Tag: virginia

Trump’s Pardon for Former Virginia Sheriff Who Exchanged Badges for Cash Makes a Mockery of ‘Law and Order’

“We must maintain law and order at the highest level, or we will cease to have a country, 100 percent,” said Donald Trump, then a candidate for president, at a 2016 rally in Virginia Beach. “We will cease to have a country. I am the law and order candidate.”

It’s a theme that would continue for nearly a decade, up to the present day. “We have to get law and order back,” he said in April 2024, during his third campaign for the presidency. “We have to bring law and order back to our cities, back to our country, and we’re doing it,” he told a crowd in August of that same year. “But when I get back into the Oval Office,” he said the following month, “the madness ends, and the law and order is going to return to our country.”

If the full, unconditional pardon now-President Trump recently gave to disgraced ex-Sheriff Scott Jenkins is any indication, then the madness unfortunately has not ended.

Jenkins, formerly of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, was convicted last year of accepting over $75,000 in cash bribes from several businessmen in exchange for Jenkins appointing them as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law enforcement position. He did not train or vet them; for their money, Jenkins gave the bribers badges and credentials, which recipients used in interesting ways, like to get out of traffic tickets and obtain other special privileges. 

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump posted on TruthSocial in announcing the pardon. He added that Jenkins allegedly wanted to offer additional evidence in his defense during trial, but the judge “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”

The Office of the Pardon Attorney did not respond to a request for comment clarifying what that was, but a judge improperly blocking exculpatory evidence is an issue for an appeal, not a pardon. In any case, the evidence against Jenkins was, by every measure, overwhelming. Rick Rahim, a convicted felon, testified that he bribed Jenkins with $25,000 in cash and an additional loan (which was never repaid) so he could be sworn in as an auxiliary deputy. One video shows Jenkins accepting a $5,000 check from a businessman and then adding, “I’m going to make it official with a badge.” Another photo presented at trial shows Jenkins holding a gift bag; a recording caught businessman Kevin Rychlik, an associate of Jenkins, saying, “You have cash from him in the bag.” Two undercover law enforcement officers also testified that Jenkins accepted bribes from them in exchange for being deputized.

A jury in December found Jenkins guilty on 12 counts: one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

To argue that a pardon here is in service of “law and order”—as opposed to a rejection of it—is to pervert the meaning of that term at a fundamental level. Law and order is vital to a functioning society. If it stands for anything, it cannot exempt the very people who are charged with its application. If the rule of law only applies to the little guy, then it isn’t worth much. “With great power comes no responsibility” is not a phrase that has gained much traction throughout the ages for its wisdom.

So why pardon Jenkins, particularly when considering the stated justification—that he couldn’t offer a certain piece of evidence in his defense—strains credulity? “No MAGA left behind,” Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, whose nomination for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia recently failed to attract enough support in the Senate, said Monday on X. “Thank you, @potus Trump, for pardoning Sheriff Jenkins!”

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Trans student faces instant karma after filming ‘sexual harassment’ in the boys’ locker room

A transgender student filmed three boys in a Virginia high school locker room who he claimed were bullying him for his gender identity. 

But his attempt to ostracize them backfired when parents of the accused tormenters and the state’s governor questioned why the three boys were being filmed secretly inside the locker room in the first place.

Earlier this month, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) launched a Title IX investigation after the trans student recorded a friend group that was uncomfortable with a biological female being in the changing room. 

Stone Bridge High School, where the video was taken, is probing the incident as a sexual harassment case. 

The video, obtained exclusively by ABC 7 on Friday, reveals what truly transpired in the locker room. 

The families of the teens accused of harassment were allegedly denied copies of the footage at first.  

As the video depicts, the transgender boy seemingly walks into the locker room with his phone in his pocket, sparking a reaction from the teens inside, prompting them to speak among themselves.

‘There’s a girl in here? There’s a girl?’ one boy is heard asking. 

About 30 seconds later, another boy adds, ‘Why is there a girl? I’m so uncomfortable there is a girl.’

‘A female, bro, get out of here,’ someone says.

