American Nazi Building Camp in Maine to Train Fighters for Ukraine

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The leader of a neo-Nazi group called the Blood Tribe is building a property in Maine, which he’s signaled will be used to train American extremists to fight for Ukraine against Russia.

The Blood Tribe leader, Christopher Pohlhaus, signaled his intent to train American Nazis to fight in Ukraine on Twitter last week.

Pohlhaus was responding to a sarcastic question about whether his property—he’s reportedly purchased 100 acres of land in a small town in Maine—will be used to train for fighting to “the [neo-Nazi groups] Azov Battalion and C14 on the eastern front.”

“Yes, actually,” Pohlhaus responded.

Other tweets from Pohlhaus include one from June, when he said he’s “committed to mobilizing to Ukraine to aid the resistance against neo-bolshevism.

Pohlaus’s tweets aren’t mere bluster. According to The Intercept, he has ties to notorious neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin, the leader of the pro-Ukraine Russian Volunteer Corps.

As Headline USA has reported, the Kapustin and the Russian Volunteer Corps have used U.S. equipment this year to execute terrorist attacks in Russian territory. The pro-Ukraine militia regularly calls for international volunteers to join its group, and Pohlhaus seems obliged.

“We see the glorious opportunity in this conflict,” he reportedly said. “Because the American military is staying out of it, we get the chance to participate [under] OUR banner.”

Pohlhaus’s comments also come at a time with Ukraine President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy is forging closer ties with his country’s neo-Nazi elements. Zelenskyy recently met with Azov Battalion leader Andriy Biletsky, who has pledged to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen.”

But as he preps for his planned Nazi crusade, Polhaus continues to make headlines in the U.S. for his group’s presence at LGBT events.

“It will take us some time to get the plan sorted but it shouldn’t take us longer than a couple years,” he said about when his group will be fighting for Ukraine.

However, thinkers sympathetic to the Ukrainian far-right have cautioned people like Pouhlaus from fighting for NATO and the U.S. global liberal empire.

The far-right thinker who goes by the name “Bronze Age Pervert” cautioned that fighting for Ukraine will only empower the far right’s enemies.

“The argument being made is this will wake up Europe so it will be strong and manly again … It’s all lies,” he said.

“You will at most get your foot blown off or obliterated by a Russian cruise missile. You’ll never see the thanks for it,” he said.

“You’ll be called fascist and privileged still, and the people who hate you will be enhanced in their power and security.”

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

Target Cuts Profit Outlook for 2023 as Pride-Month Backlash Tanks Q2 Sales

(Headline USA) Target reported its first quarterly sales drop in six years, dragged down by shoppers’ inflation worries and a negative reaction by some customers, widely publicized on social media, to its Pride merchandise.

The Minneapolis retailer expects high interest rates, which makes credit cards more expensive to use, and higher prices on food to continue to put a strain on customers and on Wednesday, the chain cut its profit outlook for the year. It also expects sales will decline for the remainder of the year.

However, the notoriously woke corporation still refused to learn its lesson about offending customers—instead blaming the failure of Biden’s unconstitutional student-loan amnesty for its own financial struggles.

Profit for the fiscal second quarter came in above expectations, however, as Target brought inventories closer in line with cautionary spending on discretionary items by customers.

Shares rose 3% Wednesday despite trimming profit expectations for the year.

Target is among the first major U.S. retailers to report quarterly financial results and the impact of rising prices and elevated interest on its customers will get a lot of attention ahead of a raft of quarterly reports from companies like Walmart other retailers.

CEO Brian Cornell said higher prices for food and household essentials are taking a bigger chunk out of the paychecks of customers, who have also pulled back on buying some goods in favor of travel or spending time out of the house in other ways.

“Guests are out at concerts,” Cornell told reporters on a media call Tuesday. “They’re going to movies. They’ve seen Barbie. They’re enjoying those experiential moments, and they’re shopping very carefully for discretionary goods.”

Other retailers are seeing the same thing.

Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement retailer, said Tuesday that sales continued to decline after surging in recent years. Sales of big-ticket items, those that may require financing, were particularly hard hit.

