Wells Road Intermediate School, an elementary school in Granby, Connecticut, has come under fire after secretly showing students a video celebrating "pride" month without notifying parents.
The video was played on June 1 for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, as part of the "Principal’s Message," WFSB reported. The 45-second video, titled "Pride To Me," showed several young children discussing what "pride" means to them.
For one boy named Jasper, who uses they/them pronouns, it meant that "nobody can tell you what to do."
"I have dolls. I love my dolls. Boys can play with dolls, too," Jasper said.
Mavis, a girl with two moms, believes "pride" means “just being myself and standing up for what I believe in.”
"Pride means you should be able to be free," said Simon, a child who uses he/they pronouns. "All my life I never really felt like a boy, and I don't really feel like a girl, so I'd rather be both."
The rest of the children gave similar statements, with the message being that "pride" month is simply about doing what makes you happy.
Some parents only came to know about the video after their children came home and told them directly, according to WFSB.
A Board of Education meeting was held Wednesday night where parents and residents were allowed to voice their concerns.
However, parents' responses varied, with some praising the school for showing it and others condemning the board for promoting a message that should be left up to parents to teach.
https://youtu.be/nShpsqwEFWk
Michael Kramarenko, whose daughter attends the school, told the school board that they should have notified parents that the school would be celebrating "pride" month.
“We should be able to have the option to opt our students, our kids, out of it. Who are you to tell us what you’re going to teach our kids? We pay taxes, we have the right to know what our kids are going to learn,” he said, according to the Hartford Courant.
Another father said that while he supports "children of all walks of life," he doesn't believe that parents who support "pride" should "impede and trample upon" the rights of the parents who don't.
The man said of the short video shown to students: "I was okay with it until it was the person who said -- the child is like ‘I feel like a boy or girl sometimes.’"
The man refused to step down after using up his three minutes, and he and two other men were then seen getting into an argument in the back of the room, leading officers to intervene.
One father said that after watching the video, his son was questioning if it was still okay to be a boy.
“I asked my son, ‘Hey what did you take away from the video? Let’s have a dialogue …’ His words were ‘The video said something about it’s ok for a boy to be a girl.’ And then he asked me, he goes ‘Is it ok if I can be a boy?’” the man said, the Courant reported.
“I’m not against the video. I’m not for the video. All I’m saying is the video missed the mark. Whatever the intent was, the video missed it,” he said.
“The same way we keep religion, politics, everything out of school, keep sexuality out of school -- leave it to the parents.”
Matt Brady, whose transgender son attends Granby Middle School, said he believes more kids should learn about LGBT topics, so that they'll embrace students who come out as such.
“For those of you who think the kids are too young to know that transgender people and that kids who have two dads exist, I remind you that the fifth-graders at school are sitting in the same seats that my son sat in two years ago and there are kids at Wells Road right now that fit that description,” Brady said.
“When it comes to being a kid in the LGBTQ community, there are a certain percentage of kids who will definitely be against them … and there’s a percentage that will always defend them. It’s the kids in the middle that don’t know which way to go that make all the difference.”
The video, he said, teaches students to accept and respect classmates that are different, and not see them as “outcasts or freaks.”
School officials have defended playing the video, saying that their intention was to “remind students that it is ok to be who you are and still be treated with respect dignity, and kindness,” and they promised to communicate with parents more in the future, WFSB reported.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
A Louisiana high school is reviewing its policies after a 28-year-old illegal alien allegedly posed as a minor to attend classes.
The illegal is facing a criminal charge for a scheme in which she allegedly attended Hahnville High School as if she were 17 years old, according to ABC News.
Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano attended a year of classes as a ninth-grade student at the public school, according to St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne.
Both Gutierrez-Serrano and her mother, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado, 46, are facing a charge of injuring public records after their arrest this week.
Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado (left) and her 28-year-old daughter Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano were arrested in St. Charles Parish after officials say the mom used a false passport and birth certificate to enroll her daughter at Hahnville High as a 17-year-old.@FOX8NOLA pic.twitter.com/bWA5AA4tfD
— Andrés Fuentes (@news_fuentes) June 15, 2023
Serrano-Alvarado is accused of using a fake passport and Honduran birth certificate to enroll her daughter in classes at the high school in the New Orleans suburb of Boutte.
