Tag: cover ups

Washington State AG Warns Citizen Journalists to Stop Investigating Somali Daycares or Face Potential Hate Crime Charges

The Washington state attorney general released a statement on X Tuesday evening warning independent journalists to stop investigating fraudulent Somali daycare centers or they could be charged with a hate crime.

“My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking,” State AG Nick Brown stated. “We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers. Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights, issued a warning of her own in reaction to the Washington state AG’s post.

“ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist’s 1A rights will have some ‘splainin to do,” she wrote on X, Wednesday morning. “[The DOJ Civil Rights Division] takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously!” Dhillon added.

This statute, known as the Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, makes it a crime for any person acting under the pretense of law to willfully deprive another individual of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

The clash of the AGs came after Youtuber Nick Shirley exposed about a dozen Somali-owned, state-funded childcare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that appeared to be completely deserted.

Shirley produced a 42-minute video, which has been viewed over 131 million times on X since it was posted on December 26,  alleging that Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) “knew about the fraud but never reported it.”

Inspired by Shirley’s bombshell report, citizen journalists in multiple states with large Somali populations have launched their own investigations in recent days.

In the Kent, Washington area Tuesday, YouTuber Chris Sims, a self-described “gonzo journalist,” visited seven suspicious Somali childcare sites and reported that they were “very unhappy” to see him.

Sims posted a video of him approaching a private home listed as a childcare facility that appeared to be not as advertised.

“There was no sign of kids or being a Daycare facility,” Sims wrote. “I was told by a few they weren’t Daycares despite receiving tax payer dollars. One yelled ‘Call the police’ behind the door.”

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Catherine Herridge Reveals How CBS Executives Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop From Hell Story

Investigative reporter Catherine Herridge revealed how CBS executives blocked the Hunter Biden laptop from hell story.

Catherine Herridge previously worked as the chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News.

In 2019, she joined CBS News as a senior investigative correspondent. She was fired in 2024 after she probed the Hunter Biden laptop from hell story.

Hunter Biden dropped off his damaged laptops at a Delaware computer repair shop run by John Paul Mac Isaac back in 2019.

John Paul Mac Isaac’s life changed in April 2019 when a visibly drunk Hunter Biden stopped by his computer repair shop with three damaged MacBook Pro laptops.

One was destroyed beyond repair, and he gave that back to Hunter.

The other required a keyboard that he loaned to Hunter. He never got that keyboard back. The third laptop Hunter left with Mac Isaac to fix.

Hunter Biden never returned to John Paul Mac Isaac’s repair shop to retrieve his property.

After many failed attempts to reach Hunter Biden, John Paul Mac Isaac took lawful ownership of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.

In October 2020, The New York Post dropped an “October surprise” on Biden’s presidential campaign and released emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.

The emails revealed Hunter Biden was doing business with foreign countries and acting as Joe Biden’s bagman as part of his international influence peddling scheme.

“When we did the story, we did it after the (2022) midterms. I argued against that because it was ready before the midterms, and my training is that you should always do the story when it’s ready to go. You should not be dictated by the political cycle,” Herridge said.

Catherine Herridge said that after CBS finally aired the Hunter laptop story two years after it was already known to the public, the executives spiked several stories, including one about Joe Biden.

Herridge said executives and producers overrode CBS CEO George Cheeks.

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Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown Appears to Threaten Journalists for Investigating Somali Fraud

As allegations of fraud in the form of Somali daycare centers is exploding, now across the country and not just in Minnesota, people on the left are rushing to defend the fraudsters.

In Washington State, Attorney General Nick Brown, put out a statement on Twitter/X that sounds like a threat to any independent journalists who might look into it.

Brown wrote:

My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.

We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers.

Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior. I encourage anyone experiencing threats or harassment to either contact local law enforcement or our office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline at 1-855-225-1010 or http://atg.wa.gov/report-hate.

If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate. Go to DCYF’s website to learn more. And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.

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Court orders Kentucky to release records in driver’s license fraud investigation

A court ruled the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet violated the state’s open records laws by withholding documents tied to an investigation into immigrants illegally obtaining Kentucky driver’s licenses in Louisville, ordering more than 2,300 records released to WDRB.

