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Usher's ex-wife Tameka Foster had maybe the most friendly arrest in history ... newly released police body cam footage shows her exchanging casual banter and even getting a few laughs out of her arresting officer.

So here's what happened ... According to Hot97, Foster shared in an Instagram Live that she had gotten a ticket last year for driving a car without current insurance. After immediately updating the insurance on the vehicle, she thought the issue had been resolved ... the only problem was she needed to show up to court in person to show proof before a judge.

Her failure to appear reportedly resulted in a warrant being issued for her arrest, and Brookhaven Police nabbed her just after her plane landed in Georgia after a tropical vacation last month.

Erika Kirk wants the cards on the table when the guy charged with killing Charlie Kirk stands trial.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Erika says any request to close court proceedings from the public eye should be denied.

In other words, Erika is calling for transparency when Tyler Robinson is put on trial for murder ... and she wants the public to have access to the evidence as it is presented in court.

With everything that’s gone down in the Justin Baldoni vs. Blake Lively legal saga, it’s wild to think these two were once on very friendly terms ... and this audio clip obtained by TMZ proves it.

Take a listen -- in a voice note Justin sent Blake back in the early, pre-filming days of "It Ends With Us," he thanks her for sharing pics from her costume fittings, admitting he "legit got the chills" when he saw them and telling her she "looked beautiful."

The timing is key ... this was way before cameras rolled and before they’d even cast the younger version of Blake’s character, Lily Bloom, which they also chatted about in the message.

Brett Ratner makes an appearance in the latest dump of the infamous Epstein Files ... sitting next to Jeffrey Epstein and two redacted women in newly released photos.

The director -- who helmed the new documentary "Melania" about First Lady Melania Trump -- wears a white shirt in the photo and leans in close to a woman sitting next to him.

His arms are wrapped around the youthful woman's waist from behind ... and she's leaning into Epstein, who has another woman to his right.

Jeffrey Epstein says one of Donald Trump and Marla Maples' friends had a serious foot fetish ... once stealing her high heels and going to town on it!

The disgraced financier made the allegation in an email to Deepak Chopra from 2016 -- released as part of the Department of Justice's massive file dump Friday -- in which Epstein says Marla can tell Deepak "the story of her friend who was caught having sex with her shoes."

Chopra asks if Epstein means having sex with Marla's shoes on ... but, Epstein says he doesn't -- he means her friend was caught cutting holes in the back of Marla's shoes and doing the deed.

Twitch streamer and rapper Aspen Kartier was arrested and charged with animal cruelty after a video of her seemingly roughing up an innocent pup on the platform went viral.

The 19-year-old streamer -- whose real name is Aspen Easterling -- was cuffed and booked into the DeKalb County Jail Friday night after authorities received numerous complaints over the alleged abuse in the circulating video ... the Brookhaven Police Department tells TMZ.

Brookhaven police officers gathered enough evidence against Aspen to secure a search warrant for her residence as well as an arrest warrant, and she was taken in around 9:30 PM.

President Trump sicking federal prosecutors on Don Lemon for reporting live from an ICE protest could have massive implications for our democracy ... and the decision to charge the former CNN host with federal crimes is sparking a spirited debate between attorneys Mark Geragos and Harvey Levin.

Mark and Harvey -- hosts of the "2 Angry Men" podcast -- have vastly different views on what played out in Minnesota this month ... when Don reported on an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service.

The feds arrested Don and charged him with a couple crimes, alleging he was part of the protest and not just an independent observer reporting on a newsworthy event. Harvey says the charges are bogus and based on lies, and he's taking it as an attack on the free press, which he says is a bad sign for the future of democracy in the United States.

Don Lemon has been released from custody after being criminally charged for covering a church protest in Minneapolis, and he made it clear ... this will not silence him.

Lemon told the crowd ... he has been a reporter for 30 years, and he will not stop doing what he has always done -- covering the news.

As we reported, Lemon was arrested Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles, for allegedly co-conspiring with protesters to disrupt a church service in Minneapolis.

Federal prosecutors are explaining why they have the gall to arrest and charge Don Lemon in connection with his coverage of an ICE protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service ... they claim he wasn't reporting from the sidelines, and was part of the plot to raid the church.

According to the federal indictment, obtained by TMZ, prosecutors allege Don conspired with protestors to "injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate" clergy, staff, and congregants at Cities Church in Minneapolis.

The feds say Don met up with the protestors before the demonstration and got instructions on where they would be protesting and how the "operation" would go down once at the church.

