BREAKING: Dr. Fauci’s Top Aide Charged for Concealing COVID Records

Ken Silva
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BREAKING: Dr. Fauci’s Top Aide Charged for Concealing COVID Records

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department has secured an indictment against David Morens, a former senior aid to ex-COVID czar Anthony Fauci, for deliberately concealing records about coronavirus.

The indictment stems from the infamous $3.7 million grant that the National Institutes of Health gave to Peter Daszak and his firm, EcoHealth Alliance, for “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” That grant allegedly funded risky gain-of-function research that some think led to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early 2020, the Trump administration terminated the grant. But according to the indictment, Morens conspired with others to restore the termination of the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab. The grant was reinstated in April 2023, which was after Morens had left his role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

As part of their conspiracy, Morens and the others unnamed used private email to avoid public disclosure obligations that come with government communications.

“Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 2 agreed in writing to intentionally hide from public view their communications by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account,” the DOJ said in a press release.

“The indictment alleges that the conspirators used Morens’s personal Gmail account to exchange non-public NIH information; correspond about their efforts to influence NIH to fund Company #1; exchange edits to drafts of letters addressed to NIH leadership for Company #1 and Co-Conspirator 1; and “back-channel” information to Senior NIAID Official 1.”

The indictment also alleges that Morens conspired with Co-conspirator 1 to pay illegal gratuities.

Morens’s arraignment is scheduled for May 8. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, and a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records, according to the DOJ.

Morens’s court docket also lists a “related case”—suggesting that others may be charged in relation to his alleged conspiracy. The “related case” entry is sealed, so it’s unclear who the other defendant might be.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

With Few Employment Prospects, Afghan Men Are Digging for Gold

Money Metals News Service
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With Few Employment Prospects, Afghan Men Are Digging for Gold

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) What if you could just pull money out of the ground?

That’s exactly what men are doing in the Hindu Kush mountains of eastern Afghanistan. They are scouring the rocky Kunar riverbed for flecks of gold.

Here in the U.S., people pan for gold for fun. However, these Afghan men aren’t enjoying a hobby. Hunting for gold is one of the few options they have to earn money and put food on their families’ tables.

Delawar, 45, is among the men searching for small flecks of gold. He has a family of eight to care for.

“There are not many job opportunities in the country, and in this way, we have created work for ourselves.”

It’s not easy work, and it isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. Prospectors dig dirt and rock from dry sections of the riverbed and wash it with river water.

An Al Jazeera report describes the grueling work required for a small amount of gold:

“In nearby Ghaziabad, hundreds chip away at the mountainside with picks, carrying heavy sacks down steep slopes to empty onto sieves for gold filtration. Others use yellow jerrycans attached to long wooden handles to pour river water over sieves, allowing smaller, potentially gold-bearing stones to slide onto mats. After two additional siftings, gold nuggets occasionally appear in metal pans.”

All of this effort sometimes yields small flakes of gold. Delawar said they are usually smaller than a grain of wheat.

Even so, Gul Ahmad Jan told Al Jazeera that the work can be “lucrative.” He said that in a week, he can get up to about 1 gram of gold. That’s worth approximately 8,000 Afghan Afghani (AFN; ؋), or around $125 US Dollars (USD).

Five hundred dollars a month isn’t much by American standards, but it’s a lifeline for Afghans who have few employment opportunities.

This is possible because, fundamentally, gold is money. And people recognize it as such all over the world. No matter where you go, people recognize gold’s value.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Secret Service May Adopt Israeli Security Model

Jose Nino
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Secret Service May Adopt Israeli Security Model

(José Niño, Headline USA) A former Secret Service deputy director suggested the United States may need to adopt Israeli-style security measures after a gunman breached the perimeter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

A.T. Smith, who served as deputy director of the Secret Service and now works as a CBS law enforcement analyst, appeared on Face the Nation the morning after the shooting. Host Margaret Brennan asked whether the country would need to shift toward a total lockdown approach for political events, noting that overseas presidential trips typically involve securing entire hotels — something that did not happen the night before on U.S. soil. “Is that the kind of thing we’re going to start seeing, that it’ll be more like an Israeli model?” Brennan asked.

Smith acknowledged the difficulty. “It’s difficult because you have obviously a hotel that’s open to the public. They have other guests that are unassociated with the event last night, and they’re gonna have to take a hard look at how you maybe screen those guests coming in. It’s very hard to necessarily know everything about everybody that’s there, but probably one safety scenario would be what you just said to more or less lock down the hotel.”

