Prosecutors began building their case Monday against former President Donald Trump in the first criminal trial against an ex-president‚ telling jurors he committed tax and election crimes to hush up bad press ahead of the 2016 election. Mr. Trump and tabloid allies used “catch-and-kill” tactics to stiff-arm bad press before the 2016 election and then lied about it on business records “over and over and over again‚” they told the jurors. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team put...

Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election‚ then sought to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star by lying in his New York business records over and over again‚ a prosecutor alleged as the former president’s first trial began. “It was election fraud‚ pure and simple‚” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement‚ as the jurors watched intently. Trump’s lawyer painted a different picture. “I have a spoiler alert‚” Todd Blanche said. “...

Manhattan prosecutors delivered a raw recounting of Donald J. Trump’s seamy past on Monday as they debuted their case against him to jurors‚ the nation and the world‚ reducing the former president to a co-conspirator in a plot to cover up three sex scandals that threatened his 2016 election win. Their opening statement was a pivotal moment in the first prosecution of an American president‚ a sweeping synopsis of the case against Mr. Trump‚ who watched from the defense table‚ occasionally...

A majority of the Supreme Court appeared inclined on Monday to uphold a series of local ordinances that allowed a small Oregon city to ban homeless people from sleeping or camping in public spaces. The justices seemed split along ideological lines in the case‚ which has sweeping implications for how the country deals with a growing homelessness crisis. In a lengthy and‚ at times‚ fiery argument that lasted almost two and a half hours‚ questioning from the justices reflected the complexity...

A man was charged Monday with a federal hate crime following the vandalism and burglary of an Islamic student center at Rutgers University earlier this month. Jacob Beacher has been arrested and is in federal custody‚ according to an email to the Rutgers community from Kenneth Cop‚ the chief of the Rutgers University Police Department. HuffPost obtained the email Monday‚ and Megan Schumann‚ a spokesperson for Rutgers‚ subsequently confirmed the arrest and shared additional information....