LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal judge has denied the U.S. government’s request to release from prison a former FBI informant who fabricated a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort.

The decision, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor was reassigned to the case and jointly filed a motion with Alexander Smirnov’s attorneys seeking his release while he appeals his conviction.

Smirnov, 44, was sentenced to six years in prison in early January after pleading guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text that they will appeal the judge’s decision and “continue to advocate for Mr. Smirnov’s release.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment.

Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term.

In their motion seeking Smirnov’s release, the U.S. government said it would review its “theory of the case.” The motion also noted that Smirnov’s release from custody would allow him to receive proper treatment for health issues related to his eyes.

Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the U.S. from overseas.

Smirnov, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each.

The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed “bias” about Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden’s term as vice president.

Authorities said Smirnov’s false claim “set off a firestorm in Congress” when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a “stunt.”

Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Hunter Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The reasons for the moves were not immediately clear, though they come as the FBI under Director Kash Patel has been undertaking broad personnel changes and Deputy Director Dan Bongino has repeatedly sought to reassure supporters of President Donald Trump who are critical of the bureau.

“The Director and I are working on a number of significant initiatives to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated, and that many of your open questions are answered,” Bongino wrote in one recent post on X, without elaborating.

The reassignments, first reported by CNN, were confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss non-public personnel moves. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during a demonstration following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, which sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest. It led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.

The kneeling angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a time of widespread protests, and the agents were not punished at the time.

Patel pledged at his January confirmation hearing that he would not “go backwards” in seeking retribution on perceived adversaries. But even before he was sworn in, there was concern that the Justice Department was poised to do exactly that, including by demanding a list of the thousands of agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6,2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a request seen by some as a possible precursor to a purge at the bureau.

The Trump family company struck a deal Wednesday to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar in a sign it has no plans to hold back from foreign dealmaking during a second Trump administration, despite the danger of a president shaping U.S. public policy for personal financial gain.

The project, which features Trump-branded beachside villas and an 18-hole golf course to be built by a Saudi Arabian company, is the first foreign deal by the Trump Organization since Donald Trump took office and unlike any done in his first term. Back then, he forswore foreign deals in an extraordinary press conference surrounded by stacks of legal documents as he pledged to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest.

Noah Bookbinder, president of a watchdog group that has sued Trump for alleged ethics violations, blasted the Qatari deal.

“You want a president making decisions that are in the best interest of the United States, not his bottom line,” said Bookbinder, who leads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

In addition to a Saudi Arabian partner, called Dar Global, the planned resort north of the Qatari capital of Doha will be developed by a Qatari company called Qatari Diar, which is owned by the Qatari government. That would appear to violate the Trump Organization’s much weaker, second-term ethics pledge that, while it would pursue foreign deals, none would include foreign governments.

When asked for clarification, the Trump Organization said its deal was with the Saudi firm, not the Qatari one, though Trump’s son Eric, who is in charge of the business, mentioned both companies in an earlier statement.

“We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar through this exceptional collaboration with Qatari Diar and Dar Global,” he said.

The deal Wednesday for the Trump International Golf Club and Trump Villas is unlikely to be the last of its kind. It follows several other deals made before Trump was sworn in, including one for a golf resort in Vietnam late last year with a firm with ties to the Communist Party.

The deals have drawn outrage from government watchdogs but mostly silence from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress.

The Associated Press reached out to the two Republicans who chair the foreign relations committees in the Senate and House, Sen. James Risch of Idaho and Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, but neither responded.

Any deal with Saudi Arabia is seen as especially problematic in foreign policy circles. Trump’s close ties to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, drew heavy criticism in his first term after the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post who had written critically about the monarchy.

Khashoggi is believed to have been dismembered, a killing that the U.S. intelligence community concluded was approved by the crown prince.

The deal on Wednesday with the Saudi firm Dar Global, a London-based international arm of developer Dar Al Arkan, follows deals with it for two Riyadh projects in December. Dar Global is not owned by the Saudi government, but it has close ties to the royal Saudi family.

Another government tie to Trump is through his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has reportedly invested $2 billion in an investment fund run by Kushner. And the Saudi government-backed LIV Golf has hosted tournaments at Trump’s Doral resort near Miami.

Despite Trump’s pledge in his first term to not make moves that would appear to conflict with his personal financial holdings and business, he ended up opening the doors to all sorts of potential pay-to-play deals. His hotel down the street from the White House hosted scores of corporate lobbyists, CEOs, members of Congress and diplomats. Trump once suggested holding a G7 meeting of global leaders at Doral before he backed down after an outcry over ethics concerns.

Several lawsuits were filed against the first Trump administration, alleging it violated the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bans a president from accepting gifts or payments from foreign or domestic governments. One case was appealed to the Supreme Court but was never heard because Trump had already left the presidency at that point and the issue was moot.

This time, the hotel is gone, sold to a Miami investment firm, but other sources of potential conflicts of interest have emerged.

