#Eastern District of New York Attorney's office

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Rep. George Santos orchestrated a 2017 credit card skimming operation in Seattle, the man who was convicted of the fraud and deported to Brazil said in a sworn declaration submitted to federal authorities Wednesday.

“I am coming forward today to declare that the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos / Anthony Devolder,” Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha wrote in the declaration. It was sent by express mail and email to the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service New York office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, according to a copy of the receipt from the United States Postal Service.

Telha decided to contact law enforcement officials after seeing the newly minted congressman on television, he said in the declaration.

Santos, whose full name is George Anthony Devolder Santos, often went by Anthony Devolder before his first congressional bid in 2020. The New York Republican won a Long Island swing district last November after lying on the campaign trail about his education, work experience and supposed Jewish ancestry. The House ethics panel initiated an investigation into Santos last week to explore possible “unlawful activity” related to his run. State, federal and Brazilian authorities are also probing Santos related to a string of potential financial crimes. Santos has admitted to “embellishing” parts of his background, but said he never broke any laws.

He was previously questioned about the Seattle scheme by investigators for the U.S. Secret Service, CBS News has reported. He was never charged, but the investigation remains open. Santos also told an attorney friend he was “an informant” in the fraud case. Trelha insists he was its mastermind.

“Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines,” Trelha said in the declaration that was submitted to authorities by his New York attorney, Mark Demetropoulos. POLITICO obtained a copy of the declaration.

Spokespeople for the FBI did not return messages. Representatives for the Secret Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

A lawyer for Santos also did not respond to emails and text messages for comment.

Trelha and Santos met in the fall of 2016 on a Facebook group for Brazilians living in Orlando, Fla., he said in the declaration and in an interview with POLITICO. By November, Trelha had rented a room in Santos’ Winter Park, Fla., apartment, according to a copy of the lease viewed by POLITICO.

“That is when and where I learned from him how to clone ATM and credit cards,” Trelha wrote in the declaration that was translated from his native Portuguese.

Santos kept a warehouse on Kirkman Road in Orlando to store the skimming equipment, according to the declaration.

“He had a lot of material — parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards to be painted and engraved with stolen account and personal information.”

“Santos gave me at his warehouse, some of the parts to illegally skim credit card information. Right after he gave me the card skimming and cloning machines, he taught me how to use them,” Trelha wrote.

Trelha then flew out to Seattle where he was caught on a security camera removing a skimming device from a Chase ATM on Pike Street, according to law enforcement records. He was arrested on April 27.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle previously told POLITICO it’s not unusual for credit card thieves to go far from home to nab numbers so there’s less chance of the stolen numbers being traced back to the perpetrators. That spokesperson, Emily Langlie, said she didn’t have any information about Santos’ involvement in the Trelha case.

At the time of his arrest, Trelha had a fake Brazilian ID card and 10 suspected fraudulent cards in his hotel room, according to police documents. An empty FedEx package police found in his rental car was sent from the Winter Park unit he shared with Santos.

Trelha told federal authorities in the declaration Wednesday that his “deal with Santos was 50% for him and 50% for me.”

“We used a computer to be able to download the information on the pieces. We also used an external hard drive to save the filming, because the skimmer took the information from the card, and the camera took the password,” he wrote.

“It didn’t work out so well, because I was arrested,” he admitted.

Trelha said Santos visited him in jail in Seattle, but told him not to implicate him in the scheme.

“Santos threatened my friends in Florida that I must not say that he was my boss,” he wrote.

Trelha agreed to say he was working for someone in Brazil and not with Santos, because he was worried Santos would have his friends in Orlando deported, he said in a telephone interview last month. Trelha recalled Santos warning he could “make things worse for him” since he was already in jail and Santos was a U.S. citizen.

In an audio recording of Trelha’s May 15, 2017 arraignment in King County Superior Court, Santos tells the judge he’s a “family friend” who was there to secure a local Airbnb if the defendant was released on bail.

Santos also claimed to the Judge he worked for Goldman Sachs in New York, a key part of his campaign biography he later admitted wasn’t true.

Trehla was unable to post the $75,000 bail. He pleaded guilty to felony access device fraud, served seven months in jail and was deported to Brazil in early 2018.

“Santos did not help me to get out of jail. He also stole the money that I had collected for my bail,” Trelha told federal investigators in the declaration.

Trelha told POLITICO that before flying to Seattle, Santos had traveled to Orlando to pick up $20,000 in cash he instructed Leide Oliveira Santos, another roommate, to give him from a safe. Santos had promised to hire El Chapo’s lawyer for Trelha, he said. A third roommate in the Winter Park apartment told POLITICO in a phone interview that Oliveira Santos told him Santos had come to get money for Trelha. The third roommate spoke on condition of anonymity because he was in the country as an undocumented immigrant.

But Trelha never heard from Santos after Santos visited him in Seattle, the third roommate said. He later learned from Oliveira Santos that her attempts to contact Santos over the next few months were futile.

Trelha realized he had been conned, he said, when no lawyer appeared — let alone El Chapo’s.

