BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman accused of operating a high-end brothel network with wealthy and prominent clients in that state and the Washington, D.C., suburbs that generated millions of dollars in revenue was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison.
Han Lee and two others were indicted last year on one count of conspiracy to persuade, entice, and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution and one count of money laundering, according to prosecutors. The operation, according to court documents, generated millions of dollars a year, and customers paid hundreds of dollars an hour for services.
Junmyung Lee of Dedham, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in October and is set to be sentenced next month. James Lee of Torrance, California, accused of renting the apartments in the operation, pleaded guilty last month to his involvement in the scheme as well as fraudulently obtaining nearly $600,000 in pandemic relief funds. He is set to be sentenced next month.
“You ran a highly profitable business that involved recruiting women across the country to come to Massachusetts and Virginia to sell their bodies for sex,” said U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick. “The government argues and I agree this is not a victimless crime."
Prosecutors had asked that Han Lee, 42, who pleaded guilty in September, be sentenced to six years imprisonment and three years of supervised released for running “one of the most successful prostitution networks” on the East Coast. They estimate that nearly 10,000 commercial sex dates occurred in her brothels, according to court records, and that Lee made more than $5 million dollars over more than four years.
Lee's federal public defender, Scott Lauer, had pleaded for leniency, saying in court documents that Lee grew up poor in South Korea and had a father who drank heavily and was abusive. After arriving in the United States, she became a sex worker in California, Las Vegas and New York before settling in Massachusetts and continuing to work in the trade.
After a brothel was raided, Han Lee saw the opportunity to set up the network. The defense contended none of the sex workers were forced to do the job and that they kept up to 70% of the revenues. Her clients were vetted to reduce the dangers and she didn't withhold travel documents from the workers.
“While cases involving prostitution often involve some degree of force or coercion exerted against the women involved, this case does not,” Lauer wrote. “There is a world of difference between Ms. Lee — a sex worker herself — and a pimp (or madam) who enriches themselves at the expense of those performing the work."
Assistant United States Attorney Lindsey Weinstein acknowedged that Lee didn't treat her workers badly but that didn't take away from the fact she recruited them into a world where they spent long days being paid for sex in strange cities, rarely leaving the apartment.
“You don't get credit for not threatening and abusing other women,” she said. “This was a business, a lifestyle she was personally involved in. The fact she decided to further harm onto others is pretty significant here.”
Lee, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and speaking through an interpreter, apologized to the court and said she was only trying to support the women, some who were fleeing domestic violence or lacked an education.
“I heard all their stories and tried to help them," she said.
Authorities said the sex ring in Massachusetts and northern Virginia catered to politicians, company executives, military officers, lawyers, professors and other well-connected clients.
Nearly 30 of the buyers are appearing court this month in Cambridge, after the state's highest court ruled last year that the hearings should be public. The first group of buyers appeared in court last week, and a second group is set to appear Friday.
The women who worked in the brothels were not identified or criminally charged and were considered victims, prosecutors said.
Han Lee maintained the operation from 2020 to November 2023.
The brothel operation used websites that falsely claimed to advertise nude models for professional photography, prosecutors alleged. The operators rented high-end apartments to use as brothels in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tysons and Fairfax, Virginia, prosecutors said. Brothels were maintained at four locations in Massachusetts and two in Virginia.
Each website described a verification process that interested sex buyers undertook to be eligible for appointment bookings, including requiring clients to complete a form providing their full names, email addresses, phone numbers, employers and references if they had one, authorities said.
FILE - Planters rest near an entrance to apartments, in Watertown, Mass., Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
The White House is planning on Friday to unveil President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget, a sweeping framework that's expected to propose steep reductions, if not a wholesale zeroing out, of various federal programs as part of his administration’s priorities.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strip temporary legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to being deported.
Here's the latest:
The strategy is the main blueprint that lays out the department’s priorities as it moves to confront national security threats around the world.
It will be Hegseth’s opportunity to highlight what he wants the U.S. military to focus on for the next several years, and how the department will shift toward Trump’s America First doctrine.