Industry analysts will be eager to see if the same forces are impacting other retailers reporting earnings this week, including Walmart, the nation’s largest, on Thursday. Macy’s, Kohl’s and Nordstrom post quarterly results later this month.

This week, the U.S. reported that Americans increased their spending last month, but higher interest rates are weighing on economic activities that are highly dependent on credit, like sales of homes, vehicles, furniture and electronics.

Target is more vulnerable than other big box discounters like Walmart. More than 50% of Target’s annual sales come from discretionary items like toys, fashion and electronic gadgets, according to the company’s latest annual financial report.

Target also faced a unique problem during the most recent quarter, becoming one of the companies that was rebuked for its offensive LGBT virtue signaling—in particular, its displays of Pride Month merchandise that included transgender items for infants and children, which critics denounced as child-grooming.

It pulled some items in particular regions and made other changes after encountering hostility from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. That, in turn, led to backlash from radicals in the LGBT community, including trans-terrorists who sent bomb threats to stores in at least two states.

Company executives said this week that it couldn’t tease out how much the negative reaction had on its business, but once it made the changes, those incidents subsided, they claimed. Overall sales improved in July from June.

Cornell said the company has learned from the backlash and that it will be more thoughtful in merchandise offerings for its so-called heritage months, which celebrate various ethnic and marginalized groups. Target said it will have a slightly more focused assortment and will reconsider the mix of its own and national brands with its external partners.

“We’ll continue to celebrate Pride and other heritage moments, which are just one part of our commitment to support a diverse teams and guests, ” Cornell told reporters. “However, as we navigate an ever changing operating and social environment, we’re applying what we’ve learned to ensure we’re staying close to our guests and their expectations of Target.”

Target earned $835 million, or $1.80 per share, in the quarter that ended July 29. That compares with $183 million, or 39 cent per share, in the year-ago period.

Sales fell nearly 5% to $24.77 billion as shoppers focused more on groceries than discretionary items. Business in the quarter was also hurt because results were being compared with heavy discounting in the year-ago period that was meant to clear unwanted inventory as shoppers pulled back.

Analysts had been expecting profits of $1.43 per share on sales of $25.18 billion, according to FactSet.

Inventory at the end of the second quarter was 17% lower than last year, reflecting a 25% reduction in discretionary categories like fashion and home furnishings.

Comparable sales — those from stores or digital channels operating for the past 12 months — fell 5.4% in the latest quarter. In the fiscal first quarter, sales were unchanged.

Target now expects comparable sales in a wide range around a mid-single digit decline for the remainder of the year. It also now projects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $7 to $8, compared with the prior range of $7.75 to $8.75. Analysts were expecting $7.72 per share for the year, according to FactSet.

Target’s shares closed up at $128.75.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Sweetheart FBI Plea Deal Could Let 9/11 Terrorists Avoid Death Penalty

(Headline USA) The suspected architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his fellow defendants may never face the death penalty under plea agreements now under consideration to bring an end to their more than decadelong prosecution, the Pentagon and FBI have advised families of some of the thousands killed.

The notice, made in a letter that was sent to several of the families and obtained by the Associated Press, comes 1 1/2 years after military prosecutors and defense lawyers began exploring a negotiated resolution to the case.

The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been troubled by repeated delays and legal disputes, especially over the legal ramifications of the interrogation under torture that the men initially underwent while in CIA custody. No trial date has been set.

“The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements,” or PTAs, the letter said. It told the families that while no plea agreement “has been finalized, and may never be finalized, it is possible that a PTA in this case would remove the possibility of the death penalty.”

Some relatives of the nearly 3,000 people killed outright in the terror attacks expressed outrage over the prospect of ending the case short of a verdict. The military prosecutors pledged to take their views into consideration and present them to the military authorities who would make the final decision on accepting any plea agreement.

The letter, dated Aug. 1, was received by at least some of the family members only this week. It asks them to respond by Monday to the FBI’s victim services division with any comments or questions about the possibility of such a plea agreement. The FBI had no comment Wednesday on the letter.

