A top FBI official told Congress last year it believed one of its agents, whistleblower Garret O’Boyle, was the suspected leaker in an anonymously filmed interview with the undercover citizen-journalism organization Project Veritas. The claim even led some congressional Democrats to urge a criminal investigation of the agent.
There’s just one problem.
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Prosecutors said at a hearing on Tuesday they would present their evidence over a three to four day period and defense attorneys said their case would last about two days.
Steve Bannon, former White House advisor under former President Trump, will stand trial striating on Dec. 9 related to charges he defrauded donors with an online fundraiser for building additional miles of wall along the U.S. southern border.
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A fourth former executive with the Columbus Zoo pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts connected to a scandal that uncovered funds used for vacations, vehicles, concerts, sporting events and other things over a decade.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday that ex-CEO Tom Stalf pleaded guilty to 15 felonies, including aggravated theft, conspiracy, telecommunications fraud and tampering with records.
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The United States Secret Service reportedly urged former President Trump to stop holding outdoor rallies, citing security concerns in the wake of the assassination attempt, sources told the Washington Post Tuesday.
Secret Service officials urged Trump to stop holding rallies with large crowds outdoors in the wake of security failures during the attempted assassination of Trump at his outdoor rally at Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, USSS sources told the Washington Post. Trump’s campaign team is reportedly looking to hold more rallies in indoor spaces and not planning any outdoor events, sources from the Trump team told the Post.
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A judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s defamation suit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos.
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Police bodycam released by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Tuesday shows Beaver County, Pennsylvania police officers tell a U.S. Secret Service agent a Butler County Police Department (BCPD) sniper was perched with a direct line-of-sight view of Thomas Michael Crooks as the 20-year-old attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on July 13.
According to Grassley, the dialogue confirms the sniper, identified as Greg in the video, captured photographs of the shooter and shared them with Secret Service, and was tracking him visually but lost sight prior to the shooting.
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A new caravan of migrants is heading to the U.S. border on foot using the U.S. government-issued CBP One smartphone app, which some of them worry 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump would end if he wins a second term and closes the border.
The caravan left from southern Mexico.
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A man accused in taking part in the shooting of a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officer in Putnam County had a history of violent crime, according to court records.
Braze Rucker was charged with a litany of crimes committed during a robbery attempt in Nashville in 2013. The charges stemmed from a robbery in which Rucker shot one person, leaving her paralyzed.
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Federal immigration authorities in Florida last week apprehended more than a dozen illegal migrants who were convicted or charged of crimes while in a program that allowed them to live freely in the U.S. despite crossing the border illegally.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 18 illegal migrants in a week-long raid referred to as “Operation Drumbeat,” according to a press release from the agency. The operation, which was done in conjunction with Border Patrol agents, apprehended noncitizens charged or convicted of a slate of heinous crimes, such as child abuse, extortion, assault, burglary and other offenses.
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Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, likely to succeed President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential election, is facing renewed scrutiny for her past support of a controversial bail fund with a history of springing violent offenders from jail.
Harris, despite often citing her experience as a district attorney and attorney general as a demonstration of her law and order credentials, endorsed the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) in a tweet from June 1, 2020, declaring, “if you’re able to, chip in now to the MN Freedom Fund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” The fund received a $40 million cash windfall after it was promoted by celebrities like Harris, Seth Rogen and Chrissy Teigen.
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Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., is pressing United States Capitol Police (USCP) Chief J. Thomas Manger for “records and information” related to their investigation of the “gallows assembled on the Capitol Grounds on January 6, 2021,” according to a news release sent out on Tuesday.
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Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris’s testimony before Congress on Tuesday resulted in some more information coming out regarding the day of former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination, but there are still unanswered questions.
Paris told the Homeland Security Committee that he did not agree with former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s assessment about not having an officer on the building the gunman used to attempt to assassinate former President Trump due to a “sloped roof.”
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While Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle frustrated lawmakers Monday with sparse details about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the FBI has disclosed to Congress that the shooter used three encrypted communications apps ostensibly tied to Germany, Brussels and New Zealand and also possessed an arrest photo of an earlier Michigan school shooter, Just the News has confirmed.
In multiple briefings, FBI leaders told lawmakers that the 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ primary cell phone has become an important focal point of the probe, including some 14,000 images that were found on it, according to multiple sources familiar with the briefings. The FBI has not issued an update on their findings to the public since July 14.
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U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Tuesday that the department would be opening an investigation into Delta Air Lines due to the company canceling thousands of flights since Friday.
