Fickle Hillary Snubs Ex-Ally RFK Jr., Tells Voters to ‘Get Over Yourself’ and Accept ‘Two Choices’

Contributing Author
-
0
Fickle Hillary Snubs Ex-Ally RFK Jr., Tells Voters to ‘Get Over Yourself’ and Accept ‘Two Choices’

(Headline USA) During an appearance Monday on The Tonight Show, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said voters who were upset about having to choose between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in this year’s election rematch needed to “get over” themselves.

Host Jimmy Fallon asked Clinton—who was there, ostensibly, to promote a Broadway show—what she would tell voters who were upset about having the same choices as in the 2020 election.

“Get over yourself. Those are the two choices,” Clinton responded, summarily disregarding the robust field of third-party candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as three who are actively running against Biden in the Democratic primary. 

Kennedy notably endorsed Clinton over eventual nominee Barack Obama and campaigned on her behalf during the 2007 Democratic primary.

“Bobby has worked tirelessly to protect our environment and raise awareness about the dangers of global warming and pollution,” Clinton said in a statement at the time. “I’m deeply honored to have his support and counsel.”

Kennedy also released an ad on Clinton’s behalf during her 2000 Senate run, reassuring voters that the longtime Arkansas resident was a true “New Yorker” in spirit and a worthy inheritor of the seat once held by his late father.

Sadly, the political scion received no such reciprocity or acknowledgement of his current outside candidacy.

Rehashing a favorite talking point of hers almost verbatim, Clinton did acknowledge voters’ concerns about the 81-year-old Biden’s age, but she claimed the concerns about Trump were greater.

“One is old, and effective, and compassionate, has a heart and really cares about people. And one is old and has been charged with 91 felonies,” Clinton said,  almost verbatim.

She went on to argue that the choice between Trump and Biden shouldn’t be “hard” at all.

“I don’t understand why this is even a hard choice, really. I don’t understand it,” Clinton said.

“But we have to go through the election,” she lamented. “And hopefully people will realize what’s at stake, because it’s an existential question: What kind of country we’re gonna have, what kind of democracy we can have—and people who blow that off are not paying attention.”

Fallon then told the audience, “Yeah, so get out there and vote.”

Clinton, who is a year younger than Trump, has ramped up her involvement with the Biden victory effort, even offering her sage campaign advice to Vice President Kamala Harris.

That has prompted some to speculate that she might be running a shadow campaign in the event that Biden’s flagging health and public support force him to make an early exit, hoping for a rematch to vindicate her humiliating 2016 defeat.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Rachel Levine Claims Outrage Over ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ Was ‘Manufactured’

Contributing Author
-
0
Rachel Levine Claims Outrage Over ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ Was ‘Manufactured’

(Headline USA) Assistant Health Secretary Rachel (né Richard) Levine, who holds the distinction of being first openly transgender four-star officer in the U.S. military, dismissed criticism of the Biden administration’s decision to celebrate the “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter Sunday, claiming the outrage was “manufactured.”

In an interview with LGBT publication The Advocate, Levine, who identifies as a woman, claimed it was just a coincidence that the two “holidays” fell on the same calendar day this year.

The trans community has celebrated its so-called day of visibility since 2009, and President Joe Biden has issued a proclaimation recognizing it each year since he took office.

Yet, only limited attention was paid to the proclamation outside of the LGBT community—until this year, when President Joe Biden faced severe backlash for blaspheming the holiest day in the Christian religious calendar.

Biden, who identifies as Catholic, later denied issuing the proclaimation, suggesting somone else had issued it on his behalf.

However, Levine, who is Jewish, blamed Christians for their unwillingness to share the holiday, considering Easter has no fixed date and is instead based on the lunar calendar.

“It’s just that this Sunday was Easter, which is a very important holiday and very important event, and it also just happened to be the 31st,” Levine said.

“I felt that it was faux outrage,” Levine added. “It was manufactured.”

Levine, the top adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, went on to claim that public acceptance of the transgender movement was continuing to grow, despite the recent setback.

“You know, there’s a quote from Yoda (not baby Yoda, that’s new): ‘Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering,’” Levine said, quoting from a scene in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in which the wise Jedi master advises the future Darth Vader to keep his emotions in check.

