Auburnfan91

There's going to be to a 2nd majority black district. The Supreme Court instructed that Alabama draws a 2nd majority black district, not just make other districts more competitive. The Alabama Democratic Party leadership is mostly black. I'm not sure why you think a majority black district won't elect a black representative.

I'm not sure that would work out the way Democrats want. If you put B'ham metro in district 6, that would just about make district 7 purple also. B'ham metro is a stronghold for Terri Sewell. They're not going to want to jeopardize Sewell's seat in order to create a 2nd competitive district. Edit: Sewell is from Huntsville

They're going to have to basically split the black belt in two in order to make two black districts. Terri Sewell has most of it already in district 7. Here's the current district map that's going to have to be redrawn: Splitting the black belt is one of the only options. Most whites in Alabama vote Republican so they're not going to be able to include many red counties in a new district in order to elect a black Democrat. Here's the 2022 Alabama Gubernatorial election map by how each county voted: Red = Republican Blue = Democrat

What pro life group has a relationship with the FBI and is used as a partner in tracking pro-choice extremist groups?

So you don't see the problem when things like this happen?: "Corkins – who had chosen the research council as his target after finding it listed as an anti-gay group on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center – had planned to stride into the building and open fire on the people inside in an effort to kill as many as possible, he told investigators, according to the court documents." https://www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/justice/dc-family-research-council-shooting/index.html

Yeah but their continued relationship with the FBI gives them undeserved influence and puts targets on people they deem are part of hate groups.

BREAKING: Southern Poverty Law Center Adds Parental Rights Groups to ‘Hate Map’ Tyler O'Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / June 06, 2023 The Southern Poverty Law Center, which brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations as “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, added a slew of parental rights organizations to that “hate map” for 2022 and labeled them “antigovernment groups.” “Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s “Year in Hate and Extremism” report claims. “These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the SPLC report says. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.” “At the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group with vast connections to the GOP that this year the SPLC designated as an extremist group,” the report notes. “They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, ‘We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.'” The SPLC long has demonized conservative Christian groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom as “anti-LGBT hate groups,” national security groups such as the Center for Security Policy as “anti-Muslim hate groups,” and immigration groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies as “anti-immigrant hate groups.” The SPLC’s 2022 report—released Tuesday—includes a new designation: the “antigovernment movement.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, which brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations as “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, added a slew of parental rights organizations to that “hate map” for 2022 and labeled them “antigovernment groups.” “Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s “Year in Hate and Extremism” report claims. “These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the SPLC report says. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.” “At the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group with vast connections to the GOP that this year the SPLC designated as an extremist group,” the report notes. “They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, ‘We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.'” The SPLC long has demonized conservative Christian groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom as “anti-LGBT hate groups,” national security groups such as the Center for Security Policy as “anti-Muslim hate groups,” and immigration groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies as “anti-immigrant hate groups.” The SPLC’s 2022 report—released Tuesday—includes a new designation: the “antigovernment movement.” “Hate and antigovernment groups make up the extreme edge of America’s hard right, an inherently antidemocratic movement that rejects pluralism and equity,” the SPLC report states. “The movement instead strives to build a society dominated by hierarchy, where people whom far rightists deem lesser or threatening—women, Black and Brown people, LGBTQ people, non-Christians and others—are socially and politically subjugated. The hard right has the advantage of building on already existing structural white supremacy, as well as its persistent and regular manifestations in everyday life and in politics.” The SPLC report includes 523 “hate groups” and 702 “antigovernment extremist groups,” for a total of 1,225 organizations. The list of “hate groups” names numerous parental rights organizations, including 230 chapters of Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education (based in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania), 12 chapters of Parental Rights in Education, and many state-based chapters of Parents Involved in Education. Virginia, the state in which Glenn Youngkin won a gubernatorial election by running on parental involvement in education, includes many such groups. Parents Against Critical Race Theory in Ashburn; Parents Defending Education in Arlington; Virginia Moms for America; and Virginia Parents Involved in Education all appear on the SPLC’s new list of “antigovernment extremist groups.” Militia organizations such as III Percenters also appear in the same SPLC category, as do many chapters of Eagle Forum, a conservative women’s group headquarted in Alton, Illinois. The SPLC revealed a focus on parental rights groups in April, when the organization’s Maya Henson Carey compared parental rights advocates to the “Uptown Klans” of white Southerners trying to maintain segregation after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Writing in “State of Black America,” an annual report from the National Urban League, Carey warned that “groups like Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education, and Parents Against CRT work diligently with politicians, right-wing celebrities, and extremist groups to spread their messages of hate, lobbying for anti-CRT and anti-LGBTQ legislation and making sweeping changes by influencing school boards to fire superintendents, constrain diverse curricula and ban books.” Notably, the SPLC kept many organizations on its “hate group” list, including Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and the Foundation for American Immigration Reform. As I explain in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC’s accusation against the Family Research Council inspired a terrorist attack in 2012. A shooter targeted the council’s Washington, D.C., office, using the “hate map.” He intended to kill everyone in the building, but a brave security guard prevented him. The shooter is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence. The SPLC also kept the Dustin Inman Society on the list. The society’s founder and president, D.A. King, filed a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC, specifically challenging its “hate group” accusation. His lawsuit became the first such lawsuit to reach the discovery stage earlier this year. D. James Kennedy Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that previously sued the SPLC for defamation and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, also remains on the list. This is a breaking story and may be updated. https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/06/breaking-southern-poverty-law-center-adds-parental-rights-groups-hate-map/

