Tag: media

Leftist Anti-ICE Reporter Memo Torres FIRED After Allegations That He Let a Democrat State Senator Write His Articles During Secret Affair

L.A. TACO, the leftist outlet known for aggressive coverage of ICE raids in Southern California, has fired its high-profile journalist Memo Torres over allegations that Democratic state Sen. Sasha Renee Pérez was writing his articles during a secret affair.

Torres’ firing follows an internal investigation the publication said lasted nearly five months and found repeated violations of its policies and journalistic standards.

The 46-year-old landscaper-turned-ICE reporter became one of the outlet’s most visible faces in immigration reporting through his “Daily Memo” videos documenting enforcement actions across the region.

The outlet publicly stated that it fired him for “repeated violations of our policies and our basic journalistic standards,” while insisting the decision had nothing to do with scaling back ICE coverage.

The statement read, in part:

Firing him was the last thing we wanted. On his final day, Memo told us himself he was ready to go independent, and that it was a better fit for what he wanted to do. We thought we left on good terms, and offered to publicly support his next chapter and give him a generous severance. We offered our support because we never stopped believing in his mission.

Instead, he told his followers a different story: that he was blindsided, which immediately led to speculation that L.A. TACO pushed him out to pull back on ICE coverage.

The rumor that we’ve turned our back on ICE coverage is a lie. And a dangerous one.

Memo built his name as a truth-teller and a community leader. But right now, a false narrative is being spread, and it’s dividing the very community he claims to serve.

However, according to a report from LA Material, citing sources close to the outlet, management concerns went beyond routine process issues and included Torres bypassing editors, making factual errors, and maintaining a romantic relationship with an elected official while covering her work.

The official, Pérez, 34, is the youngest member of the California Senate and a former mayor of Alhambra who has been outspoken against ICE operations.

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FBI Arrests CIA Contractor Accused of Leaking TOP-SECRET Intelligence to His ‘Journalist’ Girlfriend — Classified Information Allegedly Published on Substack

The FBI has arrested a CIA contractor accused of systematically pulling TOP SECRET national defense information outside the scope of his duties and feeding it to his romantic partner, a left-leaning independent journalist who published matching material on her Substack newsletter.

Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, D.C., was taken into custody Friday following a search of his residence and charged by criminal complaint with unlawfully transmitting national defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d). The case was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, Newsmax reported.

An Original Classification Authority has confirmed that five Substack articles contained classified information reflecting the contents of TOP SECRET reports Brinksman accessed, some carrying TS/SCI banners that by definition could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed without authorization.

According to the sworn FBI affidavit by Special Agent John W. Althen, Brinksman held a TS/SCI clearance and worked inside a SCIF for a U.S. government agency (identified in public reporting and by CIA Director John Ratcliffe as the CIA) beginning around 2020 before shifting in September 2022 to a systems integration developer role for a third-party contractor supporting the same agency.

His duties included data transfers between classified and unclassified systems. None of the five reports he accessed were within the scope of his work.

The affidavit details a repeating pattern across 2026: contact with “Individual 1” (identified in contemporaneous reporting as Aída Chávez, founder of the Capital & Empire Substack), followed by Brinksman accessing a TOP SECRET report in the classified database, additional calls, and then a Substack post with overlapping content.

Phone records show more than 800 calls or attempted calls between the pair this year. Badge-swipe data, facility entry/exit logs, and short windows outside the secure facility (where personal cell phones are not permitted) align with the communications.

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“THE NEW YORK TIMES GOT CAUGHT!” – Trump Nukes the New York Times After Admitting to Getting Duped by Fake Pollster With Completely Fabricated Numbers

President Trump on Thursday lit up the New York Times, slamming the outlet for using bogus numbers from a “totally fake” pollster while speaking to reporters, then later warning that his defamation lawsuit is growing stronger by the day.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, a fake pollster called Wedgewood, which admitted to being an “entirely fabricated polling firm,” duped mainstream media outlets with bogus polls across multiple swing states as part of a social experiment. It was “far too easy,” Wedgewood said.

“Despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgewood Polling was added to major polling aggregators, including The New York Times, FiftyPlusOne, and VoteHub, and repeatedly treated as a legitimate data source,” the fake polling outfit, self-described as an “experimental project,” said in a statement.

“Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms – including being cited on air and in reporting by outlets such as MS NOW. The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation.”

The Times admitted to removing 15 polls from the firm after it “acknowledged that almost all of its work was fake.”

President Trump responded on Thursday when a reporter asked him why Democrats are doing “so well” in the polls.

“I don’t know if they’re close. I mean, I just saw that the New York Times used the poll numbers of a totally fake, you know, a group that said there were fake numbers against me,” Trump said.

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‘Gun Death’ Rate Leaves The Trace at a Loss for Reasons Why

So-called gun violence is always going to be a major talking point, even though it’s down across the board. This is obviously good news, and I think we all have a good idea why that is.

While I can’t prove that it was because of the Bruen decision, the drop disproves a lot of anti-gun talking points, and while I’d put money on the decision being the reason for that drop, intellectual honesty precludes me from declaring it outright.

That’s because, as we all know, correlation doesn’t equal causation.

Again, though, we’ve got a pretty good idea. For folks at The Trace, this is apparently some kind of mystery.

On its own, the third quarter recorded 3,301 shooting deaths, the lowest figure in over a decade of GVA data for the three-month stretch.

Why are we seeing this decline? A recent report from the Council on Criminal Justice surveyed four dozen scholars on the crime decline in recent years. It found no single cause, but broad agreement that a range of factors — including the end of the pandemic, community violence intervention work, and focused deterrence from law enforcement and social services — each played a role.

There are important caveats with the shooting data. GVA does not capture every shooting. It can enter or update data on shootings weeks or months after they happen. (These numbers were pulled from GVA on October 13.) It also does not track gun suicides, which represent two-thirds of all shooting deaths. Still, GVA maintains the most complete, timely information available.

The limitations they mention are very real, because GVA just uses news reports. However, that fact is part of why it’s not a complete, timely source of information.

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FDA, NYT Downplayed Evidence Showing Covid Shots May Have Killed Kids

Last fall, FDA safety officers began compiling a list of children possibly killed by Covid vaccines. Digging through thousands of reports of adverse effects and autopsy records of those who had died after receiving the mRNA vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer, the team eventually determined that several adolescents had apparently died from the Covid vaccines.

On Dec. 5, the team’s leader, Dr. Meghna Alimchandani, sent an email recommending changing the labels on all mRNA Covid-19 vaccines to notify patients of the risk for cardiac death (fatal myocarditis), adding that her safety team planned to present those results at an upcoming FDA meeting. Such warnings, even regarding rare outcomes, are standard procedure — as is well-known by everyone who has watched drug TV ads that run through long lists of known harms.

Ten months later, the FDA has still taken no action to warn parents.

A RealClearInvestigations inquiry found that a strange-bedfellows convergence of political interests appears to have blocked the dissemination of this scientific information. President Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed helped fast-track development of the vaccines in 2020, believes his efforts saved millions of lives, and several current and former health officials told RCI they are loath to complicate that narrative for him. RCI also found evidence that the Biden administration, a strong supporter of vaccine mandates, showed little interest in examining or publicizing mortality data that might undermine its policies. For its part, the pharmaceutical industry was intent on protecting its profits, and influential media outlets, especially the New York Times, have downplayed evidence of Covid vaccine deaths and attack those who’ve tried to bring them to light.

“In the end that’s the big story,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, who has sustained a years-long investigation into Covid vaccine safety, releasing hundreds of pages of internal FDA records that call into question the agency’s forthrightness and that the legacy media have largely ignored or dismissed. “Advertising allowed Big Pharma to not only capture our medical colleges, medical journals, and Congress, but now the media,” Johnson added. “They’ve run the table,” he said. “That’s why this isn’t covered.”

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CNN Leftists Melt Down When Facts Undercut Their Defense of Ilhan Omar

When conservative radio host Jason Rantz laid out the facts of the federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on CNN’s NewsNight Tuesday, the liberals on the panel couldn’t handle it.

Omar, of course, is under investigation for immigration fraud, and last week, federal agents executed a search warrant at her Washington, D.C., residence and seized her passport, computer, and phone. Liberals freaked out, even though a federal judge (who happens to be a Democrat) signed off on the warrant, and the investigation actually traces back to the Biden administration. Democrats want to frame it as Trump weaponizing the government against a political enemy, but that narrative simply doesn’t jibe with the facts. Investigators are reportedly looking at whether Omar misrepresented her age on immigration paperwork, along with the long-running claim that she married her brother. DNA evidence reportedly figures into the case.