Prosecutors say Don started livestreaming the morning of the Jan. 18 protest, telling his audience he was in Minnesota with an organization that was gearing up for a "resistance" operation against the federal government's immigration policies.

The feds say Don took steps to "maintain operational secrecy" by not revealing the location of the planned protest to his audience ... and prosecutors say he stepped away from a live mic so he "would not accidentally divulge certain portions of the planning session."

Elon Musk has been swept up in the new batch of Epstein files — with the Tesla CEO firing off a 2013 email to Jeffrey Epstein to make plans to hang out on Epstein island.

In December 2013, Musk sent the email to Epstein telling the late convicted pedophile that he would be in the British Virgin Islands over the holidays and wanted to know if it was a good time to visit the island. Previously, Elon claimed that he refused invitations from Epstein to visit the island, where alleged acts of pedophilia went down.

Two days later, Epstein wrote back to Musk that he could swing by at the start of the new year, adding that there's “always space for you.” Epstein sent a follow-up email Christmas Day, stating he would pick up Musk on January 2 or 3.

8:17 AM PT -- Don Lemon is being charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, and violation of the FACE Act -- interfering by force of someone’s First Amendment rights -- according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.

Don Lemon was arrested Thursday night by federal agents in Los Angeles in connection with his coverage of an ICE protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.

Lemon was charged with violating a federal law by impeding people's right to worship during an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in Minneapolis on January 18, according to The New York Times.

In a statement Friday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says ... "At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."

How's this for a Friday news dump ... the Department of Justice just released millions of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein Files, plus a couple thousand videos and hundreds of thousands of images.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche says the DOJ released more than 3 million pages of docs ... in addition to 180,000 images and 2,000 videos.

Unclear what's in the massive document dump ... but TMZ will be poring through them for any and all relevant and juicy nuggets.

It's the first Epstein Files release of the year ... the release of documents had slowed to a trickle ... but now it's an Epstein avalanche.

We've already seen Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and tons of celebs in the Epstein Files ... and folks are hungry for names, so it will be interesting to see what's in this latest document dump.

Huge win for Luigi Mangione ... the trial judge just ruled the death penalty is officially off the table.

The feds wanted the judge to rule that the stalking charges they filed against Mangione were a "crime of violence" -- and proving a crime of violence is a prerequisite for opening the door to even charging Mangione federally with murder. The judge ruled stalking is NOT a crime of violence ... the upshot is that Mangione can't even be charged with murder in the federal case. All he can be charged with is stalking, which carries a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Mangione is still charged in state court with murder, although in New York, there is no death penalty.

Luigi Mangione has a ton of fans rooting for his release ... and at least one of them who allegedly tried to take matters into his own hands by busting him out!

Mark Anderson -- a 35-year-old Minnesota man -- was arrested at MDC Brooklyn in New York, the notorious prison that houses Mangione and other high-profile inmates such as former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, late Wednesday night.

According to a criminal complaint -- cited by NBC News -- Anderson was arrested after prison workers asked for his credentials ... and he only handed over an MN driver's license.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are obviously no longer on speaking terms ... but they once had a solid enough rapport for Blake to call Justin a "friend" and ask if he'd consider moving up filming.

We've obtained a new 4-and-a-half-minute-long voice message which BL sent to JB prior to shooting "It Ends with Us" ... which starts with her detailing her wildly hectic schedule.
Lively says she's bitten off more than she can chew professionally ... trying to sneak in a movie right before filming 'IEwU' despite still looking for child care.

The actress says she's locked into shooting "Proxy" -- which appears to be the upcoming science fiction movie by "Pieces of a Woman" director Kornél Mundruczó -- before "It Ends with Us," but she thinks she can get the movie pushed back to give herself more time to prepare for both roles.

The man seen on video spraying Rep. Ilhan Omar with a liquid substance has been charged with assaulting her during the performance of her official duties, TMZ has learned.

According to court documents, obtained by TMZ, the feds say not only did Anthony James Kazmierczak confess on body cam that he squirted liquid on Omar, he also gave a possible motive.

The papers say after spraying the liquid -- now officially identified to have been water and apple cider vinegar -- on the congresswoman, videos show him turning and saying she was "splitting Minnesotans apart."

Not only that, the feds point to a Facebook post from 2021 in which they say Kazmierczak shared a cartoon depicting Omar -- the Democratic U.S. Representative from Minneapolis -- saying "Security for me ... None for thee" while embracing a security guard and holding a "Defund Police" sign.