How the FBI Lost, Found, and Rewarded the Alleged Russian Spy Pivotal to Surveilling Trump By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations June 01, 2023 Twelve years ago, FBI agents in Baltimore sought to wiretap former Brookings Institution analyst Igor Danchenko on suspicions he was spying for Russia. But the counterintelligence analyst they were assigned to work with ‒ Brian Auten ‒ told them he could not find their target and assumed the Russian national had fled back to Moscow. But Danchenko had not left the U.S., court documents show. He was living in the Washington area. In fact, he had been arrested in Maryland in 2013 by federal Park Police for being drunk and disorderly, something the FBI analyst could have easily discovered by searching federal law enforcement databases. Clueless, the FBI closed its espionage case on Danchenko. Auten would quickly rise to become the FBI’s top Russian analyst. In 2016 and 2017, he failed to properly vet the Steele dossier, a collection of salacious allegations created for Hillary Clinton’s campaign which sought to tie Donald Trump to the Kremlin, before clearing it as the central piece of evidence used by the FBI to obtain warrants to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Working out of headquarters as a supervisor, Auten knew Danchenko helped Christopher Steele compile the dossier while living in the area. But instead of contacting the Baltimore agents, Auten secretly groomed him as an informant, arranging payments of $220,000 to target Donald Trump and his former aide Page. One result: Danchenko, the suspected Russian spy, falsely accused Page, a former U.S. Navy office who had previously helped the FBI, of being a Russian spy in the dossier. Auten also never informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the FBI’s longstanding concerns about Danchenko. Like the Baltimore agents, investigators at FBI headquarters relied on Auten to build their counterintelligence cases on Page and three other Trump advisers. Auten provided the reports and memos they used to establish probable cause in each case. Auten also supported investigators working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Auten’s conduct was first singled out for rebuke by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who in 2019 issued a report detailing how Auten cut corners in the dossier verification process. Horowitz referred Auten to the FBI for discipline, which does not appear to have been administered. His earlier and deeper connections to Danchenko have only been more recently revealed in the report issued by Special Counsel John Durham. His findings suggest that if Auten had done his job over a decade ago, chances are the now-discredited dossier never would have been created and used by the FBI to eavesdrop on Page and help launch the Russiagate probe. It’s likely that Danchenko, the main source of the dossier’s allegations, would have been deported years earlier and flagged in the system, according to the recently released Durham Report. The embattled analyst was recommended for suspension from the bureau last year, and his case has been under disciplinary review for several months. Contacted by RealClearInvestigations, an FBI spokeswoman declined to say if Auten has been suspended. “In keeping with our usual practice,” she said, “we have no comment on personnel matters.” According to the Durham Report, Danchenko came onto the radar of agents working out of the Baltimore field office in 2010 after two former Brookings colleagues entering the government told the FBI that he had solicited classified information. The agents subsequently opened an espionage case after discovering Danchenko had previous contacts with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers. “In particular, the FBI learned that in September 2006, Danchenko informed one Russian intelligence officer that he had an interest in entering the Russian diplomatic service,” the report stated. “Four days later, the intelligence officer contacted Danchenko and informed him that they could meet that day to work ‘on the documents and then think about future plans.’” The next month, Danchenko contacted the intelligence officer “so the documents can be placed in [the following day’s] diplomatic mail pouch,” according to the report. In addition, Danchenko had been identified as an associate of two other espionage suspects, Durham learned from a review of his case file. In July 2010, the FBI initiated a request to obtain a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Danchenko. Auten helped research Danchenko and provided information for wiretap applications. However, the investigation was soon closed after the FBI incorrectly concluded Danchenko had left the country in September 2010. Danchenko and his wife continued to reside openly in the Washington area. But the probe wasn’t completely dead. In 2012, Auten exchanged emails with one of the Baltimore agents in which they speculated whether Danchenko had actually left the country. Then in 2013, the U.S. Park Police arrested Danchenko in Greenbelt, Md., on drunk-and-disorderly charges, court records first obtained by RCI show. Danchenko’s case was visible in the federal law enforcement database and prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who years later, as acting attorney general, would sign one of the 2017 applications to renew a wiretap targeting Page and authorize an expansion of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. The Russian-born Danchenko, who was living in the U.S. on a work visa, was released from jail on the condition he undergo drug testing and “participate in a program of substance abuse therapy and counseling,” as well as “mental health counseling,” the records show. His lawyer asked the court to postpone his trial and let him travel to Moscow “as a condition of his employment.” The Russian trips were granted without objection from Rosenstein. Danchenko ended up several months later entering into a plea agreement and paying fines. Despite the flurry of legal records generated on Danchenko in the federal system, it is not clear why the FBI failed to take note of his presence in the country. What the record does show is that the bureau did not reopen the espionage case against him. Danchenko reappeared on Auten’s radar in late 2016 as he and the FBI were using the Steele dossier he helped create on Trump to seek warrants to spy on Page. Auten identified his old espionage target in December 2016 as the “primary subsource” of the document. Instead of wiretapping Danchenko, the FBI recruited him as an informant and paid him $220,000 to help the bureau continue wiretapping the former Trump aide. FBI headquarters proposed paying Danchenko an additional $300,000 even as Durham was actively investigating him as the “linchpin to the uncorroborated allegations contained in the Steele Reports.” After asking officials at FBI headquarters about the bureau’s relationship with Danchenko, Durham determined that they were unable to justify keeping him open as a confidential source, “much less making hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to him.” After examining FBI documents, Durham discovered that Auten interviewed Danchenko over three days in January 2017 as part of a plan to recruit him as a paid informant, despite the unresolved counterespionage investigation. Working with then-DOJ official David Laufman, the FBI offered immunity from prosecution to the longtime spy suspect and invited his lawyer to sit with him during the interviews. “If this recruitment was successful, the FBI planned to mine Danchenko for information that was corroborative of the damaging allegations about President-elect Trump in the Steele Reports,” Durham said in his report. Auten confessed to Durham that Danchenko “was not able to provide any corroborative evidence related to any substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports ‒ and critically ‒ was unable to corroborate any of the FBI’s assertions contained in the Carter Page FISA applications,” according to the Durham report (emphasis in the original). Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll for more than three years. In internal FBI documents, Danchenko’s handling agent Kevin Helson incorrectly stated that there was no “derogatory” information associated with Danchenko and that he had not been a prior subject of an FBI investigation. “This was clearly not true as there had previously been the unresolved Baltimore FBI counterespionage investigation of Danchenko that was only closed because it was believed he had left the country and returned to Russia,” Durham pointed out. Agent Helson later learned that the informant he was assigned to handle had been investigated as a suspected spy. However, Auten advised Helson that the espionage case against Danchenko was “interesting, but was not a significant” matter, according to the Durham report. “Notably,” the report added, “Auten did not inform Helson that he had previously assisted in the Baltimore investigation.” A Suspected Kremlin Agent 'Hiding in Plain Sight' The Baltimore agents were shocked to learn from Durham’s office that Danchenko had been signed up as a confidential FBI source. One of them interviewed by Durham’s investigators believed Danchenko was a Kremlin agent “hiding in plain sight” in the U.S., while frequently traveling overseas to be debriefed by Russian intelligence. The other Baltimore agent said the counterintelligence case on Danchenko remained unresolved and, in her opinion, “certainly a lot more investigation” should have been conducted on Danchenko. “It is extremely concerning that the FBI failed to deal with the prior unresolved counterespionage case on Danchenko,” Durham concluded in his report. “Given Danchenko’s known contacts with Russian intelligence officers and his documented prior pitch [to colleagues at Democratic think tank Brookings] for classified information, the Crossfire Hurricane team’s failure to properly consider and address the espionage case prior to opening Danchenko as a CHS [confidential human source] is difficult to explain, particularly given their awareness that Danchenko was the linchpin to the uncorroborated allegations contained in the Steele Reports,” the special prosecutor added. Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the FBI’s Russia investigation. In an RCI interview, Danchenko’s lawyer denied his client ever spied for the Russian government. He said Danchenko feared Russian President Vladimir Putin and was concerned for his personal safety. However, Durham examined immigration records which revealed that Danchenko lived in the U.S. but traveled frequently to Russia, casting doubts about his security concerns. Yet in sworn affidavits to obtain the FISA warrants targeting Page, FBI agents led judges on the secret surveillance court to believe Danchenko was “Russian-based” – and therefore presumably more credible as a source of the allegations that Page was a Russian agent. By 2017, Auten knew the “Russian-based” claim was untrue. Even so, he let case agents slip it into two FISA renewal requests targeting Page. And so the “Russian-based” fraud lived on through 2017. Auten assured the court that Danchenko was “truthful and cooperative,” never telling the judges about unresolved questions that made him a suspected Russian agent. And Auten’s imprimatur carried great weight. In Durham’s telling, Auten was known internally as one of the “Triumvirate of Control” in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, along with senior counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and intelligence section chief Jonathan Moffa. Some case agents working under them believed the surveillance of Page was a “dry hole,” but the “triumvirate” insisted they continue secretly intercepting his emails, text messages, and other communications, according to Durham. On Sept. 19, 2016, the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team formally received a dossier report alleging that Page had held secret meetings with sanctioned Kremlin officials in Moscow earlier that summer in which they allegedly discussed lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia. That same day, an anxious Auten urged department lawyers to consider including the dossier report as part of the initial FISA application targeting Page. In an email to attorneys, Auten forwarded an excerpt from the dossier report and asked, “Does this put us at least *that* much closer to a full FISA on [Page]?” The attorneys thought it was a “close call” when they first discussed a FISA targeting Page in early August, but the dossier report in September “pushed it over” the line in terms of establishing probable cause. Except that the dossier allegation about secret Kremlin meetings was bunk. Auten knew there were serious doubts about it ‒ yet withheld those concerns from FISA judges. On Oct. 17, 2016, Auten received an email alerting him to a conversation an informant covertly recorded with Page that day in which Page “outright denied” meeting with the Russian officials ‒ or even knowing them. “Nevertheless,” Durham noted, “Page’s exculpatory statements were not included in the initial FISA application signed just four days later.” Before the application was submitted, Auten also was aware that the dossier was being funded and promoted by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. On Sept. 2, 2016, CIA personnel briefed Auten at FBI headquarters about credible foreign intelligence they received about the Clinton campaign’s machinations. Yet Auten took no steps to analyze the intelligence and how it might impact the Trump campaign investigation and surveillance requests. Nor did he inform the FISA court about it. Asked why he failed to disclose the “Clinton plan” intelligence, Auten told Durham’s office that it was “just one data point.” As the FBI made requests to renew its spy warrants throughout 2017, Auten continued to gloss over major holes in the dossier. He even pressured agents and analysts to back off looking into a questionable source of key allegations, according to the Durham report. It turns out that source, Charles Dolan, was also tied to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party. Agent Helson told Durham that Auten told him to “hold off” on interviewing Dolan, who was never interviewed. Auten also told a female FBI analyst working for Mueller “to cease all research and analysis related to Dolan,” according to the Durham report. She wrote a memo in September 2017 documenting Dolan’s ties to the dossier, but said that “Auten had made edits to her memorandum, some of which removed information regarding Dolan.” She said she was frustrated by the censorship and wondered if there was “a political motive” behind it. The analyst told Durham she prepared a contemporaneous timeline in case she was ever questioned about her role in the Mueller investigation. Perhaps most concerning was Auten’s reluctance to corroborate even the existence of a ghost-like source Danchenko claimed had provided him a stream of bombshell allegations that were essential to the FBI’s case for probable cause against Page. The alleged source, Belarus-born businessman and Trump booster named Sergei Millian, actually had no connection of any kind to Danchenko. There is no evidence the two men ever met or spoke. Yet Danchenko attributed to Millian the dossier’s core allegation: that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election in a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation.” This claim, which Durham found to be completely conjured up by Danchenko, formed the backbone of all four of the FBI’s applications to the FISA court to spy on Trump. Auten knew there were serious problems with the attribution. While debriefing Danchenko in January 2017, Danchenko was dodgy about his supposed conversations with Millian. Still, Auten made no effort to validate Millian as a source. He never examined either Danchenko’s or Millian’s phone records, for starters. Durham did pull the call records, however, and easily determined that Danchenko never actually spoke with Millian. He also learned from Danchenko’s email records that he fabricated his conversations with Millian, which means he also made up the dossier allegation that Carter Page masterminded the Democratic National Committee email leak, a claim the FBI also vouchsafed to the FISA court to attain the Page wiretaps. “Nevertheless, the information allegedly provided by Millian remained in the Page FISA applications,” Durham stated in his report. Auten told Durham that he did, however, check with the FBI’s partners at the CIA to see if they had anything on file to corroborate Danchenko’s  reporting in the dossier. “They received no corroborating information back,” Durham said. Durham interviewed a career counterintelligence analyst at Langley who said the dossier was transparent fiction. “Indeed, after the dossier was leaked and became public,” Durham relayed in his report, “that [CIA] expert’s reaction was to ask the FBI, ‘You didn’t use that, right?’” For several years, Auten moonlighted teaching law enforcement, intelligence, and surveillance courses at Patrick Henry College in North Virginia. He was removed from the Patrick Henry website soon after RealClearInvestigations published a July 2020 story first identifying him as the anonymous “Supervisory Intelligence Analyst” singled out in 2019 by DOJ Inspector General Horowitz for cutting corners verifying the dossier. Auten also is no longer listed as a member of the college’s Strategic Intelligence Board of Advisors. Patrick Henry’s communications director did not reply to requests for an explanation for Auten’s removal from the website. But a faculty spokesman confirmed over the phone that he is no longer teaching there. He is, however, apparently, still employed by the FBI. Auten’s most recent activities that have come to light? Possibly using false information to undermine allegations of criminal activity on the part of Hunter Biden. According to a July 25, 2022, letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Auten’s “scheme” entailed using deceptive and derogatory information to derail the FBI’s investigation. “First, it’s been alleged that the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s criminal financial and related activity,” Grassley wrote. “It is further alleged that in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by an FBI Headquarters (“FBI HQ”) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.” Correction, Thursday, June 1, 2023, 10:28 AM Eastern Because of an editing error, an earlier version mischaracterized Brian Auten's recollection of an interaction with the CIA. He told Special Counsel John Durham that he did check with the agency in an effort to corroborate Igor Danchenko’s reporting in the Steele dossier. It is not the case that he said he never checked. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/06/01/how_the_fbi_lost_found_rewarded_alleged_russian_spy_for_helping_snoop_on_trump_902334.html