He added that such measures are not standard domestic practice. “We don’t normally do that in the United States, and usually the Secret Service is very successful at coordinating and corralling that area, like the ballroom that’s gonna be used for the event and making it secure. But again, they’ll have to take a look at that.”

The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, had checked into the Hilton as a guest before the event after traveling by train from Los Angeles via Chicago, per a report by NBC News. On Saturday evening, Allen rushed a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. According to CBS News, he fired at agents and struck one in a bulletproof vest before being subdued.

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several Cabinet members were rapidly evacuated and the dinner was canceled, per a report by CNN. The core vulnerability the attack exposed was that the hotel lobby remained accessible to regular guests during the high-profile event — a gap Allen had anticipated and exploited, according to his own writings.

CBS national security contributor Samantha Vinograd, who was in the room during the attack, assessed the broader implications on Face the Nation. “The paradigms of the past may not be sufficient to meet the moment,” she said, citing the threat environment posed by lone-actor radicalization.

Allen was charged Monday in federal court on three counts: attempting to assassinate the president, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and transporting a firearm in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony. It was the first White House Correspondents’ Dinner Trump had attended as a sitting president.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Nine Wounded in Mass Shooting Near Indiana University During Little 500

Jose Nino
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Nine Wounded in Mass Shooting Near Indiana University During Little 500

(José Niño, Headline USA)  Nine people were wounded in a mass shooting near Indiana University’s campus early Sunday as crowds celebrated the famed Little 500 college cycling race.

The New York Post reports that gunfire erupted on the popular strip of Kirkwood Avenue just after midnight. According to Bloomington Police Chief Mike Diekhoff, two women had gotten into a fight before two men pulled out their guns and started firing into the dense crowd at around 12:25 a.m.

Five young women suffered gunshot wounds and injuries from bullet fragments while four others were hurt in the stampede that followed.

Police identified the injured as a 17 year old hit by fragments in her foot and ankle, an 18 year old struck in the ankle and shin, a 21 year old hit in her shin and thighs, and a 22 year old with fragments embedded in the back of her thigh. A 20 year old victim suffered a direct gunshot that traveled through her body from her abdomen to her armpit. Diekhoff noted it remains unclear which direction the bullet entered and exited.

One victim remained hospitalized in stable condition while the rest were treated and released Sunday.

Witnesses described watching the confrontation unfold before shots rang out.

“Two women fighting… I didn’t think too much of it,” a witness told WTHR. “I figured the police would get to it. But then I saw a girl reach toward her pants leg and start firing. By then, I was already running the other way.”

No suspects have been arrested. Police are asking anyone with information or video of the incident to contact detectives.

University officials said no students are believed to have been involved in the violence. The Little 500 is the largest collegiate bike race in the United States, and Kirkwood Avenue is a popular hotspot lined with bars and restaurants just across the street from campus.

University spokesman Mark Bode condemned the violence in a statement.

“Last night marred what should have been a celebratory weekend for the IU and Bloomington communities,” Bode said. “While no IU students are believed to be involved, we condemn the violence in the strongest terms and thank the Bloomington Police Department, IUPD, State Police, and other law enforcement agencies who responded to the events off campus.”

“Our thoughts are with the victims of this tragic incident,” he added.

The shooting comes exactly one week after another mass shooting near the University of Iowa, another Midwest Big Ten school. Five people were wounded in that incident, including three Iowa students.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

 

State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel

Headline USA Editor
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State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The State Department said in a statement last week that the US is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the US into the war, which the US has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”

The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted to provide a legal justification for the war.

“As the United States has explained in multiple letters to the UN Security Council, including most recently on March 10, the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein said.

The term “collective self-defense” was likely used to echo Article 51 of the UN Charter, which states that nothing in the charter “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations,” but the US does not have a mutual defense treaty with Israel and is not bound by US law to defend the country.

The US and Israel were also the first to attack Iran, undercutting the US claim of “self-defense.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously said that the US launched the war because Israel was planning to attack and that Iran’s retaliation could have involved attacks on US bases.

Rubinstein repeated the argument made by the White House that the US has been in an ongoing conflict with Iran over the decades, which is based on claims that attacks by Iran-allied factions on US troops in the Middle East were part of an Iranian war against the US. The argument that omits the US’s history of backing forces against Iran, such as the US supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

Unearthed Vid in Spanish Shows Cornyn Signaling Support for Amnesty

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Unearthed Vid in Spanish Shows Cornyn Signaling Support for Amnesty

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) An unearthed Spanish-language video that appeared to be from the 2020 reelection campaign of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, shows the RINO lawmaker advocating for amnesty that would allow illegal immigrants admitted by the Obama administration remain in the country indefinitely.

