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Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Surrenders to Authorities After Allegedly Laundering $5 Million in FEMA Funds — Allegedly Bought 3.14-Carat Yellow Diamond Ring

A sitting Democratic member of Congress from Broward County, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, surrendered to federal authorities Tuesday in Miami amid explosive allegations that she orchestrated a scheme to steal and launder $5 million in FEMA COVID-19 disaster relief funds, and used a portion to bankroll her 2021 congressional campaign and purchase a luxury yellow diamond ring.

The 46-year-old Congresswoman appeared in Miami federal court in handcuffs following a 15-count federal indictment issued last week. She now faces charges including conspiracy, theft of government funds, money laundering, making and receiving straw-donor contributions, and filing false statements on her federal tax return.

According to the Department of Justice, prosecutors allege that Cherfilus-McCormick and her 51-year-old brother, Edwin Cherfilus, siphoned off $5,057,850 FEMA funds.

“The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source. Prosecutors allege that a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.

The indictment further alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, arranged additional contributions using straw donors, funneling other monies from the FEMA-funded Covid-19 contract to friends and relatives who then donated to the campaign as if using their own money.

The indictment also charges Cherfilus-McCormick and her 2021 tax preparer David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, with conspiring to file a false federal tax return. According to the indictment, they falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.”

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War Dept. Battles Internal Resistance To Reinstate 86 Soldiers Ejected By Covid Shot Mandate

It’s been ten months since President Donald Trump ordered the full reinstatement of any willing military employees ejected for declining Covid-19 shots, but as of Nov. 15 just 86 such personnel have been reinstated. The reinstatements so far account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the military personnel who likely left over the Biden administration mandate, depleting the military of some of its highest-character members and causing a historic personnel crisis.

President Trump’s defense team is “picking up steam” to address the reinstatements more quickly and fruitfully and approval times are down to two to three weeks after the application package is completed, Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata told The Federalist in a Tuesday afternoon phone call from his office. Confirmed in July, Tata said he immediately sought out veterans experiencing impediments to reinstatement. In September and October meetings and memorandums, “I tasked in no uncertain terms to the services that they will treat each of the members with the dignity that they deserve,” Tata said.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces, there’s a lot of good people working very hard on this,” Tata said. “We all understand the president’s executive order and the secretary’s directive, and we are moving out at full speed to welcome every single person that wants to come back from this disaffected community.”

When one service member posted online that a military processing station had turned her away from seeking the reinstatement the Trump administration has promised, Tata said after talking with her he called up the station commander and said, “What part of this don’t you understand?”

More formally, he noted the department is investigating Biden-era Covid policies and their implementation across the branches, and that investigation will make recommendations about whether and which personnel violated law and military policy in carrying out Covid orders. The investigation team includes service members reinstated after the Biden administration drummed them out of the military for their conscientious objections to Covid mandates.

Former Air Force judge advocate general Kacy Dixon, herself reinstated after declining a Covid shot while pregnant, is Tata’s liaison to that investigation and to Covid-separated soldiers seeking reparations the administration has promised for their injuries, including honorable discharges, lost benefits, and back pay, even if they don’t re-enlist. Tata noted that back pay for reinstated soldiers is often between $100,000-$150,000 per person and it includes the proper pay for promotions soldiers would have earned if they hadn’t been punished for exercising their constitutional conscience rights.

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MINNESOTA MADNESS: Radical Democrat Judge Sarah West OVERTURNS Jury’s Guilty Verdict — Frees Somali Immigrant Who Stole $7.2 MILLION in Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Radical Democrat judge Sarah West, appointed by former Democrat Governor Mark Dayton, has tossed out a jury’s unanimous guilty verdict, setting free Abdifatah Yusuf, a Somali immigrant convicted of masterminding a massive Medicaid fraud ring that siphoned off $7.2 million from taxpayers.

A jury had found Yusuf guilty in August on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle, following evidence that his home-healthcare company billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands dollars in “phantom” care, padding bills for services never delivered.

Prosecutors documented that many of those funds were funneled into luxury cars, high-end clothing, and other extravagant personal purchases.

But Judge West, rather than upholding the jury’s verdict, claimed the case hinged on circumstantial evidence and offered “other reasonable inferences” for the billing irregularities, arguing prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Yusuf was personally responsible for the fraud. She issued a judgment of acquittal.

Jurors, prosecutors, and state lawmakers were stunned. One juror told reporters he believed the evidence demonstrated “obvious guilt.” The state’s Attorney General has already filed an appeal, warning the decision undermines public trust.

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Undermining America’s National Security Is Nothing New For Mark Kelly

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., has found himself in some pretty hot water — and for good reason.