This! This is a multi pronged issue that some have so far refused to treat seriously and grasp the severity of. Even if they are proven to not be guilty of any criminal activity like revenge porn, that still doesn't clear them of potential Auburn Code of Student Conduct violations. If it comes out that the players knew they were being filmed and consented to it, they could still very well miss a couple of games for violating university policies. Auburn is in a no-win situation PR wise.

Chicago-Area Man Whose Sentence Was Commuted by President Obama Charged for Expressway Shooting Alton Mills, who faces three counts of attempted murder in connection with last week's shooting, was arrested in 1993 on federal conspiracy charges as part of a crack cocaine conspiracy. By Matt Stefanski • Published 3 hours ago A suburban man whose federal life sentence was commuted by then-President Obama in 2015 has been charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection with a recent shooting on Interstate 57. Alton Mills, 54, of Evergreen Park, is being held without bond at the Cook County Jail, Illinois State Police said in a news release on Friday. Mills was arrested for a shooting that occurred on Sunday near the I-57 northbound entrance ramp from 147th Street in Posen, according to authorities. Multiple shots were fired into the victim's vehicle from the suspect's vehicle, striking the back seat passenger, according to police. That person was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Mills, who was officially charged on Thursday, was arrested in 1993 on federal conspiracy charges as part of a crack cocaine conspiracy. Due to two previous convictions of possession of less than five grams of crack cocaine, prosecutors filed a sentence enhancement, which led him to be sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to a previous news release from the Pritzker School of Law at Northwestern University. Two decades later, the Obama administration launched a clemency initiative for federal inmates - specifically non-violent, low-level offenders "who were sentenced at the height of the war on drugs and would likely receive substantially lower sentences today." U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin shared Mills' story on the Senate floor as he advocated for a prison reform bill and wrote Obama in support of a petition for commutation. Mills' sentence was commuted in December 2015, and he was released in early 2016 after 22 years behind bars. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/alton-mills-expressway-shooting-president-obama-evergreen-park/3145066/

