New York
Judge blocks White House’s attempt to defund CFPB, employee pay ensured
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House cannot lapse in its funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday, only days before funds at the bureau would have likely run out and the consumer finance agency would have no money to pay its employees.
Judge Amy Berman ruled that the CFPB should continue to get its funds from the Federal Reserve, despite the Fed operating at a loss, and that the White House’s new legal argument about how the CFPB gets its funds is not valid.
At the heart of this case is whether Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget director and the acting director of the CFPB, can effectively shut down the agency and lay off all of the bureau’s employees. The CFPB has largely been inoperable since President Trump has sworn into office nearly a year ago. Its employees are mostly forbidden from doing any work, and most of the bureau’s operations this year has been to unwind the work it did under President Biden and even under Trump’s first term.
Vought himself has made comments where he has made it clear that his intention is to effectively shut down the CFPB. The White House earlier this year issued a “reduction in force” for the CFPB, which would have furloughed or laid off much of the bureau.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the workers at the CFPB, has been mostly successful in court to stop the mass layoffs and furloughs. The union sued Vought earlier this year and won a preliminary injunction stopping the layoffs while the union’s case continues through the legal process.
In recent weeks, the White House has used a new line of argument to potentially get around the court’s injunction. The argument is that the Federal Reserve has no “combined earnings” at the moment to fund the CFPB’s operations. The CFPB gets its funding from the Fed through expected quarterly payments.
The Federal Reserve has been operating at a paper loss since 2022 as a result of the central bank trying to combat inflation, the first time in the Fed’s entire history its been operating at a loss. The Fed holds bonds on its balance sheet from a period of low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but currently has to pay out higher interest rates to banks who hold their deposits at the central bank. The Fed has been recording a “deferred asset” on its balance sheet which it expects will be paid down in the next few years as the low interest bonds mature off the Fed’s balance sheet.
Because of this loss on paper, the White House has argued there are no “combined earnings” for the CFPB to draw on. The CFPB has operated since 2011, including under President Trump’s first term, drawing on the Fed’s operating budget.
White House lawyers sent a notice to the court in early November, where they argued that the CFPB would run out of appropriations in early 2026, using the “combined earnings” argument, and does not expect to get any additional appropriations from Congress.
This combined earnings legal argument is not entirely new. It has floated in conservative legal circles going back to when the Federal Reserve started operating at a loss. The Office of Legal Counsel, which acts as the government’s legal advisors, adopted this legal theory in a memo on November 7. However, this idea has never been tested in court.
In her opinion, Berman said the OLC and Vought were using this legal theory to get around the court’s injunction instead of allowing the case to be decided on merits. A trial on whether the CFPB employees’ union can sue Vought over the layoffs is currently scheduled for February 2026.
“It appears that defendants’ new understanding of “combined earnings” is an unsupported and transparent attempt to starve the CPFB of funding and yet another attempt to achieve the very end the Court’s injunction was put in place to prevent,” Berman wrote in an opinion.
“We’re very pleased that the court made clear what should have been obvious: Vought can’t justify abandoning the agency’s obligations or violating a court order by manufacturing a lack of funding,” said Jennifer Bennett of Gupta Wessler LLP, who is representing the CFPB employees in the case.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Berman’s opinion.
Massachusetts
Patriots star receiver Stefon Diggs faces strangulation charges, denies allegations
BOSTON (AP) — New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with an incident that happened earlier this month, police said.
News of the charges emerged after a court hearing Tuesday in Dedham, Massachusetts. It is unclear what led to the charges, which include felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery.
Diggs’ lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations.”
Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.
“The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction,” Meier wrote.
In a statement, the Patriots said they were also standing by Diggs: “We support Stefon,” the team said.
Diggs, 32, established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023, when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.
After a lackluster stint in Houston last year, Diggs ended up in New England, signing a three-year, $69 million deal in free agency that guaranteed him $26 million.
Diggs has proven a reliable target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye and is a big reason why the team has once again clinched the AFC East title as the team heads toward the playoffs.
Off the field, though, his tenure with the Patriots got off to a rocky start when a video surfaced on social media in May showing Diggs passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat.
It wasn’t clear what the substance was, and an NFL spokesperson said the league would not comment. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said the team would handle that matter internally.
California
Tyler Perry’s accuser sent messages of gratitude and friendship years after alleged sexual assault
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Text messages show that Tyler Perry and “Boo! A Madea Halloween” actor Mario Rodriguez, who recently filed a lawsuit accusing the filmmaker of sexual assault, remained in contact years after Rodriguez alleges their interactions ended.
Rodriguez alleged in the lawsuit filed last week in California that Perry assaulted him during encounters that occurred between 2014 and 2019. The lawsuit says Rodriguez cut off contact with Perry in 2019, though Perry would periodically reach out afterward. But screenshots of text messages obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday night show Rodriguez initiating contact with Perry as recently as Thanksgiving 2024 and again on Aug. 31, 2025, expressing gratitude, friendship and financial distress.
