly below the player, right above a video’s description. For shorter content, the disclosure will appear as an overlay on the video.

“If it looks real but was made with AI, viewers will know immediately,” Rene Ritchie, a YouTube creator, said in a video describing the changes.

YouTube already requires creators to disclose their use of AI for realistic content. The platform is also adding tools to automatically identify and label AI material.

YouTube said it’s making the changes “to balance transparency with creator control” and that a disclosure label alone will not affect how a video is recommended or whether it can be monetized.

Other major online content players are also moving to respond to the proliferation of AI “slop.” In April, audio streaming service Spotify added a certification badge, called “Verified by Spotify,” that indicates whether a song was created by AI or a person.

blob:https://www.cbsnews.com/6405dd94-ea60-49c8-a9e0-91cf892a8c3c

The badge is designed to give audiences “more insight and transparency into the music and artists” they listen to, the company said in a statement.

Edited by Alain Sherter

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Dems slammed for demanding ‘five-star accommodations’ for illegal immigrants at ICE facility

May 27, 2026 5:41pm EDT / Fox News

Republican state Rep. Paul Kanitra called Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s visit to Delaney Hall a ‘performative stunt’ to distract from Democratic policies

By Charles Creitz, Peter Pinedo Fox News

Assemb. Paul Kanitra, R-Toms River, spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital during a visit to Delaney Hall in Newark where he said Democrats created the crisis that has led to protests.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

NEWARK – EXCLUSIVE:Speaking with Fox News Digital at the site of a multi-day confrontation between anti-ICE protesters and federal law enforcement, Republican state lawmaker Paul Kanitra ripped into Democrats for demanding what he described as “five-star accommodations” for illegal immigrants.

Just days after many top New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Sen. Andy Kim, joined protesters outside of ICE’s Delaney Hall, Kanitra called Democrats’ handling of illegal immigration a “disgrace.”

“Democrats created this chaos with all their laws. Gov. Sherrill was in office for a couple of weeks before she passed three radical protective illegal immigration bills, taking the masks off of ICE agents, protecting their [illegal immigrants’] status here, giving them more benefits, and here she is out here knowing full well she wasn’t going to get in,” he said.

Democrats and protesters allege that detainees in the Newark ICE facility, known as Delaney Hall, have gone on a hunger strike in protest of inhumane conditions.

ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS CLASH WITH AGENTS OUTSIDE NEW JERSEY DETENTION CENTER AS GOV. SHERRILL DENIED ENTRY

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark.(Sen. Andy Kim ; X)

On Monday, Sherrill posted on X that she had attempted to enter Delaney Hall after hearing “heartbreaking” reports of unsafe and unconstitutional conditions. She wrote that her request to access the facility was “denied this morning, raising even more questions about what they are trying to hide from public view.”

The Department of Homeland Security has shot down the claims of bad conditions and denied the hunger strike.

Kanitra asserted that Sherrill’s appearance “was a performative stunt to try to change the focus from their policies, which have created this chaos, to try to make some sort of sensational news story out of it.”

He taunted Democrats, saying, “The food service provider here at Delaney Hall is actually the same food service provider that services the $150,000 to $500,000 suites at Met Life Stadium.”

“It seems to be good enough for those guys, so I assume it’s good enough for our illegal invaders behind us,” he said, pointing back to the facility.

The lawmaker said he actually agrees that “every public official should be allowed to see what’s going on inside [the ICE facility] for themselves,” which he said, “will debunk these crazed claims that they have.”

“We already heard from Secretary Mullin himself and DHS saying that these were baseless allegations,” he continued. “I don’t know if they’re expecting the Ritz Carlton behind us, but these people are either here illegally or they were here as part of a privilege, with a visa or other procedure, and then they broke the law and are getting that revoked.”

