New York
Alexander brothers used wealth to lure, drug and rape women and girls, prosecutor says
NEW YORK (AP) — The wealthy Alexander brothers used the same tactics of luring, drugging and humiliation to sexually assault numerous women and girls, bragging about their exploits in blog posts with titles that included “It’s not rape if,” a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
In a closing argument after four weeks of testimony in the siblings’ federal sex trafficking trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones reviewed the often harrowing accounts of 11 women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Alon, Oren or Tal Alexander.
The allegations are corroborated by the “sheer number of victims who testified,” the prosecutor said — women who never have met each other and live different lives, but “have one horrific thing in common: they were raped by these men.”
Far from hiding their activity, the brothers bragged about it in text messages, emailed about sneaking drugs — or “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at least one assault on video and shared photos of victims, Jones said, calling it “devastating evidence” supporting the charges against them.
“You know this playbook because the defendants did this multiple times,” Jones said, chronicling alleged assaults at Hamptons mansions; New York City apartments; an Aspen, Colorado, ski trip; and a Caribbean cruise. One woman testified that Alon Alexander raped her in 2012, hours after they had met at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. Efron was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Oren and Tal Alexander, high-end real estate brokers dubbed “The A Team,” and their brother Alon, an executive at their family’s private security firm, have pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges.
In a closing argument, a lawyer for Alon Alexander said prosecutors conflated the brothers’ “obnoxious” and admittedly inappropriate banter with grave criminal allegations. Alon “should be and is embarrassed” by the language he used — but “talk doesn’t constitute a crime,” defense lawyer Howard Srebnick argued.
The defense’s closing arguments continued on Wednesday.
The brothers are accused of meeting victims at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, and recruited others for trips to ritzy locales, paying for flights and lodging at high-end hotels or luxe vacation rentals before drugging and raping them. After witnessing an assault at a Hamptons mansion, one woman pulled out her eyeliner and wrote “RAPIST” on a bedroom door, Jones said.
“A lot of the evidence at this long trial was hard to see and hear,” Jones said. “A lot of it was brutal. That’s because the defendant’s crimes were brutal.”
Jones reminded jurors of a video, played during the trial, of Oren Alexander appearing to rape a drugged 17-year-old in 2009 at the Manhattan apartment he shared with his brothers. Oren recorded the video with his laptop computer — and could be seen adjusting the angle before the alleged assault, Jones said.
On another occasion, Jones said, two of the brothers and two other men raped a 16-year-old boarding school student who had skipped her prom to join them in the Hamptons. A photo of the girl, sleeping topless, was found on one of the brothers’ laptop hard drives, he said.
Now in her 30s, she testified that the assault only ended when she kicked one of the men away.
Another woman, a United Nations intern invited to the Hamptons mansion that weekend, testified that she saw the brothers dragging someone to a hot tub and assaulting her. The victim pleaded with them to stop and they didn’t, Jones said, recounting the intern’s testimony.
The prosecutor urged jurors to reject defense claims that prosecutors were criminalizing “hookup culture” and that accusers were motivated by shame or by money.
“Now that you’ve seen these women for yourselves, you know how wrong that is,” Jones said, noting that one witness was the daughter of a billionaire. “There’s not been an ounce of shame in this courtroom.”
“What walked into this courtroom was not shame,” Jones added. “It was courage and resolve. It was the truth.”
Washington
After abandoning law firm executive orders, Trump administration reverses course and pursues fight
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after abandoning its efforts to enforce executive orders that targeted some of the world’s most elite law firms, President Donald Trump’s administration abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and said it would proceed with the court fight.
The unexplained about-face represents the latest development in a yearlong effort by the Republican administration to impose sanctions against major law firms whose attorneys had done legal work Trump opposed or had been associated with prosecutors who investigated him.
Judges who received challenges to the executive orders from targeted firms uniformly ruled against the government, prompting an appeal from the Justice Department. In a brief filing Monday in the federal appeals court in Washington, the Justice Department withdrew its appeal, ending efforts to enforce executive orders against the firms of Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey and WilmerHale.
Then, on Tuesday, the Justice Department, without any explanation, submitted a new court filing saying that it was withdrawing its earlier one and was no longer giving up its appeal. It said that because the appeals court had not yet granted its motion to dismiss, the firms were not harmed by the department’s change in position. The department said that it had advised lawyers for the four firms of its change in position and that they objected.
The White House referred questions about the change in position to the Justice Department, where a spokesperson declined to comment.
In a statement, Perkins Coie said the Justice Department had “offered no explanation to either the parties or the court for its reversal.”
“We remain committed to defending our firm, our people, and our clients,” the firm said.
Susman Godfrey said in a statement that it “will defend itself and the rule of law — without equivocation.”
The succession of edicts, part of a broader Trump administration campaign of retribution, ordered that the security clearances of attorneys at the targeted firms be suspended, that federal contracts be terminated and that their employees be barred from federal buildings. The punished firms have called the orders an unconstitutional affront to the legal system.
Other major firms sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that required them, among other things, to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes the Trump administration says it supports.