“I think that things will get better,” Levine added—presumably not referring to the Star Wars plot. “And I think that things for transgender and nonbinary people will improve.”

Levine went on to argue that the more criticism the LGBT movement receives, the more determined activists were to force its acceptance.

“The more I’m attacked, the more it motivates me to work harder and to advocate more,” Levine said.

Trump PAC Elicits Panic and Amusement w/ April Fool’s Fundraising Email

Molly Bruns
-
0
Trump PAC Elicits Panic and Amusement w/ April Fool’s Fundraising Email

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A political-action committee supporting presumtive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump alarmed some of his supporters on Monday with an April Fool’s Day email announcing the suspension of his campaign, according to The Independent.

The message from the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee arrived in inboxes via email or text in with the subject line “I’m suspending my campaign….”

However, upon clicking through on it, users found April Fool’s greetings from the former president: “DID YOU REALLY THINK I’D SUSPEND MY CAMPAIGN?” it said.

It went on to reassure concerned supporters that it was just a joke and issued a promise that was evocative of the “Never Surrender!” slogan on Trump’s now iconic mugshot merchandise.

“I will never stop fighting for the American people,” said the message. “I will never surrender!”

It also requested campaign donations, which seemed particularly apropos on Monday after shares of his DJT stock—the now-public, Trump-fronted media company that includes Truth Social—fell back down to earth following a frenzied buyup last week.

It is unlikely that Trump’s April Fool’s prank was connected with the stock plunge, which coincided with a less-than-bullish financial report on the company’s earnings history.

At the close of Tuesday, they had regained some of their earlier footing, but nothing like the price last Friday, when shares selling for nearly $75 apiece briefly sent Trump soaring up the Forbes 500 list of the world’s wealthiest people.

While reactions to Trump’s prank were mixed, most seemed to view it as another display of the GOP leader’s wry—if somewhat sardonic—sense of humor, a refreshing antidote to the farcical absurdity of the Biden administration.

Users on Twitter harkened back to a previous speech by Trump, where he said “every day is April Fools’ Day” in an America that seems to have its fundamental priorities backwards.

“Listen to this… we have open borders, when they should be closed–it’s April Fools’ Day,” he said.

“We have prisoners, people from mental institutions and terrorists being dumped into our country when they should not be accepted—April Fools’ Day!” he continued. “Who would do that—who would do this?!”

Several other corporations and public figures joined in on the April Fool’s fun; Krispy Kreme, paint maker Dulux, Duolingo, Aldi and Honda all posted charming jokes to their social media.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (@krispykreme)

The levity was a welcome relief in what has been a tense election season thus far, with Democrats building their campaign around the deeply divisive idea that their opponents and critics—Trump especially—constitute a threat to democracy itself.

The most recent polls predict a tight race leading up to the Nov. 5 election, with Biden trailing behind Trump in multiple demographics.

Biden, however, has a considerable cash advantage due to his support among billionaire elites and his lack of costly lawfare attacks to pay for.

Last week, he closed down much of New York City while hosting a high-dollar fundraiser with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama that pulled in an estimated $26 million.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Not How This Works: N.Y. Inmates Sue over Right to Watch Solar Eclipse

Editor 1
-
0
Not How This Works: N.Y. Inmates Sue over Right to Watch Solar Eclipse

(Headline USA) Inmates in New York are suing the state corrections department over the decision to lock down prisons during next Monday’s total solar eclipse.

The suit filed Friday in federal court in upstate New York argues that the April 8 lockdown violates inmates’ constitutional rights to practice their faiths by preventing them from taking part in a religiously significant event.

The plaintiffs are six men with varying religious backgrounds who are incarcerated at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Woodbourne. They include a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh-Day Adventist and two practitioners of Santeria, as well as an atheist.

“A solar eclipse is a rare, natural phenomenon with great religious significance to many,” the complaint reads, noting that Bible passages describe an eclipse-like phenomenon during Jesus’ crucifixion while sacred Islamic works describes a similar event when the Prophet Muhammad’s son died.