Then, the trans takes his phone out of his pocket and point it directly at the students who were making the comments.

Parents were finally able to obtain the video through the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), which has the video because officers are investigating if the trans student committed a crime by recording minors in the dressing room. 

LCPS explicitly bans locker room recordings, but in an email to Wolfe, a representative allegedly told him the video did not compromise anyone’s privacy. 

The parents have questioned why the student behind the camera is not being penalized for violating their privacy.

‘I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues,’ Seth Wolfe, a father of one of the accused, told ABC 7. 

‘If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.’

Wolfe also claimed the LCPS investigator tried to grill his son into confession to something he did not do. 

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Virginia governor backs boys who were filmed by female trans teen in high school locker room over harassment claims

A Virginia public school district has launched a “sexual harassment” investigation into three teen boys who expressed discomfort with a trans-identifying girl changing in the boys’ locker room. The transgender student, who pulled out her phone to record the encounter, claimed that the boys were “bullying” her and has since made an effort to ostracize them from the community.

However, the tables have turned on the trans student after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin expressed outrage over the investigation, claiming that the boys are the real victims in this case. He questioned why the transgender student was filming them in a private setting and ordered Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to probe the situation.

The incident occurred earlier this month at Loudoun County Public School’s Stone Bridge High School. Video footage obtained by ABC 7 on May 16 shows the trans student entering the boys’ locker room with a phone in hand.

“There’s a girl in here? There’s a girl,” one boy could be heard asking his friends. Roughly 30 seconds later, another boy questioned, “Why is there a girl? I’m so uncomfortable, there is a girl.”

“A female, bro, get out of here,” another boy added.

The trans student recorded the altercation and filed a complaint with the Loudoun County Public Schools, which resulted in the school district launching a Title IX investigation into the matter. The teen boys are now under investigation for sexual harassment.

Parents of the boys have expressed fury over the matter, calling the recording an invasion of privacy. LCPS policy explicitly prohibits recordings in private settings, such as restrooms and changing rooms. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether the trans student committed a crime by recording the minors. But Seth Wolfe, one of the accused boy’s parents, said that a school representative told him the video did not compromise anyone’s privacy.

“I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues,” Wolfe told ABC 7. “If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.”

Additionally, Wolfe claimed that LCPS investigators tried to interrogate his son to confess to a crime that he didn’t commit.

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Virginia’s new social media law targets teen access via parental consent, age checks

Virginia is preparing to enforce one of the nation’s most sweeping new restrictions on social media access for teens, requiring parental consent, time limits and age checks for users under 16.

The law, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May, takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, and applies to any platform that allows public profiles, messaging and shared content feeds.

Senate Bill 854 requires users to use a neutral age screen to determine if a user is under 16 and then secure verifiable parental consent before allowing more than one hour of daily use per service.

It also bars platforms from treating a minor’s data as if it belongs to an adult, even when shared through browser plug-ins or common devices.

Virginia joins more than a dozen states that have passed or proposed laws since 2023 to regulate children’s access to social media, including Utah, Texas, Florida, Maryland and California. While the details vary, most require age verification and parental consent for minors to create accounts or use apps beyond a time limit.

Privacy advocates say the law could have unintended consequences. Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the measure may increase data collection rather than limit it.

“Any time a company is required by law to collect more information, there are data privacy risks,” Kelley said, noting that platforms may turn to tools like geolocation, facial scans or ID verification to meet the law’s requirements.

He also raised legal concerns, pointing out that similar laws in other states have been paused or overturned in court.

“Like similar laws in other states, it’s unlikely Virginia’s law will survive judicial scrutiny,” Kelley said.

He also raised concerns that verification systems may not work for all families.

“These systems don’t necessarily take into account a large number of non-traditional families,” Kelley said. “Regardless, such restrictions are not enforcing parental authority. They are imposing governmental authority, subject only to a parental veto.”

Supporters of the law say it gives parents a stronger role in managing their children’s online habits. In a written response, Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg’s office said the law is enforced under the existing Consumer Protection Act and handled by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

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Virginia passes law to limit time teens spend on social media to one hour a day

Virginia teens under 16 will soon face limits on their social media usage after Governor Glenn Youngkin signed new legislation into law.