On Sept. 11, 2001, conspirators from the al-Qaeda militant group seized control of jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles, hitting New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington. A fourth plane was headed for Washington but crashed in Pennsylvania after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.

It was Mohammed who presented the very idea of such an attack on the United States to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and who received authorization from bin Laden to craft what became the 9/11 attacks, the United States’ 9/11 Commission concluded. The four other defendants are alleged to have supported the hijackers in various ways.

The attacks led to the U.S. “war on terror,” which included U.S. invasions and prolonged wars in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida was based, and in Iraq, which had no connection with the attacks.

Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son Jimmy in 9/11, went to Guantanamo for pretrial hearings in 2009. He remains deeply frustrated that the case remains unresolved 14 years later. He said he laughed bitterly when he opened the government’s letter Monday.

“How can you have any faith in it?” Riches asked. The update “gives us a little hope,” he said, but justice still seems far off.

“No matter how many letters they send, until I see it, I won’t believe it,” said Riches, a retired deputy fire chief in New York City. He said he initially was open to the use of military tribunals but now feels that the process is failing and that the 9/11 defendants should be tried in civilian court.

The Obama administration at one point sought to do so, but the idea was shelved because of opposition from some victims’ relatives and members of Congress and city officials’ concerns about security costs. As the 22nd anniversary of the attacks approaches, “those guys are still alive. Our children are dead,” Riches said.

Other family members—part of a network of 9/11 families that has pushed for answers and accountability over the years—said they would insist that any plea agreement allow their lawyers to question the defendants on the extent of any Saudi official involvement in 9/11. Saudi Arabia denies involvement by senior Saudi officials.

It’s about “holding people responsible, and they’re taking that away with this plea,” said Peter Brady, whose father was killed in the attack. He received the letter this week.

The case “needs to go through the legal process,” not be settled in a plea deal, Brady said.

The 9/11 hearings have been on hold while military officials examine whether one of the defendants is competent to stand trial. Hearings are set to resume Sept. 18.

The five defendants were captured at various times and places in 2002 and 2003 and sent to Guantanamo for trial in 2006.

The case has played out with a changing series of defense lawyers and judges, all grappling with the legalities and logistics of the military trial.

Much of the hearings have been mired in litigation over how much of the testimony should be considered inadmissible by the torture that defendants underwent in early CIA custody, including the waterboarding of Mohammed 183 times.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Climate Equity Cult Member Refused to Release ‘Revered’ Water to Fight Maui Wildfires

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) A Hawaiian state official pushing a radical climate alarmist agenda is coming under heavy criticism for refusing to release water to fight the massively destructive wildfires that ravaged Maui and have reached a grim death toll of 111.

M. Kaleo Manuel, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and deputy director for state water resource management, “initially balked” at a desperate plea from landowners who were requesting additional water “to help protect their property from fires,” the Honolulu Civil Beat reported. “The water standoff played out over much of the day and the water didn’t come until too late.”

According to several sources that the Civil Beat said had knowledge of the plight, “Manuel wanted West Maui Land to get permission from a taro, or kalo, farm located downstream from the company’s property. Manuel eventually released water but not until after the fire had spread. It was not clear on Monday how much damage the fire did in the interim or whether homes were damaged.”

Manuel declined Civil Beat’s offer to be interviewed.

“One thing that people need to understand especially those from far away is that there’s been a great deal of water conflict on Maui for many years,” Gov. Josh Green said at a press briefing earlier this week. “It’s important that we’re honest about this. People have been fighting against the release of water to fight fires. I’ll leave that to you to explore.”

Manuel can be counted among the frontline climate cultists who professes that water requires “true conversations about equity.” 

Manuel explained in a video that his department’s charge was to “manage all water resources in the state” through a “holistic perspective” that included viewing water as an ancient god.

“We’ve become used to looking at water as, like, something we use, and not necessarily something that we revere as that thing that gives us life.”

The morbid irony of Manuel’s comments was blistered by critics who blamed the water director’s warped sense of priorities for accelerating the fires and exacerbating the tragedy.

