Tag: corruption

Disgraced Dem Denied Bail by Judge as He Continues to Fight for His Political Life

After a political career that included almost two decades as a Democrat in the United States Senate, Bob Menendez is looking at spending more than a decade in a United States federal prison.

And after a ruling Wednesday by a federal appeals court, he’s going to be behind bars while his appeal plays out.

But Menendez, convicted in July of last year of 16 corruption charges, is still claiming he was the victim of a prosecution vendetta.

Wednesday’s decision by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges denied a bid for bail that Menendez sought while he appeals his conviction, according to the Associated Press. The 2-1 ruling did not include any explanation, but its impact was evident.

Unless the Supreme Court takes up the case, Menendez, who is scheduled to report to prison on Tuesday, is going to be serving his 11-year sentence even as he fights to get the conviction overturned.

The case of the former New Jersey senator, who resigned from the Senate after his conviction, was not only a disgrace to the government and the Garden State, it became a national joke, with its FBI raid turning up gold bars, as well as copious amounts of cash hidden in the Menendez home.

In 2023, then-Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz argued on the House floor that Menendez demanding bribes in gold bars was a sign of how inflation had gotten under then-President Joe Biden.

Even the infamously liberal comedian Jon Stewart mocked Menendez on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

But Menendez continues to claim innocence and is fighting for his political reputation.

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Court Postpones Arraignment in Federal Case Against Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver, Gives Her Permission to Travel Internationally

A court on Friday postponed the arraignment in the case against Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver to June 25.

McIver’s arraignment was originally scheduled for June 16.

The court also gave LaMonica McIver permission to travel internationally after a judge previously ordered her to surrender her firearms and said she cannot travel outside of the US.

Earlier this week a federal grand jury returned a 3-count indictment charging Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver with forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark last month.

McIver is facing a maximum of 17 years in prison for all three counts.

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Two Former USPS Employees Indicted For Stealing $80 Million In Treasury Checks

Missing your tax return check and living near Philadelphia? We might have an idea of what’s gone wrong…

That’s because two former employees of the U.S. Postal Service in Philadelphia have been indicted for their roles in a scheme involving the theft of over $80 million in U.S. Treasury checks, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

According to federal prosecutors, Tauheed Tucker, 23, and Saahir Irby, 27, both previously employed as mail processing clerks at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center, are accused of stealing thousands of envelopes containing Treasury checks, according to NBC Philadelphia.

The indictment further alleges that Tucker and Irby sold the stolen checks to two other individuals—Cory Scott, 25, of Ardmore, and Alexander Telewoda, 25, of Clifton Heights. Scott and Telewoda are said to have advertised the checks for sale via the messaging app Telegram.

NBC Philadelphia writes that once payments were received from interested buyers, Scott and Telewoda allegedly mailed the checks out. According to prosecutors, those buyers then attempted to cash the checks, unaware they had been stolen.

Officials report that while the total face value of the stolen checks exceeded $80 million, approximately $11 million worth were successfully negotiated at banks by the buyers.

All four men—Tucker, Irby, Scott, and Telewoda—face charges including conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government property, and mail theft. Each could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In addition, Irby is facing separate charges of mail theft in connection with another incident involving stolen Treasury checks.

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The longest-serving legislative leader in US history will be sentenced on corruption charges

Michael Madigan’s stunning political collapse is expected to culminate Friday when the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history is sentenced on federal bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud convictions tied to a scheme to push legislation in exchange for jobs and contracts for his associates.

The former Illinois House speaker was convicted in February on 10 of 23 counts in a remarkable corruption trial that lasted four months. The case churned through 60 witnesses and mountains of documents, photographs and taped conversations.

Madigan will appear in U.S. District Court Friday in Chicago, where Judge John Robert Blakey will determine his sentence.

