NYC migrants blocked from Rockland County motel

After NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced hundreds of migrants would be staying at the Armoni Inn and Suites, the Rockland County health department put a notice up claiming Armoni needed a permit if it was going to operate as a temporary shelter. The town of Newburgh in Orange County has seen a number of asylum seekers arriving by bus all week and the city of Yonkers is expected to see a group arrive as soon as tomorrow.

Texas proposes murder charges for fentanyl deaths~Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, on what the state is doing to address the border crisis following the expiration of Title 42 and his plan to sign legislation to ban transgender medical care for minors

Texas governor slams Biden, buses more migrants to Democrat-run cities

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, joined ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the House GOP’s plan to cut government spending and the United States’ ongoing border crisis.

New York City has opened up the 175 ROOM Roosevelt Hotel to asylum seekers after it closed down during the pandemic.

Texas plans to stand in the gap as Biden lets Title 42 lapse

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tells 'Jesse Watters Primetime' he plans to continue to do what the feds refuse to

State of Texas: Efforts aim to expand state border enforcement power

Border Enforcement – As Title 42 restrictions expire, Texas takes steps – both short-term and long-term – to tighten enforcement at the border. We look at the deployment of the Texas Tactical Border Force and the legislative move to create a new enforcement unit to expand the state’s powers along the border. Plus, we debrief with Sandra Sanchez from Border Patrol to get insight on how the end of Title 42 is changing conditions in communities along the border.

‘THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT’: DeSantis Signs Bill Allowing Death Penalty for Pedophiles~DeSANTIS UNLOADS ON LIB MEDIA: ‘They are Trying to GET YOU and USE YOU’

DeSANTIS: "In Florida, we believe it’s only appropriate that the worst of the worst crimes deserve the worst of the worst punishment."

DeSANTIS UNLOADS ON LIB MEDIA: 'They are Trying to GET YOU and USE YOU'

Do not give them the satisfaction that they are some type of neutral gatekeepers because they are not.”

NSSF Applauds Gov. DeSantis Signing Anti-ESG Law

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis

BY JIM GRANT

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/05/nssf-applauds-gov-desantis-signing-anti-esg-law/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

WASHINGTON — NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, applauds Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing HB 3, legislation the governor made a priority earlier this year. HB 3 will prevent “woke” corporations with discriminatory policies against firearm industry members and other businesses from collecting taxpayer dollars through state contracts and pensions. Simply put, the Sunshine State will choose to do business with those companies that do not discriminate based on an industry they may not like or with which they disagree politically.

“This is a promise kept by Governor DeSantis. He said he would ensure that ‘woke’ corporations would not benefit from Florida’s tax dollars while those same corporations actively discriminate against lawful but disfavored businesses. Today, Governor DeSantis delivered on that promise,” said Lawrence G. Keane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for NSSF. “The firearm industry is deeply grateful to the legislators who worked diligently to protect industries that are wrongfully denied essential financial services simply because ‘woke’ Wall Street banks politically disagree with them. Wall Street can choose to hold on to those ‘woke’ discriminatory policies but Governor DeSantis has made it clear that Florida will choose to do business with those that share Floridians’ values.”

The legislation builds on a ban Gov. DeSantis signed last year prohibiting “woke” Environmental, Social, and Governance investment strategies with state and municipal pension funds.

Gov. DeSantis explained at the signing ceremony that ESG policies that discriminate against politically-disfavored industries are antithetical to free market enterprise and have no place in Florida.

“Last year we said we were going to take action against something called ESG. It stands for something called environmental and social governance. But what it really is is an attempt by elites to impose ideology through business institutions, financial institutions, and our economy writ large,” Gov. DeSantis said, according to Florida Politics. “ESG is basically just window dressing for doing what these people want to do. … It’s really an elite-driven phenomenon. They’re trying to change society. They’re trying to change policy.”


About The National Shooting Sports Foundation

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

National Shooting Sports Foundation

  

SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR Kristi Noem warns Biden wants to ‘enslave’ the U.S.~What Happens When Millions of Gun Owners Become Felons May 31st 2023?

What Happens When Millions of Gun Owners Become Felons May 31st 2023?

BY THOMAS CONROY

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/04/chairman-jordan-to-atf-what-happens-when-million-gun-owners-become-felons;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

U.S.A. — In a heated exchange during the House Judiciary Committee’s Oversight hearing of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on April 26th, Chairman Jim Jordan questioned ATF Director Steven Dettelbach on the upcoming deadline for pistol brace owners.

On May 31st, 2023, millions of American gun owners could potentially become felons for possessing pistol braces, a fact that Dettelbach acknowledged.

Jordan questioned Dettelbach on the impact that this rule change would have on millions of Americans.