The ruling marks a major development in WDRB’s ongoing investigation into claims that non-citizens were able to buy Kentucky driver’s licenses under the table, often without proper documentation, Homeland Security screening or required driving tests.

For former licensing clerk Melissa Moorman, the court order brings both validation and frustration.

“I would just like this to be resolved and over so this dark cloud can be removed from my head,” Moorman said.

Moorman said she reported what she believed was widespread fraud at the Nia Center driver’s license branch in west Louisville, only to lose her job after sounding the alarm. She worked as a clerk at the branch through Quantum Solutions, a staffing service contracted by the commonwealth to supplement personnel at regional offices.

She said she was training for a supervisor position, which would have made her a state employee.

“It really did destroy my life,” she said.

Moorman told investigators and WDRB fraudulent documents were accepted, required screenings — including the drivers’ tests — were bypassed, and customers paid about $200 in cash per license under the table.

“There were documents that were being provided that weren’t legit,” Moorman said. “There were employees that were using my login as part of this scam.”

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Dem lawmaker moves to conceal WA state daycare provider info amid Somali fraud allegations

As independent journalists continue digging into alleged fraud inside Washington’s daycare subsidy system, Democratic State Senator Lisa Wellman has pre-filed legislation that critics say could make it significantly harder for the public to verify whether taxpayer-funded childcare operations even exist.

The proposal, Senate Bill 5926, was pre-filed on December 22 and expands public records exemptions for childcare providers, shielding a broad range of identifying information from disclosure. Supporters frame the measure as a safety tool designed to protect providers from harassment or threats. Opponents argue it is arriving just as journalists are using public data to uncover suspicious daycare listings tied to large sums of taxpayer funding.

SB 5926 comes as independent journalists, inspired by Nick Shirley’s exposure of daycare fraud in Minnesota, have been scouring government websites to find similar fraud across the US. Additionally, Wellman was one of the primary sponsors of the Keep Washington Working Act, the bill that made Washington a so-called “sanctuary state,” and critics of the bill suggest her new legislation is an attempt to shield illegal immigrants from federal authorities.

In the bill’s legislative findings, lawmakers acknowledge that existing confidentiality provisions apply most clearly to licensed family home childcare providers but argue that the same risks now extend to childcare workers in centers and other settings. The bill seeks to widen protections statewide by restricting the disclosure of “personal information” for anyone licensed or certified by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to provide childcare.

Under the legislation, exempt information would include a wide range of details that could identify a provider or location, such as a person’s name, home address, GPS coordinates, personal phone number, personal email address, date of birth, emergency contact information, and other personally identifying information. It also covers sensitive identifiers like Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers, driver’s license numbers, and financial information such as bank account and direct deposit details. The bill does not limit these protections to home daycare operators; instead, it extends them to licensed family home providers, licensed childcare centers, school-age or out-of-school-time programs, and essentially any location licensed or certified through DCYF.

The bill contains language specifying that certain program-level information must remain public, such as business addresses, program capacity, licensing status, inspection results, and public safety findings required by state or federal law. Yet critics say this limitation provides little comfort, because the current dispute centers on whether state records and publicly available listings are reliable enough to begin with. Watchdogs argue that if the government database contains discrepancies, missing location details, or inconsistent licensing information, the only way for journalists and taxpayers to validate the entries is through independent verification, and restricting identifying information could make those efforts far more difficult.

The bill is also landing amid an intensifying political confrontation between Washington officials and independent journalists who say they are uncovering early warning signs of a subsidy scandal similar to one previously exposed in Minnesota. This week, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown issued a warning aimed squarely at independent journalists, accusing them of harassing daycare providers and engaging in unsafe conduct. Brown said his office had received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being “harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.” He said his office is coordinating with DCYF to evaluate the fraud claims circulating online as well as the reported harassment, and urged anyone contacted by journalists to contact local law enforcement or report incidents to state hotlines and reporting websites.

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The DOJ is flaunting the law on the Epstein Files. Why isn’t Pam Bondi in handcuffs?

