Springsteen Called Out for Bilking Fans w Sh**ty Protest Song

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Springsteen Called Out for Bilking Fans w Sh**ty Protest Song

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Septuagenarian rocker Bruce Springsteen faced backlash over his newly released tribute to Minnesota anti-ICE protesters, not only because of its divisive political overtones, but because the song itself sucked.

In a message posted to Bluesky on Wednesday, “The Boss” boasted, “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis.”

He dedicated it to recently killed activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were shot in apparent self-defense last month by immigration officials.

But critics noted that the protest song — which directly name-checks Republicans including President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller — was a far cry from Springsteen’s glory days of penning classics like “Thunder Road” or the oft-misinterpreted anti-war anthem “Born in the USA.”

The song’s slapdash approach plays fast and loose with rhyme and meter, while its schlocky sentiment comes off as tone deaf, with recent stats showing that nearly six in 10 Americans strongly support the deportation of illegal immigrants.

Even its title seems an uninspired act of self-plagiarism, borrowing from Springsteen’s own 1993 classic “Streets of Philadelphia.”

Some, on the other hand, argued that the disappointing ditty was entirely on brand for the overrated crooner.

“Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen apparently earned his alias by bilking fans and venues early in his career, in order to pay his bandmates, wrote right-wing influencer Raheem Kassam in a Substack post. “He’s spent the last several decades shaking down America, and his latest track – ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ – is no different.”

Several elements struck Kassam as lazy and derivative songwriting.

“The speed at which he pulled together the cliched melodies and a harmonica solo that sounds like it was lifted from outtakes from The Promised Land (1978) was part of its sales pitch,” wrote the former Breitbart editor, who now leads the National Pulse newsroom.

Moreover, the song overlooked key factual details about the circumstances of Good’s and Pretti’s deaths.

“Springsteen portrays Pretti as some harmless peacenik protester — a claim that collapsed almost immediately under the weight of police reports and video evidence,” Kassam wrote.

In one egregious example — both of factual inaccuracy and of attempting to shoehorn too many syllables into one line — Springsteen sings, “Now they say they’re here to uphold the law, but they trample on our rights / If your skin is black or brown, my friend, you can be questioned or deported on sight.”

No evidence supports the claim of race-based deportations. Indeed, some have observed that the deaths of Good and Pretti, who were both Caucasian, effectively debunked commonly held leftist misperceptions of “white privilege” when dealing with law enforcement.

Kassam further slammed Springsteen for exploiting the passions of leftist idealogues to line his own bank account.

“No statement appears to have been made about the revenue generated from the new, anti-cop song,” he wrote. “Springsteen will always find a way to turn tragedy into merchandise. ‘The Boss’ is again raking in cash made from his caterwauling, this time over dead left-wing agitators.”

He likewise criticized Springsteen’s sheer recklessness for egging on pliable protesters by using falsehoods and violent rhetoric to inflame their passions.

“If more people are hurt, it is – just as in the cases of Good and Pretti – squarely the fault of the Springsteens of the world for radicalizing them into defending illegal criminal migrants, pedophiles, rapists, and fraudsters,” Kassam wrote.

Other critics mocked the 76-year-old Springsteen, once the embodiment of blue-collar machismo, for his increasingly haggard appearance.

“This elderly lesbian (Bruce Springsteen) is a clueless degenerate,” wrote noted sociologist Gad Saad. “I can’t stand her.”

While some detractors may be happy to see the song fade into obscurity as its references quickly become dated, others took to song themselves, writing pro-ICE responses that lampooned Springsteen for his growing irrelevance.

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

Govt. Funding Bills Pass House on Razor-Thin Margins, Head to Trump’s Desk

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Govt. Funding Bills Pass House on Razor-Thin Margins, Head to Trump’s Desk

(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) ​​ The U.S. House passed a critical government funding package along bipartisan lines in a nail-biter Tuesday vote, sending it to the president’s desk.

Once President Donald Trump signs the legislation into law, Congress will have knocked out 11 of the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026.

“Funding the government is not an optional exercise – it’s the most basic duty we have in Congress,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., told lawmakers before the vote. “I share the frustrations of many that the Senate altered our deal at the last minute. But our obligation is not to those emotions – it’s to the American people.”

The $1.2 trillion legislation funds State-Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD through Sept. 30. 

It also includes a two-week Continuing Resolution in place of the Homeland Security bill, a last-minute change by the Senate that required the package to return to the House. Senate Democrats had demanded the change in exchange for their votes after the second fatal shooting of a protester in Minneapolis. 