Serrano-Alvarado had resided in the United States for "a number of years" after her immigration visa expired, according to the sheriff, per ABC News.
Gutierrez-Serrano entered the country in the fall of 2021, Champagne said, adding that she "wanted to become proficient in English and perhaps further her education, which I think we can all be sympathetic with."
"Unfortunately," Champagne said, "whether it was her decision or her mother's decision, it's certainly bad judgment to submit a falsified document to the government."
Gutierrez-Serrano evaded alerting suspicions while attending the high school roughly a decade too late, the sheriff said, according to CNN.
“She was in school, she minded her own business, she did her schoolwork," Champagne said.
"She caused no trouble, she was not a disciplinary problem.”
The sheriff also said that, based on a 2021 photo, Gutierrez-Serrano could "very easily be taken for a young teenager," ABC News reported.
Authorities were alerted to the possibility of an adult woman attending high school classes via a tip from someone who was not identified.
The school is revising its policies after the alleged fraud.
The St. Charles Parish school district is acting to "enhance processes to determine the authenticity of enrollment documents for current and future students as well as modify policy and procedures as warranted," according to ABC.
The federal government estimates that over 1 million people -- many of them illegal aliens -- are impersonating U.S citizens through false use of their Social Security numbers, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Americans have soured on the Black Lives Matter street riot movement.
A new Pew Research survey indicates that support for the movement has reached its lowest point since the 2020 death of George Floyd.
White Americans -- at 42 percent of those polled are the least likely to support the movement.
In comparison, 61 percent of Hispanics, and 63 percent of Asians polled, and an overwhelming 81 percent of black Americans polled expressed support.
Support for the movement is distinguished sharply between partisan affiliations, with Democrats continuing to back it and Republicans increasingly critical.
% who support the Black Lives Matter movement
Democrats: 84%
Republicans: 17%https://t.co/4DSqUB5csE pic.twitter.com/KgDpLcZXgx— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) June 14, 2023
Support for the movement most declined in age demographics above the age of 30.
The American perception of Black Lives Matter appears to have changed considerably since 2022.
Support declined 5 percent and opposition increased by 4 percent during that timeframe, according to the poll.
It's not hard to see why Black Lives Matter support is ebbing. The organization has been the subject of scandals related to its spending -- including high-end real estate purchases -- and hiring and payment practices that have benefitted its leaders, their families and their friends.
Meanwhile, it appears to be failing to make the racial climate of the country any better.
A strong majority of Americans polled -- 61 percent -- said the movement has failed to improve relations between Americans of different races.
In addition, 57 percent of those questioned stated that the movement hadn't been successful in improving the lives of black Americans, with only 33 percent saying it had.
FATIGUE: Most Americans believe the Black Lives Matter movement HURT race relations more than it helped. A majority of Americans say the increased focus on issues of race in the past three years hasn’t led to improvements for Black Americans. https://t.co/5rg5nwMLZT
— @amuse (@amuse) June 14, 2023
The aftermath of the riot movement's peak in 2020 has left many major American cities struggling with both violent and petty crime; at times with defunded and depleted police departments unable to ensure the same quality of public safety they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The movement's effects have imposed a toll on law enforcement's hiring and retention; with fewer young Americans willing to consider entering a career field in which they're more likely to be intensely scrutinized than ever before, according to the Marshall Project, an online journalism non-profit.
Estimates of the movement's costs vary widely, with one figure placing the property damages from riots at more than $1 billion.
Many of the movement's costs have been imposed in black communities in the nation's cities.
According to Pew's description of the poll's methodology, it surveyed 5,073 American adults between April 10 and April 16. It had an oversampling of black and Hispanic respondents as well as sexual minorities to get a fuller sample to specific questions.
The margin of error for the full sample of 5,073 respondents is plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
UPDATE, June 29, 2023: This article was incorrectly marked as News. It has since been updated to reflect the correct category, Commentary. We apologize for any confusion.
It sure seems a reflection of where the nation is spiritually that none of three contestants on a recent episode of "Jeopardy" could name a word from the opening of the Lord's Prayer.