On Monday, the Department of War announced that Kelly, a retired Navy captain, could be “recall[ed] to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures” because of his participation in what has now been dubbed the “Seditious Six” video. As The Federalist’s Breccan Thies summarized, the video in question featured Kelly and other “Democrat lawmakers encourag[ing] military members to ignore orders from President Donald Trump, their commander-in-chief.”

“In a spliced video section from Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Penn., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., they said that ‘threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.’ That was immediately followed by Kelly stating, ‘Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,’” Thies wrote. “They never specified which orders are illegal.”

According to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, while “[f]ive of the six individuals in that video do not fall under @DeptofWar jurisdiction,” Kelly — a “retired Navy Commander” — “is still subject to UCMJ [the Uniform Code of Military Justice].” Under the UCMJ, the secretaries of military departments are authorized to recall any retired service member to active duty in most cases.

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Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump Prove That There Are Two Paths Toward Socialism

About five years ago, the comedian Ryan Long posted a video in which a woke progressive and an old-fashioned racist meet and, much to their astonishment, discover that rather than being bitterly opposed, they agree on pretty much everything.

There was a strong echo of that convergence in last week’s White House tete-a-tete between Republican President Donald Trump and New York’s new socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Anticipated to be a grudge match, it instead turned into something of a lovefest. Well, of course it did. As fans of horseshoe theory accurately point out, control freaks from the political extremes might differ on details, but they have more in common with each other than they do with people who respect each other’s liberty.

Trump and Mamdani in ‘a Place of Shared Admiration and Love’

In reporting on the meeting, The Hill noted, “Trump and Mamdani answered questions from reporters, both striking a remarkably cordial tone, with the president indicating he agreed with many of the mayor-elect’s ideas.”

According to Mamdani, “It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love.”

Trump added that Mamdani would be “hopefully a really great mayor.” He also commented, “There’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything.”

So, how did two politicians who entered the meeting slinging epithets at each other like “communist” and “fascist” exit with the makings of a mutual admiration society? There’s a hint in a question a BBC reporter posed to the new mayor at the White House when he commented “you’re both populist” and asked, “to what extent the president’s campaign…inspired any part of your campaign?”

Mamdani eagerly brought up cost-of-living and economic concerns while Trump nodded and then chimed in with agreement about concerns over the price of energy.

That’s the key to this meeting of the minds. Trump and Mamdani are strongly focused on economic issues. They also share a taste for addressing those concerns with government direction.

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DOJ Employee Arrested, Booked on Terrorism and Evidence Tampering Charges For Doxxing Federal Agent

A DOJ employee was arrested and booked on terrorism and evidence tampering charges for doxxing a federal agent during a raid in Brownsville, Texas.

Karen Olvera De Leon, an employee with the US Attorney’s Office in Brownsville, appeared on a live stream of a federal raid on June 9.

A male joined the livestream and issued a death threat against one of the federal agents conducting a raid.

Another viewer of the livestream, later identified as Karen Olvera De Leon, doxxed the federal agent and provided his identity to the man issuing the death threat.

KRGV reported:

An employee with the United States Attorney’s Office in Brownsville was arraigned in connection with an online death threat against federal agents, according to a news release from Cameron County District Attorney’s Office.

Karen Olvera De Leon was booked on Thursday on charges of terrorism and tampering with or fabricating evidence, Cameron County jail records show.

According to the news release, Olvera De Leon’s arrest is linked to a June 9 federal enforcement operation conducted in Cameron County that bystanders filmed and livestreamed on social media.

“A male subject joined the chat and made an online death threat towards one of the federal agents involved in the operation,” the news release stated. “A viewer of the live stream commented providing the identity of the federal agent to the person making the threat.”

Olvera De Leon was identified as the viewer who provided the federal agent’s identity.

Jail records show Olvera De Leon was released on a $20,000 bond.

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The Money Behind the Muzzle: Germany’s Fivefold Surge in Speech Control

Government spending on digital speech regulation in Germany has surged over the past decade, increasing more than five times since 2020 and totaling around €105.6 million by 2025.

The findings come from The Censorship Network: Regulation and Repression in Germany Today, a detailed investigation by Liber-net, a digital civil liberties group that monitors speech restrictions and information control initiatives across Europe.

The report describes a sprawling alliance of ministries, publicly funded “fact-checkers,” academic consortia, and non-profit groups that now work together to regulate online communication.

It started as a handful of “anti-hate” programs and has evolved into a broad state-financed system of “content controls,” supported by both domestic and foreign grants.

Liber-net’s accompanying databases and map document more than 330 organizations and over 420 separate grants, rating each on a one-to-five scale according to its level of direct censorship involvement.

