Pam Bondi is out of her job after failing to deliver criminal cases against President Donald Trump’s political enemies. But there’s no guarantee her successor will have any better success at placating the president. Over the last year, Bondi’s Justice Department has encountered resistance from judges, grand jurors and its own workforce in trying to establish criminal conduct by one Trump foe after another. A new attorney general will confront not only Trump’s demand for political prosecutions — a constant dating back to his first term in the White House — but also the same skeptical court system, and factual and legal hurdles, that have impeded efforts to deliver the sought-after results.

A federal judge in New York has tossed out Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni over the movie “It Ends With Us" but left intact claims for retaliation. The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan was released late Thursday. Lively will still be allowed to put many of her allegations before a jury. Her lawyer says she looks forward to testifying. Lively sued Baldoni last December, alleging sexual harassment. Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios countersued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni’s claims in June.

A jury has deadlocked in the trial of two fired FirstEnergy Corp. executives charged for their roles in Ohio's $60 million bribery scandal. Jurors in Akron declared an impasse Tuesday in the case of ex-CEO Chuck Jones and former senior vice president Michael Dowling. The two were charged with felony corruption, bribery, conspiracy and aggravated theft for paying $4.3 million to the state’s future top utility regulator. Prosecutors said Jones and Dowling bribed Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair-to-be Sam Randazzo for legislative and regulatory favors. The defense said the payment represented an above-board legal settlement. The judge said she will rule later on a mistrial motion.

Jury fails to reach a verdict in corruption trial of 2 ex-FirstEnergy executives charged in Ohio’s $60M bribery scandal.

Some names will be familiar to the Supreme Court in the latest case involving a Black death row inmate from Mississippi. One is Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons. He knocked all but one Black person off the jury in the case set for arguments Tuesday. State Judge Joseph Loper allowed those juror challenges. And the state Supreme Court upheld the conviction. Just seven years ago, in a case involving the same prosecutor, trial judge and state high court, the Supreme Court overturned a different conviction and death sentence because of what Justice Brett Kavanaugh described as a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Dual jury verdicts this week have validated longstanding concerns about the dangers of social media for young people. But the U.S. lacks federal regulation that meaningfully addresses these harms. Other countries, meanwhile, have implemented a bevy of restrictions on children’s online activities, ranging from outright social media bans to to requiring younger teens to link their accounts to a parent’s. In 2024, Australia became the first country to kick kids under 16 off social media and other countries have followed suit.

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. In New Mexico, a jury on Tu…

It’s too soon to tell if this week’s jury decisions will lead to fundamental changes in how social media treats its young users. But the dual verdicts signal a changing tide of public perception against tech companies that is likely to lead to more lawsuits and regulation. For years, they have argued that the harms their platforms cause to children are the unintentional and inevitable consequences of broader societal issues or bad actors taking advantage of safeguards. These verdicts show public’s growing willingness to hold the companies responsible for harms and demand meaningful changes in how they operate.