Host Mayim Bialik said to the contestants, "Matthew 6:9 says, 'Our Father, which art in heaven,' this 'be thy name."
So the correct response was, "What is hallowed?" but no one got it. Wow!
Many people responded on Twitter writing they were surprised that none of the contestants knew.
"Can I admit to being genuinely shocked that not one Jeopardy! contestant recognized The Lord’s Prayer?" one tweeted.
Can I admit to being genuinely shocked that not one Jeopardy! contestant recognized The Lord’s Prayer?
— SaraKateW (@SaraKateW) June 13, 2023
Another wrote, "Did anyone else notice that ALL THREE Jeopardy contestants tonight, couldn't even fill in the blank, one word, on the opening line of The Lord's Prayer? Kind of fits in today's Biden America. So sad."
Did anyone else notice that ALL THREE Jeopardy contestants tonight, couldn't even fill in the blank, one word, on the opening line of The Lord's Prayer? Kind of fits in today's Biden America. So sad.
— Dan Ayars (@ayars_dan) June 14, 2023
"How can all 3 adults who made it to be contestants on the show not know at least the start of the lord's prayer (hallowed)..." still another asked.
@Jeopardy How can all 3 adults who made it to be contestants on the show not know at least the start of the lord's prayer (hallowed) or Elizabeth Taylor was in National Velvet?
— Vibrani (@VibraniNora) June 14, 2023
One Twitter user observed, "While it may not be a sign of the end times, [it] DEFINITELY speaks volumes about Americans and their faith...or lack of."
Jeopardy and The Lord's Prayer.
While it may not be a sign of the end times, if DEFINITELY speaks volumes about Americans and their faith...or lack of.— NC_Boy59 (@NCBoy59) June 14, 2023
As a refresher, the entire prayer as found in Matthew chapter 6 in the New King James Version of the Bible reads: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
"Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."
[firefly_poll]
Though it's called the Lord's Prayer, it could more aptly be named the Disciples Prayer, because it was how Jesus Christ taught his followers to pray, so they'd have a good model.
It is likely the most recited prayer in all of Christendom.
However, it has not been spoken nearly as often in America in recent decades as it was in the past.
The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1963 case School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp ruled that Bible reading and a recitation of the Lord's Prayer before the school day violated the First Amendment.
That decision came on top of Engel v. Vitale the previous year, finding a nondenominational prayer also violated the establishment clause.
So apparently the secularization of America, which began in earnest in the 1960s, has borne fruit in our day, 60 years later, on "Jeopardy," no less.
The evidence of an absence of God in U.S. culture can be seen in the crazy gender theories arising and the lack of respect for the dignity of human life, from the womb to the tomb.
The Bible says in the book of Genesis that God created them male and female in his divine image and that he knit us together in our mothers' wombs.
But Americans aren't relying as much on the Bible for instruction on how to lead the best, God-glorifying life.
The annual American Worldview Inventory for 2023 published by the Cultural Research Center finds just 4 percent of the nation's adults hold to a complete biblical worldview. Many believe parts of it.
The CRC identified seven cornerstones of the Christian worldview, including a biblical understanding of God; that all human beings are sinful by nature; that Jesus Christ is the only answer to that sin, providing forgiveness for sin through his death on the cross to those who believe and accept it; and that the Bible is a true, reliable and relevant as a moral guide to life.
See all seven of the cornerstones here.
The CRC found that only 50 percent of Americans embrace the true nature of God revealed in the Bible; 27 percent recognize human beings are sinful; 35 percent believe Jesus is the only way to salvation; and 46 percent accept the Bible as true and reliable.
These are some of the key tenets confessed as true in the Lord's Prayer.
The CRC found the younger the adult was in their survey, the less likely the person was to embrace all seven, or even a majority, of the cornerstones of a biblical worldview.
The American Worldview Inventory 2023 was conducted in January with a sample of 2,000 adults, 18 and over. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points.
So let recent ignorance of the Lord's Prayer on "Jeopardy" be a canary in the coal mine.
There's a lot of work to do to restore a firm biblical worldview to the majority of Americans.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Two former business partners of the pilot involved in a fatal Virginia plane crash are raising red flags about his history.
