New York’s highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. The Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the judge at the disgraced movie mogul’s landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him with improper rulings, including by letting women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case. The 72-year-old Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence in New York. He’ll remain imprisoned because a 2022 conviction in a Los Angeles rape case resulted in a 16-year prison term. Weinstein's lawyer called the reversal a "tremendous victory." A dissenting judge called it part of a "disturbing trend" of reversals in cases involving sexual violence.

A prosecutor told jurors that Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public. The statement came Monday at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial. A defense lawyer countered by saying Trump was innocent and by attacking the integrity of the onetime Trump confidant who’s now the government’s star witness. The opening statements offered the 12-person jury — and the voting public — a roadmap for viewing the allegations at the heart of the case and Trump’s expected defenses.

Federal law enforcement officials have brought charges against a man accused of creating an illicit marijuana-growing operation off the beaten path in rural Maine. The bust of the home marked the latest example of what authorities describe as a years-long trend of individuals trying to exploit U.S. state laws that have legalized cannabis to produce marijuana and sell it in states where it's illegal. Court documents detailing how the man came to Maine to transform a house into a high-tech, illicit grow operation were detailed in court files unsealed this week with the arrest of the alleged operator. The man was ordered detained Friday until a detention hearing on Monday.

Twelve jurors and one alternate have been seated in Donald Trump’s hush money case, quickly propelling the jury selection process forward after a morning that saw two previously sworn-in jurors dismissed. Lawyers now need to select five alternates to round out the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president. The case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records and making payoffs to two women as part of a scheme to bury stories he worried would hurt his 2016 campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts.

A full jury of 12 people and six alternates has been seated in Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president a step closer to opening statements. Lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of New Yorkers to choose the panel that has vowed to put their personal views aside and impartially judge whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is guilty or not. The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life emerging in the final days of the 2016 election. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Israel and Iran are both playing down an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran. The muted public responses signal the two bitter enemies are ready to prevent their latest eruption of violence from escalating into a full-blown regionwide war. But the indecisive outcome of weeks of tensions — which included an alleged Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals, an unprecedented Iranian missile barrage on Israel and the apparent Israeli strike early Friday in the heart of Iran — has done little to resolve the deeper grievances between the foes and left the door open to further fighting.