Tag: lawsuits

Bill Clinton to be unmasked as ‘Doe 36’ and identified more than 50 times in Jeffrey Epstein doc dump

Former President Bill Clinton will be identified as “John Doe 36” in a trove of court documents related to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein which are expected to be released this week, according to a report.

Clinton, 77, is mentioned more than 50 times across redacted documents related to a 2015 lawsuit from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, according to ABC News.

Many of the references to Clinton are believed to stem from Giuffre’s attempts to compel the former president to testify against the late sex offender and his former paramour and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Other Clinton mentions are expected to be related to attempts from both Maxwell and Giuffre to make Epstein come clean in 2016 after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a deposition in that lawsuit.

The documents are not expected to implicate Clinton in any illegal activity, ABC reported.

The names of more than 170 people — known only as John and Jane Does previously — with ties to Epstein are expected to be revealed in the documents after Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska ruled just before Christmas they would be unsealed in the new year.

Because of the New Year’s Day holiday, the documents are expected to be released beginning on Jan. 2.

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Federal Lawsuit Challenges Mississippi’s Ban On Marijuana Advertising, Citing Free-Speech Rights

Mississippi’s medical cannabis advertising ban is preventing a small dispensary from attracting customers, Tru Source owner Clarence Cocroft is arguing in a federal lawsuit that casts the law as a violation of his free-speech rights.

Though medical marijuana is now legal for Mississippians with qualifying conditions and a medical cannabis card, state law prohibits dispensary owners and cultivators from advertising cannabis products.

“It’s a daunting task to stay in the industry when you can’t advertise,” Cocroft told the Mississippi Free Press on December 8. “And it’s legal. If they allow you to get licensed, they should allow you to promote your business.”

Cocroft owns Tru Source, the state’s first Black-owned medical cannabis dispensary, located in the southeast industrial zoning area of Olive Branch, Mississippi. Cocroft and his dispensary filed a lawsuit on November 14 against the officials in charge of the regulations at the Mississippi State Department of Health, the Mississippi Department of Revenue and the Mississippi Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau.

To open a medical cannabis shop in the state, a person must apply for a dispensary license, register for a sales tax permit and pay thousands of dollars in fees. A person must have a medical cannabis card and be over the age of 21 to enter a dispensary.

“The fight was, ‘OK, we’re paying you all a lot of taxes. We’re abiding by all your rules that you have set forth. All we’re asking is simple: Allow us to advertise. It’s going to increase your tax rate as a state,’” Cocroft said.

Tru Source relies on its website, word of mouth and signs posted on the building for advertising. But Cocroft cannot advertise his dispensary or its website in any other advertising medium. The owner said many customers would not have known about the store if they had not driven by the area.

“It’s not just me in my location that cannot advertise,” he said. “It’s every location in Olive Branch; it’s every dispensary in DeSoto County and all 82 counties,” Cocroft said.

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Tennessee police took part in multiyear sex trafficking conspiracy to shield a serial rapist — whose victims included children — in exchange for ‘hundreds of thousands’ in cash, lawsuit claims

Multiple Tennessee police officers took large sums of money from an accused rapist — whose victims included children — in order to protect him from criminal prosecution, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges.

The shocking allegations are the latest wrinkle in the often dramatic, yearslong, multi-chapter effort to bring Sean Williams, 52, to justice.

Women in Johnson City had complained to law enforcement about the wealthy man’s allegedly predatory behavior since at least November 2019, according to the 85-page filing obtained by Law&Crime.

The defendant was ultimately arrested in April on wholly unrelated drug charges. In September, he was indicted on myriad state and federal child sex offenses. The apparently slow pace of those concomitant investigations was due, at least in part, by a local law enforcement conspiracy of cash and silence, the lawsuit claims.

“For years, Sean Williams drugged and raped women and sexually exploited children in Johnson City, Tennessee, and for years, officers of the Johnson City Police Department (‘JCPD’) let him get away with it,” the second amended complaint begins.

Filed by nine unnamed Does in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the lawsuit alleges that “at least eight” reports about Williams drugging and raping women in his downtown apartment were swept under the rug by numerous police officers, who, instead, treated the business owner and sports car collector like he was “untouchable.”

”In exchange for turning a blind eye, JCPD officers took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from Williams, all while refusing to take meaningful steps to protect women and children in Johnson City and to stop his known sexually predatory behavior,” the filing continues. “JCPD was not only turning a blind eye to Williams’ crimes, but also engaging in a pattern and practice of discriminatory conduct towards women who reported rape and sexual assault by Williams.”

