Washington
Judge orders Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would “avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events,” including the sudden closure of the building to the public on Wednesday.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, said he closed the iconic performing arts center temporarily due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” of the aging building. The building will be closed for at least seven days to “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration,” Floca said.
The temporary closure, which occurred without notice, is separate from a vote Tuesday by the Kennedy Center’s board to close the performing arts center indefinitely for repairs, Floca and other officials said. The closure was based on an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month, Floca said. The closure may be extended after evaluation next week, he added.
Trump said the Kennedy Center could be ‘ripped down’
Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, said Wednesday that his efforts to restore the aging building deserve recognition, “because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”
The announcement of the closure came in response to a court case filed by a Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee and sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the building’s “unlawful closing.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board, has led efforts to block Trump’s name from being added to the building. Beatty had a verbal confrontation with the Republican president Tuesday during a virtual board meeting.
Beatty’s lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that the board members’ “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning.”
Cooper denied a request by Beatty’s legal team to hold a hearing to clarify the board’s actions and intent. But he agreed to their request “to make crystal clear” that his order prohibits demolition of the building without 30 days’ notice.
The Trump-aligned board, chaired by the president, voted to close the center after Cooper blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.
Congress has allocated $257 million to cover the repairs, but Trump said they only would happen if the board was permitted to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
Barbra Streisand calls the dispute ‘painful to witness’
On Thursday, Barbra Streisand, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008, questioned the closing of the center for repairs and called the controversy surrounding its operation “galling and painful to witness.”
Of Trump’s attempts to add his name to the center, she said in a statement to The Associated Press: “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also have been renamed in Trump’s honor.
All of those proposals were shot down Tuesday by Cooper, who ruled that nothing could happen “without Congress’s blessing.”
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.
Streisand told AP she was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees, adding, “for me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”
Missouri
Investment firm leader gets 11 years for Ponzi scheme that bilked dozens
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The creator of a Texas-based investment company has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say bilked 64 victims, including Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone sentenced Siddharth Jawahar, 38, on Tuesday and ordered him to pay $31.35 million in restitution to victims. Jawahar’s attorney did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting comment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said between July 2016 and December 2023, Jawahar took in more than $35 million from investors in his company, Swiftarc Capital LLC, but only invested about $10 million of that amount.
Instead, prosecutors said, he used money from new investors to repay older investors and to fund an extravagant lifestyle including luxury apartments in New York City and Austin, Texas, private jet travel and expensive outings.
St. Louis news station KMOV-TV reported that prosecutors said in court that Kelce was among the victims, but they did not elaborate. A 2021 Forbes article said Kelce invested in a fund established by Jawahar’s company Swiftarc.
Robert Patrick, a spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, said there were 64 victims total, but declined to answer questions about Kelce’s connection to the case. Kelce’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.
Jawahar was indicted by a grand jury in 2023 and pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud.
Jawahar is from India and was living in the U.S. without legal status since 2005, according to court documents. Prosecutors say that after his indictment, Jawahar tried to coach a victim into giving a favorable statement to the FBI, that he lied about his immigration status and tried to get a relative to remotely wipe his iPhone in order to hide evidence.
New York
Florida woman pleads guilty to defrauding fund for Epstein victims
NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida woman who was paid $750,000 by a fund for people sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded guilty to falsifying records she used in her application for the money.
Jennifer Percival, a scholar who has written books on autism, entered the plea in federal court in New York on Monday, the same day that she was charged in the case. A transcript of the proceeding was entered in the court record Wednesday.
During her brief court appearance, Percival didn’t speak about Epstein and prosecutors didn’t say whether they had reached a conclusion about whether she was, or wasn’t, one of his victims.
Percival, 46, said she applied in late 2020 to a fund set up by Epstein’s estate to compensate his victims after he killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. That fund, however, decided she was ineligible for a payment. Court records didn’t say why she was turned down.