These punks ought to be ashamed of themselves the way they treated this pregnant woman who was just trying to leave work. "Stop fake crying" "Your baby gonna come out retarded" "I’m not touching you. You’re putting your stomach on my hand" I hope she sues and never has to work another day in her life. The hospital put her on leave and she's been slandered by the media and high profile figures like Ben Crump who claimed she was trying to steal the bike that she paid for.

Receipts show the white hospital worker accused in viral video of trying to steal a Black man's rental bike paid for it herself, lawyer says Natalie Musumeci May 18, 2023, 12:09 PM CDT The attorney for the white New York City hospital worker who was accused of trying to take a rental bicycle from a Black man in a now-viral video says that the woman paid for the bike herself — and has the receipts to prove it. A receipt shared with Insider shows payment for a Citi Bike on the app on the evening of May 12 in Manhattan; the bicycle was re-locked to its dock a minute later with no charge logged. The Citi Bike identification number in the viral video is the same as the one on the receipt and the location matches the view seen in the video. "It was her bike," lawyer Justin Marino said in an interview with Insider on Thursday. Marino said that bike was pushed back into its docking station after a young Black man and his friends told the woman — a pregnant NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue staffer — that the man had already paid for the same bike. "She had reserved it, and then they pushed the bike back into the docking station, preventing her from taking it out again," Marino told Insider. Another receipt provided to Insider shows payment for a second Citi Bike taken from the same docking station one minute after the first bike was re-locked. That receipt also shows a 25-minute trip that Marino says was his client's ride home after the incident. "Everyone who's accused her of a crime of stealing the bike — it's outrageous, and it doesn't make any sense," said Marino. In the viral video, the scrubs-wearing woman appeared to start crying after repeatedly screaming out loud for "help" and accusing the Black man of putting her fetus in danger. The video was viewed millions of times as critics on social media accused her of racism. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the woman "tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat." Marino called his client a healthcare "hero" who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, but said people have made her out to be a "racist villain" because of "a tiny snippet of a video." The woman was placed on leave from her job following the incident, which NYC Health + Hospitals — New York City's public hospital system — called "disturbing." The hospital said it is investigating what happened. "I'm hoping the employer will not violate her rights and will do what's right and bring her back at some point," Marino said, adding that his client plans to sue "against individuals and media organizations who defamed her." https://www.insider.com/citi-bike-receipts-hospital-worker-viral-video-paid-lawyer-2023-5