The celestial event, which was last visible in the U.S. in 2017 and won’t be seen in the country again until 2044, “warrant gathering, celebration, worship, and prayer,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit states that one of the named plaintiffs, an atheist, received special permission last month to view the eclipse using glasses that would be provided by the state, but that was before the system-wide lockdown was issued.

Four of the other plaintiffs subsequently sought permission but were denied by officials who ruled the solar eclipse is not listed as a holy day for their religions, the lawsuit states. The sixth inmate said he never received a response.

Thomas Mailey, a corrections department spokesperson, said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but takes all requests for religious accommodations under consideration. He said those related to viewing the eclipse are currently under review.

Daniel Martuscello III, the department’s acting commissioner, issued a memo March 11 announcing that all state correctional facilities will operate on a holiday schedule next Monday.

That means incarcerated individuals will remain in their housing units except for emergency situations from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., which are generally the normal hours for outdoor recreation in prisons, according to the lawsuit.

There will also be no visitation at nearly two dozen prisons in the path of totality next Monday, while visitation at other correctional facilities will end at 2 p.m.

Martuscello said the department will distribute solar eclipse safety glasses for staff and incarcerated individuals at prisons in the path of totality so they can view the eclipse from their assigned work location or housing units.

Communities in western and northern reaches of the state are expected to have the best viewing of the total eclipse, including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Lake Placid and Plattsburgh.

The total eclipse is expected to be seen in those parts of New York around 3:15 p.m. and last mere minutes as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking the sun and turning day into night.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Another FBI Boss Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Ken Silva
-
0
Another FBI Boss Accused of Sexual Misconduct

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services has been accused by multiple former CJIS employees of sexual misconduct and retaliation, according to the whistleblower-protection group Empower Oversight.

Empower Oversight disclosed the allegations against CJIS Assistant Director Michael Christman in a Monday press release, including a Freedom of Information Act request the group filed with the FBI and Justice Department last week.

According to Empower Oversight, Christman has promoted multiple women with whom he appears to have engaged in inappropriate relationships.

“For instance, former employees have reported to Empower Oversight that AD Christman and a female CJIS employee were observed in a state of undress on a Saturday night in the CJIS gymnasium. That female employee has been promoted quickly,” Empower Oversight said in its FOIA request.

“Further, during an all-employee conference, AD Christman reportedly claimed to have nightly phone calls with a female employee who did not report directly to him. This employee was given three awards in a short period of time, with monetary compensation totaling an estimated $15,000.”

Empower Oversight added that Christman retaliated against those who challenged him on his behavior. Christman allegedly moved employees into temporary positions for “cross-training” as a means to retaliate.

Along with the sexual-misconduct allegations, Empower Oversight questioned whether Christman should be working for the FBI due to his age. Christman started with the FBI in 1992, putting him close to retirement mandates for agents older than 56 with more than 20 years of experience.

“Furthermore, it has been alleged that AD Christman was allowed to retire but continue acting in his position as a contractor,” Empower Oversight added. “If true, this raises the issue of whether the FBI is paying AD Christman for a contract while he collects a federal retirement.”

Christman didn’t immediately respond to a LinkedIn message from this reporter seeking comment on the allegations.

A Culture of Misconduct at the FBI

Christman is just the latest top FBI official to be accused of sexual misconduct. Headline USA reported in January that former associate deputy director Jeffrey Sallet allegedly retired from the bureau in late 2021 due to sexual-misconduct allegations.

Reports from the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General in recent years suggest that the FBI has a widespread culture of sexual misconduct.

According to a 2020 Associated Press article entitled, ‘Under the rug:’ Sexual misconduct shakes FBI’s senior ranks, the last time the OIG did an extensive probe of sexual misconduct within the FBI, it tallied 343 “offenses” from fiscal years 2009 to 2012, including three instances of “videotaping undressed women without consent.”

That AP investigation identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years, including two new claims brought by women who say they were sexually assaulted by ranking agents.

“Each of the accused FBI officials appears to have avoided discipline, the AP found, and several were quietly transferred or retired, keeping their full pensions and benefits even when probes substantiated the sexual misconduct claims against them,” the AP reported in December 2020.