But he still didn’t want to name Santos as a co-conspirator, fearing retaliation against Oliveira Santos, who was also an undocumented immigrant, he said.

Trelha told the federal authorities in the declaration that he had witnesses to support his statements. Oliveira Santos declined to discuss the matter with POLITICO.

“I am available to speak with any American government investigator,” Trelha wrote before providing his email address and cellular phone number and attesting that he signed the declaration “willingly and truthfully.”

A federal prosecutor who handled Trelha’s case described the scheme as “sophisticated,” adding that the Seattle portion was only “the tip of the iceberg,” according to court records reported by CBS News. But a person close to the investigation who is not authorized to speak publicly said they saw no evidence that prosecutors did forensic reports on Trelha’s phone or seemed motivated to pursue international co-conspirators.

[reasonsforhope]

Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by the jury in his "hush money" trial in New York on Thursday, making him the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime.

The jury, composed of 12 Manhattan residents, found that Trump illegally falsified business records to cover up a��$130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. They found him guilty on all counts on their second day of deliberations.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president is now also a convicted felon, a label that could reverberate across the electorate in the months between now and Election Day in November.

The verdict was handed down in the same Manhattan courtroom where Trump has been on trial for the past six weeks. Trump stared at each juror as they confirmed their vote to convict and angrily denounced the decision in the hallway outside the courtroom, vowing to fight the conviction.

Jurors sided with prosecutors who said that Trump authorized the plan to falsify checks and related records in an effort to prevent voters from learning of an alleged sexual encounter with Daniels. Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said the conspiracy spanned his 2016 campaign and continued well into his first year in the White House. Trump denied having sex with Daniels and pleaded not guilty.

Justice Juan Merchan set a sentencing date of July 11, just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where Trump will be formally nominated as the party's standard-bearer. He could face up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each count, but Merchan has broad discretion when imposing a sentence, and could limit the punishment to a fine, probation, home confinement or other options...

The Biden campaign warned that former Trump's conviction doesn't prevent him from winning another term in the White House from a legal standpoint. 

"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president," the campaign's communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.

-via CBS News, May 30, 2024. Live updates: 7:36 pm, 7:23 pm Eastern Time

--

Note: Even if Trump gets reelected, he cannot pardon himself in this case, because this is a state-level conviction. The president can only pardon people convicted of federal crimes, not people convicted by the states. (x, x)

[evidence-based-activism]

(Brief) Historical Pornography

Context for this post.

So, the claim that "pornography has been around forever and therefore it's okay" is erroneous in two ways:

(1) Just because something has been around forever doesn't mean it's good. (Imagine if it were mainstream to defend slavery or child murder on the grounds that it's always existed.)

(2) The pornography that exists now is not the same as the pornography that existed 1,000 (or even 100) years ago. Putting aside the depictions of violence, a video or picture of a real women is not the same as a painting on a cave wall or poem about sex. It's likely both help perpetuate misogyny (videoed pornography definitely does and it's likely at least some drawn pornography also has this effect*), but modern pornography inherently involves the abuse and exploitation of women.

(*Realistically, it is possible that drawn/written pornography may only have this effect under certain circumstances (e.g., when it's violent, when the consumer is a child, etc.). That is, the relationship may be closer to that of mass media, which I've discussed in the past. We'd probably need a drastically different sociopolitical landscape and internet infrastructure before we could reliably obtain results on this topic (i.e., because of the current saturation of mainstream pornography in society).)

A few quick sources (see my #sex industry tag for many more):

FightTheNewDrug has a good overview on how modern pornography is different today than in the past [1]

This Reuters article describes how non-consensual pornography has been found on OnlyFans, with little legal repercussion [2]

This Justice Department press release documents Pornhub's involvement with human sex trafficking [3]

This USAToday news article discusses a woman's work to expose and combat sex trafficking in pornography including Pornhub (she also wrote a book!) [4]

---

All of this is to say: modern day mainstream porn has not existed forever and, even if it did, that doesn't make it okay.

But by all means, print out some cave paintings and read the Song of Songs. (I expect you already know the difference.)

References below the cut:

Fight the New Drug. (2024). The problem with saying that porn has always existed. Web Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20240816180559/https://fightthenewdrug.org/the-problem-with-saying-that-porn-has-always-existed/

Reuters. (2024). OnlyFans and sex: Legal cases. Web Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20240816180623/https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/onlyfans-sex-legal-cases/

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. (2024). Pornhub parent company admits to receiving proceeds from sex trafficking and agrees to three-year probation. Web Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20240816180737/https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/pornhub-parent-company-admits-receiving-proceeds-sex-trafficking-and-agrees-three-year

Mickelwait, L. (2024). Pornhub videos and sex trafficking: A call to action. USA Today. Web Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20240816180708/https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/07/28/pornhub-videos-sex-trafficking-laila-mickelwait/74532636007/