Federal prosecutors are seeking a 12 1/2-year prison term. Madigan’s attorneys are seeking probation, contending the government’s sentence would “condemn an 83-year-old man to die behind bars for crimes that enriched him not one penny.”

During a legislative career that spanned a half-century, Madigan served nearly four decades as speaker, the longest on record for a U.S. legislator. Combined with more than 20 years as chairperson of the Illinois Democratic Party, he set much of the state’s political agenda while handpicking candidates for political office. More often than not, he also controlled political mapmaking, drawing lines to favor his party.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said, the Chicago Democrat built a private legal career that allowed him to amass a net worth of $40 million.

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Danish Scientist Bribed by Dr. Fauci to Say COVID Did NOT Come From a Wuhan Lab May Flee the Country Before He Is Called to Testify in DOJ Investigation

Attorneys inside the Bondi Justice Department have launched inquiries into one of the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases or “CREID grants awarded to Scripps Research Institute scientist Kristian Andersen, by Tony Fauci in 2020.

Anderson is now in the process of fleeing the United States for a position being created for him at the University of Oslo before too many eyes are pointing in his direction.

Dr. Kristian Anderson should be worried.

In 2020, Dr. Tony Fauci bribed Anderson to change his position on the COVID lab leak as the origin of the pandemic. After his call with Dr. Fauci on February 1, 2020, Dr. Anderson was given a $1.88 million grant and $16.5 million in funding from NIAID, Dr. Fauci’s personal piggy bank.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier in 2023 and 2024…

On January 31, 2020, Danish-born and British-educated scientist Kristian Andersen emailed Dr. Tony Fauci, saying the virus looked lab-made.

According to the email (emphasis added):

“[O]ne has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered . . . . Eddie [Holmes], Bob [Garry], Mike [Ferguson] and myself all find the genome inconsistent with evolutionary theory.”

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Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch sours on Patel, Bongino: ‘Hostages of the Deep State’

Formerly conservative heavyweights FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino are rapidly losing the confidence of at least one member of the MAGA movement, with watchdog group Judicial Watch alleging this week they have failed to deliver enough transparency on prior scandals.

In an investigative bulletin from the organization, Judicial Watch reporters highlighted their prior support for the pair, but lamented that the pair appeared to have been swept up by bureau norms.

“These days, as well, conservative insiders are alarmed by mounting signs that Patel and Bongino have been taken hostage by the Deep State consensus and are failing to bring meaningful change to the FBI,” they wrote.

FBI and DOJ officials dispute the portrayal, telling Just the News the FBI has produced tens of thousands of pages to DOJ and Congress since Patel and Bongino started on scandals ranging from Russia collusion to the JFK assassination. The officials said the documents get a secondary review at DOJ to determine which are supposed to be sent to Congress because of prior unanswered document requests and subpoenas and then are released to the public.

Officials said major public releases from DOJ from the files FBI scoured in recent weeks are due this summer, including some still this month.

Judicial Watch also took issue with Patel’s appointment of Steven Jensen, a leader of the Jan. 6 investigations, to lead the Washington Field Office.

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New Evidence Suggests FBI Agent Involved With Crossfire Hurricane Was Foreign Spy

The U.S. Department of Justice has reopened a case against a former top FBI counterspy. Charles McGonigal was Special Agent in Charge of Counterintelligence at the New York field office. He left the FBI in 2018, joined the massive Brookfield asset management fund as a vice president for global security, and was arrested and convicted in 2023. 

But not for espionage. McGonigal quickly pled guilty to corruption-related crimes. He is serving six-and-a-half years in federal prison. 

His prosecution and admission seem suspiciously tidy.

McGonigal was part of the FBI’s discredited CROSSFIRE HURRICANE “counterintelligence” operation led by his boss, Peter Strzok, against Donald Trump and his supporters in 2016.

As the former senior spy-hunter at the Bureau’s largest field office, McGonigal barely defended himself from charges relating to illegally accepting money from Albanian businessmen tied to that tiny country’s intelligence service, and for ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

He received a light sentence and $40,000 fine.