Jim Jordan: “..so you told them [American Gun Owners] not once but twice that it was okay, and I’m just asking does it bother you now that [what] you are doing, that you’re making the change that’s going to impact millions of Americans?”

The ATF Director replied that the rule was necessary to address inconsistencies in the definition of pistol braces. He further explained that specific products get presented for classification, and these products sometimes change. Therefore, the rule change was necessary to ensure consistency.

Jordan then accused Dettelbach of contradicting what ATF had previously told American citizens, and now millions of law-abiding citizens will be impacted by this rule change. Dettelbach denied this accusation, stating that only specific products would be impacted, and those impacted individuals would have several options, including detaching the brace from the firearm and keeping both, attaching the brace to another firearm, removing or destroying the brace, getting a longer barrel, turning in or destroying the firearm, or registering the firearm.

Jordan then asked what would happen to those who do not take any of these actions and let the deadline expire.

Dettelbach replied that it would depend on the facts and circumstances of each case, and if a person were unaware, they would not be prosecuted, even though they were now breaking newly created rules. However, if they were aware, they could potentially become a felon.

Jordan also questioned how the ATF would enforce this rule and questioned Dettelbach whether ATF would inspect people at gun ranges or go to manufacturers and look for lists of people they sold braces to. Dettelbach mumbled something about ATF would consider it as one of the charges when doing a search warrant in a drug case and discovering an unlawful item.

Finally, Jordan asked if the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act clearly and unambiguously prohibits pistol braces. Dettelbach replied that it doesn’t prohibit anything and calls for increased controls on short-barreled rifles. Jordan cited a court decision this week in the Sixth Circuit, where the court ruled that the statute does not clearly and unambiguously prohibit bump stocks. In that ruling, the court also stated that for a decade, the ATF maintained that a bump stock was not a machine gun part, and the ATF’s own flip-flop on this position is one of the reasons why the court ruled in favor of those opposing the rule.

The exchange between Jordan and Dettelbach was intense.

The ATF’s flip-flopping on rules and Dettelbach’s inability to answer questions about the impact of the rule change on millions of Americans is a serious issue for American gun owners, whose only crime was following those same rules. The lack of accountability and poor decision-making by a rogue federal agency raises concerns about the risk of law-abiding citizens being turned into felons. The exchange was intense, with Jordan accusing Dettelbach of contradicting himself. At the same time, Dettelbach defended the Biden-ATF’s decision, stating that it was necessary to ensure consistency and address inconsistencies in the definition of pistol braces.

__________________________________________________________________

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/04/congressman-gaetz-grills-atf-director-dettelbach

SEE ALSO: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/04/dems-2023-war-on-guns-continues-battles-in-minnesota-pennsylvania

 

Minnesota Legislation Seeks to Normalize Pedophilia as a Sexual Orientation

Minnesota Legislation Seeks to Normalize Pedophilia as a Sexual Orientation

BY MATT MARGOLIS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/04/26/minnesota-legislation-seeks-to-normalize-pedophilia-as-a-sexual-orientation-n1690588;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Earlier this year I noted that the mainstream acceptance of transgenderism would be the precursor to the normalization of pedophilia. The evidence to support this was quite clear. And I’m sorry to say that I was right. The Minnesota legislature is in the process of changing the legal definition of “sexual orientation” which literally opens the door to mainstreaming pedophilia.

Here’s how it’s being done. The bill modifies the existing Minnesota law that designates sexual orientation as a protected category, making it unlawful to discriminate based on sexual orientation within the state.

The first thing it does is adds a definition for gender identity:

Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 363A.03, is amended by adding a subdivision to read:

Subd. 50. Gender identity. “Gender identity” means a person’s inherent sense of being a man, woman, both, or neither. A person’s gender identity may or may not correspond to their assigned sex at birth or to their primary or secondary sex characteristics. A person’s  gender identity is not necessarily visible to others.

But this is not even the most disturbing part of the legislation. The legislation amends Sec. 2. Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 363A.03, subdivision 44, to read as follows:

Subd. 44. Sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as having an emotional, physical, or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.

That portion striking out the part that reads, “‘Sexual orientation’ does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult,” is not a mistake. The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has made the decision to eliminate a clause that explicitly excluded pedophilia from being considered a valid sexual orientation.

This doesn’t mean that pedophilia will be legalized in Minnesota… yet… but by specifically removing the clause excluding pedophilia as a protected sexual orientation, pedophiles will become a protected class, subject to the same legal protections against discrimination currently enjoyed by gays, lesbians, transgenders, etc.

Related: The Trans Movement Will Be the Catalyst for Normalizing Pedophilia

Do you think it’s an accident that this clause is being removed at the same time “gender identity” is being added? Of course, it isn’t. I told you that the transgender movement would be the catalyst for normalizing pedophilia, and here’s your proof. Minnesota Democrats clamoring to co-author this bill, and if this comes up for a vote, they’ll vote for this because none of them will want to go on record opposing adding gender identity as a protected class.