“They shouldn’t be expecting five-star accommodations here in New Jersey,” he concluded.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN GOES OFF ON DEMS’ ‘GARBAGE’ MEMORIAL DAY ‘POLITICAL STUNT’ AT ICE FACILITY

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6396774211112

Meanwhile, a protester named Diana Tabor told Fox News Digital that she believes the conditions inside the ICE facility are “very unfair.” Tabor, who is Black, also noted that the protesters have been questioning the ethics of ICE agents who “look like us,” saying, “it feels like betrayal.”

She said that protesters, who have been camping outside the facility for several days, are with various advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations and are prepared to keep it up for weeks or months “until justice is served.”

Tabor said she was present on her own “on the behalf of constituents in Union County who have suffered due to the misfair treatment of Delaney Hall.”

“We’ve come here from different backgrounds, different organizations, we came here with different objectives, but ultimately, we formed a big family, and we have one goal, and we’ve all come together to make that goal,” said Tabor.

She agreed, “There is credibility in protecting the American people,” but emphasized, “I do believe that there are different ways to go about it, not kidnapping people, not putting them in overcrowded detention centers, I would say that we need to find a better way to mitigate that.”

ANTI-ICE PROTEST LEADER DEMANDS RELEASE OF INMATES, SHERRILL APPEARANCE

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6396770801112

“I do think that there are obviously people that come here and do commit crimes, and there are murders and there are rapes and there are robberies and there are people being harmed with the loose borders, and that should be taken care of accordingly, but I think that if we start using our resources adequately and we start using it to actually go against criminals who are hurting people within these borders that we’d get a lot more done,” she said.

“So, I would say that we need to start focusing more on actual crime, and not just profiling people based on what they look like,” Tabor added. “I think that there is a happy medium between protecting human rights and also protecting the country.”

ICE agents detain a protestor outside the Delaney Hall detention center after demonstrators protested the transfer of detainees in Newark, N.J., on May 26, 2026.(Andres Kudacki/AP)

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DHS responded to the protests by publishing a statement stating that certified dietitians evaluate meals and that all detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries.

The agency added that detainees “also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers” and that “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill and Booker for comment.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

Uganda closes its border with Congo over Ebola outbreak

May 27, 2026 / 7:23 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Uganda on Wednesday ordered the closure of its border with Congo, where suspected cases of a rare type of Ebola are surging, and as cases have been confirmed at home after Ugandan health workers were exposed to the disease from Congolese patients.

The measure, which goes against the guidance by the World Health Organization, underscores growing fears of contagion in East Africa from Bundibugyo, a rare type of the Ebola virus that is behind this outbreak and that has no approved medicines or vaccines.

According to numbers compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO, there were 121 confirmed Ebola cases in Congo and 17 confirmed deaths, with at least 1,077 additional suspected cases of the virus and 246 suspected deaths from the disease.

In Uganda, there were seven confirmed cases, including one death from the virus, the CDC and WHO said.

Like Congo, Uganda has faced Ebola outbreaks in the past. A local Ugandan task force made the decision on the border closure. The Ugandan health workers were exposed to the virus by Congolese patients who had crossed the border before the outbreak was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.

Sophia Mulei, a laboratory technologist, wearing protective equipment as she prepares to enter the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Laboratory at Uganda Virus Research Institute on May 26, 2026, in Entebbe, Uganda. Hajarah Nalwadda / Getty Images

Border crossings will be authorized only in emergency cases, including for the outbreak response, cargo or security reasons, Dr. Diana Atwine of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told journalists. Anyone entering from Congo under emergency circumstances will be taken into mandatory isolation for 21 days.

Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as hemorrhagic fever. The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.

On Wednesday, Congolese authorities said that the first person who recovered from the Bundibugyo virus has been released home from a treatment center in Rwampara, one of the towns in eastern Congo at the heart of the outbreak.

WHO has discouraged border closures with Congo while acknowledging that neighboring countries are at high risk of contagion. The U.N. health agency has declared this outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Closures “push the movement of people and goods to informal border crossings that are not monitored, thus increasing the chances of the spread of disease,” the agency said.

