By Kaanita Iyer, Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Washington, DC’s attorney disciplinary authorities following their recommendation to disbar Jeffrey Clark, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, over his efforts to “cast doubt” on the 2020 election results in support of the president.

The lawsuit against DC’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, Board on Professional Responsibility, Court of Appeals, related authorities and the city itself argues that Clark — who in 2020 was an assistant attorney general — should not be disciplined over “internal Executive Branch deliberations.”

The Justice Department’s lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has taken a renewed interest in the 2020 election, narrowing in on Georgia — where Trump has claimed the election was rigged. For example, the Justice Department has subpoenaed Fulton County — home of Atlanta — for 2020 election workers’ personal information.

In its July 2025 recommendation to disbar Clark, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility wrote that after the 2020 election, he “urged Justice Department leadership to issue a letter he had drafted that cast doubt on the election results” despite being told by department leadership his theory was not correct.

The letter Clark wrote, but never sent, urged the Georgia state legislature to investigate election “irregularities” and, if necessary, appoint electors themselves that go against the results of the popular vote. The letter was meant to be a “proof of concept” that would eventually be sent to several states.

A majority of the board — which examines attorney discipline cases but does not have the final say the local courts have on law licenses in the district — recommended disbarment. Clark is still an attorney in good standing in the DC bar, according to bar records.

The Justice Department argued in its Wednesday lawsuit, “Defendants are punishing Mr. Clark because he tried to persuade his superiors within the Department of Justice that they should issue a draft letter that he felt reflected the actual law and facts about the 2020 election.”

“But D.C. disciplinary authorities may not punish a United States official for disagreeing with a superior or coworker or for sharing an opinion just because those disciplinary authorities disagree with it,” the lawsuit adds.

It goes on to claim that such disciplinary actions will set a chilling precedent.

“Weaponizing state bar discipline against Executive Branch attorneys in this way chills them from giving candid legal advice to others in the Executive Branch, including the President and Attorney General,” the lawsuit says.

Clark said in a social media post on X that the lawsuit “is an important step to vindicate the separation of powers.” CNN has reached out to Clark for further comment.

In its July 2025 recommendation, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility argued that lawyers should have “the highest standard of professional conduct. At a minimum, they must be honest.”

Clark “should be disbarred as a consequence,” the board wrote, adding that it would send a message that his behavior would not be tolerated.

The board’s recommendation was then sent to the DC Court of Appeals for a final decision.

At the time of the board’s recommendation, Clark served as the acting administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

He is now

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — It might sound like a tale from the Gold Rush: Three men leave Tennessee hoping to strike it rich in California.

But the twists of their saga, as laid out this week in a federal indictment, are closer to a horror story – with pistol-whipping, lives threatened and people tied up in their own homes. And investigators say the men weren’t looking for gold – they sought something you can’t hold or even see.

The trio, according to prosecutors, wanted to make quick millions by stealing cryptocurrency, according to an indictment unsealed last month. Federal prosecutors say the defendants — Elijah Armstrong, 21; Nino Chindavanh, 21; and Jayden Rucker, 25 — all from the Nashville area, swept across several California cities in a little more than a month. They are accused of using several ruses to force their way into people’s homes, assaulting unsuspecting residents and holding them hostage for their own money, and demanding access to their crypto accounts.

“The scheme was not only sophisticated, it was brazen, violent and dangerous,” US Attorney Craig H. Missakian said in a news release this week.

Threatening violence against crypto owners to give up access to their funds is becoming more common, according to cryptocurrency experts, with hundreds of millions of dollars expected to be ripped off just this year. Thieves who might otherwise force people to go to an ATM to withdraw a limited amount of cash are instead demanding potentially unlimited crypto that is hard to trace.

“Bad guys always go where the money is,” said Ari Redbord of TRM Labs, which monitors cryptocurrency fraud and helps businesses and law enforcement respond to theft. “I think more and more right now, the money is in crypto, and we see bad actors taking advantage of that.”

Silicon Valley investor targeted for cybertheft

The case of the three men from Tennessee appears to have begun five days before Thanksgiving last year with a couple of pizza orders to a house in San Francisco, according to the indictment.

But these orders weren’t done as a prank, prosecutors say. They allegedly were an effort to see whether their mark was home.

The date and details in the federal charges match a case in Mission Dolores – San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood and one of its most expensive – that was previously being investigated by local police.

The initials of the victim in the federal indictment match the name of a resident in the home, a prominent tech financier who previously worked for the venture capital firm Y Combinator.

The CEO of Y Combinator, Garry Tan, said on social media he was a friend of the victim and posted surveillance video showing the hooded suspect approaching the door and asking for the victim, claiming to have a UPS package for him. The video shows the suspect following the person who answered the door inside after asking to borrow a pen.

Tan later took down the public video. CNN is not naming the victim because his full name is not listed in the federal indictment.