“Doesn’t that make him in large part responsible for the deaths?” asked Elon Musk, to which another commentator answered with a question of their own, “Wow, how is this guy not in jail!”

Biden Sets Up Biden for Epic Public Takedown

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Seemingly unable to cognitively recall major events from recent history, President Joe Biden was cheerleading at a White House gathering to laud his floundering Inflation Reduction Act, which does nothing to reduce inflation, when he unleashed Red Rally Brandon to disastrous results.

“Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on,” Biden demanded with a quavering shout. “Name me one, in all of our history, not one.”

State Freedom Caucus Network comms director Greg Price delivered a brutal response to Biden’s request. “He says this on the 2nd anniversary of the Afghan withdrawal, which killed 13 American service members and left behind thousands of citizens/allies,” Price tweeted.

Price wasn’t alone in answering the president’s demand for examples, with social media commentators noting everything from crippling inflation and a deadly border crisis, to disastrous COVID mandates and energy independence.

Others gave up trying, with one tweet lamenting “Too many key strokes required…,” while another concluded “You’re right, it’s impossible to name just one.”

Public discontent with Biden’s failures extended beyond social media. A new poll released as the president was demanding examples of his failures showed a snake-belly low 36% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the economy and only 42% approve of his overall performance.

Biden proceeded to dig himself into a deeper hole at Wednesday’s promotional event, when he embraced the term “Bidenomics,” which he declared in a creepy whisper was working.

The proclamation likely came as a surprise to families who shelled out $709 more in July than they did two years ago to buy the same goods and services.

“The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal initially called my plan ‘Bidenomics,’” the inflator-in-chief said. “I’m not sure they meant in a totally complimentary way at the time, but guess what, it’s working.”

Biden neglected to mention the rave reviews from the New York Post, which called Bidenomics “a record of failure,” or The Economist, which wrote “But it was Mr Biden who lit the inflationary touch-paper-and whose signature policies are probably still boosting prices.”

The president’s eponymous economic policy is proving equally toxic to Democrats who find themselves in precarious political straits. “If you use the term, ‘Bidenomics,’ but somebody can’t afford their groceries, then they’re like, ‘Yeah, Bidenomics isn’t working for me,’” Rep. Susan Wild told the Washington Post last week.

The Pennsylvania Democrat eked out a 51% win last year in what Breitbart News called a “purple district,” noting that “Notably, the economy and inflation were among the top issues for voters.”

‘Tolerant’ Left Explodes over GOP Wins to Protect Kids and Female Athletes

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Leftist activists erupted into profane hysterics after the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly successfully overrode a slew of vetoes Wednesday, sending a clear message to the state’s Democrat governor about the GOP’s resolve to champion conservative principles headed into the 2024 elections.

Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes in wins that supporters said will save children from dangerous gender-altering surgeries, root out radical LGBT indoctrination from public schools and provide safe and level playing fields for female athletes.

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., who is running to be the state’s attorney general next year rather than seek to remain in Congress, vowed to enforce the new laws with a 2024 win.

“While Governor Cooper has tried to stand between parents and their kids, today the NC House will continue to affirm parent’s rights, protect female athletes and advocate for the health and safety of our children,” NC House Speaker Tim Moore said.

Tandem to one veto override, Republicans passed and enacted the Youth Health Protection Act. The bill bans doctors from providing what a growing body of research has shown are often-detrimental hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18.

The legislation also creates a 20-year window after former patients turn 18 to file civil action against doctors and their employers for claimed damages related to gender-mutilating surgery.

LGBT activists at one point disrupted Senate proceedings with shouts and screams, after Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson tried to move along debate by cutting short a leftist legislator’s speechifying, and were escorted out by capitol police.

Protests outside the General Assembly were equally squalid, with activists lobbing bullhorn-amplified obscenities at supporters of a GOP veto override of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The GOP passed and enacted the legislation that bans biological male transgenders from playing on girls’ sports teams at the middle school through college levels.

“One of the participants of the NC Values presser, USA Elite Cyclist Medalist Evie Edwards, took the mic to ask the protesters to watch their language following the F-Bombs. Edwards had her young daughter there with her,” tweeted North State Journal’s A.P. Dillon.

