#federal felony complaint

[frydawolff]

In the criminal justice system, tree-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In Los Angeles, the dedicated City Controller who investigates these vicious felonies is a member of an elite squad known as the Tree Law Unit. These are their stories.

“'Trees are essential to providing Angelenos with significant environmental and public health benefits, especially during a heatwave,' Mejia said in a tweet. 'Public Works’ Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) is responsible for maintaining the City’s 700,000+ trees in the public right-of-way.'”

He went on to say in a thread that 'code enforcement for street trees (including the pruning or removal of trees without a permit) is the responsibility of the StreetsLA Investigation and Enforcement Division. Violations can result in code enforcement citations.'"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

Donald Trump is trying to use the Department of Justice as a weapon, claiming that, because of his conviction on 34 felony counts, he has “every right” to go after political opponents should he be elected in November. This isn’t new for Trump. In 2017, he pushed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prosecute Hillary Clinton. Later, he drove Attorney General William Barr to investigate ludicrous claims against President Joe Biden, resulting in a series of embarrassing international trips to support a baseless conspiracy theory. 

Trump’s four years in office were all about politicizing the DOJ by breaking down the barriers intended to keep the department from being used as a cudgel by the White House. His desire to hurt his opponents isn’t new, but the threat he represents is infinitely greater than it was four years ago. The only thing that stood in Trump’s way during his four years in the White House was a kind of institutional momentum. Enough career officials remained in place that Trump faced strong pushback. Even Sessions, Barr, and acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen had limits on where they would go for Trump. But that won’t be a problem if he returns to Washington.  Trump has already made it clear that he intends to purge the federal government of impartial career officials and replace them with Trump loyalists. Project 2025 is centered around destroying the DOJ's impartiality and turning it into an attack dog for Trump.

Even before Trump went to trial in New York, Republicans were lamenting the weaponization of the justice system. Those complaints were supercharged after Trump was convicted. As always seems to be the case, the GOP is accusing Democrats of something that it’s already doing. In this case, it’s not just deflection; It’s an excuse to vastly increase the level of politicization in the justice system. As The Washington Post reports, Republicans aren’t just crossing their fingers and hoping that Trump gets his hands on the DOJ a second time. They’re moving forward with an aggressive plan to blunt the effectiveness of the DOJ and target Trump’s enemies ahead of the election.

[...] Punishing entire states for refusing to let Trump escape prosecution has become a popular theme among Republicans. It’s unclear how such a plan would work, but Republicans are expected to attach defunding federal investigations into Trump to upcoming must-pass legislation.  Republicans are also expected to pass along more criminal referrals, like the ones targeting Hunter and James Biden on Wednesday, which allow Republicans to pretend they’ve found crimes by political opponents, then attack the DOJ for failing to follow up on their make-believe evidence.

[...] Trump spent four years knocking holes in that wall between the White House and the DOJ, and he’s been furthering that damage even while out of office. As bad as Barr, Sessions, and Rosen were as attorney generals—and they were awful—they won’t be a patch on what’s to come. The GOP isn’t waiting for Trump to carry out his quest for retribution. They're getting a head start by urging Republican attorney generals and Congress to use every tool they can find to attack Biden and Democrats ahead of the election. 

The GOP is weaponizing the DOJ and playing lawfare games to enact revenge on Donald Trump's opponents to aid and abet in his crime spree. If Trump gets elected again, what remains of the DOJ's impartialness will erode and become a fiefdom for Trump's lawlessness.

[mariacallous]

North Carolina removes 747,000 from voter rolls, citing ineligibility

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has removed 747,000 people from its list of registered voters within the last 20 months, officials announced Thursday in a press release.

The State Board of Elections in the release said the majority of those stripped from the rolls were deemed ineligible to be registered because they had moved within the state and did not register their new address, or because they did not participate in the past two federal elections, prompting an inactive status.

Other reasons for removal included death, felony convictions, out-of-state moves and personal requests for removal, the board said.

North Carolina is one of seven swing states likely to decide the presidential election between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. Only one Democrat this century, former President Obama in 2008, has won the state in a presidential contest, but Harris has been polling close to Trump.

The state is also home to a tough gubernatorial contest between Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.

The purge comes just a few weeks after North Carolina Republicans filed a lawsuit that said the state had failed to act on complaints about ineligible people on voter rolls.

In the GOP lawsuit, a Wake County resident in North Carolina claimed that voter registration forms in that county did not included driver’s license and Social Security numbers. 

“By failing to collect certain statutorily required information prior to registering these applicants to vote, Defendants placed the integrity of the state’s elections into jeopardy,” the GOP lawsuit read.

Republicans also filed a lawsuit recently raising concerns after state approved digital IDs issued by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a valid form of voter ID. That claim was rejected by a local judge.

The state now has around 7.7 million registered voters. The Hill has reached out to the North Carolina State Board of Elections for comment.

[beardedmrbean]

A jury has awarded $2.78 million to an au pair whose employer used a hidden camera to videotape her while she slept in their New York City home.

The jury in Brooklyn federal court ordered Michael and Danielle Esposito to pay Kelly Andrade $780,000 for emotional distress and $2 million in punitive damages for the camera that Michael Esposito had placed over Andrade’s bed after she moved in to their Staten Island home to care for their four children.

The Sept. 12 civil verdict resolved the lawsuit Andrade filed in 2021 against the Espositos. She settled earlier with the agency that had placed her with the couple, Massachusetts-based Cultural Care Au Pair, for an undisclosed sum.