A year after the December 2020 AP investigation, a December 2021 OIG report found that four FBI officials had sex with prostitutes while posted overseas, while a fifth also tried to do so—and all but one “lacked candor” about it during interviews and lie-detector test.

According to that December 2021 report, two FBI officials resigned, two retired, and one was removed—all while the OIG’s investigation was ongoing.

The OIG’s December 2021 report said it referred the findings to the FBI for “appropriate action,” but nothing public has been revealed about the matter since then.

More recently, the OIG revealed in October that a senior FBI official had solicited prostitutes from a foreign national’s massage parlor while he was still working for the bureau. Like the others, that official retired while the OIG’s investigation was still ongoing. The DOJ declined to prosecute that official, according to the OIG.

And in January, the OIG reported that a former Acting Deputy Assistant Director harassed a subordinate and made inappropriate sexual and religious jokes in the workplace. That report didn’t state whether the FBI official retired or is still at the bureau.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Tax Time Is Open Season for Scammers. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.

Editor 1
-
0
Tax Time Is Open Season for Scammers. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.

(Headline USA) Tax season can come with several headaches, from gathering documents to finding the time to sit down and file.

But one pain that you want to avoid is falling for a tax scam.

Year-round, scammers look for ways to trick people into giving them money or personal information.

There are several common types of scams during tax season, so people should be on the lookout for red flags, said Amy Nofziger, director of victim support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network.

One of the most common types of scams is related to identity theft. Taxpayers usually know their identity has been stolen when they try to file their tax returns and the IRS says they’ve already done so.

This usually means someone else filed in their name in order to receive a refund.

In 2023, the IRS received 294,138 identity theft complaints.

The IRS says taxpayers who are victims of tax-related identity theft wait an average of 19 months for the IRS to process their returns and send their refunds.

Here are some expert recommendations to protect yourself from scams during tax season:

Know scammers’ tactics

Three common tactics used by scammers are based on fear, urgency and money, said security expert Petros Efstathopoulos. Here’s how they work:

  • Fear

When a scammer contacts you via phone or email, they use language that makes it seem like there is a problem that you need to solve. For example, a scammer contacts you over email telling you that your tax return has an error and if you don’t fix it you’ll get in trouble.

  • Urgency

Because scammers are good at creating a sense of urgency, people tend to rush, which makes them vulnerable. Scammers often tell people they need to act right away, which can lead to them sharing private information such as their Social Security numbers.

“When people are under pressure and under anxiety, they might do something with the speed that they’re not thinking through it and not doing their research,” Nofziger said.

  • Money

Scammers use money as bait, Efstathopoulos said. They might impersonate tax professionals or the IRS saying you will get a bigger refund than you expect if you pay them for their services or share your personal information.

Check if it’s really the IRS contacting you

It’s very important to know that the IRS never reaches out via unconventional means, said Zulfikar Ramzan, chief scientist at the digital-security company Aura. The IRS usually contacts taxpayers via physical mail through the U.S. Postal Service.

“Typically, they’re going to ask you to contact them either via their website or by sending correspondence directly to their main address, which is easy to verify,” Ramzan said.

A common impersonation scam is when someone calls you claiming they work for the IRS and demanding an immediate payment, Nofziger said.

You can find out more about how the IRS contacts people here.

Research tax professionals

If you need help from a tax professional, research them to make sure they are not imposters, Nofziger said.

“You’ll see advertisements for low-cost tax preparers that can get you more money than anybody else,” Nofziger said. “They will advertise on social media or set up shops in strip malls.”

To avoid getting scammed by fake tax preparers, Nofziger recommends that you look for reputable lists. Options include the IRS directory of tax professionals and the AARP Foundation tax-aid locator.

Don’t pick up if you don’t know who is calling

Scammers often reach out by phone and Efstathopoulos recommends that you don’t share information on incoming calls.

“If my bank calls me and says ‘Hi, I need some information’, I say ‘Thank you very much, I’ll call you back on the number I know is yours,’” Efstathopoulos said.

That makes it easier to know for sure that you’re not talking to a scammer.

As a general rule of thumb, banks don’t often call unless there is suspicious activity on your account or if you previously contacted them about a problem with your account.