Two sources close to deceased pilot Jeff Hefner, according to The Sun, described him as a user of opioid drugs, including Oxycontin, and a man with a personality disorder who had a history of making serious threats.
Hefner was in the cockpit of a Cessna Citation private plane that crashed in Virginia on June 4. He was one of four fatalities in the incident.
The aircraft was owned by Republican donor Jeff Rumpel.
Rumpel's daughter, Adina Azarian, died in the crash, as well as her 2-year-old daughter and the family's nanny.
According to The Sun, Rob McBride and John MacDonald who were partners with Hefner in a charter flight business in Florida called Island Coaster Charters. They are painting a dark picture of the pilot and former Southwest Airlines captain.
It's a sharp contrast from the image presented by others who knew Hefner, including a friend who told The Washington Post that he called Hefner "Mr. Safety" because of his attention to detail.
Jeff Hefner, pilot of doomed ‘ghost plane’ crash in Virginia, was known as ‘Mr. Safety’ - https://t.co/WYFnkZ6cV9 pic.twitter.com/YWqzT6uRmZ
— Filmy Chuna (@filmychuna) June 8, 2023
MacDonald scoffed at that, according to The Sun.
"Mr. Safety? My nickname for Jeff would be the Grim Reaper," McDonald said of the pilot.
"If you think about the Grim Reaper, every time he's doing what he's doing, he is out there trying to put someone's life in danger.
"And for Jeff to be so sloppy like that? There it is."
The pair accuse Hefner of gravely violating pilot safety standards by consuming opioid drugs in-flight to deal with back pain.
[firefly_poll]
In court papers, according to The Sun, they also accused Hefner of incompetence and mismanagement -- "including failure to properly maintain their aircraft fleet."
Among other things in The Sun report, McDonald accused Hefner of threatening to commit suicide with a gun in an attempt to extort money from his business partner -- and to kill McDonald in the process.
McBride, who was a neighbor of Hefner as well as a business partner, told The Sun that Hefner once tried to convince him to join in removing McDonald from the business. When McBride demurred, he told The Sun, Hefner issued what he considered to be a direct threat.
"And he said, 'You're either with me or against me, and if you're against me you and your family better move, and I don't mean out of the city,'" McBride told The Sun.
[ic_related]
McBride said he sold his home and moved his family, according to The Sun.
"I have a wife and son, I'm not living next door to someone who is capable of something like that," he said.
The Sun article didn't report when that alleged incident occurred, but it states that in August 2017, Hefner went to court to try to remove McDonald from the business. McDonald and McBride countersued, eventually winning at arbitration where a judge also ordered Hefner to pay his former partners $24,817.35 each to cover court costs, according to The Sun.
The findings by Judge David Dugan, according to The Sun, were devastating for Hefner.
"There was an abundance of testimony from McBride, MacDonald [...] of Hefner's improper conduct," Dugan wrote, according to The Sun.
"Much of this testimony was actually corroborated by Hefner’s own testimony.
"These acts include but are not limited to changing locks on hangars and having improper airport access privileges denied to McBride and MacDonald to prevent them from accessing ICC’s business premises; removing and hiding property of ICC [...] denying McBride and MacDonald access to important tax and financial information.
"[And] Hiding aircraft owned by subsidiaries of ICC; pointing a gun at [MacDonald] and threatening the life of McBride and MacDonald on separate occasions; acting in a threatening and belligerent manner to employees of businesses with whom ICC did business; failing to maintain aircraft to an appropriate standard; and making an improper unauthorized filing with the Florida Secretary of State’s office."
An attorney for Hefner's family issued "a blanket denial of all the accusations," according to The Sun.
"On behalf of the family, we categorically deny the attacks upon Jeff’s character or professionalism," a statement from attorney Jason Herman said. "For a more balanced sense of Jeff’s reputation and work ethic, I would speak to the numerous pilots and aviation personnel that he worked with up to and including the day of the tragedy."
Other accounts of Hefner's character are far more positive.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association described him in a statement as a model aviator, according to The Washington Post.
“Jeff was a defender of his fellow pilots’ safety, careers, and family. We offer our deepest condolences to his wife, his family, and his friends. The aviation community has lost a true champion.”
The cause of the fatal crash is under Federal Aviation Administration investigation.
