The Dictatorship
New Orleans attack victims include devoted mother, recent high school graduate
As law enforcement authorities continue to investigate the New Orleans truck attackfamily members of the victims killed in what police say was an act of terrorism are sharing stories about their loved ones.
At least 14 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured when a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the new year on the city’s historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday, authorities said. The driver, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbardied in a shootout with police.
The FBI clarified in a news conference Thursday that 14 people have died in the attack so far, not including Jabbar.
Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas who worked at the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte. In a national address Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden said investigators found a flag of the Islamic State terrorist group in the vehicle used in the attack, citing the FBI, and cautioned people against drawing conclusions this early on.
The FBI initially said it did not believe Jabbar acted alone, and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told NBC’s “TODAY” show Thursday morning that they are looking into “people of interest” related to the attack. However, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said later Thursday that they believe no one else was involved in the attack except Jabbar.
“We’re confident at this point that there is no accomplices,” Raia told reporters.

Two functional improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were recovered in the French Quarter, Raia said, adding that surveillance footage shows Jabbar placing the devices where they were found. Jabbar had targeted Bourbon Street, he added, but investigators don’t yet know why.
Raia said Jabbar had posted videos on his Facebook account hours before the attack stating that he initially planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that media coverage would not focus on what Jabbar described as the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.” Jabbar also posted videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” Raia said, and stated that he joined the terror group before the summer.
According to Raia, investigators believe Jabbar picked up the truck, which he rented, in Houston on Dec. 30 and drove to New Orleans the next evening.
Raia dismissed any “definitive link” between the attack and a Cybertruck explosion outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, which NBC News reported is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, as well.
Authorities have not named the victims in the attack as of Thursday morning, but family members have identified some of them. The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said two Israeli citizens are among those injured, and the University of Georgia said that one of its students was critically injured in the attack.

Here’s what we know about the victims who have been identified:
Martin ‘Tiger’ Bech
Beck, 27, was a Princeton University graduate who lived in New York City and worked as a junior bond trader for a Wall Street company, his mother, Michelle Bech, told NBC News. He was also an accomplished athlete.
“He was living his best life and he knew it,” his mother said. “It just leaves a huge void in our life.”
Nicole Perez
Perez, 27, managed a deli in Metairie, close to New Orleans, her employer, Kimberly Usher-Fall, told The Washington Post. She had just moved into an apartment with her 4-year-old son, whom she would bring to the deli after school.
“She was a really good mom,” Usher-Fall said, adding that Perez’s pregnant sister and mom were admitted to a hospital because of stress after learning of Perez’s death.
Reggie Hunter
Hunter was out with his cousin when he was killed in the attack, his cousin Shirell Jackson said.
The 37-year-old Baton Rouge native, who was a warehouse manager, adored his two sons. Jackson said her cousin was an “awesome person” and “a little-bitty guy” with a “big heart.”
Ni’Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux
Dedeaux was a recent high school graduate who was out celebrating the new year with her cousin when she was killed, her grandmother Jennifer Smith told The New York Times. Smith said the family did not know Dedeaux was out on Bourbon Street and would have discouraged it had she known her granddaughter’s plans.
Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux, posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning, “When your parents say don’t go anywhere please listen to them…this was an act of terroism and now my baby is gone y’all.”
Kareem Badawi
Badawi, a University of Alabama student, was identified as one of the victims of the attack by UA President Stuart Bell.
His father, Belal Badawi, wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that his son died early that morning in the attack. In May, his father had shared photos of their family celebrating Badawi’s high school graduation on Facebook.
The Palestinian Youth Movement identified Badawi as a Palestinian American.
Matthew Tenedorio
Tenedorio, 25, had a New Year’s Eve dinner at his brother’s house with his family, his mother, Cathy Tenedorio told NBC News. She said she tried to dissuade him from going into New Orleans that night, but he wanted to go to the French Quarter with his friends.
An online fundraiser for Tenedorio said he was an audiovisual technician for the Superdome, the iconic stadium located less than a mile from the site of the attack. “Matthew was always the one to lighten the mood, able to laugh off life’s challenges and spread positivity wherever he went,” the fundraiser said.
Hubert Gauthreaux
In a Facebook post Wednesday, Gauthreaux’s former school, Archbishop Shaw High School, said the 21-year-old was one of the victims of the attack.
“It is with great sorrow that we share that alum Hubert Gauthreaux, Class of 2021, was tragically killed in the senseless act of violence that occurred early this morning in the French Quarter,” the school said. “We are asking the entire Archbishop Shaw family to pray for the repose of Hubert’s soul, his family and friends during this difficult time, and all those affected by this tragedy.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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The Dictatorship
BBC asks a court to dismiss Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit
LONDON (AP) — The BBC filed a motion Monday asking a U.S. court to dismiss President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against it, warning that the case could have a “chilling effect” on robust reporting on public figures and events.
The suit was filed in a Florida court, but the British national broadcaster argued that the court did not have jurisdiction, nor could Trump show that the BBC intended to misrepresent him.
Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way a BBC documentary edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and a further $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
Last month a judge at the federal court for the Southern District of Florida provisionally set a trial date for February 2027.
The BBC argued that the case should be thrown out because the documentary was never aired in Florida or the U.S.
“We have therefore challenged jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the president’s claim,” the corporation said in a statement.
In a 34-page document, the BBC also argued that Trump failed to “plausibly allege facts showing that defendants knowingly intended to create a false impression.”
Trump’s case “falls well short of the high bar of actual malice,” it said.
The document further claimed that “the chilling effect is clear” when Trump is “among the most powerful and high-profile individuals in the world, on whose activities the BBC reports every day.”
“Early dismissal is favoured given the powerful interest in ensuring that free speech is not unduly burdened by the necessity of defending against expensive yet groundless litigation, which would constrict the breathing space needed to ensure robust reporting on public figures and events,” it said.
The documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — was aired days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The program spliced together three quotes from two sections of a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, into what appeared to be one quote, in which Trump appeared to explicitly encourage his supporters to storm the Capitol building.
Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump’s lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him, and called it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The broadcaster’s chairman has apologized to Trump over the edit of the speech, admitting that it gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action.” But the BBC rejects claims it defamed him. The furor triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news last year.
The Dictatorship
The DOJ’s ethics proposal would have a corrupt fox guarding the henhouse
State bar associations play an important accountability role across the country. Trump administration lawyers know that their legal licenses are subject to censure, because practicing law in the United States remains a privilege, not a right. But if Attorney General Pam Bondi has her way, even this guardrail could disappear.
Last week, Bondi proposed a new rule that would allow the Department of Justice to take over investigations of alleged attorney misconduct of its own lawyers. State bar authorities would have to pause their investigations while the Justice Department conducts its own probe. The rule gives the DOJ the ability to delay or even derail a state investigation.
The rule gives the DOJ the ability to delay or even derail a state investigation.
It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that there has been a series of state ethics complaints filed against Trump administration lawyers, including Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and federal prosecutors handling immigration cases. President Donald Trump’s polarizing pardon attorney Ed Martin is currently facing just such a complaint from the D.C. Bar.
As outlined in the Federal Registerthe proposal argues that “political activists have weaponized the bar complaint and investigation process.” Of course, even if it were true that frivolous complaints were being filed against Justice Department lawyers, state bar grievance authorities should be able to weed them out just as effectively as the department’s own investigators. In fact, having an independent review process would provide more credibility than the DOJ would in dismissing such claims.
Federal law requires all federal prosecutors to comply with the ethics rules of the state where they practice law, including the District of Columbia. The new rule requires Justice Department lawyers to obey the substance of their state’s ethics rules, but gives the DOJ the authority to investigate violations. According to the proposal, whenever a bar grievance is filed, “the Department will have the right to review the allegations in the first instance and shall request that the bar disciplinary authority suspend any parallel investigations until the completion of the Department’s review.”