Make no mistake about it. This is only the first step.

Now Six More Members of the Biden Crime Family Are Under Investigation

Now Six More Members of the Biden Crime Family Are Under Investigation

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/04/20/now-six-more-members-of-the-biden-crime-family-are-under-investigation-n1688758;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

We know that The Big Guy got 10%, but what did the Little Guys get? And how many members of the Biden crime family were involved in Hunter’s influence-peddling schemes? We may never know the full story of just how corrupt this superannuated kleptocrat who pretends to be president of the United States and his family really are, but now House Republicans are expanding their investigation of the Biden crime organization — oh, sorry, they call it the Biden “family,” you know, like the Gambino “family” — to include more of Old Joe’s relatives. At the very least, we should get a glimpse into how “the public service” today is a highly lucrative endeavor for an amoral, unscrupulous liar such as Old Joe.

Tristan Justice reported in The Federalist Tuesday that House Republicans “are expanding their investigation of the Biden family to include ‘six additional members’ who ‘may have benefitted’ from potentially criminal business enterprises.” That’s on top of the ongoing investigations into the activities of Old Joe himself, Hunter, and the putative president’s brother Jim Biden. The UK’s Daily Mail reported back in February that Jim Biden “was hired to engage in secret negotiations with the Saudi government on behalf of a US construction company because of his relationship with the then vice president, legal documents claim.” Influence peddling? Sure looks like it.

Jim got the nod for this task because, according to an affidavit, the Saudis “would not dare stiff the brother of the Vice-President who would be instrumental to the deal.” All this involved Jim’s role in a 2012 “$140 million settlement negotiation between Hill International,” the American construction firm in question, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nothing to see here! Move along!

On Monday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, announced that “thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family, their companies, and associates’ business schemes were made available to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which confirm the importance of this investigation.” Within those thousands of pages, apparently, is evidence of how comprehensively the Biden family has benefited from Old Joe’s fifty years of fattening at the public trough.

“The Biden family enterprise,” Comer continued, “is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family. We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.”

Unfortunately, Comer didn’t name the six new Bidens who are under investigation, but I can reveal here that four of their names are Santino (“Sonny”), Fredo, Michael, and Connie. (If you don’t get it, go watch The Godfather already.)

Related: You Think Hunter Biden Is Bad? Meet Joe Biden’s Brother Jim.

Comer doesn’t appear to be finished. It’s even conceivable that more members of the Biden crime family could end up being involved. Comer added: “The Oversight Committee will continue to pursue additional bank records to follow the Bidens’ tangled web of financial transactions to determine if the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors and if there is a national security threat. We will soon provide the public with more information about what we’ve uncovered to date. The American people need transparency and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will deliver much-needed answers.” That will be most interesting. Let’s hope we’ll be able to get the whole story over the news of the latest bogus Trump indictment or another episode in Old Joe’s new distract-‘em-with-an-overseas-trip tactic.

Comer has previously revealed that “according to bank documents we’ve already obtained, we know one company owned by a Biden associate received a $3 million dollar wire from a Chinese energy company two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency.” What a coincidence! If only we had some journalists who would dare to ask Old Joe, or at the very least Karine Jean-Pierre, about all this. But those who bear the name are too busy working to maintain the pretense that Biden is a competent president. Taking on the massive duty of also having to portray him as honest, upright, and not corrupt is likely far beyond even their well-developed powers to deceive and mislead.

Attorney General Merrick Garland Is ‘Senior Biden Official’ Accused of Perjury in Hunter Biden IRS Case

Attorney General Merrick Garland Is 'Senior Biden Official' Accused of Perjury in Hunter Biden IRS Case

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/04/21/attorney-general-merrick-garland-is-senior-biden-official-accused-of-perjury-in-hunter-biden-irs-case-n1689087;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Yesterday, I wrote about the bombshell story involving a senior IRS supervisor who was seeking whistleblower protection from Congress for information that would contradict the sworn testimony of a “senior political appointee” as well as “preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”

Now, the New York Post has been able to discover the name of that senior political appointee. As I speculated yesterday, the political appointee is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has continually assured Congress that there was no political interference in the IRS investigation of Hunter Biden.

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump holdover, is heading up the Justice Department probe into the younger Biden.

In April 2022, the AG told Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) that “there will not be interference of any political or improper kind” in the investigation of Hunter Biden led by Weiss.

“He is the supervisor of this investigation,” Garland said of Weiss, adding, “We put the investigation in the hands of a Trump appointee from the previous administration, who is the US attorney for the District of Delaware, and … you have me as the attorney general, who is committed to the independence of the Justice Department from any influence from the White House in criminal matters.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley asked Garland in March whether Weiss could bring charges against Hunter Biden without the approval of other DoJ officials even if the crime took place outside of Delaware.