Between 2020 and 2021, public funding for these initiatives tripled, and by 2023 it had doubled again.

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Number of rapes reported to police in Scotland soars by 11 PER CENT in single year

Rapes or attempted rapes are reported to police every three hours in Scotland, shocking new figures reveal.

The number has risen by 11 per cent in the past year to more than 3,000 – and is up by a quarter in the past four years.

Nearly 500,000 crimes have been reported overall, including a daily average of 200 violent offences, according to the Scottish Government.

The figures also show a 129 per cent rise in shoplifting in the past four years, prompting the Tories to warn shopworkers are ‘under siege’.

Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘These deeply alarming figures are the direct result of the SNP’s cuts to policing and their relentless weakening of the justice system.’

Statistics released by the government show 3,043 reports of rapes and attempted rapes in the year to September, up from 2,746 the previous year.

Since the same period in 2021, the number of rape or attempted rape reports has increased by 25 per cent (from 2,436).

In the past year, the total number of reports of sexual crimes rose 7 per cent (from 14,651 to 15,704), including a 24 per cent rise in offences including indecent photos of children (from 756 to 936).

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DOJ Renews Bid To Have Court Unseal Epstein, Maxwell Grand Jury Materials

The Department of Justice (DOJ) renewed its request on Nov. 24 to unseal grand jury materials related to the case of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last week.

In a motion filed to a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, the DOJ said the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which President Donald Trump signed into law on Nov. 19—reflects the congressional intent to override grand jury secrecy.

“In the light of the Act’s clear mandate, the Court should authorize the Department of Justice to release the grand jury transcripts and exhibits and modify any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure by the Government of materials of which is required by the Act,” it stated.

The DOJ said it would make appropriate redactions to protect victims’ identities and other personal information. The law requires that any redactions be accompanied by a written explanation, which must be published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress.

It requested that the court issue an expedited ruling, as the Act requires the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to the case within 30 days.

In August, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman denied the DOJ’s bid to unseal the grand jury materials, ruling that officials had failed to provide sufficient justification for unsealing the files and citing potential safety risks to victims.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Aug. 11 denied a similar motion in Maxwell’s case, finding that granting the motion “would bloat the ‘special circumstances’ doctrine, which to date has warranted disclosure in only a tiny number of cases, all involving unique testimony by firsthand witnesses to events of obvious public or historical moment.”

After the Epstein files bill cleared the Senate, the DOJ filed a renewed motion on Nov. 21 to a U.S. District Court in Florida to unseal the grand jury materials, followed by a second filing in the Southern District of New York on Nov. 24.

Grand jury materials are typically kept private. Exceptions outlined in federal rules allow the unsealing of materials, and special circumstances, including public interest, can permit unsealing outside those exceptions.

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University Site Warns of “Whiteness Pandemic” Urges ‘Re-education’

The University of Minnesota’s  “Culture and Family Lab” has a website page warning against a “whiteness pandemic” and offering advice and resources to “halt and reverse” the issue.

The “Whiteness Pandemic” is defined as, “Whiteness refers to culture not biology” and “features colorblindness, passivity, and White fragility, which are all covert expressions of racism common in the United States.”

Racism is an epidemic (CDC, 2021) that can also be considered a pandemic given its large cross-national proportion and spread (APA, 2020). However, there is another pandemic lurking behind and driving the racism pandemic – the Whiteness Pandemic. Whiteness refers to culture not biology: the centuries-old culture of Whiteness features colorblindness, passivity, and White fragility, which are all covert expressions of racism common in the United States.

Naming the Whiteness Pandemic shifts our gaze from the victims and effects of racism onto the systems that perpetrate and perpetuate racism, starting with the family system. At birth, young children growing up in White families begin to be socialized into the culture of Whiteness, making the family system one of the most powerful systems involved in systemic racism. 

The site warns that no one has escaped this ‘pandemic.’

“If you were born or raised in the United States, you have grown up in the Whiteness Pandemic, and you can play a role in halting and reversing this pandemic, especially if you are White because of the power and privilege you hold in this racialized society.”

The site then urges parents to ‘re-educate’ their children, noting, “If you were socialized into the culture of Whiteness during childhood, it is not your fault, but as an adult it is now your responsibility to self-reflect, re-educate yourself, and act.”

“If you are a White adult, antiracist action involves an ongoing process of self-reflection in order to develop a healthy positive White identity while engaging in courageous antiracist parenting/caregiving.”

According to the website, the ‘Whiteness Pandemic project’ is funded by the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, the National Institute of Mental Health, a Provost Research Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, and an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Minnesota.

Defending Education, a parents’ rights watchdog group, shared a disturbing report.

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