The CR temporarily freezes DHS and related departments’ funding at current levels as Democrats and Republicans craft a new Homeland Security bill that includes immigration enforcement reforms.

The action stung many House Republicans, causing 21 of them to vote against the package, which only succeeded due to 21 Democrats supporting it.

“Funding Democrat earmarks and resettlement money while giving DHS two weeks is not a compromise,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said on social media. “It’s a bad deal.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has outlined Democrats’ demands, which include barring agents from wearing masks, enforcing body-worn cameras, and requiring agents to obtain judicial warrants on top of immigration court warrants in order to arrest people.

While Republican leaders have expressed support for measures like requiring body-worn cameras, they firmly oppose warrant reform. Lawmakers have until Feb. 13 to come to an agreement, or else risk another partial shutdown.

DOJ Announces More Arrests in St. Paul Church Protest, Nine Total

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DOJ Announces More Arrests in St. Paul Church Protest, Nine Total

(Elyse Apel, The Center Square) ​​ Federal officials have made nine arrests in connection with a protest that disrupted a Sunday morning church service in St. Paul on Jan. 18.

That comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced two additional arrests Monday.

“If you riot in a place of worship, we WILL find you,” Bondi said. “We have made two more arrests in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota: Ian Davis Austin and Jerome Deangelo Richardson.”

All nine were indicted by a federal grand jury in Minnesota last week on two counts:

  • conspiracy against right of religious freedom at a place of worship
  • and injure, intimidate, and interfere with exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship

This comes following widespread calls for arrests in the wake of the protest, which quickly captured attention far beyond Minnesota.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the protest, which was organized in part by members of Black Lives Matter Minnesota.

Video posted by the group shows protesters chanting “ICE out” and “justice for Renee Good” during the service at Cities Church. Another video circulating on social media shows Kelly calling congregants “pretend Christians” and “comfortable white people.”

Caleb Phillips, a congregant at the church, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview that the protestors were seated throughout the congregation before the service began.

“The entire congregation came alive. Individuals who are planted from front to back throughout the entire place stood up,” Phillips said. “It felt like we were surrounded, because they were all throughout the congregation.”

Reports allege the protesters discovered one of the church’s pastors works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling the protest a “clandestine mission.”

The church protest came in the wake of the Jan. 7 killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during an encounter with ICE officers conducting enhanced immigration enforcement. Lemon, a former CNN anchor, defended the protesters.

“I imagine it’s uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here,” Lemon said during a livestream of the protest at service. “But, that’s what protesting is about.”

The indictment called the protest a “coordinated takeover-style attack.” Lemon was arrested on Friday, but almost immediately released after a judge ruled there was a lack of probable cause for any of the arrests.

Since then, Lemon has appeared at the Grammy’s and on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

“I will not stop now. I will not stop ever,” Lemon said. “In fact, there is no more important time but right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on truth and holds those in power accountable.”

Jill Biden’s First Husband Charged with Killing Wife in Domestic Dispute at Their Delaware Home

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Jill Biden’s First Husband Charged with Killing Wife in Domestic Dispute at Their Delaware Home

(Headline USA)  The first husband of former first lady Jill Biden has been charged with killing his wife at their Delaware home in late December, authorities announced in a news release Tuesday.

William Stevenson, 77, of Wilmington was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975.

Caroline Harrison, the Delaware Attorney General’s spokesperson, confirmed in a phone call that Stevenson is the former husband of Jill Biden.

Jill Biden declined to comment, according to an emailed response from a spokesperson at the former president and first lady’s office.

Stevenson remains in jail after failing to post $500,000 bail after his arrest Monday on first-degree murder charges. He is charged with killing Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec. 28.

Police were called to the home for a reported domestic dispute after 11 p.m. and found a woman unresponsive in the living room, according to a prior news release. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful.

She ran a bookkeeping business and was described as a family-oriented mother and grandmother and a Philadelphia Eagles fan, according to her obituary, which does not mention her husband.

Stevenson was charged in a grand jury indictment after a weekslong investigation by detectives in the Delaware Department of Justice.

It was not immediately clear if Stevenson has a lawyer. He founded a popular music venue in Newark called the Stone Balloon in the early 1970s.

Jill Biden married U.S. Sen. Joe Biden in 1977. He served as U.S. president from January 2021 to January 2025.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

Investors in the East Line Up to Buy Gold on the Dip

Money Metals News Service
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Investors in the East Line Up to Buy Gold on the Dip

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) When the price of gold plunged on Friday, Chinese investors lined up at the only Singapore bank selling gold products to retail customers to take advantage of the dip.

