Missouri
State AG resigns to take a top FBI position
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who has been an ardent backer of President Donald Trump, said Monday that he is resigning to take a leadership position at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The move is the latest in a series of changes at the FBI under Director Kash Patel. Numerous senior officials, including top agents in charge of big-city field offices, have been pushed out of their jobs, and Justice Department officials have sought the names of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Bailey said he is stepping down effective Sept. 8 to serve as the FBI’s co-deputy director, alongside Dan Bongino. Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is to announce a new appointee as attorney general on Tuesday.
In a little over two-and-a-half years in the job, Bailey pursued numerous lawsuits challenging former President Joe Biden’s administration on an array of policies, including immigration actions,student loan forgiveness,environmental rules,gun safety initiatives and transgender rights measures.
He also threatened legal action against private gyms over bathroom policies, demanded that public schools ban drag shows and sued New York state, claiming that Trump’s 2024 hush money criminal trial was “overt meddling” in the 2024 election that limited Missouri voters’ information.
Most recently, Bailey’s office has defended the state’s anti-abortion regulations in the face of a voter-approved constitutional amendment establishing a state right to abortion.
Earlier this year, Bailey’s office won a $24.5 billion award against China for the COVID-19 pandemic in a case that originally was filed by his predecessor, Eric Schmitt, who won election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Bailey was serving as general counsel to Republican Gov. Mike Parson when his boss appointed him to replace Schmitt. An Army veteran, Bailey won a full four-year term as attorney general last November.
Wyoming
2nd airman in a month accused of manslaughter
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A second airman in a month at a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming stands accused of involuntary manslaughter for a shooting death.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base Airman First Class Jadan Orr, 20, remained jailed on Monday after he allegedly shot a man in a Cheyenne apartment early Saturday, according to police and sheriff’s officials.
Orr and several friends had been drinking at the apartment for most of the night when Orr and two others went into another room and Orr began handling an AK-47 rifle, according to a Cheyenne Police Department statement.
Orr allegedly fired the weapon through a wall, hitting the 23-year-old in the torso. Police arrived to find several people outside trying to help the man, who died at the scene, the statement added.
Orr was charged with involuntary manslaughter, according to Laramie County Circuit Court. He did not have an attorney on file to comment on his behalf.
Neither Cheyenne police nor the Laramie County coroner had publicly identified the victim as of Monday. Police referred questions about the victim’s identity to Coroner Rebecca Reid, who did not immediately return a phone message.
Officials at the base just outside Cheyenne announced on Aug. 12 that an airman had been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, obstructing justice and making a false statement in connection with the July 20 shooting death of another airman. The victim was identified as Brayden Lovan, 21, of the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Missile Wing.
The shooting led the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command to suspend use of Sig Sauer’s M18 handgun.
The weapon has been the subject of lawsuits in which plaintiffs allege the gun is susceptible to firing without the trigger being pulled. Other military branches have continued to use the gun.
Unlike in the latest case, the airman stood accused in military, as opposed to civilian, court. The Air Force had not yet released the identity of the accused airman and other details of the earlier shooting, saying Monday it was still under investigation.
Maryland
FTC sues ticket reseller, saying it illegally exceeded purchase limits for Taylor Swift
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit Monday against a ticket broker, alleging the company used illegal tactics to exceed purchasing limits for popular events and then resold tickets at significantly higher prices.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, the FTC said Maryland-based ticket broker Key Investment Group has used thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts and other methods to buy tickets for events, including Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
According to the FTC, Key Investment Group – which does business under brand names like Epic Seats and Totally Tix – purchased at least 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster between Nov. 1, 2022, and Dec. 30, 2023. The company spent nearly $57 million to buy the tickets and resold them on secondary marketplaces for approximately $64 million.
For just one Taylor Swift concert, Key Investment Group allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, dramatically exceeding the Eras Tour’s 2023 six-ticket purchase limit per event, the FTC said. Fans were so frustrated by the difficulty getting tickets for Swift’s tour that the U.S. Senate wound up grilling Ticketmaster in a 2023 hearing.
In a statement released Monday, Key Investment Group said it will vigorously defend itself against the FTC’s lawsuit.
“The case threatens to dismantle the secondary ticket market for live events, further consolidating power in the hands of the industry’s largest monopoly,” the company said.