The lawsuit claims that Johnson City police, at the highest level, were knowing participants in a sex trafficking operation.

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Video Shows Vermont State Trooper Arrest Man for Flipping Him Off

Newly released video footage shows a Vermont state trooper arresting a man on disorderly conduct charges for the First Amendment–protected activity of flipping him off.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, released dashcam footage today showing the 2018 arrest of Gregory Bombard, who is pursuing a lawsuit alleging his free speech rights were violated by the arrest.

Bombard was driving through his hometown of St. Albans, Vermont, on February 9, 2018, when he was pulled over by Vermont State Trooper Jay Riggen. 

Riggen accused Bombard of giving him the finger. Bombard denied it, but he was incensed about being pulled over for such a trivial matter. “That would be considered freedom of expression, so I’m going to file a complaint against you,” Bombard said.

“And you’re more than welcome to,” Riggen responded. “So here’s the issue: Although it may be freedom of expression, it’s so unusual that it requires intervention to make sure you don’t need help of some kind.”

As Bombard’s lawsuit explains, Riggen’s reasoning was legally deficient. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which covers Vermont, held in 2013 that the middle finger’s “nearly universal recognition” as an insult made it unreasonable for an officer to interpret it as a distress signal.

Bombard tried to continue the conversation, but Riggen concluded the traffic stop and walked back to his car. Bombard was not content, however. As Bombard pulled away, he actually did flip Riggen off.

“It looks like as he pulled away he called me an asshole and said, ‘Fuck you,'” Riggen relayed into his radio. “Flipped the bird. I’m going to arrest him for disorderly conduct. There were multiple people around there.”

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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s husband quit the U.S. military over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Now the couple are suing the government for lost salary and out-of-pocket medical costs

In September 2021, an Air Force technical sergeant named Andrew Gamberzky requested a religious exemption, due to his Christian beliefs, from the military’s then-mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

In his written request to the Oregon Air Force National Guard, Gamberzky decried the lack of “long-term research on the impacts and effects to human health and behavior” of the COVID-19 vaccine. (Decades of vaccine history and data from more than 1 billion people who have received COVID-19 vaccines suggests limited danger from the vaccines themselves although new research on the impacts of those with Long COVID have shown its at-times devastating health impacts.) He objected to the use of any “fetal material” in its research, development and the vaccines themselves. (While historic fetal cells from the 1970s and 80s were used in the production and development of COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccines themselves don’t contain fetal cells.) He also noted that, having been injured while on duty in Afghanistan and having been previously infected with the virus, he had antibodies to the virus and would be able to “continue to serve my country well.”

Gamberzky — who, at the time, was married to Anna Paulina Luna, a self-described Republican media personality who would go on to win a congressional race in 2022 to represent Florida’s 13th district, outside Tampa — quoted three verses of Scripture and ended the letter with the name and phone number of his pastor at his family’s church in Largo, Florida.

Gamberzky ultimately resigned although it is unclear if the military formally ruled on his request. In his complaint, Gamberzky was told “by members of his squadron not to bother” pursuing the request “as they were all getting denied.” He was one of roughly 17,000 service members who refused the vaccine. More than 2 million other service members, and nearly 350,000 Defense Department civilian employees, were vaccinated.

Now, Gamberzky and Luna, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and an ardent Trump supporter, are suing the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the National Guard and the Oregon Military Department in federal court, claiming the vaccine mandate violated both their constitutional First Amendment rights and religious freedoms. They are seeking damages for Gamberzky’s lost salary, medical expenses, retirement benefits and bonus pay, along with attorneys’ fees.

The complaint, filed in late November and amended this week, also cited Luna’s “then ongoing medical treatments” and the loss of healthcare coverage to them. It’s unclear from the complaint what specific medical treatments Luna paid for, and exactly how much, but the suit alleges “thousands of dollars” in out-of-pocket medical bills. She gave birth to her first child this August.

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Lawsuit: Calif. sheriffs left 75 pizza boxes at pot farm after allegedly illegal raid

A Southern California pot farmer is suing Riverside County for what he characterizes as an illegal law enforcement raid on his property.

The farmer, Preston McCormick, is alleging that deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office ransacked his business and left 75 pizza boxes behind following the operation last year. In his suit filed Friday against several individuals and public entities — including the County of Riverside and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department — in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Preston is claiming $10 million in losses and damages.