The draft also will have to reflect the impact of Hegseth’s sweeping personnel cuts and decisions to merge a number of military commands.
The order was signed Friday.
The high-stakes meeting comes as Trump continues his trade war and annexation threats.
Carney’s Liberal Party scored a stunning comeback victory in a vote widely seen as a rebuke of Trump, whose trade war and attacks on Canadian sovereignty outraged voters.
“Canadians elected a new government to stand up to President Trump and build a strong economy,” Carney said in his first remarks since since election night.
Carney also said King Charles III will deliver a speech outlining the Canadian government’s priorities on May 27, when Parliament resumes. Charles is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.
▶ Read more about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
Vance says the Trump administration is keeping its promises.
In an opinion piece published by the Washington Post, Vance writes that he and Trump campaigned on reversing what they said are failures by the previous administration and returning to “successful, proven policies” from Trump’s first term.
“And we’re delivering,” Vance says.
He cites the crackdown on illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, “reindustrializing” of the American economy and “rebalancing” relations with trading partners. He doesn’t mention tariffs.
Trump’s tariffs plans have caused worldwide economic uncertainty.
Vance ends by promising that “the best is yet to come.”
Public Broadcasting Service CEO Paula Kerger said the Republican president’s order “threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years.”
“We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans,” Kerger said.
Trump signed the order late Thursday, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on PBS and NPR
President Trump’s 2026 budget plan would slash non-defense domestic spending by $163 billion while increasing expenditures on national security, according to statements released by the White House on Friday.
The budget showed a desire to crack down on diversity programs and initiatives to address climate change. But the administration has yet to release detailed tables on what it wants income taxes, tariffs or the budget deficit to be — a sign of the political and financial challenge confronting Trump when he’s promising to cut taxes and repay the federal debt without doing major damage to economic growth.
Budgets do not become law but serve as a touchstone for the upcoming fiscal year debates. Often considered a statement of values, this first budget since Trump’s return to the White House carries the added weight of defining the Republican president’s second-term pursuits, alongside his party in Congress.
▶ Read more about Trump’s budget plan
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for the second time, a U.S. official says.
Hegseth is keeping it there one more week to maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi rebels, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
In late March, Hegseth also extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis.
The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it’s expected that the Truman will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.
It has been rare in recent years for the U.S. to have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time.
— Lolita C. Baldor
The Food and Drug Administration is bringing back some of the 100 recently fired staffers who process document requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Staffers across several parts of the agency were notified of the decision Thursday in writing or by phone, according to two agency staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency matters. The notifications went out to employees who work in the centers for drugs, tobacco and other product areas. The FDA responds to thousands of FOIA requests each year from lawyers, journalists, companies and physicians.
In recent days, the FDA has missed multiple court-ordered deadlines to hand over documents to parties suing the agency, which can result in hefty fines. The missed deadlines prompted the decision to bring back FOIA staffers.
— Matthew Perrone
Hiring in April was down slightly from a revised 185,000 in March and came in above economists’ expectations for a modest 135,000. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.2%, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Trump’s aggressive and unpredictable policies – including massive import taxes – have clouded the outlook for the economy and the job market and raised fears that the American economy is headed toward recession.
But Friday’s report showed the job market remains solid.
“The labor market refuses to buckle in the face of trade war uncertainty,’’ said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at fwdbonds, a financial markets research firm. “Politicians can count their lucky stars that companies are holding on to their workers despite the storm clouds forming that could slow the economy further in the second half of the year.’’
▶ Read more about the U.S. jobs report
Abbe Lowell’s clients have included Hunter Biden, Jared Kushner and Sens. John Edwards and Bob Menendez.
His current clients include New York Attorney General Letitia James. Lowell sent a letter to the Justice Department last week urging it to refuse a Trump administration official’s request to prosecute the Democrat for mortgage fraud, calling it “improper political retribution.”