The Trump Organization also owns much of the publicly traded parent company of social media platform Truth Social, which allows Trump to financially benefit from traffic to the site where his postings as U.S. president are widely followed. The family also has a stake in a cybercurrency trading platform called World Liberty Financial as Trump has pushed for less regulatory oversight on cybercurrencies.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Contractors hired by the Trump administration have removed a memorial wall to fallen staffers from the now-closed headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, with no immediate word on where it will wind up.

Engraved tiles on the wall honor 99 USAID staffers killed in the line of duty around the world. President John F. Kennedy and Congress created the foreign assistance agency in the early 1960s.

President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency swiftly moved to dismantle USAID, closing the headquarters and terminating most staff and projects within weeks of Trump’s inauguration.

Crews already had hauled down the agency’s name and banner from buildings in Washington, eradicating traces of an agency whose mission Trump and Musk said was wasteful and contrary to the president’s agenda.

Families of the dead, lawmakers and staffers have worried about whether the memorial would be treated respectfully amid the breakup of USAID.

At the now-barricaded and screened-off former headquarters, the names of the dead were gone from the lobby. Two people were seen working on Wednesday at the spot where the memorial had been, while a third focused on a separate steel memorial plaque honoring support staff killed while aiding the agency’s mission.

The federal government posted notice Tuesday of a $41,142.16 contract to remove and relocate the memorial wall by June 6. Neither the State Department nor the contractor immediately responded to requests for comment on where it would go.

A security guard inside the agency’s former lobby said the memorial wall was being moved to the State Department, which is overseeing the remaining USAID programs.

Supporters had proposed moving it to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History or the National Cathedral, while a counterproposal suggested moving it to a rented office, according to a former USAID official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill aimed at reforming a condominium safety law passed in 2022 in the wake of the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South, which killed 98 people in Surfside in June 2021.

Condo owners have been facing higher costs because of the 2022 law, which requires condo associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs and to conduct a survey of reserves every decade.

Sponsors of this year’s bill said further changes were needed to allow for more flexibility and to lessen the burden of new costs shouldered by residents, while ensuring protections remain in place to prevent another potential collapse.

“Without moving one step backwards on safety, this bill provides options, flexibility, and relief so condo owners and associations can prioritize the most important repairs first,” said Republican state Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a sponsor of the bill.

Residents and attorneys say regulations prior to 2022 allowed condo associations to keep fees low by failing to save money for future repairs, only to hit residents with steep special assessments when repairs couldn’t be put off any longer. The mounting cost of funding deferred maintenance and building up reserves has strained residents in the condo haven of South Florida, especially retirees and those living on fixed incomes.

In Hallandale Beach, condo owner Kelli Roiter sympathizes with people having trouble paying the higher fees, but said she supports rules requiring associations maintain reserves for needed repairs.

Her building was built in 1971 and sits a few miles from Champlain Towers South.

“I’m concerned that this building will collapse,” Roiter told The Associated Press in December. “There are nights I wake up hearing a creak, and I jump. And then I remind myself that, no, no, no, we’re safe. But am I safe?”

The bill, which now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, would allow certain condo associations to fund their reserves through a loan or line of credit, give residents greater flexibility to pause payments to their reserves while they prioritize needed repairs, extends the deadline by which associations have to complete structural integrity studies and exempts some smaller buildings from having to do those analyses.

“We have strived to reach that delicate balance between the safety of our constituents that live in condominiums, as well as understanding the incredible financial impact that sometimes these particular bills that we pass have,” said bill sponsor state Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican.

“I will continue this work as long as we need to do so,” she added.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are forcing a vote Wednesday evening on whether to block global tariffs announced by Donald Trump earlier this month, a potentially tough vote for some Republicans who have expressed concerns about the policy but are wary of crossing the president.

Trump announced the far-reaching tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners April 2 and then reversed himself a few days later after a market meltdown, suspending the import taxes for 90 days. Amid the uncertainty for both U.S. consumers and businesses, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% from January through March, the first drop in three years.

It is unclear whether the resolution will pass the Senate, and House passage is even less likely. But Democrats say they want to put Republicans on the record either way and try to reassert congressional powers.

“The Senate cannot be an idle spectator in the tariff madness,” said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the lead sponsor of the resolution.

All 47 Senate Democrats are expected to support the resolution, which means they would need four Republican votes for passage. A similar resolution that would have thwarted Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada passed the Senate earlier this month with the support of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. All but McConnell have indicated that they will vote for the broader resolution Wednesday.

Wary of a rebuke to Trump, Republican leaders have encouraged their conference not to vote for the resolution, even as many of them remain wary of the tariffs. Vice President JD Vance attended a Senate GOP luncheon Tuesday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who assured senators that the administration is working on trade deals with individual countries.

Republicans who have been skeptical of the tariffs said they won’t vote with Democrats, arguing it is a political stunt. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he backs separate legislation by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley that would give Congress increased power over determining tariffs but would vote no on the resolution, which he said is only about “making a point.”

Democrats say the Republicans’ failure to stand up to Trump could have dire consequences. “The only thing Donald Trump’s tariffs have succeeded in is raising the odds of recession and sending markets into a tailspin,” said Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Today, they have to choose – stick with Trump or stand with your states.”

