Tag: new york

Two Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia FIRED and Escorted From Building For Leaking Following Letitia James Indictment

The Justice Department is cleaning house as Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia ‘resist’ Trump and leak to the stenographers in the mainstream media.

Two more Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) have been fired.

Politico reported on Friday that two federal prosecutors in the EDVA – Elizabeth Yusi and Kristin Bird – were fired.

MSNBC confirmed the firing of the two prosecutors after New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to Julie Kelly, the fired prosecutors were escorted from the building and stripped of security clearances for leaking sensitive information to the media.

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NYC public school staffer skimmed $415K in tax dollars for her private cheerleading team: DA

A former public high school staffer skimmed $415,000 in taxpayer cash meant for students — to fund her own private cheerleading business, Queens prosecutors charged Thursday.

Abi Corbin, 53, worked as a community associate at the East-West School of International Studies, PS 281 in Flushing, when she allegedly ran the scam, from July 2021 through July 2024, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.

As part of her job, Corbin was responsible for processing work orders to purchase materials for the school, which does not have a cheerleading team, prosecutors said.

Instead, Corbin used the principal’s login information and signature to buy merch for her own business Queens Campus Cheer, according to prosecutors.

“Instead of purchasing necessary educational materials to help students thrive, the defendant is accused of stealing school funds for her own private cheerleading company,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.

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Shocker: ‘No Kings Protest’ in New York City on Saturday Is Sponsored by Several Communist Groups

Democrats and Communists, or Communist Democrats, are holding a “No Kings” rally Saturday in cities around the country.

The New York City No Kings rally is sponsored by several communist groups. The Democratic Socialists of America, New York Working Families Party, CPUSA, and Freedom Socialist Party are all sponsoring this rally against President Donald J. Trump.

Rather than working to end the Schumer government shutdown, Chuck Schumer is out promoting the communist-backed rally.

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called out Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for endorsing this disgusting anti-American event. Scott warned Schumer that if he attends this event he will endorse communism in America!

Senator Rick Scott: The “No Kings” protest in NYC this weekend is sponsored by multiple communist groups, including the Communist Party of the USA.

This is who @SenSchumer is cowering to & shutting down your federal government to appease. It’s disgusting & if Chuck Schumer attends this protest, it will be his full endorsement of communism in America.

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Nassau won’t have to pay back $400M in illegal red-light camera fees as judge oddly claims payments were ‘voluntary’

Nassau County won’t have to pay back $400 million in illegal red-light camera fees as a judge bizarrely ruled drivers voluntarily paid the fines — even though they were threatened with getting their licenses suspended.

The “outrageous” ruling by County Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker has the plaintiffs’ attorney calling for the judge to be removed from the case while Nassau administrators hold onto improper administrative fees it took in from drivers for over a decade.

“Judge Rademacher issued a radical decision and ruled, despite Nassau County’s illegality, its citizens paid voluntarily,” attorney David Raimondo, who represents drivers in cases against Nassau and Suffolk County, said of the decision.

“This ruling was so far off from the law that you can’t even comprehend it,” he added, claiming the judge issued the ruling to protect the county from its massive liability.

Raimondo questioned how the judge could view the payments as “voluntary” when Nassau threatened to revoke licenses and registrations, boot and tow people’s cars — and even put a mark on credit reports if the fee is not paid.

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Letitia James’ ‘fugitive’ relative who lives in her Virginia home was arrested twice for assaulting cops: docs

New York’s top law enforcer is housing a cop-hating fugitive relative with a lengthy felony rap sheet — who was twice arrested for assaulting police officers — at one of her Virginia homes, according to court documents.

State Attorney General Letitia James’ grandniece, Nakia Thompson, 36, is wanted for “absconding” from North Carolina after failing to complete the terms of her parole following a 2011 arrest in Winston-Salem, authorities said.

In that case, she was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, a felony, along with assault of a government official and resisting a public officer, court records show.

But Thompson has also been repeatedly arrested and cited in Virginia, since moving there — with charges including possession of burglary tools, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and grand larceny.

Since 2020, Thompson has been living at a house owned by James in Norfolk, which is now at the center of a criminal indictment against the AG.