Then, in 2024, she applied for a share of a new fund created by JPMorgan Chase, which had agreed to pay $290 million to Epstein victims to settle legal claims that the bank should have cut him off as a customer after he was publicly accused of being a serial sexual abuser of underage girls.
In support of that application, she falsely claimed the Epstein estate fund had found her eligible for compensation and paid her $500,000. She provided a copy of her rejection letter, but altered it to make it look like she had been approved.
“The purpose of these actions was to obtain money, which gave me a sense of validation,” she told a magistrate judge, according to the transcript of Monday’s court hearing.
The bank’s compensation fund wired her $750,000 in 2024 based on her misstatements, but at some point the FBI began investigating.
When she was confronted by agents in late 2025 with the true and accurate rejection letter from the Epstein fund, she falsely said she had successfully appealed and was found eligible after all, Percival said. Then, she gave her own lawyer at the time altered and fabricated emails that were submitted to a federal prosecutor as part of a request for a deferred prosecution deal.
“I know that my actions were wrongful, and I accept full responsibility,” Percival said.
She brought a check to the plea hearing for the $776,031 she owes in restitution. A sentencing date wasn’t immediately set.
Percival is the director of Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and lives in Boca Raton.
Messages sent to Percival, her lawyer, the autism center and media contacts for Florida Atlantic University were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Neither court records nor anything said in open court make it explicitly clear why Percival claimed to have been entitled to Epstein settlement money.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for her to spend from three to four years behind bars, according to the plea deal she signed with prosecutors, though a judge does not have to follow that recommendation. She was released from custody after the hearing while she awaits sentencing.
Her defense lawyer is likely to argue at sentencing that she has earned leniency through her life’s work helping people with disabilities. A university website listing described her as an “award-winning researcher in disability studies” and said she “participates on national and regional advisory boards.”
A prosecutor said evidence that would have been introduced at trial would have included Percival’s bank records; search warrant returns for her email account, along with testimony by the administrator of two Epstein settlement funds.
Judge orders Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would “avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events,” including the sudden closure of the building to the public on Wednesday.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, said he closed the iconic performing arts center temporarily due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” of the aging building. The building will be closed for at least seven days to “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration,” Floca said.
The temporary closure, which occurred without notice, is separate from a vote Tuesday by the Kennedy Center’s board to close the performing arts center indefinitely for repairs, Floca and other officials said. The closure was based on an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month, Floca said. The closure may be extended after evaluation next week, he added.
Trump said the Kennedy Center could be ‘ripped down’
Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, said Wednesday that his efforts to restore the aging building deserve recognition, “because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”
The announcement of the closure came in response to a court case filed by a Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee and sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the building’s “unlawful closing.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board, has led efforts to block Trump’s name from being added to the building. Beatty had a verbal confrontation with the Republican president Tuesday during a virtual board meeting.
Beatty’s lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that the board members’ “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning.”
Cooper denied a request by Beatty’s legal team to hold a hearing to clarify the board’s actions and intent. But he agreed to their request “to make crystal clear” that his order prohibits demolition of the building without 30 days’ notice.
The Trump-aligned board, chaired by the president, voted to close the center after Cooper blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.
Congress has allocated $257 million to cover the repairs, but Trump said they only would happen if the board was permitted to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
Barbra Streisand calls the dispute ‘painful to witness’
On Thursday, Barbra Streisand, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008, questioned the closing of the center for repairs and called the controversy surrounding its operation “galling and painful to witness.”
Of Trump’s attempts to add his name to the center, she said in a statement to The Associated Press: “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also have been renamed in Trump’s honor.
All of those proposals were shot down Tuesday by Cooper, who ruled that nothing could happen “without Congress’s blessing.”
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.