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A Russian-Canadian living in Montreal has admitted to sending millions of dollars of electronics to the Kremlin to support "its ongoing attacks of Ukraine," U.S. authorities announced on Monday. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York said 32-year-old Kristina Puzyreva pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in federal court in Brooklyn and could face up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced at a later date. The attorney's office said Puzyreva was part of the "sophisticated" export scheme that involved purchasing dual-use electronics from U.S. manufacturers under Brooklyn-based front companies and sending them to Russian entities and companies in violation of U.S. sanctions. Those components were then used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and guided missile systems used by the Russian military.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada @allthegeopolitics

[rjzimmerman]

Woman Who Tried to Smuggle 29 Turtles Wrapped in Socks Pleads Guilty (New York Times)

Federal agents discovered in a duffle bag “what appeared to be socks that were moving,” according to prosecutors. Inside each of the socks were 29 Eastern box turtles, officials said.Credit...Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

A woman pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting to smuggle 29 Eastern box turtles, a protected species, that were individually wrapped in socks inside a duffle bag as she tried to paddle in an inflatable kayak across a lake from Vermont to Canada over the summer, officials said.

The woman, Wan Yee Ng, of Hong Kong, was arrested in June at a rental residence in Canaan, Vt., as she was about to enter into the kayak with the bag on Lake Wallace, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.

In August, she was charged with attempting to export merchandise contrary to law. Ms. Ng, who faces up to 10 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

On the morning of June 26, agents saw Ms. Ng carrying a duffle bag from the rented residence to the inflatable kayak near the water’s edge, prosecutors said.

At the time, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police notified U.S. border agents that two people, one of whom was believed to be Ms. Ng’s husband, had launched an inflatable watercraft on the Canadian side of the lake and started to paddle toward the United States, according to prosecutors.

Agents arrived at the rental residence in Vermont as Ms. Ng was preparing to depart and noticed through a partially opened zipper on the duffle bag “what appeared to be socks that were moving,” according to prosecutors.

A closer look revealed that the bag contained 29 turtles “that were individually wrapped in socks” to protect their shells and so they could not move, prosecutors said.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent identified the species as Eastern box turtles, a subspecies of the common box turtle that is native to forested regions of the eastern United States, with some isolated populations in the Midwest. On average, the turtles are about five to six inches long.

Eastern box turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for more than $1,000 each, according to the affidavit.

“These animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),” prosecutors said, adding that the turtles, which can have yellow decorative markings on their shells, “are especially prized in the domestic and foreign pet trade market, particularly in China and Hong Kong.”

[lasseling]

FBI arrests former aide to NY Gov. Hochul for allegedly working on behalf of CCP

FBI officials on Tuesday arrested a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on federal charges, a spokesperson from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York told The National Desk (TND)

[beardedmrbean]

The federal indictment against Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was unsealed Wednesday ahead of his first court appearance on federal charges. 

A 13-count indictment was made public Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging the congressman with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

The indictment was returned Tuesday under seal by a federal grand jury sitting in Central Islip, New York. Santos was arrested Wednesday morning and will be arraigned in the afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. He currently is being held at that federal courthouse. 

"This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. "Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself. He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives. My Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively root out corruption and self-dealing from our community’s public institutions and hold public officials accountable to the constituents who elected them."

‘SERIAL LIAR’ GOP REP'S RE-ELECTION BID SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE: ‘FUNNIEST PRIMARIES’

Santos, who also goes by Anthony Devolder, unsuccessfully ran in 2020 to represent New York’s Third Congressional District but was victorious his second time around in 2022. He was sworn in on Jan. 7, 2023, a mere days after the New York Times exposed that Santos allegedly fabricated larges swathes of his resume, including that he had worked for two major Wall Street firms, graduated from Baruch College and had descended from a Holocaust survivor. The Times reported Santos was also facing pending fraud charges in his native Brazil. 

In January, the local Nassau County GOP demanded Santos resign, namely taking issue with the freshman congressman lying over his Jewish ancestry, but he refused. And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, hanging onto a narrow Republican majority, said Santos would be removed if a House Ethics probe revealed he violated campaign finance laws. 

"As a retired NYPD Detective, I am confident the justice system will fully reveal Congressman Santos' long history of deceit, and I once again call on this serial fraudster to resign from office," Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, a fellow Republican freshman congressman whose district borders Santos', said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

Asked by Fox News Wednesday about Santos' indictment, Rep. Marcus Molinaro, R-N.Y., remarked in the corridors of Capitol Hill, "I can't wait for him to be gone." 

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., expressed a similar sentiment off camera. 

The DOJ indictment alleges that at the height of the pandemic in 2020, Santos applied for and received unemployment benefits while he was earning an annual salary of $120,000 from a Florida investment firm and running for Congress in New York. He alleged received more than $24,000 in unemployment insurance benefits from the New York State Department of Labor. 

NY REPUBLICAN REP. GEORGE SANTOS TO RECUSE HIMSELF FROM COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS, SOURCES SAY

His alleged behavior continued during his second run for Congress when he is accused of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and used that money laundered into his own bank accounts to pay down personal debts and buy designer clothing. Santos is also accused of lying on House financial disclosures about income and dividends earned through Devolder Organization LLC, based out of Florida, and unemployment benefits. 