The law requires social media companies to set default time limits of one hour per day for users under 16 years old, with parents having the ability to adjust that time up or down.

“It’s a good first start, and it’s a good way for parents to be able to have better control over how much social media their kids are on,” said Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D – Henrico), who co-sponsored the legislation.

VanValkenburg, who teaches in Henrico County schools, has witnessed the impact of excessive social media use firsthand.

“You see how much it hinders their ability to do well in school, and you see how much it hinders their socialization with their friends,” VanValkenburg said.

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‘Beyond belief’: Trans athlete records students inside locker room, now all hell breaks loose

Virginia Republicans Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Tuesday after several male students expressed discomfort with a female student using the boys’ locker room.

The district reportedly opened a Title IX investigation into the three boys attending Stone Bridge High School, questioning whether they perpetrated sexual harassment by complaining about the girl’s presence, according to ABC7 News.

The girl, who had allegedly used the boys locker room several times before, also purportedly filmed “the reaction of male students” during the incident, per to the AG’s press release.

“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Youngkin said.

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CIA “Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny” Whether Secret Virginia Site Is Theirs

A low-profile government complex in northern Virginia – long rumored to be a CIA spook site – briefly appeared on a federal real estate for-sale list last month, only to disappear from the market within hours, in a mysterious vanishing act worthy of a spy novel.

The nondescript Parr-Franconia warehouse complex, tucked just off I-95 a few miles from the Pentagon, popped up on a Trump administration list of “non-core” federal properties slated for potential sale, Bloomberg reports, noting that the list was yanked down less than 24 hours later – including more than 400 other buildings and offices, some housing cabinet-level agencies.

But it was the Springfield cluster that raised eyebrows — 14 buildings, some going by names like “Franconia Building B” and “Butler Building 12,” which don’t appear on any other public database of government real estate.

The CIA’s official response? A non-denial denial.

“The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence” of records related to the proposed sale, the agency said Monday in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Bloomberg News – deploying its classic “Glomar” language, coined during a Cold War submarine recovery op in 1974.

That’s spy-speak for: Don’t ask us – we’re not telling.

The site, which dates to 1952, has been the subject of decades of local speculation. Foreign Policy once identified it as a heavily guarded compound used to store “classified files, equipment, and supplies.” Marc Ambinder of The Week called it “perhaps the worst-kept secret in Springfield,” where neighbors talk openly about the strange security measures and rotating surveillance.

“It’s been identified in numerous public forums. The bad guys know it exists; the CIA and the Air Force often assign counter-surveillance teams to the area,” wrote Armbinder.

Even Fairfax County assigns a hefty valuation: the 1.2 million-square-foot property is tax-exempt but carries an appraisal of over $115 million.

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FAFO: George Mason University Student Who Called for Violence Against Trump Administration Gets Evicted and Referred to Law Enforcement by School

A student at George Mason University in Virginia named Nicholas Alexander Decker recently published an essay calling for violence against members of the Trump administration and Trump supporters.

He has since been evicted from his apartment, and the school referred his essay to law enforcement. In other words, he is entering the ‘find out’ phase of his life.

It’s amazing how the left thinks nothing of calling for violence over politics when they don’t get their way.

Fairfax County News reports:

George Mason University contacts law enforcement after student posts essay on political violence

George Mason University said it has referred a student’s essay to state and federal law enforcement after it sparked concern online.

While GMU did not respond to a FFXnow request to specify which essay, a social media post from GMU comes after a student’s Substack post titled ‘When Must We Kill Them?‘ went viral in conservative circles.

The essay questions when resistance to President Donald Trump’s administration should become violent.

“If the present administration chooses this course, then the questions of the day can be settled not with legislation, but with blood and iron,” the essay said. “In short, we must decide when we must kill them.”

The essay does not explicitly call for violence against any administration officials, but argues that Americans should have a threshold at which they turn to violent revolution. It claims that it may be best to “wait for elections, but if it should threaten the ability to remove it, we shall have no choice.”