The Democratic resolution forces a vote under a statute that allows them to try to terminate the emergency that Trump declared in order to put the tariffs in place.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it a “fake” emergency that Trump is using to impose his “on again, off again, red light, green light tariffs.”

The tariffs “are pushing our economy off a cliff,” Warren said.

The Republican president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession as his administration has focused on China. He told his Cabinet Wednesday morning that his tariffs meant China was “having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business.”

Trump said the U.S. does not really need imports from the world’s dominant manufacturer. “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” he said. “So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bringing the kind of punch many voters are demanding, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s 100 days in office have been an assault of Americans’ very way of life and promised Democrats in Congress are fighting as hard as they can to stop more ” bad things” from happening.

In a major address on the milestone of Trump’s time at the White House, Jeffries, who could become House speaker if Democrats regain power, also put Republicans in Congress on notice that their days as a “rubber stamp” to Trump’s agenda of “chaos, cruelty and corruption” won’t last.

“The Trump administration has been a disaster,” Jeffries of New York told the packed crowd at a historic theater in Washington.

“Donald Trump and the Republicans thought they could ‘shock and awe’ us into submission,” he said, adding they were wrong. “We’re just getting started.”

The leader’s speech stood as an assessment not only Trump’s return to the White House, but also of the strength of the Democratic resistance. Americans are registering a weariness with the president, with just half saying he’s focused on the right priorities. The Democratic leadership in Congress is being tested over how best to confront the speed, scope and scale of the Trump administration’s unprecedented, and at times unlawful, actions.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has mocked the attempt by Democratic leaders to find their political footing as Trump blazes through the start of his second term at the White House, which the GOP leader celebrated with four words: “Promises made, promises kept.”

Johnson cited the Trump’s achievements in deporting immigrants, reversing the government’s diversity programs and others, arguing the president has as accomplished more during this period than many do “in their entire careers.”

Jeffries has at times been seen a cautious leader, known for his ability to stay cool under enormous pressure. But standing later on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries and other lawmakers sought to assure Americans, and their own voters, they were up for the job, and ready to fight back.

Schumer chalked up Trump’s first 100 days as defined by “one big F word – failure.”

The leaders warned of more to come. Republicans in Congress, who hold majority control of both the House and Senates, are rushing ahead to deliver on Trump’s priorities, including his “big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts.

Republicans are “complicit,” Schumer said, in failing to hold the president responsible, even when he is breaking the laws.

One Democrat, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, encouraged GOP lawmakers to peel away from Trump, imploring them with a message of the Civil Rights era: “It’s never too late to be on the right side of history.”

Warnock, who also was pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said Trump and the GOP are trying to “weaponize despair” of the American people.

“They’re trying to so beat us down that we will be too so weary to fight,” Warnock said, “and it’s our job to prove them wrong.”

It may be just 100 days into the new presidential administration, but the congressional leaders are already mapping the political races ahead in the 2026 midterm elections. In the House, where Johnson holds only the slimmest GOP majority, Jeffries is working vigorously to win back the few seats needed to flip control to Democrats.

Jeffries appears increasingly in command of his role, as the leader of the Democratic minority in the House, but also as the rising party leader on the national stage.

He told dad stories, shuttling his family on trips for his son’s to travel baseball game, and of his own understanding of the nation’s tax code seeing his wages on his first paycheck as a teenager in a minimum wage job drawn out for Social Security and the safety net programs he came to appreciate as Americans’ earned benefits.

“You work hard for those benefits, pay into those benefits,” he said, scoffing at Republican efforts to dismiss them as entitlement programs.

Jeffries name-checked billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency for the “cruel” way they are slashing federal spending that halts medical research and cuts employees’ jobs. He said Trump and Musk have failed to make life safer or more affordable.

“Trump’s unconstitutional assault on the American way of life is unprecedented. But the so-called dictator on day one is learning an important lesson: Americans don’t bend the knee to bullies,” Jeffries said.

“We will not rest until we end this national nightmare,” he said.

Jeffries stumbled slightly in his opening remarks about Trump’s first 100 “years” — before quickly correcting himself to “days” — saying the quiet part out loud for many Democrats and allies exhausted by it all.

“Republicans in Congress could put a stop to this insanity at any time,” Jeffries said. “Since they won’t, next November, we will.”

Over the next 100 days, Jeffries says House Democrats will be laying out their own blueprint for what they would do if they were in charge — and it won’t be about Trump but “all about you.”

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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Following the lead of several conservative states and the president himself, North Carolina Republican lawmakers have advanced their own bills that target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The North Carolina House passed a bill restricting DEI practices within state government on Wednesday after votes on it stalled for a few weeks. The state Senate pushed forth its own legislation on the issue earlier this month. If combined, the two bills would enforce DEI limitations at colleges, universities, state agencies, local governments and public schools — a move Republican proponents say would ensure fairness for students and government workers.