Authorities have not ruled out a sudden loss of pressurization in the aircraft's cabin as a potential factor in the crash, according to CNN.
An F-16 pilot scrambled to escort the Cessna Citation before its crash reportedly saw an unresponsive pilot in the cockpit of the plane.
Herman is vouching for Hefner's safety practices, according to The Sun.
"Regarding Jeff’s involvement with the Cessna - it is required of every pilot that he or she make sure the aircraft is safe to fly and that is exactly what Jeff did here and every time he took to the skies during his distinguished four-decade career," he told The Sun.
"Indeed, Jeff had a reputation for being 'Mr. Safety,' regularly serving on safety committees and training new and experienced pilots alike in best practices when operating their aircraft.
"As far as Mr. Rumpel is concerned, Jeff and the family’s understanding was and is that Jeff was a highly competent, safe and thoughtful Captain of Mr. Rumpel’ s plane."
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
To say that the former President of the United States is having a less-than-stellar few days would be a vast understatement.
On Thursday, former President Donald Trump was indicted on a whopping 37 counts by the Justice Department.
Those 37 counts were divvied as such: 31 counts “Willful Retention of National Defense Information," and one count each of “Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice,” “Withholding a Document or Record,” “Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record,” “Concealing a Document in a Federal Investigation,” “Scheme to Conceal,” and “False Statements and Representations.”
Exacerbating those matters, Trump's legal team also saw a shake-up on Friday, when two key members of that team left.
Despite all of the chaos and tumult surrounding the former commander-in-chief, Trump has made it positively clear that he remains largely unbothered by any of this.
It's a sentiment that's apparently been adopted by swathes of prospective Republican voters, at least according to a CBS News Poll conducted by YouGov (the poll was conducted from June 9-10, 2023, and has a 6.6 margin of error.)
Perhaps the most telling sign of that is the most obvious one. When asked how these indictment charges might potentially affect their view of Trump, 61 percent of likely GOP primary voters all said that the indictments would not change their view of the former president.
In another telling sign, among likely GOP primary voters, 80 percent of them said that should Trump actually be convicted over his scandals, he should still be able to be president.
While the poll is undoubtedly good news for Trump in terms of where his supporters stand before what will be a bloody GOP primary battle (Trump is still far and away the heavy favorite to emerge from the GOP primary field), the poll also suggested that not all is hunky dory with prospective Trump voters.
When polled on what they want to hear Trump discuss and campaign on, likely GOP primary voters made it clear that the current state of the country is the most pressing issue -- and that the past should remain in the past.
According to this poll, 96 percent of likely GOP primary voters would prefer Trump talk about his plans for the country. Conversely, 61 percent of those GOP voters want Trump to stop talking about the investigations against him, and over two-thirds (68 percent) of voters want Trump to stop talking about whatever it is that he thinks happened in the 2020 general election.
Perhaps the most telling sign that Trump still wields an incredible amount of influence among GOP voters was the fact that the poll found that 74 percent of likely GOP primary voters would like a candidate "similar to Trump" should Trump himself, for whatever reason, not be the GOP nominee.
To be clear, that GOP nomination is still Trump's to lose at the moment. When polled on which 2024 Republican presidential nominee they would vote for today, 61 percent of the responses all chose Trump in a landslide over the four other top contenders (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley).
That shouldn't surprise anyone.
Even with a cursory glance at social media reactions, it's clear that many of Trump's most ardent supporters think that these 37 charges against him are spurious and being weaponized by the incumbent president.
The CBS News/YouGov poll only confirms that anecdotal evidence.
So no, Trump hasn't gotten much good news in the last week (though he did get some).
But all that bad news apparently is not swaying his core base one iota.
And it's hard to think of much better news for Trump than that.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado sent the left into spasms of anger by slamming an Air Force image showing a uniformed figure in silhouette saluting against the backdrop of the ubiquitous colors of the so-called “pride” flag.
“We salute one flag and one flag only in the United States of America. It isn’t the ‘Pride’ flag,” she tweeted.
June is #PrideMonth! The Department of the Air Force proudly recognizes and celebrates generations of LGBTQI+ service members and their contributions to our #AirForce & #SpaceForce. pic.twitter.com/lQi9lH5sdr
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) June 7, 2023
We salute one flag and one flag only in the United States of America.