Key Investment Group said the FTC is misapplying the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, a 2016 law which it said was meant to target malicious software, not legitimate resale businesses. Key Investment Group sued the FTC in July to try to prevent the agency from using the law against it, saying it uses human employees — not bots — to buy tickets.
But the FTC said that law also prohibits anyone from circumventing security measures and other controls meant to enforce posted ticket limits.
In March, with Kid Rock by his side in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. officials to ensure ticket resellers are complying with Internal Revenue Service rules. The order also directed the FTC to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”
New Jersey
Man convicted of fatally shooting pastor sentenced to life in prison
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A Virginia man convicted of shooting a New Jersey pastor to death outside her home in 2023 was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Rashid Ali Bynum, 31, of Portsmouth, Virginia, appeared in a county courtroom in New Brunswick, New Jersey, that was filled with relatives and friends of the victim, Eunice Dwumfour. His lawyer, Michael Ashley, has said an appeal of the murder and weapons convictions is planned.
Dwumfour, 30, was ambushed in her vehicle on Feb. 1, 2023, as she arrived home at an apartment complex in Sayreville, a central New Jersey town where she also served as a council member. She was deeply involved in a Nigerian church, Champions Royal Assembly, and married a fellow church pastor in Abuja weeks before her death.
Prosecutors said Bynum had lived with Dwumfour and her child for a time before returning to the Sayreville home and shooting her 14 times. The motive has not been made clear.
Dwumfour had recruited Bynum into the church and a Bible study organization she had started, Fire Congress Fellowship, when they both lived in Virginia, prosecutors said. He then moved to Sayreville, where she frequently lived with other church members, authorities said.
Bynum returned to Virginia after his relationship with the church soured, prosecutors said.
A jury convicted Bynum in June after a month-long trial.
Ashley, Bynum’s attorney, has said there was no direct evidence linking him to the shooting, the Courier News reported.
Tennessee
Second trial in killing of rapper starts in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The trial of a man charged with organizing the daytime ambush killing of rapper Young Dolph at a Memphis bakery in November 2021 began on Monday.
Hernandez Govan, 45, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted murder. He is not accused of shooting Young Dolph, but prosecutors claim he directed the two people who did.
Young Dolph, whose legal name is Adolph Thornton Jr., was a rapper, independent label owner and producer who grew up in Memphis and was admired in the city for his charitable works. The 36-year-old was in his hometown to hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to families when his visit to his favorite cookie shop turned into an attack that shocked the entertainment world.
Memphis prosecutors have portrayed the killing as part an effort by Anthony “Big Jook” Mims to get revenge on Young Dolph for diss tracks aimed at Big Jook and the record label he helped run for his brother, Yo Gotti. Smith has testified that Big Jook put out a $100,000 hit on Young Dolph as well as smaller bounties on all the artists at Young Dolph’s record label, Paper Route Empire.
Big Jook was shot and killed outside a restaurant earlier this year.
Testifying against Govan on Monday was Cornelius Smith Jr., who has admitted to being one of the two shooters who ambushed Young Dolph. Smith previously was the main witness against Justin Johnson, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2024 after Smith named him as the second shooter.
Smith testified on Monday that “I didn’t know anything about Paper Route having no hits,” before Govan told him about them. He said Govan hired him to “do the hits” and was going to take $10,000 as his cut. Govan was also the person who told him and Johnson that Young Dolph would be in Memphis for the volunteer event, so “that’s our opportunity,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Govan’s defense attorney, Manny Arora, tried to paint Smith as an unreliable witness who would say anything to try to get a lighter sentence.
Arora pointed to previous testimony where Smith recalled a chance encounter with Big Jook. At the time, Smith implied that Big Jook was the person who hired him. After Smith was arrested, his attorney called Big Jook’s attorney and received somewhere between $38,000 and $50,000 in cash. Smith said on Monday that he did not know who had supplied the money.
Smith also testified that he previously heard that Govan might be working with the FBI. Arora asked why Smith would take a job from Govan if that were the case. Smith said that Govan was “innocent until proven guilty.”
Smith is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder but has pleaded not guilty and does not yet have a trial date.
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in September 2024. He was later sentenced for two other convictions from the trial: conspiracy to commit murder and being a felon in possession of a gun.