Streisand told AP she was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees, adding, “for me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”
Missouri
Investment firm leader gets 11 years for Ponzi scheme that bilked dozens
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The creator of a Texas-based investment company has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say bilked 64 victims, including Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone sentenced Siddharth Jawahar, 38, on Tuesday and ordered him to pay $31.35 million in restitution to victims. Jawahar’s attorney did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting comment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said between July 2016 and December 2023, Jawahar took in more than $35 million from investors in his company, Swiftarc Capital LLC, but only invested about $10 million of that amount.
Instead, prosecutors said, he used money from new investors to repay older investors and to fund an extravagant lifestyle including luxury apartments in New York City and Austin, Texas, private jet travel and expensive outings.
St. Louis news station KMOV-TV reported that prosecutors said in court that Kelce was among the victims, but they did not elaborate. A 2021 Forbes article said Kelce invested in a fund established by Jawahar’s company Swiftarc.
Robert Patrick, a spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, said there were 64 victims total, but declined to answer questions about Kelce’s connection to the case. Kelce’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.
Jawahar was indicted by a grand jury in 2023 and pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud.
Jawahar is from India and was living in the U.S. without legal status since 2005, according to court documents. Prosecutors say that after his indictment, Jawahar tried to coach a victim into giving a favorable statement to the FBI, that he lied about his immigration status and tried to get a relative to remotely wipe his iPhone in order to hide evidence.
New York
Florida woman pleads guilty to defrauding fund for Epstein victims
NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida woman who was paid $750,000 by a fund for people sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded guilty to falsifying records she used in her application for the money.
Jennifer Percival, a scholar who has written books on autism, entered the plea in federal court in New York on Monday, the same day that she was charged in the case. A transcript of the proceeding was entered in the court record Wednesday.
During her brief court appearance, Percival didn’t speak about Epstein and prosecutors didn’t say whether they had reached a conclusion about whether she was, or wasn’t, one of his victims.
Percival, 46, said she applied in late 2020 to a fund set up by Epstein’s estate to compensate his victims after he killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. That fund, however, decided she was ineligible for a payment. Court records didn’t say why she was turned down.
Then, in 2024, she applied for a share of a new fund created by JPMorgan Chase, which had agreed to pay $290 million to Epstein victims to settle legal claims that the bank should have cut him off as a customer after he was publicly accused of being a serial sexual abuser of underage girls.
In support of that application, she falsely claimed the Epstein estate fund had found her eligible for compensation and paid her $500,000. She provided a copy of her rejection letter, but altered it to make it look like she had been approved.
“The purpose of these actions was to obtain money, which gave me a sense of validation,” she told a magistrate judge, according to the transcript of Monday’s court hearing.
The bank’s compensation fund wired her $750,000 in 2024 based on her misstatements, but at some point the FBI began investigating.
When she was confronted by agents in late 2025 with the true and accurate rejection letter from the Epstein fund, she falsely said she had successfully appealed and was found eligible after all, Percival said. Then, she gave her own lawyer at the time altered and fabricated emails that were submitted to a federal prosecutor as part of a request for a deferred prosecution deal.
“I know that my actions were wrongful, and I accept full responsibility,” Percival said.
She brought a check to the plea hearing for the $776,031 she owes in restitution. A sentencing date wasn’t immediately set.
Percival is the director of Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and lives in Boca Raton.
Messages sent to Percival, her lawyer, the autism center and media contacts for Florida Atlantic University were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Neither court records nor anything said in open court make it explicitly clear why Percival claimed to have been entitled to Epstein settlement money.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for her to spend from three to four years behind bars, according to the plea deal she signed with prosecutors, though a judge does not have to follow that recommendation. She was released from custody after the hearing while she awaits sentencing.
Her defense lawyer is likely to argue at sentencing that she has earned leniency through her life’s work helping people with disabilities. A university website listing described her as an “award-winning researcher in disability studies” and said she “participates on national and regional advisory boards.”
A prosecutor said evidence that would have been introduced at trial would have included Percival’s bank records; search warrant returns for her email account, along with testimony by the administrator of two Epstein settlement funds.