The bills also clear a pathway for North Carolina public entities to be more in line with President Donald Trump’s goal of dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

But the legislation will have a tougher time becoming law than it did a year ago. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein will likely veto the legislation, and Republicans now lack a supermajority in the House that allowed them to override vetoes with relative ease last session.

Getting a Democrat to join Republicans in overriding a veto would be a tough sell, as Democratic Party members have been outspoken in saying the bills are too vague and put unnecessary scrutiny on state employees.

“It’s an attack on the very legacy of those who sacrificed to bring us this far. It’s an attack on the reality that we are a diverse nation,” Democratic Rep. Brandon Lofton said amid more than two hours of debate on the House floor.

Since taking office earlier this year, the Trump administration has embarked on a crusade against what it calls “illegal and immoral discrimination programs,” resulting in action ranging from federal investigations of universities for alleged racial discrimination to purges of photos and mentions of minority and female military heroes from government websites. The administration has also threatened to cut funding for local school systems that don’t disavow DEI — a move met by resistance from Democratic states and cities.

Eradicating DEI efforts predates Trump’s second term, though. As of a year ago, officials in about one-third of the states had taken some sort of action against DEI initiatives.

North Carolina lawmakers took some action last session, such as enacting a law that prohibited the promotion of certain beliefs that GOP legislators likened to critical race theory in state government workplaces. But for the most part, legislators deferred to others such as the state’s public university system to implement changes that stifled certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs at its 17 schools.

Last year, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to repeal and replace its diversity policy with one that emphasized institutional neutrality — the prevention of universities from taking stances on debated political issues. The decision resulted in staff cuts, funding reallocations and unease among some faculty on the policy’s implementation.

This year, House Republicans have targeted state agencies — largely run under Stein — as places to eradicate workplace DEI policies and programs. Employees who violate the ban could face civil penalties and be removed from their agency. State agencies, local governments and public schools also couldn’t apply for federal assistance that requires them to comply with DEI mandates, according to the bill.

“It puts an end to the idea that background should outweigh ability. It stops public jobs, promotions and contracts from being awarded based on political agendas,” said House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, one of the bill’s primary sponsors.

On the other hand, the Senate’s legislation passed a few weeks ago does much of what was already implemented by the UNC System, aside from explicitly outlining the “divisive concepts” and “discriminatory practices” to be avoided within higher education — such as treating someone differently “solely to advantage or disadvantage” compared to others, according to the bill. It also includes North Carolina’s community colleges. A similar bill for K-12 public schools was passed by the Senate last month.

House Republicans were expected to pass their DEI bill at the same time as the Senate. But House Speaker Destin Hall had said pending amendments and absences delayed the vote.

—�Ĕ

Associated Press writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Bronx man was arrested Wednesday in the stabbing death of another man on a New York City subway train following a dispute over getting one of their shoes stepped on.

Luis Jose-Duarte, 46, was arrested in lower Manhattan and charged with first degree manslaughter in the April 25 killing of 38-year-old John Sheldon, police said. It was the first homicide in the subway this year.

The state court system’s online database didn’t list a lawyer for Jose-Duarte. Police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The attack happened at around 8:30 a.m. Friday at the subway station in lower Manhattan that serves City Hall and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.

According to police, the two men got into an argument after Jose-Duarte stepped on Sheldon’s shoes.

Sheldon was stabbed on the train and in the subway station after the two got off. Officers found him unresponsive with multiple stab wounds to his torso, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police said there were no homicides in the transit system during the first three months of the year for the first time in seven years. Subway crime in the first quarter of 2025 also decreased to the second-lowest level for the quarter in 27 years.

This is a photo collection curated by AP photo editors.

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Jeff Sperbeck, a business partner and former agent for NFL Hall of Famer John Elway, died Wednesday after suffering an injury last weekend at a Southern California golf resort community. He was 62.

No cause of death was released, but the Riverside County coroner’s office said Sperbeck was injured Saturday and the address listed for the incident belongs to The Madison Club in La Quinta.

The Riverside County Fire Department said the agency was called to that location on Saturday after someone fell out of a golf cart. The person, who wasn’t identified, was taken to a trauma center, said department spokesperson Maggie Cline De La Rosa.

The sheriff’s department said it is investigating the golf cart incident.

Sperbeck began managing Elway in 1990, when Elway was quarterback for the Denver Broncos. He represented more than 100 NFL players during a three-decade career as an agent and business adviser.

He was best known as Elway’s longtime friend, business partner and agent who helped manage the Pro Football Hall of Famer’s extensive off-field business empire which included restaurants, car dealerships and a winery.

Sperbeck managed Elway’s marketing and business ventures, and the two collaborated with winemaker Rob Mondavi Jr. in 2015 to co-found 7Cellars by John Elway.

He also co-founded Sullivan & Sperbeck, a sports marketing firm that was acquired by Octagon in 2001. Sperbeck directed Octagon’s football division from 2001-09, when he started The NOVO Agency, a sports management firm where he served as CEO and represented dozens of current and retired NFL players and coaches. The agency merged with Rep1 Sports in 2018.

Sperbeck was involved in numerous charitable endeavors.