State AG resigns to take a top FBI position
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who has been an ardent backer of President Donald Trump, said Monday that he is resigning to take a leadership position at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The move is the latest in a series of changes at the FBI under Director Kash Patel. Numerous senior officials, including top agents in charge of big-city field offices, have been pushed out of their jobs, and Justice Department officials have sought the names of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Bailey said he is stepping down effective Sept. 8 to serve as the FBI’s co-deputy director, alongside Dan Bongino. Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is to announce a new appointee as attorney general on Tuesday.
In a little over two-and-a-half years in the job, Bailey pursued numerous lawsuits challenging former President Joe Biden’s administration on an array of policies, including immigration actions,student loan forgiveness,environmental rules,gun safety initiatives and transgender rights measures.
He also threatened legal action against private gyms over bathroom policies, demanded that public schools ban drag shows and sued New York state, claiming that Trump’s 2024 hush money criminal trial was “overt meddling” in the 2024 election that limited Missouri voters’ information.
Most recently, Bailey’s office has defended the state’s anti-abortion regulations in the face of a voter-approved constitutional amendment establishing a state right to abortion.
Earlier this year, Bailey’s office won a $24.5 billion award against China for the COVID-19 pandemic in a case that originally was filed by his predecessor, Eric Schmitt, who won election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Bailey was serving as general counsel to Republican Gov. Mike Parson when his boss appointed him to replace Schmitt. An Army veteran, Bailey won a full four-year term as attorney general last November.
Wyoming
2nd airman in a month accused of manslaughter
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A second airman in a month at a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming stands accused of involuntary manslaughter for a shooting death.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base Airman First Class Jadan Orr, 20, remained jailed on Monday after he allegedly shot a man in a Cheyenne apartment early Saturday, according to police and sheriff’s officials.
Orr and several friends had been drinking at the apartment for most of the night when Orr and two others went into another room and Orr began handling an AK-47 rifle, according to a Cheyenne Police Department statement.
Orr allegedly fired the weapon through a wall, hitting the 23-year-old in the torso. Police arrived to find several people outside trying to help the man, who died at the scene, the statement added.
Orr was charged with involuntary manslaughter, according to Laramie County Circuit Court. He did not have an attorney on file to comment on his behalf.
Neither Cheyenne police nor the Laramie County coroner had publicly identified the victim as of Monday. Police referred questions about the victim’s identity to Coroner Rebecca Reid, who did not immediately return a phone message.
Officials at the base just outside Cheyenne announced on Aug. 12 that an airman had been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, obstructing justice and making a false statement in connection with the July 20 shooting death of another airman. The victim was identified as Brayden Lovan, 21, of the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Missile Wing.
The shooting led the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command to suspend use of Sig Sauer’s M18 handgun.
The weapon has been the subject of lawsuits in which plaintiffs allege the gun is susceptible to firing without the trigger being pulled. Other military branches have continued to use the gun.
Unlike in the latest case, the airman stood accused in military, as opposed to civilian, court. The Air Force had not yet released the identity of the accused airman and other details of the earlier shooting, saying Monday it was still under investigation.
Maryland
FTC sues ticket reseller, saying it illegally exceeded purchase limits for Taylor Swift
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit Monday against a ticket broker, alleging the company used illegal tactics to exceed purchasing limits for popular events and then resold tickets at significantly higher prices.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, the FTC said Maryland-based ticket broker Key Investment Group has used thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts and other methods to buy tickets for events, including Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
According to the FTC, Key Investment Group – which does business under brand names like Epic Seats and Totally Tix – purchased at least 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster between Nov. 1, 2022, and Dec. 30, 2023. The company spent nearly $57 million to buy the tickets and resold them on secondary marketplaces for approximately $64 million.
For just one Taylor Swift concert, Key Investment Group allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, dramatically exceeding the Eras Tour’s 2023 six-ticket purchase limit per event, the FTC said. Fans were so frustrated by the difficulty getting tickets for Swift’s tour that the U.S. Senate wound up grilling Ticketmaster in a 2023 hearing.
In a statement released Monday, Key Investment Group said it will vigorously defend itself against the FTC’s lawsuit.
“The case threatens to dismantle the secondary ticket market for live events, further consolidating power in the hands of the industry’s largest monopoly,” the company said.