In one message sent on Thanksgiving, Rodriguez thanked Perry for helping him through difficult periods in his life and wrote that he appreciated him “to the moon,” according to the screenshots. In another series of messages dated Aug. 31, Rodriguez described ongoing health problems, said he lacked health insurance and told Perry he was scared and struggling financially.
The messages were provided to the AP by a source close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Rodriguez responded in a statement Monday.
“When someone has influence over your career, your income, your future, you don’t feel free,” said the statement Rodriguez released through his lawyer, Jonathan Delshad. “Survivors often stay cordial. They often ask for help when they feel desperate. That does not mean abuse didn’t happen. Those text messages were sent to Perry at a time when I was especially vulnerable as can be seen from the context.”
He added, “Continued financial support and access are not inconsistent with abuse—they are often part of the power dynamics that follow it. In many situations involving exploitation, money can function as a way to manage guilt, avoid conflict, or maintain silence.”
Perry’s attorney, Alex Spiro, disputed the allegations in Rodriguez’s lawsuit.
“I said it before and I will say it again,” Spiro said in a statement. “This is nothing but a $77 million money grab scam.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $77 million in damages and accuses Perry of sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Perry has denied the allegations.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Rodriguez has.
The lawsuit follows a separate case filed in June by actor Derek Dixon, who alleged Perry groped him while Dixon worked on Perry’s television series “The Oval” and “Ruthless.” That lawsuit, also filed by Delshad, was originally filed in California state court and later moved to federal court in Georgia, where Perry is based. Perry also has denied Dixon’s allegations.
Germany
Prosecutors will drop investigation of Russian magnate upon payment of $12 million fine
BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they will drop an investigation of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, over possible breaches of sanctions and money laundering rules after he agreed to pay a 10 million euro (about $11.8 million) fine.
The Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire and metals magnate, who was reelected as the president of the International Fencing Federation last year, has been facing European Union sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Munich prosecutors office said Tuesday the probe of Usmanov, which prompted police raids of dozens of properties in Germany linked to him three years ago, will be dropped upon receipt of payment of the fine.
Some funds and assets linked to Usmanov had been frozen under the EU sanctions.
Prosecutors said Usmanov was suspected of transferring about 1.5 million euros through foreign-based companies for management of two properties in the lakeside town of Rottach-Egern south of Munich, in the months after the sanctions were imposed.
He was also alleged to have failed to declare valuables including jewelry, paintings and wines to authorities. Usmanov’s defense team had challenged the allegations about his ties to the companies and valuables and the applicability of EU law in the case.
The prosecutors said the discontinuation of the investigation upon payment of a fine was authorized under German criminal law.
Judge blocks White House’s attempt to defund CFPB, employee pay ensured
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House cannot lapse in its funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday, only days before funds at the bureau would have likely run out and the consumer finance agency would have no money to pay its employees.
Judge Amy Berman ruled that the CFPB should continue to get its funds from the Federal Reserve, despite the Fed operating at a loss, and that the White House’s new legal argument about how the CFPB gets its funds is not valid.
At the heart of this case is whether Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget director and the acting director of the CFPB, can effectively shut down the agency and lay off all of the bureau’s employees. The CFPB has largely been inoperable since President Trump has sworn into office nearly a year ago. Its employees are mostly forbidden from doing any work, and most of the bureau’s operations this year has been to unwind the work it did under President Biden and even under Trump’s first term.
Vought himself has made comments where he has made it clear that his intention is to effectively shut down the CFPB. The White House earlier this year issued a “reduction in force” for the CFPB, which would have furloughed or laid off much of the bureau.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the workers at the CFPB, has been mostly successful in court to stop the mass layoffs and furloughs. The union sued Vought earlier this year and won a preliminary injunction stopping the layoffs while the union’s case continues through the legal process.
In recent weeks, the White House has used a new line of argument to potentially get around the court’s injunction. The argument is that the Federal Reserve has no “combined earnings” at the moment to fund the CFPB’s operations. The CFPB gets its funding from the Fed through expected quarterly payments.
The Federal Reserve has been operating at a paper loss since 2022 as a result of the central bank trying to combat inflation, the first time in the Fed’s entire history its been operating at a loss. The Fed holds bonds on its balance sheet from a period of low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but currently has to pay out higher interest rates to banks who hold their deposits at the central bank. The Fed has been recording a “deferred asset” on its balance sheet which it expects will be paid down in the next few years as the low interest bonds mature off the Fed’s balance sheet.
Because of this loss on paper, the White House has argued there are no “combined earnings” for the CFPB to draw on. The CFPB has operated since 2011, including under President Trump’s first term, drawing on the Fed’s operating budget.
White House lawyers sent a notice to the court in early November, where they argued that the CFPB would run out of appropriations in early 2026, using the “combined earnings” argument, and does not expect to get any additional appropriations from Congress.
This combined earnings legal argument is not entirely new. It has floated in conservative legal circles going back to when the Federal Reserve started operating at a loss. The Office of Legal Counsel, which acts as the government’s legal advisors, adopted this legal theory in a memo on November 7. However, this idea has never been tested in court.