The Uganda-Congo border is several hundred miles long and crossed by numerous footpaths beyond formal border posts. Many people come and go in the course of a day to visit families or to trade.

Congolese health authorities are struggling to contain the outbreak, which WHO says is outpacing them. The rare type of Ebola was confirmed weeks late as tests were carried out for a more common type. Challenges also include the threat from armed groups in eastern Congo, a large number of displaced people and poor infrastructure.

WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on Wednesday for a ceasefire in eastern Congo to allow safe access for responders and others, saying on social media that “attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is working to set up a facility in Kenya for Americans who were exposed to Ebola or infected with the deadly illness, multiple CDC officials confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday.

A U.S. doctor who contracted Ebola while working with a missionary group in Congo was previously airlifted to Germany for treatment earlier this month. Six other Americans have been transported to Germany and the Czech Republic for monitoring.

All American citizens who have recently been in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan must enter the U.S. through one of only three U.S. airports — Houston Bush International, Washington Dulles International or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International — to undergo mandatory enhanced screenings. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York will be added to the list of approved airports Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced.

Houston’s airport said it expects to average up to 50 screened passengers per day.

U.S. green card holders and foreign nationals who have recently been in one or more of those three countries are currently barred from entering the U.S., according to CDC guidelines.

“We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday during President Trump’s Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Seattle socialist mayor mocked for ‘irony’ as residents build walls to stop out of control shootings

2026-05-27T18:04:55-04:00 / Fox News

One shooting sent bullets into a wall near a window where a six-week-old baby was sleeping

By Peter Pinedo, William La Jeunesse Fox News

Published May 27, 2026 6:04pm EDT | Updated May 27, 2026 6:06pm EDT

Seattle residents build barricades to combat rising crime wave

Fox News senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse reports on Seattle residents taking safety into their own hands, building homemade barricades from metal and dirt to block streets. This action comes amidst a surge in shootings, prostitution, and gang-related activities, with residents criticizing Democrat Mayor Katie Wilson and defunded police for a lack of effective response to the escalating crime wave in their community.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Seattle democratic socialist Mayor Katie Wilson is being mocked online over the “irony” of residents in the blue-run city erecting barrier walls in a desperate attempt to stop out-of-control shootings.

Just months after Wilson took office in Seattle, terrified residents in the city’s Aurora Avenue corridor decided to take matters into their own hands to address near-nightly shootings believed to be connected to criminal turf wars, prostitution and illegal trafficking. After weeks of gang-related shootings and high-speed car chases, some residents spent Memorial Day weekend blocking off their own streets using metal planters, dirt, gravel, logs and chunks of concrete. The barricades were set up to block at least three streets leading into the neighborhood.

Though such artifices could incur fines, one resident named Peter Orr told KTVB 7, “It’s either this, or bullets in my neighbor’s houses.”

News of the neighborhood barricades in Seattle has garnered scorn for Wilson’s policies online.

TERRIFIED RESIDENTS IN CRIME-PLAGUED BLUE CITY THROW UP GIANT BARRICADES TO STOP CHAOS

Seattle socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, is taking criticism following residents of one neighborhood erecting makeshift walls in an effort to staunch rampant shootings.(David Ryder/Reuters; Fox 13 Seattle)

Among these was conservative commentator Paul Szypula, who wrote on X, “The Irony is Undeniable.”

“When progressive policies result in neighborhoods literally barricading themselves off… that says everything,” he wrote, adding, “What should Seattle leaders be doing so residents don’t feel forced to do this?”

Popular conservative account Libs of TikTok mocked, “Seattle residents are now building WALLS on their blocks to keep out criminals.”

Commentator Eric Daugherty posted, “Furious blue city residents in Seattle are now building their OWN BARRICADES to BLOCK streets because shootings are so high Omg. This is MADNESS.”