“In April 2022, you testified to Sen. Hagerty that the Hunter Biden investigation was insulated from political interference because it was assigned, as you just now told me, to the Delaware US attorney’s office,” Grassley said at the time.

“However, that could be misleading.”

“Without special counsel authority, he could need the permission of another US attorney in certain circumstances to bring charges outside the District of Delaware.”

Garland responded, “The US attorney in Delaware has been advised that he has full authority to make those kinds of referrals that you’re talking about or to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it’s necessary. And I will assure you that if he does, he will be able to do that.”

If the whistleblower can prove that any of that is false — and it’s assumed he has some kind of documentary proof that it is — Garland, at the very least, could be forced to resign. Not only did he make the claim of “no interference” to Hagerty, but he also made it several times.

Giving false testimony to Congress can be a crime punishable by up to five years in prison if it’s proven that the error was intentional.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The anonymous whistleblower has since early 2020 supervised the IRS’s investigation of Hunter Biden for alleged tax evasion and related crimes linked to the 53-year-old’s foreign income from countries including China and Ukraine.

Weiss’ office reportedly is considering related charges against the first son involving money laundering and unregistered foreign lobbying, plus lying about drug use on a gun-purchase form.

No one doubts the possibility that the whistleblower’s charges are true. The question will be what kind of proof he has and how much of it is documented.

No one at The Department of Justice is sweating — yet.

NJ teacher fired over false ‘Islamophobia’ claims sues Hamas-linked CAIR, says they ‘don’t care about the truth’

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/nj-teacher-fired-over-false-islamophobia-claims-sues-hamas-linked-cair-says-they-dont-care-about-the-truth;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows a reckless disregard for truth and for the well-being of anyone it can use to buttress its “Islamophobia” narrative.

“Fencer and CAIR ‘Clearly Don’t Care About the Truth’ Asserts N.J. Teacher in New Court Filing,” by Steven Emerson, IPT News, April 14, 2023:

Ibtihaj Muhammad made history as the first hijab-clad athlete on the U.S. Olympic team. The bronze medal winning fencer from the 2016 summer games was featured on magazine covers, spawned a line of sportswear and even a Barbie doll.

But in court papers filed late Tuesday, a New Jersey elementary school teacher says Muhammad deserves a different reputation: Liar.

In October 2021 social media posts, Muhammad accused veteran schoolteacher Tamar Herman of abusing a 7-year-old Muslim student by “forcibly” pulling off her hijab as “the young student resisted.” After exposing the girl’s hair to the class, Herman then told her that “her hair was beautiful and she did not have to wear hijab to school anymore,” Muhammad wrote.

Herman insists that didn’t happen and contacted Muhammad to offer her side of the story. But when Herman, who had Muhammad’s cell phone number, texted to say her post was “completely false and terribly damaging,” Muhammad ignored her. Now, Muhammad says she had no idea who Herman was.

Muhammad’s claims, filed last month, “are outright falsehoods,” Herman says. And they are “further evidence [of] her actual malice, i.e. reckless disregard for the truth.”

CAIR Blows Up Incident into National Story

The issue generated national attention when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its New Jersey chapter called for Herman’s firing.

“Our children must be protected from anti-Muslim bigotry and abuse at school,” CAIR’s national office wrote. “The teacher who pulled a second grader’s hijab off in class must be fired immediately.”

“Anything less,” CAIR’s New Jersey chapter added, “is an insult to the students and parents…”

School administrators were overwhelmed by the public response. IPT has seen dozens of social media posts that not only called for Herman’s firing but threatened her safety as well.

Herman hasn’t been allowed back in the classroom since.

Last October, she filed suit in federal court against the South Orange Maplewood school district and a consultant it worked with for their roles in a “malicious and antisemitic campaign” and for violating her due process rights. She also sued Muhammad, CAIR, its New Jersey chapter and its director, Selaedin Maksut, in state court alleging defamation. CAIR moved to dismiss the case in February, saying their statements largely were accurate and, therefore, not defamatory. Muhammad and Maksut embraced CAIR’s filing.

In her response filed Tuesday, Herman argues that none of the parties made any effort to determine if the accusation was true.

“Muhammad, despite her claims to the contrary in support of her motions, knew Herman well and had the ability and opportunity to communicate with Herman about the allegations, yet inexplicably declined to do so,” attorney Erick Dykema writes. “Maksut, CAIR, and CAIR NJ, for their part, clearly didn’t care about the truth—they simply parroted Muhammad’s false accusations without any concern for their accuracy.”

It is too soon for the court to consider the defense motions, Dykema writes. The basic facts are in dispute, and no discovery has taken place which would help determine what is true.