Elway has not commented on Sperbeck’s death.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta alleging that the social media giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot spread false statements about him, including that he participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Starbuck, known for targeting corporate DEI programs, said he discovered the claims made by Meta’s AI in August 2024, when he was going after “woke DEI” policies at motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson.

“One dealership was unhappy with me and they posted a screenshot from Meta’s AI in an effort to attack me,” he said in a post on X. “This screenshot was filled with lies. I couldn’t believe it was real so I checked myself. It was even worse when I checked.”

Since then, he said he has “faced a steady stream of false accusations that are deeply damaging to my character and the safety of my family.”

The political commentator said he was in Tennessee during the Jan. 6 riot. The suit, filed in Delaware Superior Court on Tuesday, seeks more than $5 million in damages.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Meta said that “as part of our continuous effort to improve our models, we have already released updates and will continue to do so.”

Starbuck’s lawsuit joins the ranks of several other similar cases in which people have sued AI platforms over information provided by chatbots. In 2023, a conservative radio host in Georgia filed a defamation suit against OpenAI alleging ChatGPT provided false information by saying he defrauded and embezzled funds from the Second Amendment Foundation, a gun-rights group.

When Starbuck discovered the claims made by Meta’s AI, he tried to alert the company about the error and enlist its help to address the problem. The complaint said Starbuck contacted Meta’s managing executives and legal counsel, and even asked its AI about what should be done to address the allegedly false outputs.

According to the lawsuit, he then asked Meta to “retract the false information, investigate the cause of the error, implement safeguards and quality control processes to prevent similar harm in the future, and communicate transparently with all Meta AI users about what would be done.”

The filing alleges that Meta was unwilling to make those changes or “take meaningful responsibility for its conduct.”

“Instead, it allowed its AI to spread false information about Mr. Starbuck for months after being put on notice of the falsity, at which time it ‘fixed’ the problem by wiping Mr. Starbuck’s name from its written responses altogether,” the suit said.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, responded to a video Starbuck posted to X outlining the lawsuit and called the situation “unacceptable.”

“This is clearly not how our AI should operate,” Kaplan said on X. “We’re sorry for the results it shared about you and that the fix we put in place didn’t address the underlying problem.”

Kaplan said he is working with Meta’s product team to “understand how this happened and explore potential solutions.”

Starbuck said that in addition to falsely saying he participated in the the riot at the U.S. Capitol, Meta AI also falsely claimed he engaged in Holocaust denial, and said he pleaded guilty to a crime despite never having been “arrested or charged with a single crime in his life.”

Meta later “blacklisted” Starbuck’s name, he said, adding that the move did not solve the problem because Meta includes his name in news stories, which allows users to then ask for more information about him.

“While I’m the target today, a candidate you like could be the next target, and lies from Meta’s AI could flip votes that decide the election,” Starbuck said on X. “You could be the next target too.”

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former agriculture secretary is urging the administration to support adding a vast, federally protected wildlife refuge in the Okefenokee Swamp to a list of globally treasured natural and cultural sites recognized by the United Nations.

The swamp near the Georgia-Florida state line was nominated under President Joe Biden, whose priorities Trump has worked swiftly to dismantle during his first 100 days since returning to the White House.

Now the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is being touted by Sonny Perdue, a former two-term Georgia governor who led the Department of Agriculture during Trump’s first term.

So far, only in the United States have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. The U.S. Interior Department put the refuge up for consideration in December.

In an April 17 letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Purdue wrote that seeking the rare distinction poses “an extraordinary opportunity to preserve a national treasure while also delivering incredible economic benefits to the state of Georgia.” He noted it’s been endorsed by Republicans and Democrats.

“This designation is not a partisan issue,” Perdue wrote in his letter, which was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “By supporting this effort, we can ensure the Okefenokee’s legacy as a natural wonder while fostering growth and prosperity for the communities surrounding it.”

The Okefenokee is the largest national wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River, sprawling across more than 400,000 acres (161,800 hectares) in southeast Georgia.

Supporters say making it a World Heritage site would boost its profile as one of the world’s last intact blackwater swamps, which get their dark tea-colored waters from decaying vegetation. The Okefenokee is home to abundant alligators, stilt-legged wood storks, endangered woodpeckers and more than 400 other animal species.

The Interior Department “remains committed to supporting the pursuit of World Heritage Site recognition for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,” said a statement emailed Wednesday by Alyse Sharpe, an department spokesperson.

Designation as a World Heritage site wouldn’t impose any added restrictions or regulations for the Okefenokee. Nor would it directly affect a company’s plan to mine minerals just outside the Okefenokee refuge.

Twin Pines Minerals has been awaiting final permits from Georgia environmental regulators for more than a year. The company says it can extract minerals without doing harm, but scientists and other opponents have warned that mining near the swamp’s bowl-like rim could cause irreparable damage.

Since the 1970s, the World Heritage list has recognized more than 1,200 sites worldwide for having “outstanding universal value” to all of humanity. U.S. sites on the list include national parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona and treasured manmade landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty.