Omar denies any wrongdoing, calls the whole thing political, and is desperately trying to raise money off the situation.

Liberal podcaster Leigh McGowan didn’t want to hear any of it. She treated the search as proof of tyranny and the left’s favorite f-word.

“He is acting kind of textbook fascist behavior-like, when you start going after your political enemies like this,” McGowan said. “It’s not an investigation looking for the truth. It’s a conclusion looking for a case, right?”

McGowan then turned the story toward herself, noting that she’s a naturalized citizen who criticizes the president. CNN’s Ana Navarro jumped in with, “As a second naturalized citizen at the table, please don’t give him any ideas.”

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Pharma PR Executive Leaked Insider Criticism of NIH Vaccine Injury Center to New York Times — Paper Neglected to Mention His Industry Ties

A pharmaceutical industry public relations (PR) executive who serves on an influential National Institutes of Health (NIH) board and is an academic colleague of Dr. Anthony Fauci leaked criticism of the agency’s new vaccine injury clinic to The New York Times — which reported the criticism without disclosing the PR executive’s industry ties, according to The Disinformation Chronicle.

Jack Leslie, a senior adviser and former chairman of Weber Shandwick, the world’s second-largest public relations firm, chairs the NIH Clinical Center Research Hospital Board. Weber Shandwick represents several major pharmaceutical companies.

The hospital board oversees the NIH Clinical Center in Maryland, which will house the agency’s new Vaccinology and Immunology Center (VIC). The center will focus on researching and treating vaccine injuries. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced its launch earlier this month.

Last week, the Times reported that the NIH hospital board unanimously approved a statement criticizing the new center and Kennedy, accusing him of undermining public trust in the hospital’s work.

According to The Disinformation Chronicle, Leslie leaked the statement to Times health policy correspondent, Sheryl Gay Stolberg. The newspaper published her story within hours but did not disclose Leslie’s ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Paul D. Thacker, investigative reporter and author of The Disinformation Chronicle, told The Defender that he believes the Times published the story to discredit Kennedy and people who say vaccines have injured them.

“Everyone knows the pharma industry hates RFK Jr. So, it’s beyond perplexing that a New York Times reporter saw ‘news’ when PR man Jack Leslie said something denigrating about him, and spit on people harmed by their products. That’s what Big Pharma pays Weber Shandwick to do,” Thacker said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the NIH, defended the new center in a statement to The Defender.

The VIC “reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to restoring gold-standard science, transparency, and accountability to our public health institutions,” the spokesperson said.

“This work will help ensure that people who experience health problems following vaccination are taken seriously and studied with the same scientific rigor applied to other medical conditions,” the spokesperson added.

Pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, who attended the center’s launch event earlier this month, called the VIC “long overdue.” She accused Leslie of using his “PR skills” and “background doing public relations for multiple vaccine manufacturers” to undermine an initiative intended to study and help people who have been injured by vaccines.

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Axios Uses Fake AI Image to Run Damage Control for Somali Politician Who Spoke Next to Upside-Down Flag

To defend a leftist politician who spoke in front of an upside-down American flag, Axios published a fake fact check claiming the video was “doctored” by AI and that, in reality, the flag was right side up.

Axios just retracted that fact check.

Naturally, Axios would like us to believe its fake fact check was an honest mistake, but Normal People know two things about dishonest, leftist outlets like Axios: 1) their “mistakes” only ever fall one way, and that’s to benefit the left, and 2) Axios was in a panic to defend a leftist, so they rushed to publish this — something Axios would never do for a Republican.

Oh, and 3) fact-checking is a hoax, a leftist psyop, a disgraced profession that has spewed more lies than Joe Isuzu.

Side note: Fai is currently a Washington County Commissioner. Officially, she holds a non-partisan office, but she is a leftist.

On October 10, Washington County, Oregon, Commissioner Nafisa Fai spoke at a Somali event in Minneapolis. A few days later, the End Wokeness X account published a portion of that speech that clearly showed her speaking with an upside-down American flag behind her.