Buttigieg noted in his announcement of the probe into Delta that the goal was to “ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions,” according to his post on X. FlightAware and travel-data provider CiriumMore have recorded more than 6,600 cancellations since the outage began, The Associated Press reported.
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Marc Elias, the controversial election fraud denying progressive election attorney who intervenes in election lawsuits and files bar complaints against conservative election attorneys, filed complaints with attorney regulation in Maryland and Washington D.C. earlier this month against Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen. Elias, who has been nicknamed a “Democratic superlawyer,” also released a video discussing successes in targeting conservative election attorneys.
Elias’s Democracy Docket stated in a press release on July 12 that Olsen “spread election lies while representing Election Deniers, including Kari Lake, in frivolous election lawsuits.” Gillian Feiner, Senior Counsel at the States United Democracy Center, said in the press release, “Kurt Olsen has abused his law license to spread lies about our elections in the courtroom time and time again, and his pattern of unethical conduct shows he’s not going to stop.”
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U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life.
On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Several bullets passed within millimeters of Trumps head, at least one grazing his ear. Two rallygoers were hurt, and Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was tragically killed by stray bullets while shielding his wife and daughter.
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Three separate House hearings this week on the security failures surrounding the attempted assassination of GOP nominee Donald Trump put the Secret Service and the FBI in the spotlight as questions still remain unanswered.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director P.J. Lechleitner said in an interview that some cities are regretting releasing detained migrant criminals and seeking to change “sanctuary” policies, according to NBC News.
Many left-leaning cities and counties have avoided working with ICE in recent years, at times leading to the releasing illegal migrants who are charged with violent crimes, NBC News reported. However, Lecheitner stated that some blue cities are looking to change course.
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A federal appeals court ordered a judge on Thursday to reconsider blocking a Biden administration rule that allows environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing in employee retirement plans following a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Texas judge must reconsider a decision upholding a Department of Labor rule, which took effect in February 2023 and allows retirement plans to consider factors like racial justice and climate change when investing to break ties in options of equal quality. The appellate court sent back the ruling because it relied on a legal doctrine called Chevron deference, which the Supreme Court overturned in June.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Sunday pledged “strong” support for law enforcement after he received an endorsement from the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police (PA FOP), which once endorsed his opponent, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).
McCormick confirmed his support for law and order during his Sunday appearance on “This Week in Pennsylvania,” arguing law enforcement is fundamental to a prosperous commonwealth.
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The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) of Washington announced on Friday the rescue of three children and the arrest of a foreign national in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
INTERPOL Washington confirmed in a press release that the agency participated in a joint operation with the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 5 to arrest Angelo McQueen, a citizen of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas who the intergovernmental agency explained was wanted “for sexual offenses against a minor.”
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Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed on Saturday that the U.S. Secret Service did not attend a law enforcement meeting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, the date former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally.
Johnson told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that his team learned the apparent lack of attendance by the Secret Service from local law enforcement.
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As a result of intensifying efforts by multiple law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a series of statements that record amounts of illicit fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, as well as hauls of illegal weaponry have been seized.
Through two programs dubbed “Operation Plaza Spike” and “Operation Apollo,” officials say that as of June in FY 2024, over 15,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized, exceeding the total amounts from the previous eight fiscal years combined. Despite a 17 percent decrease in nationwide drug seizures from May to June, CBP notes that significant quantities of drugs and firearms continue to be intercepted at the border.
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In an ideal world, wrongdoers face swift and exact justice for their misdeeds. In reality, the legal system is costly. Justice comes at a steep price, one that I, and others whose works were allegedly plagiarized by Harvard’s Claudine Gay and others cannot afford.
After months of turmoil and legal back and forth, it is with a heavy heart that I announce that my intended copyright infringement case against former Harvard President Claudine Gay and the Harvard Corporation — a legal complaint that would have requested a jury trial — cannot be filed as planned in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The inability to raise sufficient funds for a trial (a steep minimum of $100,000 to $250,000) and the knowledge that the losing party could be ordered to cover the legal expenses of the victors, to which no limits exist under federal copyright law, gave me pause.
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A medical internship program is under fire for allegedly racially discriminating against otherwise qualified applicants, requiring that applicants must “identify” as black or African American.
Do No Harm filed a complaint on behalf of a member on Thursday requesting the federal government investigate an internship offered by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM). The anonymous member was qualified academically and met all other requirements but was rejected because of his race.
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A federal appeals court issued a temporary halt on Thursday on President Joe Biden’s income-driven repayment program for student loans due to challenges to its legality.