The underscores a fundamental dynamic in this gold bull market – regular people want the yellow metal, no matter what the big bankers are doing.

Ng Beng Choo is a 70-something-year-old retiree. She arrived at the headquarters of UOB at 9:30 a.m. to get her place in line. She got a ticket but was still waiting for her turn six hours later.

“I came to buy because the price of gold dropped today,” she told The Business Times.

Late arrivals were out of luck. Notices posted later in the day on Monday read, “Due to overwhelming response, the buy queue tickets have all been fully issued for the day. Your patience is appreciated.”

As The Business Times article framed it, a long-running rally in precious metals kicked into overdrive last month as the Trump administration upended the geopolitical order and renewed its attacks on the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“Those surges went into reverse on Friday, and the rout continued apace on Monday. At one point, gold had dropped by more than a fifth from a record high last week. But rather than seek to sell, many retail investors appeared to be trying to buy the dip in gold.”

Many stood in line only to be disappointed. According to reports, the bank completely sold out of MKS PAMP products. The company is one of the most recognized bullion brands in Asia.

Buyers weren’t only lining up in Shanghai. In Sydney, Australia, a queue snaked out into the street from an ABC Bullion outlet.

Alex, a customer in his 20s, told a reporter that he lost a lot of money on Friday, yet he was still eager to buy more gold. “Tomorrow’s a new day,” he said.

A Thai analyst said investors there are also still in a buying mood.

“It’s still a buying trend in here in Thailand. They’re holding the old position and then just hold and see.”

Physical gold demand, especially in the East, has been a foundational dynamic in this gold bull market, with coin and bar demand hitting a 12-year high of 1,374.1 tonnes.

In value terms, global bar and coin demand was a record-breaking $154 billion.

More than half of the global coin and bar demand came from two countries – China and India.

According to the World Gold Council, “The rise in the gold price was overwhelmingly the most important factor driving stronger demand.”

However, bar and coin demand in the U.S. did not grow in volume despite a strong fourth quarter. In value terms, U.S. physical gold investment rose by a relatively modest 8 percent.

According to The Business Times report, despite the selloff, the dynamics supporting the gold bull market remain firmly in place, noting that Deutsche Bank has maintained its $6,000 gold forecast for 2026.

“Retail buyers may be betting that the main drivers of gold’s ascent – an increasingly unpredictable U.S. President Donald Trump and the debasement trade where investors avoid currencies and sovereign bonds – are still intact.”

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.

Mainstream Still Generally Bullish on Gold and Silver Despite Recent Sell-Off

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Mainstream Still Generally Bullish on Gold and Silver Despite Recent Sell-Off

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Are you worried that the big sell-off in gold and silver is the end of the bull market?

I’m not, for reasons I have already articulated. And many mainstream analysts don’t seem to be concerned either.

Reuters recently published an article headlined, “Gold’s bull run seen intact despite steep pullback.”

“Despite a historic pullback in gold and silver prices, triggered by the sharpest two-session sell-off in decades, analysts see the metal’s ​bull run continuing and expect it to notch fresh record highs later this year.”

Keep in mind, this isn’t some gold bug website. This is Reuters making this argument.

During trading sessions on Friday (Jan. 30) and Monday, gold shed more than 13 percent, and silver plunged 34 percent. The drop in the spot gold price on Friday was the steepest single-day decline since 1983.

But as Ross Norman, an independent analyst interviewed by Reuters, noted, we’ve got to keep the selloff in perspective.  Despite a large and fast correction, gold and silver are still at the same level they were three weeks ago.

“This is a significant correction, but it does not, by ‍any stretch of the imagination, signify the bull run has ended.”

It’s important to remember that assets never go up in a straight line. Corrections, even steep ones, are normal and healthy in a bull market.

Gold and silver both got overextended as they rallied in January. Solid dynamics were driving the rally. These include de-dollarization, central bank gold buying, inflation pressures, Federal Reserve monetary easing, geopolitical tensions, and U.S. fiscal malfeasance. Nothing happened on Friday that indicates any of these things will reverse anytime soon.

However, speculators also got on the hype train, driving the price higher even faster. As one analyst put it, the metals were oversold, but still underinvested.

What’s so healthy about a correction?

As WisdomTree analysts pointed out, “the pullback could discourage speculative buying, potentially creating space for long-term strategic buyers to re-allocate.”