If you receive many unknown calls that end up being scammers or robocalls, Nofziger recommends using tools available on your phone to block spam. Check here for how to do this on you iPhone and here for Android.

Use all of the technology at your disposal

Filing your taxes early is always recommended in case someone else tries to file for you, Efstathopoulos said. But if that is not an option, you can take other steps that make you less vulnerable to scams. These include using the IRS pin system, having a password manager and checking that your computer doesn’t have a virus.

  • Identity protection PIN

The IRS offers an identity protection PIN, which is a six-digit number, to protect taxpayers from someone else filing for them. This number helps the IRS verify your identity when you’re filing.

“Every time you see an opportunity to turn on two-factor authentication, take it and make sure it’s turned on,” Efstathopoulos recommended.

  • Password manager

Efstathopoulos also recommends using a password manager on your devices to ensure you’re utilizing a complex password that scammers can’t guess.

  • Credit report check

Regularly checking your credit report and bank statements is a good practice since it can help you identify if someone has been using your bank account without your knowledge, Ramzan said. If your bank lets you set alerts for big transactions, you should take advantage of that extra security measure, he added.

  • Clean your computer

If you’re filing your tax returns online, you want to make sure your computer is free of viruses, Ramzan said. Even if the tax filing software you’re using is safe, if your computer has a virus, someone could steal your personal information.

Share what you know with loved ones

If you’ve taken all the necessary steps to protect yourself, you might want to help those around you, Nofziger said. Whether you’re helping your grandparents to block unknown callers on their phones or sharing tips with your neighbors, talking with others about how to protect themselves from scams can be very effective.

Scams don’t end with tax season

Even when you’ve already filed your taxes, there are other scams that you should keep an eye out for. Scams surrounding refunds and tax corrections are some of the most common.

“We know that wherever the money is, the criminals are going to be there,” Nofziger said. “And that includes this time when there is money being sent to people.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Whistleblower: FBI Allowed Neo-Nazis to Assault ATF Informant

Ken Silva
-
0
Whistleblower: FBI Allowed Neo-Nazis to Assault ATF Informant

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI ignored an ATF agent’s warning that his informant was about to be assaulted by neo-Nazis, and then smeared the agent by accusing him of having a sexual relationship with the informant, according to a new book from an ATF whistleblower.

The book, entitled The Deadly Path, from former ATF agent Peter Forcelli is mostly about the Obama-era Operation Fast & Furious scandal, which entailed the U.S. government allowing illegal gun purchases under the guise of tracking organized crime. The operation never resulted in the arrests of any organized crime leaders, and it became a national scandal when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by a Fast & Furious firearm in 2010.

Before diving into Fast & Furious, Forcelli recounted a 2007 FBI operation called Tiny Dancer, which targeted the neo-Nazi prison gang Aryan Brotherhood in Arizona. The ATF’s Arizona agents were also investigating the Aryan Brotherhood at the time, and tensions with the FBI spilled over when the two investigations began overlapping.

At the time, Forcelli said that then-FBI supervisory special agent Matt Lawson asked him to close his investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood and to provide the FBI with access to the ATF’s informants in the Brotherhood. Forcelli said he’d consider closing his investigation if he could speak to the FBI’s informants, but Lawson denied him that request.

Accordingly, Forcelli declined to close his investigation. Shortly thereafter, allegations began swirling that the ATF agent heading the Aryan Brotherhood investigation, John McKenzie, had an affair with one of his own informants.

John Lewis, then the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix office, included the allegation in a letter to then-ATF Phoenix leader Bill Newell.

“The letter was a smear campaign, alleging that John McKenzie was having an affair with a female affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood. I knew of the female mentioned, and about John’s interactions with her, all of which were professional,” Forcelli wrote of the smear against his agent.

“It was clearly a concerted effort to have John McKenzie blocked from working on anything related to the Aryan Brotherhood.”

Forcelli also wrote that the same informant McKenzie was accused of having an affair with had been assaulted by the Aryan Brotherhood—with the full knowledge and approval of the FBI.