Residents near Seattle’s Aurora Avenue erected makeshift barricades after repeated shootings and rising gun violence in the neighborhood.(Fox 13 Seattle)

“The socialist mayor is IGNORING IT,” he added. “BLUE CITIES ARE COOKED!”

Constitutional analyst Jonathan Turley wrote, “Nothing says socialism more than citizen barricades.”

DEM WHO WELCOMED SOCIALIST MAYOR’S ‘CHANGE’ NOW SOUNDING ALARM OVER BILLIONAIRE EXODUS: ‘GRAVELY CONCERNED’

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s staff abruptly ended an interview with a local news reporter last week after he pressed her on rising gun violence and surveillance cameras in the city after a recent shooting.(David Ryder/Reuters)

He mocked, “In this case, Les Miserables are seeking to protect their property. After electing a mayor who once called for the defunding of police, Seattle neighborhoods are reverting to self-help measures.”

Wilson, who was sworn into office this January, wrote in a 2020 opinion piece about the defund the police effort that “there’s never been a better time to try.”

In the piece, Wilson posited “there’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over,” reasoning that “institutional culture change is hard.”

“Leaving aside debates on the left about whether police abolition is possible under capitalism, or at all, let’s stick with the current movement demand of cutting the SPD [Seattle Police Department] budget by half. That’s a lot of officers. It may sound alarming, until you realize that U.S. police perform numerous functions for which armed personnel, trained for violent conflict, are unnecessary or unsuited — and often, unsurprisingly, cause harm,” she wrote.

BISHOP BARRON SLAMS ‘BORDERLINE COMMUNISTS’ SANDERS, MAMDANI AHEAD OF TRUMP PRAYER EVENT: ‘ECONOMY THAT KILLS’

The Space Needle stands among downtown buildings in Seattle, Washington.(Al Drago/Getty Images)

As mayor, however, Wilson has not moved to cut the police by half. She has responded to recent shootings by launching a “multi-pronged gun violence strategy,” in which she convened a panel of experts to help the city reduce retaliatory shootings, address youth violence and coordinate efforts between police, schools and community groups.

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Wilson has paused expansion of the city’s CCTV surveillance and license plate reader programs pending a privacy audit, while maintaining existing police camera systems in high-crime areas, including the Aurora Avenue corridor.

Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson for comment.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

Ex-judges mount bid to upend ‘unprecedentedly fraudulent’ Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

2026-05-27T21:39:40.246Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/ex-judges-trump-anti-weaponization-fund

• Thirty-five former federal judges from both parties are asking a Miami court to reopen a lawsuit involving President Trump and the IRS.
• The retired jurists argue the case was fraudulent and led to an improper settlement creating a controversial $1.776 billion fund.
• The settlement also shields Trump and his family from future government investigations into potential civil wrongdoing.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Nearly three dozen former federal judges appointed by presidents from both parties have joined a growing legal effort to upend the Trump administration’s newly created $1.776 billion fund for people who say they were wrongly targeted by the government in the past.

The retired jurists are asking a judge in Miami to reverse her decision last week dismissing an extraordinary lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, one of his adult sons and the Trump Organization against the Internal Revenue Service that resulted in a settlement through which the controversial fund was created.

The 35 judges say the lawsuit, which had raised questions about whether it was legally sound given the fact that Trump was both a plaintiff and, as president, the head of the Executive Branch, in which the IRS defendants exist, “is itself a fraud on the court.”

The settlement in the case, the former judges say, “was not, and never will be, legally justified.” They pointed to the fact that the laws invoked by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to establish the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” require “the existence of a legitimate litigation and not, as here, one that is collusive, feigned, or fraudulent.”

By reopening the case, the judges told US District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, that she can look into whether she “was deceived, including with respect to the existence of an underlying case or controversy and any purported arms-length negotiations undertaken to resolve it.”

