Tag: corruption

Somali Member of Minnesota House of Representatives Uses Doctored Image of Alex Pretti in Memorial Tribute

Minnesota State Representative Mohamud Noor has come under fire for using what appears to be an AI-enhanced or filtered image of Alex Pretti, the armed man shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis over the weekend, in a social media memorial post.

The bizarrely altered photo appears to have been manipulated to make Pretti look more attractive.

Pretti, 37, was fatally shot after he engaged in a scuffle with federal agents who were in the middle of an immigration enforcement operation.

Noor, a Democrat who represents District 60B in the Minnesota House, posted a tribute to Pretti on X, writing:

“Words can’t describe our pain. Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is strong. Alex Pretti was killed standing for his neighbors. This has to stop. Our community deserves safety, transparency, and accountability. RIP Alex.”

However, the image he used bears absolutely no resemblance to the original. It appeared he used AI tools or heavy filters to “enhance” Pretti’s appearance, making him look more conventionally attractive by smoothing his skin, thickening his hair, and altering facial features.

Naturally, Noor was absolutely blasted in the replies and quote posts.

“Why are you guys trying to make him better looking through AI and filters? That’s actually twisted,” one user wrote.

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Media Claim: “ICE Drags Citizen in the Snow in His Underwear,” But There Is More to the Story

On January 18, 2026, ICE arrested ChongLy “Scott” Thao in St. Paul, Minnesota. The incident went viral because of footage showing Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, being led from his home in sub-freezing weather wearing only underwear and sandals with a small blanket over his shoulders.

The Thao family states that ICE agents forced their way in without a warrant, pointed guns at the family, including a 4-year-old, and refused to look at Thao’s ID. They claim he was driven to a remote location, photographed and fingerprinted, and only returned home after agents realized he was a citizen.

The facts are very different from the family’s claims and the media framing. First off, the agents had a warrant. They were using an administrative warrant rather than a judicial warrant, which is consistent with new ICE directives.

Under the directive signed by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, ICE has been instructed that administrative warrants (Form I-205) are now considered sufficient for residential entry. If an individual with a final order of removal is believed to be inside and refuses to open the door, agents are authorized to use a necessary and reasonable amount of force to enter.

DHS described it as a targeted operation for two convicted sex offenders, Kongmeng Vang and Lue Moua. The reason agents used a battering ram to break in was because, according to the Associated Press, a family member alerted Thao that agents were banging on the door, but he told them not to open it.

Agents drew their weapons because the targets were dangerous criminals. Moua is described as “a violent illegal alien sexual offender” and a “child predator,” while Vang is described as a “criminal illegal alien” from Laos with a 2016 removal order and a history involving sexual assault and gang activity.

Because Thao matched the physical description of one of the targets, ICE protocol required agents to use a new mobile biometric app, Mobile Fortify, which captures fingerprints and facial photographs to verify identity. However, Thao refused. Consequently, he was taken into custody, photographed and fingerprinted, and then returned home.

Commenters on social media are outraged that Thao was taken out of the house in his underwear. However, there is no indication that agents stripped him. He was apparently already in his underwear when agents arrived. The half-naked aspect and the use of force are consistent with High-Risk Entry protocols. If agents believe a suspect is a convicted sex offender, they prioritize speed and tactical dominance over the suspect’s comfort.

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Signal Chat Infiltrated by Conservative Journalist Reveals Democrat Politicians and Former Tim Walz Staffer Orchestrating Anti-ICE Protests and Doxxing of Agents

A leaked Signal group chat has exposed deep ties between Democrat officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and radical anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis.

The private messaging group, called “MN ICE Watch,” has allegedly been used to coordinate protests, issue marching orders, and even dox federal ICE agents during the ongoing protests and riots in Minneapolis.

Names of the group’s administrators were leaked after the group was infiltrated by conservative independent journalist Cam Higby and posted to X.

“I have infiltrated organizational signal groups all around Minneapolis with the sole intention of tracking down federal agents and impeding/assaulting/and obstructing them,” Higby wrote at the start of a lengthy thread of screenshots and videos from the chat.

One of the admins of the group is Amanda Noelle Koehler, a prominent protest organizer and former campaign strategist for Walz.