Key Investment Group said the FTC is misapplying the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, a 2016 law which it said was meant to target malicious software, not legitimate resale businesses. Key Investment Group sued the FTC in July to try to prevent the agency from using the law against it, saying it uses human employees — not bots — to buy tickets.
But the FTC said that law also prohibits anyone from circumventing security measures and other controls meant to enforce posted ticket limits.
In March, with Kid Rock by his side in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. officials to ensure ticket resellers are complying with Internal Revenue Service rules. The order also directed the FTC to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”
New Jersey
Man convicted of fatally shooting pastor sentenced to life in prison
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A Virginia man convicted of shooting a New Jersey pastor to death outside her home in 2023 was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Rashid Ali Bynum, 31, of Portsmouth, Virginia, appeared in a county courtroom in New Brunswick, New Jersey, that was filled with relatives and friends of the victim, Eunice Dwumfour. His lawyer, Michael Ashley, has said an appeal of the murder and weapons convictions is planned.
Dwumfour, 30, was ambushed in her vehicle on Feb. 1, 2023, as she arrived home at an apartment complex in Sayreville, a central New Jersey town where she also served as a council member. She was deeply involved in a Nigerian church, Champions Royal Assembly, and married a fellow church pastor in Abuja weeks before her death.
Prosecutors said Bynum had lived with Dwumfour and her child for a time before returning to the Sayreville home and shooting her 14 times. The motive has not been made clear.
Dwumfour had recruited Bynum into the church and a Bible study organization she had started, Fire Congress Fellowship, when they both lived in Virginia, prosecutors said. He then moved to Sayreville, where she frequently lived with other church members, authorities said.
Bynum returned to Virginia after his relationship with the church soured, prosecutors said.
A jury convicted Bynum in June after a month-long trial.
Ashley, Bynum’s attorney, has said there was no direct evidence linking him to the shooting, the Courier News reported.
Tennessee
Second trial in killing of rapper starts in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The trial of a man charged with organizing the daytime ambush killing of rapper Young Dolph at a Memphis bakery in November 2021 began on Monday.
Hernandez Govan, 45, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted murder. He is not accused of shooting Young Dolph, but prosecutors claim he directed the two people who did.
Young Dolph, whose legal name is Adolph Thornton Jr., was a rapper, independent label owner and producer who grew up in Memphis and was admired in the city for his charitable works. The 36-year-old was in his hometown to hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to families when his visit to his favorite cookie shop turned into an attack that shocked the entertainment world.
Memphis prosecutors have portrayed the killing as part an effort by Anthony “Big Jook” Mims to get revenge on Young Dolph for diss tracks aimed at Big Jook and the record label he helped run for his brother, Yo Gotti. Smith has testified that Big Jook put out a $100,000 hit on Young Dolph as well as smaller bounties on all the artists at Young Dolph’s record label, Paper Route Empire.
Big Jook was shot and killed outside a restaurant earlier this year.
Testifying against Govan on Monday was Cornelius Smith Jr., who has admitted to being one of the two shooters who ambushed Young Dolph. Smith previously was the main witness against Justin Johnson, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2024 after Smith named him as the second shooter.
Smith testified on Monday that “I didn’t know anything about Paper Route having no hits,” before Govan told him about them. He said Govan hired him to “do the hits” and was going to take $10,000 as his cut. Govan was also the person who told him and Johnson that Young Dolph would be in Memphis for the volunteer event, so “that’s our opportunity,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Govan’s defense attorney, Manny Arora, tried to paint Smith as an unreliable witness who would say anything to try to get a lighter sentence.
Arora pointed to previous testimony where Smith recalled a chance encounter with Big Jook. At the time, Smith implied that Big Jook was the person who hired him. After Smith was arrested, his attorney called Big Jook’s attorney and received somewhere between $38,000 and $50,000 in cash. Smith said on Monday that he did not know who had supplied the money.
Smith also testified that he previously heard that Govan might be working with the FBI. Arora asked why Smith would take a job from Govan if that were the case. Smith said that Govan was “innocent until proven guilty.”
Smith is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder but has pleaded not guilty and does not yet have a trial date.
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in September 2024. He was later sentenced for two other convictions from the trial: conspiracy to commit murder and being a felon in possession of a gun.