According to court papers, Andrade was living in Colombia when she signed a contract with Cultural Care in 2020. In order to move to the United States and secure an au pair placement, Andrade had to pay a fee, take courses in child care and accrue 200 hours of child care experience.

After completing the training, Andrade moved to the United States in March 2021 and was placed in the Espositos’ home, where she was given a bedroom, her lawsuit said.

Andrade noticed over the next few weeks that the smoke detector over her bed was constantly being repositioned.

She examined the smoke detector and found a hidden camera with a memory card that contained hundreds of recordings of her nude or getting dressed and undressed, the lawsuit said.

Andrade “did not have knowledge of the surveillance device and did not give the defendant permission or authority to record her in any way,” according to the lawsuit.

Immediately after Andrade discovered the hidden camera, Michael Esposito arrived home and tried to get her to leave the house, the lawsuit said. She locked herself inside the bedroom. He tried to break the door down, and she escaped through a window, went to the police and filed a complaint against the Espositos.

Michael Esposito was arrested but avoided jail time by pleading guilty to a second-degree felony charge of unlawful surveillance. After completing one year of counseling, he was allowed to withdraw his felony plea and plead to a misdemeanor charge of attempted unlawful surveillance.

Andrade, who is now 28 and living in New Jersey, believes that justice was not served in the criminal case, as Esposito “only received probation and was able to continue living his life,” an attorney for Andrade, Johnmack Cohen, said in an email.

But she is happy with the civil verdict, Cohen said.

“We hope that Ms. Andrade’s case will inspire other sexual harassment victims to speak up and seek justice as Ms. Andrade was able to do,” he added.

A lawyer for the Espositos, Michael Gervasi, said the pair “are exploring all post-verdict options, including an appeal.”

[coochiequeens]

ByYuliah Alma. July 20, 2023

CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains disturbing details regarding the sexual abuse and sexualization of very young children. Reader discretion is appreciated.

A male politician credited with being the first openly transgender representative elected in the United States has now been charged with one count of the sexual exploitation of children, adding to the child pornography charges he had been handed last month.

Stacie Marie Laughton, born Barry Charles Laughton Jr., was described as a “woman” in a press release issued by the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

39-year-old Laughton was formerly a Democratic representative in New Hampshire, first elected to the legislature in 2012. He became known as the first openly transgender individual to hold public office in the United States, but withdrew before taking the role when it was revealed that he had served four months in prison in 2008 on a felony conviction for identity and credit card fraud and falsifying physical evidence. 

A special election was scheduled a few weeks later, and Laughton signed up to run again. But officials barred him from holding public office as, according to state law, he had not completed his sentence.

After the sentence related to the 2008 conviction was exhausted, Laughton was allowed to run for office again in 2019. He was elected selectman in 2011, 2019, and 2021. He was also elected state representative in 2020.

Laughton won his most recent election in November of 2022, but he resigned less than one month after securing the seat following scrutiny for yet another criminal conviction. It was learned that just two months prior to his election, he had been charged with violating a stalking order that had been from an unidentified woman.

Laughton’s most recent criminal charge involves his former partner, Lindsay Groves, 38. Groves is alleged to have used her job in a daycare to take photos of the children’s genitals in a private restroom before sending the abuse material to Laughton. 

Groves had been employed at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts since 2017 when she was arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child sexual abuse material along with Laughton.

Since the horrifying revelations of the abuse have come to light, the mother of a young boy who had been enrolled at the daycare has filed a civil lawsuit against Creative Minds.

According to the Boston Herald, the complaint, which was filed Monday with Middlesex Superior Court, the plaintiffs argue that the child victim “was caused to suffer, and will continue to suffer, severe and significant physical and emotional injuries; embarrassment, and emotional distress” as a direct result of the daycare’s “negligence and carelessness as well as the invasion of his privacy…” 

The lawsuit has also revealed that the daycare was reportedly informed years ago that Groves had been inappropriate with one of the children, and had been warned yet again last year, but took no action.

Groves revealed to investigators that she would direct the victims to pull their shirts towards their heads so “their vision would be obscured” while their pants were down at their ankles. While their vision was obscured, she used her iPhone to capture images of their genitalia. She would then send these photos to Laughton.

The photos were taken during bathroom breaks or routine diaper changes before the children took naps. 

The most recent court filings reveal that several disturbing text conversations regarding the victimized children took place between Laughton and Groves from May to June of this year.

On June 13, just days before their initial arrest, Groves sent Laughton a photo of a three-year-old boy with his genitals exposed and a second photo of a three-year-old girl with her genitals exposed. 

Groves said, “I took these for you today so I’m horny.” 

Laughton responded, “I like that I would like to see more of the pussy but I like that it[’s] fucking hot,” and asked, “Is that one of the girls we get to play with[?]”

Groves boasted neither of the child victims “gave her an issue.” 

Laughton continued: “That girl looks sweet … Do you think she would like sucking me and me rubbing my dick on her?” To which Groves responded, “Yeah.”

Laughton added, “It’s just a bummer she wont let me put my dick inside of her,” and Groves answered, “She’s not even 3 yet.”

The next morning, Laughton wrote to Groves in a lengthy, nervous message: “And I’m sorry I talk so much but the other thing I think about is do you think God is OK with us being bad girls[?]”

He continued, “…[some people] say having sex with kids is a bad thing and God never addresses sex with children in the Bible and God never really condemns say different sexual lifestyles but what do you think? Do you think we still have a place in heaven? Do you think God would still be OK with me being a minister[?]”