Koehler, who goes by the code name “HAH” in the chat, is listed as one of the group’s admins.

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Jailed Fraud Queen Drops Bombshell: Walz, Ellison Knew About the $250M Heist All Along

A Minnesota woman convicted in one of the largest welfare fraud schemes in state history is alleging that Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud long before federal prosecutors intervened, adding new scrutiny to state leadership already facing a Department of Justice investigation.

Aimee Bock, the former head of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, made the allegations during a jailhouse interview with Fox News from Sherburne County Jail in Minnesota.

Bock has been convicted of welfare fraud tied to the misuse of federal funds intended for child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Ex-DEA agent gets 5 years in prison for using badge to protect drug trafficking friends: “Little dark secret”

In two decades of kicking in doors for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Joseph Bongiovanni often took on the risks of being the “lead breacher,” meaning he was the first person into the room.

On Wednesday, he felt a familiar uncertainty awaiting sentencing for using his DEA badge to protect childhood friends who became prolific drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York.

“I never knew what was on the other side of that door — that fear is what I feel today,” Bongiovanni, 61, told a federal judge, pounding the defense table as his face reddened with emotion. “I’ve always been innocent. I loved that job.”

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo sentenced the disgraced lawman to five years in federal prison on a string of corruption counts. The punishment was significantly less than the 15 years prosecutors sought even after a jury acquitted Bongiovanni of the most serious charges he faced, including an allegation he pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia.

The judge said the sentence reflected the complexity of the mixed verdicts following two lengthy trials and the almost Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Bongiovanni’s career, in which the lawman racked up enough front-page accolades to fill a trophy case.

Bongiovanni once hurtled into a burning apartment building to evacuate residents through billowing smoke. He locked up drug dealers, including the first ever prosecuted in the region for causing a fatal overdose.

“There are two completely polar opposite versions of the facts and polar opposite versions of the defendant,” Vilardo said, assuring prosecutors five years behind bars would pose a considerable hardship to someone who has never been to prison.

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Email Shows Top Fulton County Election Officials KNEW About Election Count Discrepancies in November 2020

On Wednesday, the Georgia State Election Board held a hearing during which Joe Rossi, co-author of the now-famous SEB Complaint 2023-025, was afforded the opportunity to finally present a rebuttal to a previously-heard report from the Secretary of State’s office in May 2024.  During that May hearing, neither Rossi nor co-author Kevin Moncla were afforded an opportunity to rebut the report to the SEB.

Among other severe issues, one of 2023-025’s claims was that 3,125 ballots were actually duplicate ballots added to the final machine count on December 4, 2020.  According to Rossi’s testimony, that number is now up to 3,900, allegedly found by the Department of Justice in its investigation, which Rossi disclosed has already begun.

Rossi showed an example of how the duplicated ballots were scanned in a way that makes it highly unlikely that it was a “human error” or mistake, and also difficult to discover. 

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Legislation Proposed To Make It Easier To Denaturalize Somali Fraudsters

In the wake of the massive Somali-fraud scandal out of Minnesota and other states, President Donald Trump wants to denaturalize American immigrants convicted of crimes and deport them, but the current legal framework and federal bureaucracy make such sweeping denaturalization efforts difficult to achieve quickly. 

“I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.”

Existing federal law provides limited pathways for revoking the citizenship of naturalized citizens. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act the government can denaturalize individuals who obtained citizenship through fraud, misrepresentation, or the concealment of material facts during the naturalization process. The law does not allow automatic revocation based solely on crimes committed after naturalization. Current denaturalization proceedings require civil lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice in federal court or criminal prosecutions for naturalization fraud, both demanding individualized evidence, extensive litigation, and meeting high burdens of proof. Civil cases require “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence,” while criminal prosecutions demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has proposed a solution to this problem. He’s introduced the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act in the Senate to expand federal denaturalization authority. The legislation creates a 10-year window after naturalization during which citizens who commit specified crimes could face citizenship revocation and deportation. Among those offenses are welfare fraud exceeding $10,000, aggravated felonies, espionage, and joining terrorist organizations, a category the bill explicitly extends to gangs and drug cartels. The measure also lowers the threshold for federal authorities to begin denaturalization proceedings by broadening the legal grounds beyond fraud committed during the citizenship application process.