Alexander brothers used wealth to lure, drug and rape women and girls, prosecutor says
NEW YORK (AP) — The wealthy Alexander brothers used the same tactics of luring, drugging and humiliation to sexually assault numerous women and girls, bragging about their exploits in blog posts with titles that included “It’s not rape if,” a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
In a closing argument after four weeks of testimony in the siblings’ federal sex trafficking trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones reviewed the often harrowing accounts of 11 women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Alon, Oren or Tal Alexander.
The allegations are corroborated by the “sheer number of victims who testified,” the prosecutor said — women who never have met each other and live different lives, but “have one horrific thing in common: they were raped by these men.”
Far from hiding their activity, the brothers bragged about it in text messages, emailed about sneaking drugs — or “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at least one assault on video and shared photos of victims, Jones said, calling it “devastating evidence” supporting the charges against them.
“You know this playbook because the defendants did this multiple times,” Jones said, chronicling alleged assaults at Hamptons mansions; New York City apartments; an Aspen, Colorado, ski trip; and a Caribbean cruise. One woman testified that Alon Alexander raped her in 2012, hours after they had met at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. Efron was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Oren and Tal Alexander, high-end real estate brokers dubbed “The A Team,” and their brother Alon, an executive at their family’s private security firm, have pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges.
In a closing argument, a lawyer for Alon Alexander said prosecutors conflated the brothers’ “obnoxious” and admittedly inappropriate banter with grave criminal allegations. Alon “should be and is embarrassed” by the language he used — but “talk doesn’t constitute a crime,” defense lawyer Howard Srebnick argued.
The defense’s closing arguments continued on Wednesday.
The brothers are accused of meeting victims at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, and recruited others for trips to ritzy locales, paying for flights and lodging at high-end hotels or luxe vacation rentals before drugging and raping them. After witnessing an assault at a Hamptons mansion, one woman pulled out her eyeliner and wrote “RAPIST” on a bedroom door, Jones said.
“A lot of the evidence at this long trial was hard to see and hear,” Jones said. “A lot of it was brutal. That’s because the defendant’s crimes were brutal.”
Jones reminded jurors of a video, played during the trial, of Oren Alexander appearing to rape a drugged 17-year-old in 2009 at the Manhattan apartment he shared with his brothers. Oren recorded the video with his laptop computer — and could be seen adjusting the angle before the alleged assault, Jones said.
On another occasion, Jones said, two of the brothers and two other men raped a 16-year-old boarding school student who had skipped her prom to join them in the Hamptons. A photo of the girl, sleeping topless, was found on one of the brothers’ laptop hard drives, he said.
Now in her 30s, she testified that the assault only ended when she kicked one of the men away.
Another woman, a United Nations intern invited to the Hamptons mansion that weekend, testified that she saw the brothers dragging someone to a hot tub and assaulting her. The victim pleaded with them to stop and they didn’t, Jones said, recounting the intern’s testimony.
The prosecutor urged jurors to reject defense claims that prosecutors were criminalizing “hookup culture” and that accusers were motivated by shame or by money.
“Now that you’ve seen these women for yourselves, you know how wrong that is,” Jones said, noting that one witness was the daughter of a billionaire. “There’s not been an ounce of shame in this courtroom.”
“What walked into this courtroom was not shame,” Jones added. “It was courage and resolve. It was the truth.”
Washington
After abandoning law firm executive orders, Trump administration reverses course and pursues fight
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after abandoning its efforts to enforce executive orders that targeted some of the world’s most elite law firms, President Donald Trump’s administration abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and said it would proceed with the court fight.
The unexplained about-face represents the latest development in a yearlong effort by the Republican administration to impose sanctions against major law firms whose attorneys had done legal work Trump opposed or had been associated with prosecutors who investigated him.
Judges who received challenges to the executive orders from targeted firms uniformly ruled against the government, prompting an appeal from the Justice Department. In a brief filing Monday in the federal appeals court in Washington, the Justice Department withdrew its appeal, ending efforts to enforce executive orders against the firms of Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey and WilmerHale.
Then, on Tuesday, the Justice Department, without any explanation, submitted a new court filing saying that it was withdrawing its earlier one and was no longer giving up its appeal. It said that because the appeals court had not yet granted its motion to dismiss, the firms were not harmed by the department’s change in position. The department said that it had advised lawyers for the four firms of its change in position and that they objected.
The White House referred questions about the change in position to the Justice Department, where a spokesperson declined to comment.
In a statement, Perkins Coie said the Justice Department had “offered no explanation to either the parties or the court for its reversal.”
“We remain committed to defending our firm, our people, and our clients,” the firm said.
Susman Godfrey said in a statement that it “will defend itself and the rule of law — without equivocation.”
The succession of edicts, part of a broader Trump administration campaign of retribution, ordered that the security clearances of attorneys at the targeted firms be suspended, that federal contracts be terminated and that their employees be barred from federal buildings. The punished firms have called the orders an unconstitutional affront to the legal system.
Other major firms sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that required them, among other things, to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes the Trump administration says it supports.
