Crime

Feds Seek Death Penalty In 2022 Buffalo Mass Shooting

The Associated Press reports: Federal prosecutors said Friday that they will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the …

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Cops: Michigan Man Plotted To Bomb Satanic Temple

Grand Rapids’ ABC affiliate reports: Luke Isaac Terpstra, a 30-year-old in Grant, was arraigned on Jan. 4 for building homemade explosive devices, then trying to get rid of them, according to Grant Police. Court documents show that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office received a tip on Jan. 2 from Terpstra’s mother that explosives had possibly been thrown away in the …

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Trump Junior And Peter Navarro Named In Bankruptcy Filing For Steve Bannon’s Jailed Chinese Sugar Daddy

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump Jr. and ex-White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appear on a list of potential defendants in a court filing Wednesday related to the sprawling bankruptcy case of a right-wing Chinese businessman accused of bilking anti-communist dissidents. The court-appointed trustee overseeing the estate of Guo Wengui—also known as Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Guo, and Miles …

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MT Fire Chief Charged With Assaulting Capitol Cops

The Associated Press reports: A Montana fire chief who lost a previous job over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been charged with spraying a chemical irritant on police officers during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors say that Frank Dahlquist sprayed “an orange-colored chemical agent” directly into the face of one officer and later sprayed …

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Anti-LGBTQ Ex-Miami School Board Leader Arrested, Charged With $100K+ In Fraudulent Credit Card Usage

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: Former Miami-Dade School Board Vice Chair Lubby Navarro was arrested Thursday morning. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday afternoon that Navarro, 49, made more than $100,000 in unauthorized purchases on her district credit cards for personal items. Navarro was booked on charges of organized fraud of $50,000 or more, organized fraud of $20,000 or less. …

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Cardinal Escapes Second Abuse Trial Due To Dementia

The Washington Post reports: The effort to try Theodore McCarrick on charges of criminal sex assault ended Wednesday in a Wisconsin courtroom when the former archbishop of Washington was deemed incompetent because of dementia. McCarrick, 93, had been charged with sexual assault in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor, in connection with accusations of fondling an 18-year-old family friend at a …

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Tennessee Moms For Liberty School Board Member Resigns After Bust For Shoplifting $728 In Target Items

Memphis’s NBC affiliate reports: Collierville School Board Member Keri Blair resigned Tuesday, citing “personal, family reasons,” according to the school board. This comes after she was arrested and charged Friday, January 5, on seven counts of property theft from the Collierville Target, according to the Collierville Police Department. Blair is currently free on a $7,500 bond. According to Collierville police, …

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Trump Co-Defendant Loses Bid To Dismiss Charges

The Messenger reports: In a six-page order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Harrison Floyd’s argument that he could not be prosecuted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office “lacks legal merit” and denied his request for a permanent end to the case against him. McAfee’s order responds to an October court filing by Floyd, in which his …

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Capitol Rioter Ray Epps Gets One Year Of Probation

NBC News reports: A man targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories about the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of probation but no jail time for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of fellow Donald Trump supporters. Ray Epps, who was driven into hiding by death threats, pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor …

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Georgia Trump Co-Defendant Alleges Fani Willis Is In “Improper Relationship,” Filing Points To No Evidence

CBS News reports: One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Fulton County election interference trial made a bombshell allegation late Monday, claiming District Attorney Fani Willis is involved in an “improper” romantic relationship with one of the top prosecutors working the case. The filing points to no evidence and relies fully on “Sources close to both the special prosecutor and …

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Home Of Jack Smith Was Hit With Swatting Attempt

NBC News reports: Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in two federal cases, was the target of an attempted swatting at his Maryland residence on Christmas Day. According to two law enforcement sources, someone called 911 and said that Smith had shot his wife at the address where Smith lives. Montgomery County …

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Home Of Judge In Trump Case Hit With Swatting Call

Newsweek reports: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington, D.C., was reportedly the target of a swatting call on Sunday night. Police and fire services responded to a reported shooting at a home owned by Chutkan in the capital on Sunday. Audio from the police response was also shared on social …

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Joyriders Drive Empty NYC Subway Cars In Queens

Gothamist reports: A group of people took control of two subway cars stored at a train yard in Queens, driving them a “short distance” before fleeing on foot, the NYPD said Thursday. Police said the group entered the train operator compartments of two “lead cars” that control trains on Dec. 30 around 4:45 p.m. The trains were stored in a …

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Feds Hit Bannon’s Sugar Daddy With New RICO Charge

Courthouse News reports: Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday added an expansive racketeering count against Chinese financier Guo Wengui, who is accused of orchestrating a $1 billion fraud conspiracy. Wengui, an associate of American conservative media strategist Steve Bannon, was arrested in March 2023 at his apartment in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan, where a fire subsequently broke out …

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Trump Co-Defendant Threatened To Grab Agent’s Gun

Politico reports: During a tense confrontation with FBI agents who were trying to serve a subpoena, Harrison Floyd — a 2020 Trump campaign aide — considered grabbing one of the agents’ guns, Floyd told local police officers who arrived at his door shortly afterward. His exchange with the local police was captured in body camera footage obtained by POLITICO through …

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FL Man Threatened To Kill Swalwell And His Children

NBC News reports: A Florida man was arrested Wednesday in connection with threats to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and his children. Swalwell was not named in the court documents, but he confirmed that the threats targeted him and his family. Michael Shapiro, 72, of Greenacres, made his initial appearance Wednesday in connection with the threats, the Justice Department said. …

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NBC: Six State Capitols Evacuated After Bomb Threats

NBC News reports: At least six state capitol complexes across the U.S. were forced to evacuate Wednesday morning due to a series of bomb threats, officials said. In Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, an elections official with the Office of the Secretary of State, wrote on X around 8:30 a.m. ET that there had been a bomb threat at the Georgie state …

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Feds: Sen. Bob Menendez Also Took Bribes From Qatar

Bloomberg News reports: US Senator Bob Menendez took bribes to help Qatar and a New Jersey developer seeking millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund, prosecutors said in a revised indictment of the New Jersey Democrat. The indictment Tuesday alleges Menendez accepted bribes of cash and gold bars from developer Fred Daibes, who was seeking the Qatari fund investment. …

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Feds: Ex-Trump Advisor Falsified Foreign Agent Records

The Messenger reports: Federal prosecutors have leveled two charges against Barry Bennett under the Foreign Agents Registration Act: a conspiracy charge and a substantive count. Bennett served as a campaign manager for Ben Carson in 2016 before advising the Trump campaign. After Trump’s election to the White House, he joined with former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to open …

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George Soros’ Hamptons Home Hit With Swatting Call

The New York Post reports: George Soros’ posh Southampton estate was swatted over the weekend as the lefty-leaning billionaire became the latest high-profile victim of the 911 pranks. Southampton police said they received the 911 call shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, with the caller telling cops he had just shot his wife at the ritzy South Shore manse and was …

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