That same year, Thompson was given two years’ probation and ordered to pay $2,020 in fees after she pleaded guilty to petit and grand larceny charges — both felonies, according to court records.

She also had a handful of misdemeanor charges dropped, as well as the felony burglary tools possession charge. 

She has also racked up nine separate vehicle offenses, including as recently as this summer.

In July, Thompson was hit with four citations in a single day, including driving 80 mph in a 55 zone and stopping her vehicle improperly on a highway.

The year before she was once again ticketed for going 80 in a 55, and got a summons for improper child restraint, for which she was later found guilty in absentia and fined $50.

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Rules for Thee, Fraud for Me: Letitia James Prosecuted Mortgage Fraud Case Mirroring the Charges Against Her

Attorney General Letitia James, the architect of New York state’s mortgage-fraud crackdowns, now finds herself in the position of her former defendants, accused of exploiting the very system she once claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is undeniable.

Any attempt by Letitia James to claim ignorance of the law as a defense in her mortgage fraud indictment is all but gone.

In June 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James stood before the cameras to hail a conviction she called a triumph against mortgage fraud.

The case involved a $1.3 million scheme by Brooklyn couple John F. Iacono and Shpresa Gjekovic, whom James accused of “a deliberate scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

At the time, she declared the prosecution was proof that “no one is above the law”.

But today, now under indictment for mortgage fraud herself, that speech reads less like a moment of triumph and more like an act of projection.

The accompanying quote from Attorney General James remains striking for its tone of moral absolutism.

“Iacono and Gjekovic falsified document after document in order to pad their own pockets,” James said. “Let this serve as a warning to all of those who try to carry out such deliberate schemes: There is no place in this state for individuals who try to cash in at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

Those words, “no place in this state,” once echoed across newsrooms as the declaration of a moral crusader.

Her CUFFS Initiative (Combatting Upstate Financial Frauds and Schemes) was marketed as a model for restoring faith in financial integrity, pairing state police with prosecutors to “expose deceitful plots” and reinforce public trust.

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This is the mortgage document New York AG Letitia James signed that has her facing 60 years in prison

A one-page mortgage document signed by New York state Attorney General Letitia James is at the center of the federal criminal charges for which she now faces 60 years in federal prison.

In the “second home rider” for her mortgage, which was obtained by The Post, James attested that the property would be a second home occupied primarily by her.

It allowed her to secure a better mortgage rate from Old Virginia Mortgage/Annie Mac — netting her nearly $19,000 in mortgage savings, according to federal prosecutors.

In reality, James’ serial criminal grandniece, Nakia Thompson, moved in soon after she closed on the house, according to the New York Times.

Much of the strength of the case — which alleges James committed federal bank fraud and made misstatements to a financial institution — could rest on whether Thompson was paying rent.

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Democrats Hold Socialist Zohran Mamdani At Arms Length After He Declared Victory Over Party’s ‘Soul’

Avowed socialist Zohran Mamdani says his mayoral campaign has put progressives in the driver’s seat of the Democratic Party — but establishment Democrats are not ready to take their hands off the wheel. 

Mamdani, 33, the party’s nominee in the New York City mayoral race, declared Monday that his proudly socialist campaign “won the battle over the soul of the Democratic Party” before a rally of 3,000 supporters on Monday evening. The Daily Caller News Foundation asked 11 Senate Democrats about Mamdani’s remarks and they all either sought to distance themselves from the socialist candidate or declined to comment on his place within the party.

“I tend to focus on Michigan and not on Manhattan politics,” Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a rising star among Democrats, told the DCNF when asked if she agreed that Mamdani’s campaign won the “soul” of the party. 

“I just think New York politics are different from Kansas politics, which are different than Michigan politics,” Slotkin added. 

“It’s [New York City] not the rest of the country,” Slotkin’s retiring Michigan colleague, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, told the DCNF.

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New Report Uncovers Zohran Mamdani Took $13,000 in Illegal Donations

A new report by the New York Post reveals that left-wing mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s campaign quietly accepted nearly $13,000 in potentially illegal foreign donations, including one contribution from his mother-in-law in Dubai.