“In response, one protester responded by calling those attending the press conf. a bunch of ‘bitches.’”

“Bodies play sports, not identities, and this bill ensures North Carolina girls and women won’t be benched in their own sports and can train confidently knowing they have a safe and level playing field,” NC Values Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald said after the vote.

“The people of North Carolina can rest assured their daughters will not have to worry about injuries or unfair competition in sports, or about their daughters being exposed by men in their locker rooms.”

The GOP’s veto override of the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which Republicans passed and enacted Wednesday, drew similar overblown outrage from leftists.

“Contrary to what some have said, this bill does not incite fear or place undue pressure on schools,” the NC Family Policy Council said in a statement. “Instead, it encourages parental involvement in schools, keeps K-4 curriculum free of sex ed and gender ideology, and informs parents if their child requests to be referred to by a different name or pronouns at school.”

Back Alley Brawl: N.Y. Dems Blame Each Other for Illegal Alien Invasion

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) In a startling display of political discord, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., took a jab at her own party by issuing a damning letter on Tuesday, pointing fingers at New York City Democrats for their alleged failures in handling the surge of illegal immigrants. 

The 12-page letter, written by attorney Faith E. Gay on behalf of Hochul, lashed out at New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams for allegedly declining the state’s assistance in addressing the mounting immigrant chaos, which has seen almost 100,000 asylum seekers flood the city. 

“The State has identified numerous additional State-owned properties and non-State owned sites that are viable options for sheltering immigrants, but the City has not accepted these offers,” the letter, first obtained by the New York Times, read.  

The attorney alleged that these sites, identified as early as October 2022, could have housed over 3,000 immigrants. Hochul expressed her willingness to collaborate with the city on these options, but accused Adams of not taking timely action. 

In the letter, the attorney also accused the city government of withholding information from the state officials.

She added, “The city has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the state, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the state before taking certain actions.”

This internal strife within the Democrat Party intensified when Adams, who initially welcomed illegal immigrants into the city, suddenly reversed his stance last week by urging President Joe Biden to address the border crisis.

Notably, the Biden administration declined a request from New York officials to turn a military site into a shelter for illegal immigrants.

“Getting the federal government to change its position and tell an agency, the Department of the Interior, that they now have to accept migrants has been a complicated journey,” Hochul told reporters, during a celebration of the the Dominican Day parade in Manhattan.

The chaos in New York City was initially ignited by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has driven illegal aliens to so-called sanctuary cities, in an effort to call attention to the crisis facing border states. 

Adams predicted that accommodating illegal immigrants could cost New York City taxpayers a staggering $12 billion by the summer of 2025 if current influx rates are maintained.

Biden’s HHS Token Trans Rachel Levine Lauds ‘Gender’ Clinic that Calls Moms ‘Egg Producers’

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Rachel Levine, the trans assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, praised an Alaska “gender” clinic that denies reality related to biological sex by eliminating the word “mother” from K-12 science classes and calling women “egg producers.”

“These inspiring people work tirelessly to create a more equitable future, where all those living in the U.S. have equal access to lifesaving medical care,” Levine said.

In its resources section called “gender-inclusive biology,” Identity Alaska actively distorts biological facts. The “gender-inclusive biology” curriculum that is catered for science teachers recommended lying to children by giving them “child-friendly definitions” of terms relating to “gender” and sexuality.

The curriculum stated that children should be indoctrinated with the “gender” ideology since kindergarten by telling them about how “doctors” “assign” the “gender” to babies by making a “guess.” Guidance on how to groom kindergarteners by speaking to them about sexual attraction is also included in the curriculum.

Additionally, the curriculum told teachers to “inform” students about “using accurate language for body parts and functions without assuming that there are only two sexes and that everyone within a particular sex is the same.”

“Gender” ideologues also expressed their desire to get rid of the word “mother” from discussions about reproduction. As a replacement, they offered a bunch of derogatory terms, such as “gestational parent,” “birth parent,” “egg producer,” “carrier” and “those with ovaries.”