In other words, corrections clear out weak hands and create a stronger foundation for the next move up.

As Société Générale analysts explained, the sell-off wasn’t related to any change in market dynamics.

“These extreme moves tell you this was not fundamentally driven; it was about positioning.”

The note went on to explain that it wasn’t so much a “correction.” Metals prices “deleveraged.”

“When positioning gets stretched, stops get hit, margin calls rise, and systematic funds cut risk. Silver’s outsized drop is the hallmark of leverage being flushed. The move was exacerbated by profit-taking, VAR limits being hit, CTA deleveraging, and the fact this all happened at month-end. When one domino falls, prices accelerate faster than any fundamental feature could justify,”

Corrections generally have a catalyst. This one kicked off when President Trump chose the man perceived as the “most hawkish” candidate to head up the Federal Reserve when Jerome Powell’s term ends this spring.

The markets were counting on the new Fed chief to be more willing to cut interest rates aggressively. As a so-called “inflation hawk,” many think Keven Warsh won’t be quite so accommodating. A higher interest rate environment creates headwinds for gold and silver since they are non-yielding assets.

I go into detail about why the reaction to Warsh was knee-jerk and irrational HERE.

Even with Warsh heading up the Fed, analysts still expect two more rate cuts in 2026. Independent metals trader Tai Wong said this will help support the gold price.

Meanwhile, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo forecasts $6,200 gold this year. JP Morgan expects gold to reach $6,300 by the end of the year, and Deutsche Bank reiterated its gold price forecast of $6,000 this year, citing sustained investor ‍demand.

That’s not to say there won’t be more volatility and additional corrections. Many analysts expect a period of consolidation. City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada said, “It is far too early to suggest gold has found a bottom yet.”

However, on Tuesday (Feb. 3), gold was recovering, up over $269 in early trading and back close to $5,000. Silver was up over $8.50 and close to $89.

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.

Epstein Files Reveal Maxwell Family Pushed for Google Censorship

Jose Nino
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Epstein Files Reveal Maxwell Family Pushed for Google Censorship

(José Niño, Headline USA)  The Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein investigation documents has brought renewed attention to a 2004 controversy over online antisemitism, revealing correspondence from Elisabeth Maxwell addressing the issue.

Chris Menahan of Information Liberation observed on Twitter, “Epstein Files: Elisabeth Maxwell—the wife of Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert—circulates a petition to “Friends of Israel” in 2004 demanding Google censor the “anti-Semitic” site “JewWatch” to keep it from appearing as the number one search result for “Jew.”

“(This succeeded, eventually.)”

Elisabeth Maxwell, the widow of media mogul Robert Maxwell and mother of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, sent an email to contacts she addressed as “Friends of Israel” urging them to sign a petition demanding Google remove the antisemitic website JewWatch from its search results.

The email, dated April 10, 2004, expressed shock that searching the word “Jew” on Google returned JewWatch as the top result. “I was shocked to receive the information below which I have verified myself,” Elisabeth wrote, urging recipients to add their names to a petition seeking 50,000 signatures.

Maxwell, who devoted her later life to Holocaust education and Christian Jewish dialogue, framed the issue as a matter of combating racial hatred. “Spreading racial hatred cannot be tolerated in any form and anti semitism is one of the most virulent form with very well known consequences as the Holocaust has amply demonstrated,” she wrote.

The 2004 controversy centered on how Google’s algorithm elevated JewWatch, a website established in 1998 by Frank Weltner that promoted Holocaust denial and antisemitic theories about politics. The site ranked first despite having relatively few backlinks because antisemites frequently used “Jew” as anchor text when linking to it, while mainstream Jewish organizations typically avoided that standalone term.

At the time, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that New York real estate investor Steven Weinstock launched the RemoveJewWatch petition campaign that Elisabeth referenced in her email. The petition gathered over 50,000 signatures from people demanding Google remove the site entirely from its index, per a report by ABC News at the time. 

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, himself Jewish, faced intense pressure but maintained the company’s position against manual intervention. “I certainly am very offended by the site, but the objectivity of our rankings is one of our very important principles,” Brin stated at the time.

Rather than removing JewWatch, Google added explanatory notes about how its algorithm works and why offensive results sometimes appear. Jewish organizations subsequently launched a counter campaign creating numerous links using “Jew” as anchor text pointing to Wikipedia’s article on Judaism, successfully displacing the hate site from the top position.