The U.S. government had listed the Okefenokee refuge as a “tentative” nominee since 1982. It started moving in earnest in 2023 as the nonprofit Okefenokee Swamp Park, which operates boat tours and other concessions within the refuge, signed an agreement to work on an application with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.

Okefenokee Swamp Park raised $600,000 to pay for the nearly 300-page application packet, said Kim Bednarek, the nonprofit’s executive director.

The bid for World Heritage status still needs U.S. government support. Bendarek said pending steps include an Okefenokee site visit by experts evaluating the nomination for UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. She said a final vote isn’t expected before the summer of 2026.

“The fact that it happened under the Biden administration is not pivotal,” Bendarek said. “What’s pivotal is this is an outstanding place of beauty and diversity that the United States can be proud of. We do expect and hope for the full support of the Trump administration.”

YORK, Pa. (AP) — An officer killed while responding to a Pennsylvania hospital siege was struck by a shotgun blast fired by police that also killed an armed man holding hostages, a prosecutor disclosed at a news conference Wednesday.

West York Patrolman Andrew W. Duarte was killed in the gunfire in York on Feb. 22, while several other people were wounded and injured.

The shotgun blast also wounded a second officer responding to the intensive care unit, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said in announcing the results of his investigation.

The attack at UPMC Memorial Hospital occurred after the gunman learned from a doctor that the woman he lived with had died after treatment there, Barker told reporters.

Duarte’s last act was to run toward the threat, Chief Matthew Millsaps had said previously at Duarte’s funeral.

The attacker, Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, had brought a gun and zip ties to the hospital.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A suspect whom authorities have linked to white supremacist movements has been arrested in the March 2019 fire that destroyed an office at a storied Tennessee social justice center.

Regan Prater was arrested last Thursday and charged with one count of arson.

An affidavit filed in federal court in East Tennessee says Prater’s posts in several group chats affiliated with white supremacist organizations connect him to the blaze at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market. In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe is Prater whether he set the fire.

“I’m not admitting anything,” the person using the screen name “Rooster” wrote. But he later went on to describe exactly how the fire was set with “a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.”

A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement near the site of the fire. The affidavit describes it as a “triple cross” and says it was also found on one of the firearms used by a shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, about two weeks before the Highlander fire.

Prater was previously sentenced to five years in federal prison for setting another fire in June 2019 at an adult video and novelty store in East Tennessee. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $106,000 in restitution in that case. At the scene of that fire, investigators found a cellphone they later determined belonged to Prater. The phone included a short video showing a person inside the store lighting an accelerant, according to the affidavit.

The federal public defender listed as representing Prater did not respond to an email and phone message requesting comment.

Yearslong investigation sparked worries for Highlander’s leaders

The blaze at Highlander broke out in the early morning of March 29, 2019. No one was injured. The building that burned was part of a complex and it housed decades’ worth of irreplaceable documents, artifacts, speeches and other materials from different eras including the Civil Rights Movement.

In an interview, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, a former co-executive director at Highlander, recalled arriving at the scene of the fire to discover some priceless items from the administrative office still smoldering.

“Every time the wind blew, we would see what was left of it go up in flames again, for weeks,” Woodard Henderson said.

The trauma of the ordeal was compounded by a feeling that, despite early signs that the culprit had ties to white supremacist movements, authorities were opaque about the investigation, Woodard Henderson said.

“We were told that it was like finding a needle in the haystack to prove who did it — that that’s in fact the point of an arson,” she said. “You’ve got to remember this was 2019, so Donald Trump was still in his first presidency. Frankly, for years, we didn’t get any updates.”

A week after the incident, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, of Memphis, called for a federal probe. He also called on more government funding to counter an uptick in hate crimes and white nationalism nationwide.

Woodard Henderson said authorities informed Highlander’s leaders in 2022 that they were indeed victims of a hate-motivated attack.

Rosa Parks, John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr. had ties to the center

Highlander is known as a place where Civil Rights icons such as Rosa Parks and John Lewis received training. Parks attended a workshop there on integration in 1955, about six months before she famously refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She always credited Highlander with helping her become a more determined activist.

Parks returned to Highlander two years later with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the school’s 25th anniversary celebration, where King gave a keynote address on achieving freedom and equality through nonviolence.

First established in Monteagle in 1932 as a center for union organizing, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was among its early supporters.

Highlander’s co-founder and longtime leader, Myles Horton, a white man, created a place that was unique in the Jim Crow South, where activists white and Black could build and strengthen alliances. In his memoir, Congressman Lewis wrote of how eye-opening being at Highlander was.

Highlander “was the first time in my life that I saw black people and white people not just sitting down together at long tables for shared meals, but also cleaning up together afterward, doing the dishes together, gathering together late into the night in deep discussion,” he wrote.

“That paved the way for Highlander’s work around the Civil Rights Movement, or the Black Freedom Struggle, as we should rightly call it,” said Allyn Steele, a co-executive director of Highlander.

Highlander turns 93 this year and, six years past the fire, it expects to complete a rebuild of its administrative office, Steele said.

Woodard Henderson said the arson attack on the center has never deterred it from its mission.