House GOP leadership used their weekly press conference Wednesday to blast the Biden administration ahead of the expiration of Title 42 later this week but also responded to questions about Santos. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-L.A., noted that Santos no longer is serving on committees, saying that "in America, there is a presumption of innocence, but there are serious charges, and he’s going to have to go through the legal process." 

"But we’re going to continue to work to root out fraud. And there’s lots of it. We’re talking about tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud in many federal programs," Scalise continued. "We pointed this out. I mean they’re not even checking social security numbers. So you’ve got reports of people even in foreign countries getting taxpayer money for things that should only be available to Americans who are coming on hard times. Not to go to drug cartels or to people who want to just bill the system. And so I hope Democrats will support us in rooting out fraud, but they haven’t shown an interest in it so far." 

"As I’ve said from the very beginning on questions on this subject, this legal process is going to play itself out. Unfortunately, this is not the first time a member of Congress from either party has been indicted," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said. "There are a set of rules. And as the Majority Leader stated, he voluntarily had stepped down from his committees. We are committed to making sure that we root out any fraud when it comes to unemployment pandemic assistance. And we’re working to have support from our conference. And it’s good policy, and we urge the Democrats to vote in support of it." 

Santos' court appearance is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. 

[mariacallous]

For years, China’s state-backed hackers have stolen huge troves of company secrets, political intelligence, and the personal information of millions of people. On Monday, officials in the United States and United Kingdom expanded the long list of hacking allegations, claiming China is responsible for breaching the UK’s elections watchdog and accessing 40 million people’s data. The countries also issued a raft of criminal charges and sanctions against a separate Chinese group following a multiyear hacking rampage.

In August last year, the UK’s Electoral Commission revealed “hostile actors” had infiltrated its systems in August 2021 and could potentially access sensitive data for 14 months until they were booted out in October 2022. The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, told lawmakers on Monday that a China state-backed actor was responsible for the attack. In addition, Dowden said, the UK’s intelligence services have determined that Chinese hacking group APT31 targeted the email accounts of politicians in 2021.

“This is the latest in a clear pattern of malicious cyber activity by Chinese state-affiliated organizations and individuals targeting democratic institutions and parliamentarians in the UK and beyond,” Dowden said in the UK’s House of Commons. The revelations were accompanied by the UK sanctioning two individuals and one company linked to APT31.

Alongside the UK’s announcement on Monday, the US Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control unveiled further action against APT31, also known as Violet Typhoon, Bronze Vinewood, and Judgement Panda, including charging seven Chinese nationals with the conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud.

The DOJ claims the hacking group, which has been linked back to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) spy agency, has spent 14 years targeting thousands of critics, businesses, and political entities around the world in widespread espionage campaigns. This includes posing as journalists to send more than 10,000 malicious emails that tracked recipients, compromising email accounts, cloud storage accounts, telephone call records, home routers, and more. The spouses of one high-ranking White House official and those of multiple US senators were also targeted, the DOJ says.

“These allegations pull back the curtain on China’s vast illegal hacking operation that targeted sensitive data from US elected and government officials, journalists and academics; valuable information from American companies; and political dissidents in America and abroad,” Breon Peace, a US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “Their sinister scheme victimized thousands of people and entities across the world, and lasted for well over a decade.”

The moves come as countries increasingly warn of an increase in China-linked espionage, during a year when more than 100 countries will host major elections. Statements from officials focus on the impact of the hacking activity on democratic processes, including the targeting of elected officials around the world and the compromising of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong. However, the disclosures also coincide with continued jostling from Western politicians over pro- or anti-China stances, including the proposed sale of TikTok to a US company, which could result in a ban on the popular app if the sale fails to go through.

As officials in the UK disclosed the details of the hacking activity, Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, claimed it was “disinformation” and told reporters the country “opposes illegal and unilateral” sanctions. “When investigating and determining the nature of cyber cases, one needs to have adequate and objective evidence, instead of smearing other countries when facts do not exist, still less politicize cybersecurity issues,” Jian said in a daily press conference on Monday.

“China is embarking on a huge global campaign of interference and espionage, and the UK and the like-minded nations are pretty sick of it,” says Tim Stevens, a global security lecturer and head of the cybersecurity research group at King’s College London. Stevens says the public shaming and sanctions are unlikely to significantly change China’s actions but may signal a warning to other countries about what is and isn’t deemed acceptable when it comes to international affairs.

China has a broad range of hacking groups linked to its intelligence services and military, as well as companies that it contracts to launch some cyber operations. Many of these groups have been active for more than a decade. Dakota Cary, a China-focused consultant at security firm SentinelOne, says that groups associated with China’s civilian intelligence service are largely conducting diplomatic or government intelligence collection and espionage, while China’s military hackers are behind attacks on power grids and US critical infrastructure such as water supplies. “We do see China engaging in all of those activities simultaneously,” Cary says.

