Tag: corruption

Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

Paul Rytting listened as a woman, voice quavering, told him her story.

When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said.

It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.

Rytting had flown into Hailey, Idaho, that morning from Salt Lake City, where the church is based, to meet in person with Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine.

After a quick prayer, he introduced himself and said he was there “to look into” Chelsea’s “tragic and horrendous” story.

Chelsea and Lorraine had come to the meeting with one clear request: Would the church allow a local Idaho bishop, which in the Mormon church is akin to a Catholic priest, to testify at John Goodrich’s trial? Bishop Michael Miller, who accompanied Rytting to the meeting, had heard a spiritual confession from Chelsea’s father shortly before John Goodrich was arrested on charges of sexually abusing her.

While the details of his confession remain private, the church swiftly excommunicated Goodrich.

Audio recordings of the meetings over the next four months, obtained by The Associated Press, show how Rytting, despite expressing concern for what he called John’s “significant sexual transgression,” would employ the risk management playbook that has helped the church keep child sexual abuse cases secret. In particular, the church would discourage Miller from testifying, citing a law that exempts clergy from having to divulge information about child sex abuse that is gleaned in a confession. Without Miller’s testimony, prosecutors dropped the charges, telling Lorraine that her impending divorce and the years that had passed since Chelsea’s alleged abuse might prejudice jurors.

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Comer Releases Direct Monthly Payments to Joe Biden from Hunter Biden’s Business Entity

Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) released subpoenaed bank records revealing Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. Hunter Biden is currently under an investigation by the Department of Justice for using the Owasco PC corporate account for tax evasion and other serious crimes. 

Following subpoenas to obtain Biden family associates’ bank records, Chairman Comer issued subpoenas for Hunter and James Biden’s personal and business bank records. The House Oversight Committee has identified over 20 shell companies and uncovered how the Bidens and their associates raked in over $24 million dollars between 2015 and 2019 by selling Joe Biden as “the brand.” Financial records obtained show Hunter Biden’s business account, Owasco PC, received payments from Chinese-state linked companies and other foreign nationals and companies.

Payments to Joe Biden from Hunter’s Owasco PC corporate account are part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes. As the Bidens received millions from foreign nationals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan, Joe Biden dined with his family’s foreign associates, spoke to them by speakerphone, had coffee, attended meetings, and ultimately received payments that were funded by his family’s business dealings.

Chairman Comer today released a video outlining the direct payments Joe Biden received from Hunter’s Owasco PC bank account and stated the House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money to ensure accountability for President Biden’s involvement in his family’s corrupt domestic and international business schemes.

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Former Michigan GOP House speaker surrenders to serve marijuana bribery sentence

Former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson has surrendered at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Minnesota to serve a 55-month sentence for pocketing bribes and corrupting the state’s marijuana industry, according to an inmate database updated Saturday.

The database shows Johnson, 70, among the 433 inmates at FPC Duluth near the western edge of Lake Superior. The prison is about 700 miles northwest of Lansing where Johnson was one of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in the state before becoming a lobbyist and chief regulator of Michigan’s marijuana industry.

That career ended in scandal after the politician from LeRoy received more than $110,000 in bribes from marijuana lobbyists and a businessman while serving as chairman of the medical marijuana licensing board from May 2017-April 2019. The illegal payoffs included repeated trysts with a sex worker who called him “Batman.”

Johnson had been ordered to surrender by Saturday after losing a last-ditch attempt to shorten his time behind bars and serve part of the sentence under house arrest as he recuperates from heart bypass surgery.

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Jan. 6 Committee Tapes Have Disappeared, Says House Republican

The disappearance of videotapes of witness interviews conducted by the Democratic-led House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has alarmed the chairman of the House panel that replaced it.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee that is currently investigating security lapses connected to the Capitol riot and potential ramifications for upcoming criminal trials, is questioning the disappearance of the video evidence.

“All of the videotapes of all depositions are gone,” Mr. Loudermilk told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show Thursday night.

“We found out about this early in the investigation when I received a call from someone who was looking for some information off one of the videotapes, and we started searching, and we had none,” Mr. Loudermilk explained.

“I wrote a letter to Bennie Thompson asking for them. And he confirmed that they did not preserve those types. He didn’t feel that they had to.”

According to Mr. Loudermilk, the videotapes met the requirements for congressional evidence under House rules because some of the segments were shown at hearings, and the now-defunct J6 committee, led by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), ought to have kept all of the recordings.

“According to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. They (J6 Democrats) actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those,” Mr. Loudermilk said.

“Yet he chose not to.”