Herman has been teaching for 30 years “with a stellar reputation.”

She insists the entire episode was a misunderstanding. The 7-year-old girl normally wore a form-fitting hijab to class, but on the day in question, she had on a sweatshirt, with the hood covering her eyes during a lesson. Herman asked the girl to pull it back, thinking the hijab was underneath. But when the girl didn’t respond, Herman says she gently brushed the hood back.

When she saw no hijab, Herman says she quickly pulled the hood back into place, covering the child’s hair, and apologized.

Herman would have told this account to Muhammad or CAIR. But she never was given the chance.

“The evidence of actual malice—reckless disregard for the truth—is overwhelming,” Dykema writes. “… Muhammad based her social media posts on a thirdhand account of events emanating from a most unreliable source, that being a young child.”

Raw Antisemitism

The girl’s parents, Cassandra and Joseph Wyatt, each have made antisemitic statements about Herman and the incident involving their daughter.

Jews “monopolize a lot of stuff for money,” Joseph Wyatt told the Washington Post. “The Jews — the Semitics — they run Hollywood. They run a lot of stuff. It’s all Jewish names.”

Whatever happened between his daughter and Tamar Herman was about religion, “no doubt,” he said. “There’s always been a conflict with the Muslims and the Jews … That’s why they are fighting in Palestine.”

The teacher may say it was a mistake, he said, but “it was no mistake to her.”

The child’s mother, Cassandra Wyatt, has changed her story and made her own social media posts admitting that her reaction changed once she learned Herman is Jewish. According to Herman’s lawsuit, the girl’s mother initially told the principal that she understood the incident was a misunderstanding. But she quickly changed tone upon learning Herman is Jewish.

” “I JUST FOUND OUT THE TEACHER IS JEWISHHHHHHHHHH ������������� . . . that’s why I believe she did it now I’m furious,” Wyatt wrote.

“A JEWSIH (sic) TEACHER THAT TAUGHT AT A JEWISH SCHOOL & A PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR 30 YEARS PULLED MY MUSLIM 7 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER HIJAB OFF HER HEAD CLAIMING IT WAS A HOODIES” “SHES JEWISH!”

For all of CAIR’s public claims to stand against antisemitism, as we have noted, the fact that it has not said a word about the Wyatts’ demonstrable antisemitism speaks volumes about CAIR’s true views on Jews….

Kristi Noem gives speech, Signs Executive Order To Protect Gun Rights At NRA Convention~Donald Trump addresses NRA meeting in Indianapolis; recommends arming teachers

At today's NRA Convention, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) signed an executive order blocking state agencies from doing business with anti-gun large banks.

Trump calls for arming teachers at NRA convention

Donald Trump addresses NRA meeting in Indianapolis

Appeals Court Calls Into Question Hundreds of January 6 Prosecutions

Appeals Court Calls Into Question Hundreds of January 6 Prosecutions

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/04/08/appeals-court-calls-into-question-hundreds-of-january-6-prosecutions-n1685509;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

There’s been an interesting development in the prosecution of the January 6 rioters. A three-judge appeals court has ruled 2-1 that the Justice Department can proceed with several hundred cases where defendants are charged with obstructing an official proceeding — for the time being.

What’s still to be decided is whether or not about 300 rioters acted with “corrupt intent” in invading the Capitol building during an official proceeding. And all three appeals court judges questioned whether the prosecution had interpreted “corrupt intent” on the part of the rioters correctly.

What seems esoteric in nature is actually crucial to the defense of hundreds of January 6 rioters. The “corrupt intent” standard does not apply to those rioters who are also charged with assaulting police. But for those defendants who are charged only with obstructing Congress, how that term is defined could mean liberty or 20 years in prison.

Politico:

At the heart of the conflict is how to measure whether Jan. 6 rioters acted with “corrupt intent,” a central element in the crime of obstructing an official proceeding. The judges noted that the requirement of “corrupt intent” was meant to avoid inadvertently criminalizing traditional protest or lobbying activities that have been a feature of civic engagement throughout American history. Any decision on the meaning of corrupt intent would have to separate those legitimate activities from potential criminal conduct.

But Judge Florence Pan, who wrote the majority opinion, said it was the wrong time to decide that broad question because the three defendants whose cases were before the court were all also charged with assaulting police. There’s little question that those who assaulted police that day acted with “corrupt intent.” But in Jan. 6 obstruction cases that don’t involve assault, determining “corrupt intent” is much more complicated, she said.

“It is more prudent to delay addressing the meaning of ‘corrupt’ intent until that issue is properly presented to the court,” the Biden-appointed judge wrote.

Exclusively for our VIPs: Just How Many Feds Were Among the Jan. 6 ‘Insurrectionists’?