In announcing criminal charges and sanctions against members of APT31, officials in the US laid out a series of hacking allegations that include the targeting of businesses, political entities, and dissidents around the world. These included a “leading provider” of 5G telecoms equipment in the US, Norwegian government officials, and people working in the aerospace and defense industries. APT31 was run by the MSS’s Hubei State Security Department in the city of Wuhan, US officials say.

The seven Chinese nationals hit with charges are Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Feng, Peng Yaowen, Sun Xiaohui, Xiong Wang, and Zhao Guangzong. Both Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin were also sanctioned. The two are alleged to be affiliated with Wuhan XRZ, a company that has also been sanctioned by the US and UK and is believed to be a cover for MSS-linked hacking operations. Employees of the company hacked into a Texas-based energy company in 2018, the US Treasury Department said.

The group used sophisticated malware—including Rawdoor, Trochilus, and EvilOSX—to compromise systems, according to a 27-page indictment unsealed by the DOJ. They also used a “cracked/pirated” version of penetration testing tool Cobalt Strike Beacon to compromise victims, the indictment says. It adds that, between 2010 and November 2023, the group “gained access” to a defense contractor that designed flight simulators for the US Army, Air Force, and Navy; a multi-factor authentication company; an American trade association; a steel company; a machine learning laboratory based in Virginia; and multiple research hospitals.

In its announcement, the UK outlined two separate China-linked incidents: first, the targeting of the email inboxes of 43 members of parliament (MPs) by APT31 in 2021; and second, the hack of the Electoral Commission by further unnamed China-linked hackers. Elections in the UK are decentralized and organized locally, with the commission overseeing the entire process. This setup means the integrity of the electoral process was not impacted, the commission says; however, a huge amount of data may have been taken by the hackers.

When the Electoral Commission revealed it had been compromised last year, it said the details of around 40 million people may have been accessed. The commission said names and addresses of people in Great Britain who were registered to vote between 2014 and 2022 could have been compromised, and that file-sharing and email systems could have been made accessible. “It’s really remarkable that China would go after election oversight systems, particularly given the diplomacy that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is trying to pull off with the EU,” Cary says. “It’s a very significant act for the PRC to go after these types of systems,” Cary says. “It’s something that democracies are really sensitive to.”

While nations have called out China’s hacking activities for years, the country has evolved its tactics and techniques to become harder to detect. “Over the past couple of years, tired of having their operations rumbled and publicly outed, the Chinese have placed a growing emphasis on stealthy tradecraft in cyber espionage attacks,” Don Smith, vice president of threat intelligence at security firm Secureworks’ counter-threat unit, said in a statement. “This is a change in MO from its previous ‘smash and grab’ reputation but it is viewed by the Chinese as a necessary evolution to one, make it harder to get caught and two, make it nearly impossible to attribute an attack to them.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rob Rogers, http://TinyView.com :: @Rob_Rogers

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 2, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

The trial of former president Trump, his oldest sons, two associates, and the Trump Organization began today in Manhattan. Jose Pagliery, political investigations reporter for The Daily Beast, noted that the presiding judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, started with a reference to Friday’s rainstorm that flooded New York City, saying: "Weeks ago, I said we would start today 'come hell or high water.’ Meteorologically speaking, we’ve had the high water."

New York Attorney General Letitia James launched the investigation in 2019 after Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Trump had been engaging in fraud by inflating the value of his property. Last week, Justice Engoron issued a partial decision establishing that the organization and its executives committed fraud. Engoron canceled the licenses under which the organization’s New York businesses operated, provided for those businesses to be dissolved, and provided for an independent monitor to oversee the company. 

With that major point already established, the trial that began today will establish how much of the ill-gotten money must be given up, or “disgorged,” by the defendants and whether they falsified records or engaged in insurance fraud in the process of committing fraud. James has asked for a minimum of $250 million in disgorgement, along with a ruling permanently prohibiting Trump and his older sons from doing business in New York, and a five-year ban on commercial real estate transactions for Trump and the organization. 

Trump is attending the trial in person, likely because, as Pagliery noted, he cited this trial as the reason he couldn’t show up for two days of depositions in his federal case against Michael Cohen. If he didn’t show up, he would be in contempt of court. So he is there, but his goal in all his legal cases seems to be to play to the public, where his displays of victimization and dominance have always served him. 

He has already said it is “unfair” that he isn’t getting a jury trial in New York, but his lawyers explicitly said they did not want one, possibly because a bench trial gives Trump a single judge to attack rather than a jury. Today, his lawyer Alina Habba, who along with her law firm and Trump has been fined close to $1 million by a federal judge for filing a frivolous lawsuit, gave a fiery opening statement aimed at “the American people” rather than the judge. When the court broke for lunch, Trump went straight to reporters to rail at the prosecutors holding him to account.

Historian Lawrence Glickman noted that the press is emphasizing Trump’s anger at the proceedings as if a defendant’s anger matters, but it is starting to feel as if bullying and bluster to get away with breaking the rules is not as effective as it used to be. Legal analyst Lisa Rubin notes that this case is a form of “corporate death penalty” that strikes at his wealth and image, both of which are central to his identity and to his political power.