Williams was set to look closely at whether she had the authority to oversee the lawsuit at all before she was abruptly informed last week that Trump no longer wanted to pursue it. As she agreed to formally close the case, the judge criticized the way in which the litigation had come to an end, zeroing in on the fact that such issues remained unresolved.

The Justice Department, she said at the time, had not “filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.”

The coalition of judges accused Trump and the Justice Department, which represents the government in court, of using “a collusive lawsuit” to reach the settlement, which also includes a provision shielding Trump, his family and his business from being investigated by the government in the future over potential civil wrongdoing.

Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, said in a statement Wednesday that “it is a routine move for plaintiffs to dismiss cases without referencing any settlement.”

“This motion is frivolous and there is nothing improper about this agreement,” she added.

Among the group of judges are former members of the federal bench from across the ideological spectrum who served on both trial-level courts and appeals courts. One of them, former George H. W. Bush appointee Ursula Mancusi Ungaro, served for a time alongside Williams.

Also included is former Judge John Tinder, who was succeeded on a Chicago-based federal appeals court by now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and retired Judge Michael Luttig, a vocal Trump critic who was appointed to a Richmond-based appeals court by Bush.

“The unprecedentedly fraudulent scheme here more than warrants voiding the dismissal,” the judges wrote.

https://www.cnn.com/

Targets of Trump’s retribution slam “slush fund,” say they’re the real victims of weaponized DOJ
3:03 • Source: CNN

Targets of Trump’s retribution slam “slush fund,” say they’re the real victims of weaponized DOJ
3:03

The judges’ request on Wednesday adds to a growing pushback in court to the new fund as the administration also faces political pressure from some Republicans over it.

Three lawsuits were brought last week in federal courts in Washington, DC, and Virginia seeking to halt the administration from moving forward with implementing its plans for the fund. Those cases argue the fund is unlawful because it may dole out money to people who participated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and finance various paramilitary organizations in the country, and that it violates federal transparency laws, among other things.

In the request made Wednesday to Williams, the judges don’t raise those types of claims but instead present her with a simple proposition: “The Court was deceived.”

Reopening the case, the judges say, “will allow judicial review of the extraordinary – and historically unprecedented – circumstances presented by this litigation and by the collusive ‘settlement’ that invokes this litigation as the legal justification for its terms.”

“As long as the court appropriately exercises its authority to reopen the case, it would preserve the status quo and ensure that the ‘settlement’ provisions cannot be carried out while the court completes the inquiry that was derailed by the voluntary dismissal,” they told Williams.

U.S. investigators plan new Bahamas search after GPS data appears to contradict Brian Hooker’s account of wife’s disappearance

May 27, 2026 4:34 PM EDT / CBS News

By Nicole Sganga

Nicole Sganga Homeland Security and Justice Correspondent

Nicole Sganga is CBS News’ homeland security and justice correspondent. She is based in Washington, D.C., and reports for all shows and platforms.

Read Full Bio

Nicole Sganga

Newly obtained GPS data in the case of Lynette Hooker’s disappearance in the Bahamas has prompted U.S. investigators to relaunch a search for the body of the missing Michigan woman, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation told CBS News.

After the forensic evidence appeared to contradict her husband’s account of where he was the night she disappeared, U.S. investigators are asking the Bahamas for permission to send a dive team to search new areas in the Sea of Abaco for the body of Lynette Hooker.

The U.S. official told CBS News that GPS data derived from one of Brian Hooker’s electronic devices showed a track of the device’s movements that does not align with what he told investigators. The newly obtained data shows the device was out on the water, stopping in the Sea of Abaco before returning, the official said, granting investigators a more precise location to search.

Coast Guard investigators have also asked family members of Lynette Hooker to provide their DNA to assist in their investigation, family members told CBS News.