Not a PJ Media VIP yet? Click here to sign up!

The immediate effect of the ruling was a reversal of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, who determined that obstruction charges were being improperly applied to the January 6 defendants. The appeals court disagreed only because the corrupt intent standard had not been defined.

The stakes for the Justice Department and many January 6 defendants are enormous. In fact, the entire theory the DOJ has been using to prosecute all but a handful of defendants may be blown up by a different interpretation of corrupt intent.

Pan noted that prior cases have defined corrupt intent in multiple ways. The Supreme Court has previously described acting “corruptly” as doing something “wrongful, immoral, depraved, or evil.” The late Justice Antonin Scalia defined “corrupt” acts as those done “to bring about either an unlawful result or a lawful result by some unlawful method, with a hope or expectation of either financial gain or other benefit to oneself or a benefit of another person.”

A second judge, Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, agreed with Pan’s conclusion but adopted a narrower standard for corrupt intent.

“A defendant must intend to obtain a benefit that he knows is unlawful,” Walker concluded.

Defense attorneys for Jan. 6 defendants are already poring over Walker’s analysis. Nicholas Smith, who argued the case on behalf of three Jan. 6 defendants before the appeals court panel in December, said that if Walker’s contention is correct, his narrow definition of “corrupt intent” is already the binding opinion of the court.

This is a problem of the Justice Department’s own making. They wanted to use the obstruction charge as a sword hanging over the head of January 6 rioters to get them to plead down. Facing 20 years in prison, most of the January 6 defendants took their deal.

If hundreds of rioters are freed, DoJ and the Biden administration will be facing a nearly unprecedented backlash. As they say in politics, “very bad optics.”

Hamas-linked CAIR sues Virginia prison for denying Ramadan accommodations to newly converted inmate

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/hamas-linked-cair-sues-virginia-prison-for-denying-ramadan-accommodations-to-newly-converted-inmate;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is yet again fighting for the expansion of the Islamic presence in a prison. It has just “sued the Virginia Department of Corrections and officials at a correctional facility for their refusal to provide Ramadan accommodations to a Muslim inmate.” The prison already provides special accommodations to Muslims on Ramadan, but that isn’t enough for CAIR. They want the rules bent. Prison officials reportedly refuse to accommodate new convert Alexander Crichlow because he converted to Islam after the deadline to sign up for Ramadan accommodations, and given the vigor of new converts, it is very important to CAIR that Crichlow be accommodated expeditiously.

In 2018, CAIR sued Riverside Regional Jail in North Prince George, Virginia, for allowing a Christian space, and filed an injunction demanding “Islamic programming” and “pork-free meals.” The lawsuit filed by CAIR actually called for the dismantling of the Christian “God Pod.” CAIR’s claims had nothing to do with religious rights and everything to do with prioritizing Islam. There is a stark contrast between peaceful Christian “God-pods” and Christian prison fellowships (which have been long established in institutions) and the record of Islam in prisons. Jihad recruitment is rampant in prisons, with little effort to curb it. In 2020, Al Qaeda-trained jihadist Mohamed Ibrahim was sentenced in the Eastern District of Texas for recruiting other inmates to join the Islamic State. Fox ran a report some years ago warning that federal prisons are a “breeding ground” for terrorists, and that “if we continue to downplay the threat, we do so at our own peril.”

Other Islamic organizations also aid the cause of Islamic expansion in jails. The Seerah Foundation proudly proclaims its mission as “spreading Islam and supporting Dawah projects” in prison, and the National Islamic Prison Foundation’s (NIPF) outreach program is also dedicated to converting inmates in America to Islam. The NIPF is heavily funded by Saudi Arabia. Its clerics are “responsible for indoctrinating inmates,” and are “mostly Saudi-trained clerics who preached the tenets of Wahhabism, an extremist form of Islam that is associated with passionately anti-Semitic and anti-Western worldviews.”

The more Islamized prisons become, the more dangerous they will be for infidel inmates. That danger will spread to the general population once these jihadis are released. In February 2022, the UK set a precedent and decided to segregate imprisoned jihad terrorists, as UK prisons had become dubbed “jihadi training camps.” Muslim prison gangs were also reportedly beating prisoners who wouldn’t convert to Islam.

In five American states, one in every five inmates is Muslim. Recently in California, CAIR, and Muslim prisoners also complained about having to give up beards and kufis.

Read more about the relentless, disturbing record of Hamas-linked CAIR HERE.

“US Muslim group sues prison for denying Ramadan accommodations to an inmate,” by Servet Günerigök, Anadolu Agency, April 5, 2023:

WASHINGTON – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it sued the Virginia Department of Corrections and officials at a correctional facility for their refusal to provide Ramadan accommodations to a Muslim inmate.