As previously revealed by Reduxx, Laughton became an ordained Minister and delivered his first sermon on YouTube earlier this year. According to GetOrdained, Laughton affiliated himself with Buddhism, Methodism, New Age, Oneness Pentecostalism, Pentecostalism, Protestantism, Rastafarianism, Spiritualism, Tibetan Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and the Universal Life Church.

Groves replied to Laughton’s concerns about his spirituality, writing: “Yes, God is ok with it and we will still go to heaven and he thinks you be a great minister.” 

Later that same day, Groves sent Laughton another photo of another three-year-old boy.

Laughton responded, “…I mean yes that picture was hot of that little boy but you probably have gotten the picture by now that I prefer a little girls, but he is cute. I’d like to see you put your hand around his penis.” 

Homeland Security Agents have confirmed with the children’s parents that the children victimized in the photographs were all only three years old. 

On June 15, another text message exchange included Laughton instructing Groves on how to take more photos of the children.

“If you take one or 2 [pictures] today can you hold the dick or put your finger in the girl,” he asked. “Do you think you can do any kissing their dick or kiss the pussy or someplace[?]”

Groves answered: “I’ll do my best.”

The US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced that Laughton will be formally charged in the John Joseph Moakley federal courthouse in Boston, but no appearance date has yet been set. Laughton was referred to with “she/her” pronouns by the Attorney’s Office.

Groves is also being held in custody with no set date for her next court appearance.

Sentences for sexual exploitation of children are a minimum of 15 years and maximum of 30 years in prison. Upon release, a minimum of five years supervision is required but a maximum of a lifetime supervision is possible. Fines go up to $250,000.

Multiple media outlets reporting on Laughton’s case have referred to him as a “woman,” or by using feminine pronouns to describe him.

[lifewithchronicpain]

BATON ROUGE, La. — The mother of a Livingston Parish public schools student accused of making secret recordings on her daughter’s high school campus took a plea deal late last month and was sentenced to probation.

Amanda Carter, 39, was arrested in November on 20 counts of felony interception and disclosure of wire, electronic or oral communication — though she was only formally charged with two counts.

On June 21, Carter pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor illegal wiretapping and was sentenced to serve two years of probation and pay around $300 in fines, according to the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office. She also was banned from sending recording devices to any Livingston Parish school facilities.

In a federal lawsuit filed in February against the Livingston Parish School Board, Carter says she attached recording devices to her daughter’s wheelchair because she had concerns about her safety. Carter’s daughter has special needs and is nonverbal, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit described Carter’s purported findings from the recordings: Her daughter failed to receive academic services for a long period of time, staff made rude comments while changing her diaper and she was subject to daily body searches as staff sought evidence to report the Carter family to the Department of Children and Family Services.

Those recordings led to Carter’s arrest.

Prosecutors said that, last October, Carter uploaded an audio recording of a discussion between coaches at her child’s school to YouTube and Facebook. When the recording was made, her daughter’s wheelchair containing the device was in the coach’s office while her child wasn’t using the chair.

Although Carter told authorities she sent the recording devices to school to protect her child, the uploaded audio did not involve her daughter, prosecutors said.

Several weeks later, the recording device was confiscated, prosecutors said, and Carter sought to get it back by filing a complaint with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and playing another recording. Carter also had already received a cease-and-desist letter from the parish school board asking her to stop sending the devices to the school.

Joseph Long, Carter’s attorney, said that the plea deal was “about as light a penalty as you could ever ask for.”

“(Carter) was satisfied with the plea offer and that’s why she accepted it,” he said. “In a perfect world, she would go fight at trial, but that costs a lot of money. She’s looking for closure so she can take care of her family.”

Carter also agreed not to bring any more listening devices into her daughter’s school, Long said. Originally, Carter had asked that the school put cameras in the special needs classrooms to no avail. Now, the school board has placed cameras in the classroom, which Long said would provide a visual record if anything happened to her daughter.

Carter’s push for the cameras is part of a larger debate across the state about how to use recordings to help parents safeguard children who can’t speak for themselves, while still respecting the privacy rights of teachers, aides and other students.

A new law, which became effective last summer, requires school districts to develop policies and procedures for placing cameras in special education classrooms upon request — and to install those cameras if the money is available to do so. Other legislation last year provided state funding for such an initiative.

“After we had our preliminary examination, I think both sides agreed it was best to get a resolution,” Long said. “Prosecuting a mother of six who was just trying to protect her daughter serves no purpose.”

[ausetkmt]

Topline

A Georgia judge on Friday denied bond for Harrison Floyd, the only one of 18 co-defendants in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Fulton County to stay in jail, and the former Black Voices for Trump leader has a history of politics and legal trouble.

Key Facts

Floyd, a 39-year-old U.S. Marine veteran, served as the director of the political group Black Voices for Trump during the 2020 election cycle, and was charged last week in the Fulton County case with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, for influencing a witness and conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements.

According to the indictment, Floyd pressured Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Fulton County, after she refused to change the results of the county’s vote in the 2020 election for Trump, with Freeman testifying before the House January 6 Committee last year that she was forced to leave her home for two months and quit her job after receiving threats after the election.

Floyd, a graduate of George Washington University, had become a prominent Republican in Georgia in recent years, running in 2019 for a Congressional seat.

Floyd dropped out of the race just over a month after announcing his candidacy, saying he “might be the guy doing this in the future,” while expressing his support for a GOP state representative in his place (Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux won the district in 2020).