Records from the New York City Campaign Finance Board show that at least 170 of Mamdani’s nearly 54,000 donations came from individuals listing addresses outside the United States. 

Under federal and state law, only American citizens and permanent legal residents can contribute to political campaigns.

Candidates who accept foreign donations must return them immediately, and those who knowingly retain them may face fines or criminal penalties.

Despite these rules, Mamdani’s campaign has yet to return 88 foreign donations totaling $7,190. 

His team stated that any contributions not compliant with campaign finance law would be refunded, but did not explain why the funds remain unreturned weeks later.

Among the contributors was Mamdani’s mother-in-law, Dr. Bariah Dardari, a pediatrician based in Dubai, who donated $500 to his campaign earlier this year. 

The campaign returned the donation the same day, but the discovery drew attention to how easily foreign-linked money can flow into New York City politics.

Mamdani, a self-described socialist and one of the most prominent members of the Democrat Socialists of America, has raised over $4 million in private donations and received an additional $12.7 million in public matching funds. 

He currently holds about $6.1 million in cash reserves as the city’s election approaches.

Financial disclosures also reveal that a large share of Mamdani’s support base lies outside the United States and even beyond New York City. 

Foreign donors include professionals in countries such as Canada, Germany, and Australia, ranging from software developers to doctors, academics, and investors. 

Contributions varied from small-dollar amounts to the maximum $2,100.

Among the largest donors was Australian environmental scientist James Furlaud, who pledged $2,100 to Mamdani’s campaign. 

Other foreign contributors include a Dubai-based investor, a software engineer in Germany, and a physician in Canada.

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New York Doubles Down on Delivery Wage Disaster

In 2023, New York City became the first city in America to pass a minimum wage rate for app-based restaurant delivery drivers. Several other progressive cities have followed suit, resulting in a range of issues from rising delivery costs to many drivers dropping out of the workforce entirely. Now, the city that started it all is doubling down—this time on grocery delivery drivers.

In July, the New York City Council passed numerous bills that it claimed were designed to protect grocery delivery drivers. This legislative package introduced new rules, requiring delivery apps to include a 10-percent tipping option either before or at the time of the order (vs. afterwards, where the option exists now), and mandated that app-based platforms pay delivery drivers within seven days of the end of a pay period.

One of the most notable bills would extend New York City’s minimum wage mandate from restaurant delivery drivers to drivers delivering groceries. The rate, first set at $19.96 per hour in 2023, has risen to $21.44 per hour. Though current Mayor Eric Adams eagerly endorsed the original law (saying at the time, “Our delivery workers have consistently delivered for us—now, we are delivering for them”), he surprisingly vetoed the new expansion. “Now is not the time to do anything that will further increase the cost for New Yorkers of obtaining groceries, when prices are already too high,” Adams said in his veto statement.

Despite mayoral resistance, the City Council has decided to plow forward anyway by overriding Adams’ veto.

New York’s experiment with delivery driver wage mandates hasn’t gone well. Pay went up after the 2023 rule kicked in, but so did prices—and many drivers left the market altogether. The city saw an 8 percent drop in its delivery workforce, while food delivery costs rose 10 percent, including a 12 percent jump in restaurant prices and a staggering 58 percent spike in app fees. Tips, meanwhile, plunged 47 percent. Platforms even started capping drivers—at one point, Uber Eats reported more than 27,000 New Yorkers were on their driver waitlist.

Seattle followed suit in 2024 with a $26-an-hour minimum wage for delivery drivers—and immediately watched the system collapse. Apps tacked on a new $5 delivery fee, and with taxes added, customers were soon paying bills with nearly 30 percent of the cost unrelated to the food itself. DoorDash saw 33,000 fewer orders in just the first two weeks, wiping out about $1 million in restaurant sales.

Counter to the law’s intention, many Seattle delivery drivers saw their earnings slashed by over half. “Demand was dead,” according to one such driver. A recent report from gig companies found that, following the ordinance taking effect, delivery orders dropped 25 percent, and driver pay fell 28 percent per hour logged on.

Even Seattle’s City Council president, who initially backed the mandate, later proposed cutting the topline rate to $19.97, in line with the state’s minimum wage. The partial repeal failed to pass.

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