From there, multiple scenarios are possible. First, “if the Attorney General decides not to complete her review,” the state bar disciplinary authorities “may resume their investigations or disciplinary hearings.” Second, if the attorney general finds misconduct, “the State bar disciplinary authorities will then have the option of beginning or resuming their investigations or disciplinary proceedings” and, if appropriate, “to impose additional sanctions beyond those already imposed by the Department, including suspension or permanent disbarment.”
But what is missing from the language of the rule itself is a potential third scenario. What if the attorney general clears the attorney of misconduct? On that, the rule is silent.
Say, for example, a federal prosecutor in Minnesota is accused of making false representations to an immigration judge. The judge or opposing party could file a grievance with the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility. Under the new rule, the state bar would be required to stand down and await a DOJ investigation, with no provisions for time limits or transparency. Of course, even the delay could compromise the subsequent Minnesota probe. But if the Justice Department clears the lawyer, it is also unclear what happens next. According to Bloomberg“If the DOJ finds no violation, that blocks the state from investigating the alleged infraction.” This conclusion may be a fair inference for a department that has thrown its weight around. According to the proposed rule, “the Attorney General retains the discretion to displace State bar enforcement and to create an entirely Federal enforcement mechanism.”
But even if the rule merely delays state enforcement, the DOJ could slow-walk a grievance into oblivion. According to a comment posted by the Illinois State Bar Association, the DOJ is attempting to “shield” its lawyers from accountability. The proposed rule also includes an ominous provision that if bar disciplinary authorities refuse the attorney general’s request, “the Department shall take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering with the Attorney General’s review of the allegations.”
Even if the rule merely delays state enforcement, the DOJ could slow-walk a grievance into oblivion.
In the decades since the Watergate scandal, the Justice Department has conducted robust investigations of allegations of ethical misconduct by its own attorneys and imposed discipline. In fact, it was common for state bar authorities to wait for the DOJ to complete its investigations before initiating their own probes, because the federal process held attorneys to standards even higher than state ethics rules. But that landscape changed last year, when Bondi fired the head of the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility and its chief ethics officer. Now there is a risk that DOJ lawyers will be even further sheltered from meaningful ethical oversight.
In the first nine days of the 30-day notice and comment period, the proposed rule has attracted more than 30,000 comments. And once implemented, the rule will no doubt invite legal challenges and ultimately could be struck down. But until then, it threatens to give carte blanche to DOJ lawyers who represent the Trump administration not just zealously but with impunity, knowing that the attorney general can simply delay or even block state bar ethics complaints. And the rule represents one more openly regressive blow against the checks and balances that are essential to democracy.
Barbara McQuade is a former Michigan U.S. attorney and legal analyst.
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