The rest of the evidence from the case is still being processed by the FBI in Quantico, but investigators believe GPS information extracted from at least one electronic device has identified previously unsearched areas where divers should now look for additional evidence, including Lynette Hooker’s body.

Because the search would take place in Bahamian territorial waters, U.S. authorities have to seek permission from the Bahamas, even though the vessel involved is U.S.-flagged.

The latest development marks one of the most significant turns yet in the investigation into Lynette Hooker’s disappearance, raising new questions about Brian Hooker’s account of what happened on April 4, the night his wife vanished. Brian Hooker told authorities that his wife fell from an 8-foot dinghy during a nighttime ride in the Abacos and was swept away with the boat keys, leaving him unable to restart the engine and forcing him to paddle for hours before reaching shore, CBS News previously reported.

Lynette Hooker was last seen near Aunt Pat’s Bay, near Elbow Cay and Hope Town, Brian Hooker reported to local authorities.

Brian Hooker has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. He was detained by Bahamian authorities for questioning and released without charges after five days. After being released from custody, he traveled to the U.S. to see his ailing mother, according to his Bahamian attorney. His current whereabouts are not known.

CBS News has also reported that Brian Hooker shared maps he said showed the dinghy’s route and the location where Lynette Hooker went overboard.

But investigators now believe they have independent forensic data that undercuts that version of events, pointing them instead to a different search area.

The planned dive search comes amid an expanding U.S. criminal investigation. The Coast Guard Investigative Service seized the couple’s sailboat, the “Soulmate”, earlier this month as part of the probe, CBS News previously reported. Investigators have also been examining whether technology aboard the vessel, including an infrared camera, may hold evidence relevant to the case.

While it is not known if Brian Hooker used the camera, it is currently being processed as part of the ongoing probe, according to sources.

Cristian Benavides contributed to this report.

NY federal prosecutors charge Google engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket

2026-05-27 7:54 PM ET / CNN

By Kara Scannell

5 min ago

PUBLISHED May 27, 2026, 7:54 PM ET

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The Polymarket website is seen on a smartphone arranged in Germantown, New York, in July 2025.

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File

Summary

• Federal prosecutors have charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million by using insider information to bet on Polymarket.
• The software engineer allegedly accessed confidential Google data about the most searched people of 2025 before placing bets on the prediction market.
• Google said the software engineer has been placed on leave, and a lawyer for the man was not immediately identified on the court docket.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Federal prosecutors in New York charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits from bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket by using confidential insider information he learned about the most searched people of 2025.

Michele Spagnuolo, the Google software engineer, allegedly used an account called “AlphaRaccoon” to place multiple “yes” and “no” bets related to who would be the most searched person on Google, according to a criminal complaint.

“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,” authorities allege in the complaint.

Spagnuolo is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He appeared in court Wednesday and was released on a $2.2 million bond with travel restrictions.

Google said Spagunolo has been placed on leave. A lawyer for Spagunolo was not immediately identified on the court docket.

“We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies,” a Google spokesperson told CNN.

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Spagnuolo is now the second person this year to face criminal charges alleging insider trading on prediction markets.

Last month the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York announced insider trading charges against a US special forces soldier for allegedly using his knowledge of the planned military capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket ahead of it. The solider allegedly made over $400,000 in profits. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities allege Spagnuolo used confidential internal Google data to place numerous bets about the most searched person.

In one case, Spagnuolo placed a $381.12 bet “yes” that d4vd would rank in the most searched people of the year and $5 that d4vd would be the number one searched person on Google with an implied probability of “slightly higher than 0%,” according to the complaint.

Spagnuolo also bet $613,000 “no” that Pope Leo would be the most searched person and just over $500,000 that Donald Trump would not be the most searched person. When Google announced the most searched results, authorities allege, Spagnuolo made over $1.2 million in profits.

CNN has a partnership with another prediction market, Kalshi, and uses its data to cover major events. Editorial employees are prohibited from participating in prediction markets.

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