“I think if their goal was to break our spirit, they failed miserably,” she said. “If anything, it reminded us that there’s a collective responsibility in our movements to keep each other safe.”

___

Morrison reported from New York City. Associated Press writer Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kuwait has released an additional 10 American detainees, bringing to nearly two dozen the total number freed by the country in the past two months, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Taken together, Kuwait’s pardons of 23 Americans since March — done as a goodwill gesture by the U.S. ally — amounted to the largest release of U.S. citizens by a single foreign country in years.

The prisoners include military contractors and veterans held on drug charges and other offenses by the small, oil-rich nation. One detainee was said by supporters to have been coerced into signing a false confession and endured physical violence and threats against his wife and daughter.

Ten others were released on March 12, weeks after a visit to Kuwait by Adam Boehler, who is serving as the Trump administration’s envoy for hostage affairs.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Investigators concluded in a report released Wednesday that the leak of a Wisconsin Supreme Court abortion order last year was likely deliberate, but they were unable to determine who was responsible.

The June leak of a draft order showed the court would take a case brought by Planned Parenthood, which is seeking to declare access to abortion a right protected by the state constitution. A week after the leak was reported, the court issued the order accepting the case.

The draft order, which was not a ruling on the case itself, was obtained by online news outlet Wisconsin Watch.

The Supreme Court’s seven justices, in a statement released with the investigative report, called the leak “a breach of trust the court had not experienced in its history.” All seven justices condemned the leak.

The leaked order in June came in one of two abortion-related cases before the court. The court also heard a second case challenging the 1849 abortion ban brought by Attorney General Joh Kaul. A ruling in that case is pending.

The court has yet to set a date for oral arguments in the Planned Parenthood case that was the subject of the leaked memo.

Investigators questioned 62 people, including all seven Supreme Court justices, staff, interns and people with access to the court during a two-week period in June from the date the draft was available until Wisconsin Watch published its article.

Network logs, including individual web histories, shared folder files, individual folders, and emails from all employees with access to the draft order were also reviewed, the report said.

Additionally, printer data was analyzed to see who may have printed off a copy of the draft order.

“All available leads have been thoroughly pursued, and no suspects have been positively identified at this time,” the report said. It added that there was no evidence that the leak was the result of a breach of the court’s computer system.

The report did conclude that the draft order had been forwarded to the personal email account of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, one of the four liberal justices on the court who voted to hear the abortion case.

Bradley’s law clerk told investigators that forwarding important documents to Bradley’s personal email account was standard operating procedure.

That was the only time prior to publication of the Wisconsin Watch article that the draft order was forwarded to an email outside of the state court system, the report said.

Bradley did not return an email on Wednesday asking about the report.

Bradley is retiring at the end of her term in August. She is being replaced by Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, who won election to the court in April, ensuring that liberals will maintain their 4-3 majority.

Missing computer data hindered the investigation, the report said. The logs showing websites visited in the two weeks leading up to the Wisconsin Watch story about the leaked order were incomplete, the report said. Only logs from June 26 and June 27 were available, not from June 13 through June 26 as requested. The article was published on June 26.

The lack of those website visitation logs “significantly hampered the ability to thoroughly examine the circumstances surrounding the leak,” the report said. “The issue underscores the importance of proper data management, retention, and verification procedures, especially when such information is crucial for ongoing investigations.”

The court hired an independent investigator to look into the leak because the court does not have an independent law enforcement agency. However, the report did not identify who led the investigation.

Three investigators were hired at a cost of $165,740 to conduct the probe and write the report, a spokesperson for the state court system said.

Investigations into the inner workings of the Wisconsin Supreme Court are rare and fraught.

In 2011, when Bradley accused then-Justice David Prosser of choking her, the Dane County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation. That agency took over the investigation after the chief of Capitol Police at the time said he had a conflict. But Republicans accused the sheriff of having a conflict because he was a Democrat who endorsed Bradley.

The Sauk County district attorney acted as special prosecutor in that case and declined to bring charges.

A federal judge on Wednesday again directed the Trump administration to provide information about its efforts so far, if any, to comply with her order to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland temporarily halted her directive for information at the administration’s request last week. But with the seven-day pause expiring at 5 p.m., she set May deadlines for officials to provide sworn testimony on anything they have done to return him to the U.S.

Abrego Garcia, 29, has been imprisoned in his native El Salvador for nearly seven weeks, while his mistaken deportation has become a flash point for President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and his increasing friction with the U.S. courts.

The president acknowledged to ABC News on Tuesday that he could call El Salvador’s president and have Abrego Garcia sent back. But Trump doubled down on his claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.

“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump told ABC’s Terry Moran in the Oval Office.

Police in Maryland had identified Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 gang member in 2019 based off his tattoos, Chicago Bulls hoodie and the word of a criminal informant. But Abrego Garcia was never charged. His attorneys say the informant claimed Abrego Garcia was in an MS-13 chapter in New York, where he’s never lived.

