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Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen pleads guilty in hush-money scheme

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” pleaded guilty Tuesday to campaign-finance violations and other charges, saying he and Trump arranged the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and a former Playboy model to influence the election.

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Ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort guilty of 8 charges

Paul Manafort, the longtime political operative who for months led Donald Trump’s winning presidential campaign, was found guilty of eight financial crimes Tuesday in the first trial victory of the special counsel investigation into the president’s associates. A judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts the jury could not agree on.

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AP sources: Cohen in talks to strike plea deal in fraud case

Lawyers for Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, were pursuing negotiations with prosecutors that could result in a plea deal and a court hearing was set for Tuesday afternoon, according to two people familiar with the financial fraud investigation. If a deal is struck, Cohen would plead guilty in federal court in Manhattan and agree to cooperate with the government.

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Giuliani clarifies his ‘truth isn’t truth’ puzzler

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney says he wasn’t trying to make an existential point about the meaning of veracity when he declared “truth isn’t truth.” Instead, he said he was trying to make the case that having Trump sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wouldn’t accomplish much because of the conflicting nature of witnesses’ recollections.

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Trump fears Mueller interview could bring perjury charge

President Donald Trump is expressing concern that anything he tells special counsel Robert Mueller under oath could be used to charge him with perjury as part of Mueller’s ongoing investigation into coordination between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

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Crown Point man gets 15-year prison term in terror-related case

A Crown Point man who pleaded guilty to terror-related charges has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana Judge Joseph S. Van Bokkelen on Monday also sentenced Marlonn Hicks of Crown Point to three years of supervised release, to be served after his prison term.

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Manafort judge says he fears for jurors’ safety

The judge in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial says he has received threats and he fears for the “peace and safety” of the jurors deciding the fate of the former Trump campaign chairman. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III revealed his concerns Friday when explaining why he doesn’t intend to make jurors’ names public at the end of the trial.

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Giuliani on hazards of Trump interview: ‘Truth isn’t truth’

“Truth isn’t truth,” says President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, explaining why he’s wary about pushing the president into an interview he says could be a perjury trap. He was trying to make the case that having Trump sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wouldn’t accomplish much because of the he-said-she-said nature of witnesses’ recollections.

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Indiana ALJ to hear appeal for proposed abortion clinic

A federal judge will hold a two-day hearing this week on a Texas-based group’s appeal of Indiana officials’ rejection of its application to open an abortion clinic in South Bend. Indianapolis Administrative Law Judge Clare Deitchman will determine Wednesday and Thursday whether to grant Whole Woman’s Health Alliance’s appeal after the state Department of Health denied the group’s application for an abortion clinic license in January.

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USA Gymnastics president: Mediation with Nassar survivors

The legal portion of the Larry Nassar scandal at USA Gymnastics may soon be over. USA Gymnastics President Kerry Perry said representatives for both the organization and athletes who were abused by Nassar — a former national team doctor who abused hundreds of women under the guise of medical treatment — met last week for mediation talks. 

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Expensive renovations lead to West Virginia impeachment, political feud

A taste for blue suede sofas, inlaid wooden floor maps and glass countertops has led to the retirement of two West Virginia Supreme Court justices and the impeachment of three others. It also has created a political firestorm, as Democrats accuse the Republican-led Legislature of using the impeachments to try to take control of the court, a separate branch of government.

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Questions mark first day of deliberations at Manafort trial

The jury in the fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its first day of deliberations with a series of questions to the judge, including a request to “redefine” reasonable doubt. The questions came after roughly seven hours of deliberation, delivered in a handwritten note to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III. Ellis read the questions aloud to lawyers for both sides as well as Manafort before he called the jury in to give his answers.

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Fort Wayne settles suit challenging amplified-noise statute

Indiana’s second-largest city has settled a federal lawsuit that challenged a portion of its ordinance regulating amplified noises. Court documents filed Tuesday show the city of Fort Wayne has agreed to an injunction permanently barring it from enforcing a provision that “prohibits amplified sound, including speech, that can be heard more than 50 feet from the source.”

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Jury deliberations under way in Manafort fraud trial

Jurors began their deliberations Thursday in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who prosecutors say earned $60 million advising Russia-backed politicians in Ukraine, hid much of it from the IRS, then lied to banks to get loans when the money dried up.

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Prosecutor: Hobart lawyer shot dead by client

Authorities say a northwestern Indiana attorney was fatally shot at his home by a client. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said Hobart police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death Wednesday morning of 64-year-old T. Edward Page.

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Settlement reached in state police handcuffing of black teen

Louisiana State Police and a black Indiana man who was handcuffed and detained in New Orleans' French Quarter when he was a teenager in 2015 have settled a federal lawsuit. Terms of the settlement with the son of a Ball State University professor were not immediately disclosed.

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