The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which was introduced in 2023, seeks to provide new repayment methods for student loan borrowers, including lowering monthly payments based on income and minimizing interest payments. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals halted the plan in its entirety in order to give the court time to issue a final ruling after also issuing a partial injunction in June.
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A federal grand jury indicted a Nashville man accused of shooting an 18-year-old six times on the steps of a WeGo bus station in May, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kenneth Johnson, 31, was arrested by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers on May 16 after he allegedly shot the 18-year-old six times at the WeGo bus station located at the intersection of Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, was able to fly a drone over the rally grounds before Trump spoke, according to reports.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Crooks programmed a drone to fly over the Butler Farm Show grounds ahead of Trump’s rally. Officials told the outlet that he flew the drone over the area more than once.
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A federal grand jury indicted a Murfreesboro man accused of opening fire inside a restaurant in the Salemtown neighborhood of Nashville on Easter Sunday, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Anton Rucker, 47, was arrested in Princeton, Kentucky by TITANS (The Investigative Team Addressing Neighborhood Shootings) detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department two days following the Easter Sunday shooting which killed one – a 33-year old man named Allen Beachem – and injured multiple others.
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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed on Friday that U.S. Secret Service whistleblowers approached his office to inform him the agency assigned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel who were not part of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump during the Pennsylvania rally where he suffered an assassination attempt.
In addition to the claim about questionable staffing, Hawley wrote in his Friday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that whistleblowers with “direct knowledge of the event” told his office the agency also treated Trump’s rally as “loose” security.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 2-1 on Thursday to dismiss a challenge to Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act in the case Friends of George’s, Inc. v. Mulroy.
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The Minneapolis City Council voted on Thursday to approve a new contract with the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM), the union which represents officers with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). In accordance with that contract, officers with the city are set to receive pay raises.
For well over a year, Minneapolis police officers have been working without a contract. As such, the new contract applies retroactively, covering a three-year period from January 2023 through December of 2025.
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A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel of three justices issued an order on Thursday allowing part of Arizona’s new law that requires proof of citizenship in order to vote in state and local elections to remain in effect during appeals litigation. However, the panel upheld the trial court’s decision blocking some of the law. Consequently, those who request an application to vote only in federal elections will not be required to show proof of citizenship. This could have a substantial effect on the presidential race and highly contentious races like Kari Lake’s U.S. Senate race.
State Senate President Warren Petersen and the Senate Republicans, who were intervenors in the case, issued a statement on X. “This is a victory for election integrity in Arizona,” Petersen said. “Only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections. It sounds like common sense, but the radical left elected officials in our state continue to reject this notion, disrespecting the voices of our lawful Arizona voters. We are grateful the court is upholding this provision in our law, and it’s time for Congress to take action to ensure only lawful U.S. citizens are voting in federal races.”
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A 34-year old man from Knoxville was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization ISIS, according to the Eastern District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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Less than five days after the failed assassination attempt on GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump, several questions still remain about how and why the shooter – Thomas Matthew Crooks – was able to gain access to the rooftop with an unobstructed view over the rally and the crowd. Six of the biggest security failures that reportedly occurred at the event raise even more questions for investigators.
The investigation into the assassination attempt that left one attendee dead, and three injured including Trump, is being led by the FBI. However, the bureau has remained relatively quiet on its probe, publishing only one update so far on Monday, July 15.
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Several major whistleblower groups are fighting the Justice Department’s efforts in federal court to permanently hide why it spied on congressional investigators by obtaining their phone records during a leaks investigation years ago.
The whistleblower group, Empower Oversight, whose founder Jason Foster was one of the investigators whose phone records were taken when he was still in a top Senate staffer, had asked a federal judge to unseal the underlying documents that allowed DOJ to acquire the records in 2017.
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When the Supreme Court reversed a preliminary injunction against several federal agencies and officials for “coerc[ing] or significantly encourag[ing] a platform’s content-moderation decisions,” the ideologically hybrid majority concluded that well-documented federal pressure to censor government-disfavored narratives was unlikely to recur.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, scolded his colleagues for their perceived credulity. The high court just provided “an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think,” he wrote.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper during his failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, was reportedly diagnosed with major depressive disorder prior to his death.
It was also reported that Thomas Matthew Crooks foreshadowed his attack, which claimed the life Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and injured two others in addition to piercing the former president’s right ear, on the popular video game storefront and platform Steam.