“I was already aware of a recent incident where the FBI knew that members of a prison gang planned to assault this exact woman, and decided to allow it to happen instead of trying to intervene or warn her so she could go into hiding,” he wrote, adding that the assaulted ATF informant was also a meth addict.

“I knew this specifically because McKenzie himself had notified the FBI’s Gang Task Force of the threat and I was beside him when he called. And who was the supervisor of the FBI Gang Task Force? Why Matt Lawson himself.”

Forcelli said he wrote a scathing memo defending McKenzie. Then-FBI SAC Lewis surprisingly accepted the memo and retracted the allegations, commending Forcelli for sticking up for his agent.

The FBI arrested 31 people in the Aryan Brotherhood investigation in June 2007.

Meanwhile, Forcelli, who blew the whistle on the bureau’s Obama-era Operation Fast & Furious Scandal, has said he believes that the government is still allowing the streets to be flooded with illegal weapons à la Fast & Furious.

“The U.S. Attorney is turning a blind eye to straw purchases, which is fueling what’s going on in Mexico,” he said in February.

“The prosecutors who work there haven’t changed their ways. They have a habit of kicking the can down the road and not taking straw purchase cases. These are not purchasers who are buying guns for target shooters. These are guys who are sending guns to Mexico to slaughter human beings.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Obama Judge Lets Illegals Sue over Flights to Martha’s Vineyard

Editor 1
-
0
Obama Judge Lets Illegals Sue over Flights to Martha’s Vineyard

(Headline USA) Lawyers representing migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard nearly two years ago by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue the charter flight company that transported them to the island off the Massachusetts coast, according to a ruling Monday by a federal judge in Boston.

Under Monday’s ruling from Obama-appointed District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs, the illegal immigrants can proceed with their suit against Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which had agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An email to the company seeking comment after the afternoon release of the ruling was not immediately returned.

While DeSantis was named in the suit, Burroughs conceded that the court did not have jurisdiction over the official actions of an elected official from another state in this case.

“As we’ve always stated, the flights were conducted lawfully and authorized by the Florida Legislature,” Julia Friedland, the deputy press secretary for DeSantis, said in a statement. “We look forward to Florida’s next illegal immigrant relocation flight, and we are glad to bring national attention to the crisis at the southern border.”

Yet, the lawfare attack, regardless of its final outcome, is likely to have a chilling effect on other airlines and risk-averse transportation companies—including Greyhound buses—that might be considering cooperation with GOP governors such as DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, and had been promised work and housing opportunities, much as they were by the Biden administration and leftist non-governmental organizations that encouraged them to violate U.S. law by entering the country illegally in the first place.

While there are as many work opportunities in the idyllic vacation retreat—an enclave for rich and powerful New England liberals, including former President Barack Obama—as there are in San Antonio and elsewhere, leftists reacted in horror at the presence of the foreign interlopers in their backyard, and quickly shipped them off to a military base on the mainland.

They also threatened retaliation against DeSantis for orchestrating the stunt, although some have since conceded that it was a particularly effective way to highlight the issue of the Biden administration’s open-border policies and the hypocrisy of wealthy elites who had previously downplayed concerns and accused critics of xenophobia.

Burroughs decreed in her ruling that the facts of the case “taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx [sic] immigrants.”

Many Latinos find the -x ending, an effort to replace masculine and feminine suffixes, to be offensive, although some virtue-signaling leftists persist in using it as a way to telegraph their support for transgender issues.

The court also claimed that “Unlike ICE agents legitimately enforcing the country’s immigration laws … the Court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate.”

Iván Espinoza–Madrigal, executive director of the leftist open-borders lawfare organization Lawyers for Civil Rights, called the 77-page ruling a major victory in the Martha’s Vineyard case.

He said in a statement that the ruling sends the message that private companies can be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through what it characterized as illegal and fraudulent schemes.