“El Senador John Cornyn firmemente apoya la legalización de los ‘Dreamers,’” the video says, translating to “Senator John Cornyn firmly supports the legalization of the ‘Dreamers.’”

It goes on to say that Cornyn “fights for ALL of Texas.”

“Dreamers” was a euphemism used by the Obama administration to refer to beneficiaries of his controversial Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals policy, which effectively flouted U.S. immigration law by refusing to deport llegals who met certain age criteria.

The policy fueled a massive surge of unaccompanied minors flooding to the border during Obama’s second term, with a corresponding surge of child sex-trafficking, gang induction and other related crimes.

Cornyn was aware of the problems involving poorly vetted DACA sponsors as early as 2015 but continued to support the unconstitutional amnesty program for his own political advantage.

A separate video posted by conservative activist Scott Presler showed Cornyn speaking on the Senate floor to express his “willingness to continue to negotiate” on a Democrat proposal that included “a path to legal status for DACA recipients.”

Presler also posted two additional videos that showed Cornyn “pushing vaccines” and “advocating for red flag laws” — both positions that would likely be considered anathema among the conservative base that he is now attempting to court in his upcoming bid for reelection.

The emergence of the amnesty video sparked an outrage reaction from Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas.

“Apparently he forgot that we represent American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Gill wrote.

“This is absolutely disqualifying,” he added. “I want my country back, and I’m sick of swampy politicians in Washington who are dying to give it away.”

Gill called for Texas Republicans to back state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a May 26 primary runoff between Paxton and Cornyn to secure the Republican senatorial nomination.

Cornyn — with help from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Republican Senate Leadership Fund —  outspent Paxton in the initial primary by a margin of $69 million to $4 million, making it the most expensive Senate primary in history, per the New York Times.

Nonetheless, he narrowly triumphed in the March 3 election, beating Paxton by fewer than 27,000 votes in a crowded field of eight contenders. Third-place candidate Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, drew more than 200,000 votes, or 13% of the overall tally.

With just Paxton and Cornyn competing in the runoff, Paxton is widely favored to draw the bulk of the votes from the more conservative-leaning Hunt.

Some — including Turning Point USA’s chief operating officer, Tyler Bowyer, have expressed frustration that the Republican leadership invested so much in propping up Cornyn while all but ignoring a Virginia special election that may allow Democrats to gerrymander four Republican lawmakers out of their House seats.

Although the Texas runoff is shaping up to be a shadow war between the uniparty establishment and America First outsiders, President Donald Trump has notably withheld an endorsement thus far.

It was widely suspected, prior to the March primary, that he planned to endorse Cornyn in return for help ushering the SAVE Act and other top agenda items through the Senate. But thus far Cornyn has failed to deliver.

Paxton, meanwhile, has indicated that he would continue to fight even if Trump were to call on him to drop out. And, in a unique twist of irony, he referenced as his justification Cornyn’s own calls for Trump to drop out of the 2024 race.

Trump’s forbearance may signal an unspoken preference for Paxton, despite still needing cooperation from Cornyn, Thune and the RINO establishment to move legislation through during the current session.

Yet, a post from Donald Trump Jr. appeared to signal his support of Paxton after he offered to withdraw if Cornyn succeeded in getting the SAVE Act passed.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

US Boat Strike Kills Three in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

Headline USA Editor
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US Boat Strike Kills Three in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) US Southern Command said on Sunday that its forces bombed another alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least three people, as the Trump administration has ramped up the bombing campaign in recent weeks.

SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claims that the boat was carrying narcotics, something the Pentagon hasn’t done for any of the vessels it has targeted, and several accounts from survivors and family members of victims of other strikes suggest the US has previously targeted fishing boats that weren’t running drugs.

SOUTHCOM described the three people it killed in the latest strike as “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration has adopted to justify what are extra-judicial executions at sea for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US.

According to a count from The Intercept, the latest strike brings the total number of boats that have been destroyed to 56, and the number of people killed to at least 186. All of the dead were civilians since they were operating civilian vessels, were not engaged in combat, and didn’t pose any threat to the US at the time of the strikes.

Since the start of the very shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran, the US has dramatically ramped up its bombing campaign against small boats in the waters of Latin America, blowing up five in the Eastern Pacific Ocean within five days from April 11 to April 15.

Last month, the US military expanded its campaign in Latin America by supporting Ecuadorian forces against alleged drug targets in Ecuador, an effort dubbed “Operation Total Extermination.”

According to a report from The New York Times, one of the first operations involved bombing what the US and Ecuador claimed was a drug camp, but turned out to be a dairy farm.