The Green Rock Correctional Center in Chatham has denied accommodations to Alexander Crichlow during the month-long religious observance, CAIR said Monday.

Crichlow, a Muslim who converted to Islam in January, fasts from before dawn until sunset during Ramadan.

Since January, he has repeatedly asked prison officials to provide him with the same Ramadan accommodations as dozens of Muslims at Green Rock, including receiving breakfast before dawn, a double serving of dinner at sunset and permission to gather daily for evening prayers with other Muslims.

“But prison officials reportedly refuse to accommodate Critchlow because he converted to Islam after their arbitrary deadline to sign up for Ramadan accommodations, which fell on Nov. 18, 2022—over four months before Ramadan,” CAIR said in a statement. “According to them, an exception-free statewide policy refuses Ramadan accommodation to any incarceree who converted to Islam after Nov. 18, 2022.”

The group said that “there is nothing difficult about prison officials providing Crichlow exactly what they already provide to dozens of other Muslims.”….

Trump Judge Is Biden Donor, Daughter Is Dem Political Pro

Conflict of Interest: Trump Judge Is Biden Donor, Daughter Worked on Biden-Harris Campaign

Conflict of Interest: Trump Judge Is Biden Donor, Daughter Worked on Biden-Harris Campaign

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/04/05/conflict-of-interest-trump-case-judge-is-biden-donor-daughter-worked-on-biden-harris-campaign-n1684714;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Back in the days when there was equal justice for all in the United States, there was this concept known as “conflict of interest”: if someone involved in, say, a legal case had shown clear evidence of favoring one side or another, that was considered to be a disqualifying factor. Now, however, in these exhilarating days of justice of the woke, by the woke, and for the woke, the old rules just don’t apply. If a presidential candidate opposes the regime, he is liable to be arrested for old misdemeanor charges that are suddenly new again and are now turbocharged felonies. If the judge in the case is obviously biased against him, so much the better.

The judge in Donald Trump’s case is Acting New York County Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan, about whom our Townhall colleague Mia Cathell has made some interesting discoveries:

“According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Merchan donated three times to ActBlue in the summer of 2020, once on July 26, 2020, when the judge’s donation was—according to the FEC—earmarked for President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. The other two of Merchan’s contributions were pledged to the Progressive Turnout Project (PTP), a left-wing PAC that rallies voter turnout for Democrat candidates, and Stop Republicans, a PTP sub-project that’s dedicated to ‘resisting’ Trump and the Republican Party.”

Does all this mean that Merchan won’t be able to judge Trump fairly? Not necessarily. But it certainly makes it less likely.

But wait, there’s more. Breitbart reported Tuesday that Judge Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is “president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a company that runs digital campaigns for Democrat candidates, according to Merchan’s archived LinkedIn account.” Loren Merchan “worked as the ‘Director of Digital Persuasion’ for ‘Kamala Harris For The People’ from February 2019 through December 2019 — which was during the 2020 presidential election. And according to the company’s website, the ‘Biden-Harris’ campaign was also a client.” So were the campaigns of Hakeem Jeffries, Cory Booker, Gavin Newsom, and a host of other Leftists.

It’s clear that, for the Trump trial, Merchan’s deep involvement with the Leftist elites is not a bug but a feature. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case couldn’t possibly be thinner.  As Andy McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney, stated, “This indictment, even before you get to the statute of limitations and whether he’s got jurisdiction to enforce federal law, I would dismiss it on its face because it fails to state a crime… This is the heart of the case. It’s not a felony unless he was trying to conceal another crime and if you don’t tell them what the crime is, how does that put him on notice and allow him to prepare his defense?”

The perfect judge for such a Kafkaesque case would be one who is so ferociously partisan that the weakness of the case hardly matters because the outcome has been predetermined.

Is Judge Merchan that judge? He may end up being as impartial as the day is long, but if Bragg and his henchmen wanted to make sure that the judge, in this case, was as sympathetic to the prosecution as possible, Merchan’s donation history and daughter’s activities certainly made him an appealing candidate for the job.

Related: DA Bragg Begins Trying Trump in the Court of Public Opinion in Press Conference

So could Trump be convicted? It’s a real possibility. Patriotic observers are concentrating on the weakness of Bragg’s case and the legal legerdemain involved in it, but all that is ultimately beside the point if Merchan turns out to be as desperate to get Trump as Bragg obviously is. Those who have accordingly argued that the case should be moved out of New York City have a point; in Manhattan, it will be easy for Bragg to find a jury of twelve people who hate Trump even more than he himself does, and the former president’s chances of a fair trial will be reduced even more.

Here yet again, we are in uncharted territory. Many have observed that the indictment and arrest of Trump take us into banana republic territory, and it is precisely for that reason that supporters of Trump, and those who aren’t so fond of Trump but realize how dangerous this whole affair is, should not be so sure that the whole case will eventually founder. Stalin didn’t put his enemies on trial just to see them acquitted. Old Joe Biden’s handlers and their allies aren’t likely to do so, either.