Lowell is also representing Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official who was singled out in a presidential memo last month in which Trump called for a Justice Department investigation of his activities, and Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer whose security clearance Trump has moved to revoke.
In a statement announcing the creation of Lowell & Associates, Lowell said he was “excited to once again lead a small yet nimble team ready to represent companies, non-profits and individuals in need of our experience and dedication.”
That’s after China’s Commerce Ministry said Beijing is evaluating overtures from the U.S. regarding Trump’s tariffs.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% before the bell and were on track for a ninth straight day of gains. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4% and Nasdaq futures ticked up 0.2%.
Exxon Mobil’s reported its lowest first-quarter profit in years, stung by weaker crude prices and higher costs. Its shares ticked up less than 1% before markets opened Friday.
Shares in rival Chevron fell more than 2% after it also reported its smallest first quarter profit in years.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
Japan’s massive holdings of U.S. Treasurys can be “a card on the table” in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.
“It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo.
Kato didn’t elaborate and he didn’t say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of U.S. government bonds as part of its talks over Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.
Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option.
Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys.
▶ Read more about Japan’s talks with the U.S. over tariffs
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status,” he wrote on his social media site Friday morning. “It’s what they deserve!”
Trump and his White House have repeatedly gone after Harvard. In addition to threatening its tax-exempt status, the administration has halted more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard and wants to block the school from being able to enroll international students.
The detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated April 29 and 30 and have not been publicly released. They represent the Army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element — a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.
The Army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14.
While the slides do not include any price estimates, it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size.
▶ Read more about the Army’s military parade plans
As Trump faces significant pushback from federal judges, a new poll shows U.S. adults are more likely to believe the president is the one overstepping his power rather than the courts -- although Republicans largely think the opposite.
According to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about half of Americans say the president has “too much” power in the way government operates these days. On the other hand, Americans are more likely to believe the federal courts have an appropriate amount of authority. Only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults say that federal judges have “too much” power.
Republicans see it the other way: Roughly half say the federal judiciary has too much power, and only about 2 in 10 say the president does.
▶ Read more about the latest AP-NORC poll
When the Justice Department lifted a school desegregation order in Louisiana this week, officials called its continued existence a “historical wrong” and suggested that others dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered.
The end of the 1966 legal agreement with Plaquemines Parish schools announced Tuesday shows the Trump administration is “getting America refocused on our bright future,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said.
Inside the Justice Department, officials appointed by Trump have expressed a desire to withdraw from other desegregation orders they see as an unnecessary burden on schools, according to a person familiar with the issue who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Dozens of school districts across the South remain under court-enforced agreements dictating steps to work toward integration, decades after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in education. Some see the court orders’ endurance as a sign the government never eradicated segregation, while officials in Louisiana and at some schools see the orders as bygone relics that should be wiped away.
▶ Read more about the end to the desegregation order
— Collin Binkley
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
It’s the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
▶ Read more about the executive order
Rubio has been thrown into two top national security jobs at once as Trump presses forward with his top-to-bottom revamp of U.S. foreign policy, upending not only longstanding policies that the former Florida senator once supported but also the configuration of the executive branch.
Trump’s appointment of Rubio to temporarily replace Mike Waltz as national security adviser is the first major leadership shake-up of the nascent administration, but Waltz’s removal had been rumored for weeks — ever since he created a Signal group chat and accidentally added a journalist to the conversation where top national security officials shared sensitive military plans.
So, just over 100 days into his tenure as America’s top diplomat, Rubio now becomes just the second person to hold both positions. He follows only the late Henry Kissinger, who served as both secretary of state and national security adviser for two years under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s.
▶ Read more about Rubio’s new role
The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.
The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.
A federal appeals court had earlier rejected the administration’s request.
Trump’s administration has moved aggressively to withdraw various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the country, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. TPS is granted in 18-month increments.
The emergency appeal to the high court came the same day a federal judge in Texas ruled illegal the administration’s efforts to deport Venezuelans under an 18th-century wartime law. The cases are not related.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s request
President Donald Trump gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