Congress’s newly minted Epstein Files Transparency Act—a bipartisan law co‑authored by Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna—was supposed to leave no room for discretion. It required Attorney General Pam Bondi, who serves President Donald Trump, to release all unclassified Justice Department records related to Jeffrey Epstein within thirty days. Trump signed the bill, but his Justice Department blew the deadline and produced only a small fraction of the documents, many of which were blacked out. The co‑authors have responded by drafting impeachment articles and exploring inherent contempt. Their outrage raises a broader question: why can the executive branch ignore the law with impunity, and why does this seem to happen over and over again?

The impetus for the transparency law lies in the horrific pattern of abuse that Epstein orchestrated for decades and the government’s failure to stop it. Even after survivor Maria Farmer told the FBI in September 1996 that Epstein was involved in child sex abuse, officials did nothing. The latest document release confirms that the bureau was tipped off a decade before his first arrest. Many of the new documents show that Epstein’s scheme went far beyond one man; the files include photographs of former presidents, rock stars, and royalty, and testimony from victims as young as fourteen. Campaigners say the heavy redactions and missing files—at least sixteen documents disappeared from the Justice Department website, including a photo of Donald Trump—betray the law’s intent. The omissions have fueled suspicions that the department is selectively protecting powerful clients rather than victims.

A law that leaves little wiggle room

In addition to the redactions, entire files vanished after the department’s release. Al Jazeera reported that at least sixteen documents disappeared from the Justice Department website soon after they were posted, including a photograph of Trump. Survivors expressed frustration: Maria Farmer said she feels redeemed by the disclosure yet weeps for victims the FBI failed to protect, and critics argue the department is still shielding influential individuals. The missing files underscore that Bondi’s partial compliance is not just tardy but potentially dishonest; the law obligates her to release names of government officials and corporate entities tied to Epstein, and removing those names is itself a violation.

The statute instructs the attorney general to release all unclassified Justice Department records about Epstein within thirty days. This covers everything from flight logs, travel records, names of individuals and corporate entities linked to his trafficking network, to internal communications about prosecutorial decisions and any destruction of evidence. It prohibits withholding information to avoid embarrassment, and allows redactions only to protect victims’ privacy, to exclude child sexual abuse imagery, or to safeguard truly classified national security information. Even then, the attorney general must declassify as much as possible and justify each redaction to Congress. These provisions make the statute stricter than a typical subpoena and leave little room for discretion.

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PA Police Commissioner Appointed by Democrat Governor Jumps to FBI Despite the Final Butler Report Still Locked Away

The Western District of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Attorney’s Office celebrated what it called a victory for transparency when state prosecutors secured court approval to release a set of grand-jury-subpoenaed records to Congress. The order was made public during the busy holiday season allowing the Department of Justice to share pre-existing business records from the investigation of accused shooter Thomas  Matthew  Crooks in connection with the July  13, 2024  assassination attempt on then former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, PA.

During the Congressional hearings about the assassination attempt Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, captured the mood starkly saying “There were critical failures of security at the event in Butler. It is important that we learn from these failures to better provide safety.” Federal attorneys now frame this document release as proof that law enforcement is being transparent.  Really?

Despite this ruling, at the same time, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) continue to withhold its report on the Butler investigation, quietly leaning on provisions of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, especially Section 708(b)(16), which classifies “criminal investigative records” as exempt from public release. That legal shield allows the state to bury internal memos, communications, and even full reports without ever disclosing investigative results.  Meanwhile, nothing has been publicly released to date that proves accused shooter, Thomas  Matthew  Crooks, actually fired the shots at the rally.

The story of the Butler assassination attempt continually returns to one image: an elevated roof, with a clear line of sight, left effectively unguarded. Press accounts of official findings describe “stunning security failures” and “the unguarded roof, easily within shooting distance of the rally” where the gunman positioned himself, failures that congressional and independent reviews admit never should have happened. And, most importantly, no ballistic report has ever been made public.