The lawmaker explained why he believes this is an important piece of evidence to maintain, citing that some witnesses, such as former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, have changed their testimony over time, and even transcripts might not be sufficient to obtain a full understanding of the testimony.

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Karine Jean-Pierre and top Biden spokesman inappropriately used their roles to influence elections with attacks on ‘MAGA’ Republicans, government watchdog rules

White House spokespeople Karine Jean-Pierre and Andrew Bates violated the Hatch Act when they had been warned against using the word ‘MAGA’ to describe certain Republicans, a government watchdog agency said on Friday.

The independent Office of Special Counsel said the two took actions ‘contrary’ to official guidance on the law when they slammed ‘MAGA’ Republicans’ budget plan this year.

In their letter, first reported by NBC News, the office notes the violations came days after Jean-Pierre was warned she had violated the law intended to prevent federal employees from using their offices to influence elections.

This summer, the Office of Special Counsel notified government officials that ‘MAGA’ and similar terms were effectively off-limits for use as they were seen as campaign-related slogans. 

The ruling came after OCS’s June finding that Jean-Pierre was in violation of the Hatch Act when she repeatedly referred to ‘MAGA Republicans’ in the run-up to the 2022 midterm election. No action was taken against Jean-Pierre.

‘MAGA’ is the campaign slogan for former President Donald Trump. The OSC did say that the use of ‘MAGAnomics’ is permitted.

‘We take the law seriously and uphold the Hatch Act,’ a White House official told DailyMail.com.

Jean-Pierre, Bates and other officials repeatedly cite the Hatch Act in press briefings when declining to answer reporters’ questions about President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign or about Trump’s candidacy. 

But Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, and Bates, who is deputy White House press secretary, have used the word ‘MAGA’ repeatedly when talking about ‘extreme MAGA Republicans’ and their agenda.

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NYPD ACCUSED OF FABRICATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVOR’S MURDER CONFESSION

A WOMAN WHO was charged with murdering her husband in 2020 sued the New York City Police Department, alleging that police officers fabricated the confession that was the basis of the case against her. The federal civil rights lawsuit also alleges that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office obtained a search warrant for an email account she created to draw attention to her case — and never disclosed it, as required by law. 

Prosecutors dropped their case against Tracy McCarter last December, citing insufficient evidence. In the lawsuit, which was filed on November 2 in the Southern District of New York, McCarter said she had “sustained serious physical and psychological harm as a result of being wrongfully arrested, charged, imprisoned, searched, and prosecuted.” 

The lawsuit names four NYPD officers who were involved with the arrest and one investigator from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who worked on the case. All four of the police officers have previously faced civilian complaints of misconduct, though such allegations are famously hard to prove. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment on whether any of the officers are being investigated in relation to McCarter’s case, citing the pending litigation. The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the allegation involving the undisclosed search warrant. 

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A Los Angeles Jail Let a Woman Die of Withdrawal, Then a Coroner Allowed Her Body To Decompose

Amanda Bews was arrested last September after shoplifting from a Los Angeles-area liquor store. Within two days, she would be found unresponsive in a jail cell, dead from apparent alcohol and drug withdrawal. 

According to a lawsuit filed this month, that wasn’t the only way jail employees mishandled Bews’ case. Not only did jail employees fail to treat Bews, despite numerous medical records stating she would need withdrawal medications, but once she had died, the jail mishandled her remains, leading to major decomposition that Bews’ mother said made her daughter look “mummified” 

After her arrest on September 7, Bews was first taken to a local hospital before booking, due to her admission of extremely heavy alcohol use and recent heroin use. According to the lawsuit, Bews told staff about her substance history and her drinking “just prior” to her arrest. Her arrest records state that she was a “prolonged heavy drinking.”

When medical staff released her, they gave law enforcement medical documents that “would have included Amanda’s history of alcohol dependence and heavy recent use,” according to the lawsuit.

“In her ED Summary Report, the ‘disposition’ is listed as ‘TO ACUTE CARE FACILITY,’ indicating that Amanda should have received acute care (meaning consistent monitoring and inpatient treatment) at the jail she would be booked into,” the complaint reads.

However, Bews didn’t get this necessary treatment. Instead, she was placed into a shared cell during the afternoon of September 8th. Just after midnight on the 9th, the complaint says that staff cleared Bews “for detox and required no medications,” and they “stopped treating Amanda for detoxification and withdrawal.”

At 4:30 a.m., Bews was found unresponsive. Staff gave her a dose of Narcan, but she was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. According to an autopsy, the levels of drugs and alcohol in Bews’ system were indicative of withdrawal and there was vomit in her airways.

“On information and belief, deputies also did not check on Amanda during this time, as her condition would have obviously deteriorated. Or, if deputies had, they failed to summon medical care during this time despite her deterioration.”