In 2020, Floyd led the organization Black Voices for Trump, and also served as executive producer of right-wing outlet Bright News and as a partner at Washington D.C.-based Commonwealth International, according to his LinkedIn page.

Floyd had been charged in a separate case in May with second-degree assault and arrested for allegedly attacking an FBI agent who had served him a grand jury subpoena in the Department of Justice’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to a complaint in federal District Court in Maryland, Floyd refused to accept the subpoena, putting his finger to the face of one of two FBI agents who arrived at his residence, yelling: “You haven’t given me anything; I don’t know who the f**k you are.”

Later that night, Floyed called 911, accusing the agents of accosting him and saying: “They were lucky I didn’t have a gun on me, because I would have shot his fucking ass,” the Huffington Post reported.

Forbes has reached out to Floyd’s court-listed attorney in Maryland, Carlos Salvado—Floyd does not have an attorney listed in the Georgia case.

On Friday, Fulton County Judge Emily Richardson denied bond for Floyd after he determined he posed a flight risk and a risk to commit further criminal felonies if released on bail (Georgia state law requires defendants to be determined to pose no “significant risk of fleeing” and pose no “threat or danger to any person” or of committing a felony to be released on bail).

What To Watch For

Richardson said in her determination on Friday that the terms of Floyd’s bond “will be addressed,” but that the full terms fall on Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case. Floyd, however, has contested his bond denial, telling Richardson on Friday: “There is no way I’m a flight risk. I showed up here before the president was here.”

Tangent

Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County last week on 13 felony counts, including racketeering, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements and conspiracy to impersonate a public officer.. After just over a week, Trump surrendered to authorities in a brief procedure on Thursday, posting a $200,000 bond after giving a mug shot and his fingerprints before promptly leaving Georgia. All 18 of his co-defendants also turned themselves in by Friday, with Pastor Stephen Lee becoming the last to do so before the 12 p.m. deadline, following a group of former Trump aides and attorneys, as well as so-called fake electors in Trump’s legal team’s dubious plot to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden.

Further Reading

Trump Co-Defendant Harrison Floyd Denied Bond: Why He’s Still In Jail (Forbes)

[batboyblog]

Justice Department Challenges Tennessee Law that Bans Critical, Medically Necessary Care for Transgender Youth

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

The Justice Department today filed a complaint challenging Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a recently enacted law that denies necessary medical care to youth based solely on who they are. The complaint alleges that SB 1’s ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The department is also asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect on July 1, 2023.

SB 1 makes it unlawful to provide or offer to provide certain types of medical care for transgender minors with diagnosed gender dysphoria. SB 1’s blanket ban prohibits potential treatment options that have been recommended by major medical associations for consideration in limited circumstances in accordance with established and comprehensive guidelines and standards of care. By denying only transgender youth access to these forms of medically necessary care while allowing non-transgender minors access to the same or similar procedures, SB 1 discriminates against transgender youth. The department’s complaint alleges that SB 1 violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of both sex and transgender status. Doctors, parents and anyone else who provides or offers to provide the prohibited care faces the possibility of civil suits for 30 years and other sanctions.

“No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The right to consider your health and medically-approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department will continue to aggressively challenge all forms of discrimination and unlawful barriers faced by the LGBTQI+ community.”

“SB1 violates the constitutional rights of some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. “Left unchallenged, it would prohibit transgender children from receiving health care that their medical providers and their parents have determined to be medically necessary. In doing so, the law seeks to substitute the judgment of trained medical professionals and parents with that of elected officials and codifies discrimination against children who already face far too many obstacles.”

Today’s filings are the latest action by the Justice Department to combat LGBTQI+ discrimination, including unlawful restrictions on medical care for transgender youth. On March 31, 2022, Assistant Attorney General Clarke issued a letter to all state attorneys general reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender youth against discrimination. On April 29, 2022, the Justice Department intervened in a lawsuit challenging a law in Alabama (Senate Bill 184) that imposes a felony ban on medically necessary care for transgender minors. As a result of that litigation, the most significant provisions of Alabama’s Senate Bill 184 have been preliminarily halted from going into effect, and the United States continues to challenge its constitutionality.

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division’s work to uphold and protect the civil and constitutional rights of LGBTQI+ individuals is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt/lgbtqi-working-group. Complaints about discriminatory practices may be reported to the Civil Rights Division through its internet reporting portal at civilrights.justice.gov.

[pagankingfinn]

I'm really proud of myself and felt the need to share.

So recently my mom got fired from her job (shift lead at a dispensary) for essentially no reason, the reason was "customer and employee complaints" that suspiciously only became a thing when the manager was on vacation.

And lemme tell yah, I was fucking PISSED. I was seething. Especially bc the company gave her a training course on bullying in the work place because they've got an "anti-bullying in the workplace" policy and I've got so much dirt on how that simply isn't true.

So the employees that complained were a group of girls who acted like they were still in a high school clique and purposefully excluded my mom from all attempts at conversation, even when it came to work related things like closing up at the end of the shift.

These same girls also couldn't function without a doobie every 15 minutes but then would get pissed when my mom would just go ahead and help customers instead of telling them to get off their asses. They went so far as to tell the manager that my mom was basically stealing their customers. They also refused to take a lunch until the mid-shift was over and leave my mom to man the shop alone, and always came back 30 minutes to an hour late, thus meaning my mom never actually got to take her lunch.