The Frightening Precedent of Indicting an Innocent Former President The U.S. devolves into a Banana Republic – with a deteriorating legal system.

BY RACHEL ALEXANDER

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-frightening-precedent-of-indicting-an-innocent-former-president/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

We are living in an Orwellian era when the formerly most powerful man in the world, who remains very powerful, is being prosecuted in order to stop him from becoming president again. If they can take him down, they can take down any conservative. The left has weaponized lawfare, which started with merely civil lawsuits but has now progressed into disbarring attorneys and prosecution. Once they’ve gone after Trump through prosecution — even if unsuccessful — it will be easier to go after him again on other charges, and easier to go after any other conservative. And they won’t stop there, they’ll go after RINOs and those on the left who side with the right against the abuse of the legal system next. 

Left-wing billionaire George Soros contributed $1 million to Color of Change’s PAC, which then spent over $500,000 to support the campaign of Alvin Bragg, the New York DA prosecuting Trump. Soros has been contributing millions to defeat conservative prosecutors and sheriffs around the country in recent years. When Bragg ran for office, he gloated about how he went after the Trump Foundation while serving as New York State’s chief deputy attorney general from 2017 to 2018. His primary opponent Tali Farhadian Weinstein accused Bragg of going after Trump “for political advantage every chance he gets.”

It’s an ethical violation for prosecutors to run for office on a platform of getting someone on the possibility they might find new crimes. The rule regarding trial publicity, which states have adopted, prohibits attorneys “from making an extrajudicial statement that the attorney knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by means of public communication and will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding.”  

Everyone knows the old saying, a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. That’s because the grand jury doesn’t get to see any arguments from the defense, they are only shown the prosecution’s case.

After five years of a fishing expedition, the indictment is expected to result in charges that Trump falsified business records on a payment his former attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels, allegedly disguising the payoff as routine legal fees. 

Daniels is now saying she was paid to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump. Hush money payments aren’t illegal. Falsifying records is a misdemeanor, but claiming it benefited him in the election, to cover up another crime, can turn into a felony. However, Trump is required to have known he was committing a crime. Trump denies he had the affair. And the statute of limitations for prosecuting him over the 2016 payment may have run

Both Daniels and Cohen are not credible witnesses, having made previous contradictory statements. When a witness has conflicting statements, they can be “impeached” when testifying, rendering their trial testimony invalid. 

Daniels issued a statement in 2018 that said, “I am not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas-owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.

A letter Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan sent to the FEC in 2018 states that Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels, Trump was not a party to the deal, and he never reimbursed Cohen. Ryan asked the FEC to dismiss the complaint.  

Cohen changed his story a little over six months later as part of a plea agreement, pleading guilty to making an excessive campaign contribution to Trump with the payment to Daniels.  

Even if it was a campaign finance violation due to not reporting the payments as campaign contributions, politicians are frequently allowed to modify their campaign finance reports after they’re due with amendments to add omitted contributions or expenses. Look at any campaign’s finance reports online and you’ll almost always see amended reports, it’s routinely done. Unless you’re a juicy target of the left like conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, most quietly amend their reports.

When prosecutors tried to charge former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards with a similar crime in 2008, he argued that he was trying to hide the affair from his wife, not from the voters. The jury acquitted him on one charge and hung on the others, and the Justice Department dismissed the charges. 

Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas pointed out that when President Bill Clinton got caught having an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, the RINO special prosecutor “refused to prosecute Clinton for perjury, fraud or anything else,” even though Clinton helped her line up blue-chip job interviews. 

Clinton paid off Paula Jones after sexually harassing her. After Jones filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he exposed himself to her in a hotel room, he agreed to settle it for $850,000 to make it go away. He was never prosecuted. 

Daniels lost her defamation lawsuit against Trump and must pay him $300,000 in legal fees. Her former lawyer Michael Avenatti is sitting in prison. Daniels had sued Trump over a tweet he made dismissive of her claim that a man threatened to hurt her daughter if she didn’t keep quiet about the sex allegation. His tweet said, “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

The left is throwing everything it can at Trump in order to stop him from becoming president again. They brought impeachment charges against him twice. The FBI was sent to search his home. More indictments by other prosecutors are expected.

The U.S. is turning into a banana republic with this deterioration of the legal system combined with election fraud determining elections. As Stalin’s secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria famously said, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” Similarly, criminal defense attorney Harvey Silverglate wrote a book, “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent,” which explains how there are so many vague and broad laws now the average person commits three felonies a day and doesn’t know it. If they want to get you, they’ll figure out a way.

1 2 3 65