NATION IN BRIEF
NY appeals court denies Trump’s bid to delay hush money trial while he challenges gag order
NEW YORK — In the latest blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to delay his impending hush money trial in Manhattan, a New York appeals court judge on Tuesday rejected his request to push it back while he challenges a gag order preventing him from publicly attacking key players like Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
The ruling by Associate
Justice Cynthia Kern came after lawyers for the former president argued Trump should be able to respond to Cohen and Daniels’ jabs against him on social media, detail why he wants the presiding judge to recuse himself, and publicly speculate about one of the lead prosecutors trying the case who formerly worked for the Justice Department.
A full panel of judges at the appeals court will consider Trump’s request to delay proceedings later this month. Jury selection is expected to begin on Monday.
During arguments before the mid-level First Dept. appellate court, an attorney for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Steven Wu, vehemently opposed the request, arguing that Trump’s vitriolic comments about those involved in the high stakes case — like “thugs, loser, horse face” and “deranged psychopaths” — only served to chill witnesses.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies in the case alleging he covered up reimbursement to Cohen to disguise an illicit scheme carried out before the 2016 election that included paying Daniels, Playboy model Karen Mcdougal, and a Trump Tower doorman for their silence about Trump’s alleged sexual trysts.
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Harris County to stop guaranteed income for low-income residents
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County officials on Monday to stop a pilot initiative to give lowincome families and residents $500 a month.
Harris County launched the Uplift Harris program earlier this year. Using $20.5 million from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, Harris County leaders launched the program to tackle poverty and health disparities by providing a no-strings-attached $500 monthly payment for 18 months to 1,928 randomly selected low-income applicants.
In Monday’s lawsuit,
Paxton argued that the Texas Constitution forbids local governments from giving out money that will benefit only certain individuals instead of the public at large.
Using a lottery to randomly select participants also violates the Texas Bill of Rights, which requires government programs to be applied equally to all eligible participants, the lawsuit said, adding: “Here, the selection of individuals to receive payments under the Harris Handout is plainly arbitrary.”
The Republican attorney general is asking a state district judge in Harris County to stop the program and prohibit the county from distributing the money.
Paxton accused Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and county commissioners of “abusing public funds for political gain.”
“This socialist experiment by Lina Hidalgo and the progressive democrats responsible for the Harris County disaster is an illegal and illegitimate government overreach,” the lawsuit said.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee criticized the lawsuit as an attack on Harris County.
“This program is about helping people in a real way by giving them direct cash assistance — something governments have always done,” Menefee said in a statement.
Private data from thousands of Home Depot workers leaked
Private information for about 10,000 Home Depot employees has been leaked onto a website used by internet hackers, according to the company and reporting by a number of tech industry news organizations.
The leak was accidental and was caused by a software vendor, said Beth Marlowe, a Home Depot spokeswoman.
“A third-party software-asa-service vendor inadvertently made public a small sample of Home Depot associates’ names, work email addresses and
User IDS during testing of their systems,”she said. “It was not some breach of our system.”
The vendor’s mistake was leaving the information visible on the web for others to see. It was retrieved by a hacker known as Intelbroker, who then posted the data on the illicit forum Breachforums, according to Cybernews.
Intelbroker said it had the data for 10,000 Home Depot employees. The company declined to confirm that number, but said it was “a small sample.”
While this data is not highly sensitive, exposing only corporate IDS, names, and email addresses, it could be used by threat actors to conduct targeted “phishing” attacks against Home Depot employees, Cybernews said.
Source: Tribune News Service