It isn’t the “Pride” flag. https://t.co/LnxCdf1fpK
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 8, 2023
However, standing up for the Stars and Stripes earned Boebert a large dose of invective.
“You behave like a sour, spoiled 13-year-old who's full of herself as she goes on about things she knows nothing about. I know your dim-witted friends high-five you for your ugly, hateful rhetoric but it's sad how lost you are,” podcaster Kimberly Johnson posted on Twitter. Others also piled on.
You behave like a sour, spoiled 13-year-old who's full of herself as she goes on about things she knows nothing about.
I know your dim-witted friends high-five you for your ugly, hateful rhetoric but it's sad how lost you are. https://t.co/vdTYbYQtuI
— Kimberley Johnson 🇺🇦 (@AuthorKimberley) June 8, 2023
Don’t tell me: they’re going to cancel the Air Force now https://t.co/j9033VNr8i
— QueenAntifaDeepState9🟧💙💛🌻🇺🇦 (@misekim98) June 8, 2023
A box of rocks is smarter than you are. Coloradans, vote this swamp creature out and get an actual caring American to represent you!!!!Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Pride Flag Rant Receives Different Kind Of Salute https://t.co/3Aq9nNCG9F
— Katy2020 (@Katy202012) June 9, 2023
But Boebert had some rally to her defense as others agreed with her point.
..perhaps you will resolve your anger issues one day. Boebert may not please you, but she certainly does
please those of us who have morals and a level of decency. God loves all of us...including you, perhaps
that knowledge wqill sooth your emotional issues.— Valerie (@Valerie12191520) June 8, 2023
A branch of the US Military just released a graphic celebrating a uniformed Service Member SALUTING the alphabet cult flag.
It is illegal for an armed service member to salute anything but the American flag.
This cult is actively disgracing our military like a conquered people https://t.co/se9XJpOEy3
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 7, 2023
;
Boebert has said in a speech earlier this year that she will do what she believes is right, regardless of the political or other costs, according to Yahoo.
Some of the woke companies that turned their logo into pride flags last June haven't done it yet this time around.
They've seen the power of conservative boycotts, and they are running scared.
We are so back!
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) June 1, 2023
“I will do what’s right. I don’t care if it costs me an election,” Boebert said. “I don’t care if the school principal gets mad at me or the county commissioners get upset at me, or if the flight attendant kicks me off the plane.
“I will do what’s right and answer the call because without righteous men and women, without patriots taking a stand for this country, our children, and our children’s children will not benefit the blessings of America,” she added.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Former President Donald Trump appears to be cleaning house after parting ways with two of his top attorneys and quickly announcing their replacement.
This comes as Trump faces a federal indictment for retaining classified documents after leaving office.
Trump announced the shakeup on Friday morning, writing in a Truth Social post: "For purposes of fighting the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time, now moving to the Florida Courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later."
He then thanked his now-former attorneys, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, "for their work … against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and 'sick' group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before."
"We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days," he said, adding: "When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!"
Not long after, Trusty and Rowley announced their resignation from Trump's legal team in a joint statement.
"This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation," the statement read. "It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system."
"Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion," they wrote, adding that they won't be discussing their withdrawal in any media appearances.
They say it’s because of the move to Miami but this was not planned as of yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Fe7PKGnPBj
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 9, 2023
The night before announcing his resignation, Trusty appeared on CNN, where he was asked who would be representing Trump at his upcoming court date.
"We’ll see. It’ll make some excitement to see who shows up to the table on Tuesday, I guess," Trusty told Kaitlan Collins of CNN.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty joins for his first interview since Trump was indicted. There is:
— An Espionage Act charge
— Several obstruction-based charges
— False statement charges
— Is there a conspiracy charge in here? “I believe so, I don't have it in front of me right now.” pic.twitter.com/8zOCynIygB— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 9, 2023
Trump's (now former) attorney Jim Trusty last night on which legal team would be with him Tuesday: "We'll see. It'll make some excitement to see who shows up to the table on Tuesday, I guess." pic.twitter.com/52vt8Dryma
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 9, 2023
Trump's new attorney, Blanche, is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer who previously served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, according to the Washington Examiner.