The intruder bound the victim with duct tape, threatening to kill him if he didn’t give access to his cryptocurrency, the indictment says. Getting instructions by phone from “unknown co-conspirators,” the kidnapper allegedly was able to get about $6.5 million from the account.

The victim told San Francisco police he was forced to crawl downstairs and had liquid dumped on him, with the intruder claiming he was going to burn the house down, according to a police report

By Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — Before a judge sentenced Kouri Richins for fatally poisoning her husband, the couple’s three young sons made their feelings clear.

They urged Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence their mother – who two of them referred to as “Kouri” – to life in prison, saying they would fear for their safety if she were ever released.

“I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out,” the middle child, identified as A.R., wrote in a statement read aloud in court Wednesday. “You have never said sorry for anything that you have done to me and my brothers. I don’t want you to hurt anyone again.”

The youngest son, W.R., said he wanted her to go to jail “forever.”

“If she got out, I would be so scared, really mad, and I wouldn’t want to go with her anywhere,” he wrote.

After listening to statements from the couple’s children and loved ones of Kouri Richins and the victim, Eric Richins, Mrazik ultimately sentenced the mother of three to life in prison without parole – the most severe sentence she faced.

Richins’ defense attorneys told the court they plan on appealing the sentence and filing a motion for a new trial.

Earlier this year, an eight-person jury convicted Kouri Richins, 36, of aggravated murder for fatally poisoning Eric in March 2022.

At trial, witnesses testified about troubles in the couple’s marriage, her yearslong affair and her spiraling debt – all reasons prosecutors say she killed him. Kouri Richins was also found guilty of attempted murder for trying to kill him weeks earlier, on Valentine’s Day, as well as insurance fraud and forgery related to his life insurance coverage.

“A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” the judge said during the sentencing.

The sons have their say

Before Mrazik handed down the sentence, three therapists read the children’s victim impact statements, explaining the boys each decided how their remarks would be shared with the court.

“Our roles are to read their words exactly as they wrote,” one of the therapists, Jessica Black, explained. “The boys want the court and the world to hear their side.”

The kids were all younger than 10 years old when their father was found dead in their Utah family home with roughly five times a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

Their mother, Kouri Richins, published a children’s book on grief about a year after his death, saying she wrote it to help their sons cope with their loss. She was arrested shortly after the book’s publication.

“You took away my dad for no reason other than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends,” A.R. wrote in his statement. “You were not caring and watching over me and my brothers.”

The two oldest children said they felt like had to take care of each other, with one describing how they would walk the youngest sibling to the bus stop and feed him. The oldest son, identified as C.R., said his mother was “always drunk or gone,” and would frequently lock him in his room.

“Kouri would lock me up if I told her she was drunk,” he wrote. “This happened pretty much daily.”

C.R. and A.R

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration is doubling down on its fraud-fighting crusade as it seeks to show Americans that it is an attentive steward of taxpayer funds ahead of November’s midterm election.

Vice President JD Vance is set to highlight his anti-fraud task force’s efforts in Maine on Thursday, just a day after he and other top officials unveiled multiple measures aimed at combatting fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Maine’s Senate race, where GOP Sen. Susan Collins is running for a sixth term, is expected to be among the most competitive contests this year.

“We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare,” Vance said at an event on the White House campus. “But we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.”

President Donald Trump’s fixation on fraud in federal benefit programs has been met with mixed reactions. Some experts say he and his team are exaggerating the amount of fraud that exists, while others say they are underestimating it. The administration’s tactics have similarly garnered both criticism — particularly for the harsh words and actions toward Democratic-led states — and praise for finally tackling a longstanding issue in the federal government.

One of Trump’s key fraud fighters, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has called out alleged fraud involving Maine’s Medicaid-funded treatment program for children with autism, hospice and home care providers in California, social adult day care centers in New York and durable medical equipment companies in Florida, among other schemes. Oz leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers several programs at high risk for fraud.

One problem is that no comprehensive data exists to show just how pervasive fraud is in safety net programs, although prosecutions against criminals who steal millions of dollars are common. Last year, the Justice Department announced it had charged 324 defendants for their alleged participation in more than $14.6 billion in healthcare-related fraud schemes, more than double the previous record.

The Government Accountability Office estimated in 2024 that between $233 billion and $521 billion in federal money could be lost annually to fraud in a first-of-its-kind government-wide estimate. That represents 3% to 7% of average federal obligations, though GAO noted the level of risk can vary substantially by agency and program.

Relatedly, the federal government also made about $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs in fiscal year 2025, according to GAO’s review of a small subset of federal programs. But not all improper payments are fraudulent — some may be due to administrative errors.

Improper payments have totaled $3 trillion since fiscal year 2003, according to GAO’s estimates, though it notes that the actual amount could be “significantly higher.”

Meanwhile, Oz has said that fraud, waste and abuse in the federal healthcare programs his agency oversees totals $100 billion a year.

But one former senior executive in GAO’s fraud unit said that GAO’s and Oz’s fraud estimates are most likely too low.

“There’s a ton of taxpayer d

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