US military operations in the region also included the January 3 attack on Venezuela to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The US assault on Venezuela killed 83 people, including four civilians.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

Robbery Suspect Charged with Murder, Attempted Murder of Chicago Police Officers at a Hospital

Headline USA Editor
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Robbery Suspect Charged with Murder, Attempted Murder of Chicago Police Officers at a Hospital

(Headline USA) A robbery suspect now faces murder and attempted murder charges along with a long list of other felony counts in the shooting death of a Chicago police officer and the wounding of another at a hospital where they took him for treatment.

Alphanso Talley, 26, was scheduled to make his first appearance Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Officer John Bartholomew, 38, a 10-year veteran of the force, was pronounced dead just before 1 p.m. Saturday after being shot at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

A second officer was critically wounded in the Saturday morning shooting, police said. His name was not immediately released. Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling said in a statement Monday that the wounded officer — 57 years old with 21 years of service — was “still fighting for his life.”

“Though this does not bring solace to this tragedy, it does bring the first step in accountability,” Snelling said of the charges.

Talley doesn’t appear to have a listed phone number. There were no listed numbers for any of his relatives, and a spokesman for the public defender’s office said it couldn’t comment on his behalf ahead of Monday’s hearing because no attorney had yet been appointed.

The officers had taken Talley, who had been arrested for suspicion in an armed robbery that morning, to the hospital for observation. He fled after the shooting — a surveillance photo obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times appeared to show him running naked, with electrodes on his chest — and was arrested less than two hours later.

Police have not said how the suspect was able to get a gun. Snelling said investigators ultimately recovered three weapons.

“This shooting was a stark and heartbreaking reminder of the dangers our officers face all too often on this job,” Snelling said.

The hospital said in a Facebook posting that an individual in custody of law enforcement had been brought to the emergency department for treatment and was “wanded upon arrival” in a search for any weapons, following protocol. He was escorted by law enforcement at all times, the hospital said.

According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, Talley’s criminal record includes convictions for aggravated battery of a peace officer and for aiding, abetting, possessing or selling a stolen motor vehicle in 2023, as well as previous robbery and firearms convictions. A Cook County public defender represented Talley in that case.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Supreme Court Seems Inclined to Allow Police to Use Geofence Warrants to Identify Criminal Suspects

Headline USA Editor
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Supreme Court Seems Inclined to Allow Police to Use Geofence Warrants to Identify Criminal Suspects

(Headline USA) The Supreme Court on Monday seemed inclined to rule that police could use geofence warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes.

The justices heard nearly two hours of arguments in an appeal from Okello Chatrie, who pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia.

Chatrie eluded the police until they turned to the geofence warrant, a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them to locate cellphones that were near the bank around the time it was robbed in May 2019.

The justices did not appear to embrace arguments offered by Adam Unikowsky, Chatrie’s lawyer, that geofence warrants are too general to comply with the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the warrant that led to Chatrie’s identification as a suspect did not seem to be general. “This isn’t that. It identifies a place, a crime, a timeframe,” Sotomayor said.

The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld Chatrie’s conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

The case is the court’s latest contemplation of how a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 applies to technology the nation’s founders count not have envisioned.

The justices seemed eager to avoid a broad ruling. They could limit the time and geographic area covered by such warrants, and they might even decline to say whether what police did in Chatrie’s case even amounted to a search that requires a warrant.

Instead the court might rule that, assuming a warrant is required, police can constitutionally conduct geofence searches.

A ruling for Chatrie, who is serving a prison term of nearly 12 years, might not ultimately help him. Even the federal judge who ruled that the search violated Chatrie’s rights allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Man Charged with Attempted Assassination of Trump in White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

Headline USA Editor
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Man Charged with Attempted Assassination of Trump in White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

(Headline USA) The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and will remain at least temporarily behind bars as the case moves forward.

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and sat beside his lawyers in a brief appearance Monday in Washington’s federal court.

Besides being charged with attempting to assassinate the Republican president, Allen also faces two firearms charges. He did not enter a plea.

A judge granted a prosecutor’s request Monday to keep Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, detained pending additional hearings. One of Allen’s lawyers, Tezira Abe, asked for a detention hearing and noted Allen has no criminal record.

“He also is presumed innocent at this time,” she said.

The Associated Press called multiple phone numbers listed for Allen and relatives in public records, and there was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door of his home.

Prosecutors have not revealed a motive, but in a message reviewed by the AP that authorities say was sent by Allen to family members minutes before the attack, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” made repeated references to the Republican president without naming him and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Video posted by Trump shows a man, who authorities say was armed with guns and knives, running past a security barricade as Secret Service agents run toward him. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.

Records show Allen is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

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