And it is not just Trump; another case announced on Friday suggests the era of real estate crime is ending. The Department of Justice announced that a California real estate executive had pleaded guilty the previous day to a multi-year scheme that looked a lot like the one Trump’s organization is charged with: fraudulently inflating the value of real estate holdings of a Michigan company in order to defraud lenders. 

“My office will not hesitate to prosecute those who lie in order to engage in financial crimes, regardless of the titles they may have,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Dawn N. Ison.

The drive for the impartial application of the rule of law is showing up among the Democrats, as they seek to illustrate the difference between them and the Republicans. New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez is insisting that the federal indictment against him and his wife for bribery, fraud, and extortion in exchange for helping Egypt is a political smear campaign, but more than half of Democratic senators have called on him to resign. 

Trump is increasingly being held to account by former staff, as well. In the wake of his attacks on former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Trump’s former chief of staff Marine Corps General John Kelly went on the record today with Jake Tapper of CNN, confirming a number of the damning stories that emerged during Trump’s presidency about his denigration of wounded, captured, or killed military personnel as “suckers” and “losers,” with whom he didn’t want to be seen. 

Kelly called Trump: “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason—in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law…. There is nothing more that can be said,” he added. “God help us.”

The confirmation of Trump’s attacks on wounded or killed military personnel will not help his political support. After reading Kelly’s remarks, retired Army Major General Paul Eaton, a key advocate for veteran voting, released a video he recorded more than two years ago when he first heard the stories about Trump’s attack on the military. “Who could vote for this traitor Trump?” he asked on social media. In the video, Eaton urges veterans to “vote Democratic,” because “our country’s honor depends on it.” 

That Trump is concerned about his ebbing popularity showed tonight when his campaign released a statement demanding that the Republican National Committee cancel all future debates and focus on Trump’s evidence-free allegations that the Democrats are going to steal the 2024 election. If it refuses, the statement says, it will just show that national Republicans are “more concerned about helping Joe Biden than ensuring a safe and secure election.” 

Popular pressure against the extremism of the Republican Party showed up today when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself from participating in a case related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Thomas’s wife, Ginni, was a staunch supporter of Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and in the past, Thomas had voted on related cases nonetheless. Today’s case involved John Eastman, formerly one of Thomas’s law clerks. 

There were interesting signs today that the tide seems to be turning against the MAGA Republicans elsewhere, too. In an op-ed in the New York Times, former South Carolina representative Bob Inglis told his “Fellow Republicans: It’s Time to Grow Up.” He expressed regret for his votes in 1995 to shut down the government and in 1998 to impeach President Bill Clinton, and for his opposition to addressing climate change on the grounds that if Al Gore was for it, Republicans should be against it. 

But he had come to realize that “the fight wasn’t against Al Gore; it was against climate change. Just as the challenge of funding the government isn’t a referendum on Speaker McCarthy; it’s a challenge of making one out of many—E pluribus unum—and of bringing the country together to do basic things.” He called on Republicans to remember that we must face the huge challenges in our future together: language that echoes President Joe Biden, who has been making that pitch since he took office. 

The fight over funding the government has contributed to growing pressure on the extremists. The chaos in the Republican Party as the factions fought each other with no plan to fund the government until McCarthy finally had to rely on the Democrats for help passing a continuing resolution was a sign that the extremists’ power is at risk. 

Today, there was much chafing over the threats of Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to challenge Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, and he actually did it this evening, although it is not clear that he has the votes either to remove McCarthy or to prevent his reelection as speaker. What is clear is that Gaetz is forcing a showdown between the extremists and the rest of the party, and while such a showdown is sure to garner media attention, it is unlikely to leave the extremists in a stronger position.

Indeed, when he left the floor after making the motion to vacate the chair, some Democrats laughed.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[lboogie1906]

Attorney General Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is a lawyer who served as the 83rd Attorney General. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY under both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. She oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.

Born in Greensboro, she graduated from Harvard Law School. She practiced law in NY and became a federal prosecutor, rising to become head of the Eastern District office. She returned to private law practice until she again became the top district prosecutor. She served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

President Barack Obama nominated her to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General. On February 26, 2015, the Judiciary Committee of the Senate recommended her confirmation by a 12–8 vote, with all Democrats of the committee and three Republicans in favor. She was confirmed by the Senate by a 56–43 vote, making her the second African American, the second woman, and the first African-American woman to be confirmed for the position. She was sworn in as AG on April 27, 2015. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Justice Department prosecutors have charged Rep. George Santos with federal offenses, three sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News, the most significant escalation in a growing pile of investigations that have plagued the first-term lawmaker since before he even took office.

One source said that Santos could surrender at the federal courthouse in the Eastern District of New York in the morning, and is expected to make a court appearance on Wednesday afternoon. A congressional source said that Santos learned about the charges on Tuesday. His lawyer has not returned requests for comment.