He was first asked to join Trump's legal team in April as the former president was facing charges of fraud in relation to the alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up,” Blanche said in a statement to Politico at the time.
Another lawyer Trump may soon be bringing into his legal team is Benedict Kuehne, who CNN reports is under consideration.
Trump is currently facing charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and illegal retention of classified documents. He is set to appear in court on Tuesday.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been unsuccessful in his bid to fight his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States where he is elected to face trial in a federal court.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail reported that the 51-year-old learned his fate on Monday during a private court proceeding that was only made public on Thursday.
Last year, a court ruled the journalist would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges.
Assange appealed that ruling last June.
According to the Mail, Assange's legal team does not intend to file another appeal but has until the end of the week to do so.
In the absence of such an appeal, his legal options will have been exhausted and he will have no choice but to be extradited to the U.S.
The Mail reported there is a small possibility a European court could step in at the last second and offer him a lifeline against prosecution in the U.S.
Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019 at the request of the Justice Department, the BBC reported.
The embassy had offered him protection since 2012 in order to help him avoid extradition to Sweden in connection with a sexual assault allegation.
A case against Assange in Sweden, who is a native of Australia, was later dropped.
In a 2019 news release, the Justice Department released an 18-count indictment of Assange for alleged crimes related to illegally obtaining, receiving and disclosing classified information.
The indictment alleged that beginning in late 2009, Assange and WikiLeaks “actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of ‘Most Wanted Leaks' that sought, among other things, classified documents.”
The department said Bradley “Chelsea” Manning, a former U.S. serviceman, answered the call and gave Assange tens of thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Manning spent years in prison for his role in providing the documents to Wikileaks.
Assange faces up to 10 years in prison for each count he is charged with minus a charge for alleged conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
That charge carries a maximum sentence of up to five years.
According to the Mail, it is believed Assange could serve a sentence of four to six years in prison if he is convicted in federal court.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday called President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign “utterly embarrassing” and noted that he would back one GOP candidate before anyone else in the 2024 presidential race.
Smith appeared on the Fox News show “Hannity” days after publicly cringing at the thought of Biden getting a second term.
“Somebody’s gotta say it, so I’m gonna say it: We need a new president in 2024. We need a new president,” he said in his podcast on Friday, according to The Hill.
“I voted for him, and based on some of the leading candidates on the right side, I’d probably be forced to vote for him again ’cause they scare the living hell outta me with some of the things that they’re preaching about. But I wouldn’t like it,” Smith said.
On “Hannity,” Smith said in his opinion “there’s an abundance of people who can do better” than Biden.
“What I'm going to tell you is this: I'm looking at him, and I don't like what I see. ... I'm very concerned with what I've seen, and the fact that he's going to be 82 years of age at election time," Smith said.
Smith said liberals should do better.
“It is utterly embarrassing that the liberal side has him as their best candidate. What does it say about you when that is the best candidate that you can give the left? That is ridiculous,” he said.
On the show, Smith praised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who entered the crowded Republican presidential field on Tuesday.
"I understand that he’s got a gladiatorial attitude, and he's ready to combat," Smith said. "I think that he's a guy that is not walking around and preaching about ‘rigged elections’ and all of this other stuff. He's about moving the country forward."
Smith said Christie is a longshot to defeat GOP front-runner former President Donald Trump.
"I'm not trying to campaign for Chris Christie or anything. The bottom line is he's certainly not a liberal," Smith replied.
"When you look at him, and I think that, you know, he's competent and, more importantly, he's going to be talking about issues as opposed to having us distracted with a whole bunch of nonsense that we don't need to be distracted with as a country.
"That's all I'm saying. Now, whether he wins or not, I know it's a long shot," he said, adding, “I’d vote for him before I’d vote for any of the Democratic candidates that I’ve seen.”
On Friday, Smith said that it is a worrisome sign that Biden is the Democratic Party’s candidate.
“What does it say about our country where we’re looking at an 80-year-old, who will be 82 if he wins the presidency again in 2024? What does it say about our country if that’s what we’re depending on?" he said then, according to Fox.
"I mean, to the Democrats, y’all ain’t got nobody? Nobody?"
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