IRS whistleblower in Hunter Biden investigation removed from probe, his attorneys say By Graham Kates, Michael Kaplan Updated on: May 17, 2023 / 10:03 AM / CBS News An IRS whistleblower who claims the Justice Department interfered with the Hunter Biden criminal probe says that "he and his entire investigative team are being removed" from the investigation, according to a letter sent Monday by his attorneys to Congress. Whistleblower's lawyer meets with congressional panels One of the attorneys, Mark Lytle, met May 5 with members of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees to discuss what the whistleblower could tell investigators and how he could do so without running afoul of taxpayer privacy laws. Lytle wrote in an April letter to Congress that the unnamed IRS criminal supervisory special agent could shed light on how the years-long, high-profile investigation had been hindered by "preferential treatment and politics." Whistleblower says he's removed from probe On Monday, the agent and his team were told they were being removed from the investigation "at the request of the Department of Justice," Lytle and another attorney, Tristan Leavitt, wrote to Congress Monday. A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency "cannot comment on the matter" and referred CBS News to Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who is overseeing the investigation. "As to any investigation of Hunter Biden, as the Attorney General has said, that investigation is being handled by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who has full authority to make investigative decisions and to bring charges in any jurisdiction as he deems appropriate," the spokesperson said. Weiss' office did not return a request for comment. The IRS said in a statement that it "is deeply committed to protecting the role of whistleblowers, and there are robust processes and procedures in place to protect whistleblowers." "As IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has stated, we will not tolerate retaliation against any IRS employee making a whistleblower allegation," the agency said in its statement, which did not directly address the Hunter Biden investigation. "When suggestions of wrongdoing are raised, we work with all appropriate parties, including the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, to ensure the integrity of the whistleblower process is safeguarded." Whistleblower Protection Act It is not clear why the whistleblower and his team were removed from the investigation. Tom Devine, a lawyer who has represented thousands of whistleblowers during the last 40 years, said it would violate the federal Whistleblower Protection Act if the agent were to be removed from the investigation because of his disclosures. "That's considered a significant change in duties and working conditions to remove you from a case, and if it's because of your whistleblowing, that would make it a violation of the law," said Devine, who is the legal director for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. Devine said even if the Justice Department believes it removed the agent and his team appropriately, there's a "reverse burden of proof" required to prove he wasn't being retaliated against. "It's a tough test. They have to show by clear and convincing evidence that they would have taken the same action for legitimate independent reasons, even if you never opened your mouth," Devine said. Whistleblower claims his information contradicts testimony by "senior political appointee" In an April interview with CBS News, Lytle said his "client wants to come forward to Congress.… He's ready to be questioned about what he knows and what he experienced under the proper legal protections." Lytle wrote in his April letter to Congress that the agent would contradict sworn testimony "by a senior political appointee." In a Senate hearing in March, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed not to interfere with Weiss' work. "I promise to ensure that he's able to carry out his investigation and that he be able to run it," Garland said on March 1. When President Joe Biden took office, dozens of U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump were asked to resign, as is customary in a new administration, but Weiss, who was leading the investigation into Hunter Biden, was asked to stay. Hunter Biden's lawyers met with Justice Department officials on April 26 to address the ongoing investigation into the president's 53-year-old son, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. The meeting, a status update at Hunter Biden's request, included officials representing the department's tax division and Weiss. Attorneys representing clients under federal investigation may request to meet with prosecutors for updates. Hunter Biden has not been charged and maintains his innocence in the matter. An attorney for Hunter Biden has previously declined to comment on the whistleblower's claims. The IRS and Treasury inspector general for tax administration have not responded to earlier requests for comment. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-whistleblower-hunter-biden-investigation-removed-from-probe-his-attorneys-say/

I guess the FEC bought into conspiratorial thinking when they fined the DNC and Clinton campaign for misreporting spending that was used for the Steele dossier. DNC, Clinton campaign agree to Steele dossier funding fine By JILL COLVIN March 31, 2022 NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee have agreed to pay $113,000 to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether they violated campaign finance law by misreporting spending on research that eventually became the infamous Steele dossier. That’s according to documents sent Tuesday to the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, which had filed an administrative complaint in 2018 accusing the Democrats of misreporting payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to obscure the spending. The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, which then hired Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, to conduct opposition research on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. But on FEC forms, the Clinton campaign classified the spending as legal services. “By intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” the campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” the initial complaint had read. The Clinton campaign and DNC had argued that the payments had been described accurately, but agreed, according to the documents, to settle without conceding to avoid further legal costs. The Clinton campaign agreed to a civil penalty of $8,000 and the DNC $105,000, according to a pair of conciliatory agreements that were attached to the letter sent to the Coolidge Reagan Foundation. The documents have not yet been made public and FEC spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the FEC has 30 days after parties are notified about enforcement matters to release them. The Steele dossier was a report compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and financed by Democrats that included salacious allegations about Trump’s conduct in Russia and allegations about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Documents have shown the FBI invested significant resources attempting to corroborate the dossier and relied substantially on it to obtain surveillance warrants targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. But the dossier has been largely discredited since its publication, with core aspects of the material exposed as unsupported and unproven rumors. A special counsel assigned to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe charged one of Steele’s sources with lying to the FBI and charged a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Clinton’s campaign with lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting in which he relayed concerns about the Russia-based Alfa Bank. Trump, who has railed against the dossier for years, released a statement celebrating the agreement and once again slamming the dossier as “a Hoax funded by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign.” A DNC spokesperson played down the decision, saying: “We settled aging and silly complaints from the 2016 election about ‘purpose descriptions’ in our FEC report.” The lawyer representing both the campaign and the DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter was first reported by the Washington Examiner. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-2022-midterm-elections-business-elections-presidential-elections-5468774d18e8c46f81b55e9260b13e93

Also, Hillary Clinton is the one who falsely accused Trump of Russia collusion and pushed the conspiracy theory to the FBI during the 2016 campaign. As soon as the FBI found out the origin of the manufactured Steele dossier(Hillary helped pay for it), they expanded the investigation instead of stopping it. They were willing to allow the public to think the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation, but they treated the Steele dossier very differently. The FBI knew before the 2016 election that most of the dossier couldn't be verified but that didn't stop them from continuing to go after Trump.

The whole investigation was based around Trump-Russia collusion. They found no collusion but kept it going to undermine Trump's presidency. The FBI's leadership is politicized. There needs to be house cleaning done to that agency. They've consistently allowed politics to guide their actions. The Hunter Biden laptop was dismissed as Russian disinformation by intelligence officials in order to help Biden against Trump. There has been more significant election interference from the FBI than from Russia.