The New York Republican, who faced legal and political pressure to resign from Congress after he admitted to lying about parts of his background, is the subject of multiple investigations into his finances and other issues.

No court documents associated with the case were immediately available. CNN first reported the pending charges.

In December, two federal law enforcement sources confirmed that federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York had opened an investigation into Santos and were examining his finances, including potential irregularities involving financial disclosures and loans he made to his congressional campaign.

Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Santos announced his re-election campaign just last month, despite investigations into a variety of allegations against him in New York state, as well as by the House Ethics Committee.

The House panel announced in early March it had opened a probe into Santos to determine whether he may have "engaged in unlawful activity" while campaigning for Congress or if he "failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House."

The panel also said it would examine whether Santos violated federal conflict-of-interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services, as well as sexual misconduct allegations against him from a prospective aide.

A Navy veteran who accused Santos of disappearing with thousands of dollars from an online fundraising campaign intended to cover lifesaving surgery for his service dog also said that he spoke to the FBI about his allegations.

The Nassau County district attorney's office said in December that it, too, was looking into “numerous fabrications and inconsistencies” about Santos’ background after The New York Times uncovered a series of inconsistencies about his biography, including his education, work history and financial dealings. The New York State Attorney General’s Office said that same month that it was “looking into a number of issues” surrounding Santos.

While Santos has refused to resign from Congress, he said in late January that he would recuse himself from a pair of assignments on the Small Business and Science committees amid the probes.

[nothingunrealistic]

Headline News Eastern Sun Times Rhoades Tells Whistleblower: Go Blow!

Rhoades Tells Whistleblower: Go Blow!

By LUCIEN PORTER

In September of 2013, former SugarVape employee Ray Cruz came forward accusing the electronic cigarette and vaporizer manufacturer of illegally marketing nicotine products to children. He was fired two months later.

Mr. Cruz initially raise his concerns internally, through employee channels. SugarVape maintains there was no connection between Mr. Cruz’s complaint and his termination.

Shortly after Sugar Vape terminated him, Mr. Cruz filed sworn testimony, requesting whistleblower status in order to provide evidence in federal court. Then-United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Charles Rhoades Jr., met with Mr. Cruz several times over a period of approximately six weeks. In the end, he declined to prosecute, and Mr. Cruz was denied federal whistleblower status.

According to Mr. Cruz, the cited reason at the time was absence of tangible connection between the release of SugarVape’s flavor packaging and illegal targeted advertising at minors.

But in the intervening years, Mr. Cruz says, he discovered that a tangible connection could be found between SugarVape’s CEO and at least 4 members of the intimate social circle of Charles Rhoades Sr.--Mr. Rhoades’ father.

A representative of the United States Attorney’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment about Mr. Cruz’s claims.

Marketing tobacco products to minors, including using cartoons, candy- and fruit-flavored products, and teen-centered ads, has been restricted in the United States since 1998.

U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Aaron Rodriguez said earlier this year that, “e-cigarettes and vape products, largely marked as a safe--or at least, “safer”--alternative to traditional tobacco products, have changed the game in the last 10 years.”

Close to a third of teenagers between 13 and 18 years old who responded to a survey by the Financial Journal with research from Bastion Analytics reported they currently use e-cigarettes or similar vaporizer products, including ones marketed and distributed by SugarVape.

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON — The House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a critical ethics report on his conduct that accused him of converting campaign donations for his own use. He was just the sixth member in the chamber's history to be ousted by colleagues.

The vote to expel was 311-114. Expulsion requires support from two-thirds of the House, a purposefully high bar, but a blistering House Ethics Committee report that accused Santos of breaking federal law proved decisive.

As it became clear that he would be expelled, Santos placed his overcoat over his shoulders, shook hands with conservative members who voted against his expulsion and departed the House chamber.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., soon took the gavel, quieted the chamber and solemnly instructed the House clerk to inform the governor of New York that Santos’ former House seat was now vacant.

Santos had fought the expulsion effort, leading his own defense during House floor debate and in conducting a news conference and interviews.

“I will not stand by quietly,” Santos declared as lawmakers on Thursday evening debated his removal. “The people of the Third District of New York sent me here. If they want me out, you’re going to have to go silence those people and go take the hard vote.”

Of the previous expulsions in the House, three were for disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War. The remaining two occurred after the lawmakers were convicted of crimes in federal court. Santos made his case for remaining in office by appealing directly to lawmakers who worry they are setting a new precedent that could make expulsions more common.

Johnson was among those who voiced concerns about removing Santos, though he has told members to vote their conscience. Others in leadership agreed with his reasoning and opposed expulsion. But some Republicans, including Santos' colleagues from New York, said voters would welcome lawmakers being held to a higher standard.

“I’m pretty confident the American people would applaud that. I’m pretty confident that the American people expect that," Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, whose district adjoins Santos', said before the vote.

Santos warned lawmakers they would regret removing a member before they have had their day in court.

“This will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts,” Santos said.