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President Joe Biden is considering formally supporting reforms to the Supreme Court, including the introduction of term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code, the Washington Post reported.
Such reforms reflect increasing frustration among Democrats and Joe Biden’s supporters regarding recent controversies involving Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, as well as landmark rulings by the court’s conservative majority.
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The brother of the illegal migrant accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley pleaded guilty on Monday to using a fraudulent green card, according to the Department of Justice.
Diego Ibarra — a 28-year-old Venezuelan national and brother of Jose Ibarra, the man who has been arrested for the killing of Riley — pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document, according to a press release from the Justice Department’s Middle District of Georgia. Ibarra faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine per count.
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The ‘Secure the Border Act’ will make it onto the November ballot for Arizonans after the Maricopa County Superior Court shot down a lawsuit from activist groups challenging its legality.
The proposition would make it a state crime to cross into Arizona through an illegal point of entry, as well as other provisions to crack down on the high levels of migrant crossings and the fentanyl crisis.
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Kari Lake filed an opening brief with the Arizona Supreme Court last week, appealing the Arizona Court of Appeals’ denial of her second election lawsuit, a Rule 60(b) challenge containing new evidence. A significant part of it emphasized that over 275,000 signatures were not verified on early ballot envelope affidavits. Rule 60(b) of the Rules of Civil Procedure allows a court to “relieve a party or its legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding” based on certain factors, such as new evidence or wrongdoing.
Lake’s opening brief, drafted by attorneys Jennifer Wright and Tim LaSota, emphasized “new information showing that, contrary to Maricopa’s claims of an ‘Election Day hiccup,’ nearly two-thirds of Maricopa’s 446 vote center tabulators failed on a massive scale — averaging over 7,000 ballot rejections every thirty minutes shortly after polls opened to polls closing.”
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A college in Louisville has placed an instructor on unpaid leave after posting on social media he wished the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump succeeded.
“If you’re gonna shoot, man, don’t miss,” John James wrote in all caps on a post discovered Sunday by Libsoftiktok. The statement was made above a screenshot of a news story on the Saturday shooting during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that left the former president and current Republican nominee injured after a bullet grazed his ear.
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Unjustly incarcerated January 6 defendant Stewart Parks was moved from the Federal Correction Institute (FCI) in Memphis, a low security prison, to a halfway house in Nashville on Tuesday, Parks told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday.
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Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and John Barrasso (R-WY) on Wednesday confronted U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on the floor of the Republican National Convention (RNC) over the Secret Service actions that preceded the Saturday assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The Tennessee Star confirmed the confrontation happened at the Fiserv Forum in Mulwaukee, Wisconsin where the RNC is being held. Blackburn and Barrasso confronted Cheatle upstairs in a luxury suite just prior to 9 p.m., just minutes before Blackburn uploaded video to the social media platform X with the caption, “[t]he American people deserve answers from the Secret Service.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday he is going to urge Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Cheatle said Monday that she would not be stepping down from her position after her agency received backlash over potential security failures that led to Trump being wounded by a snipper’s bullet on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Johnson on “America’s Newsroom” said he plans to call for Cheatle’s resignation because of the incident itself as well as her answers when facing questions from the media.
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A source familiar with the conversation confirmed to The Tennessee Star that multiple members of the U.S. Senate were prohibited from asking questions during a Wednesday conference call with the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The allegation surfaced after U.S. Senator Mike Lee revealed the Secret Service was “briefing senators” about the attempted assassination “on a conference call,” during which he claimed the federal agency provided “details that aren’t all helpful” and little information about “the failures that led to this tragedy.”
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Peter Navarro, former director of the U.S. Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy during the Trump administration, arrived at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday just hours after being released from federal prison.
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A sniper from one of the local law enforcement agencies providing assistance at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 14 saw Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who was killed at the scene, and photographed the would-be assassin immediately prior to his attack, a Wednesday report claims.
The Pennsylvania publication Beaver Countian first reported on Monday it was a Beaver County police officer who warned his superiors of a man with a rangefinder, which is used to calculate distance when using a weapon, citing multiple local law enforcement sources who told the outlet “extremely poor planning” and a lack of manpower allowed the attempt on Trump’s life.
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A former Central Intelligence Agency and White House National Security Council official has been indicted for allegedly working for a South Korean intelligence officials in exchange for luxury gifts, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment, which was filed on Monday in a New York federal court and made public Tuesday, charges Sue Mi Terry, who worked for the U.S. government from 2001 to 2011, for providing confidential information to South Korea’s government.
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