In her opinion, Berman said the OLC and Vought were using this legal theory to get around the court’s injunction instead of allowing the case to be decided on merits. A trial on whether the CFPB employees’ union can sue Vought over the layoffs is currently scheduled for February 2026.
“It appears that defendants’ new understanding of “combined earnings” is an unsupported and transparent attempt to starve the CPFB of funding and yet another attempt to achieve the very end the Court’s injunction was put in place to prevent,” Berman wrote in an opinion.
“We’re very pleased that the court made clear what should have been obvious: Vought can’t justify abandoning the agency’s obligations or violating a court order by manufacturing a lack of funding,” said Jennifer Bennett of Gupta Wessler LLP, who is representing the CFPB employees in the case.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Berman’s opinion.
Massachusetts
Patriots star receiver Stefon Diggs faces strangulation charges, denies allegations
BOSTON (AP) — New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with an incident that happened earlier this month, police said.
News of the charges emerged after a court hearing Tuesday in Dedham, Massachusetts. It is unclear what led to the charges, which include felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery.
Diggs’ lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations.”
Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.
“The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction,” Meier wrote.
In a statement, the Patriots said they were also standing by Diggs: “We support Stefon,” the team said.
Diggs, 32, established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023, when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.
After a lackluster stint in Houston last year, Diggs ended up in New England, signing a three-year, $69 million deal in free agency that guaranteed him $26 million.
Diggs has proven a reliable target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye and is a big reason why the team has once again clinched the AFC East title as the team heads toward the playoffs.
Off the field, though, his tenure with the Patriots got off to a rocky start when a video surfaced on social media in May showing Diggs passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat.
It wasn’t clear what the substance was, and an NFL spokesperson said the league would not comment. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said the team would handle that matter internally.
California
Tyler Perry’s accuser sent messages of gratitude and friendship years after alleged sexual assault
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Text messages show that Tyler Perry and “Boo! A Madea Halloween” actor Mario Rodriguez, who recently filed a lawsuit accusing the filmmaker of sexual assault, remained in contact years after Rodriguez alleges their interactions ended.
Rodriguez alleged in the lawsuit filed last week in California that Perry assaulted him during encounters that occurred between 2014 and 2019. The lawsuit says Rodriguez cut off contact with Perry in 2019, though Perry would periodically reach out afterward. But screenshots of text messages obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday night show Rodriguez initiating contact with Perry as recently as Thanksgiving 2024 and again on Aug. 31, 2025, expressing gratitude, friendship and financial distress.
In one message sent on Thanksgiving, Rodriguez thanked Perry for helping him through difficult periods in his life and wrote that he appreciated him “to the moon,” according to the screenshots. In another series of messages dated Aug. 31, Rodriguez described ongoing health problems, said he lacked health insurance and told Perry he was scared and struggling financially.
The messages were provided to the AP by a source close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Rodriguez responded in a statement Monday.
“When someone has influence over your career, your income, your future, you don’t feel free,” said the statement Rodriguez released through his lawyer, Jonathan Delshad. “Survivors often stay cordial. They often ask for help when they feel desperate. That does not mean abuse didn’t happen. Those text messages were sent to Perry at a time when I was especially vulnerable as can be seen from the context.”
He added, “Continued financial support and access are not inconsistent with abuse—they are often part of the power dynamics that follow it. In many situations involving exploitation, money can function as a way to manage guilt, avoid conflict, or maintain silence.”
Perry’s attorney, Alex Spiro, disputed the allegations in Rodriguez’s lawsuit.
“I said it before and I will say it again,” Spiro said in a statement. “This is nothing but a $77 million money grab scam.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $77 million in damages and accuses Perry of sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Perry has denied the allegations.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Rodriguez has.
The lawsuit follows a separate case filed in June by actor Derek Dixon, who alleged Perry groped him while Dixon worked on Perry’s television series “The Oval” and “Ruthless.” That lawsuit, also filed by Delshad, was originally filed in California state court and later moved to federal court in Georgia, where Perry is based. Perry also has denied Dixon’s allegations.
Germany
Prosecutors will drop investigation of Russian magnate upon payment of $12 million fine
BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they will drop an investigation of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, over possible breaches of sanctions and money laundering rules after he agreed to pay a 10 million euro (about $11.8 million) fine.
The Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire and metals magnate, who was reelected as the president of the International Fencing Federation last year, has been facing European Union sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Munich prosecutors office said Tuesday the probe of Usmanov, which prompted police raids of dozens of properties in Germany linked to him three years ago, will be dropped upon receipt of payment of the fine.
Some funds and assets linked to Usmanov had been frozen under the EU sanctions.
Prosecutors said Usmanov was suspected of transferring about 1.5 million euros through foreign-based companies for management of two properties in the lakeside town of Rottach-Egern south of Munich, in the months after the sanctions were imposed.
He was also alleged to have failed to declare valuables including jewelry, paintings and wines to authorities. Usmanov’s defense team had challenged the allegations about his ties to the companies and valuables and the applicability of EU law in the case.
The prosecutors said the discontinuation of the investigation upon payment of a fine was authorized under German criminal law.
