Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison, Newsmax hires Squire Patton lobbyists, Vegas lawyer sues NFL and Raiders, and FTC commissioner to step down
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Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina lawyer who was found guilty of killing his wife and son, was sentenced to life in prison today.
A South Carolina jury on Thursday declared Murdaugh, 54, guilty on two counts of gunning down his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, on their family estate on June 7, 2021.
At a hearing on Friday, Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to prison for the remainder of his natural life for the murders.
Murdaugh, the scion of an influential legal family in an area west of Charleston, had faced a minimum of 30 years in prison for each of the two counts of murder under South Carolina law. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of life without parole.
Conservative news channel Newsmax has hired lobbyists with law firm Squire Patton Boggs to combat what it calls "censorship" of conservative views as its feuds with satellite television provider DirecTV.
DirecTV, which is 70% owned by AT&T, dropped Newsmax from its lineup in February after they were unable to reach an agreement over Newsmax's request for increased licensing fees.
Former Republican congressman Jack Kingston and Thomas Andrews, a former Trump White House and House Republican leadership staffer, have registered to lobby for Newsmax on the DirecTV issue and "conservative censorship," Squire Patton Boggs said in a federal disclosure. Kingston and Andrews are both principals at the firm.
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A Las Vegas personal injury lawyer sued the National Football League and the Las Vegas Raiders on March 1 over a TV advertisement the attorney ran for his firm during the Super Bowl that featured a Raiders player and the team's colors.
Steve Dimopoulos and the Dimopoulos Law Firm filed the lawsuit in Nevada federal court after the NFL sent him a cease-and-desist letter last month pertaining to the ad, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to find that he did not infringe NFL Properties or Raiders Football Club's trademarks or trade dress in the ad, which originally aired in the Las Vegas area during the Feb. 12 game.
The ad, viewable on YouTube and on Dimopoulos' website, shows Raiders' defensive end Maxx Crosby, UFC fighter Jon Jones, and the Vegas Golden Knights' William Karlsson, suiting up in black and silver uniforms. Interspersed with the athletes are shots of Dimopoulos getting ready for a trial.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's lone Republican commissioner, Christine Wilson, will step down from her role at the end of March, she said in a letter to President Joe Biden on March 2, in which she criticized FTC Chair Lina Khan.
Wilson has accused the FTC under the Biden administration of overstepping by being too aggressive in stopping mergers and banning most noncompete clauses. And she has been a sometimes scathing critic of Khan for her style of leadership.
Without Wilson, a Republican, the commission would have just Khan as chair, and commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. All three are Democrats.
In addition, Holly Vedova, head of the agency's bureau of competition, said she would retire after decades at the agency but did not give a date for her departure, according to a source familiar with her decision. Khan had named Vedova to run the competition bureau in September 2021 as part of her effort to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement.
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