The roof of the AGR Building, and everything that went wrong beneath it, sits squarely with the responsibility of Commissioner  Christopher  L. Paris, the PSP chief during the Butler attempted assassination.  Appointed by Governor Josh Shapiro in 2023, Paris testified before Congress about “stunning” lapses.  In news, again during the busy holiday season, Paris announced he would retire on  January 2, 2026, to take a position with the Federal Bureau of  Investigation (FBI). The Paris transition to the FBI, with Pennsylvania’s official Butler report still locked away, leaves questions regarding transparency, accountability and motive.

For Ablechild, as a national nonprofit fighting to expose behavioral-health industry links to violence, this is proof that “transparency” is selective. When violent bloodshed occurs, a school shooting, an assassination, a sudden act of mass violence, behavioral health usually is behind it, and the key records always stay sealed.

Ablechild argues that the public deserves answers about the family of accused shooter  Thomas  Matthew  Crooks, whose parents are both licensed behavioral-health professionals in Pennsylvania.  It is impossible to understand the Butler violence without examining that connection. Crooks’ parents should have no problem providing all medical, mental-health, and school records. Asking whether their work within the behavioral-health system influenced how warning signs were handled or ignored is common sense.  Material facts, such as whether Crooks had a treatment or medication history, any contact with state-funded behavioral-health programs, or was involved in any experimental clinical drug or device trials?  All of this critical data remains hidden under seal.

Ablechild calls this secrecy a public betrayal. The Department of Justice can proudly release selected documents to Congress, but the FBI and PSP keep their most revealing material out of public reach. Even basic questions are still unanswered, such as who authorized the body to remain on the AGR roof overnight while the medical examiner was ordered to return the following morning to identify the alleged shooter.

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Hardworking boy, 17, died mysteriously while working at Nebraska hog farm owned by governor and run by his daughter… then officials frustrated his mom’s efforts to find out why

A teenager in Nebraska died under mysterious circumstances while working at a hog farm founded by the state’s governor and run by his daughter, with officials accused of neglecting a thorough investigation for his grieving mother.

Zach Panther, 17, was found dead six weeks after starting a job at Beaver Valley Pork farms in St. Edward, Nebraska – a tiny town with about 700 residents roughly two hours west of Omaha – last April 1.

The teen had been sealing cracks in a barn with chemical-laden spray foam before his supervisor found him on the floor, according to The New York Times.

Panther’s death was not seen by any other farm employees, and there were no signs of foul play.

Beaver Valley Pork is one of the hog operations linked to Pillen Family Farms, a family business that has owned or operated more than 100 farms across Nebraska.

The company was founded by state governor Jim Pillen in 1993. His daughter Sarah has been the co-chief executive of the business since January 2020, per her public LinkedIn profile.

Investigations by government agencies couldn’t determine how the 17-year-old died and were allegedly slowed down by mistakes and poor information sharing.

‘My son is dead,’ Justy Riggs-Panther, Zach’s mom, told the outlet. ‘There ought to be answers.’

After her son’s death, the sheriff and deputies from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office only allegedly examined the room where he died, and not much else.

The Nebraska farm allegedly blocked timely testing from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), while a recommended blood test for spray foam chemicals was also disrupted when the lab accidentally destroyed the usable sample.

Sarah Pillen, the co-CEO of Pillen Family Farms, said the company had ‘fully cooperated’ with the investigation into Zach’s death.

She told OSHA of Zach’s death when it happened, which was marked down in the call log by an agency employee with notes including ‘had been foaming’, ‘insulation’, ‘head injury’ and ‘poss[ible] medical episode.’

‘While we share the frustration that some of the issues which led to his passing remain unanswered, we understand those investigations have been closed, and there have been no safety violations attributable to the workplace,’ she told The New York Times.

However, Sarah Pillen was accused of refusing entry to an OSHA industrial hygienist who came to inspect the farm.

‘We simply requested that OSHA follow our established biosecurity protocols,’ she said.

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‘Disclosure is required now’: DOJ stalling case against 2020 election denier accused of planting bombs ‘outside the RNC and DNC’ day before Jan. 6, lawyers say

Newly released court documents accused a Virginia man of confessing to planting pipe bombs “outside” the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., just one day before the Jan. 6 Capitol Attack. Federal prosecutors who say the man told investigators he did this because he wanted to “speak up” for 2020 election deniers are now choosing to stall the case, according to his lawyers.