The bill even includes a fallback provision that automatically reduces the revocation window from ten years to five years if courts strike down the longer period as unconstitutional.

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WHAT A COINCIDENCE: While Serving in Congress, Keith Ellison Sponsored Legislation That Made it Easier to Transfer Funds to Somalia

Before becoming the attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison served in the House of Representatives, for the state’s 5th District, which includes the city of Minneapolis.

During his time in congress, Ellison only sponsored one bill, the Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014. This bill made it easier to transfer funds to places overseas, like Somalia. Isn’t that fascinating?

You could not make this up.

Couple this with the fact that Ellison was caught on tape basically promising favors to fraudsters, and things are not looking good for him.

Hot Air has more on this:

It turns out that this bill was the Money Remittances Improvement Act, which created the conditions through which those hundreds of millions or likely billions of dollars were fraudulently acquired and sent off to fund the Somali civil war and to enrich members of Somali clans associated with those who settled here in Minnesota.

Any financial bill is complicated, but the most relevant portion of the bill in this case is to transfer the authority to monitor money transfers to foreign countries to the states, which are in turn supposed to ensure that federal regulations are strictly adhered to…

It’s almost as if the system were intentionally designed not to aid in the small remittances of people working in menial jobs as refugees to send money to their families back home, but rather to enable the shipment of hundreds of millions or billions of ill-gotten gains abroad.

Naah. Couldn’t be.

Such corruption is impossible in America, right? A no man with the patriotism and integrity that would vault him to the exalted heights of Congressman, Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and then Attorney General would ever participate in a scheme to defraud the state and federal governments, right?

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Lawmakers Advance Potential Criminal Charges Against Clintons

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday voted to advance two resolutions affirming that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should be held in contempt of Congress.

The resolutions in question stem from subpoenas approved unanimously by the Oversight Committee’s Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee on July 23, 2025. These subpoenas required testimony from several individuals, including the Clintons, as part of a probe examining the crimes of notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial, had documented associations with Bill Clinton, including multiple flights on Epstein’s private jet. The committee sought depositions to gather information on the Clinton’s ties to Epstein, though no criminal allegations have been alleged.

The subpoenas were reissued after initial delays, with Bill Clinton scheduled for a deposition on January 13 and Hillary for the following day. Both failed to appear, prompting immediate backlash from committee Republicans.

In a letter addressed to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), the Clintons’ attorneys described the subpoenas as “invalid” and lacking a legitimate legislative purpose. They further accused Republicans of weaponizing the committee for political gain, which was echoed in a statement from the Clintons themselves.

“Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment. This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves,” the Clintons said in a public statement.

On Wednesday, January 21, the committee voted to advance the resolutions by a wide margin. The final vote on the resolution for Bill Clinton was 34-8, with two members voting present. Nine Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure.

The vote for Hillary Clinton was 28-15, with one member voting present. Three Democrats voted in favor alongside Republicans, Politico reported.

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NYPD Detectives Denied Treatment At Hospital After Being ‘Mistaken For ICE’

NYPD detectives say they were treated with disrespect at a Brooklyn hospital after going to the emergency room for medical care following an on-the-job incident.

Police officials said the detectives arrived at NYU Langone Health in Cobble Hill but were confronted by security guards who questioned their identities and why they were there.

Sources told Eyewitness News the detectives were in plainclothes and explained that one of them needed treatment for a minor injury sustained during a scuffle with a suspect. Despite that explanation, they were allegedly detained, and one detective was initially refused entry because he was carrying his service weapon.

The encounter quickly angered union leaders.

“No individual-especially NYPD Detectives injured in the line of duty-should ever be subjected to such treatment,” the detectives’ union said in a statement.

The detectives, who were not identified, believe hospital staff may have mistaken them for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and initially tried to turn them away.

ICE agents often wear tactical gear marked “Police” but do not always display badges or other identification. NYPD detectives, even when in plainclothes, carry gold shields.

The incident comes amid heightened political tensions surrounding ICE enforcement in New York City.

Appearing on “The View” on Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said ICE should be abolished.

“We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case,” he said.

The mayor said Wednesday that he had not been aware of the hospital incident until asked about it by a reporter.

“That’s the first I’m hearing about it but it’s something I’ll follow up on,” he said.

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