Which for the record, violates federal regulations. It is a felony to deny your employees a lunch break on a regular basis.

Did this stop her manager from "adjusting" her time card so that it looked like she was taking a lunch just so he wouldn't have to pay his employees more? No, it didn't. He'd also "adjust" time cards so that no matter how early someone came in or how late they stayed they were always only paid for 5 minutes before and after the shift.

Back to the girls who peaked in high school, they decided to get their customers to lie about my mom. The best part of this is the dispensary has security cameras inside that clearly show my mom NOT being the one to deal with those customers, but each employee also has a different pin for the register and the records also prove that my mom did not deal with those customers.

All this said and done, I went feral. I drafted an email to HR that laid out everything that had ever gone on. The bullying, the lack of lunch breaks, the time cards being messed with, the lies, everything. And then I metaphorically took a crow bar to their knees when I basically said "for a company that preaches anti-bullying in the work place you sure do protect the employees breaking these rules."

As far as I'm aware, HR hasn't responded. So now I'm going public. The moral of the story is don't go to Igadi for weed. They treat their employees like shit and won't do anything about it.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

When Representative-elect George Santos takes his seat in Congress on Tuesday, he will do so under the shadow of active investigations by federal and local prosecutors into potential criminal activity during his two congressional campaigns.

But an older criminal case may be more pressing: Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive fraud charges against Mr. Santos, and will seek his formal response, prosecutors said on Monday.

The matter, which stemmed from an incident in 2008 regarding a stolen checkbook, had been suspended for the better part of a decade because the police were unable to locate him.

A spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office said that with Mr. Santos’s whereabouts identified, a formal request will be made to the U.S. Justice Department to notify him of the charges, a necessary step after which the case will proceed with or without him.

The criminal case in Brazil was first disclosed in a New York Times investigation that uncovered broad discrepancies in his résumé and questions about his financial dealings.

Just a month before his 20th birthday, Mr. Santos entered a small clothing store in the Brazilian city of Niterói outside Rio de Janeiro. He spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name, court records show.

Mr. Santos admitted the fraud to the shop owner in August 2009, writing on Orkut, a popular social media website in Brazil, “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.” In 2010, he and his mother told the police that he had stolen the checkbook of a man his mother used to work for, and used it to make fraudulent purchases.

A judge approved the charge in September 2011 and ordered Mr. Santos to respond to the case. But by October, he was already in the United States and working at Dish Network in College Point, Queens, company records show.

Despite his earlier confessions, Mr. Santos has recently denied any criminal involvement, telling The New York Post, “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”

Joe Murray, a lawyer for Mr. Santos, said on Monday, “I am in the process of engaging local counsel to address this alleged complaint against my client.”

Mr. Santos’s swearing-in on Tuesday as the representative of New York’s Third Congressional District was already set to take place amid a cloud of scrutiny.

Last week, irregularities in Mr. Santos’s campaign spending emerged, including $40,000 on flights and payments for rent that are linked to an address where Mr. Santos is reported to be staying, a possible violation of the ban on using campaign funds for personal expenses.

Mr. Santos also lied about graduating from college and had misled voters about having worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He also acknowledged owing thousands of dollars in unpaid rent, and withdrew his claim that he owned multiple properties.

The next step for Brazilian prosecutors is to file a petition when the courts reopen at the end of the week requesting that Mr. Santos respond to the charges against him. A judge would then share the request, called a rogatory letter, with the federal Justice Ministry in Brazil, which would share it with the U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the Justice Department nor Brazilian authorities can compel Mr. Santos to respond at this point. But Mr. Santos must be officially notified in order for the case to proceed.

A criminal conviction, even for a felony, is not on its own an act that would disqualify a congressional member from holding office. The last time a member of Congress was removed from office for breaking the law was in 2002, when James A. Traficant Jr. was removed from the House after his conviction on felony racketeering and corruption charges.

If Mr. Santos does not present a defense in the Brazilian case, he will be tried in absentia. If found guilty, Mr. Santos could receive up to five years in prison, plus a fine.

[foundfamilynonsense]

Alright anti jedi people who say “the Jedi shouldn’t have joined a war bc they are becoming hypocritical and against what they believe” look me in the eye. In the eye. And tell me you’d like the Jedi if they didn’t enter the war.

Picture, if you will: Count Dooku, a former Jedi who we now know is a Sith Lord (y’know, the people who want to destroy democracy and are against everything the Jedi stand for) has just MURDERED a SENATOR for no other reason (that they know of) than to please the trade federation, a group that had overthrown a whole planet before.

He then appears on planets with a whole ass army of droids that he has been making in secret for years now and goes “ok my planet now” and he makes the droids kill any civilians who fight back and enslave the others. Since we see the separatists constantly trying to take planets and widen their reach, we have no reason to assume they’ll stop. So they keep doing this, meeting no resistance except of the attempts at the native people of each planet they conquer.

Obviously the Jedi can’t let a known Sith Lord just walk around the Galaxy killing people and taking what he wants until he reaches the senate and crowns himself emperor. So when do they stand up against him? Is your argument really never? Yes, palpatine’s plan involved them joining the war. But do y’all really think he’d be upset if they didn’t? “Oh the Jedi are just going to let me take over and let my apprentice cut a bloody path through the galaxy before crowning me emperor? Sweet!”