The expulsion was the final congressional chapter in what was a spectacular fall from grace for Santos. The first-term lawmaker initially was celebrated as an up-and-comer after he flipped a district from Democrats last year and helped Republicans win control of the House. But soon after, troubles began. Reports began to emerge that Santos had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree. His presence in the House quickly became a distraction and an embarrassment to the party.

In early March, the House Ethics Committee announced it was launching an investigation into Santos. Then in May, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York indicted Santos, accusing him of duping donors, stealing from his campaign and lying to Congress. Prosecutors would later add more charges in an updated 23-count indictment.

The indictment alleges he stole the identities of campaign donors and then used their credit cards to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges. Federal prosecutors say Santos, who has pleaded not guilty, wired some of the money to his personal bank account and used the rest to pad his campaign coffers.

Meanwhile, Ethics Committee investigators spent eight months investigating Santos and interviewing witnesses. When their work was complete, the panel said it had amassed “overwhelming evidence” of lawbreaking by Santos that it sent to the Justice Department.

Among other things, the committee said Santos knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission, used campaign funds for personal purposes and violated the Ethics in Government Act with his financial disclosure statements.

Arguing against expulsion during debate on Thursday, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said that while he respected the committee, he had concerns about how the Santos case was handled. He said he was troubled that a Republican-led committee would submit a report that was so judgmental and publicized.

“The totality of circumstance appears biased," Higgins said. "It stinks of politics and I'll oppose this action in every way.”

While the committee does have a Republican chairman, its membership is evenly divided. Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the committee, reminded members that the decision approving the investigators' findings was unanimous.

“As the Ethics Committee's report lays out in thorough detail, Mr. Santos has repeatedly, egregiously and brazenly violated the public's trust,” Wild said. “Mr. Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud on his constituents and the American people.”

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By Danielle Kaye

Michael S. Jeffries, the former longtime chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch, was arrested Tuesday in connection with a federal sex-trafficking and interstate prostitution case.

Mr. Jeffries, who ran the clothing retailer from 1992 to 2014, faces charges related to sex trafficking, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said. The charges come a year after a BBC investigation and a class-action lawsuit accused Mr. Jeffries of using the prospect of modeling jobs at Abercrombie to lure young men to events around the world where they were sexually exploited.

Mr. Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith, were arrested in Florida on Tuesday morning and are expected to appear in federal court in West Palm Beach later in the day, said John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. A third person, James Jacobson, was also arrested on Tuesday, in Wisconsin, in connection with the case and will appear in federal court in St. Paul, Minn., Mr. Marzulli said.

The prosecutor’s office, the F.B.I. and the New York Police Department are expected to disclose more information about the case during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed last year also accused Abercrombie of being complicit in the sex-trafficking scheme. The company, according to the suit, ignored the allegations made against Mr. Jeffries. An Abercrombie spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Jeffries’s arrest or the lawsuit against the retailer.

Abercrombie said previously that the company was “appalled and disgusted” by the allegations against its former chief. The retailer hired an outside law firm last year to investigate the accusations.

Brian Bieber, a lawyer for Mr. Jeffries, declined to comment on the sex trafficking-related charges, but he said Mr. Jeffries’s legal team intended to “respond in detail to the allegations” in court “when appropriate.”

Brittany Henderson, a partner at the law firm representing plaintiffs in the class action suit against Abercrombie and Mr. Jeffries, said the arrests were “monumental for the aspiring male models who were victimized by these individuals.”

“Their fight for justice does not end here,” Ms. Henderson said. “Our clients look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for facilitating this terrible conduct and ensuring that this cannot happen again.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/business/mike-jeffries-arrested-sex-trafficking-abercrombie.html

[jennyboom21]

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson, were arrested Tuesday as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

The investigation involved whether the men sexually exploited and abused young men at parties they hosted in the United States and around the world, the sources said.

Federal prosecutors acknowledged the investigation in January after alleged victims filed a civil lawsuit a year ago.

Jeffries, who transformed Abercrombie from a traditional Ohio outfitter into a powerhouse teen fashion brand, has been accused in civil lawsuits of exploiting young men for sex at parties he hosted at his Hamptons estate in New York, London, Venice and elsewhere with his partner, Smith.

The alleged victims have said they were recruited by a middleman, Jacobson.

One of the plaintiffs, David Bradberry, a former crewman on the reality series "Below Deck," said Jeffries made Abercrombie successful by the "oversexualization of young men."

His lawsuit accused Jeffries, Smith, Jacobson and Abercrombie itself of luring attractive young men under the guise of making them an Abercrombie model and then forcing them to take drugs and perform sex acts.

"The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York has launched a criminal investigation of the alleged events and occurrences discussed in Plaintiff's Complaint," prosecutors said in a court filing.

"We will respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse – not the media," Brian Bieber, an attorney for Michael Jeffries, told ABC News Tuesday.

The attorney for the plaintiff, Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, told ABC News in a statement: "As we laid out in our lawsuit, this was an Abercrombie run, sex trafficking organization that permeated throughout the company and allowed the three individuals arrested today to victimize dozens and dozens of young, aspiring male models."