Elisabeth Maxwell was 83 years old when she circulated the petition email. Born to French Protestant parents, she married British Army Captain Robert Maxwell in 1945 and later discovered through genealogical research that over 300 of her husband’s relatives had perished in the Holocaust.

This discovery transformed her into a respected Holocaust scholar who founded the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies in 1987 and organized major international conferences on Holocaust remembrance. She served as the first female vice president of the International Council of Christians and Jews and held an honorary fellowship at Cambridge’s Woolf Institute.

The email’s inclusion in the Epstein files reflects the extensive documentation of the Maxwell family’s activities and connections. Robert Maxwell received a state funeral in Israel after his mysterious 1991 death, with multiple sources alleging intelligence connections. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex tfrafficking for her role facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse.

The January 30, 2026 Justice Department release comprised 3.5 million pages pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The disclosure included correspondence, flight logs, financial records, and investigative materials spanning two decades.

The release faced immediate criticism for redaction failures that exposed victim identities and for representing only about half the potentially responsive documents federal authorities had identified.

The link to the file from Elisabeth Maxwell’s email can be found here. 

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

 

Elon Musk Pours $10 Million Into Republican Midterm War Chest

Jose Nino
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Elon Musk Pours $10 Million Into Republican Midterm War Chest

(José Niño, Headline USA) Elon Musk sent $10 million flowing into Republican midterm fundraising efforts last month, marking his return as a major force in GOP politics after a prolonged and very public falling out with President Donald Trump.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief split his contribution evenly, sending $5 million each to the primary fundraising vehicles for Republican Senate and congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission filings released on Saturday. He also added millions to his own political fund.

The donations arrive weeks after Musk previously broke with Trump over a government spending package the billionaire publicly called “outrageous” and filled with unnecessary spending, per a report by the Financial Times. That disagreement pushed Musk toward announcing plans to form an entirely new political movement. At the peak of the standoff, Musk unveiled his vision for an “America Party” to fight what he described as a “one-party system” responsible for “bankrupting the country.”

That plan has now quietly disappeared from the conversation. As FT reported, Musk’s fresh round of contributions brought his total political spending for the year to at least $75 million, though this figure represents only a small portion of the more than $250 million he poured into supporting Trump’s 2024 presidential victory. He also spent more than $23 million last year backing a conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who lost by a wide margin, per a previous FT report.

The timing of these donations followed closely after Musk sat down for dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump publicly called Musk a “good guy” shortly afterward, despite Musk having suggested months earlier that the president was connected to files surrounding the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The FT reported that Trump’s own Super PAC, Maga Inc, reported entering 2026 armed with a $304 million war chest, making it the dominant financial force in Republican politics by a significant margin. Other notable contributors to Republican causes include OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, who each gave $12.5 million in December. Crypto.com added $20 million during the same period, a contribution that followed the company’s various business dealings with Trump family enterprises.

Casino magnate Steve Wynn and Blackstone chair Stephen Schwarzman each contributed $5 million to the Senate leadership fund late last year. Wynn gave an additional $2 million to the congressional equivalent.

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

 

Attorneys Want to Suppress Charlie Kirk Murder Video

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Attorneys Want to Suppress Charlie Kirk Murder Video

(Headline USA) Graphic videos showing the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he spoke to a crowd on a Utah college campus quickly went viral, drawing millions of views.

Now, attorneys for the man charged in Kirk’s killing want a state judge to block such videos from being shown during a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Defense attorneys also want to oust TV and still cameras from the courtroom, arguing that “highly biased” news outlets risk tainting the case.

Prosecutors and attorneys for news organizations urged state District Judge Tony Graf to keep the proceedings open. But legal experts say the defense team’s worries are real: Media coverage in high-profile cases such as Tyler Robinson’s can have a direct “biasing effect” on potential jurors, said Cornell Law School Professor Valerie Hans.

“There were videos about the killing, and pictures and analysis (and) the entire saga of how this particular defendant came to turn himself in,” said Hans, a leading expert on the jury system. “When jurors come to a trial with this kind of background information from the media, it shapes how they see the evidence that is presented in the courtroom.”

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson, 22, who is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem. An estimated 3,000 people attended the outdoor rally to hear Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA, who helped mobilize young people to vote for President Donald Trump.

To secure a death sentence in Utah, prosecutors must demonstrate aggravating circumstances, such as that the crime was especially heinous or atrocious. That’s where the graphic videos could come into play.

Watching those videos might make people think, “‘Yeah, this was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel,’” Hans said.