Trump was so guilty that he offered his DNA to prove he didn't rape Carroll. The judge in this case rejected the offer and claimed it was too late to use DNA for the trial. https://apnews.com/article/politics-new-york-city-donald-trump-lewis-a-kaplan-roberta-18559887d50aaf6300ad6658c3872282

Actually no, the jury didn't say he did the exact same thing. To qualify as sexual abuse, the judge said the law does not define which parts of the body are intimate: The judge gave the jury a very low threshold on the "battery" part. The judge explained earlier in the trial that even a gentle but unwanted peck of the cheek can be battery: https://apnews.com/article/trump-rape-trial-explainer-b81969ba9e3cc0406909497f87e9e14c So basically, all the jury had to be convinced of is that at the very least Trump gave Carrol an unwanted peck on the cheek in order to find him guilty of sexual abuse. Since this was a civil case, it's a lower standard than "beyond reasonable doubt".

So the jury ruled he didn't rape her but he still somehow defamed her for denying he raped her.....

Prosecutors: Former Bills punter Matt Araiza wasn't present during alleged gang rape A recently released 200-plus-page transcript details exculpatory evidence in the case vs. Matt Araiza Dan Wetzel Columnist Mon, May 8, 2023, 5:52 PM CDT·8 min read Content warning: This story contains depictions of alleged sexual assault. Last August, just days after earning the starting job as the Buffalo Bills' punter, rookie Matt Araiza was the subject of a civil lawsuit alleging he and two San Diego State football teammates participated in a gang rape of an intoxicated 17-year-old girl. While little was known publicly, San Diego Police had spent nearly 10 months on the case before forwarding it to the district attorney without a recommendation for prosecution. The Bills said they also knew about the incident, investigated it and decided to employ Araiza anyway. The graphic allegations in the civil lawsuit, however, created a public frenzy. It included a claim that during an Oct. 15, 2021, party at a home near the SDSU campus, Araiza led the girl into a bedroom where “at least three other men” waited. “Once inside, Araiza threw [the girl] onto the bed face first,” the lawsuit read. “[The girl] went in and in and out of consciousness while” suffering through “the horrific gang rape.” It lasted an hour and a half, the lawsuit read, before she “stumbled out of the room bloody and crying” in part because “multiple piercings had ripped through the skin during the attack.” Within days the Bills cut Araiza, who due to his record breaking NCAA career and an 82-yard punt in a preseason game, had earned the nickname “Punt God.” “We just think it’s the best move for everyone to move on from Matt and let him take care of this situation,” Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane said. Araiza remains out of football despite prosecutors announcing on Dec. 7, 2022, that after conducting their own 124-day investigation that they wouldn’t press any criminal charges in the case. However, few details, let alone their reasoning or additional exculpatory evidence, was included in the initial statement. A fuller picture of what police and prosecutors found, however, is now available via a recently released 200-plus page transcript of a 100-minute meeting where a deputy district attorney offered a detailed explanation to the girl and her attorneys. Perhaps most notably, the district attorney’s office concluded Araiza couldn’t have led the girl into the alleged gang rape because he had “left” the home at about 12:30 a.m., an hour prior to when evidence suggested the alleged gang rape would have occurred. “He wasn’t even at the party anymore,” deputy district attorney Trisha Amador explained to the girl. Later Amador stated of the timeline of events, “All I know is that at that point, suspect Araiza is gone from the party.” The accuser's attorney Dan Gilleon could not immediately be reached for comment. Additionally, prosecutors told the girl that video recordings of the incident in the bedroom made it impossible to determine, let alone prosecute anyone, on whether there was a gang rape at all that night, rather than consensual sex with the other men. “In looking at the videos on the sex tape, I absolutely cannot prove any forceable sexual assault based upon what happened,” Amador said. The dual investigations by police and prosecutors included over 35 witness interviews (including some of the girl’s friends who came to the party with her that night), the results of a Sexual Assault Team exam conducted the following day and 10 search warrants that produced 4 terabytes of information, including numerous short videos of some of the alleged encounters. They led authorities to come to vastly different conclusions than what was alleged in the civil lawsuit. Prosecutors explain it to the girl and her representatives in a sensitive and detailed manner during the meeting, allowing for questions and pushback from both the girl and her attorney. Araiza, whose life has been paralyzed since being named in the civil lawsuit, hopes it’s enough for NFL teams to take a second look at him despite the civil suit still being active, according to his attorney. He and the two other players named in the suit vehemently deny any gang rape, knowledge that the girl was below California’s age of consent (18) or or whether she was intoxicated. Any sexual contact, Ariaza has said, was consensual. Now here, essentially, are local prosecutors making his case for him via a recording that not every jurisdiction provides. For Araiza, the most powerful exculpatory evidence came from a number of short videos of the encounter between the girl and two or three men in the bedroom. Timestamps show it occurred about 1:30 a.m. Citing a witness and other information, prosecutors concluded Araiza had “left the party at 12:30 [a.m.],” Amador explained to the plaintiff. The lawsuit additionally alleged that Araiza “knew or should have known” the girl was only 17 years old and that she was “heavily intoxicated.” The girl and some other high school friends became aware a party was being thrown at the house just a few blocks from the SDSU campus. The group let themselves in through a back gate. Witness interviews from the party, including two of the girl’s own friends whom she arrived with, said that she didn’t appear to be drunk at the time. Other witnesses said the girl was telling people she was 18. “A witness who was in the house gave a statement saying that at — at least one point in the party, that you made a statement telling people at the party you were 18,” Amador explained to the accuser. “Another witness at the party, a different one, says that they specifically heard you say you were 18 …” There was additional evidence cited by Amador from a recording during a party the night before at a different residence where the girl says on camera that she is 18. The civil lawsuit alleged that soon after the girl’s arrival at the party, she was separated from her friends and Araiza led her “over to the side yard of the house where he told her to perform” sex against her consent. Araiza, however, has always maintained that he never led her into a private area of the backyard, that she walked back there while he was urinating. Witness testimony, again including the girl’s friends, played a role in prosecutors declining to press charges. “The witnesses say … that shortly after you arrived at the party, you left and came back shortly thereafter,” Amador said. “And you told [a friend], ‘I just had sex.’ ... You didn’t appear unhappy. You appeared to be having fun and that the encounter on the side of the house with Matt, suspect Araiza, was consensual." Amador also explained to the girl that additional witness testimony alleged that at this period of time, “you were approaching men at the party saying, ‘I want you to [expletive] me and if you don’t [expletive] me you’re a [expletive].” While the civil lawsuit claimed that right after the Araiza encounter in the side yard the football player led her into the bedroom in the house, the timeline established by authorities was much different. Prosecutors said that “shortly after” being with Araiza, witnesses said the girl again left her group and came back to report she had had sex with a different man. Again, prosecutors explained, witnesses suggested it was consensual. “You had returned and then came back and said you had sex with a guy, this would have been the second person that would have been in the progression of the evening,” Amador said. “Again, you’re described as being OK, not scared or distraught. Seemed happy, seemed consensual. “Again, you’re not intoxicated at this point that anybody would know your intoxication level to the point that they would not be able to tell that you weren't able to give consent,” Amador said. The timeline prosecutors pieced together suggested this encounter occurred at 12:55 a.m., about a half hour after Araiza had left the house. This incident occurred on a living room sofa with one of the football players who was also named in the civil lawsuit. Parts of this encounter were filmed on a cell phone. Prosecutors said the footage from the cell phone did not suggest any forced behavior. “There’s nothing in the videos that sound like you’re saying ‘stop’ or ‘this hurts’ or anything like that,” Ted Mansour, an investigator for the San Diego County district attorney’s office, said at the meeting. The prosecutors offered to show the girl and her lawyers all of the videos they culled from cell phones. The girl watched one during the meeting before deciding that was enough. None of the lawyers in the civil case, or Araiza himself, have seen the videos because they involve sex with an underage girl. Araiza’s legal team is trying to acquire the videos through a court order as a way to defend himself against the allegations. Prosecutors also said that videos from the bedroom show that her piercings were not ripped at the time and she was not bleeding from any wounds from it. Amador said her behavior on the videos made prosecuting anyone for rape impossible. “I don’t see any elements of force being used in the sexual encounter,” Amador said. The civil lawsuit is continuing and requires a lower threshold of proof than criminal charges. Gilleon told CBS8 in San Diego that the witness who prosecutors based their opinion that Araiza was not present during the alleged gang rape was a “buddy.” He additionally wrote in a court filing that Araiza’s not appearing on any of the brief videos does not prove he wasn’t there, just that he wasn’t filmed. https://sports.yahoo.com/prosecutors-former-bills-punter-matt-araiza-wasnt-present-during-alleged-gang-rape-225211550.html

