In announcing the federal indictments and plea deal Wednesday in Washington, the Justice Department detailed an elaborate and wide-ranging scheme to commit fraud and then cover it up.
"I've never supported terrorism, and I am not a terrorist," Abdul Raheem Ali-Skelton told the judge. His lawyer said the offense had more to do with his mental illness than jihadist radicalization.
Dylann Roof, 22, murdered nine people in the basement of a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. He told the jury that prosecutors "don't know what real real hatred looks like."
The online classified website disabled its space for adults seeking sexual partners. A Senate report last year accused the website of being a forum for child sex trafficking.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson reminded jurors about each one of the victims and the bloody crime scene that Roof, a 22-year-old white man, left behind in the church's lower level.
In his final 10 days in office, President Barack Obama is expected to grant clemency to dozens, even hundreds, of federal prisoners. It's a unique power of the presidency that Obama has turned into one of his signature initiatives. Nearly three years ago, the Justice department asked for help canvassing the federal prison system for low-level, non-violent offenders who could be released early through executive order. One of the lawyers who answered his call is JaneAnne Murray. She's a law professor at the University of Minnesota and on the steering committee of Clemency Project 2014, which has reviewed thousands of requests for clemency.
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