Further complicating efforts to ensure a fair trial is the political rhetoric swirling around Kirk, stemming from the role his organization played in Trump’s 2024 election. Even before Robinson’s arrest, people had jumped to conclusions about who the shooter could be and what kind of politics he espoused, said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown.

“People are just projecting a lot of their own sense of what they think was going on, and that really creates concerns about whether they can be open to hearing the actual evidence that’s presented,” she said.

Robinson’s attorneys have ramped up claims of bias as the case has advanced, even accusing news outlets of using lip readers to deduce what the defendant is whispering to his attorneys during court hearings.

Fueling those concerns was a television camera operator who zoomed in on Robinson’s face as he talked to his attorneys during a Jan. 16 hearing. That violated courtroom orders, prompting the judge to stop filming of Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

“Rather than being a beacon for truth and openness, the News Media have simply become a financial investor in this case,” defense attorneys wrote in a request for the court to seal some of their accusations of media bias. Unsealing those records, they added, “will simply generate even more views of the offending coverage, and more revenue for the News Media.”

Prosecutors acknowledged the intense public interest surrounding the case but said that does not permit the court to compromise on openness. They said the need for transparency transcends Robinson’s case.

“This case arose, and will remain, in the public eye. That reality favors greater transparency of case proceedings, not less,” Utah County prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Defense attorneys are seeking to disqualify local prosecutors because the daughter of a deputy county attorney involved in the case attended the rally where Kirk was shot. The defense alleges that the relationship represents a conflict of interest.

In response, prosecutors said in a court filing that they could present videos at Tuesday’s hearing to demonstrate that the daughter was not a necessary witness since numerous other people recorded the shooting.

Among the videos, prosecutors wrote, is one that shows the bullet hitting Kirk, blood coming from his neck and Kirk falling from his chair.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Death and Taxes: Ex-IRS Officer Convicted of Murdering Wife

Headline USA Editor
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Death and Taxes: Ex-IRS Officer Convicted of Murdering Wife

(Headline USA) A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair was found guilty Monday of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy.

Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhães, the au pair, shot him, too.

But officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Banfield set Ryan up in a scheme to get rid of his wife. It later came out that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães had been having an affair.

The verdict comes after the gruesome and complicated double homicide was catapulted into mainstream media in Brazil, the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

“The details of this case attracted national attention — because it involved an affair, a fetish website and a premeditated plot,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said following the verdict. “But beyond the spectacle, we are here today because of the tragic deaths of two of our community members, Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.”

Prosecutors argued that Banfield and Magalhães impersonated Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on a website for sexual fetishes. Officials said they used the site to lure Ryan to the house for a sexual encounter involving a knife, left the front door open and staged the scene to look as though they had shot an intruder who was attacking the wife.

Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2024 and testified against her former lover at trial, corroborating prosecutors’ theory.

Defense attorney John Carroll argued that Magalhães’ testimony could not be trusted because she was cooperating with prosecutors to try to avoid a long prison sentence. In his own testimony, Banfield said that the testimony was “absolutely crazy.”

Carroll also introduced evidence showing that there was dissent within the police department over the theory that Magalhães and Brendan Banfield impersonated Christine Banfield on social media in a “catfishing” scheme. An officer who concluded from digital evidence that Christine Banfield was behind the social media account was later transferred in what Carroll said was punishment for disagreeing with a theory favored by the department’s higher-ups.

But prosecutor Jenna Sands pushed back on the notion that Banfield was unfamiliar with social media platforms for people interested in fetishes and couldn’t be capable of such catfishing.

“You had multiple affairs, correct?” Sands asked the defendant, followed by, “And one of those affairs was with a woman named Danielle, who you met on a fetish site searching for ‘sugar babies.’ Is that correct?”

Banfield replied: “I would not call it a fetish site.” When pressed as to how he would describe the website, Banfield testified that he had an arranged relationship with someone who knew he was married.

In closing arguments, Sands told the jury they did not have to rely solely on Magalhães’ testimony, pointing to what she called a “plethora of evidence.” That included expert testimony that blood stains on Ryan’s hands suggested Christine Banfield’s blood had been dripped onto him from above.

Banfield was also convicted of child endangerment. Banfield’s daughter, 4 years old at the time, was in the home’s basement on the day of the killings, though physically unharmed.

The jury deliberated for nearly nine hours across two days before reaching a verdict. Banfield faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for May 8.

Magalhães was scheduled to be sentenced after Banfield’s trial. Attorneys have said she could be allowed to walk free if she is sentenced to time served and return to her home in Brazil.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

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