Or the senate goes to war Without the Jedi. And the Jedi just… sit back in coruscant, fight crime rings in the outer rim, and let the clones fight a Sith Lord by themselves? Is that what anti-Jedi folks want? Bc they also complain the Jedi are too privileged sitting in their ancestral home on coruscant soooooo.

So perhaps the real complaint is not “the Jedi should have stayed out of the war entirely” and is actually “the Jedi joined the war too quickly and shouldn’t have been generals” and like. Nope still a weird take.

Dave Felony tries to say that the jedi were too hasty to join the conflict in Rebels but like.

Ok. Please give me a list of planets the jedi should have allowed the sith to colonize and enslave before fighting back. The jedi saw a droid army. They knew what dooku planned to do with it. How long should they have waited before it was morally okay to stand up against dooku?

As for them not being generals: A) why do we assume they wanted those positions in the first place or got to choose said positions and B) ok who would you prefer to be generals? Bc like. Not people like tarken who join the empire afterwards, I’m sure. Clone commanders? Like heck yeah I’m totally on board for certain clones being made generals.

But like. Jedi have sensy powers that kinda help? They have life long tactical training? We see in tcw they’re very good at being generals? So like… why? And don’t get me started on the idea any Jedi would sit back and let a clone take point in dangerous missions. We only ever see jedi fighting up front leading clones and protecting them. Except for jedi who have fallen, like krell.

What I’m trying to say is that if the Jedi stayed back and watched others die without doing anything they wouldn’t be jedi. Saying “they could have just not joined the war” suggests they would be better people if they just sat back and watched. I will never understand

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse Substack:

Since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, voters in six states have had the opportunity to vote on constitutional amendments regarding abortion. Every time the issue has been on the ballot, voters have turned out to support abortion rights. In California, Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont, voters approved measures that amended the state constitution to protect reproductive rights. In Kentucky and Kansas, voters rejected measures designed to strictly limit access to abortion. In the years since Roe was reversed, Americans have come to understand that abortion is health care. And that American women suffer when it is denied to them. In January of this year, we learned about Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman who was denied an abortion and charged with abuse of a corpse, a felony, after she miscarried alone and at home.

Nicole Miller, an Idaho woman, had to fly to Utah earlier this year as a failing pregnancy caused her to bleed profusely. But, not enough for doctors in Boise to terminate the pregnancy that was endangering her life. A doctor refused to perform the emergency surgery, telling her that he wasn’t willing to risk his medical career for her. She was able to get a lifesaving abortion out of state, but as more bans go into place, the Guttmacher Institute reports more women are having to travel—and travel further—to obtain needed care. The expense and logistics of arranging travel become a barrier, and more women are exposed to needless suffering and trauma in the name of “pro-life” policies. Yesterday in Texas, two women filed administrative complaints against hospitals, alleging they were denied emergency care for ectopic pregnancies, which put their lives at risk in violation of federal law.

Kyleigh Thurman, a Texas woman, alleges she was initially discharged from the hospital and subsequently denied care days later for an ectopic pregnancy. She was finally treated after her ob-gyn pleaded with the hospital staff, but the delay caused her fallopian tube to rupture, she said. According to the complaint, the hospital treated her only after her ob-gyn “pleaded” with staff to provide the necessary care.“For weeks, I was in and out of emergency rooms trying to get the abortion that I needed to save my future fertility and life,” she said.

Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz alleges she was discharged from a Texas hospital without treatment for an ectopic pregnancy. Just hours later she had to be rushed into emergency surgery at a different facility. Medical experts have opined the Texas abortion ban played a role in her denial of care.

The law in question is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). It prohibits hospitals from “patient dumping,” and the Biden Administration argued that meant hospital emergency rooms were obligated to provide lifesaving care, including abortion, to save a patient’s life. The Supreme Court ended up ducking the issue, deciding that certiorari in the case, Moyle v. United States, had been “improvidently granted,” meaning it shouldn’t have agreed to hear the case, and sending the case back to the Court of Appeals. That leaves doctors in limbo, not knowing if action would be taken against them in the future for providing patients with care now, while the lower courts consider the matter further.

As a result of the post-Roe climate, more women have suffered as a result of abortion bans causing denial of emergency care for ectopic pregnancy.

[mariacallous]

Russia’s crusaders for traditional values have found a new battle, and nudity of all kinds is at stake. The real headline-grabber was rapper Vacio (Nikolai Vasiliev), who wore nothing but socks on his feet and penis. Still, fellow celebrities Filipp Kirkorov, Lolita Milyavskaya, Ksenia Sobchak, and others gave Vacio a run for his money, wearing transparent bodysuits that teased nipples, navels, and buttcracks. 

This was the scene at Moscow’s “Mutabor” nightclub on Wednesday, December 20, where blogger and TV presenter Nastya Ivleeva hosted the “Almost Naked” party. A ticket for the evening reportedly cost a cool million rubles ($10,770). Before the bacchanalia was even done, footage from the event started appearing in tabloids and spreading rapidly across social media. 

As Internet users gawked and gossiped, there was immediate outrage from conservative activists and pundits, several of whom began lobbying for a police response. Representatives of radical traditionalist groups like “Sorok Sorokov,” “Call of the People,” and the “Federal Project for Security and Anti-Corruption” (FPBK) soon appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office and other law-enforcement agencies, calling the “Almost Naked” party an “immoral” celebration of the “dark arts” and asking the authorities to investigate its organizers for propagating drug culture and “the gay lifestyle.” 

