Jay-Z Sends Private Jet to Fly Ahmaud Arbery’s Lawyers to Court Hearing

When the lawyers fighting Ahmaud Arbery’s case couldn’t find transportation to make it to a court hearing in Georgia on Thursday, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter lent his private jet to give the attorneys a lift.

Blerim Elmazi and S. Lee Merritt — the lawyers representing Arbery, who was fatally shot while jogging in February — said on Instagram that they “started losing hope” that they would be able to attend a scheduled hearing in Brunswick. That’s when Elmazi says that he and Merritt received a call at 1 a.m. from Roc Nation, Carter’s sporters and entertainment agency, who allowed them to use their private plane.

“At 1 am we started losing hope till we got a call from Jay Z’s people at Roc Nation who chartered a flight for us to attend this hearing with the family of Ahmaud Arbery,” Elmazi wrote in an Instagram post. “Thankful for their support.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Court hearing in Brunswick, Georgia this morning. No flights to take us there last night. @leemerrittesq and I spent hours trying to find flights or cars. At 1 am we started losing hope till we got a call from Jay Z’s people at Roc Nation who chartered a flight for us to attend this hearing with the family of Ahmaud Arbery. Thankful for their support. Updates on the hearing soon

A post shared by Blerim Elmazi, Esq. (@blerimelmazi) on Jun 4, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

Merritt also shared the story on Instagram, writing, “When you absolutely have to be in Court to stand with your client and righteous protestors for justice… Jay Z sends his private jet.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Court hearing in Brunswick, Georgia this morning. No flights to take us there last night. @leemerrittesq and I spent hours trying to find flights or cars. At 1 am we started losing hope till we got a call from Jay Z’s people at Roc Nation who chartered a flight for us to attend this hearing with the family of Ahmaud Arbery. Thankful for their support. Updates on the hearing soon

A post shared by Blerim Elmazi, Esq. (@blerimelmazi) on Jun 4, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

As a result of the courtesy, the two lawyers made it to the hearing on time and were able to stand with Arbery’s family. During the hearing, it was revealed that Travis McMichael used a racial slur after firing three shots that killed Arbery shot on Feb. 23. At the end of the hearing, it was determined that he, his father Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan, who filmed the killing, will remain in police custody. All three have been charged with murder in the case.

Earlier this week, Carter and Roc Nation’s philanthropic arm, Team ROC, partnered with activists, attorneys, and the families who lost someone to police violence to dedicate a full-page ad in several newspapers in honor of George Floyd. Floyd died last week after being detained and killed by Minneapolis police.

The hip-hop billionaire also called on Minneapolis Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute all of the officers involved in the killing of Floyd to the “fullest extent of the law,” reports Billboard. In addition, the rap superstar spoke with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in pursuit of justice for Floyd.

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Maryland cyclist arrested for assault on teens posting George Floyd posters

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man charged with assaulting three teenagers after a video showed him grabbing a protest flyer from one of teens is apologizing.

In a statement released by his lawyers, 60-year-old Anthony Brennan III of Kensington, Maryland, said he is “sick with remorse for the pain and fear I caused the victims on the trail.”

READ MORE: Police looking for cyclist who attacked teens posting George Floyd posters

Maryland-National Capital Park Police said Friday night that Brennan was charged with three counts of second-degree assault. The widely seen video shows an adult cyclist grabbing the wrist of a woman on June 1 and then ripping a flyer from her hand. With his bicycle, he then bears down on another victim who was recording the incident.

Efforts on Social media to find the attacker prior to Friday’s arrest resulted in multiple men being wrongly identified as the attacker by Twitter users.

Online court records show Brennan was released from custody Saturday after posting bond.

Police said the incident occurred on the Capital Crescent Trail, which runs from Washington D.C. into Montgomery County, Maryland.

The three victims, between the ages of 18 and 19, said they were putting up flyers promoting justice for George Floyd. Bystander video showed a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, ignoring his cries of “I can’t breathe.”

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U.S. Unemployment Falls In May, Black Unemployment At Highest Rate In A Decade

The Department of Labor announced Friday 2.5 million jobs were added in May, however, unemployment among African Americans has hit its highest rate in a decade.

According to The New York Times, the numbers defied the expectations of economists, who were predicting unemployment to exceed 20%, but were hopeful the recovery would be faster than originally expected. However, The Hill reported African American unemployment hit its highest rate in a decade in May, despite an economy-wide reduction in unemployment.

For African Americans, the unemployment rate rose from 16.7% to 16.8%. The new rate is the highest rate in more than a decade, according to an analysis of statistics by Bloomberg.