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After Self-Immolations at Red Onion Prison, Virginia Prisoners Allege Crackdown

Besides an overhead light, Sidney Bowman says he hasn’t had electricity in his cell at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison for roughly three months. 

Last month, Bowman told a federal court that prison employees cut the electricity to his cell after he refused to sign what staff call a “Safety Agreement for Inmates.” The document offers incentives to prisoners—such as movies, group recreation, free commissary bags, and a fish fry—provided they don’t harm themselves. However, if they repeatedly hurt themselves, they may lose “access to television, recreation time, or other amenities.” The Appeal obtained a copy of the agreement through a public records request. 

Bowman’s statement is part of an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia that alleges that the state’s Step-Down program—which purports to help prisoners earn their way to a general population assignment—traps people in solitary confinement for months or years on end.

The legal team has asked the federal court to restore plaintiffs’ electricity and to prohibit staff from retaliating against people who refuse to sign the agreement or participate in the lawsuit. The Virginia Department of Corrections declined to answer The Appeal’s questions.

Last year, at least six people at Red Onion self-immolated in what incarcerated journalist Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson called “desperate attempts” to escape the prison’s inhumane conditions. But rather than offer them help, emails obtained by The Appeal show prison officials discussed how best to punish them. Then, in January, prison staff began distributing the Safety Agreement to people in Red Onion’s Step-Down program.

If someone refused to sign, staff cut the electricity to their cell’s outlet. The ACLU says this prevented prisoners from charging their tablets, watching television, or listening to the radio. Bowman told the court that he accesses religious programming through his television and tablet because he cannot leave his cell for services. He says his tablet is his primary tool to communicate with his family. 

Red Onion’s assistant warden confirmed in a court statement that there have been nine self-burnings—eight last year and one in January. The assistant warden said no one had burned themselves with a power outlet since the prison distributed the agreement on Jan. 20. 

“Security leadership and mental health leadership collaborated on potential solutions, and we ultimately decided that if an inmate agreed not to use the cell’s power outlet to bum himself, the power outlet in that inmate’s cell could remain active,” he said in his statement. “Inmates who refused to agree not to bum themselves would be placed in a cell where the power outlet had been deactivated.”

The warden said prisoners can use kiosks during recreation to charge their tablets and message family members. He said the prison has also set up TVs outside the cells to view religious services. 

In addition to threatening to punish people for acts of self-harm, the agreement also requires signers to affirm that they have “access to mental health and other local resources.” The plaintiffs say compelling them to agree with or espouse statements they believe are untrue or objectionable violates their First Amendment rights. 

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POLICE STATE: Loudoun County Child Protective Services Took a 1-Month-Old Breastfeeding Baby from Her Mother and Navy Veteran Father at Gunpoint — Without Charges, a Crime, or Due Process

A U.S. Navy veteran and his wife were subjected to the full weight of the government’s iron fist as Child Protective Services—backed by armed deputies—stormed their home and seized their one-month-old, breastfeeding infant.

There was no warrant. No due process. No criminal charge.

This happened not in communist China, nor in North Korea. It happened in suburban Virginia. In America. In 2025.

Farzin Yazdani, a Navy veteran, father, and respected engineer, has become the latest victim of a weaponized family court system—a system increasingly aligned with radical bureaucrats and progressive ideologues who seem hellbent on dismantling the American family under the guise of state welfare.

“I’m begging everybody who’s reading this that there’s a crime in progress currently, Loudoun County Government has abducted and falsely imprisoned a one-month-old breastfeeding baby from its innocent mother. Please spread the story far and wide. Interact with it like it Do whatever the algorithm needs to spread this story for the love of God,” Yazdani wrote on X.

Loudoun County Child Protective Services (CPS), flanked by armed deputies from the sheriff’s department, stormed the Yazdani home in what the father describes as a “coordinated ambush” based on a false affidavit from a bitter ex-wife embroiled in a custody battle.

The infant—completely healthy, cared for, and bonded to her mother—was removed with zero regard for constitutional rights, familial bonds, or even basic human decency.

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