Some have called for administrative charges, while others want a full-on criminal investigation. One of the recurring complaints is that Ivleeva’s festivities come at a time when Russia is busy invading Ukraine, ostensibly in defense of “traditional values” against the onslaught of Western decadence and progressivism. 

Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of the Safe Internet League, has campaigned aggressively to purge Russian popular culture of drug references and other unholy cravings. Her objections to “dangerous content” often lead to real consequences for the artists responsible, such as police charges against musician Oxxxymiron and the deportation of rapper Nekoglai. On December 21, Mizulina urged a boycott “at the state level” of the celebrities who attended the “Almost Naked” party. “Our soldiers at the front definitely aren’t fighting for this,” she said. “These raves are like firing a bullet into the foot of the entire policy implemented by the state.”

Other conservatives found the party’s supposed “LGBT” overtones most alarming. Maria Butina is a former gun rights activist who became a television propagandist and federal lawmaker after serving 14 months behind bars in the United States, where she pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian state. On Thursday, writing on official State Duma letterhead in her capacity as a deputy, Butina appealed to the Internal Affairs Ministry, the Cultural Ministry, and Russia’s media regulator, requesting inquiries into the “Almost Naked” party to see if it violated Russia’s ban on “LGBT propaganda” and a November 2022 presidential decree on preserving and strengthening “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.”

“Listen, they all have children. What kind of example are they setting for their children? All the truest LGBT people gathered there,” moaned FPBK director Vitaly Borodin. “What were they thinking? There’s a special military operation underway. Our society is at a loss.” Borodin also asked Internal Affairs Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Moscow Chief of Police Oleg Baranov to dispatch officers to the “Mutabor” nightclub on December 21 to prevent a planned second night of festivities. 

When Thursday evening came, the police arrived at Mutabor ahead of most guests, but the authorities didn’t stick around. “Officers collected what materials they needed and left,” said the radio station Govorit Moskva. Round two of the party eventually rolled into action, this time open to the general public at an admission fee of just 2,500 rubles ($27). At the time of this writing, organizer Nastya Ivleeva was absent from the celebration. The Telegram channel Shot reported that the nightclub’s security guards were now asking guests to don additional clothing if their outfits revealed too much skin.

Hours earlier, on Thursday morning (apparently before realizing the scale of conservatives’ outrage and the involvement of law enforcement), Nastya Ivleeva taunted her critics on social media, writing (in a comment that’s since disappeared) that she loves getting hate for staging risque events: 

We look at the West and see these beautiful, slim models come out, and we say, “Damn, they’re so beautiful, they’re so cool.” And now our own beautiful, trim artists come out, and everyone’s like, “Fuck, look at this shit. Pop is dead.” God, I love it so much. May it never end.

[beardedmrbean]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors charged a Los Angeles city councilman with 10 counts, including embezzlement and perjury, Tuesday in the latest criminal case to upend the scandal-plagued governing board of the nation’s second-largest city.

Curren Price Jr. faces five counts of embezzlement of government funds, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Price was charged for having a financial interest in projects that he voted on as a council member, and having the city pay nearly $34,000 in medical benefits for his now-wife while he was still married to another woman, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.

Between 2019 and 2021, Price’s wife allegedly received payments totaling more than $150,000 from developers before Price voted to approve projects, according to Gascón's statement. He also is accused of failing to list the money his wife received on government disclosure forms.

"This alleged conduct undermines the integrity of our government and erodes the public’s trust in our elected officials,” Gascón said.

Price called the charges “unwarranted.”

In a letter to City Council President Paul Krekorian, Price said he was stepping down from committee assignments and leadership responsibilities “while I navigate through the judicial system to defend my name.”

"The last thing I want to do is be a distraction to the people’s business," he wrote.

The council and city government have been shaken by a series of recent scandals.

In March, former Democratic City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas — a one-time legislator, county supervisor and a fixture in local politics for decades — was found guilty in federal court of seven felonies, including conspiracy, bribery and fraud.

Last year, a racism scandal that shook public trust in Los Angeles government triggered the resignations in October of then-City Council President Nury Martinez and a powerful labor leader, Ron Herrera.

After an FBI investigation, two other former council members pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in recent years.

Former Mayor Eric Garcetti, who left office in December, was shadowed by sexual harassment allegations against one of his former top aides.

To residents, the cumulative effect “makes the whole body politic of L.A. look rotten, look illegal,” said Jaime Regalado, former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

At a time when the city is struggling with an out-of-control homeless crisis, crime and soaring housing and rent costs, “it makes everything harder,” Regalado said.

A criminal complaint said a consulting firm operated by Price's wife received a series of payments from companies incorporated or co-owned by Thomas Safran & Associates, GTM Holdings/Works and GTM Holdings, before the councilman voted to approve funding for the companies' projects.

Emails seeking comment from those entities were not immediately returned Tuesday evening.

Price was first elected to the council in 2013 and currently serves as its president pro tempore. His district includes South Los Angeles and parts of the city’s downtown. His term is set to expire in 2026.

Price, who is Black, has successfully navigated changing demographics in his district — which has become increasingly Latino — and is known for being attentive to communities that are diverse.

The councilman had attended a city council meeting earlier in the day Tuesday.

Mayor Karen Bass' office said in a statement that she had not seen the charges but was “saddened by this news.”

Price’s attorney, David Willingham, declined to comment, saying he had not seen a copy of the criminal complaint.