After Bews’ death, the lawsuit states that both the county medical examiner and Chapel of the Light, a private funeral home hired by the county, mishandled Bews’ remains, leading to considerable decomposition of her body.

The coroners “failed to use the standard of care a reasonably careful person working at a medical examiner’s office would use to handle human remains prior to transfer to their loved ones’ family members. A reasonably careful employee of a medical examiner’s office would at minimum properly refrigerate the remains,” according to the complaint.

“Upon completion of the autopsy and transfer of the remains to Chapel of the Light, Amanda’s remains had deteriorated significantly,” the suit reads. “The County transferred custody of the remains to Chapel of the Light, but Chapel of the Light allowed Amanda’s remains to further deteriorate.”

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Washington State Republican Party Files Formal Ethics Complaint Against WA Secretary of State Hobbs for Using Public Funds to Surveil and Censor Political Opposition

Today the Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) filed a formal ethics complaint with the Washington State Ethics Board against Secretary of State Steve Hobbs. A big thank you to WSRP Chairman Jim Walsh for initiating the complaint and attorney K. Garl Long, Long Law office, for writing and filing the complaint.

After the complaint was filed the WSRP issued a press release here.

Full Complaint, Exhibits, and Footnotes here:

Summary of Complaint: Secretary of State Hobbs (“Secretary Hobbs”) is using public funds to pay an offshore artificial intelligence company to surveil voters. Speech objectionable to Secretary Hobbs is “fact-checked,” reported as a “threat,” and suppressed. It is unethical and illegal to use public funds to aid Secretary Hobbs and/or his political party in suppressing opposition views. Such government censorship is a spreading cancer in our society.1

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NYPD PAID OUT $30 MILLION IN MISCONDUCT CASES BEFORE LITIGATION IN FIRST NINE MONTHS OF 2023

THE NEW YORK Police Department has been making headlines for the huge settlements paid out by the city in misconduct cases. In the first half of 2023, New York City paid more than $50 million in lawsuits alleging misconduct by members of the NYPD. 

That figure is on track to exceed $100 million by the end of the year — but even that total doesn’t capture how much the city has to spend in cases where its cops are accused of everything from causing car accidents to beating innocent people.

The $100 million figure does not include lawsuits settled by the city prior to litigation, which reached $30 million in the first nine months of this year, according to data obtained from the office of the New York City Comptroller through a public records request. Pre-litigation settlements from July 2022 through September of this year totaled $50 million — meaning the city’s payouts in such suits since July 2022, including those settled after litigation, rose to a total of around $280 million.

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Arizona tribal cop is accused of ‘sickening’ cover-up after fatal hit-and-run on Thanksgiving: Mowed down woman, 30, and then returned to the scene to ‘investigate’ – even going to her parents home with other officers to tell them she was dead

An Arizona cop has been accused of ‘sickening’ cover-up after a woman was killed in a fatal hit-and-run – and he allegedly returned to the scene to ‘investigate.’

Mom-of-two Iris Billy, 30, was hit and killed on State Route 73 in Arizona by a driver at 3.30am on the morning of Thanksgiving. The person driving the car fled the scene – and police launched their hunt for the driver. 

Police in charge of the investigation quickly realized that the main suspect in the hit-and-run was in fact another officer.  

Josh Anderson, 49, an officer of the White Mountain Apache Police Deptartment, was arrested and is facing a slew of criminal charges. Anderson’s patrol vehicle was found with damage that was ‘consistent with a collision with a pedestrian.’

He was on duty when the crash happened – and he even responded to the scene later on, and then went to Billy’s family home with other officers to inform her family with the news that Billy had died. 

Anderson, a tribal officer who had spent two decades in the force, was charged with assault, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault causing serious physical injury, and criminal negligence.  

He was also charged with reckless driving, interference with an officer, death caused by a vehicle and leaving the scene of a fatality collision. 

The case has been turned over to the FBI – and the sheriff’s office said Anderson resigned following his arrest. 

The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office said: ‘This is an extremely sad time for the family of the victim, the men and women at the White Mountain Apache Police Department, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe. 

‘This event is an isolated incident and is not a reflection of the fine police officers that serve and protect the citizens of the White Mountain Apache Reservation every day.

‘The White Mountain Apache Police Department acted in a swift, transparent, and aggressive manner to find the facts and document the incident. 

‘Their professionalism and vigilance throughout the investigation resulted in the ability to gather evidence and facts surrounding the death of Iris Billy.’

Billy’s sister, Phylene Burnette, said: ‘It is very disturbing, sickening and heartless. 

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