In his complaint, as Law360 first reported, McCormick claims that more than 100 deputies and support staff conducted a predawn raid on his farm, East Wind AG, located just north of the Salton Sea on tribal land owned by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. The suit says the deputies intentionally ripped down hundreds of greenhouses and other infrastructure due to an “unbridled lust for chaos.”

The suit says the raid, carried out Dec. 7 of last year, resulted in the destruction of 18,299 plants that were on “the cusp of harvest.” In addition to valuing the crops at approximately $10 million, McCormick alleges that deputies confiscated personal items from his home on the property, including $10,000 in cash.

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DeSantis vs. Disney: Florida’s Fight Over Private Governance

On April 22, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District, ending perhaps the most successful experiment in private governance in U.S. history. The bill ended an arrangement that turned a swamp on the edges of Orlando into the home of Walt Disney World, one of the busiest tourist destinations on Earth. The governor’s victory is not yet final—while the district was formally dissolved earlier this year, Disney attorneys quickly outfoxed DeSantis, delegating many of the district’s powers back to the company. The company is now suing to reverse the change altogether.

For all the media sound and fury over the duel between the would-be president and the Mouse, experts seem to agree that Disney will retain most of its longstanding autonomy when all the lawsuits are through.

Whatever your views of the “Don’t Say Gay” law that kicked off the DeSantis-Disney feud, or of the increasingly regrettable quality of the live-action Disney feature film reboots of its animated classics, DeSantis’ attempt to dissolve the district is a blatant effort to bully a private company because he disapproved of its constitutionally protected speech. At best, it reveals DeSantis as a culture warrior rather than a small-government conservative. At worst, it exposes DeSantis as a politician willing to toss out the rule of law and free markets to score cheap political points, in the lead-up to a Republican presidential primary in which he’s struggling to meet expectations.

For the most frivolous reasons imaginable, the fate of “the happiest place on Earth” now hangs in the balance.

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Don’t Get Too Excited Over The Latest Epstein ‘John Doe’ List

According to the Daily Mail, a New York federal judge has ordered the release of a cache of documents related to convicted dead pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

Contained in the release of roughly 10,000 pages of documents scheduled for Jan. 1, 2024, is expected to be a list of 177 John Does who were Epstein’s friends, recruiters, and victims (an inaccurate number, as you will read below).

Curb your enthusiasm

In February of this year, Twitter Files journalist and attorney Techno Fog of The Reactionary (to whom you should consider subscribing), analyzed a proposed list of 167 John Does (not 177) assembled by lawyers for Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Sadly, around 100 of the Does have already been identified via media or court proceedings. Many of these Does weren’t involved in anything serious – or “salacious,” and were often doctors or acquaintances of the victims. In other instances, the Does may have been actual or potential victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Techno Fog also points out, the recent court order is a scatter-shot of names.

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Judge Rules Assange Visitors May Sue CIA For Allegedly Violating Privacy

A federal judge ruled that four American attorneys and journalists, who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuador embassy in London, may sue the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for their role in the alleged copying of the contents of their electronic devices.

The Americans sufficiently alleged that the CIA and CIA Director Mike Pompeo—through the Spanish security company UC Global and its director David Morales—“violated their reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Richard Roth, attorney for the four Americans, reacted, “We are thrilled that the court rejected the CIA’s efforts to silence the plaintiffs, who merely seek to expose the CIA’s attempt to carry out Pompeo’s vendetta against WikiLeaks.”

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BARRING SPEAKERS UNDER U.S. SANCTIONS PUTS IDEAS OFF-LIMITS, SAY FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES

A LAWSUIT FILED Wednesday says the U.S. government violated the First Amendment when it prevented a U.S.-based organization from hosting people sanctioned by the U.S. as speakers at a conference earlier this year. The suit, if successful, could have far-reaching implications for placing federal limits on freedom of speech when sanctioned or otherwise designated people or groups are involved.

The complaint, filed by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, argues that the decision made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control could have consequences for public discourse, including whether news outlets could publish interviews with individuals designated under U.S. sanctions law.

For the lawyers bringing the suit, the current curtailment of speech based on sanctions amounts to the policing of thought. 

“The question at the core of the case is what control the U.S. government has over the American mind and whether it can effectively insulate Americans from ideas and people who it decides are off-limits,” said Alex Abdo, litigation director of the Knight Institute. “That is an extraordinarily dangerous authority.”

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