Unemployment for Latinos fell from 18.9% to 17.6% but is still the highest among all racial and ethnic groups surveyed by Bloomberg. Many are pointing to states reopening as a reason for the rise in employment, even as coronavirus cases rise in many states.

Still, job openings are far below normal despite talks of another coronavirus relief package having all but disappeared as the protests surrounding the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have become the country’s biggest topic.

The report noted “employment rose sharply in leisure and hospitality, construction, education and health services, and retail trade,” even as government jobs continued their decline.

“What this is telling us is that at least part of the pain in April was due to people being laid off or furloughed who still had very strong connections to their employers,” Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at Evercore ISI in Washington, told the Times. “As good and surprising as this report was, this may just be the low-hanging fruit. These may have been the easiest workers to bring back.”

Economists are unsure if the unemployment peak created by the coronavirus is over. Between the rash of protests going on daily across the country and people venturing out more often due to the warm weather, many are now wondering not if, but when we will see a significant rise in cases.

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Joe Biden now has the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Fort Madison, Iowa. | John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

He’ll officially become the party’s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August.

After months of fierce campaigning — and a worldwide pandemic interrupting the normal primary schedule — former Vice President Joe Biden has officially earned enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination for president.

Biden, who has been the presumptive Democratic nominee since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out on April 8, earned the last few delegates he needed to reach the 1,991 threshold for nomination following primary races in seven states and the District of Columbia Tuesday. He now has 1,995 delegates with eight states and three US territories still left to vote.

“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said in a statement Friday evening.

The former vice president’s campaign got off to a slow start: He finished fourth in Iowa and left New Hampshire early, having finished near the bottom of the pack in that primary. His prospects turned around on the strength of a victory in the South Carolina primary, which kicked off successive wins across the South, giving him an insurmountable delegate advantage.

But the coronavirus pandemic interrupted Biden’s campaign plans, postponing many primary races, and forcing the candidate to run virtual events out of his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden will officially be nominated at the Democratic National Convention, which was originally scheduled to be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — however, the pandemic forced the party to reschedule for the week of August 17. He won’t be able to use general election funds until his nomination is made official at the convention.

The Biden campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised $60.5 million in April, the last month for which reported data is available. The fundraising haul brought them close to even with the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s fundraising efforts for that month, although the Republicans have a massive ($255 million to Biden’s $97.5 million) cash-on-hand advantage.

Despite that financial disadvantage, Biden has enjoyed a steady lead in general election polling. A recent NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll of 1062 US adults found, Biden leads Trump 50 percent to 43 percent, a 7 percentage point lead — which is outside the margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

The president’s approval rating has fallen as the twin crises of mass protests against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the pandemic have deepened. Biden seemed to recognize the unsettling moment as he acknowledged reaching the delegate threshold Friday.

“I’m once again asking every American who feels knocked down, counted out, and left behind, to join our campaign,” he said in the statement. “Because we aren’t just building the movement that will defeat Donald Trump, we are building the movement that will transform our nation.”

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NJ Gov. Phil Murphy Names First Black Woman To State Supreme Court

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has named attorney Fabiana Pierre-Louis to the state Supreme Court on Friday, making her the first black woman to sit on the state’s highest court.

An NBC News report Friday states Pierre-Louis, 39, will succeed Walter Timpone, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 in the fall. Pierre-Louis is a Cherry Hill-based partner specializing in white-collar crime and government investigations in the firm of Montgomery McCracken.

“Many years ago my parents came to the United States from Haiti with not much more than the clothes on their backs and the American dream in their hearts,” Pierre-Louis told NBC. “I think they have achieved that dream beyond measure because my life is certainly not representative of the traditional trajectory of someone who would one day be nominated to the Supreme Court of New Jersey.”

Pierre-Louis also spent nine years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey according to her page on Montgomery McCraken’s website. Pierre-Louis worked as a federal prosecutor, responsible for supervising all aspects of criminal matters handled by the Camden Office.

Pierre-Louis has worked on a litany of cases including criminal trials, investigations, and prosecutions of large-scale mail and wire fraud offenses, healthcare and government fraud matters, and narcotics, firearms, and violent crime offenses.

Murphy said Pierre-Louis will carry the legacy of John Wallace, the last black judge on the state supreme court. Pierre-Louis knows Wallace well as she clerked for him previously. Murphy said it still bothers him that Wallace was not renominated when his first term expired in 2010—the first time that had happened under the state’s current constitution.

Murphy tweeted Friday that he was honored to appoint Pierre-Louis to the position.

“Her humility, empathy, and character will serve the people of New Jersey well,” Murphy said.

“Across this country, there are 33 states which do not have a woman of color on their highest court,” said Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver in a press release. “I cannot wait to see New Jersey leave that list with Fabiana’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.”

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