“Oregon politician Nafisa Fai just held a rally in MN, speaking Somali, with an American flag UPSIDE DOWN,” wrote End Wokeness. “Enough with the pretending already. These are not Americans.”

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Washington Post Accidentally Reveals More Evidence Implicating Ilhan Omar In Fraud

Buried in a report aimed at discrediting ongoing probes into Rep. Ilhan Omar, The Washington Post divulged fresh evidence suggesting her previous marriage to her alleged brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was a sham.

In recounting the first Trump administration’s ultimately inconclusive investigation into some of the same issues federal officials are examining anew concerning the congresswoman’s background, the Post reveals that Elmi once filed a petition to have his residency status, derived from his marriage-based green card, shifted from conditional to permanent. According to the newspaper, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) “requested additional evidence due to concerns over the validity of his marriage,” at which point Elmi pulled his application.

This immediately raises three questions: What was it in that application that gave immigration officials pause? Why was it that Elmi dropped his bid to obtain permanent residency if the marriage was legitimate? And did authorities in the first Trump administration vigorously pursue these issues, and are they vigorously pursuing them now to the extent there are potential legal issues arising therefrom not bound by statutes of limitation?

While the Post mentions this matter in passing, there is critical additional context here that the newspaper omitted, which ties Elmi’s abandonment of his permanent residency push to Omar.

Elmi almost certainly filed and then withdrew an I-751 petition. Under federal law, typically, within the 90-day period before “the second anniversary of the date on which an alien obtained” a green card, such aliens must file an I-751 to remove conditions on their residency. Absent circumstances like death or divorce, petitioners must file jointly with their spouses.

Elmi and Omar did not legally divorce until 2017, years after he had left the U.S. and returned to his native United Kingdom. The alleged siblings were married here in 2009. Even if it took an exceptionally long period of time for Elmi to receive his marriage-based green card, that period plus two years almost assuredly would have fallen long before 2017. So presumably, they would have filed their petition jointly.

Per the current instructions for filing an I-751, petitioners must show evidence that their marriage “was entered in ‘good faith’ and was not for the purpose of circumventing immigration laws.” To do so, they must provide a number of supporting documents, like the birth certificates of children, contracts demonstrating joint occupancy/residency, “financial records showing joint ownership of assets and joint responsibility for liabilities,” and “other documents” and sworn affidavits demonstrating one’s marriage is legitimate.

When filing jointly, one’s spouse needs to sign, affirming, under penalty of perjury, that the petition and all supporting documents are “complete, true, and correct.”

Enter Ilhan Omar, and key facts that The Washington Post and others appear to have missed. As I documented in my 2020 book, American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Takeover of the Democratic Party, during the 2018-19 period, then-State Rep. Ilhan Omar faced an ethics probe resulting in a finding that she had improperly spent $3,400 in campaign funds.

Part of that improper spending centered on legal fees, including to immigration lawyers. Omar hired those attorneys to help her with “crisis management” beginning in August 2016, when, following her historic primarying of a 44-year Democrat-Farm-Labor incumbent in Minnesota House District 60B, word first began swirling that Elmi was Omar’s brother, and her marriage to him constituted a marriage/immigration fraud scandal.

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NYT: Billionaire Michael Bloomberg Dumps $80M to Help Democrats Snag House

Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hefted $80 million in a final push to help Democrats score big in the 2026 midterm elections.

Bloomberg’s massive cash dump is specifically aimed at helping Democrats regain majority control of the House of  Representatives, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing Bloomberg’s team. Democrats taking control of the House would massively kneecap President Donald Trump’s agenda for the rest of his second term and likely involve a third impeachment effort.

Bloomberg is “of the view that resources matter in campaigns,” said Howard Wolfson, his political adviser. Wolfson added that the billionaire “expects a result.”

Bloomberg is now among the top five largest individual Democrat donors, CNBC reported, citing FEC filings. His funding push comes as many Democrat candidates berate the power and influence of billionaires in the United States.

Before the $80 million cash swell, Bloomberg had donated at least $23 million to Democrats and affiliated causes this election season, according to the report.

“As of the beginning of October, Bloomberg had put $11 million behind a super PAC supporting Micah Lasher in New York’s 12th Congressional District and $2.5 million toward Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection, according to campaign-finance records,” CNBC reported.

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