Mental illness isn't an excuse to to threaten to harm to others. Not all mentally ill people threaten to hurt others. Not all mentally ill adults attack 7 year old kids or attack elderly people. Not all mentally ill people get arrested 42 times. This is more than just mental illness. This individual was allowed to terrorize society for years because none of his family cared enough about him to get him to half way function without being violent. So if a stranger threatens to hurt you on a subway are you supposed to hope the person doesn't follow through on the threats and not engage them? There's no police around to help. You can't just retreat either, you're on the subway. There's only so much you can do when you can't retreat and someone is threatening to hurt anyone in their path. It's amazing how regular citizens are tasked with following the rules and facing consequences if anything goes wrong when they engage a bad person but bad people/criminals don't have to follow the rules and aren't held accountable.

Nope this case doesn't fit your narrative of someone not being offered help or given chances to avoid being in jail. https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-possible-charges-marine-michael-jackson-impersonator-jordan-neely-20230504-plaznkv5pjbuxaqdu2tlxpieqq-story.html

This video is age restricted but it includes a witness(hispanic who doesn't speak english) who stated that the guy who who was put in a chokehold was wanting food and was threatening passengers: "I won't take no for answer" "I'm ready to go back to jail" "I'll hurt anyone on this train" The justice system is broken. It's unfortunate the guy died but he shouldn't have been able to keep doing this. The public shouldn't have to be in a situation where they have to be threatened and fear for their lives because judges and prosecutors refuse to punish criminals and keep them locked up. He had 42 prior arrests and had an active felony warrant for assaulting a 67 year old woman in 2021. Why are criminals allowed to terrorize the public over and over without facing firm punishment? This is the result of the soft on crime approach that results in more incidents of attacks and killings between criminals and regular citizens. Judges and prosecutors in these cities are creating this chaos.

NBC, CBS, and ABC nightly news shows didn't cover the House Oversight Committee subpoena.

So they can't do both?