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Envelope with white powder sent to judge in Trump fraud trial prompts brief security scare
An envelope that contained a white powder was sent to the judge who imposed a $454 million judgment against former President Donald Trump, causing a brief security scare Wednesday at a New York courthouse.
A person familiar with the matter said the business-sized envelope was addressed to Judge Arthur Engoron but never reached him. The powder was quickly determined to be harmless in preliminary testing. Further testing is being done at a lab.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said a court officer opened an envelope and white powder fell onto the officer’s pants. There are no apparent injuries, and the incident is under investigation, sources said.
Engoron ruled on Feb. 16 that Trump and others must pay nearly half a billion dollars to New York State — the proceeds of $354 million in fraud, plus interest — for a decade-long scheme revolving around falsely portraying Trump’s wealth and his property values to banks and insurers.
Erin Schaff / Getty Images
Trump and his co-defendants, who include his company, two of his sons and two executives, have appealed. They’ve asked a higher New York court to consider whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact, abused [his] discretion, and/or acted in excess of [his] jurisdiction.”
Engoron’s 92-page ruling was one of the largest corporate sanctions in New York history. The judge found that Trump and others were liable for a decade of frauds that “leap off the page and shock the conscience.”
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote. “They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again.”
The ruling concluded an unusually contentious monthslong trial in which Trump raged nearly every day against the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James, lashing out at them in courthouse hallways, on social media, at campaign rallies and while testifying on the stand.
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At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