The gang identification by local police prompted the Trump administration to expel Abrego Garcia in March to an infamous El Salvador prison. But the deportation violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that protected him from being sent to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia had demonstrated to the immigration court that he likely faced persecution by local Salvadoran gangs that terrorized him and his family, court records state. He fled to the U.S. at 16 and lived in Maryland for about 14 years, working construction, getting married and raising three kids.

Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return him nearly a month ago, on April 4. The Supreme Court ruled April 10 that the administration must work to bring him back.

But the case only became more heated. Xinis lambasted a government lawyer who couldn’t explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done. She then ordered officials to provide sworn testimony and other information to document their efforts.

The Trump administration appealed. But a federal appeals court backed Xinis’ order for information in a blistering ruling, saying, “we shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”

The Trump administration resisted, saying the information Xinis sought involved protected state secrets and government deliberations. She in turn scolded government lawyers for ignoring her orders and acting in “bad faith.”

A Philadelphia judge’s role in a cheesesteak shop owned by his wife has prompted a panel to allege he’s violated the state’s ethics rules.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board on Tuesday filed a complaint against Common Pleas Judge Scott DiClaudio over Shay’s Steaks, a high-end cheesesteak restaurant that opened more than a year ago a few blocks from city hall.

“This complaint is such a farce,” DiClaudio, who is acting as his own lawyer, said in a phone interview Tuesday evening. “People do not come to Shay’s because a judge may make their cheesesteak.”

“I have a support role, which I’m permitted to have,” he said. In a podcast interview cited by the board, DiClaudio discussed decisions about pricing, ingredients, salary levels for employees and competing restaurants.

“I don’t mind charging $19, because I’m giving you a better quality steak,” DiClaudio said on the podcast.

Lately, he said, health issues and the demands of having a young child have limited his time in the business. As a criminal court judge, his focus these days is on court actions filed by defendants after they have been convicted.

The Judicial Conduct Board investigates and prosecutes possible instances of judge misconduct in Pennsylvania. The case will be heard by the Court of Judicial Discipline.

The board complaint notes that news coverage of the restaurant in Philadelphia, where cheesesteaks are the subject of perpetual public interest, has noted he is a judge. One referred to him as “whiz honor” — a reference to the use of Cheez Whiz on some cheesesteaks.

If anything, DiClaudio said, his role in the restaurant may be improving the image of judges in the minds of his fellow Philadelphians, giving them “confidence in the judiciary — that we’re not all robots.”

Shay’s Steaks is named for his late mother and the luncheonette his parents ran for more than two decades in South Philly.

The complaint references several news stories about the restaurant that describe him as a judge.

“I had no idea what they were going to write,” DiClaudio said. “I had no say in the editing process until I saw it myself.”

He noted a sign at the restaurant states Jackee DiClaudio is the owner — the couple lives in the same building as the restaurant. He said Shay’s Steaks has never used an image of him in judicial robes or described him as a judge in advertising materials. He says he’s never been paid for his work there, and that the profits go to his wife.

DiClaudio is accused of falling short of a requirement that judges always act in a way that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. Another allegation is that he violated a rule that judges “not abuse the prestige of judicial office to advance the personal or economic interests of the judge or others, or allow others to do so.”

County judges such as DiClaudio may not have other employment that would in any way interfere with their judicial duties and responsibilities, said Sam Stretton, a prominent judicial ethics lawyer. He has represented DiClaudio in the past, and may again in the current matter.

“He’s very proud of his wife and what she’s doing there,” Stretton said. “Sure, he gives input but I don’t see that as being prohibited. The issue he’s got to deal with is: Is there self-promotion here?”

Complicating the case is that DiClaudio is currently on probation under a decision by the Court of Judicial Discipline that involved tax liens and an unpaid bill. He was found to have not acknowledged debt on his financial disclosure forms and did not obey court orders, leading to repeated contempt citations against him, the court said.

He was suspended without pay for two weeks, so in order to qualify for a pension and retiree health care he needs to serve two additional weeks after his term expires in January 2026. A Democrat, he is seeking retention to another 10-year term. If he wins retention he says he is considering retiring early next year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker from Maine appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday after she was censured by the state House for a social media post about a transgender athlete, a move that comes amid sparring over the issue between the Democratically controlled state and the Trump administration.

Rep. Laurel Libby argued that the censure by the House has blocked her from speaking and voting on the floor, leaving the residents she represents with no representation.

Libby asked the Supreme Court for an order requiring her legislative votes be counted as her lawsuit plays out.

Her censure came after she posted about a high school athlete who won a girls’ track competition. Libby included a photo of the student and identified them by first name, with the name in quotation marks and said the student had previously competed in boys’ track.

Libby’s post went viral, preceding a public disagreement over the issue between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills. The Trump administration later filed a lawsuit against the state for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes.

Maine’s Democratic House Speaker, Ryan Fecteau, accused Libby of violating the state’s legislative ethics code and the Maine House of Representatives censured her in February.

Libby said in a lawsuit that the censure violated her right to free speech. A federal judge, though, found that the sanction isn’t severe enough to overcome legal blocks on courts intervening in legislative functions.