It is unclear whether illegals lied to by the Biden administration and leftist NGOs would also be eligible to sue over the false pretenses of their relocation. An estimated 11 million have entered the country since Biden took office in 2021, leading even far-left sanctuary cities such as Denver to initiate active efforts at turning them away.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Judge Rejects Hunter Biden’s Attempts to Toss Out Felony Tax Charges

Editor 1
-
0
Judge Rejects Hunter Biden’s Attempts to Toss Out Felony Tax Charges

(Headline USA) A judge refused Monday to toss out a tax case against Hunter Biden after the defense filed eight motions attempting to portray President Joe Biden’s son as a helpless victim who had been treated unfairly due to his elite status.

“Defendant fails to present a reasonable inference, let alone clear evidence, of discriminatory effect and discriminatory purpose,” wrote U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in denying the motions to dismiss.

The indictment accuses Hunter Biden of scheming to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle. He has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses filed in Los Angeles.

After a sweetheart plea deal exposed by IRS whistleblowers led to widespread public outrage and ultimately imploded, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, now claims the prosecution was politically motivated, among other arguments

He responded to the latest defeat by suggesting that the judge, an appointee of former president Donald Trump, may be in on the conspiracy as well. “We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will continue to vigorously pursue Mr. Biden’s challenges,” Lowell said in a statement.

The ruling came after a three-hour hearing last week where Scarsi seemed skeptical of the defense. Prosecutors, for their part, framed the claims as far-fetched.

Scarsi also dismissed claims related to the timing of the charges, leaks from IRS agents who testified before Congress, and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of the special counsel overseeing the case.

Some Republicans argue that Garland’s appointment of special counsel David Weiss—the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case and had slow-walked it to the point of letting many of the seven-year statutes of limitations expire—was not designed so much to empower Weiss as to thwart the possibility of an outside investigation by House Republicans, which would have forced the Justice Department to hand over any subpoenaed documents.

Biden has also been charged in Delaware with lying on a federal form to buy a gun in 2018. He claims he wasn’t using or addicted to illegal drugs, even though he has acknowledged being addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which also accuses him of possessing the gun illegally.

Both cases are overseen by Weiss and now have tentative trials scheduled for June, though defense attorneys are also trying to get the Delaware gun charges tossed out.

The two sets of charges come from a yearslong federal investigation that had been expected to wrap up over the summer with a plea deal, in which Biden would have gotten two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. The president’s son—who has since repaid the back taxes with a loan from his so-called sugar brother, billionaire Kevin Morris—also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.

But the deal unraveled after a federal judge in Delaware began to question it.

Defense attorneys had argued that immunity provisions in the deal were signed by a prosecutor and are still in effect, but Scarsi sided with prosecutors who said it never got the required approval of a probation officer.

If convicted of the tax charges, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Court Docs: Facebook Allowed Netflix to Access User DMs

Ken Silva
-
0
Court Docs: Facebook Allowed Netflix to Access User DMs

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Newly unsealed court records allege that Facebook allowed Netflix to access users’ direct messages for years as part of a multi-hundred-million-dollar advertising partnership.

The court records were reportedly filed last year but were sealed until earlier this month. They come from a long-running antitrust lawsuit to individuals filed against Facebook in 2020.

The most damning record appears to be an email the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote to the presiding judge in April 2023. In that email, the lawyers told the judge about Facebook giving Netflix access to user DMs—a partnership that began when then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joined Facebook’s board in 2011.

“By 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of ‘Facebook Extended API’ agreements, including a so-called ‘Inbox API’ agreement that allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s user’s private message inboxes,” the email said.

“In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to … among other things, Facebook user’s ‘messaging app and non-app friends.’”

The antitrust lawsuit accuses Facebook of sabotaging its own streaming service, dubbed “Watch,” due to its partnership with Netflix. But the news about Netflix reading Facebook DMs was the big takeaway for many social media users.

Facebook parent company Meta has denied the allegations.

“Meta didn’t share people’s private messages with Netflix. The agreement allowed people to message their friends on Facebook about what they were watching on Netflix, directly from the Netflix app,” said Meta spokesman Andy Stone. “Such agreements are commonplace in the industry.”

Facebook has played loose with the truth in previous privacy scandals, including the Cambridge Analytica controversy.

Revelations from Cambridge Analytica showed that the data-mining firm had gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission, eventually leading to congressional hearings in which Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg testified for the first time.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

1...1,3811,3821,383...3,866Page 1,382 of 3,866