Something feels off. To the Russian or Chinese intelligence services, someone in McGonigal’s position would be a prime intelligence mark — the man in charge of tracking them. 

Someone with his double life and excessive lifestyle makes a ripe target. It stretches credulity to think that Albanian intelligence got to McGonigal instead of Putin’s chekists.

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Florida Sheriff Backs Down From Threat To Not Enforce Immigration Laws After Rebuke From AG

A Florida county sheriff who had refused to enforce immigration laws yielded after state Attorney General James Uthmeier warned he could be removed from office. The move from Uthmeier comes as sheriff’s departments in places like Los Angeles refuse to help federal immigration officials and even fail to shut down pro-illegal immigration riots.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida partnered its law enforcement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Despite this, Broward County’s sheriff, Dr. Gregory Tony, initially made it clear he would not assist the federal government in its enforcement of immigration law.

In the letter sent on Monday, Uthmeier sought “clarity on several problematic remarks” that Tony made during a June 3 budget meeting. He noted how Tony claimed “arresting illegal immigrants is ‘not within [the] purview’” of his office. 

“I would hope your statements were mere political posturing, but if not, your expressed position would constitute a failure of your statutory obligation to utilize ‘best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law,’” Uthmeier wrote. If Tony did not uphold the law he swore an oath to enforce, he could be removed from office, the letter stated.

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Former Hopkinton deputy police chief convicted of child rape while school resource officer

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announced Friday that a Middlesex Jury has convicted former Hopkinton Deputy Chief of Police, John “Jay” Porter, of three charges of Rape of a Child. The assault on the student occurred while he was assigned as a school resource officer in the Town of Hopkinton school system.

The incidents occurred during 2004 and 2005 while the victim was a 15-year-old student. During that time Porter assaulted the victim on multiple occasions off school property.

“The defendant in this case abused his position of power to take advantage of and manipulate a child to gain her trust before sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions,” said District Attorney Marian Ryan.

This investigation was conducted by the District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police. The prosecutor assigned was Assistant District Attorney Maren Schrader and Victim Witness Advocate was Meaghan McCarthy.

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Gavin Newsom And His Cruel Notion Of ‘Cruel’

Recently, Gov. Newsom weighed in on the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the last four years of border destruction, when an estimated 10-12 million illegal aliens entered the U.S. unlawfully—among them thousands with criminal records.

Of the recent Los Angeles efforts of ICE to detain those who entered and reside here illegally, the governor proclaimed:

“Continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel. Donald Trump’s chaos is eroding trust, tearing families apart, and undermining the workers and industries that power America’s economy.”

Dissect that statement, and almost everything Newsom said was either not factual or misleading.

“Chaotic?” What is chaotic is allowing 12 million unaudited migrants into the U.S. ahead of those waiting years for background checks and legal permission.

The current antidote to a truly chaotic, nonexistent border was to bring some legality and order back to immigration—and not to perpetuate a wild-west border, drug smuggling, cartel profiteering, and child trafficking and abandonment, which were the Biden-era norms.

Chaotic is 1,000 rioters in southern California swarming ICE officers, endangering their safety and lives—and then being contextualized, excused, or even supported by the governor of the state, who supposedly is an upholder of our laws and their enforcement.

Each time Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom side with violent protests and the intimidation of ICE officers, the greater the chance that an officer will be seriously injured or killed—and the violence will spike. Apparently, both think they are riding a wave of public support, when in fact the latest CBS poll found 54 percent of Americans support such deportations.

California’s elected officials seem clueless that the optics of illegal immigrants torching autos, attacking law enforcement, or pelting bystanders, while waving Mexican flags, are terrible. What is the logic of waving the flag of the country to which one is violently opposed to returning, while assaulting the officers and infrastructure of the very nation in which one is demanding to remain?

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