Alaskan misogynists also stated that instead of saying “when the mom gives birth,” people should use one of their Orwellian creations, such as “when the baby exits the womb.”

However, they didn’t attack only females. Identity Alaska also instructed indoctrinators to stop telling children that they have genes from their mom and dad. Again, as an alternative, “teachers” should use a phrase like “You received a mix of genes from sperm and egg.”

The science-denying curriculum also goes as far as to cancel the reality of the biological sex altogether, including when referring to the hormones that males and females produce and what kind of distinctive sexual organs they have.

McCarthy Lie Triggers Federal Indictment in Santos’s Office

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Samuel Miele, a former campaign fundraiser for Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., with identity theft.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York indictment revealed Miele’s elaborate scheme involving the impersonation of a top aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. The indictment included four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft against Miele.

The six-page document outlined his involvement with Santos during 2020 and 2022. Miele allegedly orchestrated a commission-based system, pocketing 15% of each donation obtained through his work in Santos’s campaign.

Miele pleaded not guilty to the charges and was subsequently released on a $150,000 bond, CNBC reported.

In a statement to the news outlet, Kevin Marino, an attorney representing Miele, said his client looked forward to the trial. “Mr. Miele is not guilty of these charges,” Marino said. “He looks forward to complete vindication at trial as soon as possible.”

Santos himself has previously faced legal troubles in the same district court. Three months ago, the New York Republican was indicted for fraud, theft, money laundering and alleged false statements.

McCarthy has for the most part defended Santos ahead of the charges, refusing to cave into Democrat pressure, and some Republicans, to oust the Republican freshman from Congress. The House speaker instead tapped the House Ethics Committee to investigate Santos regarding the allegations raised against him.

“I think we can look at this very quickly and come to a conclusion on what George Santos did and did not do through ethics, a safe bipartisan committee,” McCarthy told reporters in May. “I would like the Ethics Committee to move rapidly on this.”

Santos pleaded not guilty to the 13 criminal charges and has refused to resign despite the condemnation from New York Republicans.

DOJ Sought Info on Donald Trump’s Gender from Twitter

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Transcripts from the February hearing between the Justice Department and Twitter over access to Donald Trump’s personal account were unsealed this week, revealing that the DOJ sought a slew of information about the former president—including his gender.

As Headline USA reported last week, the February hearing resulted in Twitter being held in contempt and fined after it failed to comply with a warrant for Trump’s Twitter info, including his direct messages.

Twitter had unsuccessfully argued that it should be able to notify Trump about the DOJ warrant because he might have executive privilege over the communications from his Twitter account.

The transcript from the hearing released this week shows that the DOJ didn’t just want access to Trump’s DMs. Prosecutors apparently wanted to know his pronouns.

According to the transcript, presiding Obama-appointed District Judge Beryl Howell asked Twitter’s lawyers if they had provided all of Trump’s info to the DOJ.

“The one item that I know that is not yet turned over but is about to be turned over is the information regarding gender,” Twitter’s lawyer responded, according to the transcript.

“We have determined that we have the gender information. We spoke to the government about the gender information yesterday,” the Twitter lawyer said in February.

“The email communication from the government suggested that the gender field was not necessarily the most pressing of information, but we gathered it. And I think, as we speak are producing the gender field information.”

Following that February hearing, Judge Howell ordered Twitter to comply with the warrant by 5 p.m. that day. When Twitter again failed to do so, Howell slapped a $350,000 fine on the company.

An appeals court upheld all of Howell’s decisions.

“In sum, we affirm the district court’s rulings in all respects. The district court properly rejected Twitter’s First Amendment challenge to the nondisclosure order,” the appeals court said in a decision unsealed last week.

“Moreover, the district court acted within the bounds of its discretion to manage its docket when it declined to stay its enforcement of the warrant while the First Amendment claim was litigated,” the court added.

“Finally, the district court followed the appropriate procedures before finding Twitter in contempt of court—including giving Twitter an opportunity to be heard and a chance to purge its contempt to avoid sanctions. Under the circumstances, the court did not abuse its discretion when it ultimately held Twitter in contempt and imposed a $350,000 sanction.”

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