The charges were first reported Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

[pashterlengkap]

Deranged park ranger allegedly sexually abused & extorted gay men he found in a park

A Houston park ranger is facing multiple criminal charges after three victims accused him of sexual assault and extortion. Joey Lamar Ellis, 33, was arrested in June and charged with “official oppression,” a felony involving a public servant using their office to unlawfully deny someone their rights, after one of his alleged victims filed a criminal complaint with Houston police alleging that Ellis demanded money from him in exchange for not being arrested. Related Pride Houston adds more security following federal terror warnings Several other cities’ Prides are also talking about how they’ll keep their events safe. According to KPRC2, prosecutors allege that Ellis was on the clock when he targeted the man in Houston’s Cullen Park, but was not supposed to be working in that park. Ellis allegedly approached a car in which the victim was sitting with another man, forced him get out of the car, strip off his clothes, and attempted to get the man to confess to a crime he did not commit. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The victim, Joshua Beede, told KTRK in June that he had been asleep in his car when Ellis approached. Ellis then told Beede he could either pay him or go to jail, with Beede giving Ellis $20 in cash and paying him an additional $100 via CashApp. Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Smith told KPRC2 that Ellis then tried to force his victim to help him lure others to the park for the same scheme. Beede told KTRK that Ellis intended for him to use a dating app to lure other men to the park. “I was, like, fearful for my life, so I was doing everything he said,” Beede said. “He knew what he was doing though. He’s probably done it before. He didn’t look nervous doing it.” Ellis’s attorney, Wes Rucker, denies the allegations. Following reports of Ellis’s arrest in June, a second man came forward alleging that Ellis demanded either sex or money not to be arrested. The man, who asked not to be identified, alleges that in April, after an early morning workout in Cullen Park, Ellis approached him and accused him of trespassing. Ellis threatened the man with arrest, forced him to pull down his pants, and gave him a choice: either perform a sex act on Ellis or pay him not to be arrested. The man claims he gave Ellis $260. The man says he encountered Ellis in the park again a few weeks later and was given the same choice. That time, the man says, he fled in his car, with Ellis in pursuit, though he was eventually able to lose him on the highway. The man said he ultimately decided to file a report with Houston Police after hearing of Ellis’s arrest. “I just left it alone, but then somebody else spoke up. So, I just hope that others will speak up.” On Monday, Ellis was back in court facing one additional charge of official oppression and one charge of sexual assault after a third victim came forward. According to KTRK, prosecutors have also added a hate crime enhancement to the sexual assault charge. Smith said prosecutors believe Ellis targeted his victims because of their sexuality.   “He’s showing up at these parks where he’s not assigned to work. But he’s showing up to these other locations where he’ll find a single male or maybe two males, approach them, and coerce them into either performing a sexual act or giving him money,” Smith said Monday. Smith also said that prosecutors believe there may be more victims who have yet to come forward. Following his June arrest, Ellis’ employer, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, released the following statement: “The Houston Parks and Recreation Department has been made aware of the arrest of Urban Park Ranger Joey Ellis. The Department has removed him from the work schedule at this time and the public can be assured that appropriate measures are being taken while HPD investigates.” http://dlvr.it/TCjbWs

[ramrodd]

RECAP: Kamala Harris NAILS Her First Interview | Bulwark Takes

COMMENTARY:

All the complaints Bulwark has to begin with are all the things that defined Hillary a terrible candidate in 2015 when we elected the moral equivalent of a Constituional cannibal Pennywise, the Clown Show who tried to steal the 2020 election and surrendered to the Taliban in a battle NATO was winning and  earned 34 felony convictions who puts on a better show that Hillary and Kamal. Kamala Harris is what adult leadership looks like on a non-partisan basis, Pete Buttigieg. Michale Steele and Mitt Romney.  Gen Z deserves to have its own adult leadership. She's the best of both worlds. born on the cusp of the Age of the Boomers and the Age of the zoomers. The Dawing of Aquarius has become the Early Spring Morning of Aquarius and the Age of Aquarius is 2000 years long. All of us can leave the Boomer Food Fight and  white supremacist Project 2025 Nazification behind and mobilize for the Green New Deal as the bottom up transformation of the Military Industrial Complex into Starship America. The fact is taht, in spite of Project 2025, we are all sitting on the command bridge of Starship America and nobody knows how to run it. Starship America is the harmonization of the Yellow Submarine, Moby Dick and a Honey Bee Swarm moving through the universe. Pamala Harris is no Harry Truman, which is to take nothing away from Harry Truman, Truman was totaly out of the loop on everything he had to understand the minute FDR slumped over in his wheel chair in Warm Springs. Kamala Harris was the best reason to re-elect Biden: Continuity of Purpose, a principle of the DEI/Quality Assurance business model of the Green New Deal. Biden/Harris has been the most successful legislative team since LBJ and Nixon/Moynihan with Affirmative Action, which reconfigured the combined legacy of the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society into a process leading to Reagan's New Federalism and the launch pad for growing the economic configuration necessary to sustain a lunar colony for 100 years, like 2001:A Space Odyssey. It struck me, before the fact, that keeping Biden/Harris on for another 4 years with the prospect of Harris in 2028 a very attractive prospect for an Eisenhower Republican hoping to see America back on track after a 40 years experiment with thinking like Ayn Rand. Just for the record, my opinion of Bulwark is that it is a refuge for RINOs who were former Useful Idiots for Porject 2025 and are engaged in repentence and attonement by voting Democratic to blow up Project 2025 and restore the Party of Lincoln and Jack Kemp as the dominant coalition in the DNC. As a RINO Eisenhower Repubican, welcome to the big time.