“Disclosure is required now, not later,” Brian Cole Jr.’s attorneys write in a 15-page motion for discovery filed Monday, which seeks an order that directs the government to cough up all copies of evidence against him, including “any and all statements, confessions, or admissions.”

Cole’s lawyers say the Justice Department has “asked to push” his preliminary hearing to either Jan. 7 or 8 — but prosecutors have no concrete reason why, the attorneys say, other than “ordinary scheduling matters and the possibility of a forthcoming indictment,” according to court documents.

“That request comes too late,” Cole’s team says in a motion to confirm his preliminary hearing filed late Sunday. “In its email to defense counsel, the government has identified no extraordinary circumstances.”

Cole’s lawyers want the court to direct the government to be “prepared to present its evidence in support of probable cause” on Tuesday, should the preliminary hearing happen. They say Cole has already consented to an extension that moved his hearing to Tuesday, “but he has not consented to any further delay,” according to their motion.

“Dec. 30 is the proper, timely date for the preliminary hearing,” Cole’s team says. “The government’s desire to accommodate ordinary scheduling or the pace of a grand jury is not a lawful basis to continue the hearing for which it has had more than three weeks to prepare.”

Cole, 30, of Woodbridge, was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia earlier this month with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce with the intent to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual or unlawfully to damage or destroy any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property. He was also charged with attempted malicious destruction by means of fire and explosive materials.

According to federal prosecutors, Cole drove his Nissan Sentra to Washington, D.C., by himself on Jan. 5, 2021, to plant at least two pipe bombs downtown “in the immediate vicinity” of the RNC and DNC headquarters. The improvised explosive devices had 60-minute timers, but failed to detonate. Cole allegedly said he planted them at night “because he did not want to kill people,” according to the DOJ.

Federal prosecutors say Cole learned how to make the bombs by playing video games. He allegedly admitted that he is a Trump supporter but does not like “either party” and wanted to go after the RNC and DNC because he was sick of election deniers being called “conspiracy theorists” and other “bad” things.

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Wyoming conservation group sues federal agency to obtain data on eagles killed by wind farms

AWyoming conservation group filed a federal lawsuit this month against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the agency is illegally withholding records on bald and golden eagle deaths at three wind projects in southern Wyoming. 

Mike Lockhart, a biologist who worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service for over 30 years, told Just the News that the data the federal government is withholding could help assess the true impacts of wind energy in Wyoming on eagle mortality.

“We have no real idea of how many birds are being killed. There’s birds that I suspect are being killed that just disappear in the presence of the wind turbines. And I think the numbers are enormous compared to what we know right now,” Lockhart said. 

Blocked as “Privileged and confidential”

Earlier this year, the Albany County Conservancy, based in Laramie, Wyo., filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking records on the reported eagle deaths and injuries within two miles of Seven Mile Hill I/II, Ekola Flats, and Dunlap wind projects in southern Wyoming. 

The Interior Department responded by releasing 910 pages, while another 256 pages were redacted. The agency withheld the records under Exemption 4, which blocks the revelation of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential.” 

The group filed an administrative appeal in May challenging the exemption and demanding the department release all the data it has related to the request. The ACC received no response to their appeal, and so they filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. 

File

ACC Complaint.pdf

Wind energy developers have been targeting the area of southeast Wyoming, which has some of the richest wind resources in the U.S. According to the ACC’s lawsuit, there will be 28 utility-scale wind farms operating across Wyoming by this summer, and some projects have over 500 turbines. 

“It’s not proprietary. It’s dead eagles,” conservationist says 

Anne Brande, executive director of the ACC, told Just the News that the ecological risks of so many projects make transparency in federal oversight all the more imperative. 

The law allows a certain number of eagles to be lost via a permitting system called the “eagle take.” Wind farm owners collect records on bird mortality as part of the eagle take permits the developers are required to have in order to disturb, injure and kill eagles.  This data is public information submitted to federal agencies as part of their permitting, Brande said, and there’s nothing in those records that could be legally withheld under Exemption 4. 

“It’s not proprietary. It’s dead eagles,” she said. 

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